Neighborhood-Kids All Local. All for Kids. All the Time.

Children’s Book Corner: June 2009

by Stephanie Dethlefs5/31/2009 12:38:34 PM

Welcome to the Neighborhood-Kids Children’s Book Corner! Each month I offer one title each for four different age groups. These recommendations are based on my experience as the parent of a bookworm, an elementary teacher, and a voracious reader of children’s literature. Happy Reading!

For Baby Bookworms (Birth to 2)
The Going-to-Bed Book by Sandra Boynton (1982, Little Simon)

Sandra Boynton’s distinct books engage both the child and the adult with their rhythmic phrases and silly animal characters. I chose The Going-to-Bed Book because I have personally read it 15,982 times and still enjoy it (a very close second would be The Barnyard Dance.) The animal friends are enjoying an evening cruise when bedtime arrives. Together they splash in the tub, brush their teeth, squeeze in a little exercise, and hit the sack. “The moon is high, the sea is deep. They rock and rock and rock to sleep.” Not a bad way to drift off into dreamland.

For Preschool Power Readers (3-5)
A Good Day by Kevin Henkes (2007, HarperCollins)

The day starts off badly; a lost feather, a tangled leash, a missing mother, and a dropped nut leave the animals feeling frustrated and sad. But when the dog is freed, the mother is found, the biggest nut ever is discovered, and the bird finds it can fly higher without its missing feather, young readers learn that there is often a silver lining behind the dark clouds. A Good Day is a sweet little story that can lead to discussions about not giving up when things are difficult.

For School-age Scholars (6-8)
The Red Book by Barbara Lehman (2004, Houghton Mifflin)

A story told without a single word, this is a powerful tale about the wonderful magic of books. Walking to school through the gray and snowy city, a young girl discovers a red book sticking out of a snow drift. Once in her classroom, she peeks inside and finds a series of illustrations: a map, an island, a tropical beach, and a boy. She watches the progression of pictures as the boy finds a red book hidden in the sand, opens it, and discovers pictures of a map, a city, a school, and a girl reading a little red book…the magic continues from there. This clever book gives the reader the sense of observing through a porthole as events unfold, and offers children the opportunity to talk about the story they are seeing in the pictures.

For Independent Intermediates (9-12)
The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
(2000, Laurel Leaf)

Christopher Paul Curtis expertly weaves the fictional story of an African American family in the 1960s with factual events in the racially charged history of the United States. Narrator Kenny Watson is a hard-working, parent-pleasing kid in the family known as the Weird Watsons in their home of Flint, Michigan. Older brother Byron, in trouble for the umpteenth time, is being packed up to live with his their grandmother in the Deep South for the summer, with hopes that a different perspective on the world will get him back on the straight path. In a story that moves flawlessly from hilarity (Byron pretending to make out with a car mirror in the dead of winter leads to him getting his tongue stuck) to heart-wrenching drama (not long after they arrive in Birmingham the church is bombed with four young girls inside) young readers will be drawn into the world of this everyday family and learn a bit about what it was like to be Black in America in the 1960s.

A Note About the Author: Stephanie Dethlefs

Stephanie Dethlefs is the mom of two children who writes, teaches, and runs the Young Writers Studio in her spare time. Originally from Seattle, she arrived in Bellingham in 1996. A perfect day would include playing outside with her husband and kids and getting lost in a book.