Pick of the Week: Seasons by Blexbolex

Seasons by Blexbolex (Enchanted Lion Books)

This is a sophisticated, distinctive picture book that will invite readers to visit the pages again and again. Each page in this longer picture book has a poster-like retro quality with creamy matte pages and block prints with one word denoting the feeling or scene depicted. We see a man pointing to a window looking out on snowflakes falling for the word "shout" and a snow-covered house or lodge depicting the word "snow." A diversity of great vocabulary words are featured including fragrance, drought, blaze, barbeque, debris, discovery, hay bales, shooting stars, reserves, fruit pickers, seedling, twilight and many more. This is a stunning, breathtaking, and contemplative book that both children and adults may enjoy.

Pick of the Week: Lion's Lunch?

Lion's Lunch? by Fiona Tierney, illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain (Scholastic/Chicken House, 2010)

Sarah is happily strolling through the jungle when she meets Lion, King of the Jungle. He roars, "What are you doing in my jungle?" and quickly decides she should be his lunch. Sarah is determined to save herself by proving that there are things she can do better than the lion. This book is full of energy, bright illustrations, and is an excellent source for building those vocabulary skills. For instance, in the jungle, Lion declares, "Nobody here just sings. We roar, yowl, grunt, chatter, buzz, trumpet, hiss, growl, pant, and harrumph." Does Sarah find something she can do better than Lion? And can she use this skill to save her life and teach Lion a lesson?

Take a Color Walk

Take a color walk with your child! Yes, it is still winter in Oregon and more gray and rainy days are to be expected. But that doesn't mean you can't find color on a walk through your neighborhood or downtown. Point out the different colors on signs, houses, cars, as well as in nature. Create "color cards" at home before you journey outside on your color walk. To make a color card, use crayons to color note cards or glue different colored yarn or scraps of paper to a note card. Or you might find colorful pictures from magazines and glue them to card stock to take along as your color guide. Try to see if you can find any of the colors in your "color cards" in the environment as you take your walk. Brighten up your day, keep boredom at bay, encourage your child's curiosity, and build vocabulary!

Then share a colorful book with your child at home. Two of my favorites are:
Duckie's Rainbow by Frances Barry (Candlewick Press, 2004)
Follow Duckie home through colorful fields, forests, and pond. The end result of Duckie's colorful walk is a beautiful rainbow! I've used this book for color-themed storytimes with toddlers and young preschoolers.


Another colorful favorite of mine is Colors Everywhere by Tana Hoban (Greenwillow Books, 1995).
Tana Hoban has created a photographic journey of the colors around us. Looking through her books will open you and your child's eyes to the wonderful variety of colors, shapes and patterns one can find in our surroundings.







*Photo credit: Balloon and child photo from Flickr's Creative Commons.

Pick of the Week: Senses on the Farm

Senses on the Farm by Shelley Rotner (Millbrook Press, 2009)

Third in a series of books about our senses by Shelley Rotner (see also Senses at the Seashore and Senses in the City), Senses on the Farm uses photography to depict a sensorial trip to a farm for children. Throughout the book, Rotner invites children to "See the fall pumpkins growing on their vines. Touch a horse's bristly coat. Taste a hand-picked strawberry..." These books are great for realistic images, exploring the five senses, and expanding your child's vocabulary. This is a great book to use in circle time, a farm-themed storytime or before a visit to a farm.

Playing with Words

Vocabulary is one of the most important literacy skills a child needs in order to become a successful reader in life. When reading aloud to a child, you will often encounter a "rare" word - a word not regularly used in conversation. This might be a word that you understand or recognize, but think your child will not know the meaning of it. Instead of skipping over this word - or substituting an easier word - take a moment to explain what the word means to your child. Knowing the meanings of large number of words helps a child when she begins reading on her own. It helps her make that connection between sounding out a word and recognizing a word she has heard before and knows the meaning of. Picture books are a great way to introduce new words. In normal conversation, we encounter roughly 9 rare words per 1000 words spoken or heard. But in picture books, we encounter approximately 27 rare words per 1000!(http://www.cmrls.org/pdf_documents/ce_materials/earlyliteracynotes.doc)



Children love to play with the silly sounds of words - which is one reason Dr. Seuss books have remained so popular over time. Many picture books celebrate words in a variety of ways. In Fancy Nancy, Nancy makes sure we know she prefers fancier rather than simple words. In Max's Words, we meet a wonderful boy who collects words like some boys collect coins or stamps! In The Boy Who Loved Words, Selig also collects words and discovers their power.


For even younger children, sharing books like The Napping House by Audrey and Don Wood or Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming introduces them to a variety of different words used to talk about the same concept. For truck lovers, try The Mighty Street Sweeper by Patrick Moore. Descriptions of various heavy equipment give readers a great chance to expand their vocabulary: "The boom pump can squirt tons of concrete. The street sweeper can squirt a small puddle of water."

Enjoy these books!




Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor


A young girl who loves fancy things helps her family to be fancy for one special night. Sure to bring out your own fancy side! If you love this one, be sure to catch Fancy Nancy in her return to picture books with Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy.

Max's Words by Kate Banks

When Max cuts out words from magazines and newspapers, collecting them the way his brothers collect stamps and coins, they all learn about words, sentences, and storytelling.

The Boy Who Loved Words by Roni Schotter

Selig, who loves words and copies them on pieces of paper that he carries with him, goes on a trip to discover his purpose. Words. Selig collects them, ones that stir his heart (Mama!) and ones that make him laugh (giggle). But what to do with so many luscious words? After helping a poet find the perfect words for his poem (lozenge, lemon, and licorice), he figures it out: His purpose is to spread the word to others. And so he begins to sprinkle, disburse, and broadcast them to people in need. {Syndetics}

Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming

When Bear notices that winter is nearly here he hurries to tell Snail, after which each animal tells another until finally the already sleeping Bear is awakened in his den with the news. {Syndetics}

The Mighty Street Sweeper by Patrick Moore


Despite its size, the street sweeper has one mighty job! The street sweeper is a little truck with a very big job. While it is not the largest, fastest, or most powerful truck, a street sweeper does something that no other truck can do: it keeps our streets clean. And a street sweeper is so much fun to watch.Colorful illustrations and an engaging compare-and-contrast text make this picture book a delight for budding truck-lovers. {Syndetics}

Make Mealtime Count!

Mealtime is the perfect opportunity for sharing language with young children. Whether you are feeding your infant, guiding a toddler through messy meals, or sharing a special dinner with your preschooler, the kitchen table offers a wonderful setting for developing language skills. Talk about the food you eat. Begin by asking questions or describing the experience to a very young child:

What is the name of the food? How does the food taste? What does it look like? What colors do you see? How does the food feel and smell?

If your toddler responds that he's eating an apple, you can add more description to his answer. "Yes! You are eating a red apple. It's round and sweet. When you were a baby you ate mushed apples - applesauce!"

There is also plenty of opportunity to discuss food while you are cooking or baking together. As a child adds ingredients or takes a turn stirring the batter in the bowl, talk about what is happening. Is the batter lumpy? Smooth? Will you have to crack an egg or measure the flour? The outside of the egg is hard and smooth...what does the egg look like after we crack it open?

As your child grows, adding simple math to cooking can also help enrich their experience in the kitchen with you. How many grapes do we have in the bowl? Can you count five Cheerios? Talk about the different colors, shapes and sizes you see in the food.

Talking about food extends to trips to the grocery store or farmer's market. There are so many opportunities in a grocery store to share new vocabulary to your child. Is that a cucumber or a zucchini? Share conversations about where foods come from. How does the milk get from the cow to the bottle at the store? Where does bread come from? The library also has easy non-fiction books about these topics to share with young children.

September Spotlight

September Spotlight: Talk to Your Child

During the month of September, the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library's Birth to Six site is putting the spotlight on the importance of talking with your young child.

One of the best gifts you can give your child is the gift of language. Babies are born ready to learn any language. Babies and toddlers are much better at hearing the different sounds that make up language than adults. It is this skill of being able to hear the different sounds that make up their native language that eventually helps them learn to read. Being able to hear and play with the smaller parts of words helps children decode written words on a page. This skill is "phonological awareness," one of the six pre-reading skills research has shown that all children need to become successful readers.

Vocabulary is another important pre-reading skill. Knowing the names of things helps a child eventually make the connection between sounding out a word and understanding it. The more words a child hears, the more prepared she is to learn to read.(1)

It's never too early to start sharing language with your child. Research has also shown a direct relationship between the growth of vocabulary in children under age 2 and the extent that parents and caregivers talk to them.(2) Additionally, if you or your family speaks another language, this is the best time to introduce the other language to your child.

The best way to teach a child new words is to talk to him - and to read to him! Picture books contain rare words that we don't normally use in every day conversation. But it's not just reading-aloud that will help your child's vocabulary grow. There are so many ways to share language with your child. The Library's Birth to Six News blog will be highlighting different ideas for talking and sharing with your child this month.

(1) - For more information, please see: http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/ECRR/ECRRHomePage.htm. Every Child Ready to Read brings together research from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health, The Public Library Association and the Association for Library Service to Children.

(2) - For more information, please see: Right From Birth: Building Your Child's Foundation for Life, Birth to 18 months by Craig Ramey, pg. 88-94.