The Best Little Monkeys in the World – Natalie Standiford

Posted on July 25, 2008 by Lauri Griffin

The Best Little Monkeys in the World by Natalie Standiford is a “Step into Reading” book, recommended for 1st through 3rd graders. The charming plot and illustrations also make it a great book to read aloud. Marvin and Mary are too little monkeys who live in a house on stilts in the jungle. Their parents are going out and have asked a teenaged monkey named Judy to babysit for them. Mary and Marvin are excited because Judy lets them do anything they want. Their mother tells them to be good; Judy assures her that her children are “the best little … Continue reading →

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear – Don and Audrey Wood

Posted on July 7, 2008 by Lauri Griffin

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear was one of our favorite children’s picture books. Husband and wife team Don and Audrey Wood wrote this fun story, and it is illustrated by Don Wood. It’s sold over a million copies! The book opens with a tiny door in the roots of a tree. Coming out of the door are a tiny ladder and a little mouse. The narrator of the story asks the mouse what he’s doing. When the mouse leans his ladder against a strawberry plant that towers over him we figure out that … Continue reading →

What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? – Robin Page and Steve Jenkins

Posted on May 18, 2008 by Lauri Griffin

What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? is a marvelous non-fiction Caldecott Honor book where the reader is invited to guess which animal each nose, tail, eye, foot, mouth, or ear belongs to and how the special feature is used. The book begins with an explanation that “Animals use their noses, ears, tails, eyes, mouth and feet in very different ways.” A double page spread shows a group of noses that vary in shape, size, and color. The illustrations are marvelous works of collage. The next page shows the entire animals and the reader learns that the noses … Continue reading →

Media Week in Review – April 7th – 12th

Posted on April 14, 2008 by Tristi Pinkston

Welcome to our week in review for Media! We had a fun week – let’s see what we were up to. We started with a joyful children’s book, “And Here’s to You” by David Elliot. This book looks at the good in different types of animals and people, and celebrates it all. Then Lauri told us about one of her favorite television shows, “Mission Organization.” If you need ideas for how to organize, this show is the one for you. Did you know that “What Not to Wear” has a video podcast? Well, it does, and you can read all … Continue reading →

I’m as Quick as a Cricket and The Very Quiet Cricket

Posted on April 12, 2008 by Lauri Griffin

This time of year, we always find a few crickets in the house. Here are two great classic picture books for read aloud enjoyment. Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood is one of those books you will find in a lot of preschool and kindergarten classrooms. It recently came out in a board book edition for the youngest readers. In the book a young child pretends to be all sorts of animals. The illustrations by Don Wood are silly and imaginative. The child is shown hiding in a seashell, and leading a tiger in the dark. The text has … Continue reading →

The Best Animated Stories

Posted on January 5, 2007 by Renee Dietz

With so many animated movies on DVD for children, it is hard to find the really, good ones so I did some research for you. I scoured through hundreds of DVDs on the market and one that stood out was made in the Walt Disney studio called A Treasure Trove of Stories. This children’s animated DVD runs for 32 minutes, offering a wonderful selection of stories, clean, family-oriented stories. The DVD was based on the book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Stories”, which features five, wonderfully narrated stories. The stories include: – The Very Hungry Caterpillar – This is … Continue reading →