Curious George--everyone's favorite monkey!

One of the most dramatic stories in publishing is the story of Curious George. German Jews Hans and Margret Rey were living in Paris during the Nazi invasion in 1940. They were not able to escape the city until Hans found some parts and managed to build two bicycles. H.A. and Margret escaped on bicycle from German-occupied Paris, with just their winter coats and several picture books (including a draft of Curious George, then called Fifi) strapped to the racks. They rode their bikes to Marseilles, got a boat to Lisbon, and eventually reached America.
(Thanks to information in Anita Silvey's book 100 Best Books for Children which lists her idea of the 100 best books for children of the last 100 years. She has several fascinating pages about each book)

I am in the greatest volunteer program!

I just went and sat in on a session for the volunteer program I'm going to be doing, and that I'll be a substitute volunteer for next week. The program is called Play Partners and teams of two people go to day care centers or family day care homes 1 hour a week for a month, each time reading a book and doing activities based on that book, Because of grants received by the organization, the day care provider and each child in the group all get a copy of the book to keep at the end of the month. If there are infants in the group, they each get a board book every month too. The program has huge plastic storage tubs of materials to go with each of the books, as well. The book we did today was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, and there were actually little stuffed animals or plastic figures for every animal in the book! A green frog, a yellow duck, a blue horse, etc. We began the session by singing a greeting song, calling each child by name and singing about the color he or she was wearing. Then, we read the book, with the kids, who had heard the book before, chiming in. Then, the woman who was leading hid the animals under a cloth, and picked up the cloth along with one animal, and the kids guessed which animal was missing. After that, we went into the kitchen where each child had two brushes and two colors of paint and we painted and talked about the colors and the results of mixing the colors. After painting, the children played with some toys that were also in the kit, a Lego Primo Set - Stack 'n Learn, a color and shape puzzle, and other toys emphasizing colors. The session closed with more songs,
including
Twinkle Twinkle Traffic Light
On the corner shining bright
Red means STOP! (Hold up red card)
Green means GO! (Hold up green card)
Yellow means go but VERY SLOW (Hold up yellow card.)
Twinkle twinkle traffic light
On the corner shining bright.
I talked with the day care provider who was very enthusiastic about the program, especially the library of books she has built through the program. She was particularly happy about how responsive the children are to the books after they have experienced them in a multisensory way.

Stop that pickle!

If your kids know and love The Gingerbread Man they will think Stop That Pickle!is hilarious!I read this to my kindergarten students and they thought it was the funniest thing they ever heard. We compared and contrasted it with The Gingerbread man. You will be glad to know there is a happy ending for the pickle. He lives to run another day...
Kids love these fractured fairy tales. (Refer back to my post of February 5 for some more)

Have you read The Big Green Book?

The BIG GREEN BOOK which is by Robert Graves, and is illustrated by Maurice Sendak is a real crowd-pleaser. Kids love seeing the adults fooled by a little boy, with a bit of help from the Big Green Book of magic. It is amazing that this book is no longer in print. It's available used and in Spanish.

Send a birthday card to The Cat in the Hat

The Cat in the Hat is turning 50, and here's how to celebrate:

Go to firstbook.org and send the card and Random House Children's Books will donate a book to First Book, which gives books to low-income children who do not have books in the home.

Next, click here
The Cat in the Hat and buy a copy for your favorite kid!

Having fun with Broadway show tunes

This movie was a favorite of my daughters when it came out. They loved everything about it, the story, the characters, the actors, and the music. I can still see them up on the raised hearth in our house singing and dancing to "It's a hard knock life". For some reason, Amazon gives Anniea bad review, but no doubt the reviewer lacks the discernment of a 6 year old. Thanks to this movie they picked up a lot of vocabulary, learned who Herbert Hoover was, and learned to say "We love you Miss Hannigan" to me whenever I made demands they thought unreasonable.
Songs are a wonderful way to enhance your child's vocabulary. Imagine having these movies to show to your child: any or all of them: This DVD set,The Rodgers & Hammerstein Collectioncontains The Sound of Music, The King and I,Oklahoma, South Pacific,State Fair, and Carousel. Songs like "It's a grand night for singing", "Getting to know you", "Oh what a beautiful morning", "Doe, a deer", and many others which are a part of our cultural heritage.

Online interview with children's author Toni Buzzeo

1. Please, tell us a little about yourself to start:
I am a Jill of many trades and a wearer of many hats. Two things have always been true, though. I have always been a writer and I have always been an educator. I continue to be both! I hold a Masters degree in English and a Masters degree in Library and Information Science. Before I was a school library media specialist, I taught English at the high school and college level. Two of the great honors of my career have been to be named the 2005 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year by the University of Michigan Dearborn School of Education and to be named the 1999 Maine Library Media Specialist of the Year
I write many things including children's books, professional books, and many professional articles. I’ve published five children’s books and seven professional books and have four and three more (respectively) in the pipeline.
I also speak at schools, conference, and inservice trainings all over the country. In fact, next spring I will be speaking in Berlin, my first international speaking engagement, though I have taught in Morocco.
You can read more me and my books on my website at www.tonibuzzeo.com
2. Tell us something about each of your books...
I have published five picture books for young readers so far:
Little Loon and Papa (Dial 2004) is a story of fatherly love and the courage of one little loon who must learn to dive despite his fear.
Dawdle Duckling (Dial 2003) and Ready or Not, Dawdle Duckling (Dial 2005) are companion books about a loveable little duckling who is a champion dawdler and dreamer, but whose strengths lie in knowing when to get on board and when to enlist the help of one’s friends.
The Sea Chest (Dial 2002) is the retelling of a mid-coast Maine legend about a baby who washes ashore on a lighthouse island and the keeper’s family who adopts her.
Our Librarian Won't Tell Us Anything!: A Mrs. Skorupski Story with Book(s) (Upstart 2006) draws on my library experience and tells the story of a librarian who won’t tell her students anything--though she will teach them anything they need to know to become independent library users.
3. What books do you have in progress? Still forthcoming are:
Fire Up with Reading: A Mrs. Skorupski Story (Upstart 2007) in which Mrs. Skorupski sponsors a schoolwide reading incentive program.
Adventure Girl Goes to Work (Dial, 2009) is about a spirited young girl who has to go to work with her mom when the “big report” is missing. She causes chaos AND find the report.
A Lighthouse Christmas (Dial 2009) is based on the Flying Santa Service and is about a lighthouse family whose Christmas may not be possible when the supply boat is weeks late.
No T. Rex in the Library (McElderry, forthcoming) features a young girl whose “time out” turns into an adventure when she pulls a T Rex from a book and joins him on a library rampage.
In addition, I have some unsold and in-process manuscripts that I’m working on including a third grade chapter book and a picture book about a little puffin who learns to make her way in the world.
4. Many of my readers are writers or aspiring writers. Tell us when and how you first started writing, when and why you started writing books for children, and how you first got published.
I started writing in junior high--poetry. In fact, I was first published as a poet in my college and graduate school literary journals. I credit my success as a picture book author with those early years of writing poetry. Picture books aren’t all that different!
I started writing for children in 1995 because my husband reminded me that I’d always professed a desire to do that and I ran into a priceless story of a giraffe in a swimming pool when I was touring for a month in Kenya.
The reason I am published, I think, is that I have talent as well as an enormous amount of perseverance! There’s absolutely nothing quick or easy about being published (I have 150 rejection letters from the early years), but if you systematically divide your time by writing new manuscripts, seriously revising and improving your completed work, attending conferences and joining a critique group, and making connections with editors (at conferences) and building relationships with them over time, I believe you will get published. And by all means, join the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators www.scbwi.org, both the national organization and your regional chapter. Take advantage of all they have to offer you.
5. Is there a question interviewers don't ask you that would be a smart question for them to ask?
What’s the most important thing a children’s author can do?
I think the most important thing a children’s author can do is to read widely and critically in the field. As a children’s librarian, I have always done that, but I think it is essential for us all to be aware of, involved in, and excited by the work of our fellow writers, to note creative trends as well as marketing shifts.
Sadly, too many people who aspire to write for children don’t take time to invest themselves in the world of children’s literature!
Happily, though, that world has become more and more credible in society at large and more readily available to us all!

Sing, sing a song!

It's so important to sing with your children, from birth on up. Not only are songs a part of our cultural heritage, but you are teaching language and vocabulary when you sing to/with your child. Notice that when you sing, you enunciate your words more clearly, and you say them more slowly than when you speak. This is ideal for young learners of language.

A Treasury of Children's Songs: Forty Favorites to Sing and Playis such an essential book for children! There are 40 songs with words and music, including such classics as "Red River Valley," "Home on the Range," and "Shenandoah," as well as childhood favorites like "London Bridge," "Lazy Mary," "Pop Goes the Weasel" and "The Mulberry Bush." The songs are illustrated with art from the Metropolitan Museum.
There are so many picture books with just one song--kids love to see illustrations as you sing to/with them. How about Take Me Out to the Ballgame or There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly?
If I were buying books for a new baby today, this would be first on my list:A You're Adorable--a popular song from the 1940's that goes on to "B-you're so beautiful" and right on through the alphabet. Just what the new parents will want to sing to their baby!
And I love this book and CD! Lullabies: An Illustrated Songbookis also by the Metropolitan Museum, and also has illustrations from famous artwork, with classic lullabies to sing to the littlest listeners. Lullabies: A Songbook Companion is a CD with beautiful arrangements of these songs.

(If you are looking for the mysterious book to identify, it's Monday February 19th's post, below.)

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

March 2 is Dr. Seuss's birthday. Why not celebrate by having a Dr. Seuss-reading marathon. Go to the library and stock up, or get this wonderful book,Your Favorite Seuss: A Baker's Dozen by the One and Only Dr. Seuss which has 13 great Dr. Seuss stories, including The Cat in the Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Green Eggs and Ham, the Lorax,and many others! Often we forget the longer stories written by Dr. Seuss. The books like Green Eggs and Ham and Hop on Pop are really meant for beginning readers, not to be read to children...

Books with a religious message...

Two books have long been favorites of mine:The King at the Doorby Brock Cole and Yellow & Pinkby William Steig.
These are beautifully written and illustrated books by well-known authors---although the two books may not be as well-known. They deserve a wider audience.
No matter what your religious beliefs, they will give you something to think about. In The King at the Door, an old ragged man shows up at the door of the inn. He claims to be the King, and no one believes him but Little Baggit, the boy who works there. The old man claims to have been walking over the kingdom without his money, and requests food, water, and various other things. The innkeeper, not believing him, offers him various insulting garbage. When the king wants a coat to wear, the innkeeper offers him the old coat the dog has been sleeping on. Little Baggit rushes to give the old man his own coat. The old man promises to return in his royal carriage and bring Little Baggit to live with him at the palace. The innkeeper ridicules this. And on the final page.....a royal carriage returning for Little Baggit.
Yellow & Pinkare two wooden puppets, lying out on a hillside with wet paint on them. They theorize on how they might have gotten there, how, over millions of years, chunks of wood could have fallen from trees, been carved and shaped by the weather, and then eventually paint could have fallen on them. At the end of the book, a man walks up, puts them under his arm, and walks away. "Who is this guy?" Yellow asked Pink. Pink didn't know...An interesting counter to the theory of evolution.

Developing the sense of touch

I wanted to hug the woman I saw in the supermarket, with her small child in the cart. She was showing him the things she bought, and keeping up a running commentary. She showed him an eggplant and talked about the color, than had him touch the skin of it. Remember that odd feeling? Think of all the sensory experiences in the supermarket: eggplant, peaches, pineapple leaves...

Some time ago, I posted about using colored rice in a sand table or large tub for a winter day at the beach (rice definitely picks up more easily than sand). A related activity is to have a smaller container if appropriate for the item, and frequently give your child different things to feel and play with (using cups, scoops, funnels, etc), such as gravel,cornmeal, different types of dried beans,oat groats,popcorn kernels, cotton balls, noodles, birdseed, unsalted sunflower seeds in shells,and many other things. Try looking in the bulk food bins at your supermarket; if the item is mean to be cooked and eaten, then rinsing it off and boiling and eating it after it's used (with close supervision) for play will mean you get double mileage from it! As with any activity using small objects, supervise your child carefully until he is past the age of tasting or swallowing random things.
If you're into sewing, you can make simple shapes---square, rectangle, circle, triangle, or other shapes, from wildly different types of fabric--velvet, terrycloth, burlap, etc., and either stuff them with cotton balls or rags or make them into beanbags.
For a different sensory experience, try mixing 1 part water to 3 parts cornstarch. Add a few drops of food coloring if you like. This is truly weird to the touch and makes what is called "slime" or "oobleck". You can read Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss and color your stuff green!

Can your child solve these mysteries?

Do you know the story of the Mary Celeste? In 1872, this ship set sail, and it was found adrift less than a month later, with everything in order. The only thing was, all the people on board had disappeared! It was a sensation at the time, widely discussed in the press. No one ever found out what actually happened. I read this to many classes of 4th graders and thereabouts, and they loved trying to come up with an answer. This book would be even better with a parent and one or two kids: every page has fascinating detail, as well as side notes pointing out clues and giving information. At the end of the book is a list of possible things that might have happened, some silly and some reasonable. See if your children can solve the mystery of The Mary Celeste: An Unsolved Mystery from History! Some other books in the series are Roanoke: The Lost Colony--An Unsolved Mystery from History and The Salem Witch Trials: An Unsolved Mystery from History. These books are such fun to read, and in the process, kids are learning some interesting historical facts.

A few books for Black History month...

Goin' Someplace Specialby Patricia McKissack is a wonderful book for elementary age children. Tricia Ann, a young African-American girl, is going alone for the first time to "Someplace Special". On the way she encounters prejudice and symbols of prejudice. She wants to rest on a bench, but on the back of the bench is carved "For Whites Only". She steps into a hotel lobby and is ordered out. Finally she arrives at "Someplace Special", the public library which was integrated in the 1950's in Nashville and was a special place for the author during her childhood.
Nettie's Trip Southis a book which shows slavery from the perspective of a white child during the time of slavery, who visits Richmond and sees a slave auction and other sights which are profoundly disturbing for her.
Follow the Drinking Gourdis a picture book with wonderful illustrations which deals with the Underground Railroad and slaves following the North Star to freedom. The Reading Rainbow episode for this book is a must-see, featuring the singing group "Sweet Honey in the Rock".
The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights is a book for older children that tells the story of Marian Anderson and her performance at the Lincoln Memorial, after she was not allowed to perform in the DAR's Constitution Hall. It won a Newbery honor in 2005.

Books for a new baby

If you are looking for books for a baby, here are some every child should have. Most are available in board books. If you get board books, make sure they have all the text of the original book.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?by Eric Carle
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
The Carrot Seedby Ruth Krauss
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin
The Doorbell Rangby Pat Hutchins
Each Peach Pear Plumby Allen and Janet Ahlberg
Freight Trainby Donald Crews
From Head to Toe by Eric Carle
The Gingerbread Man illustrated by Karen Schmidt
Goodnight Moonby Margaret Wise Brown
Harry the Dirty Dogby Gene Zion
Is Your Mama A Llama?by Deborah Guarino
Jump, Frog, Jump!by Robert Kalan
The Mittenby Jan Brett
The Napping Houseby Audrey Wood
Rosie's Walkby Pat Hutchins
The Snowy Dayby Ezra Jack Keats
Ten, Nine, Eightby Molly Bang
The Three Bearsby Paul Galdone
The Three Billy Goats Gruffby Paul Galdone
Tomie's Little Mother Gooseillustrated by Tomie de Paola
The Very Hungry Caterpillarby Eric Carle
Where the Wild Things Areby Maurice Sendak