Bella and I are excited to share our latest reads in It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR is a community of bloggers who link up to share what they are reading. Kellee Moye of Unleashing Readers and Jen Vincent of Teach Mentor Texts decided to give it a #kidlit focus and encourage everyone who participates to visit at least 3 of the other #kidlit book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them.
Pigs Dig a Road by Carrie Finison Illustrated by Brian Biggs
Rosie leads a construction crew of fellow pigs, Curly, Pinky, and Stinky, in the building of a road to the Hamshire County Fair. Throughout the project, problems arise as her crew stakes, digs, dumps, grades, paves and smooths; however, Rosie resourcefully finds a solution for each setback. Through Finison’s rhyming text and Biggs’ expressive artwork, young children will realize that Rosie is losing steam as crew chief. After rerolling the road, she falls asleep standing up before uttering the last step. Pig panic ensues for fair goers are already on route. Curly, Pinky, and Stinky have two choices-wake up Rosie or problem solve together. Kids (and adults) will cheer when the pigs successfully “collab-boar-ate” receiving praise from Rosie when she wakes up.
Not only do I adore the theme of Pigs Dig a Road, but also I love that Finison exposes kids to vivid verbs (swerves, plucks, barges, inspects) and content vocabulary (excavator, grader, compactor, asphalt). Biggs’ energetic illustrations perfectly complement Finison’s playful text. Thanks to the author for sharing a copy. Pigs Dig a Road celebrates its book birthday tomorrow on September 10, 2024.
The Goblin Twins: Too Hard to Scare by Frances Cha Illustrated by Jaime Kim
In the sequel to The Goblin Twins, Doki and his twin brother Kebi move to New York City. While Doki is content reading his 211th book, Kebi is frustrated. He has not made any friends and city folk don’t seem to fall for any of his tricks such as fooling with subway lines and traffic lights or unleashing smoke on the city. Seeing Kebi depressed causes Doki to cease reading (although he brings his book with him) and offers to join Kebi in playing pranks. Will Doki’s plan work?
Can’t wait to introduce kids to The Goblin Twins! Author Cha has created such fun characters and an intriguing plot. I love that Cha cleverly chooses tricks that New Yorkers wouldn’t consider odd which adds a layer of humor especially for adults reading it aloud. Observant kids will notice a young girl who is surprised by Kebi’s antics in Kim’s animated artwork. Her illustrations of New York City are spot on making it feel like not only a setting but also another character in the story. I also love the humorous dialogue within the illustrations. An author’s note shares how the characters were inspired by the Korean mythology of dokkaebi. Thanks to Barbara Fisch of Blue Slip Media and Random House Children’s/Crown Books for Young Readers for sharing a copy. The Goblin Twins: Too Hard to Scare celebrates its book birthday tomorrow on September 10, 2024.
Goodnight School by Catherine Bailey Illustrated by Cori Doerrfield
After teachers and students leave, a little school gets to snooze. On the first page spread, Doerrfield’s artwork depicts a sleepy faced school with half-drawn shades as eyelids and globes as eyeballs. Bailey’s rhyming text joyfully bounces as the Night Guard makes her rounds around the school. What she doesn’t initially see is the turtle who escaped from its tank taking a stroll through the classrooms, hallways, and cafeteria.
Once the turtles leaves the bathroom, it makes tracks through classrooms, the teachers’ lounge, and gym until the Night Guard finds a tired turtle under the monkey bars. She gently returns the turtle to its tank, and the school shades are now completely down as she wishes sweet dreams to the sleepy school.
Bailey’s lyrical text coupled with Doerrfield’s charming illustrations make Goodnight School a perfect back to school read aloud for kids. What I love is Doerrfield brings so many inanimate objects such as chairs, a tambourine, pillows, and balls to life with eyes and a smile. And Bailey’s words also make the story a great bedtime read to lull littles to sleep. Thanks to Union Square Kids for sharing a copy. Goodnight School released in June 2024.
Bella’s Dog Pick of the Week
Wanting to spread the dog love, Beagles and Books has a weekly feature of highlighting a literary selection with a canine character.
Cookie Time by Jessie Sima
Kat and Ari love cookie time with Grandpa and dog Biscuit but having patience to wait for the cookies to bake is challenging. Their solution? Build a time machine in order to travel to the future after the cookies have baked. Biscuit even helps loaning his ball as the control knob.
While Kat’s and Ari’s journey to the future is successful, they get there too late because the cookies are gone. No worries. They program the time machine to take them into the past just before they ate all the cookies. When they arrive in the past, they quickly notice they went back too far. Biscuit is a puppy and they see their much younger selves with Grandpa enjoying their very first cookie time, a memory too precious to ruin. When they attempt to go back to the future after the cookies are baked but before they have eaten them, Kat and Ari realize they went way too far; however, no waiting is necessary in future Cookie Time. But something was missing.
In both words and art, author/illustrator Sima crafts an enchanting story about invention, problem solving, and patience. I love how Sima subtly leaves clues in the illustrations. For example, in the first page spread, a missing stuffed dinosaur picture hangs on the refrigerator and at the end of the book, Kat and Ari throw the stuffed dinosaur to a robotic dog (future Biscuit?) to get Biscuit’s ball back. Sima’s text and plot also reinforces time words, before and after, which I appreciate as a reading specialist. What I love most is Cookie Time reminds us that time spent with loved ones is precious and never should be rushed. Although Biscuit may not have learned that lesson yet. Thanks to Simon & Schuster for sharing a copy. Cookie Time celebrates its book birthday last week on September 3, 2024.
Bella and I thank you for visiting Beagles and Books!
#IMWAYR is dedicated to dear Etta, my original book beagle. Blessed that Etta is part of my story.
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