cat

PPBF: Mice Twice

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Author/Illustrator: Joseph Low
Publisher: Margaret K McElderry (Atheneum), 1980
Age: 3-8
Themes: animals, etiquette, humorous stories
Opening: Cat was thinking about supper. He thought, “I could eat forty-seven grasshoppers. or I could eat 69 crickets. Or I could eat a fine, fat sparrow. But what I think I’d really like is a nice, tender mouse.

Summary: A round of uneasy hospitality results when Mouse and Dog arrive at Cat’s house for dinner.

I like this book because: first off, I’m not alone – this title is a 1981 Caldecott Honor book. I love the loose, energetic rendering and use of a simple yet bright palette, dominated by pinks and yellows. That’s what attracted me to this book I found at Brattle Bookshop in Boston this spring, but it’s the round robin tale of trickery and wit and the drama of it all that delighted me so very much! Hope you can find a copy.

Resources/activities: learn more about Low, his obituary here; look for other titles on the Caldecott list from 1981; perform this story as a play.

There is a summer break for new entries, but for more Perfect Picture Book Friday picks with teacher/parent resources, check out the list on Susanna Hill’s blog  HERE.

Around the corner from Brattle Bookshop, the Make Way for Ducklings sculptures in Boston Commons (dressed as RBGs!)

‘Halloweensie’: Too Big for His Boots

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LeafCrown1

Fall in Colorado is almost too gorgeous this year! It may have reached 90* yesterday, which was too much, but it’s back down to the 70’s now. More importantly there has been less wind than usual, so the trees are still glowing. I made myself a leaf crown today, AND I wore it all over town!

Susanna Hill’s 4th Halloweensie Contest rules:  write a 100 word or less (mine weighs in at 88) Halloween story appropriate for children, using the words pumpkin, broomstick, and creak.

Too Big for His Boots

“I want a broomstick,” said the cat.

“And, just like yours, a wide brim hat.

I’ll take a pair of pointy boots,

A nighty owl that glares and hoots,

One pumpkin cut to grin that glows,

Two warts like those that itch your nose,

Three blackened crows with crooked beaks,

A chair that rocks with cricks and creaks,…”

That cat! He carried on, and on,

‘Til Witch stood up and freed a yawn.

She waved her wand then thrice she spat.

POOF!

“It’s not your birthday, silly cat!”

LeafCrown5To read more 2014 Halloweensie Contest entries click HERE

Not So Random Tandem and Fish for Supper

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Catherine Johnson is writing a poem (HERE), prompt word ‘lighthouse’ (in cahoots with Jody Hedlund’s lighthouse series) and I doodled these images, because sometimes we like to push each other around, I mean, to motivate each other. But my lighthouse just would not come on it’s own. Finally a lighthouse keeper appeared…then a cat. I’m interested to see what will happen next!

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Now for a PPBF selection (yes, I know Susanna’s blog is on vacation, but I can’t help myself – love sharing great picture books!).

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Author/Illustrator: M.B. Goffstein
Publisher: Dial Press, 1976
Ages: 4-8yrs
Themes: humorous stories, grandmothers, retired life
Opening: When my grandmother went fishing, she would get up at five o’clock in the morning, and make herself breakfast,…
Summary/I like this book because: (from my library catalog) “Describes Grandmother’s typical day of fishing.” What? I think that was the shortest off-the-wall summary I’ve found yet! Let me do a little ‘splainin’. I didn’t have a single selection for today in my book bag. I picked this one off the shelf, that one of my kids chose as the elementary school library was getting rid of a slew of too well-loved books, to make room for new ones. I read it again, thought, this is not really a story that would be considered publishable today (no complication, no resolution), but it grabbed me, like a one-liner sticks long after you’ve left the scene. So, I googled, and found that this little smirk won a Caldecott Honor in 1977, and that this author I had not otherwise read (surprising only because I was averaging 100/wk for yrs), is famous – AND has a fabulous quirky website – HERE.

Fish

Resources/activities: check out M.B. Goffsteins’ post: How to Write and Illustrate a Picture Book. Now. HERE

Fish2You can still head over to Susanna’s blog for a wonderful list of titles with resources. She keeps the back door unlocked!

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Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. -Henry David Thoreau