Seize the Night

I have a five-year old daughter. As with any five-year old, she picks up random interests and fears as she sees fit. One week she will be outrageously into superheroes and will simply detest anything resembling a cape the week after. Her recent aversion has been--to my dismay-- of the dark. In order to coach her through this issue, I have utilized night lights and lava lamps galore. Since we use story time to decompress in the evening, however, I have also started incorporating "books of the nocturnal persuasion" into the regimen.

One of the first books I tried out to coax this fear away was Lemony Snicket's, "The Dark." The story follows a young boy, Laszlo, who cohabitates with "the dark." The boy doesn't mind the dark so long as it "stays put in its room", which, appropriately, is the basement. I love that the dark is like a banished little brother who is cast under the house. I think personifying the dark makes something that is easier to grapple with for a small child than an abstract notion. As luck would have it, Laszlo's night light burns out one evening. The dark beckons the boy into the basement and shows him to a drawer full of lightbulbs. After the conversation and light bulb exchange, Laszlo returns to his room and never faces the dark again. His fear is absolved from the interaction.

As I mentioned previously, I love that Snicket turns this fear into a palpable, conversational entity. The employment of personification turns this fear into something that can be literally confronted and cast away. The presentation in and of itself is whimsical and paired perfectly with Jon Klassen's simplistic illustrations.

I think this book would be a great tool for storytimes for grades K-3. After the presentation, one could ask the children to draw a picture of their fear and explain what sort of conversation they would have with this fear if it were, like the dark, approachable. 

You're So Fancy

While one cannot overlook the fantastic whimsy that is Dr. Seuss, the doctor's strong suit was arguably not vocab development. Although the books make reading easy for beginners, "sneeches, snuvs, and schloppity schlop" are not terms that one could readily incorporate into their daily word bank. Seuss books are great for phonetic development, however, books such as Jane O' Connor's, Fancy Nancy, push the proverbial envelope in terms of crafting a loquacious learner.

The books follow the protagonist (that is, Fancy Nancy, of course) as she embarks on various day-to-day quests, generally under the guise of a daydream. I appreciate Nancy's tendency to see the elegance in most everything and also her impeccable sense of style for a preschooler.  I have read several of these stories, such as Bonjour Butterfly and The Wedding of the Century. In these two books, Nancy is primed and pumped for an event, only to find the events don't occur as she had anticipated. Nonetheless, the young dreamer has a wonderful propensity for finding the glittery, silver lining in each situation. I believe it effectively teaches children to see things from another perspective. Additionally, the inclusion of "big" words and definitions (including a word bank in the end) helps introduce new readers to words they otherwise may not come into contact with until much later. 

Another thing I enjoy about these books are the wonderfully sparkle-laden illustrations. The drawings themselves are fantastically intricate, colorful, and the glitter makes it pop from the page (though I'll be the first to admit I have a definite bias with anything incorporating sparkly flare into the equation.) 

The only shortcoming to these books is that they are really more "female friendly." While Victoria Kahn's books incorporate the silly little brother as the comedic relief, these books tend to rely heavily on their fancy-girl edge, making them less-than-ideal for co-ed storytimes.

A Platform for Picture Books_ Blog Description

Hello Everyone!
Mini, self-indulgent introduction: My name is Tia Johnson. I am halfway through my MLIS and working as a Senior Library Assistant at the Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative. I intend on utilizing this blog to review children's literature, namely picture books. I grew to have a fascination with what HCPLC dubs "Easy Fiction" as soon as I signed on with the public library. These books are illustration-heavy fictional texts aimed for children in the beginning stages of elementary school. I find it compelling to see the numerous tactics in which authors employ art and words to teach children vital lessons and entertaining tales. This interest increased last semester when I took the course "Materials for Children." While taking this course, I was able to note the number of methods these books could be used to teach various subjects, even outside of their primary objective. For instance, Dr. Henrietta Smith had us use a book on the Underground Railroad as an implement to teach math. It's fascinating that one can designate the same book for multiple disciplines.

I hope to use this blog as a tool to examine popular picture books and critique their entertainment value, quality of writing/art, and applicability to other topics. I plan to compartmentalize these entries by themes (i.e, mermaids, folktales, robots) and compare the texts on the aforementioned attributes. Additionally, I hope to link to and discuss fun and interesting project/program ideas that other libraries have used to supplement these picture books.

Admittedly, I didn't previously read blogs about this topic, however, I did dabble in doing Youtube-based "Storytimes with Tia" (perhaps I will post a few on here) and posted previous critiques on such series as "liciious" books by Victoria Kahn. I did a search on Google to find blogs running in a similar vein to what I intend this to be and came across the following:

http://www.kimlit.org/divine-secrets
http://tinytipsforlibraryfun.blogspot.com
http://www.abbythelibrarian.com


I like these resources because they are authored by professionals currently in the field. They offer great tips and insight on programs, local contests, and valuable resources.

In all, I feel like this will be a very helpful tool in developing a better understanding on children's literature. I am very excited to have a semi-casual tool to critically examine children's books and hopefully discuss the topic with those with similar interests. Thanks for reading!!