It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date, and adapted by Kellee at Unleashing Readers and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts with a children’s/YA focus. The Sunday Post is hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer. These weekly roundups are a great way to discover new blogs and bloggers, share some of the titles you’ve been enjoying, and add to your ever-growing to-read list.
More picture books! My life is just all picture books, all the time, right now, which means I have a few to share with you (and not that much else)!
The most successful picture books for my outreach story times balance short, energetic texts with a good dose of humour. A lot of preschool texts are simply too long for my groups, while toddler books are often too young and babyish. What I need are essentially hi-lo picture books – books that offer high interest stories with a lower reading level.
The Whale in My Swimming Pool by Joyce Wan is the sweet, silly, slightly surreal story of a little boy who discovers a giant whale squatting in his swimming pool. As long as the whale remains lodged in the pool, the little boy won’t be able to swim. What is a boy to do?
Wan’s illustrations just leap off the page with their bold, simple lines and bright colours, making them perfect for sharing with a large group of children. The characters are adorable and very cheery, but aren’t at all babyish or cutesy, which is ideal for preschoolers.
As you might expect, the whale and the boy form a mutually-beneficial alliance, using ingenuity to solve their problem of limited pool real estate. The Whale in My Swimming Pool is fun, sweet, silly, and perfect for story times. The surprise on the last spread also suggests a sequel, which I will await with bated breath.
Next to You: A Book of Adorableness by Lori Haskins Houran is adorable. Like, really, really adorable.
The narrator shares all sorts of really adorable animals, like a squirrel eating a doughnut with its tiny hands, or a piglet in a sweater, but reaffirms again and again that nothing is remotely as adorable as the reader.
The “nothing in the world is as special or wonderful as you” cliche is rampant in the picture book industry, and with good reason. New parents and caregivers are typically smitten with their precious bundles, and are prime targets for these kinds of sugary, syrupy messages.
What saves Next to You from becoming just another sickeningly sweet baby book is its very obvious sense of humour, and gentle hint of snark. The cute animals referenced in the book verge on the ridiculous, and are clearly inspired by the millions of cute animal videos on sites like Youtube that suck us in and devour hours of our precious time. Also, the narrator’s resolve is repeatedly tested by the increasing cuteness of the animals, which leads to a pretty funny few pages in which the adorableness of a baby giraffe nearly leads our narrator into a crisis of conviction.
This is a sweet book, no doubt about it, and it would still make a lovely gift for new parents. But with its gentle humour and knowing smile, it’s also a lot of fun for older children, and with the right delivery could make for a hilarious read aloud. I can just see some of the kids in my story times bursting from all the cuteness.
So, that’s all for this week – we’ve been hit with another really rare snowstorm, so wish me luck as I venture out into the blizzard this week!
Love the look and sound of both these picture books. Enjoy the snow seen as you don’t get it that often. Yes climate is a funny thing.
I love the look of “Whale in my Swimming Pool” – so cute. As for Next to You, you gotta love a children’s book with some hidden snark!!!
Both of these look like books I need to keep track of for when my grandbabies arrive. My partner and I are in Oliver this week and left the city just as the snow began. It looks like the lower mainland, especially areas of Chilliwack and Abbotsford got inundated!
Next to You sounds very interesting. It does look sickeningly cute, but the humor part intrigues me. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks for sharing!
Another two books for me to add to my list.
As a cheeky plug, if you like approachable art but short, energetic texts, you might enjoy “Hoover the Hungry Dog”.
Cheers
I’m definitely going to add these to purchase at my library. Great picks!
The snow is still there? Good luck with it for sure! Thanks for the two ‘baby’ books. They do look cute!
Isn’t it interesting that for some groups the read aloud has to absolutely fit specific criteria – sounds like you found some winners!
I wish we’d get snow. I know it’s actually annoying and involves traffic problems and shovelling etc. but I really miss it! I hope you’re having a great week 🙂
Heh. Love the Mom’s reaction to the whale in the pool! 🙂
I’m a sucker for adorable animal videos, so Next To You looks perfect! I’ll have to look for it. Have a great week!
Charming picture books – here’s to snow be gone for you!
Oh my gosh Whale in a Swimming Pool looks so cute! And yes don’t forget sunscreen- classic! I might have to get that. Kind of reminds me of Fish Out of Water- I always felt bad for poor Otto!
I am definitely going to want to read Next to You. I like snark. 😉
First I head of hi-lo – good way of looking at it. 😉
No disrespect no polar bears or penguins, but I never want to see snow this year again. What a bleak winter it’s been!
I love the cover of that whale one, haha. And it look like it has great illustrations, especially for a story time! You have me curious what the surprise at the end is 😉