105 Ways to Give a Book

The Thursday Three

Three recent — and good — picture book additions in my fair library. I’m thinking of making the “Thursday Three” a new thing for this blog, since I have a steady supply of these mini-reviews for picture books. We’ll see.

Snow Day!Snow Day! by Lester L. Laminack, illustrated by Adam Gustavson
“Did you hear that? Did the weatherman just say what I thought he did? Did he say... SNOW? Oh please, let it snow. Lots and lots of snow.” This person is ready for a snow day and all the things that go along with it. No alarm clock. Staying in PJs. Playing outside. A day to watch TV and read a new book. To sled and throw snowballs. The special fun in this book is the surprise that I won’t spoil, and the fun illustrations that bring the reader into the imagining of the perfect snow day. Great book. (Here we got ice days, but no snow days, so I’m feeling particularly warm and fuzzy about this title.)

Guess What I Found in Dragon WoodGuess What I Found in Dragon Wood, by Timothy Knapman, illustrated by Gwen Millward
The surprise in this book is revealed on the second real page, so I don’t feel bad giving it away. It’s the dragon who finds a boy — or a Benjamin, as he calls it. The little dragon shows the Benjamin to his parents, and they feed him and put him to bed. The next day he goes to school, but he doesn’t want to sit on a volcano like the dragons are learning to do. In fact, he’s sad and... leaking. He misses his home, so his new dragon friend takes him back there. It’s not that the idea of mixing the point of view is brand new, but it is new enough and it’s usually fun, and it’s especially fun this time. Wonderful and imaginative illustrations. Another book winner.

Big Chickens Fly the CoopBig Chickens Fly the Coop, by Leslie Helakoski, illustrated by Henry Cole
It’s hard to go wrong with a chicken book. Chickens are funny. In this story, four big chickens are ready for a change from the nice safe coop. They decide to go to the farmhouse to look for bugs there. As they make their way along, they keep running into places that they think are the farmhouse and are most definitely are not the farmhouse and are indeed Trouble with a capital T. Henry Cole’s illustrations add to the hilarity of the chickens running into a dog, a tractor, and horses. You’ve never seen a batch of funnier expressions on chickens, I’ll tell you that. It would be a great read-aloud as well as a giggly book to share one on one.

7 comments:

Jenny said...

I love the idea of a Thursday Three. Fantastic!

I checked out two of the books you recommended previously, Gallop and the Swish Fish one. My girls and I have loved them both. Sadly, the 13 month old felt a need to rip the fish one so we will be buying it from the library.

Unknown said...

I love all 3 books - I used the lester Laminack book in a lesson I did in January - see the link to the fun we have in my library with this book!
http://librarystew.blogspot.com/2008/01/literacy-science-media-center-snow-fun.html

Bill said...

I just heard Snow Day read by our district superintendent today for our Right to Read celebration. Very appropriate since he's the one to "make the call." I need to go get a copy this weekend for our library.

Abby said...

We just got Guess What I Found in Dragon Wood at my library and I just read it today. I love it!

Adam said...

Thanks for the nice review and comments, y'all.

(I do school appearances too...)

Karen said...

What a wonderful idea -- The Thursday Three! I love your blog, but I'll definitely stop by on Thursdays to catch "The 3".
I'm thrilled Snow Day made the first list -- I read it to my kids as soon as it came out. They're 5th graders and they loved the surprise ending!

Camille said...

A snow day...cannot even imagine it. I will have to live it in a book. Dragons and Henry Cole...what a great trio today!