The Carrot Seed

Title: The Carrot Seed
Author: Ruth Krauss

Illustrator: Crockett Johnson

The voice of reason says, "not a chance", "give up", "don't bother" - what do you do? Do you ignore all these negative opinions? Not if you're a little boy with buckets full of hope and determination, and one carrot seed.

This short, charming story is about a little boy who plants a carrot seed in the ground. His mother says, "I'm afraid it won't come up"; his father says, "I'm afraid it won't come up"; and his brother says, "It won't come up". But that doesn't stop the little boy from giving his carrot patch lots of attention and nurturing. He tends to it everyday. Everyone kept saying he should give up, but his determination was stronger than his doubt. And then one day, what happens? I'll let Crockett Johnson's picture tell the rest of the story. If you enjoy Johnson's Harold and the Purple Crayon (like I do), then you'll enjoy these illustrations too.

The story's message is simple: when you believe in something, do not let the naysayers steer you off course.

Craft idea: Plant a bean seed in an enviro-friendly, decompostable, paper cup (making sure to decorate the cup first, of course). Make a little vegetable label and attach to the toothpick to identify the contents of the cup (you'll see what I'm getting at when you see the book's illustrations).

Game idea: (ages 4 and up) Play a game of concentration with different vegetable pictures. Have the children name the image of vegetable (or read the word on the card). It's a game for memory and learning new words.

Program themes: gardening, vegetables, cooking

Other recommended title: The Curious Garden by Peter Brown

Ages 3 to 6

A Chair for my Mother

Title: A Chair for my Mother
Author/Illustrator: Vera B. Williams


Understanding how a child sees the world is difficult for an adult. Depending on the age of the child, the illustrations in a picture book are often more important than the plot or characters. I was sitting next to a toddler on a car ride and had this book in my bag. I pulled out the book and started flipping through the pages. Her eyes sparkled as we navigated along the bright, saturated hues Vera Williams has chosen for her book. She loved to stare at the page that features the "wonderful, beautiful, fat, soft armchair...covered in velvet with roses all over it." (I myself remember that page from reading it many years ago as a child).

The story of "A Chair for my Mother" has a beautiful message about overcoming obstacles and challenges (in this case, a fire that destroys their apartment). The story is narrated by the little girl, Rosa, and introduces a family unit that is not commonly discussed in children's books: a child, a mother and a grandmother. The mother works tirelessly as a waitress to earn a meager wage and one day, they return home to find their apartment on fire - everything is lost. Through hard work, the mother saves up her tips and purchases a new chair for their new start in their new apartment.

This story also offers lessons about the following:
-saving money
-the importance of family
-community support
-overcoming large setbacks

It is a story of triumphing over hardships (with beautiful illustrations).

CRAFT IDEA:
-print off an outline of a couch/chair (click on last image on the attached website) and have the child colour in their perfect design.

GAMES IDEA:
-a round of musical chairs

Ages 4 to 8

Abuela

Title: Abuela
Written by: Arthur Deorros
Illustrated by: Elisa Kleven

Complex, lively illustrations make this book a visual treat for children. The story features a young girl and her grandmother (spanish word for grandmother is abuela), setting off on adventures around New York City together. The adventures are magical and innocent with many famous images of NYC. The story incorporates many Spanish words and provides subtle definitions as well. Small amounts of the book are dedicated to Abuela's story of immigrating to America.

Ages: 4 to 7

Caps for Sale

Title: Caps for Sale
Author and Illustrator: Esphyr Slobodkina
Ages: 4-8

A hat peddler walks through his village with a dozen hats stacked on his head everyday (what a talented balancing act). He's experiencing a slow day in sales so he decides to take a nap outside of town. When he awakes he is stunned to find his hats missing. They are not to the left, they are not to the right; where are they? Up, of course! Twelve monkeys in a tree are wearing his hats and won't give them back.
This story will give kids a laugh as the peddler tries desperately to get his hats back.

Craft idea: Decorate a cap or a foam visor

Game idea: Have one child play the peddler and the others play the monkey. The peddlers actions are copied by the monkeys in a game like Simon Says. Alternatively, you could have one child as the guesser: they hide while you pick the peddler and when they return to the group they have to guess who is the peddler.

Buz

Title: Buz

Written and illustrated by Richard Egielski

Age: 3-7

Anyone who has ever worried about eating a spider in their sleep or has gone to a restaurant where there was a bug in their food will appreciate this book.

Buz is a mosquito-like bug (sorry but that's the extent of my entomology knowledge) who winds up on a spoonful of corn flakes entering a little boy's mouth and then gets stuck inside the little boy. The story is written from Buz's perspective as he tries to escape. The boy takes a trip to the doctor and is given two pills (the pills are illustrated on the book cover). These pills are chasing down Buz so they can eliminate him from the boy's body. Buz gets away when a flood arrives and sweeps him out the boy's ear and into the bathtub. When Buz is back home, he visits the doctor and learns that he has caught a germ!

This book can be read from two approaches. There is the literal approach: the boy has eaten a bug, that's gross. Alternatively, the boy has gotten sick which is known as "getting a bug". Going to the doctor can help alleviate the symptoms and taking a bath might be needed to break a fever, etc. I think readers will probably prefer the first one.

Questions to discuss after reading:

1) Why did the boy go to the doctor? Why do we go to the doctor's? (i.e. when sick/to get vaccines so we don't get sick/checkups)

2) What are pills for? What pills should you take? (this question is an opportunity to talk about only taking medicine that is given by a parent, guardian, relative, etc.)

3) What happens if we eat a bug? (this is an opportunity to discuss any concerns that the reader has about finding a bug in their food)

This book has great pictures: there are various levels of magnification/zoom to the illustrations. Sometimes we're focused on the little boy (where he seems small), sometimes we're focused on Buz (which makes the little boy seem huge); this variation in zoom makes the book dynamic and interesting for the kids.

PROGRAMMING IDEAS

Game Idea: Duck-duck-goose derivative called "Buz-Buz-Pill" where the child making the selection is Buz and the person they choose to have chase them is the pill.

Craft idea: Make a Buz costume for the kids to wear home. Have some construction paper cut to make a headband that sits comfortably on the children's heads. Have the kids cut out two eyeballs and glue them on the front of the headband. Provide some pipecleaners to make Buz's long nose (attach to construction paper beneath eyes) and his antennas (staple to headband as well). You'll be seeing Buz everywhere.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

By: Bill Martin, Jr.

Illustrated by: Eric Carle

Ages: 0-3

This book is great for introducing children to colours. It uses large illustrations of animals that pop with vibrant colours like red, yellow, blue, green, purple, white, black and of course, brown (my favourite is the green frog with the big smile). There are less than 20 words per two-page spread which makes it a quick read.

PROGRAMMING IDEAS
Game - Animal noises: Have the programmer demostrates the noises that each animal makes and ask the children to repeat back (i.e. bird, duck, horse, dog, cat, frog, etc.)

Craft - Colouring: Supply the children with illustrated outlines of animals and ask the children to colour the animal with many different colours.

Bread and Jam for Frances

Bread and Jam for Frances
Written by Russell Hoban
Illustrated by Lillian Hoban
Ages 4-8

If you are trying to convince someone to try new foods then this is the perfect book for you! Frances is a young child badger who refuses to eat anything except bread and jam. She refuses the poached eggs she is given for breakfast and the veal cutlets she is served for dinner. And when her Mom packs her an egg salad sandwich for lunch, she trades another kid for his bread and jam. Her parents try to explain to Frances that trying new foods is a good thing, but Frances won't hear of it.
Finally, her parents stop offering her their food and serve her only bread and jam. She has it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, day after day. At first she feels lucky to have all the bread and jam she could want. After a while, though, her love for bread and jam starts to fade and she starts to wish she was being given other options. The lunch that Albert brings to school one day makes Frances jealous because he has a few tasty options (a sandwich, an egg, pickles, grapes, a tangerine and milk) but Frances only has bread and jam. Finally she sings, "What I am, is tired of jam".
Frances' parents exchange the bread and jam for many other tasty foods that Frances loves.

Sidenote: As the book was originally written in the 60s, some of the foods may be outdated or unfamiliar to the children (i.e. lobster salad sandwich, veal cutlets, poached eggs).

Questions to discuss with your reader:

1. Why did Frances stop eating bread and jam when she loves it so much?
2. What food would you want to eat all the time?
   
3. What foods do you hate eating?
   
4. If you were Frances' parents, would you let her eat bread and jam all the time? Why/why not?

Programming ideas:
CRAFT IDEA - Print off copies of a plate setting with an empty plate (see http://www.cutco.com/images/promotion/thanksgiving/ps.jpg) on both sides of the page. On one side, have the children draw foods that they love and on the other side, have them draw foods they dislike.

GAME IDEA - Shopping for food.
Give every player a $20 Monopoly bill. Hand them a list of foods (with pictures) that they have to buy in order to make spaghetti and meatballs with a salad. Print out grocery items on a paper, cut them out and scatter them around the programming room (for examples, see the list at the bottom). Write different prices on the same print-out so that they have to choose which type of spaghetti they will buy. Give them 10 minutes (in the first round) to run around and find the foods on the shopping list. Encourage the parents to help them with the adding of the cost of the foods (because they only have $20). Give them a few rounds to play. The winner of the game will get all the ingredients without spending more than $20.
For game printouts, see:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2332/2443293913_7f86787f8e.jpg?v=0
http://z.about.com/d/kidscooking/1/0/w/V/-/-/sweet-sour-meatballs-big.jpg
http://www.edenfoods.com/store/images/products/zoom/104030.jpg
http://ayeshahaq.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/lettuce3.jpg
http://www.valleygroves.com/images/Tomatoes.jpg
http://ayeshahaq.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/cucumber0511.jpg