by Nancy Pearl
Wemberly is just like an ordinary little girl, except that she’s a mouse with a lot of fears. Kevin Henkes describes her anxiety about beginning nursery school in Wemberly Worried.
Other animals-at-school books include Amanda Pig, Schoolgirl by Jean Van Leeuwen; Rosemary Wells’s Yoko (a grey kitten brings sushi to school for lunch, but everyone makes fun of her—until they take a bite); Froggy Goes to School by Jonathan London; and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’s Seymour Slug Starts School.
Although her mother wants her to stay home and learn to be bad, Little Witch really wants to go to school—which she does, with her broomstick in hand, in Deborah Hautzig’s Little Witch Goes to School.
Sarah and her rascally cat, Ralph, appear in several books by Jack Gantos, beginning with Rotten Ralph; in Back to School for Rotten Ralph, he insists on accompanying Sarah to school.
Juan Felipe Herrera tells the story—in Spanish and English—of the first time his migrant family stayed put in one place so that he could go to school, in The Upside Down Boy (with entertaining illustrations by Elizabeth Gómez).Very simply told, Herrera shares with readers the feelings of a child who thinks that everything he does is wrong, because he doesn’t know how to behave in this new environment. (Thankfully, the book ends happily.)
Rosemary Wells’s Emily’s First 100 Days of School doubles as a counting rhyme, as each day in Miss Cribbage’s class, as well as at home, Emily learns something new.
In Countdown to Kindergarten by Alison McGhee, with darling pictures by Harry Bliss, our heroine realizes—ten days before school starts—that she needs to learn how to tie her shoes all by herself. Just imagine what trauma (for the parents, too) follows! The two also collaborated on another school tale—Mrs.Watson Wants Your Teeth.
I wonder how autobiographical Little Cliff’s First Day of School by Clifton L. Taulbert is—in this tender story, set in the South in the 1950s, he’s captured the feelings of an African American boy as he faces his first day of school.
In Marvin One Too Many by Katherine Paterson, poor Marvin is having a difficult time getting used to his new school, being sure that his teacher doesn’t like him, and worst of all, trying to learn to read.
SIMPLE AS ABC
Clearly, the attraction of alphabet books is not that they’re filled with suspense—you know they’re going to end with And it’s not that the characters are so winsome—you hardly have a chance to get to know them as the letters whirl by. What’s so much fun about the best alphabet books is their inventiveness and high spirits (and seeing how the author and illustrator handle that pesky letter X). Here are some winners:
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault, and illustrated by Lois Ehlert (herself a children’s book author of note) makes a wonderful read-aloud, as you follow the adventures of the letters of the alphabet as they try to climb a coconut tree.
In Alligator Arrived with Apples: A Potluck Alphabet Feast by Crescent Dragonwagon, with pictures by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey, a Thanksgiving dinner is made infinitely more interesting by the different foods each animal brings (notice the Dragon and the Deer on a tandem bicycle, delivering diced dates).
In Joseph Slate’s Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten, each letter of the alphabet depicts an animal getting ready for the first day of school, while the teacher, Miss Bindergarten (a dog in human clothing), is readying the classroom for her new students. The humorous watercolor and gouache illustrations by Ashley Wolff capture the zest of the rhyming text perfectly.
Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions by Margaret Musgrove introduces western readers to the culture of Africa, with lots of help from award-winning illustrators Diane and Leo Dillon.
You won’t want to miss Lois Ehlert’s Eating the Alphabet: Fruits and Vegetables from A to Z, which is illustrated in bright primary colors and whose choice for the letter X may send us all to the grocery store to purchase an unfamiliar vegetable.
Check out Ellsworth’s Extraordinary Electric Ears and Other Amazing Alphabet Anecdotes by Valorie Fisher, in which the author uses dioramas with plastic figures to illustrate the letters, each accompanied by a tongue-twisting description of what’s happening. The scene for A is an acrobat being eyed hungrily by an alligator with its mouth wide open in anticipation. The caption reads:“Alistair had an alarming appetite for acrobats.” You get the picture.
In Alphabet Under Construction by Denise Fleming, the lovely illustrations (which “were created by pouring colored cotton fiber through hand-cut stencils”) and the buck-toothed mouse hero, who uses all sorts of action verbs as he nails, okays, unrolls, tiles, yanks, and x-rays the appropriate letters, will delight beginning readers.
STOP BUGGING ME: INSECTS GALORE
If you must know, I am not a nature kind of person—I’d prefer insects to be outside and me inside, reading a book, perhaps. But I do find that kids love these books, even if reading them too often may drive an adult a bit buggy.
Kevin O’Malley’s delightful Little Buggy is the tale of a young ladybug determined to learn how to fly, who succeeds despite the many difficulties that continually bug him. (Don’t miss the two snails who offer their opinions on the progress of Little Buggy’s attempts. They’re a sort of Greek chorus for the toddler set.) O’Malley is also the author of Leo Cockroach . . .Toy Tester. Leo’s the best employee of Waddatoy Toys, but unfortunately Mildred Splatt, the president and CEO of the company, doesn’t realize it—so Leo is constantly in fear for his life (death by Splatt’s shoe).
With Sally Hewitt’s rhyming text and Chris Gilvan-Cartwright’s pop-up illustrations, Bugs Pop-Up: Creepy Crawlers Face to Face will delight buggy-inclined youngsters.
Miss Spider’s Tea Party, written and illustrated by David Kirk, describes the problems a hostess has when her invited guests are afraid to accept—for fear they’ll be eaten.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is often the first book that a child bugs his or her mother (or father) to read—so it’s fortunate for all adult readers that it’s a good one.
Fiona’s Bee by Beverly Keller is about a lonely little girl who rescues a bee from drowning and discovers in the process how to make friends. It’s much less staid and stolid than it might sound....
Ugh! A Bug by Mary Bono offers lots of choice ideas (in a sort of verse format) for when a child next encounters a creepy-crawly (all from the point of view of the bug, it must be said), including this bit of practical advice: “So next time you see a bug / don’t make a fuss—/ after all, / there’s a lot more of them / than of us.” Too true.
All Roberto has ever wanted to be was an architect, joining such luminaries in the field as Fleas Van Der Rohe and Hank Floyd Mite. He wants to be interviewed on television by Barbara Waterbugs, and the subject of a movie by Steven Shieldbug—but Roberto’s a termite, and everyone knows that termites can’t be architects—or can they? Roberto: The Insect Architect by Nina Laden offers the answer.
Combining an alphabet book and the antics of a busy fly make for an outstanding read-aloud in the hands of Jim Aylesworth (text) and Stephen Gammell (illustrations), in Old Black Fly.
Two delightful books by Richard Egielski that kids will bug you to read again and again are Buz (what happens when a little boy swallows a bug with his breakfast cereal and pandemonium breaks out both inside and outside his body) and Jazper, about an unnamed type of insect who gets a job house-sitting in Bugtown for five moths and makes good use of his employers’ library (which is filled with books about magic)—think cheese doodles and pickles.
TALL TALES
The books in this category and in “Noodlehead Stories” (more than in most categories) overlap between this section, Part I:Youngest Readers, and Part II: Middle-Grade Readers. The important thing is not to overlook them, because they’re all enormous fun and perfect for sharing with a class or an individual reader. Some of these tall tales evolved from the life of a real person, while others are whoppers—contrived out of whole cloth, plain and simple;
often you just don’t know who’s real and who’s invented. An added benefit to these books is that women show up as main characters almost as often as men do.
One author you don’t want to miss introducing kids to is Steven Kellogg, whose contributions to this category include his books I Was Born About 10,000 Years Ago: A Tall Tale (based on a traditional folk song); Mike Fink: A Tall Tale; Pecos Bill: A Tall Tale; Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett: A Tall Tale (about Davy Crockett’s energetic wife); and Paul Bunyan: A Tall Tale.
Just from the title you know you’re in for an entertaining time reading Deborah Hopkinson’s Apples to Oregon: Being the (Slightly) True Narrative of How a Brave Pioneer Father Brought Apples, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Grapes, and Cherries (and Children) Across the Plains; it has equally charming illustrations by Nancy Carpenter.
You’ll find more indomitable women in Doña Flor: A Tall Tale about a Giant Woman with a Great Big Heart, by Pat Mora, which has gorgeous illustrations by Raul Colón, who uses several different artistic media, including watercolor washes, etchings, and litho pencils, all done in a Southwest desert color scheme; Steamboat Annie and the Thousand-Pound Catfish by Catherine Wright; Avalanche Annie: A Not-So-Tall Tale by Lisa Wheeler (the main character,Annie Halfpint, is only 4 foot 3, but manages to lasso an avalanche and save her neighbors); and Thunder Rose by Jerdine Nolan, which depicts one very talented little girl.
Davy Crockett Saves the World by Rosalyn Schanzer is one of numerous stories about the hero of the Alamo; here, he saves the world from Halley’s Comet and captivates Sally Ann in the process. Another enticing Crockett tall tale is The Narrow Escapes of Davy Crockett: From a Bear, a Boa Constrictor . . . Trees, Tornadoes, a Sinking Ship, and Niagara Falls by Ariane Dewey.
What seems ordinary to the Bunyan family makes for tall tale pleasure, in The Bunyans by Audrey Wood, the only book I’m familiar with that provides Paul with companionship other than Babe the Blue Ox.
Christopher Myers adapted and illustrated some of the tall tales that author Zora Neale Hurston collected on a trip through the southern United States in 1939 in Lies and Other Tall Tales, told in the diction and cadence of old-timey storytellers.
There are also some not-to-be-missed non-American tall tales, including Master Man: A Tall Tale of Nigeria by Aaron Shepard, a Hausa tale about how thunder was introduced into the world; Finn MacCoul and His Fearless Wife: A Giant of a Tale from Ireland, retold and illustrated by Robert Byrd; and a good companion tale to tell—from another point of view—Mrs. McCool and the Giant Cuhullin by Jessica Souhami, a feminist take on the same Irish legend.
THANKS FOR THANKSGIVING
Way, way back in 1886, Lucretia P. Hale wrote a very funny book about a very silly family (or at least a family who does very silly things), called The Peterkin Papers. Elizabeth Spurr adapted the original chapter in The Peterkins’ Thanksgiving, with illustrations by Wendy Anderson Halperin. (The same pair did The Peterkins’ Christmas.)
If you’ve ever been asked why it is that we celebrate Thanksgiving as a national holiday, fear not—you can find the answer in Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving, written by Laurie Halse Anderson and illustrated by Matt Faulkner.
Barbara Cohen’s Molly’s Pilgrim is both a Thanksgiving tale and a moving story about recent immigrants to the United States.
A Turkey for Thanksgiving, written by Eve Bunting and warmly illustrated by Diane de Groat, is a humorous tale (perfect for reading aloud) about Mr. Moose and his friends searching for a turkey for his wife to cook for dinner.
Can there be a different fate for a turkey other than ending up as the main dish at Thanksgiving dinner? Thelonius Turkey Lives! (on Felicia Ferguson’s Farm), written and illustrated by Lynn Rowe Reed, offers another—colorful and happy—alternative.
The illustrations of a family gathering for dinner in Diane Goode’s Thanksgiving Is Here! are filled with wonderful details that both adults and children will enjoy poring over.
Dav Pilkey wrote ’Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving, a loving parody of The Night Before Christmas, and clearly had a ball illustrating it, too. I especially loved the picture of the schoolchildren rescuing the turkeys from their inevitable fate.
Young readers will enjoy Anne Warren Smith’s Turkey Monster Thanksgiving, in which fourth-grader Katie learns that there are many different ways of celebrating Thanksgiving, with or without a turkey.
Lillian Hoban’s books about Silly Tilly Mole are all set around different holidays. In Silly Tilly’s Thanksgiving Dinner, Hoban describes how Silly Tilly’s holiday feast is almost ruined (but saved just in time by her friends). Others in the series include Silly Tilly’s Valentine and Silly Tilly and the Easter Bunny.
TRICKSTER TALES
Trickster tales are a subgroup of folk tales, in which the main character (who’s usually, but not always, an animal) outwits the other animals or people around him. It’s a form of folk tale that’s found in cultures all over the map, from Germany’s Tyl (sometimes Till) Eulenspiegel to America’s Brer Rabbit to the Anansi tales from Africa. Because they usually feature a hero who overcomes the odds to outsmart others (who are usually older and supposedly wiser), they’re favorites of children and make for spirited read-alouds, too. Try these:
Many of the picture books by multiple-award-winning author/illustrator Gerald McDermott are trickster tales, including Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti; Zomo the Rabbit: A Trickster Tale from West Africa; Jabuti the Tortoise: A Trickster Tale from the Amazon; Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest; and Coyote: A Trickster Tale from the American Southwest.
Other goodies include Gail E. Haley’s A Story, A Story, an African tale starring Kwaku Ananse, the Spider Man (no, this is not the basis for the film starring Tobey Maguire!); Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock by Eric A. Kimmel, with illustrations by Janet Stevens; and the tale of a trickster guinea pig (yes, really!) from Peru—Zorro and Quwi by Rebecca Hickox.
Some entertaining trickster tales that feature humans rather than animals include The Old Woman and the Red Pumpkin: A Bengali Folk Tale by Betsy Bang, with illustrations by Molly Bang; Margaret Willey’s Clever Beatrice: An Upper Peninsula Conte (illustrated by Heather Solomon), about a little girl who makes a bet with a giant—a rich giant, true, but not a particularly smart one—in order to earn enough money so that she and her mother won’t starve, and its sequel, Clever Beatrice and the Best Little Pony, another folk tale from the French Canadians; The Hungry Coat: A Tale from Turkey by Demi; Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book by Yuyi Morales, in which Death (in the form of Señor Calavera, a skeleton) is outwitted by his target, Grandma Beetle, who’s getting ready for her big birthday celebration; and Please, Malese! A Trickster Tale from Haiti, written by Amy MacDonald and illustrated by Emily Lisker.
Lapin Plays Possum: Trickster Tales from the Louisiana Bayou was adapted by Sharon Arms Doucet, with pictures by Scott Cook. Fans of Brer Rabbit will recognize some of these stories, which are especially appropriate for reading aloud.
For a solid collection of Uncle Remus stories, take a look at The Tales of Uncle Remus:The Adventures of Brer Rabbit as told by Julius Lester and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney.
A Ring of Tricksters: Animal Tales from America, the West Indies, and Africa is a collection of stories told by the ever-talented Virginia Hamilton, with pictures by Barry Moser. The author and illustrator also collaborated on When Birds Could Talk and Bats Could Sing: The Adventures of Bruh Sparrow, Sis Wren, and Their Friends, which is made up of stories originally told by African slaves in the United States.
If you’re interested in using trickster tales during story hours or for slightly older children, take a look at American Indian Trickster Tales, selected and edited by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz, a collection of tales (but no illustrations) from many different tribes, showing the Trickster in his different incarnations, including Coyote and Iktomi the Spider-Man, as well as tales featuring the slightly less well-known Veeho
(from the Cheyenne Indians) and Glooskap, whose stomping ground was the northeastern United States and Canada.
WEATHER OR NOT
Remember the nursery rhyme, “Rain, rain, go away, come again another day”? I think even very young children wonder about the varieties of weather, since so much of what they wear or even whether or not they can go outdoors to play depends on what it’s like outside.These books speak to that sense of wonderment.
First there are days and days of snow, and then days and days of heavy rain, which means, Grandma predicts,“It’ll come a tide,” and sure enough, the river floods—which means, Grandma says, that it’s time to “make friends with a shovel” in George Ella Lyon’s Come a Tide, tenderly illustrated by Stephen Gammell. Wait till you see Grandma’s chin—this is one determined lady!
There’s lots of rain, too, in Uri Shulevitz’s magical Rain Rain Rivers, although here the rain is presented not as a destructive force, but rather as a cause for celebration.
