Little Pig Joins the Band

Little Pig Joins the Band

By David Hyde Costello

Charlesbridge

2011

It is hard to be the runt of the litter. You don’t measure up at the food trough, you’re always the last in line because your trotters don’t carry you fast enough…and in this picture book, you are too little to be in the band. Little Pig wanted to join his siblings when they got out Grandpa’s old marching band instruments, but he was too little for everything! He was outsized by the tuba, the trombone, the drums and every other instrument he tried. Once again, the runt of the litter was left out…until Little Pig realized this band needed a leader, and there is your happy ending!

The theme of Costello’s book is nothing new—the littlest (fill in the blank with your favorite breed of animal or human) is left out until they figure out a way to triumph. But the author makes the story special through precise text and loveable illustrations. There is a subtext included on most pages that consists of little side comments by the pig family. While these were not useful when performing this book during storytime, I imagine young solo readers would enjoy the piggy banter.

Trot down to your local bookstore and pick up a copy of this book. You will undoubtedly squeal with delight when reading Little Pig Joins the Band.

Pig Kahuna

Pig Kahuna

By Jennifer Sattler

Bloomsbury

2011

Pigs are not known for their swimming abilities. That’s what makes this quirky little picture book even more adorable. This silly tale finds Fergus and his baby brother, Dink, at the beach for the day, trying their best to avoid the water. After all, the water is filled with a “lurking, murky ickiness.” They are content to collect odds and ends off the beach…and then they make a monumental find. A surfboard that they promptly name Dave! Unwilling to venture out into the lurking, murky ickiness, they are content to play creatively with the surfboard on the shore. But when Fergus returns from an ice cream run, he is horrified to see Dink throwing the board back into the water. Fergus must make a split decision—to stay on the shore and watch the surfboard drift away forever, or to jump in and save the board despite the lurking, murky ickiness. Pick up your own copy to find out if Fergus gets wet or stays dry!

From a storytime perspective, this book is a home run! The illustrations are vivid and funny. The text is concise and easy to understand. It has what I call “performance power” in that it allows me to (pardon the pun) ham it up for the audience. This book is pure comedic genius and I literally had the kids snorting up a storm as they listened to this memorable pig tale.

Geology of the Pacific Northwest

Geology of the Pacific Northwest – Investigate How the Earth Was Formed

By Cynthia Light Brown

Illustrations by Eric Baker

Nomad Press

2011

If geology books were like this when I was a kid, I might be a geologist today! The author has tapped into the language of typical 9 – 12 year olds and has written a fantastic explanation of how the Pacific Northwest came to be. From explosive volcanoes and earthquakes to glaciers and rainforests, this book covers it all.

A key component of the book’s success is the hands-on projects that help illustrate some of the concepts presented in the book. While we’ve all seen the typical experiments like baking soda volcanoes, Brown has created some original and highly entertaining visuals. Using familiar items like a Milky Way candy bar to illustrate tectonics and shifting plates and mounds of peanut butter to help readers understand how mountains “fold” in the formation process, the author has proven her understanding of the way kids think, learn and understand.

As is often the case in successful books like this one, the illustrations are just as important as the text. Baker was obviously an excellent choice for this project as the cartoon-style line drawings perfectly match the tone and humor of the author’s words. A glossary, bibliography and list of related web sites round out this excellent resource. Let’s hope this team keeps producing more books of this nature to put some life in the world of science and geology books.

The Twits

The Twits

By Roald Dahl

Illustrations by Quentin Blake

Scholastic

1980

As the manager of a branch library, I get the pleasure of also being in charge of acquisitions and collection development. While keeping the library supplied with new titles, I must also make certain the classic titles are maintained. The thing about classics is they wear out, get lost, and fall apart from being loved and read to death. I recently took a sweep through one of my favorite youth authors, Roald Dahl, and took an inventory of his titles, ordering new copies of just about every title.

The Twits caught my eye on the shelf so I took it home this weekend for a quick re-read…and I am so glad I did. While this was not one of his best selling titles, it is a prime example of the genius of Dahl. His books are so humorous, shocking, absurd, inappropriate (at times) and engaging that this quick read reminded me not to forget to suggest Dahl’s books to young readers who are looking for a fun read.

Dahl figured out exactly what tickled the funny bone of boys and girls and he immerses the reader in these silly funny and gross details throughout all of his stories. In The Twits, Dahl describes the horrors of what one would find when making a close inspection of Mr. Twit’s unruly beard. There is “spinach and tomato and ketchup and fish sticks and minced chicken livers and all the other disgusting things Mr. Twit liked to eat.” Then he goes on, with the help of Blake’s classic illustrations, to detail even more grossness such as a piece of “maggoty green cheese” and “moldy old cornflakes.” Perfectly delightful reading for those in the early grades!

This was a wakeup call for me to always keep the Roald Dahl section well stocked and to guide young readers to that shelf regularly. Long live Roald Dahl books!

A Pet for Petunia

A Pet for Petunia

By Paul Schmid

Published by Harper

2011

There are loads of “kid wants a pet” books out there, but this story’s unique twist is that Petunia wants a pet skunk. She begs her parents. She pleads with her parents. She even promised to feed walk and clean the litter box if they let her have a skunk. “They stink!” says her parents, and because Petunia finds this hard to believe, she runs out into the woods, hoping to be eaten by a bear so her parents will finally give in and let her have a skunk (there’s some child logic for you!). Low and behold, she runs into a skunk in the woods and guess what? Her parents were right! Skunks smell worse than anything she has smelled in her “whole entire life.” I won’t reveal the surprise twist at the end, but I heartily recommend this book for storytellers, libraries and home collections. The preschoolers I read this to were glued to the story and wanted me to immediately read it again when I was finished.

Of all the “I want a pet” books I have read over the years, this one smells the sweetest!

A Bear and His Boy

A Bear and His Boy

By Sean Bryan

Illustrations by Tom Murphy

Arcade Publishing

Published 2007, 2011

Rhyming texts are nothing out of the ordinary, but this one stands out because ever line rhymes with the lead bear’s name, Mack. Mack wakes up one morning with a boy on his back. Why? No excuse is given, so we just go along with the story. They do jumping jacks, eat flapjacks, spend time in the library stacks, and …well, you get the idea.

I had my doubts about how well this slight plot would be received during preschool storytime, but I decided to try it anyway. The kids loved it! They laughed with increasing fervor as each “ack” rhyme popped up.

Part of what makes this book a success is the simple, pleasing illustrations. Simple ink outlines are filled in with brown and a soft yellow. The composition of each page is designed expertly and each scene has continuity with the preceding image. They fit, they relate and they extend the idea provided in the text.

So be like Mack,

if this book you lack,

put on some slacks,

go buy it and come right back,

and you will attack,

this book about Mack,

with a boy on his back.

The Hunger Games Trilogy

The Hunger Games (trilogy) Catching Fire, and Mockingjay

By Suzanne Collins

Scholastic Press

I’ll start out with a great big WOW! This series is what YA Lit is all about for me. The books are exciting, smart, not-predictable, humorous, engaging, brutal, romantic, breathtaking, tragic and triumphant, all rolled into one.

The premise is not that far-fetched, actually. Picture a future United States that has collapsed into a world of drought, war and famine. We’ve been renamed Panem and have been divided into a Capitol and 12 districts. The leaders at the Capitol have developed a sort of a sick competition/entertainment between the districts in which a yearly competition pits two youth from each district to have a televised fight to the death, until only one of the competitors survive. The whole thing is televised with state-of-the-art cameras that can zoom into even the most remote locations.

This is not a World Wrestling Federation competition or a gladiator-style fight where they are all placed in a round arena to go at it. These battles take place in the wilderness where competitors can hide, plot, ambush and form alliances. To make it even trickier, the Capitol has the technological abilities to create artificial conditions, animals, insects and similar plagues to either help or harm the fighters. This all makes for an extraordinary plotline that is an exciting, tense and engrossing.

Congratulations to Collins for creating Katniss, an amazing and powerful female lead character. Readers will easily identify with the heroine and root for her through all three volumes of this engrossing series. Librarians…get your teens hooked on this series as soon as possible as there is a major motion picture in the works. Don’t forget to stock up on plenty of copies for your library shelves because the Hunger Games books will soon become even more popular than they are now.