Stick

Stick liked to do things on his own... all by himself.

JT: Stick is a little frog that likes to do things alone. My favorite picture is the picture of the guy riding the motorcycle.

Izie: Stick sticks to a dragon fly and the dragon fly flies away. My favorite part is at the end when Stick turns really light. (Guess what he swallows!)
Stick gets carried away and goes through the forest, a cat tries to get him, he goes through a ladies house, a dog barks at him and he falls from the dragon fly only to continue his adventures on other moving things.

The story is mostly told in pictures - hilarious pictures- with very few words.

Stick, words and pictures by Steve Breen

The Seven Chinese Brothers

Once upon a time, when Ch'in Shih Huang was emperor of all China, seven remarkable brothers lived together on a beautiful hillside.

They walked alike, they talked alike, they even looked so much alike it was hard to tell one brother from the brother next to him.

All the same, each brother had something special about him. Each brother had one amazing power that was all his own.

I have owned this book for quite some time. It sat on my shelf in my classroom when I taught 3rd grade and then 6th grade. I had never read it aloud until recently, when I read it to my boys.

Since then, I've read it aloud to my first grade class each year and they are just enthralled by the story.

Something about a story that starts, "Once upon a time" and that has brothers with magical strengths, just gets them. Always, one or two kids will just shout out while I'm reading, "This is an awesome story"It's a little scary. An emperor is trying to kill each of the brothers (who he thinks is just one person).

He throws one brother in the ocean, but his legs grow so long, he never drowns.

He attempts to burn a brother, but the one who loves fire, puts himself in his brother's place and enjoys the toasty warmth.The youngest brother, the one who was the baby of the family, is the one the other brothers try to keep happy, for if he cries, he creates giant tears that could drown an entire village.

In the end, he does cry, but his tears end up saving everyone.

This is a story my two boys ask for again and again. I know they love how each brother has a special strength of his own.

The Seven Chinese Brothers by Margaret Mahy, illustrated by Jean and Mou-sien Tseng

The Boy who was Raised by Librarians

Melvin lived in the Livingston Public Library.
Well....he didn't really live there. He just spent lots and lots of time there.
He wanted to know a little...no...a lot about everything. He was curious. And the library is a wonderful place to be if a person is curious.

This book is currently on our all time favorites list. Mostly because we love the library and love reading so we can picture ourselves exactly in Melvin's shoes.

He starts visiting the library as soon as he can walk there by himself and he goes every day until he goes away to college.

When he is in first grade, he brings a jar of bugs to show the librarians - he trips and they go everywhere in the library. Izie loves this part because he has tripped carrying his beloved caterpillar and they flew everywhere.

The librarians help Melvin record and catalog his bugs.
Izie catalogued some of his, here's his caterpillar on his finger.

In third grade, Melvin starts a baseball collection that he organizes. The librarians help him store them and show him a price guide on the internet.

JT loves this part because he organizes all his baseball cards just like that.



We love this book and have been re-reading it daily. The library really is one of our favorite places and the boys think it does sometimes seem like they are being raised by librarians (even though mom is a teacher and dad just plain ol' likes being curious.

You'll never guess what Melvin grows up to be......

The Boy who was Raised by Librarians by Carla Morris, illustrated by Brad Sneed

Something Might Happen

Twitchly Fidget trembled all over. No, nothing had happened to him. But it might.

So begins the story of the adorable, yet fearful, little lemur named Twitchly.

He is so fearful, he won't take a bath, he won't get dressed (for fear of putting his shoes on the wrong feet),
he won't eat breakfast, he won't even put a roof on his house for fear of it falling in on him.

Finally his Aunt Bridget Fidget drops in and tells him that he must fix himself up.
She forces him to bathe, eat and get dressed.

He realizes nothing bad will happen to him.

Something Might Happen by Helen Lester. Illustrated by Lynn Munsinger.

We also love Hooway for Wodney Wat also by Helen Lester.

Mystery Mansion

Do you like looking for clues?

If so, this is the book for you.

Each page has a hidden alphabet letter (or two!), hidden animals, foreign language phrases, and a secret message revealed at the end.

The main character, Tommy, is invited to his Aunt Jeanne's mansion. She's a little bit different and is also hiding on each page. She has planned an extravagant hunt for her nephew. He's a brave boy who doesn't seem the least phased by mazes, secret tunnels, and numerous little yellow notes.

Perhaps you'll be inspired to create your own scavenger hunt. Or perhaps you'll be inspired to create art out of the alphabet like we were. Our letters are not camouflaged. No, quite the opposite, we chose to have them jump out at you.

Mystery Mansion by Michael Garland

How to Paint the Portrait of a Bird

Take one french poem
Pour faire le portrait d'un oiseau
written by Jacques Prevert in 1949

Translate it
Illustrate it

and voila....

a beautiful beautiful book

translated and illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein

The book begins with the first step a young artist must take:
first paint a cage with an open door

It then follows a surprisingly beautiful series of steps to painting a colorful singing bird.

We gobbled up these amazing illustrations
Izie loved the part where you must erase the cage, one bar at a time, being careful of the bird's feathers. He chose to draw the colorful bird on it's branch in the mid-day sun.
JT loved how it might be necessary to wait years if necessary for the bird to land in your cage. He was inspired to draw an eagle.

A perfect book for a bird-filled spring day.

How to Paint the Portrait of a Bird by Jacques Prevert

Tough Cookie

They call me a tough cookie. I guess I am. Come from a good family. Regular batch. Lots of dough. Lived the high life. Top of the jar. They're all gone now. I hit bottom and stayed there. It was rough. Still is. But you get used to it. I'm a tough cookie.

Tough Cookie by David Wisniewski is a classic crime drama set in a cookie jar. Lot of cookie play-on-words. This book gets better and better each time we read it.

One thing we love is the map of the cookie jar (the home of these cookies and the scene of the crime). Areas include the exclusive neighborhood of upjar (home of just-baked and best quality store bought cookies), Crocker Observatory (watches lid activity), and downjar (most shops, services and schools).

Izie drew the processing net that catches the cookies when they first drop into the jar.
The criminal (fingers) is pictures sneaking into the jar to get a cookie.

JT and Izie loved the fight scene (go figure). Fingers tries to grab a cookie but the crumbs attack him and try as he might, he can't get a cookie, he just comes up with crumbs. Crumbs that he doesn't want.

JT drew fingers trying to grab our hero, Tough Cookie



Mom's favorite part: I'm knocking back a cup of java when this classy blond rolls up. Store bought. Easy on the eyes.

And of course, baby sister found this book irresistable to chew on. We had to keep it far from her sticky fingers.

This book is immensely fun to read aloud.

Tough Cookie words and pictures by David Wisniewski