POETRY FRIDAY

HA HA HA HA HA — POEMS TO MAKE YOU LAUGH!

Most kids are familiar with Shel Silverstein’s silly poems. His books have been making kids laugh for years. But have you ever heard of Jack Prelutsky? Move over, Shel Silverstein — you’ve got competition!

IT’S RAINING PIGS AND NOODLES by Jack Prelutsky
Prelusky’s poems are about as silly as they get, full of puns, jokes and wordplay and surprise.
For example, meet “GRUNGY GRACE”…

I am extremely devious,
my name is Grungy Grace.
I hardly ever brush my teeth
or wash my hands and face.
“It’s time to wash,” my father says,
but since I’m not a dope,
I simply turn the water on
and wet the towel and soap.

“Brush your teeth,” my mother says,
I never even blink.
I squeeze out gobs of toothpaste,
and I brush the bathroom sink.
I’m very good at fooling them,
my brain’s extremely keen,
but I’ve got lots of rashes
and my teeth are turning green.

EXPLODING GRAVY: POEMS TO MAKE YOU LAUGH by X. J. Kennedy
Hmmmm… let’s find out about that exploding gravy right now!

My mother’s big green gravy boat
Once thought he was a navy boat.

I poured him over my mashed potatoes
And out swam several swift potatoes!

Torpedoes whizzed and whirred and –
WHAM!!
One bumped smack into my hunk of ham

And blew up with an awful roar,
flinging my carrots on the floor.

Exploding gravy! That’s so silly!
Now all I ever eat is chili.

Check the shelves in the library under the non-fiction number j811 or j811.54 for more great poetry books!

Poetry Friday

POEMS AND RHYMES FOR THE LITTLEST ONES

Why read poems to babies? Babies are born with billions of nerve cells (neurons) in the brain that are all unconnected. It’s by positive, repeated sensory experience that the neurons are connected (by synapses). The richer and denser the synapses, the more developed the brain, and that leads to increased ability for your child to learn.

Babies need to:

• hear rhythmic, rhyming word patterns
• have opportunities to begin to draw connections between pictures and word sounds
• be heavily exposed to lots of vocabulary

A good poetry or nursery rhyme book will achieve all three goals. Some of my favorites are:

This Little Piggy and Other Rhymes to Sing and Play by Jane Yolen and Will Hillenbrand

This lovely collection comes with a CD, so you can learn the tunes to these mostly familiar lap songs, clapping games, and rhymes for babies and toddlers. Instructions for accompanying games are on each page. The illustrations are bright and friendly.

Animal Crackers by Jane Dyer

Poems and lullabies for the youngest listeners, including Mother Goose and contemporary verses. Jane Dyer’s illustrations provide bold and lively accompaniments to the text. Verses are organized by themes, including seasons, food, animals, playtime and lullabies.

Drift Upon A Dream: Poems for Sleepy Babies by John Foster and Melanie Williamson

A collection of traditional and contemporary nighttime poems and lullabies, this volume is sure to please your child. It includes a portion of one of my own all-time personal favorites by Eve Merriam, “You Be Saucer”

You be saucer, I’ll be cup
Piggyback, piggyback, pick me up!

You be tree, I’ll be pears
Carry me, carry me up the stairs.

You be good, I’ll be night
Tuck me in, tuck me in, nice and tight.

KID’S ART @ the LIBRARY!

4 and 5 year olds from the Irondequoit Community Nursery School on Titus Avenue are displaying brightly colored hand print art in the children’s room at the Pauline Evans Branch. A few details are added and the hands become butterflies, lions, dogs, frogs, penguins, Valentines and more! Be sure to stop in and view this creative art work from our little ones.

Once in the library, you can’t miss the spectacular pinatas created by students at Rogers Middle School under the dirtecion of art teacher Sue Carter. You might have a hard time choosing your favorite! You can see each piñata on the school website here, but nothing replaces seeing them in person!!

 

When you’re in the library, check the shelves in the children’s room under the non-fiction number j745. You’ll find lots of craft books on the shelves, and you can learn how to make your own handprint art, piñatas, and much more.

Poetry Friday

POETRY ABOUT NATURE

Nature has always inspired great poems. Here are a couple of favorite poetry books that focus on the natural world.

Shape Me A Rhyme, written by Jane Yolen with photographs by Jason Stemple. A gem of a book, it’s greatness is in it’s simplicity. Through each poem and the perfectly complementary pictures, shapes in nature are revealed. Each 2-page spread has one poem, set within a simple outline of the shape that the poem is featuring, and illustrated with striking images. Other words that are related or synonymous to the main word for the shape are scattered across the pages in differing fonts. This is a lovely book to share with younger children, followed by an outing to look for shapes in nature.

Oval
An oval
fits eggs-actly
inside
an airy nest
so it can nestle
tight against
its mother’s
feathered breast.

Old Elm Speaks: Tree Poems, written by Kristine O’Connell George and illustrated by Kate Kiesler. Each poem in this collection effectively carries the reader into it’s point of view – sometimes child, sometimes tree, sometimes animal. In turns serious, thoughtful, silly, imaginative, all of these poems inspire appreciation and wonder for the natural world, especially trees. Illustrated with warm oil paintings that capture the mood of each poem, this is a book to return to again and again.

2007 Newbery & Caldecott Winners!

The winners for the 2007 Newbery and Caldecott have been announced!

Every year a special award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature (fiction or non-fiction) for children.

This award, called Newbery Medal, was named for the eighteenth-century bookseller John Newbery, and is awarded by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the
American Library Association.

Another award, called the Caldecott Medal, is awarded each year to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book (fiction or non-fiction) for children. The Caldecott Medal was named in honor of the nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott, and is chosen by the Association for Library Service to Children.

And the winners are:
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz (Newbery)
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (Caldecott)

Here are the Newbery Honor Books:

• Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis
• The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
• Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson

Caldecott Honor Books:

• First the Egg
  written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

• The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain
  written and illustrated by Peter Sis

• Henry’s Freedom Box
  illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Ellen Levine

• Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity
  written and illustrated by Mo Willems

 

 

Poetry Friday

COLLECTED POEMS FOR CHILDREN  by Ted Hughes

This magnificent volume came out just last year. Ted Hughes was Poet Laureate of England, writing for adults and children alike. His poems describe the the natural world, mostly animals, and are arranged in this book by age level, with poetry for youngest readers first.

His poems can be silly or even scary, but they always bring a spark of recognition — yes, this animal is just like that! Here’s a poem about an old dog:

DOG

Asleep he wheezes at his ease. He only wakes to scratch his fleas.

He hogs the fire, he bakes his head, as if it were a loaf of bread.

He’s just a sack of snoring dog. You can lug him like a log.

You can roll him with your foot. He’ll stay snoring where he’s put.

Take him out for exercise, he’ll roll in cowclap up to his eyes.

He will not race, he will not romp, he saves his strength for gobble and chomp.

He’ll work as hard as you could wish, emptying the dinner dish.

Then he flops flat, and digs down deep, like a miner, into sleep.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

If you’re someone who loves animals, wild ones and tame ones, zoo animals and pets and whales in the deep ocean, here’s a book for you! But there are more than just animal poems in this book.

Do you like the silly verses of Shel Silverstein? Then you’ll love the poems Ted Hughes writes about his family, Nessie the Mannerless Monster, and some very creepy and spooky moon poems.

Pick up the book and read it. Which poem is your favorite?

Poetry Friday

Eletelephony

Once there was an elephant,

Who tried to use the telephant--
No! no! I mean an elephone
Who tried to use the telephone--
(Dear me! I am not certain quite
That even now I've got it right.)

Howe'er it was, he got his trunk
Entangled in the telephunk;
The more he tried to get it free,
The louder buzzed the telephee--
I fear I'd better drop the song
Of elephop and telephong!)

Laura E. Richards

Spiderwick Chronicles

Follow Jared, Simon, and Mallory Grace and a strange old book into a world filled with elves, goblins, dwarves, trolls, and more….

The film version of this great fantasy series is coming to theaters on February 15th.

Check out this trailer, but be sure to read the books first! We have all 5 books in the series at both branches of the Irondequoit Public Library. Look for them in the children’s room under the author Tony DiTerlizzi.

Poetry Friday

“WHAT IF…”

What if…
You opened a book
About dinosaurs
And one stumbled out
And another and another
And more and more pour
Until the whole place
Is bumbling and rumbling
And groaning and moaning
And snoring and roaring
And dinosauring?

What if…
You tried to push them
Back inside
But they kept tromping
Off the pages instead?
Would you close the covers?

–Isabel Joshlin Glaser

“Let’s Get Ready to Read” Program

              NEW PROGRAMS FOR 2-3 YEAR OLDS

The Irondequoit Public Library has launched a new educational program called “Let’s Get Ready to Read”. This program will provide emergent literacy materials and services to parents and caregivers of children under the age of 5.

Through a series of workshops, parents and caregivers will learn the 6 major skills that a child needs before he or she can successfully learn to read and write, and tips on incorporating these skills into the child’s daily routine. First, parents will attend an informational workshop detailing the 6 skills. Then, they will be eligible to sign up for a 3-session interactive workshop with their child, demonstrating ways to integrate the skills into play, everyday living and reading.

Separate informational and interactive workshops will be held for parents and caregivers of children aged birth through 23 months, aged 2-3, and aged 4-5. These workshops will be held at the two Irondequoit library branches in 2007-2008, and at east and west Irondequoit school districts and Irondequoit ’s Stepping Stones Learning Center in 2008-2009.

The libraries will also be creating “literacy kits” for each of the 3 age groups which will include books, CD’s, and informational material for supporting emergent literacy development at home.

The second series of workshops will be offered this winter 2008 for parents and caregivers of children 2-3 years of age, as follows: Introductory Workshop (adults only): Thursday, February 28, 7-8:30. Interactive Workshops (adult and 2-3 year old child): Thursday, 3/6, 7-8:30… Thursday, 3/13, 7-8:30; Thursday, 3/20, 7-8:30

These programs will be held at the McGraw Branch Library; to register, please call them at 336-6060.

The program is being developed by Irondequoit Public Library’s children’s librarians Mary Gleason and Ruth Otto, and coordinated by Emergent Literacy consultant and www.nurturingliteracy.com author Keary Pender. It is made possible in part by a Family Literacy Library services grant from the New York State Library, New York State Education Department.