August: Community Service

Photo from Home Cook'n

Have your totz share those extra zucchini with a neighbor! I know my garden is offering up plenty. How about yours?

August: For the Older Sibling, Press Here

How about the coolest book ever this month, for the older sibling of your totz? A New York Times Best Seller! I have to nominate Press Here by  Herve' Tullet. As School Library Journal said, "It's a magic trick that never stops giving." Even my mother was enamored and played along from beginning to end!

Imagine dots: red, yellow, and blue. Now simple instructions which yield results as you turn each page. Sometimes the dots multiply with a press and page turn. They may change color with gentle rubbing, while taps might reorient the groupings. Shaking and tilting moves the dots as well.



You'll find the lights go out until you blow the black away. Clapping increases the dot size, until you begin again, at the start of the book.

With graphic simplicity, you and your child will enjoy the fun reading game of Press Here. And then you will run to share the book with another. Thank you, Herve' and Chronicle! Wonderful!

Press Here
by Herve' Tullet
a Handprint Book, Chronicle, 2011

Baby Animals in the Forest

I wanted to share another Kingfisher Baby Animal title in their lovely series. This one is called Baby Animals in the Forest. As a collaborative project, the creative text, photographic imagery, expressive font, and bold flat color make this addition to the Baby Animal series a must have for totz animal enthusiasts.

Be introduced to the baby fox, rabbit, and even a boar. Imitate their sounds as you read short facts and action words.

"Deer
I am a young fawn with spotted fur. When I grow up, the spots will disappear! Bleat bleat!"

Spots are added to "spotted" and the word "disappear" is faint. There is much interaction in this little book of precious baby animals. Enjoy it with your readertotz!

Baby Animals in the Forest
Kingfisher, 2011

Poetry Friday: Georgy Porgy

GEORGY PORGY

Georgy Porgy, pudding and pie,

Kissed the girls and made them cry.

When the boys came out to play,

Georgy Porgy ran away.

Happy Poetry Friday!

August: Around the Block with Sesame Street

Too cute!

Potty: Leslie Patricelli

I am always up for a potty book. Pair the topic with Leslie Patricelli's Baby, and you have a wonderful board book which will make your totz giggle and aim for their own successes.

Baby has to go potty, but where should he go? In his diaper, the cat box, or where the dog goes? Questions from Baby will engage your little reader. Baby does decide to use his own potty, whereupon he falls asleep, until he startles himself awake with his own success. The world is bright with future undies!

Tackle potty training with Potty. That squared-nosed baby will be a fun inspiration for certain!

Baby
by Leslie Patricelli
Candlewick Press, 2010

Photo Friday: love.

Just collaged this image over in Polyvore. Happy Photo Friday, totz!

Sally Rippin: Go Baby Go!

How about a fresh board book from Australia? With the simple injunction to "Go, baby, go," totz will be introduced to locomotion and Australian animals.

Publisher Allen & Unwin paired Sally Rippin's simple text with Ann James' energetic, loose illustrations in what I believe are grease pencil and watercolor wash. It's the latter which captures my attention as verbs like wriggle, sit up, and travel are explored. Ann's lines are incredibly expressive.

The inclusion of a koala, turtle, and joey help to make this collaboration stand out from the crowd. Travel down under and enjoy totz as loveable as your own in Go Baby Go! 


Go Baby Go!
by Sally Rippin
illustrations by Ann James
Allen & Unwin, Australia, 2008

Photo Friday: Retro Summer

Hope this sparks a bit of summer in your heart, like it does for me up in the cloudy Northwest. It's a collection of my memories. Happy Photo Friday, everyone!

Renee Khatami: little black book

With concept, text, and design by Renee Khatami and photos by Laura Dwight, your totz can own a little black book for themselves. Traditional textures like bunny fur, and velvet are revisited; yet, touch and feel is refreshed with nylon cat whiskers. Midpoint, the scratch and sniff licorice is a great surprise. Foil stars in a black night sky conclude the simple rhyme about black things.

Watch for this little black book of exploration. Your totz will enjoy the mysteries with all their senses!

little black book
by Renee Khatami
photography by Laura Dwight
Random House, 2011

Poetry Friday: Bed in Summer

Art by Jessie Wilcox-Smith

Bed in Summer

by Robert Louis Stevenson

In winter I get up at night And dress by yellow candle-light. In summer quite the other way, I have to go to bed by day. I have to go to bed and see The birds still hopping on the tree, Or hear the grown-up people's feet Still going past me in the street. And does it not seem hard to you, When all the sky is clear and blue, And I should like so much to play, To have to go to bed by day?

Photototz: Frances Barry

How professional and ready for the world was author/illustrator Frances Barry at age 6? Isn't she a confident beauty? Her website is adorable, so be sure to take a look!

I recently reviewed Frances' Let's Look at Dinosaurs. Review our thoughts of this book for your totz, and then find Frances' other works, as well. Look at Duckie! Too cute!

Thanks for sharing with us, Frances!

If you are an author or illustrator and would like to add your own photo as a tot to our gallery, send it my way! We'll add you to the roundup: lorieanngroveratclearwiredotnet

Uh-oh! I'm Sorry: Jill Ackerman

Uh-oh! I'm Sorry is a lesson in manners and etiquette for ages 0-2, but it's a nice reinforcement for totz as well. At ten pages, with oversized lift-the-flaps and rhyming repetitive text, it reassures readers that simple mistakes can always be fixed. For instance, when crayon scribbles venture onto the floor instead of staying put on a drawing:

Sometimes I color outside the lines.
Uh-oh!
(child is joined by mom under flap)
I'm sorry!
It's okay.
We can clean it up.

Though accidents will happen, the set of important words in this book will help the youngest readers cope when they do.

Uh-oh! I'm Sorry
Author: Jill Ackerman
Illustrator: Michelle Berg
Publisher: Cartwheel Books
Series: Little Scholastic