Tales of Winter

Owl Moon
By Jane Yolen
Illustrated by John Schoenherr
Jane Yolen chose the words carefully for Owl Moon to evoke the sensations of being in the winter woods at night.  If you read slowly and thoughtfully, you can smell the crisp winter air, feel the cold in your cheeks, hear the sounds of boots breaking through the crust of snow. The dark silhouettes of tree branches visually contrast with the bright moon and blanket of snow.The story of a young girl, finally old enough to accompany her father into the woods at night to look for a great horned owl, is both warm and enthralling. When they return home after "owling", her wonder of nature and pride of having grown up stay with you. This book is a fine example for young writers of description and word choice in writing.The Audubon great horned owl toy below makes a hooting sound just like in Owl Moon.

The Snowy Day
By Ezra Jack Keats
Children who have experienced snow will be able to make a strong connection to Ezra Jack Keats' Caldecott winner "The Snowy Day". It is written from a young boy's perspective as he wakes up to a snowy world and proceeds to enjoy it as children everywhere do. The story simply relates the boy's experiences as he discovers the joys of snow when he makes footprints and snow angels, knocks it off tree branches and slides downhill on it. You can feel the comfort of a hot bath after a day in the snow and share in his thrill when he wakes up the next day to find that the snow is still there. No real snow? You can actually buy faux snow, shown below, that is water activated and can be reused!

Stranger in the Woods: A Photographic Fantasy (Nature)
By Carl R. Sams and Jean Stoick
 Two children build a snowman in the woods, and curious animals come, one after another, to check out the stranger. Edible features make him attractive to the wildlife, and each encounter is captured on film. This book has won many awards, and would be a wonderful inspiration for children to write about how it would feel to be either one of the animals or the snowman "stranger".




Story Props for "Owl Moon", "The Snowy Day" and "Stranger in the Woods"

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.

Great Halloween Read-Alouds

Scary, Scary Halloween
by Eve Bunting
Illustrated by Jan Brett
This is the best Halloween story out there for children who trick-or-treat. Jan Brett's illustrations are outstanding: realistic yet fanciful at the same time and rendered in brilliant colors. As in her other books, the attention to detail and to compostion is unmatched. Eve Bunting's rhyming story-within-a-story about three kittens watching costumed children go from door to door on Halloween is enchanting and the rhythm musical.  I love to turn off the lights and read this story aloud by flashlight.



My Monster Mama Loves Me So
by Laura Lueck

Another rhyming book, My Monster Mama Loves Me So is about a baby monster whose mother loves him just the way he is. Baby monster describes all the things his monster mama does for him that shows him she loves him, such as giving him cookies filled with bugs and lizard juice to drink. The pictures are bright and very cute (not a bit scary) and the story is fun to read aloud because of the catchy rhythm of the poetry. On the last page a completely different monster mama and baby appear with the reassurance that your monster mama loves you, too. This book is a good inspiration for writing a description of a child's own monster creation, illustrated, of course.


Winnie the Witch
by Valerie Thomas

Everything is black in Winnie the Witch's house, including her cat Wilbur. When he is awake, Winnie can see Wilbur's luminous green eyes, but when he is sleeping, he is invisible to his owner. Winnie decides to use her magic to change the color of his fur, but when Wilbur is green, he blends in with the grass. The next wave of her wand changes him to a brightly multicolored cat, but he is so embarrassed that he won't come out of the tree inWinnie's yard. Finally, Winnie realizes that she could see Wilbur, black fur and all if she added color to her house. The illustrations are really well-done, imparting to Winnie and Wilbur their lively personalities.

Story Props for Halloween Read-Aloud Books

Back-to-School Books

September is the back-to-school month in the U.S. Many children, of course, are nervous about their first day of school. These stories bring some of those childhood fears about school to light and in doing so, can help kids deal with them. In each story, the main character's problems are realistically resolved in a satisfying way without becoming overly saccharine. These books would also make a good inspiration for writing in those first school days. All of them are easy for children to make text-to-self and text-to-text connections with to enhance their comprehension.

Vera's First Day of School
by Vera Rosenberry

Vera can't wait to join her siblings at school but she somehow gets distracted and misses the school bell. Horrified, she runs home and hides from her mother. When her mom finds her, she helps her get back to school without losing face, and Vera ends up having a good first day. The children in this story are believably imperfect, and the story's resolution realistic and reassuring.

My little sister actually did this when she was young, and my mom was quite surprised to discover her behind the couch while vacuuming when my sister was supposed to be at school.


Timothy Goes to School
by Rosemary Wells
Rosemary Wells precisely captures the feelings of childhood in her stories, and this one is priceless. We all know how it feels to be compared to someone who is better at everything. Timothy tries his best, but feels always outdone by Claude. He becomes more and more dispirited as the days progress until he gets to know Violet, a classmate with the same problem named Grace. The two of them become fast friends and gain a sense of belonging that is essential for school success.


Chrysanthemum
by Kevin Henkes
Before she starts kindergarten, Chrysanthemum is proud of the name her parents lovingly gave her. But once at school, Chrysanthemum's classmates make fun of her long name that has "half the letters in the alphabet". They make fun of having a flower for a name, and Chrysanthemum is devastated. In the end her name is given the respect due it when her teacher reveals that her first name is Delphinium! All of Kevin Henkes' books speak to concerns that are very real to children, and he handles them with deference.

This is a wonderful book to inspire young children to count the letters in their names (first or last) and compare their physical lengths as well as the number of letters in each name. Other activities include sorting children's names by first letter and by number of letters, and putting names in alphabetical order by first letter.

The stuffed mouse to the right is available at IKEA for $2.99 as of this posting. Click on the picture to link directly to IKEA's web site.

Story Props for Back-to-School Books

Hidden Alphabet Books

As a teacher, I look for alphabet books that can hold young children's interest and attention through all 26 letters. Books that have hidden letters for children to find and pictures that are either evocative or very detailed do the trick. When children study the shape of a letter then try to find that form in a picture, they are holding it in their memories longer. This can help children who struggle associating the visual symbol with a name and sound, a critical reading skill. These books are also interesting enough for those who already know letters and their sounds, and help to model one way to organize information in a book, a writing skill.

Pigs From A to Z
by Arthur Geisert
This alphabet book looks bland initially, but the sepia colored etchings are fascinating in their intricacy. The pictures, showing pigs building a tree house, hide several examples of the featured letter. There are some that are easy to find and a few that are more difficult on each page.

Discovering Nature's Alphabet
by Krystina Castella and Brian Boyl

The photographs in this book are of letter forms discovered in the natural lines of rocks, trees, plants, etc. The photographs are well composed and lovely to look at. From a teaching perspective, I particularly like that there are several examples of each letter, so children will see the commonality of the letter shapes and get repetition of these important symbols. The letters in the pictures beg to be traced by little fingers learning to write.

Alphab'art
by Anne Guery and Olivier Dussutour

Not yet released in the U.S., this book contains 26 lovely photographs of paintings of renowned artists. Each hides a letter of the alphabet while exposing children to fine art. A nice way to reinforce letter shapes and introduce children to famous artists like Picasso, Dali and Van Gogh and lesser known masters as well.



Story Props for Hidden 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.

"Koala Lou","Diary of a Wombat", and "Possum Magic"

Koala Lou
by Mem Fox
A mother koala regularly reassures her child of her importance until mother is preoccupied with Koala Lou's new sibling. Koala Lou learns to become more independent, but also learns that her mother is still there for her when she needs her. This story presents familiar emotions that can help children to enhance reading comprehension by making connections with literature.


Diary of a Wombat (Ala Notable Children's Books. Younger Readers (Awards))

This slow-moving wombat keeps a diary of his days. The sheer uneventfulness, punctuated by frequent naps, makes for a funny story. Most kids in the U.S. have not encountered wombats and a video or stuffed animal may help them to become more familiar with them. Here is a lovely example of journal writing that will entertain, or a great introduction to Australian animals.



Possum Magic (Voyager Books)
by Mem Fox
Australian possums are a different animal from the opossums familiar to Americans. Although they look similar and are also marsupials, Australian possums have membranes between their legs and body that allow them to glide from tree to tree like a flying squirrel. The possums in this story are thoroughly humanized, and Grandma Poss and grandchild Hush search for the special Australian food (most, like Vegemite, unheard of in the U.S.) that will reverse the magic spell that has made Hush invisible. If you are interested in sparking interest in Australia or stretching the knowledge base of your American children with a delightful story by a proven author, this book will deliver.


Story Props for "Koala Lou", "Diary of a Wombat" and "Possum Magic"

Frog and Toad books

The classic Frog and Toad Series written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel are enormously popular with children and very useful for teaching reading and writing skills. As beginning chapter books, they can be read aloud or read independently by beginning 2nd grade level readers. Frog and Toad have distinct personalities: Frog's role is like an older sibling, relatively more knowledgeable and experienced, while Toad is like a younger sibling, less informed and more naive. Both are charming, though, and to a great extent the stories are made up of dialogue between the two.
Any of these books could be used to teach reading comprehension skills such as prediction, characterization and story sequence. Writing skills suggested include how quotation marks are used to distinguish between speakers, and the formats and purposes of lists (Frog and Toad Together) and letter writing (Frog and Toad Are Friends.)

Story Props for "Frog and Toad"