Soggy Saturday by Phyllis Root, illus. by Helen Craig

Soggy Saturday is a very simple story that younger and older preschoolers really enjoy. Phyllis Root got the inspiration for this book when she was nearly washed off the road while driving during a torrential rainstorm. The heroine, Bonnie Bumble, lived on a farm. One Saturday, a soggy Saturday, it rained so hard the blue washed right out of the sky. It rained “blue” on all the farm animals – the chickens, the cow, the sheep, and the pig–the grass and trees too. Finally the rain stopped but now everything on the farm was blue! The chicken’s eggs had turned blue and even the cows’ milk was blue. Bonnie had to paint everything on the farm back to its original color – “the sheep all creamy and white and the pig all shiny and pink!”

This is a good addition to a weather-themed story time!

Bonnie Bumble is the star in these other humorous books by Phyllis Root: Meow Monday, Turnover Tuesday and One Windy Wednesday. They are all illustrated by Helen Craig with her playful, signature illustrations.

Check the WRL catalog for Soggy Saturday.

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Mr. Putney’s Quacking Dog by Jon Agee

Kids love joke and riddle books, and this one is great for a large group. It’s not so much a picture book as a “quipture book.”

On the first page, we meet Mr. Putney, a balding, middle-aged guy with a mustache. He owns a veritable menagerie, whose names the reader is invited to guess. For instance, an armadillo stands on the bedside table next to a snoozing Mr. Putney. “Who wakes Mr. Putney up in the morning?” the book asks. The answer: An alarmadillo.

Mr. Putney holds a (somewhat worried) small boy next to a gorilla. “Who does Mr. Putney use to see how tall his nephew is?” A goruler.

You get the idea. Agee’s illustrations are huge and well-defined, so they are easy to see from the back of the room. And after the first few riddles, kids will be eager to guess the rest. I’ve used this with kindergarten through fourth grade, and it was a hit. And it’s a good one to slip between stories.

Check the WRL catalog for Mr. Putney’s Quacking Dog.

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Memoirs of a Goldfish by Devin Scillian, illus. by Tim Bowers

Memoirs of a Goldfish is a book about a little fish who lived alone in his fish bowl  happily swimming around all by himself. Then things started to be added to his fishy home, a bubbly man, plants, a cranky crab, a slime eating snail and even a pirate ship! What is a poor fish to do?

Devin Scillian and Tim Bowers have teamed up to make the book Memoirs of a Goldfish a keeper. This book is a fantastic read aloud for all ages. Anyone who has ever stood in the fish tank section at a store and thought “I need more stuff!” this book is for you.

Check the WRL catalog for Memoirs of a Goldfish.

This book is about the friends you find when you were not looking and how your life is richer for them, have fun.

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Peanut Butter and Homework Sandwiches by Lisa Broadie, illus. by Jack E. Davis

Peanut Butter and Homework Sandwiches by Lisa Broadie Cook, is about a boy trying his very best to get his homework turned in and all the unfortunate things that happen to those assignments. Any child or adult who has had a homework assignment will be routing for poor Martin and his homework problems.

Read this with your favorite school age child. Have fun!

Check the WRL catalog for Peanut Butter and Homework Sandwiches.

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Baby Pie by Tom Macrae, illus. by Nick Ward

Baby Pie by Tom MacRae is a book you cannot judge by it’s cover! At first I was curious as to how the author would be able to tell the tale of 3 trolls wanting to make baby pie and searching for a baby to put in it. It sounded a little gross to me but as I kept reading, I kept assuring myself, there was no way any author would write a picture book where the baby actually gets cooked! Of course Tom MacRae kept the baby safe and the trolls were in for such a surprise when they finally found the baby!

I plan to read this book to school age children, they will be able to be a little scared and then laugh at what happened to the trolls at the end of the story.

Check the WRL catalog for Baby Pie.

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Beware of the Bears by Alan MacDonald, illus. by Gwyneth Williamson

Alan MacDonald has created a very funny twist to the classic 3 bears story, in his book Beware of the Bears!

Like all stories with the 3 bears this one starts out as the bears go  for a walk and come home to find their house a mess but then decide to give Goldilocks a taste of her own medicine. The bears have a blast with a food fight, pillow fight and water battle. Goldilocks comes home to a very funny conclusion, poor Mr. Wolf.

Have fun reading this one to all you storytime friends, it’s a great read for all ages.

Check the WRL catalog for Beware of the Bears.

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A Pet for Petunia by Paul Schmid

This book is for any family who has a child who wants a pet, an unusual pet!

Petunia LOVES skunks and that’s what she wants, of course her parents say no and that’s when the adventure starts. Petunia tries to convince her parents how wonderful a pet skunk would be and tells them all the ways she will take care of it, but of course, they say no.

Petunia decides she can no longer live with such “mean” parents and runs away to live in the woods, she doesn’t get far before the wanted pet crosses her path and Petunia finds out why skunks do not make good pets.  Petunia heads for home and decides she likes her stuffed pet skunk best but not before declaring real skunks are Awesomely Stinky!

This is a fun storytime book, I’ve used it for a mostly school aged crowd but will work for any age as long as they have some experience with Awesomely Stinky Skunks!

Check the WRL catalog for A Pet for Petunia.

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Dogfish by Gillian Shields, illus. by Dan Taylor

There is a saying that every boy should have two things: a dog, and a mother willing to let him have one. In Dogfish, a young boy already has a pet goldfish but still wants a dog more than anything. Unfortunately, his mother is less interested in getting another pet. The boy tries his most convincing arguments, uses his hypnotizing eyes, and gives her his best sad look but she will not be swayed. “After a bit my mom says, ‘Well, if you can’t have what you want, you could try to want what you have.’  She ALWAYS says things like that.”

So, the boy decides to do all the things with his fish that he’d planned to do with a dog. They play fetch, go for walks, and soon the boy realizes that he doesn’t just have a fish, he has a dogfish. Children will identify with the boy and his desire to have a dog. They will possibly also recognize the mother’s refusal to entertain the idea. Shields takes a very humorous, yet sympathetic approach to the boy’s situation and finds a way to give the story a happy ending even though he doesn’t get the dog he’s been pining for. Taylor’s illustrations are colorful and add to the humor of the story.

Check the WRL catalog for Dogfish.

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Stuck, by Oliver Jeffers

“IT ALL BEGAN when Floyd’s kite became stuck in A TREE. He tried pulling and swinging, but it WOULDN’T COME UNSTUCK. The trouble REALLY began when he threw his FAVORITE SHOE to knock the kite loose…and THAT got stuck too!”

So begins the plight of Floyd. He keeps throwing things up into the tree and they keep getting stuck there. The premise might be simple, and ridiculous, but kids love it – especially as Floyd gets more and more desperate and the things he throws get bigger and bigger. At first your audience will expect that something will eventually fall out of the tree, but soon they will catch on to the book’s pattern. What goes up does not come back down. When Floyd goes to get a saw, the children might think that Floyd has finally had a bright idea, but no. The saw gets chucked up into the tree along with everything else. In a bit of irony, however, it ends up being a helpful item anyway. You see, the tree has reached maximum capacity.
Jeffers has a winner here with a humorous cumulative story held together simply by the impossibility of the items Floyd is throwing. His illustrations are also simple, depicting only Floyd, the tree, and the objects he throws.

Check the WRL catalog for Stuck.

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The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark by Ken Geist, illus. by Julia Gorton

Some of the best storytime books are ones where the author has taken a well-known story and put a new twist on it. Today’s title is just such a book. Every child knows the story of The Three Little Pigs, but Ken Geist has taken that story and given it fishy characters and an underwater setting. Julia Gorton’s big, bright, colorful illustrations really add to the story. They are perfect for a large storytime crowd.

In The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark three fish go out to seek their fortunes but keep being thwarted by the Big Bad Shark. As with the little pigs, the first two fish are also hampered by less than stellar choices in their house-building materials. Seaweed and sand provide little protection against the Big Bad Shark. Luckily, the fish are able to swim away and hide with the third little fish who has chosen her home more wisely. As expected, the Big Bad Shark comes to a bad end, but in a unique and creative way that should please young readers. They’ll also love joining in as the little fish taunt the shark: “Not by the skin of my finny fin fin!”

Check the WRL catalog for The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark.

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