I’m excited to share that I’ve been busy creating fun, printable activity worksheets to match my book!
These printable activities are created for preschoolers, kindergartners, and early elementary children. They’re great if you’re looking for a fun summer brain teaser or a homeschooling project. If you’re a teacher or librarian, feel free to use them with your students, too.
Check out the photo preview, then click on the name or download button below it to get the PDF. You can also get them (and more!) from the Activities for Kids page on my site.
Welcome to my blog series Picking Pages: Picture Book Peeks where we pick our favorite Picture Book pages! Today we’re looking at LITTLE GREEN DONKEY by author and illustrator Anuska Allepuz. It was published by Candlewick Press in 2019.
This is such a fun book! I love the premise, the way it’s told, and the surprise ending.
We are introduced to an adorable donkey who LOVES juicy, zingy, sweet, and tangy grass. They even sleep on a pillow of grass and sing a song about grass. Little Donkey’s mom tries to get them to eat other foods, but nope. Just grass.
So much grass, in fact, that Donkey turns green!
Little Donkey must then try to find a way to change back. Their efforts don’t work so they finally switch to trying different foods. The ending surprises us in a hysterical way sure to entertain kids.
The first of my picks for a possible favorite page is what I call The Transformation. As they gobble up the yummy green stuff, they slooowly turn green themself! How enchanting is this? The spots get bigger and bigger until they are completely green — but don’t even notice!
My second possible fave page is the one I call The Full Portrait. Here the closeup of Little Donkey is so zoomed in that we must turn the book on its side to view it. And aside from being adorable, it’s labeled in such a fun way. Great for teaching the young audience sight words and body parts. My ears! My tummy!
What do you think? Which wins your vote for the favorite of the two?
Vote here:
Thanks for voting!
And remember, the best ways to support your favorite authors and illustrators includes buying their books, leaving them reviews, marking them as “want to read” on Goodreads, checking their books out of the library, and sharing how much you love the books on social media. Here are some helpful links:
Everybody in the Red Brick Building by Anne Wynter and Oge Mora, Published by Balzer + Bray, 2021
Welcome to my blog series Picking Pages: Picture Book Peeks where we pick our favorite Picture Book pages! Today we’re looking at EVERYBODY IN THE RED BRICK BUILDING by author Anne Wynter and illustrator Oge Mora. It was published by Balzer + Bray in 2021.
This is my new blog series I created to highlight the visual nature of picture books. The purpose is to promote amazing books, and to give a little “peek” at the interior. Each post will also allow you to vote (“pick”) your favorite page out of two choices. The last post was ACORN IS A LITTLE WILD, so be sure to vote there, too!
But back to our current book: EVERYBODY IN THE RED BRICK BUILDING.
This is a book just bursting with sound! You can practically hear the pictures.
I’m a fan of collage style and I just love the artwork. The way the words meld with the art is superb, and makes both more vivid.
Everybody in the Red Brick Building is a new take on The House That Jack Built. Ordinarily that’s not really one of my top story choices, but this version is spectacular. It takes place in a city, which is a setting that will be familiar to many children. And the different onomatopoeia are derived from different sounds one might hear in an apartment building.
We start with everyone asleep. Then there’s a crying baby, a screeching parrot, the pitter-patter of stomping feet, a car alarm, and more. Finally, everyone calms back down, and we end with everyone back in bed, asleep, and the little baby sweetly curled in her mother’s arms.
Now, I’m always a fan of onomatopoeia. This is no exception. These sounds are really fun to read aloud. And the texture in the illustrations makes them great for little eyes to explore.
The first option I choose for our pick of favorite pages is what I call All The Noise. It’s a cacophony of fantastic sounds, all mixed together. It’s a very dramatic page with so much going on, that, in my opinion, it’s one of the best in the book.
However, this second choice is also high on my list of fave options. I call it simply The Cat. This page is focused in on a single element: the cat escaping the noisy car alarm. The high contrast, dramatic representation of sound with the angry orange color, and the perfection in the simplicity of the cat make this page a work of art on its own.
What do you think?
Which page is your favorite?
Vote here:
Thanks for voting!
And remember, the best ways to support your favorite authors and illustrators includes buying their books, leaving them reviews, marking them as “want to read” on Goodreads, checking their books out of the library, and sharing how much you love the books on social media. Here are some helpful links:
Welcome to my blog series Picking Pages: Picture Book Peeks where we pick our favorite Picture Book pages! Today we’re looking at ACORN WAS A LITTLE WILD by author Jen Arena and illustrator Jessica Gibson. It was published by Simon & Schuster in 2022.
This is a new blog series that I decided to create in order to highlight the visual nature of picture books, and how the words and illustrations are so closely tied together. The purpose is to promote amazing books, and to give a little “peek” at the interior. Each post will also allow you to vote (“pick”) your favorite page out of two choices.
I wasn’t sure which book I was going to feature first, but I had already picked out ACORN WAS A LITTLE WILD as one of the choices — and then I met the author in person at an event! How cool is that? Kismet, one might say.
She even autographed it! See:
Jen was so sweet! I loved meeting her and hearing her talk on an author panel. I also enjoy introducing my kids to authors — the people behind the books! — and getting the autographs made out to them.
Without further ado, may I introduce: Acorn.
The main character of this book, a little acorn, is a high-spirited and joyful soul. It is so much fun to follow Acorn on his journey as jumps from his tree. He’s been cautioned not to jump — the world is dangerous! But he craves adventure.
He does meet a few obstacles in his journey, of course, but luckily for Acorn, things work out in the best of ways. After all he’s been through, he stays true to himself: he’s still wild.
And I have to say, this is the first time I’ve deeply identified with an acorn. But I really do. This books represents me in a way that almost makes me cry every time I read it, and I love reading it to children. Even my own not-so-young-anymore children.
As to a favorite page (or spread if you prefer), I believe this one is my fave. I call it “the roll.” Here is our little Acorn buddy, escaping from mundanity but rolling down a hills full of hungry squirrels. He’s even caught. Danger abounds! But he faces that danger head on.
Of course there’s also this page. I call it “the seasons.” I adore when I find hidden treasures like this inside picture books. The story progresses in such a way that we can teach kids about an important concept. Here it’s the changing of seasons. The passage of time. It’s done so beautifully that I had to add it in as a contender for favorite.
How about you? Which page is your favorite?
Vote here:
Thanks for voting!
And remember, the best ways to support your favorite authors and illustrators includes buying their books, leaving them reviews, marking them as “want to read” on Goodreads, checking their books out of the library, and sharing how much you love the books on social media. Here are some helpful links:
This month began with another 50 Precious Words entry!
Cutting words is always a challenge for me. I have such a hard time letting go!
But narrowing down a story to only 50 words? Whew. Tough stuff.
Anyway, this year I’d been reading over one of my faves: A CHILD’S GARDEN OF VERSES and I kept seeing images of fairies and forests and hearing a bouncing rhythm in my head. I thought about writing in rhyme but that didn’t last long.
What I ended up with wound up also being inspired by my garden. Or… the weeds in my yard. Whatever. The pretty flowering things.
There were fairies in her garden.
They liked the roses and
the daffodils.
At least they did last Saturday,
but didn’t anymore.
She checked the wilted roses.
Between the drooping daffodils.
No fairies.
None.
She watered. Waited. Watched.
The sun returned and –
BUZZZZZ!
So many fairies in her garden.
Check out Vivian Kirkfield’s blog for more 2024 entries! And please share with me if you’ve entered as well.
ay I posted my short story for #50PreciousWords. It’s such a great exercise for me – I’m terrible with wordiness. Cutting down words to the bare minimum is always a challenge. And, as it so often does, it ended up with me shifting to poetry.
The spaceship was there in my head. Perhaps because we just sailed out of Port Canaveral and I’ve been thinking about NASA? Either way, it demanded to be in my story.
Today I’m sharing a picture book story that I wrote for the #FallWritingFrenzy contest – which is such a fun way to start this spooky month.
October is one of my very favorite months, and I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to write a quick tale about Halloween based on a photograph.
Enjoy!
My inspiration: “Halloween” by Selina Wing for Bing
PUMPKINS LIKE STARS
By Rosemary Lynn
We went to the farmer’s market today and returned with our baskets full. I got right to work.
First the potatoes, then a tomato, then a pepper and a few not-quite-ripe bananas. It was hard to carve the jack-o-lantern faces all by myself, but I couldn’t give up! The baskets were still nearly full.
Next up: a squash. Then a turnip, hard as a rock, and a whole pile of teeny tiny Brussels sprouts. Halfway there!
I worked my way through a bushel of carrots, a whole head of broccoli, and enough onions to make me cry buckets.
By the time the baskets were empty I was exhausted. Jack-o-lanterns were everywhere, on every counter, shelf, table, and chair.
When my mom walked in she was so excited about my accomplishment that she was speechless!
Then we went to the pumpkin patch and left with a trunkful. Now the porch is decorated top to bottom with shining pumpkin jack-o-lanterns.
So many jack-o-lanterns lighting the night it looks like stars!
The perfect backdrop for our many, many bowls of potato-pepper-squash-turnip-carrot-onion soup.
