What We Read This Week 10/16

It's Raining Bats and Frogs by Rebecca Colby, illustrated by Steven Henry. A young witch is determined to make the witch parade run smoothly, despite the sudden rain! I will post a more in-depth review on this one in my Halloween book spotlight!

If I Had a Gryphon by Vikki VanSickle, illustrated by Cale Atkinson. I will review this book more in-depth soon, but for now... it's just gorgeous. The story is fun because of all the mythological creatures, but the illustrations are so beautiful. Kids will love this one!

Explorers of the Wild by Cale Atkinson. This is a beautifully illustrated book about two very different explorers who bump into each other in the wild. They bond over their love of adventures and form a friendship. I can't say it enough - GORGEOUS illustrations.

How Martha Saved Her Parents From Green Beans by David LaRochelle, illustrated by Mark Fearing. My son and I loved this book about how refusing to eat your veggies can save you...but it's a necessary evil. See also: The Lima Bean Monster by Dan Yaccarino. 

Little Big by Jonathan Bentley.  This is a cute book about a baby who dreams about everything he could do if he was bigger. 

Bulldozer's Big Day by Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann. Bulldozer is excited to invite his friends to his birthday party, but everyone is too preoccupied with work to even recognize what a special day it is! My son and I love these cute illustrations, and try to identify which machine is which before the text tells us. I really like the black outline on the pages, too - it seems pretty unique for a picture book.

Digger Man by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha. My son loved this book about a boy who dreams of being a digger man when he grows up. It was fun to point out the different machines in the illustrations of construction sites.

Monster Trucks by Anika Denise, illustrated by Nate Wragg. This is a re-read for us, but it's been a favorite the past few weeks. This one will be reviewed in my Halloween spotlight post!

Hedgehog's Halloween by Benn Sutton and Dan Pinto. Cute book about Hedgehug's trouble finding the perfect costume. This book will be reviewed in more detail on my Halloween spotlight post!

Trick or Treat, Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen, illustrated by Dan Hanna. We always look forward to Pout-Pout Fish books, but this one was a bit disappointing. The story was very short, and Pout-Pout was a minor character, so there wasn't too much recognition for younger kids. Kids who have loved all of Pout-Pout's books might like the inside jokes of finding hints of Pout-Pout in the pages, but there's not enough to really carry the story.

Going Places. This book actually came from a Wendy's happy meal...go ahead, judge away! Sometimes you can't deny the call of fast food on a Saturday night. The book is actually really cute, since my son is into cars right now, and this is really simple but nice.

The Lending Zoo by Frank Asch

This review originally appeared on RaisingMom.ca's awesome blog! Be warned - once

you click that link, you'll spend the rest of your day checking out her excellent reviews.

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ABOUT THE BOOK The Lending Zoo

Author: Frank Asch

Published by: Aladdin

Released: April 2016

Ages: 4-8 years

From the Publisher: “Miss Perkins is happy to be the librarian at The Lending Zoo, a ‘zoo-brary’ that lends out all types of animals—from massive elephants to majestic giraffes. Everything usually goes smoothly: water buffaloes, snakes, parrots, and more are checked out and returned without a problem. But one sunny day Pancake, the tiger, goes missing and Miss Perkins along with her new friend Molly must go on a citywide search to find him! Will they be able to track him down before he causes a commotion all over town?”

Description: The idea of a Lending Zoo is so creative that the story pulls you in with the first page, where we meet Miss Perkins, the “zoo-brarian”. The action starts quickly when you find out that the tiger is missing! Molly, a little girl who was waiting to check out an animal, asks to tag along on the search for the missing animal. Miss Perkins and Molly travel all over, wondering if they’ll find the missing tiger. To add to the suspense, there is the question of what animal Molly was at the Lending Zoo to check out!

Though it came out earlier this year, this book already seems like a classic – the illustrations look timeless, with quirky modern elements like Miss Perkins’ scooter.

My Experience: I read this aloud to my son and we both enjoyed the story! The illustrations are bright and cheery, and it’s fun to travel along on the scavenger hunt with Miss Perkins and Molly. We liked taking in the detailed illustrations on every page, because so much is happening – you can see what animals patrons are checking out, read the names of the animals on their shelves, and see what each person is doing as Miss Perkins and Molly pass by. It might sound like a “seek and find” book since the tiger is missing, but the point of the search isn’t to find the tiger on the page yourself – instead, take in the people in each scene, see what they’re doing. There are so many opportunities to talk with your kid as you read this book, and doing so only adds to the story because the elements are featured so prominently in the illustrations.

     Likes:

·      The overall concept of the book! How cool is a Lending Zoo?

·      The detailed illustrations, where there are no faceless blobs for crowd scenes, but instead developed people doing different activities

·      The lack of a definite ending. Though the story is resolved, the action continues on in the Lending Zoo, showing that this was just one thing that happens in a day.

     

Dislikes:

·      None!

How to Use it with kids: The concept of a Lending Zoo is one kids will love, so this book opens the floor for a lot of conversation.

•  Ask kids what animals (real or imaginary!) they would check out of the Lending Zoo. What does this animal eat? What does it look like? Have them draw pictures of the animal.
• Have kids identify the animals on each page.
• Read-alikes featuring the zoo: Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann or Put Me In the Zoo by Robert Lopshire.
•  Read-alikes featuring unique pets: Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo by William Joyce or Hiding Phil by Eric Barclay.

About the Author / Illustrator:

Frank Asch’s first book was published in 1968. Since then, he has written over 60 books, most famously the Moonbear picture books.