Strega Nona

by Tomie dePaola

My last posting about spaghetti reminded me of another pasta classic--Strega Nona!  Just in case there's a chance maybe one person out there has never read this must-read.

image via 100scopenotes.wordpress.com

More Spaghetti, I Say!

This is supposed to be a "leveled reader," (the kind teachers use to match the right book with each child's reading level), but it's one of the books we have worn the cover off of with so many readings. A great book about Minnie monkey, who is so committed to her love of spaghetti, she has found a way to incorporate it into everything she does....skiing, biking, and so on! Unfortunately, she takes a good thing too far and gets sick from eating too much spaghetti. Great ending, and one that your little pre-reader will be proud to take over reading someday soon!

Have a little fun: Make a pile of spaghetti just to play with. Squish it, pile it, talk about what it would feel like to stand on a mountain of spaghetti. This might be a good time to talk about how your body feels when it is full.

If you're careful with hand washing, you could probably make a cold spaghetti dish to accompany dinner.

Even more fun: Watch Freddy's face throughout the story. He is very expressive of his feelings when he's excited, when Minnie says she won't play with him, and in other ways. A good book to identify how what we say makes people feel good/bad.

images via mortgerberbooks.com

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear

by Don & Audrey Wood

illustrated by Don Wood

A little Mouse is preparing to pick a strawberry when you, the reader, come across him and ask what he is doing. The Mouse stands smiling near a ladder propped next to a large strawberry. You reply, "Oh, I see. Are you going to pick that red, ripe strawberry?" The mouse always responds not with words, but with body language and very telling actions. You inform little Mouse about the big, hungry Bear, "Ohhh, how that Bear loves red, ripe strawberries!" You follow Mouse through his perplexing (and hilarious) attempts to save his strawberry from the big, hungry bear.

Audrey and Don Wood combine again to create yet another of my favorites. This one would have to be in my top 5. Large, beautiful pictures, simple (yet perfect!) text, and a great ending.

Have a little fun: This is a great book to help teach about predicting. In my teaching experience, I was so sad to come across children who wouldn't even make a guess at what might happen in a book. The words "I don't know," have no place in prediction because it wouldn't be predicting if you know the answer! The more you encourage prediction, you will be delighted at how creative and detailed your child's answers will become.

Before reading, ask questions about what the mouse is doing on the cover, and other questions stemming from the title. You can stop a couple of times during the story to have your child predict what they think the little Mouse is going to do to protect his strawberry.

Another Idea: Supply your child with glue, magazines, a red piece of construction paper, and scissors (that's right, I said scissors. How else are they supposed to learn to use scissors?). Cut the red paper into the shape of a large strawberry and have your child search out the color red in the magazine. Have them cut out the red object, and paste it, collage style, on the paper. Enjoying themselves? Move on to finding green to cut out for the stem. Make enough to have one for everyone in the family (sharing is a theme in this book), write family names on them and leave them by plates at the dinner table!

image via grundycountylibrary.org

King Bidgood's in the Bathtub

by Audrey Wood

illustrated by Don Wood

King Bidgood is having such a great time in his bathtub, he doesn't want to leave! In order to coax him out of the tub, the knight, the queen, the duke, and members of the court, each try to remove him from the tub by reminding him of his other kingly deeds to do. To their dismay, the king chooses to perform his activities from the bathtub! It's the small page  who finally gets the king out of the tub.

The pictures are fantastic! It's no surprise this book won a Caldecott. The story moves by quite quickly, sometimes with only one sentence on the page-not nearly enough time to look at everything going on in the pictures! The story's "poetic lyrics" might take a little practicing to get a good rhythm. Once you figure that out, the story has a fun bounce to it. I do like the story, but like I said, it's the amazing pictures that make this book a home library must-have!

Have a little fun: Look ahead in the book before you read it together. As you're reading it together, stop just before it is revealed how the king gets out of the tub. Ask your child to predict how the king finally got out of the tub.

p.s. I referred to this book as one that uses the name Page. Although s/he's an actual "page" in the story, I think a child with that name would appreciate it far more as a name than an occupation.