Mothers Day

Well since I did a Fathers Day theme, I figured I *had* to do a Mothers Day one too. Neither are themes that we actually do during the calendar year, since we normally take a break when Mother's Day falls, and Father's Day is during summer reading. Usually, we do a theme called "family" that kinda encompasses everyone. However, there are a number of mother books that I enjoy.

Little Rabbit and the Meanest Mother on Earth by Kate Klise. Little Rabbit is *supposed* to be cleaning his room when the circus comes to town. He begs his mother to go, but of course his room isn't clean, so it's a no-go. So what does he do? Tries to join the circus. He can if he sells 100 tickets. His act? The Meanest Mother on Earth. Little Rabbit gets quite inventive in his effort to sell tickets. Needless to say, the audience is quite disappointed when she shows up. Mama manages to turn the tables though, and the audience gets a show and Little Rabbit learns a lesson.

My Monster Mama Loves Me So by Laura Leuck. This is one of those my-mom-is-the-best-for-all-these-reasons book, but with a monster twist.

My Mommy is Magic by Carl Norac. This book lists all the reasons the girl's mother is magic, like when she wears her cloud dress, the sky is clear or when she sings the butterflies gather. It goes through all the reasons and then the girl says "My mommy is magic and one day I'm going to grow up and be magic just like her." A-dorable!

 



 

Ol' Mama Squirrel by David Ezra Stein. This is about a mama squirrel that will do anything she can to protect her babies (and she's really good at it). One day, an ENORMOUS scary problem comes along that she can't handle by herself, but mama squirrel is resourceful and gets the job done!

Mama Don't Allow
So this is actually the name of a book (By Thacher Hurd), but we do it as a song. Maaaaaybe not the best one to do when you're trying to honor mothers, but *shrug*.

Mama don't allow no hand clappin' 'round here (clap, clap, clap)
Mama don't allow no hand clappin' 'round here (clap, clap, clap)
Well I don't care what Mama don't allow, gonna clap my hands any old how,

Mama don't allow no hand clappin' 'round here (clap, clap, clap)

 

Mama don't allow no foot stompin' 'round here (stomp, stomp, stomp) 

Mama don't allow no foot stompin' 'round here (stomp, stomp, stomp)

 Well I don't care what Mama don't allow, gonna stomp my feet any old how,

Mama don't allow no foot stompin' 'round here (stomp, stomp, stomp)

 

Mama don't allow no hog callin' 'round here ("Soo-wee")

Mama don't allow no hog callin' 'round here ("Soo-wee")

 Well I don't care what Mama don't allow, gonna call my hogs any old how,

Mama don't allow no hog callin' 'round here ("Soo-wee")

 

Mama don't allow no carryin' on around here (clap clap, stomp stomp, "Soo-wee")

Mama don't allow no carryin' on around here (clap clap, stomp stomp, "Soo-wee")

Well I don't care what Mama don't allow, gonna carry on any old how,

Mama don't allow no carryin' on around here (clap clap, stomp stomp, "Soo-wee")

 

There's also a couple of nursery rhymes you could do:

 

Old Mother Hubbard
Went to the cupboard
To get her poor dog a bone;
But when she came there
The cupboard was bare,
And so the poor dog had none.

 

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children, she didn't know what to do;
She gave them some broth without any bread;
Then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

 

 

Representation Matters: Stories featuring black characters.

So I was reading to a group of kids the other day and it was the last week of our summer theme. I asked the kids if they knew who Michael Phelps is. One of the kids asked "Is he black?". Important to note - all of the children I was reading to were black - and I suddenly realized, "Wow. I totally could have picked a book about a black athlete to read to them". We just picked Michael Phelps because he's going to be in the Olympics again this year, and the book is cute in illustrating what all he had to do to train to get there. This past week though, I decided to consciously pick out books that had black people as the main focus, just for them. They weren't the only group that I read to, but that didn't matter. (In fact, they cancelled my story time with them before I got to read them - but I'll just save them for next week.)

 

Say Hey!: a Song of Willie Mays by Peter Mandel. This has a great repeating refrain of "Say hey, Willie, say hey" that I had the kids say after every couplet of lines, helping keep them engaged in the story. It's a good, brief telling of his life, though it does gloss over the segregation stuff a little- but hey, it's a kids book. I did briefly talk about segregation and Civil Rights after and one little girl said something like "Yeah, and that's why we have Black History Month..." I didn't say anything to that or point out the theme in all my books that day. I have no idea if any of them noticed. I probably missed a teaching moment. :/ 

 

Aunt Flossie's Hats (and Crab Cakes Later) by Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard. This is a really cute story about two little girls who love to visit their great-aunt, go through her hatboxes and listen to all the storied that accompany each hat. You get to hear three - including one that they get to help tell at the end. :)

 

Jump Rope Magic by Afi Scruggs. This book is definitely written with a certain rhythm and cadence to it. It's great when you can get into it and go with the flow. You can really get tripped up if you don't get into the beat though. The girls I read this to LOVED it because they recognized some of the jump rope rhymes used in it.

 

We Had a Picnic This Sunday Past by Jacqueline Woodson. This book is told by the little girl who goes to a family picnic with her grandma, and they comment on everyone and everything they bring. And the whole time they keep talking about this one aunt and her terrible apple pies, but they can't tell her that because it would hurt her feelings. FINALLY the aunt shows up with a box - does she have TWO pies?!

 

Nappy Hair by Carolivia Herron. This story is set up as being told at a reunion or some family gathering, so you have the main story teller, and then you have two other voices that chime in and interrupt. The story teller is talking about how this child has the nappiest hair in the world. He goes on and on and on about it - and the voices that interrupt get exasperated with him and can't believe that he won't stop talking about it. In the end, he says that God gave that child that hair, and when he looked at what he created he was proud and said "Well done." For all the teasing that starts out in the story, it's really heartwarming in the end.




Like I said, I haven't had a chance to read these stories to my intended audience. I'll update soon once I do and can gauge their reaction to the stories. I had others picked out too - I only had so much time to read before I had to run to my story time, but some of the other titles were Bippity Bop Barbershop by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley (but couldn't use because half a page was missing :/), Baby Tamer by Mark Teague (the main character just happens to be black - nothing about it is ever mentioned), black is brown is tan by Arnold Adoff (about a biracial family), and Cherish Me by Joyce Carol Thomas. 

 

Father's Day

It's been awhile since I posted anything on here, but honestly? I thought I had run out of the themes I normally do! And shame on me! Why not be creative and try to cover other themes and ideas that I *don't* do?

 

I was inspired today because Father's Day is coming up and because this book came across my desk this morning:

 

 

Because I'm Your Dad by Ahmet Zappa. It is J'ADORABLE! (Thank you Jonathan Adler for adding that word to my vocabulary.) Nevermind that it was created by two people I absolutely love. Does anyone remember the show Ahmet Zappa hosted on MTV back in the 90s? webRIOT? He was such an oddball, and I fell in love with him then. And of course this post talks about Dan Santat and my other favorite authors and illustrators, so if you want to see me gush about him, you can read it there. BUT - even if it didn't have anything to do with those two, it would still be a cute book. The text (especially the end) gets me all verklempt.

 

 

One that follows the same theme (of all the things a father would to for a child), but is a bit more fantastical is:

 

 

Because I am Your Daddy by Sherry North. The first one covers all the everyday things a dad does for his child. This one is all the things a father would do for a child if he had a certain profession. Then it gets into the ridiculous of "If we were Martians... If I was a wizard...". Ultimately, the ending is similar - it's all about a father's love.

 

This next one we added last year when the summer theme was "Every Hero Has a Story":

 

 

Hero Dad by Melinda Hardin. This is told from the point of view of a child comparing his dad (who is in the military) to a superhero. It was *perfect* for the theme, and it's a great book to read about fathers.

 

 

The Fathers Are Coming Home by Margaret Wise Brown. This shows different fathers in the animal kingdom coming home to their children. The final one is a human father, a sailor, coming home to his kid.

 

My Dad Thinks He's Funny by Katrina Germein. This is basically a book full of dad jokes. It's really corny, but reading it to groups of kids is fun because you'll hear "Hey, my dad says that!". If you're a dad reading it with your child, you'll probably see a lot of yourself in the book.

 

 

These are obviously all newer books. I'm sure there are a number of older ones that are just as good. Please comment and let me know your favorite father/daddy book that I may have forgotten!