Feasts

Thanksgiving and other holidays approach, but instead of examining stories about Thanksgiving, I looked for books about feasts and feasting. From the very short "The Beastly Feast" and "Mouse Mess" to the more involved "Stone Soup", let's turn our attention to FOOD! Another fine book that almost ends in a feast is "Heckedy Peg" described in an earlier post.

The Beastly Feast
By Bruce Goldstein

Illustrated by Blair Lent

"The beasts are having a feast!" begins a romping rhyme that describes a menu made up of each animal's contribution to the pot luck. Bears bring pears and parrots bring carrots, fleas bring peas and flies bring pies until everyone is full. At the end of this little story, the beasts all clap, then take a nap. For very young children, this book will be a fun read-aloud, and older children can use it to inspire writing their own rhyming pairs. What food (or other word) might rhyme with your name?

Stone Soup
By Heather Forest

There are several versions of the classic story "Stone Soup". This one stays close to the original tale, but has captivating illustrations and a simpler story. Two travelers stop in a mountain village hoping for a meal, but when the villagers refuse, the travelers tell them they can make soup out of  a stone. The villagers are fascinated, and are soon sucked in to help, first with a pot of water and a fire, then by bringing a few carrots, some onions, potatoes, and so on. Before long, all the ingredients of a fine soup have been provided by the villagers, and they marvel at the cleverness of the travelers. The illustrations are vibrant, and a cute feature pictures each vegetable offered by a villager in a speech bubble on the page. A recipe for Stone Soup is included. This book provides opportunities for writing lists of vegetables, recipes for favorite foods, procedural writing,and stories about sharing, as well as cooking activities in the classroom.

Mouse Mess

By Linnea Asplind Riley
"Mouse Mess" is a delightfully light story portraying a mouse in a human kitchen at night foraging for food. The pictures are boldly colorful and the rhyming words just as vivid. The mouse happily crunches and crackles through a feast of delectables, blissfully dropping pieces and crumbs everywhere as he goes. When the mouse is finally full, he heads for a bath in a teacup but leaves an enormous mess behind. Kids love this story about a feast of food that is a feast for the eyes and ears as well. This is a great book to introduce onomatopoeia (remember? words that sound like the sounds they describe), to make lists categories of foods, or to inspire writing about favorite foods, a topic near and dear to the hearts of children everywhere. It is also one of my favorite books to teach rhyming words.

Story Props for "The Beastly Feast", "Stone Soup", and "Mouse Mess"

The first group of play vegetables can be cut apart and put back together thanks to the miracle of Velcro. The second group comes in a basket and these vegetables are one-piece. The first cooking set shown has pots, pans and utencils only. When looking for dish sets to play "Stone Soup", make sure there are bowls for soup in the set like those below.

Admirable Animal Alphabet Books

This summer, I am focusing attention largely on alphabet books. There are a multitude of abc books out there, and many are mediocre. The ones I am highlighting I have found to be particularly good in one way or another. Animal alphabet books are everywhere, but here are a few really delightful ones.


A Is for Angry: An Animal and Adjective Alphabet
by Sandra Boynton
I think Sandra Boynton's books are hilarious, and my children have loved them all as well. I am delighted to find that she has now created an alphabet book that is also cute, funny and well-designed. The possibilities for vocabulary development as well as letter knowledge abound, because a descriptive word starting with the appropriate letter, naturally, accompanies the animal illustration. Each animal's expression and the often surprising attending adjective give it an appealing personality.

Gone Wild (Caldecott Honor Book)
by by David McLimans
Each page in this Caldecott Honor book beautifully portrays an endangered or vulnerable animal whose name begins with the featured letter. The pictures are silhouette-like in black and white, using the shape of the letter as the body of the animal. Pertinent facts as well as a smaller but complete print of the animal are in a box at the bottom of each page, and more information about each animal are at the back of the book. The pictures, though simple, are so arresting that closer examination is encouraged.

Creature ABC


by Andrew Zuckerman
There are many animal alphabet books, but the photographs in this one are distinctive. The animal representing the alphabet letter is shown in amazing detail against a white background. Each animal is captured in a position or with an expression that makes it seem almost human. The tigers for T romp like kittens and the hippo for H wears a smug-looking smile. This talented photographer also has produced floor puzzles for children using similarly beautiful photos of "creatures".



Story Props for Animal Alphabet Books

Kevin Henkes' Lilly

Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse
by Kevin Henkes
Lilly's character was introduced ten years ago in this popular story by a prolific author, Kevin Henkes. Lilly is a lovably fallible mouse and the story of how her exciting new purse distracts her at school is real and familiar. Its resolution is satisfying and reassuring. The comprehension strategy of making text-to-self connections and literary element of characterization will be easy to encourage with this story. Wording used to tell the story is richly descriptive (squeaky, pointy, crispy, curly, crunchy, glittery, jingly) and offers an opportunity to expand vocabulary with words likely to be new to many children (jaunty, deluxe, amused, uncooperative, sampled, unique.)

Lilly's Big Day
by Kevin Henkes
In "Lilly's Big Day", Lilly's teacher Mr. Slinger shares his big news with his class: he's getting married! Lilly is very excited about being a flower girl in the wedding although she has not been asked. She practices and pretends, but Mr. Slinger 's niece, Ginger, has been chosen for the job. This story has fewer descriptive words than its predecessor, but offers uncommon nouns (reception, ceremony, assistant, corsage, aisle) and wonderful verbs (considered, exist, swelled, motioned, scooped, noticed, exhausted) that can be used to teach vocabulary or to help enrich writing. The story can be used with "Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse" to help children make text-to-text connections.


Story Props for Lilly books



Some IKEA stores have a soft toy that looks
very much like Lilly for under $5.00, as of this posting.