MotherReader

When booktalking to kindergarten and first grade, I make sure to show them the inside of at least one beginning reader book and let them know that we have lots of these books to continue their reading over the summer. This year the Katie Woo series is one on our summer reading list, so I shared this talk in a pretty conversational way with a fair amount of acting (head shaking, tooth brushing, etc.)

Katie Woo: The Tricky Tooth
by Fran Manushkan, illustrated by Tammie Lyon
Picture Window Books, 2011
I’ll bet some of you have lost a tooth or two. Raise your hand if you’ve lost a tooth. One? Two? More? Well, as this book begins Katie Woo has her very first loose tooth, but it doesn’t want to come out. Katie and her friend eat some popcorn, and her friend's tooth falls out. But what happens to Katie's tooth? Nothing! She thinks if she heads the ball in soccer that it will shake her head enough that the tooth will pop out. But what happens to Katie's tooth? Nothing! She brushes and brushes her teeth super good, ready for that tooth to come loose. But what happens? Nothing! She goes to school and the teacher has a chart that everyone can mark on with how many teeth they have lost, but you know what Katie can put on the chart? Nothing!!! But if you've lost a tooth, you know that eventually it has to come out at some point. Find out what finally gets it out in Katie Woo: The Tricky Tooth.

Kids ready to move up to chapter books, but maybe with a little help, have a new, perfect series from Jennifer Richard Jacobson. The books are full stories with chapters, but retain the extra spacing underneath the sentences and accessible language. They also happen to be fun to read.

In Andy Shane and the Very Bossy Dolores Starbuckle, Andy has trouble with a difficult girl at school. He tells his Granny Webb that he’s not going back, but when she stares him down, he realizes that he’s going all right. But Granny has a surprise for him. She comes to school too, and teaches the kids about bugs, her particular speciality. With some work — and the Granny stare — Andy is able to put Dolores in her place, and they may even be able to get along. The book doesn’t focus on Andy as an adopted child, but I loved this matter-of-fact statement about his family.

Andy Shane had lived with Granny Webb all his life. When he came into the world, he needed someone who could take good care of him. Granny Webb needed someone to share the fun of hilly woods, salamanders, and stories. So the two of them became a family. Just like that. Andy Shane never longed for more.

It’s not exactly an adoption book, but I couldn’t resist mentioning Sleepyhead, by Karma Wilson. It’s a beautiful picture book, with the soft watercolor pictures of John Segal. In the simple story, a grown-up cat tries to get the little bear to go to sleep. But the little bear wants to delay bedtime just a little bit longer. I like the sing-song feel of the text — not a straight rhyme, but with rhyming words. Here’s some of it:

Sleepyhead, Sleepyhead.
Good night, good night,
My Sleepyhead.
Your teeth are brushed
Your book is read.
Go to sleep. It’s time for bed.

One more book, says Sleepyhead.

One thing in particular I like about the book is the characters: a cat and bear, both of indeterminate gender. It could be a mother and son, father and daughter, aunt and niece, Tom Cruise and Suri... The two characters from different species also leaves it open as an adoption story, perhaps of a child of a different race. In any case, it’s a lovely bedtime book to be shared with a special little bear of one’s own.

Oh, girls love their unicorn books, don’t they? I came across two unicorn titles in quick succession, the first from the library and the second from the publisher. Let’s take a look.

It’s possible that the beginning reader book Unicorn Wings, by Mallory Loehr, is not very good. But who would notice when each page has fanciful pictures of unicorns and rainbows and roses and butterflies and bluebirds and castles and swans and moonlight on the ocean? If you’ll ever get a sugar high from a book, this is the one.

The unicorn — who for some strange reason in this ultra-girly book is a male — has a horn that can cure, but he really wants wings. He tells the butterflies and bluebirds and swans how he wishes that he had wings. But none of their wings are right for him. Boo. Then he meets a beautiful pegasus, cures her broken wing, and magically gets wings too! Hooray!

My seven-year-old daughter looooved it, even though the text is for a younger reader. It’s a beginning reader book that desperately needs a sequel. Not for me, mind you, but for my daughter.

I’d put Unicorn Races in the same camp. I don’t know that the story of the book is all that it could be, but the illustrations are very sweet. And very purple. Lots and lots of purple. There are other colors too, like blueish purple. (Okay, there are other colors in the book.) Is it because it’s from Purple Sky Publishing? Hmmm.

The story follows a little girl who waits until her mother thinks she’s asleep, and then she beckons her flying unicorn to take her to the magical place where she is the princess of all the fairy creatures. There she oversees the lovely unicorn races and crowns the winner, and then they all have lots of cake and sweets. (Actually, this may be the leading sugar high book.) Then the girl goes home and goes to sleep.

I found the text a little choppy in places, sometimes stilted and formal (though by design), which made the reading awkward. But I don’t know if it even matters, because my daughter looooved this book too. The pictures and story are the stuff of little girl dreams. Little girl princess candy-coated dreams.