March 12, 2010

“Campus” by Vampire Weekend, as a Fingerplay

I wake up [yawn and stretch]
My shoulder's cold [hold shoulders, shake, let teeth chatter a little]
I've got to leave here
Before I go [do “move on back” motion from “The Wheels on the Bus”]
I pull my shirt on [mime putting on shirt]
Walk out the door [walk]
Drag my feet along the floor. [drag feet]
I pull my shirt on [mime putting on shirt]
Walk out the door [walk]
Drag my feet along the floor. [drag feet]

Posted by adrienne at 07:42 AM | Comments (0)

March 11, 2010

Time to Start Getting Your Peeps Ready for Easter

The new salt and pepper set is courtesy of my father. I’ve been so focused on getting ready for PLA that I keep forgetting that it will just about be Easter when I get back from the Pacific Northwest. At least I have my decorations taken care of.

Posted by adrienne at 10:21 PM | Comments (6)

March 08, 2010

Board Books Gone Awry

As I’ve been reading more board books from the library’s collection, I’m finding a bunch I really like, but I’m also finding some I’m not crazy about. As an example, let’s take Shoes by Maisie Munro and Jenny Hale. At first it looked quite promising. It has a shaped cover with smooth curves instead of the more traditional little rectangle or square, something I’m a fan of because I think this makes it easier for small children who don’t have a lot of manual dexterity to manipulate the book. This is also a cover in two layers—the top layer being a bright red sneaker with fuzzy white spots covering up a lovely picture of a monkey (the main character of this book) on a bright lime green background. Then the verso reveals this is an Australian import—better and better. I LOVE Australian children’s books.

Now we get into the book itself. It starts out much as one might expect, with pictures and short sentences that talk about the things we use shoes for—walking a long way, kicking a ball. The narrative begins to break down on the page, “Shoes are for dancing the tango.” I have nothing against the tango or even wearing shoes while you’re dancing the tango, but I do have a problem with a monkey wearing ballet pointe shoes while dancing the tango because that’s what’s happening here, and that’s just wrong. When you’re dancing the tango, you’re supposed to wear something like this. When you wear pointe shoes, you are supposed to pirouette, which, incidentally, is what the monkey is doing in this illustration instead of the tango. It is true, I know, that this level of detail is certainly not going to be appreciated by the babies chewing on this book, but, still, this is a book that consists of exactly five page-spreads. There’s no reason not to get all five of them right.

And, okay, so I have a thing with shoes that is maybe impacting my evaluation of this particular board book. BUT STILL.

The rest of the book goes on just fine from there, with shoes helping the monkey dress like daddy and providing some chew-time fun for some puppies.

I feel kind of harsh and judgey about this book, but it’s the attitude behind it that bothers me more than the particularities, an attitude that’s something like, “Eh, it’s just for babies.” You see this a lot in board books, but it seems to me that babies are the ones you give the very best things to, and there are certainly better board books.

Posted by adrienne at 02:03 PM | Comments (2)

March 06, 2010

Board Books I Like, with Concepts and Character

As a matter of self-protection, I have extremely low expectations when an author takes an established picture book character and moves him or her into board books. So often these books are either capitalizing on character recognition to make some easy cash (which, as I have often said, the nanosecond I have the opportunity to sell out and ensure that I will not spend my golden years living in a cardboard box under a highway overpass, I will gladly do so) or that the writing isn’t right for the intended board book audience (children from birth through the age of about three).

Bow-Wow Hears Things by Mark Newgarden and Megan Montague Cash is an example of an author successfully navigating this transition. You could make the argument that Bow-Wow is not an established character, since he’s only had the one picture book, but Bow-Wow Bugs a Bug was striking enough to establish Bow-Wow in my mind, so we’re going to roll with that one. In Bow-Wow Hears Things, Bow-Wow is facing a little chick. The chick makes various non-chick-like noises, and Bow-Wow keeps saying, “No.” In the end, the chick peeps and Bow-Wow barks, and the book is over. This is nice—a simple, concrete storyline with repetitive elements. Bow-Wow’s books have a very spare aesthetic, with exactly the kind of art I look for in a board book. The characters themselves are drawn with thick lines filled in with solid colors. Bow-Wow’s emotions (surprise and annoyance) are effectively conveyed through one curved eyebrow, and the characters and text are all that appear on each page. Eye-catching, short, and even a little funny.

Olivia’s Opposites by Ian Falconer is another example of a picture book character working in the board book format. Falconer uses thin, fine lines in his illustrations, so babies will have a hard time making them out, but what will interest their eyes are those red dashes of color here and there. The book is very much a concept book—opposites illustrated—but Falconer handles it with his typical flair (you really need to see the illustrations for “quiet” and “loud” to see what I mean), making for a book that will amuse adults as well as children.

Skippyjon Jones Color Crazy by Judy Schachner is my favorite of the bunch. It follows the intrepid and much-beloved Skippyjon as he draws a picture utilizing a number of surprising color choices—pink for the sky, yellow for the grass—and, in the end, he colors himself, all rainbow-like. What I love best about this book is that it in no way acknowledges that Skippyjon is using an unconventional color scheme. Schachner is slyly making a point about creativity and freedom to her child and adult listeners that I have to love. Babies who enjoy this book will like it for its cute little kitty and bright colors, toddlers can use it as a way to start helping them learn their colors (and other vocabulary, like some nouns and numbers), and older toddlers who are more solid on their colors will catch on to what Skippyjon is up to and think it’s funny. Heck, *I* laugh every time I read this book. Rock on, Skippyjon.

Posted by adrienne at 10:11 AM | Comments (2)

March 05, 2010

“The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be” by The Magnetic Fields, as a Fingerplay

The cactus where your heart should be [make cactus arms]
Has lovely little flowers [splay hands in front of you, like flowers]
So though it’s always pricking me [point finger forward and then pull back, shaking hand, making “ouch” face]
My ardor never sours [place hands over heart]
The cactus where your heart once was [cactus arms again]
Has power to rend and flay [mime stabbing something]
I stick because, I’m stuck because [swoon]
I just can’t tear myself away. [see how long everyone can spend lying still on the floor, sobbing quietly]

What song can YOU make into a fingerplay?

Posted by adrienne at 11:24 AM | Comments (7)