New baby books are everywhere-- though never quite as many as you need, am I right? And I always make sure to ask parents, when they want a new baby book for an older sibling, if we are (trans: "child is") happy to be getting a new little brother or sister, then base my choices accordingly. If the kid is thrilled, I don't want to give them a book where the character is groaning about "that new baby" and introduce the idea that they should be unhappy; if they're unhappy, I can ease them into a choice where the character gradually decides that new baby's okay. No need to introduce drama where there isn't any.
The Storytime:
I kept this simple on me and on the kids and picked out three books about babies:
I love this book. I used to read it at storytime in Chicago and was dismayed to come to California and find that almost no one had it. It's got great rhythm, a TRAIN, beautiful watercolors (love me some Sam Williams-- he nails the sweet but misses the treacle), a TRAIN THAT CAN FLY, and a fun-to-say refrain: "Loky moky poky stoky smoky choky chee!" This book is out of print and I have no idea why except that life is unfair. I bought my own used copy and recommend you do the same.
This book popped into my head as soon as "baby theme" did, and I tried to nix it. It's set in Colonial England-- a long long way from East Oakland, California-- and is a weird story. Baby falls out of window, kid catches her in his hat, kid grows up to become sea captain, kid meets baby as adult and they get married. Simple and classic, I think not. (Plus it uses words like-- okay, scratch that, that was my own misguided perception, because I just looked through the whole book and the language is actually very simple. "Got lost in London--/Oh, the Fog was thick--/Fell off a bridge/And landed in a ship." So okay, colonial England assumptions were made on my part.)
But something told me this one might work. To begin with, it's unusual. It has a strong, weird image in that baby in a hat. Also, the text is very short so I thought maybe with good pacing I could pull it off. This is all an experiment, right?
The Baby Goes Beep, by Rebecca O'Connell, illus. Ken Wilson-Max
Something fun to wrap up with. I like this one better in a board book than in the trade, though I don't know why--perhaps it's the smooth, clean flip of the board book pages. Or the fact that the type makes the words stand out so clearly you want to grab them, and in a board book, YOU CAN.
Next post: Week 1 round up! How did my first autobio storytime go over? What fingerplays did I use? How many criers were there? Tune in!
No comments:
Post a Comment