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SRP Workshops To Be Held at CLA Conference

From Stephanie Stokes, Coordinator CA-SRP: "The only SRP workshop we do in the Northern California area will be held at the CLA Conference in Sacramento in November 2006! I want to give you a heads-up about our SRP Workshop Sessions we will be doing at the CLA Annual Conference. As some of you may know all LSTA grants were reduced in funding and one of several SRP line items cut was workshops. This will be the *only workshop* we do in the Northern California area!"

Kids SRP Workshop: November 11, 2006, 2:15 PM - 3:30 PM. Join us in sleuthing out details of the mystery-filled "Get A Clue @ Your Library" summer reading program for kids. You can become a great detective at the show-and-tell of activities that includes program publicity, a school visit demonstration, craft ideas, music and more! Dig Up Mysteries from the Past, Solve It: Codes, Ciphers, Puzzlers and Science Mysteries for a Super Summer Sleuthing.

Teens SRP Workshop: November 11, 2006, 3:45 PM - 5:0PM Follow the clues to the solution of "YNK: You Never Know @ Your Library" the summer reading mystery theme for teens/young adults. Activities, programming, games for forensic fascination, maps and treasures, history's unsolved mysteries, secret codes and cryptic messages, UFOs, ESP, astrology, Feng Shui and mediums to Victorian parlors with bloodstains on the Oriental rug will fascinate your teen readers.

November 12, 2006 Sunday at 3:00pm Summer Sleuthing @ your library" Author Interviews: Cornelia Read and Cara Black will include Adult SRP Resources and programming.

Also included are several Mini-Demo's on the Exhibit Hall Floor geared for for the Mystery Themed SRPs on both Sat. and Sun. Demos will include everything from Sugar Skulls to Alfred Hitchcock' Birthday August 13. Hope you can join the fun!

Website Worth Bookmarking

http://picturingbooks.imaginarylands.org/

When reviewing picture books, do you struggle to find the right words for describing the media used, the style of the artwork, or book design elements? The website "Picturing Books" can be a great help. It uses popular picture books as examples when explaining artwork jargon. It also has a helpful section on Traditional literature, explaining the differences between myth, legend, pourquoi tale, etc. Those who write book reviews will find it very helpful, and it also has ideas for storytime or using picture books in classrooms.

 

BOARD BOOK ROUNDUP

New Original Board Books:
Inns, Chris. PEEKABOO PANDA AND OTHER ANIMALS. Kingfisher, 2006, $5.95, ISBN 978-0753405951-5.
Five animals are hidden by flaps, but the rhyming clues make it easy to guess their identities. The flaps are not too sturdy so this may not be a great choice for libraries.

Katz, Karen. WHERE IS BABY’S PUMPKIN? Little Simon, 2006. $6.99, ISBN 978-1-4169-0970-5.
Katz has created several board books, with sturdy flaps that hide items. The large, close-up full color illustrations will be easy for babies and toddlers to decode, and show a toddler in a sparkly black cat Halloween costume. The baby finds bats, a ghost, candy apples, and other holiday-themed items before she finds her pumpkin and goes trick-or-treating.

Colman, Michelle Sinclair. COUNTRY BABIES WEAR PLAID. Illus. by Nathalie Dion. Tricycle, 2006, $6.95. ISBN 978-1-58246-172-4.
The sequel to “Urban Babies Wear Black,” readers see babies out in the country interacting with animals, enjoying the scenery, digging in the dirt, etc. Toddlers will identify more with these activities than those depicted in “Urban Babies Wear Black,” and the pastel colored illustrations show babies of various ethnicities.

Schindel, John. BUSY BARNYARD. Photos by Steven Holt. Tricycle, 2006, $6.95. ISBN 978-1-58246-168-7.
Close-up color photos of farm animals are paired with rhyming couplets to celebrate these critters. Babies and toddlers may relate to these animals, many of which are also seen in petting zoos.

Taback, Simms. PEEK-A-BOO WHO? Blue Apple, 2006. $8.95. ISBN 978-1-59354-180-4.
Toddlers are encouraged to look at the die cut shape, and guess the animal seen under the flap. The shapes are pretty easy to guess, and brightly saturated color illustrations underneath the flap will help those that need a second guess. The foamcore pages give this a sturdy feel.

Stanley, Mandy. HOW DO YOU FEEL? S&S, 2006, $7.99. ISBN 978-1-4169-1782-3.
The title is repeated on every page, starting a sentence that ends with the animal name: “How do you feel, crocodile? I feel snip-snap happy!” The brightly colored cartoon pictures also have great toddler appeal.

Board Book Series:
Ziefert, Harriet. JUST LIKE GRANDMA! Illus. by Erik Brown. Sterling, 2006, $6.95. ISBN 978-1-4027-3061-0.
Ziefert, Harriet. JUST LIKE GRANDPA! Illus. by Erik Brown. Sterling, 2006, $6.95. ISBN 978-1-4027-3062-7.
The title phrase is repeated on each page, after a toddler describes something he or she has that is just like that of the grandparent. And these are young grannies and grandpas! Grandpa rides a bike, grandma has dark hair, and both seem very youthful and involved with the grandchild.

Heller, Lora. I WANT…(Teaching Your Baby to Sign series). Sterling, 2006, $4.95, ISBN 978-1-4027-3168-6.
Heller, Lora. I’M FEELING… (Teaching Your Baby to Sign series). Sterling, 2006, $4.95, ISBN 978-1-4027-3246-5.
Close up color photos of individual toddlers illustrate this, with the child demonstrating the sign for specific words. Along with the photo, there is a sentence telling you how to make the sign. The photos and descriptions are very clear and will facilitate learning the sings, and the diverse children pictured are very engaging.

Feels Real series. FLUFFY BABIES. Barron’s, 2006, $4.99, ISBN 978-0-7641-5948-0.
Feels Real series. UNDER THE SEA. Barron’s 2006, $4.99, ISBN 978-0-7641-5959-0.
Feels Real series. BIG AND WILD. Barron’s 2006, $4.99, ISBN 978-0-7641-5946-6.
Feels Real series. IN THE JUNGLE. Barron’s 2006, $4.99, ISBN 978-0-7641-5949-7.
No author or photographer is listed for this series, which uses close-up color photos of animals with descriptions. “Tigers are fierce and brave. Stroke the tiger’s stripy fur!” Then, there is an insert of fabric that resembles the animal’s coat. There are some feather inserts for birds, some plastic inserts for reptiles, etc. The photos are quite striking and the descriptions have a poetic quality, but the books may not stand up to much circulation due to the fabric inserts.

Ziefert, Harriet. SMILES! Illus. by SAMi. Blue Apple, 2006, $8.95. ISBN 978-1-59354-160-6.
Ziefert, Harriet. COLORS. Illus. by SAMi. Blue Apple, 2006, $8.95. ISBN 978-1-59354-163-7.
Part of the “Flip-A Face” series, these board books have die cuts to allow the reader to peek into the following page. On each, there is a face; in SMILES! the cut out is the mouth, and various family members are depicted smiling on each page. In COLORS, each picture is also a close-up cartoon of a face, this time babies, but the colored item shown is hair or a piece of clothing. The COLORS book worked better than SMILES!

Picture Book Adaptations:
Frasier, Debra. ON THE DAY YOU WERE BORN. Red Wagon/Harcourt, 1991/2006, $7.95, ISBN 0-15-205944-X.
More for parents than for toddlers, this oversized board book (7x9”) describes how earth, the tides, the stars, etc. welcomed baby. Without being religious, this has a spiritual element that is very universal. The cut paper block color illustrations will appeal to toddlers. The board book contains the same text and illustrations as the picture book, except the afterword about the nature symbolism is not included.

Ehlert, Lois. EATING THE ALPHABET: FRUITS AND VEGETABLES FROM A TO Z. Red Wagon/Harcourt, 1989/2006, $10.95, ISBN 978-0-15-205688-9.
Called a “lap sized board book” by the publisher, this measures 9 1/2x10 1/2”,so this is basically the same size as the picture book. The page for page contents are the same except for the omission of the glossary of fruits found in the picture book. A great alphabet book, using common foods for the examples.

Walsh, Ellen Stoll. MOUSE COUNT. Red Wagon/Harcourt, 1991/2006, $10.95, 978-0-15-205699-5.
This oversized board book is actually bigger than the picture book version! Because it doesn’t use numerals, just the word for the numbers one to ten, this isn’t recommended as a counting book. All of the text and illustrations are included, so if you do buy it, at least you are getting the whole book.

Jocelyn, Marthe. OVER UNDER. Illus. by Tom Slaughter. Tundra, 2006, $7.95. ISBN 978-0-88776-790-6.
Jocelyn, Marthe. ONE SOME MANY. Illus. by Tom Slaughter. Tundra, 2006, $7.95. ISBN 978-0-88776-789-0.
Slaughter, Tom. 1 2 3. Tundra, 2006, $7.95. ISBN 978-0-88776-788-3.
Originally published in Canada as a series of modern art books for kids, these board book adaptations depict various concepts. For example, OVER UNDER demonstrates opposites, the other two books involve counting. All are illustrated with dramatic cut paper graphic pictures inspired by Matisse.

Serfozo, Mary. PLUMPLY, DUMPLY PUMPKIN. Illus. by Valeria Petrone. Little Simon, 2006. $6.99. ISBN 978-0-689-86277-9.
I didn’t have the original picture book version (originally published in 2001) in hand to compare with this new version, but toddlers will enjoy this in a Halloween storytime. A tiger is looking for the perfect pumpkin, not for pie, but to make a jack-o-lantern.

Bilingual Board Books:
Davis, Katie. WHO HOPS? QUIEN SALTA? Harcourt, 1998/2006, $10.95, ISBN 978-0-15-205889-0.
The saturated color illustrations are perfect for toddlers; they can easily identify the animals pictured. The page layout easily allows for the Spanish text to accompany the English, and this is the same as the picture book version. Measuring the same as the picture book, these sturdy pages may even hold up longer.

Williams, Sue. I WENT WALKING/SALI DE PASEO. Illus. by Julie Vivas. Harcourt, 1989/2006. $10.95, ISBN 978-0-15-205895-1.
Very similar to Bill Martin’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, this oversized board book includes all of the text and illustrations as the picture book version. Vivas’s book design easily incorporates the Spanish text alongside the English, but for a book about colors, the palette is very muted (the green almost looks teal, etc.).

PROGRAMMING IDEAS

Looking for some programming ideas? Recently, the PUBYAC listserv had a compilation of great ideas relating to mummies. Of course, many of these will work for Halloween. And teachers could use these ideas for the curriculum units on Ancient Egypt.

* Do hieroglyphic (like calligraphy) writing, using the book Hieroglyphs From A to Z by Peter Der Manuelian.

* Use the book Make History: Ancient Egypt by Nancy Fister and Charlene Olexiewicz to make various arts and crafts projects: Corn Husk ball, Beaded Collar necklace, Reed Boat, Scarab Seal, Paddle Doll, and more. All of these are easy enough for school-age children to do with just a little help, and all use commonly found, inexpensive materials.

* Mummy Relay Race: the kids pair up and one "mummifies" the other in toilet paper, then they run to the other side of the room, unwrap (carefully), then "mummify" the other person in the same paper and run back to the other side. It’s really noisy but the kids have a lot of fun!

* Mummy making contest. You can have as many teams as you want. Just give each team a
roll (or more than one) of toilet paper, designate one person on each team to be the mummy, and explain to them that when you say "Go!" each team has to wrap the mummy person up with the toilet paper. The first team to use all of the toilet paper wins. Repeat so everyone has a chance to be a mummy and to be a wrapper.

Helpful websites:
http://thebestkidsbooksite.com/craftdetails.cfm?TopicID=17
http://familycrafts.about.com/od/mummiestomake/
http://www.mummytombs.com/mummymaking/mummychicken3.htm


Story Books:
Mummy Riddles by Katy Hall and Lisa Eisenberg, pictures by Nicole Rubel.
I am the Mummy, Heb-Nefert by EveBunting, pictures by David Christiana.
Bill and Pete by Tomie de Paola.
Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile by Tomie de Paola.
Bill and Pete To the Rescue by Tomie de Paola.
Ten Little Mummies: an Egyptian County Book by Philip Yates.

Mummy games:
http://www.benjerry.com/fun_stuff/holidays/halloween/games/mummys_tomb/index.cfm
http://www.lego.com/eng/orient/mummy/highband/default.asp?x=x
http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/games/review.jsp?id=1028 http://kids.discovery.com/fansites/tutenstein/mummifytut/mummifytut.html