Secret of the Pasture from Willow Creek Press is a nice little book.  It is the story of Piglet who wakes up and can’t find Belle, the horse who sleeps in the stable next to him.  Piglet journeys around the farm, trying to find Belle, encountering all sorts of farm animals from cows to ducks to chicks to cats and dogs.  The book also captures the open feeling of the countryside, the amazing blue of the sky next to the green of the crops.  I liked that it uses photographs combined with simple text, making it very inviting to children, especially boys who will enjoy the nonfiction feel of the book.  This one is great for farm storytimes for small ones or for beginning readers to try on their own. 

Semicolon has the Third Carnival of Children’s Literature with a poetry theme.  I didn’t manage to get a post together for the carnival this time, but hope to for the next one.  Also, Happy National Library Week!  We have lots of programs happening at our library for adults and kids.  I am even lucky enough to be doing a book discussion group with a huge crowd of third graders on Thursday.  I love this stuff! 

The Book Sense Book of the Year Award gives out children’s book awards as well as adult.  The 2006 Award winners are:

Inkspell by Cornelia Funke – Children’s Literature Winner

Zen Shorts by Jon J Muth – Children’s Illustrated Winner

The site offers the lists of honor books as well. 

Big Chickens by Leslie Helakoski, illustrated by Henry Cole is a rollicking story of four big chickens who see a wolf by their henhouse.  When the door of their house slams shut with them outside, they run into the forest to hide.  This starts the story of their worries as they walk along.  First they are afraid to go home, then afraid to jump, then afraid of cows, and on and on.  Each fear is announced and then follows the same pattern and rhythm, making this a perfect read aloud.  The illustrations are bright, vibrant and filled with their own humor.  The expressions on the chickens’ faces are priceless at times.  By the end of the book, the four big chickens have changed their tune and are heading home worry free and chests puffed out proudly.

This is a great read aloud.  Add it to you storytimes and share it.  Just make sure that you give each chicken its own distinct voice, because it makes the pattern so much stronger and the rhythm clearer.  Kids will love the humor that infuses the story the whole way through. 

Rules by Cynthia Lord is a vivid portrayal of how 12-year-old Catherine lives with her younger brother David, who is autistic.  Catherine tries to give David a list of rules to live by, ranging from “A boy can take off his shirt to swim, but not his shorts” to “Sometimes people laugh when they like you.  But sometimes they laugh to hurt you.”  This summer, Catherine’s best friend is off visiting her father for the summer, so she is left alone.  She accompanies her brother to his occupational therapy and meets Jason, a boy in a wheelchair who uses cards to communicate.  Catherine begins to make new cards for Jason that are colorful and more expressive.  But she continues to worry about what people think about her brother and her new friendship.  When a girl moves in next door, Catherine hopes that she will be a great friend because she is pretty and completely normal. 

This is not only a great read, with a nice rhythm and easy style, but it is an important book that siblings of kids with special needs need to read.  The theme that different is simply different, not bad, is vital for kids to understand.  The fact that it is done with a sense of humor and that uniqueness can be laughed at and accepted makes this book far more than a didactic text on acceptance.  This is fun reading with a great message.  Share this with classrooms for a quality discussion.  Its short length makes it a perfect platform for classroom reading. 

Yikes!  I had let my Blogroll off on the right side get really, really out of date.  Check it out now and you will find all those broken links removed and some great blogs that I discovered in the meantime. 

Pew Internet & American Life has a new study on Teens and Technology that was presented at the recent PLA conference.  It covers eight realities of teens and technology:

1.  Millenials are a distinct age cohort, according to many measures of generational behavior and attitude.  (Millenials are born from 1982 to 2000).

2.  Millenials are immersed in a world of media and gadgets.

3.  Their technology is mobile.

4.  The Internet plays a special role in their world.

5.  They are multi-taskers.

6.  Millenials are often unaware of and indifferent to the consequences of their use of technology.

7.  Their (our) technology world will change radically in the next decade.

8.  The way they approach learning and research tasks will be shaped by their new techno-world. 

Silly Suzy Goose by Petr Horacek.

Suzy is a goose just like all the others in her gaggle.  How she longs to be different!  So she imagines what it would be like to be different animals.  She could go underwater if she was a seal; she could jump if she was a kangaroo.  And if she was a lion, she could ROAR!  But Suzy’s roar comes out more as a Roooaarrrhonk!  When she tries a second time, she awakens the nearby lion who comes chasing after her.  As she flees, she jumps like a kangaroo, runs like an ostrich, and acts like all of the animals she imagined herself being.  She finally returns to the safety of her gaggle, hidden among them.  The lion leaves and Suzy realizes that while it is good to fit in, she is fine with being different too. 

This is a great read-aloud, especially for a group of antsy children.  The book is fast paced, colorful and very child friendly.  Best of all, it has a lot of action words.  If I was reading this to a group of kids, I would save it for the very end of the storytime and encourage the kids to move along with the book.  Should make for a fun time for all.

Moose Tracks! by Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jack E. Davis.

I shared this very funny book with a storytime this morning and had an absolute blast.  Any adult reading the book will see the joke coming immediately.  There are moose tracks all over the house, in the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedroom.  Who could have put them there?  The speaker in the story is of course never pictured until the end where he is shown to be a moose himself.  The preschoolers I shared the book with never, never saw it coming.  So it was a joy to read it.  I just got bigger and bigger in my reading of the WHO?  WHO?  And the kids ate it up and started doing the chorus with me.  Then when the joke was revealed, there was even that split second of stunned silence and then they all broke into laughter.  A perfect book to share!  What fun!