Books for Kids

An irregularly updated review of current and classic children's literature.

Thursday, June 24, 2004

Boats and Dinosaurs That Go Bump, and A Lazy Lion

My Story Corner had a few more kids today. There seven of them listening at one point, and three of the kids are repeat visitors. My boss said something to cheer me up also...he was impressed that each of the kids was taking home one of the books that I read to the group. He said that proves that I made some sort of connection with the children. He said it is much better to connect with a small group than fail to connect with a large group.

We only read three books today. I have started picking the first book to read to the group and then I let the listeners pick the other books that I will read today.

1. I'm Mighty by Kate and Jim McMullan
2. Bumposaurus by Penny McKinlay, illustrated by Britta Teckentrup
3. The Lazy Lion by Mwenye Hadithi, illustrated by Adrienne Kennaway

I'm Mighty is about the day in the life of a tug boat. It shows how the tug boat moves the much larger ships around the harbor. The book is drawn in a very cartoony way (the tug boat talks)----but there is a lot of difficult vocabulary in the story for the under 5 crowd who are most attracted to the look of this book. I did enjoy reading the book, because it has lots of fun sound effects to make. Be careful when reading the book, because Mighty the Tug Boat "butts" into other boats when moving them. Kids could not stop laughing at the word "butt".

Bumposaurus is the tale of a near-sighted dinosaur and all the trouble that he gets into from the time he is born. A fun read with colorful illustrations. After the "butt" fiasco of I'm Mighty, more mayhem followed when Bumposaurus tried to eat his sister's tail. This is the quote from on of the kids in my audience today..."Yewwww, I wouldn't eat my sister's butt!"

The Lazy Lion is a story that explains why lions don't have homes and are always roaming the plains of Africa. The lion decides he is so important that someone else should build him a home. The lion goes around commanding other animals to build him a home since he is king of the beasts. Each of the animals that he encounters obeys his command and builds him a home just like that particular animal lives in. The lion is never satisfied for what is built for him. This is a good story about the pitfalls of being too bossy. It is an older book, but it still is a good read. Interesting drawings of lots of different African animals and their homes.

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