Library Bonanza

This week, we apparently picked a lot of winners. Welcome to our longest library list yet!

Star of the Week
by Barney Saltzberg
Stanley is pretty excited about sharing his favorite things with his classmates until he realizes the universal truth we all learned when we were young: Kids are mean. No matter what this star student shares the other kids, as led by a bossy girl, make fun of him for his strange tastes. But, he sticks out the week and ends up broadening everyone's horizons.

Look Out, He's Behind You!
by Tony Bradman and Margaret Chamberlain
Little Red Riding Hood can be a pretty scary story, but this telling of it makes it fun. For starters, it has flaps to lift. Second, the wolf isn't all that scary. Third, nobody gets eaten or axed or anything. The downside is that LRRH doesn't get to comment on her grandma's teeth, but the entertainment value of the rest of it balances that out.

Scaredy Cat
by Joan Rankin
The scared little kitten in this story is deliciously drawn. Hazards of domestic life are presented from the perspective of said kitten, and the mom kitty explains stuff. My favorite part is that it shows how distorted perspective can sometimes be useful. As when dealing with eensie-weensie spiders.

Valentine Surprise
by Corinne Demas, illustrated by R.W. Alley
Lily wants to make a valentine for her mom, but hearts are notoriously hard to cut out. Many imperfect attempts result, and wouldn't you know it but the mom is thrilled with all of the effort. Without being preachy-just lovey.

Just Like Daddy
by Frank Asch
Little Bear does almost everything just like his dad. With a nice twist at the end. Elise likes to "read" this one herself and chuckles at the end every time.

Fox at School
by Edward Marshall, illustrated by James Marshall
This is a collection of three stories about a fox at school. I think this fox is a character in several of these easy-to-read books, so maybe it would all make more sense in context. Elise loves the stories here, though. And she has taken to saying "hot dog!" when she's excited about something.

Silly Tilly's Thanksgiving Dinner
by Lillian Hoban
Tilly Mole isn't that bright, or at least she has some serious short-term memory issues a la Memento. We have read this one so many times that Elise could likely recite it in her sleep. She certainly reads it to her stuffed animals plenty. All I can say is that I hope I have friends who are as quietly understanding of my foibles as Tilly's friends are of hers.

Down by the Bay
illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott
a Raffi Songs to Read book
This is one song that I actually did not know until we learned it at the library during story time. (Yes, I hear that collective gasp-hard to believe there is a kids' song I didn't know, eh?) Anyway, we brought this book home and I proceeded to sing the song to Elise. Lo and behold, last night she serenaded me while looking at the pictures for word cues! Even better, this morning we sang together and she actually attempted to match pitch with me. Better still is that she met with some success!

Dino Pets
by Lynn Plourde, illustrated by Gideon Kendall
In this story, a clever young man takes his piggy bank to a pet shop and brings home one dinosaur after another as they each prove unsuitable. The biggest, longest, fastest, scariest, smallest dinosaurs are each introduced, and then there are "dino facts" at the end of the book. I like that it describes how "facts" about dinosaurs change over time as we learn more about them. I think Elise just likes that there are dinosaurs just like she learned about at school.