Mel’s Desk

Well, it’s been a year since I started posting a baby storytime plan almost every week. Where does the time go? My babies are growing up and new babies are coming to storytime. Which is great, because I have every intention of re-using last year’s storytimes all over again!

However, I don’t necessarily want to spend the year reposting old, only-slightly-tweaked storytimes.

Fortunately, Anne at the So Tomorrow blog had a great idea: she mentioned in a Twitter conversation that storytime posts are great, but sometimes she’d like to know just a little bit more of the behind-the-scenes planning information, such as: How did this storytime person in particular adapt or present this specific book for their storytime?

This sparked the idea to present blog posts this fall that include some of this extra content. I’ll post the storytime plan as usual, but each time try to spend some time sharing different ideas:

*what do I actually wind up saying to transition between each storytime element?
*why did I choose this book or that rhyme over the dozens of other choices?
*what idea came first and how did the storytime come together?

Because I am only presenting baby storytimes right now, I don’t know how much I’ll be able to talk about how to adapt or present books. Since my audience doesn’t really interact with me verbally, my presentations are pretty straightforward. (Although today a young toddler walked all the way across the room so he could point and make sure I saw the doggie in the picture.)

But if you have any other ideas for what you’d like to hear me rattle on about during an Extended Play Storytime Post, let me know!

This is so cool! I sent Fuse #8 my predictions for which would be the final ten books in her Top 100 Children’s Novels Poll, and guess what? I was one of 2 people who got the most books in the right order! We each got 5 in the correct spots. Here’s my guess:

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
2. Charlotte’s Web
3. A Wrinkle in Time
4. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
5. From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler
6. Holes
7. Anne of Green Gables
8. The Secret Garden
9. The Giver
10. Phantom Tollbooth

Here’s what the actual results were:

#1 Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
#2 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
#3 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
#4 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
#5 From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg
#6 Holes by Louis Sachar
#7 The Giver by Lois Lowry
#8 The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
#9 Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
#10 The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

For Fuse #8’s poll:

I decided to go with my personal favorites from childhood, and not try to knock my brains out trying to rank Charlotte’s Web over or under The Giver or over or under Sarah Plain and Tall.

Here’s the final list!

1. Baby Island, by Carol Ryrie Brink

This is by the author of Caddie Woodlawn. I have never read Caddie Woodlawn. This book was all I needed; how could it not be? Two girls on a cruise ship are bundled into a life boat in a moment of crisis with four babies and toddlers. OMG! In another moment of crisis, the life boat is launched with NO GROWN UPS IN IT! The girls and babies manage to float safely to a deserted island! OMG! They sing Scottish songs to keep their spirits up! They keep the babies alive, fed, and in clean diapers! But OMG! The island isn’t deserted after all! They see footprints in the sand! WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?

As a child, friends, family, teachers, and classmates saw me as timid, bookish, and quiet. That’s because I was. But I was also reading this story every 8 or 9 months, getting imprinted in the process at a critical developmental window with two take-charge, can-do, kick-ass, totally unfazable personalities. I do not underestimate the effects of this book on my eventual, late-blossoming self-confidence.

2. Understood Betsy, by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Another one of my girl-power titles when I was a kid. If the Baby Island girls’ confidence was the destination, Betsy’s slow growth showed me you could get there step by step.

3. Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle

I picked this up 3 or 4 times as a kid before I got into it, and now I have read it so many times and have such clear memories of so many different scenes. Ultimately, this book is on this list because, out of all the myriad influences that blended together to create my personal ethical/moral code, one thing from this book I swallowed whole: When Meg cries out against IT, “Like and equal are not the same thing at all!”

4. Wind in the Door, by Madeleine L’Engle

If Wrinkle in Time became part of my ethical understanding, Wind in the Door became part of my experience of faith: joy at the cellular and universal levels.

5. Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster

Thank you Mrs Bounds for reading this to us in fourth grade! The wordplay is great, and when I realized I knew enough to get the jokes about the cart that “goes without saying,” or “jumping to conclusions,” well, didn’t *I* feel smart and in the know. But what really resonated with me then, and still does, is the revelation that Milo could only rescue the princesses because he didn’t know it was an impossible task.

6. Egypt Game, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

When I was a kid, I loved mysteries. As with anything else you read a lot of, some were forgettable, some were okay, some were great. Only one creeped me out so much I couldn’t finish it. (Still haven’t.) And only Egypt Game was so perfectly calibrated, at that particular moment in time, to my personal sense of the possible and the impossible, that I still have a sense memory of the mounting tension and then the sheer mental relief at the end.

7. Silver Woven in My Hair, by Shirley Rousseau Murphy

The sweetest Cinderella story. Ever. I remember how delicious it felt to be reading about Thursey reading Cinderella stories, and knowing that SHE was in the middle of a Cinderella story too but that she didn’t know it yet…When I read Where the Mountain Meets the Moon this year, I felt the same way, and wished I could have given Mountain to my 9 year old self. She would have swooned.

8. All-of-a-Kind Family, by Sydney Taylor

The thick scratchy tights. The dusting-for-buttons game. Penny candy. Going to the library. Talking and daydreaming after lights out. I am not on the whole a good rememberer-of-details (see Bridge to Terabitha and Trolley Car Family, below) but I do remember so many scenes from this whole series. Because I have to choose just one, I’m choosing the first one for this list.

9. Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson

Not because of the story itself, but because this was the first time I read a book with a literary allusion that I GOT. Paterson mentions that the main characters loved fantasy stories, including one about “assistant pig-keepers” and that phrase went through me like a shock: I KNEW that book, I had already read the Prydain Chronicles and I felt such an immediate connection to the characters in Bridge as a result. I have forgotten almost everything about Bridge except for the broadest of strokes, but I will never forget that moment of recognition.

10. Trolley Car Family, by Eleanor Clymer

I have absolutely no recall of any detail whatsoever about this story. I’m not kidding, absolutely nothing. But in the middle of the book there is an illustration of the floor plan of the trolley car they lived in, and I spent a long, long time pouring over it—probably as much time as I spent tracing the maps in Katie and the Big Snow—and then drawing floor plans of ways to reorganize the furniture in my room.

A couple of colleagues and I were asked by our supervisor to compile a list of 100 recommended picture books. We decided to focus on books published since 2000, and on books for younger children. Here’s our collection!

100 Great Picture Books from This Century
Fresh, fun picture books just right for sharing with children ages birth to 5 years!
Compiled by Virginia Brace, Lori Romero, and Melissa Depper,
Arapahoe Library District

Appelt, Kathi. Bubba and Beau, Best Friends
Ashman, Linda. Stella, Unleashed: Notes from the Doghouse
Baek, Matthew. Be Gentle with the Dog, Dear!
Baker, Keith. Just How Long Can a Long String Be?
Barry, Frances. Duckie’s Rainbow
Barton, Byron. My Car
Bean, Jonathan. At Night
Beaumont, Karen. I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More
Beaumont, Karen. Move Over, Rover!
Becker, Bonny. A Visitor for Bear
Boutignon, Beatrice. Not All Animals Are Blue
Brett, Jan. The Three Snow Bears
Brown, Peter. The Curious Garden
Bryan, Sean. The Juggling Pug
Bunting, Eve. Hurry! Hurry!
Carle, Eric. Mister Seahorse
Cooke, Trish. Full, Full, Full of Love
Cottin, Menena. Black Book of Colors
Cousins, Lucy. Maisy Big, Maisy Small
Cronin, Doreen . Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type
Cronin, Doreen . Diary of a Worm
Dewdney, Anna. Llama Llama Red Pajama
Dillon, Leo & Diane. Mother Goose Numbers on the Loose
Ehlert, Lois. Leaf Man
Emberley, Rebecca. Chicken Little
Falconer, Ian. Olivia Saves the Circus
Flaherty, Alice. The Luck of the Loch Ness Monster: A Tale of Picky Eating
Fox, Mem. Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
Frazee, Marla. A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever
French, Jackie. Diary of a Wombat
Fuge, Charles. I Know a Rhino
Garcia, Emma. Tip Tip Dig Dig
Graham, Bob. Oscar’s Half Birthday
Gravett, Emily. Monkey and Me
Grey, Mini. Traction Man is Here
Henkes, Kevin. Kitten’s First Full Moon
Hines, Anna Grossnickle. 1, 2, Buckle My Shoe
Ichikawa, Satomi. My Father’s Shop
Isaacs, Anne. Pancakes for Supper
Isadora, Rachel. Yo, Jo!
Jenkins, Steve. Move!
Juster, Norton. The Hello, Goodbye Window
Katz, Karen. Counting Kisses
LaRochelle, David. The End
Lee, Suzy. The Wave
Lobel, Anita. Hello, Day!
Lum, Kate. Princesses Are Not Quitters!
Mahy, Margaret. Bubble Trouble
Markes, Julie. Shhhhh! Everybody’s Sleeping
Martin, Jr, Bill. Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?
McLeod, Bob. SuperHero ABC
McMullan, Kate. I Stink!
McQuinn, Anna. Lola At the Library
Mills, Claudia. Ziggy’s Blue-Ribbon Day
Murphy, Mary. I Kissed the Baby!
Muth, John. Zen Shorts
Nakagawa, Chihiro. Who Made this Cake?
Numeroff, Laura. When Sheep Sleep
O’Connor, Jane. Fancy Nancy
Parr, Todd. The Family Book
Patricelli, Leslie. Higher! Higher!
Pinkney, Jerry. The Little Red Hen
Polacco, Patricia. G is for Goat
Portis, Antoinette. Not a Box
Prater, John. Again!
Prince, April. What Do Wheels Do All Day?
Pullen, Zachary. Friday My Radio Flyer Flew
Reiser, Lynn. You and Me, Baby
Reynolds, Peter. The Dot
Rohmann, Eric. My Friend Rabbit
Root, Phyllis. Rattletrap Car
Rosenthal, Amy . Cookies: Bite-Sized Life Lessons
Rosenthal, Amy . Duck! Rabbit!
Roth, Carol. Who Will Tuck Me In Tonight?
Rylant, Cynthia. The Stars Will Still Shine
Schachner, Judy. Skippyjon Jones
Schertle, Alice. Little Blue Truck
Seeger, Laura Vaccaro. First the Egg
Shannon, David. Duck on a Bike
Shea, Bob. Dinosaur vs. Bedtime
Sis, Peter. Madlenka
Slater, Dashka. Baby Shoes
Smee, Nicola. Clip-Clop
Stevens, Janet. And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon
Sturges, Philemon. I Love Tools!
Swanson, Susan Marie. The House in the Night
Tafuri, Nancy. Blue Goose
Thomas, Jan. The Doghouse
Walsh, Melanie. Do Lions Live on Lily Pads?
Wells, Rosemary. Max’s ABC
Wheeler, Lisa. Te Amo, Bebe, Little One
Whybrow, Ian. Faraway Farm
Willems, Mo. Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale
Willems, Mo. The Pigeon Wants a Puppy
Wilson, Karma. Bear Snores On
Wilson, Karma. Hilda Must Be Dancing
Wolf, Sallie. Truck Stuck
Wong, Janet S.. Apple Pie Fourth of July
Yaccarino, Dan. Every Friday
Yolen, Jane. How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?

I just bought this Goodnight Moon wall hanging at my girls’ school silent auction today. It is making me so happy. Every kindergartner wrote a word or two from the “goodnight” sequence, which were decoupaged onto a painted wooden board. I saw it in the morning when I was dropping off bake sale stuff, and fell in love so hard that I went BACK in the afternoon right before bids were closed, to try to make sure I got the last bid.

I did!