It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly blog hop co-hosted by Unleashing Readers and Teach Mentor Texts which focuses on sharing books marketed for children and young adults. It offers opportunities to share and recommend books with each other.
Every week a local summer camp visits our branch for stories and crafts. They’re a mixed-age group ranging from K-5, so I’ve been searching for funny books suitable for slightly older kiddos. Here are a few that I’ve shared recently!
Nothing says summer quite like the feeling of fresh, cool watermelon juice dripping down your chin! A little gator accidentally swallows a black watermelon seed, which sends him into a panic as he imagines himself growing into a big pink watermelon being added to a fruit salad! It’s sweet and silly, with bright illustrations, and kids adore laughing at the antics of the melodramatic gator, while probably getting a little bit of reassurance at the same time. It’s a classic for a reason! I would recommend this one for preschool-kindergarten.
Two snakes – one long and one short – want to ride a roller coaster, but the shorter snake doesn’t meet the minimum height requirement! The friends try different schemes to fool the gate-keeping pig, with no success. Until they do what snakes do best…This is a very funny book that works well with school groups, and all ends well, with the snakes making their way onto the ride and the pig getting a second chance at life. Now, of course, rides have height restrictions for a reason, and it isn’t safe to try and get around these very important restrictions, but since we’re looking at talking snakes and pigs, a little bit of suspension of disbelief is required.
Who doesn’t love Jan Thomas? Pete the problem-solving porcupine is here to solve Rabbit’s problems, but his unconventional approach to problem-solving threatens to cause more problems that it solves! Because there are no dialogue tags in the text (ex: “Hello,” said the dog) I find it helpful to use very different voices when reading books like this aloud to a group (the Elephant and Piggie series is similar), so kids can keep track of who’s saying what. For some reason, I naturally fell into a kind of western-inspired, cowboy, yeehaw style of voice for Pete, which made the read aloud experience a lot of fun!
LET’S SING A LULLABY WITH THE BRAVE COWBOY
More Jan Thomas! This an older title, but still well worth sharing, because it’s just so much fun to read aloud. I like to make up a little tune for the cowboy’s lullaby, and sing it like Gene Autry could have – as you might have already guessed, I never miss an opportunity to get a little silly when it comes to my read-alouds! I also like the idea of the cowboy – traditionally a symbol of rugged macho masculinity – being revealed to be a bit of a scaredy-cat – I love subverting those expectations. Plus, like all of Jan Thomas’ books, the illustrations are very charming.
I’ve mentioned this subversion of expectations several times here on the blog before, and with good reason – it’s a perfect read-aloud for older children. That final twist just can’t be beat. Highly, highly recommended.
I hope everyone has been enjoying summer. We’ve had a few hot days recently, but all things considered we’re very lucky here in the Pacific Northwest!
Thank you for your recommendations. When I sub for story time at the library, I appreciate knowing your picks! Have you tried Chris Haughton? Golden!
I ADORE Chris Haughton! LITTLE OWL LOST is one of my all-time favourites, it’s soooo good and always gets giggles from my audience! I like to ham up the squirrel character, much to the kiddos’ delight. MAYBE…is another favourite of mine, so simple and so effective.