Marmalade Magic

Marmaduke Duck and the Marmalade Jam by Juliette MacIver, illustrated by Sarah Davis

When Marmaduke Duck makes some marmalade, he is soon surrounded by an eager assortment of animals, all desperate for a taste of the sweet treat. Finally the llama arrives on the scene, gobbling up the whole lot, and leaving Farmer Palmer to save the day by inviting everyone to a feast.

Despite the slight story, the outstanding rhythm combined with compelling internal rhyming structure, interesting and entertaining vocabulary and strong repetition, make this a 'read again' choice for children from 3+. Although the very intensity of the rhyming can turn it into a bit of a tongue-twisting challenge for the unprepared reader.  You'll be more confident with the second or third repetition.

Then down came a llama to view the panorama.
And following the llama came a farmer in pyjamas
shouting "What's this game?"
You'll all alarm my llama, cried llama farmer Palmer.
The llama sure was calmer though, before the farmer came.

An outstanding example of the 'three Rs' in children's stories: rhyme, rhythm and repetition.
The bounding rhythm carries you through this story at breathtaking speed; the clever rhymes encourage children to begin to play with words, and the repetition encourages participation in the story.

Sarah Davis' illustrations are stunning, with bright bold colours and the expressive faces on the animals help tell the story.  I have absolutely fallen for the llama who "went WHAM! in the jam, and ate the whole lot"
The large bright coloured illustrations, make this clearly visible to the back row of the story-time group (though spotting the gnat can be a challenge!); while also offering extra detail to reward closer inspection.

This has been an outstanding read-aloud success to large groups (15 or so kids), as well as being one of Mitchell's all-time favourites.  While the story appeals to children from 3+ - who will happily join in the chant of "Marmaduke Duck eating marmalade jam!"; older children will really enjoy the clever word play: "quick, slick, lick of the jam in the pot"; and sophisticated readers will enjoy the homonyms (words spelled differently but which sound the same: llama, pyjamas, calmer).
It's definitely more suited to confident readers - and not recommended for those who find English challenging.

Shortlisted for the New Zealand Post Children's Book Picture Book Awards, for 2011 (and my personal pick for best in show).

An absolutely stunning book by a novice author. Here's hoping that we see many more.

Alphabet Magic

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault, illustrated by Lois Ehlert

This is alphabet with attitude!

A told B
and B told C,
"I'll meet you at the top
of the coconut tree."

The infectious rhythm bounces along, as more and more letters join in the race up the coconut tree. 

But when X, Y and Z scramble up, the weight is finally too much, and the whole alphabet ends in a tumbled heap at the bottom 

"Chicka Chicka ... Boom! Boom!" 

The 'grown up' letters rescue them, and they emerge in an amusingly battered fashion -- "black eyed P" and "loose tooth T". 

All ends well, until naughty A is out of bed and daring the other letters to join in the race again.

Lois Ehlert's attractive rainbow of bright coloured letters help kids to begin to learn the shapes of the letters as well as the alphabet sequence. The illustrations of the bent and battered letters picking themselves up from the pile encourage children to look closely at them, and recognize what shape H or I really are. Bright colours on a white background make this clearly visible to the back row at story time.

The appeal of this story is greatest for those kids who are starting to recognize letters, and learn their alphabet (3-4) ; and who find this much more fun than standard alphabet chants.  Mitchell gets great satisfaction from repeating the infectious rhyme - it's a real earworm! - and appears at all sorts of strange times throughout the day. But the overall story works for younger children (2+) and the 'dare' aspect is attractive to older kids (4+).  It's an easy read, though it does work best if you let yourself go with the rhythm.

Be careful with board book versions, some don't have the whole story (Chicka Chicka ABC); while the one that does is huge (for a board book) and a bit hefty for toddlers to manage easily.

The story has been around since 1989, and is still going strong. A true classic.

The Sky is Falling

Chicken Little by Rebecca Emberley and Ed Emberley

A stunning re-telling of the classic Chicken Little story, using delightful language and imagery. 

Chicken Little was not the brightest chicken in the coop. He was very excitable and prone to foolishness.

The straightforward story is very appealing to kids, with the various birds joining Chicken Little in running away, until they all meet up with Foxy Loxy, who has a different end in mind for the silly birds. 

The sly editorial comments encourage the children to feel superior to the birds - they can see what's coming, even if the birds can't

"Oh My," said Henny Penny 
and being witless herself, 
joined in without any further questions. 
And off they ran.
Still no plan.

My only criticism (and it's not been one raised by the kids), is that there is no explanation of how the birds escape from Foxy Loxy. Is it an accident? Do all the feathers make him sneeze?  

The delightful (and silly) exclamations "Bonk, Eep, Ack," as the growing band, hidden under the umbrella, run into one character after another, appeal enormously to children, and encourage them to join in gleefully on subsequent readings.

But it's the gorgeous saturated colour of the cut-paper collage illustrations that are the real selling point of this story. The vibrant and exciting characters with their mad ringed-eyes, fit right into the pre-school art environment.  Full double page spreads, with close ups of the birds, put the story right in the laps of the back row kids. 

A real winner as a read aloud to big groups of kids. I've had 25 children from 2-5 riveted by the story, and it's a favourite read-again at our house. The big bold print, and short lines, make it an easy read-aloud for less confident adults, despite the occasional unusual word (excitable, scrambled noggin, momentarily, frantic)

I can also see it working well as a puppet show and/or a magnetic board story.

One of these things is not like the others...

Blue hat, green hat by Sandra Boynton

I do like Sandra Boynton's board books. They manage to introduce simple concepts (colour and clothing in this one), while also engaging in some deeper learning (pattern recognition, and socialization, this time). All this, and humour pitched at just the right level for toddlers.

Watch the elephant, moose and bear each put on a piece of clothing in a different colour. All is well until the silly turkey puts the clothing on the wrong part of his body - Oops!

Yellow pants,
Red pants,
Green pants,
Oops.

Toddlers love to show off their mastery of words (colours and clothes); and growing sense of the 'right' way to do things - pants don't go on your head, you don't go into the swimming pool with all your clothes on. There will be lots of giggles as they recognize the 'oops' moments! The underlying message, that it's OK to laugh at mistakes rather than getting upset by them, is another good reason to choose this book.

It's great to read the words provided for the first couple of times, to get the sense of the story through to the kids; then switch to questions and let them tell you the story.

This is one of those stories where the pictures are much more important than the text. In fact, I've seen kids pick this up and 'get' the humour of the illustrations without an adult there to read to them.

Heavily outlined illustrations, with strong primary colours for the clothes, let the characters stand out clearly on the white pages.

Because of the small board format, this really only works for groups of up to six children. And is best suited for the 1-3 age range - though older children may still enjoy the humour of the out-of-step turkey.

Like most of Sandra Boynton's books, this one has been around for a long time - originally published 1984 - must be good to have lasted all this time.

Bears who Share

Bears on Chairs by Shirley Parenteau, illustrated by David Walker.

Four small chairs
just right for bears.
Where is the bear
for each small chair?

Can five bears find a fair way to share four chairs?

The very simple rhyming couplet scheme can become monotonous, unless read with enthusiasm and expression. This is one of those stories which really relies on the story-teller to put it across effectively.

However, the story itself is immensely attractive to its intended audience of one to three-year-olds; children who are just learning problem-recognition and counting skills, and who are intimately familiar with the challenge of 'sharing' so it's fair for everyone. The themes of compassion and sharing are dealt with lightly and the ending provides a deeply satisfactory resolution for preschoolers - a sharing solution that accommodates all the bears.

The watercolour illustrations are charming, each bear has it's own colour, so they are clearly identifiable; and by choosing to draw only the barest minimum (bears and chairs), they are clearly visible against the white background.

You need to be an expressive reader to put this one across effectively, but it works well as a read-aloud for a reasonably large group of children. Most effective in it's target group of one to three-year-olds. But older children in the group can be engaged in the counting aspects, and offered the chance to problem-solve as the story goes along? 'What could the bears do next?'

This was a surprise success with Mitchell - and was one of his favourite books for several months. At three, he's recently rediscovered it, and is enjoying it again. It's worked particularly well for girls. Boys (apart from Mitchell) have enjoyed the story, but not asked for it again.

Diggers

Roadworks by Sally Sutton, illustrated by Brian Lovelock

Small boys all seem to go through similar phases of interest:
cars, diggers, trains, dinosaurs, etc., at similar ages.
It seems much better to go with the flow, staying 'on topic' while introducing books that expand their vocabulary (beyond the name of every kind of machine known to man) and spark their imagination.

The catch is, finding good books to do just that.

It's easy to find poor books using the digger theme: ones that have no integral story and are simply a grab bag of different kinds of machines; ones that start off as a digger book, and then veer into other random areas (colours, textures, shapes, etc); and even ones that use gimmicks (sounds, shapes, wheels, etc) to attract attention.
But none of these offer anything to engage a child's interest in the longer term.

Among all the dross, Sally Sutton's masterpiece stands head and shoulders above the rest, and is a firm favourite with every small boy of my acquaintance.

Using short phrases and sentences (complete with noisy exclamations - my favourite is "Squelch! Spluck! Splat!") it tells the story of the machines used to construct a road, from the first cut, to the final opening. The regular rhythm and rhyme is vibrantly poetic, and explains why so many children quickly memorize this book.

Load the dirt. Load the dirt.
Scoop and swing and drop.
Slam it down into the truck.
Bump!
Whump!
Whop!

Within the first few readings, Mitchell was already joining in to read the story along with me. I'd often start off with the first sentence, and then let him finish the page on his own.

After a few readings I've overheard him and other children playing quietly with diggers, repeating the story to themselves as they work on their own construction sites.

The large clear illustrations, prominently feature the machines doing the work - the workers are mostly small, relatively unimportant figures, set against the size and scale of the machines and their road-building project. Even when the workers break for lunch, they are dwarfed by the huge wheel of the road roller beside them. Each illustration exactly reflects the story being told on that page - a great source of satisfaction to literal-minded pre-schoolers. And the final page includes a pictorial glossary of all the machines and a short description of what they do.

Virtually all children will have seen roadworks going on around them (certainly you can't miss them in Auckland, where it seems that roads are being dug up on a continual basis), so they have lots of context to bring to the story, and will take a new appreciation of why the machines are working, away with them.

Highly recommended as an excellent read-aloud for big groups of children. The large bold text, makes it easy for adults to read, the story is attractive and memorable, and the primary colours used in the illustrations make it easy for the kids in the back row to see clearly. Be warned, it's not a quiet circle-time book, this is loud and brash, and the pre-schoolers will enthusiastically join in with the exclamations. Be prepared to re-read frequently, as it will become a firm favourite.

Roadworks was awarded Best Picture Book in the 2009 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and translated into Maori as Mahiara.

Chinese Whispers

The Dudgeon is Coming by Lynley Dodd

How can you go wrong with Lynley Dodd?
She has an impressive record as a writer and illustrater of the much-loved Hairy Maclary series, though it's her stand-alone books that seem to have caught Mitchell's attention best. Like all prolific authors, there are some titles which stand out as excellent in one way or another, and others that are less impressive.

And I feel that The Dudgeon is Coming, is one of her very best as a read-aloud story.

The news of the impending arrival of the Dudgeon is passed from creature to creature, changing and becoming more alarming at each repetition, until the overwrought atmosphere of terror is punctured by the arrival of the tiny, harmless inoffensive Dudgeon.

The story rhythm and repetiton make it an easy read, though some of the language can be a bit challenging (bombazine, taffeta, omnibus). An easy extension for more confident readers, is to use different voices for the characters, and discuss how the message is changing at each repetition, and even try a game of Chinese whispers.

The colourful full-page illustrations, give a comically entertaining picture of each creature, with the expressions of increasing dismay on their faces as the news becomes more and more alarming. I particularly love the Stickleback Twitch in his Bamboo Canoe, and the penultimate page with all the creatures hiding in fear of the 'terrible Dudgeon'.

Highly recommended for groups of all sizes and ages.