mind bending poems! reverso poems by marilyn singer and josee masse

These poems by Marilyn Singer with pictures by Josee Masse are simply amazing, mind bending, and so, so unique!   Author/Illustrator team Singer and Masse have three collections of poems together.  Mirror, Mirror and Follow, Follow are both fairy-tale themed.  While their collection Echo, Echo has a Greek mythology theme.  

What makes these poems so fascinating is that they are "reverso" poems.  Each poem can be read from up to down and from down to up with each reading giving a different story!  For example, one page is telling the story of Little Red Riding Hood.  On the left side of the page, a poem is written from the perspective of Little Red Riding Hood.  On the right side of the page, the same poem is written in reverse, starting with the last line following through to the first line.  When the poem is reversed, the perspective and meaning changes completely, and it sounds like the big bad wolf is speaking instead.  It's poetry magic!  Show these to your elementary school aged kid, and they will be amazed! 

books we love: seen and not heard by katie may green

We first shared this book in August, and we still love it!  The mischievous story, the creepy but cute illustrations - check it out! 

Seen and Not Heard by Katie May Green is quickly becoming one of my new favorites in picture books!  In a spooky, old mansion, there is a nursery filled with old, dusty toys.  On the walls of this nursery, paintings of children hang in frames.  During the day, these sweet, dear children sit quiet and perfectly still.  BUT, at night, they climb down from their frames and run wild!  They slide down the stairs, raid the kitchen for sweets, paint on the walls, and jump on all of the beds.  When the sun comes up, their fun is finished, and they return to the wall to be well-behaved kids once more.  The illustrations in this are spot on, and the story is so playful and a little dark at the same time.  Both of my kids laughed at the mischievous trouble the kids go into as well as the little bit of suspense at the end when the kids raced to get back into their frames before the sun came up.  This is Katie May Green's first book, and I can't wait to see more from her! 

our new favorite: dylan the villain by k.g. campbell

Hi there!  Welcome to Booktomato!  While we were walking through the park this morning, my neighbor friend pointed out that school is out in less than three weeks!  Eek!  My palms started sweating . . . one mom, two kids, no childcare.  Speaking of mischievous children and the need for summer entertainment, here is one book we will be reading all summer break long - Dylan The Villain by K.G. Campbell!  

When Dylan was a baby, his parents suspected that he wasn't the average sweet bouncing baby boy.  He liked to blow up his toys.  He had a sinister laugh.  The pediatrician confirmed it.  Dylan was born a villain!  His parents learned to love his little evil ways and told him he was simply the best villain they had ever seen.  When Dylan went to super villain school, he learns that even though his parents say he is the best, he might not be the best at every school subject.  Dylan has to learn to cope with trying his best and not comparing himself to others.  This is such a funny book!  The illustrations add a lot to the laugh factor.  

What is it about super hero bad guys that kids love so much?  My three year old would much rather play Darth Vader to Luke or Hans.  Are your kids the same way?  This is the book for them!

books we love: the whisper by pamela zagarenski

Have you read The Whisper by Pamela Zagarenksi?  We first shared this book in October, and the book has really grown in popularity since then.  Check it out! 

The Whisper is a new release from artist Pamela Zagarenski, winner of two Caldecott honors, and it is beautiful.  A young girl loves to read and loves getting lost in her books.  She borrows a very special book from her school teacher, and when she gets home she is disappointed.  The book has no words, only pictures.  She has nothing to read.  Just as she is about to put the book back on the shelf to read something else, she hears a whisper.  It is coming from the book!  The whisper tells her that she has the ability to create her own stories, to imagine them herself with the pictures as inspiration.  She conjures up story after story from the book's illustrations.  The stories become so real that she feels that she herself is inside the story.  

I liked the way this story promotes interaction and engagement with art.  I didn't learn to really enjoy art on canvas until I was an adult, and it really is a skill.  Because the girl has to create stories from the picture she sees, she learns to observe a piece of art and appreciate details.  This would be great to read and then go to our local art museum.  We could practice imagining our own stories from the paintings we see.  I recommend this book for upper elementary school kids.  The pictures would interest any age, but the story is very lengthy and uses a vocabulary on the level of third graders and up.  Younger readers might not be ready to engage with this story.  

have a wonderful weekend!

What do your weekend plans look like?  The Latino Memphis Association is having their annual festival in the park, and I can't wait!  The food booths are to die for!  Plus, Sunday is Mother's Day, or as I like to call it, Dad cooks breakfast day.  

Do you have a great new book that you just found?  Or an oldie but a goodie favorite that you would like to share?  We want to here what you and your kids are reading.  Let us know in the comments! 

Whatever you plan to do this weekend, make time to read a good book.  

happy belated birthday to beverly cleary! what's your favorite cleary book?

I am always late with birthdays.  My family knows this about me.  I will tell my sisters-in-law, "I have your birthday present wrapped and sitting on my kitchen counter.  I keep forgetting to bring it to you."  I always manage to give them their present before their next birthday rolls around, so no harm, no foul, right?  Well, sorry Beverly Cleary, but I am running late on your birthday wishes.  

On April 16th, Beverly Cleary turned 100 years old!  Isn't that amazing?  When Cleary was a child, she had trouble learning to read until her school librarian introduced her to books that interested her and she could really enjoy.  Cleary then turned around and wrote some of the most iconic and classic American children's literature ever published, some of which probably served as that one magic book that inspired and encouraged a struggling reader to love the written word.    

My favorite of her books has to be Dear Mr. Henshaw.  I bought a new copy recently and reread it, this time as an adult, and it still holds true as a story that makes me laugh, cry, and grow in my perspective as a person.  A lot of us love this book because it was voted as a "Teacher's Top 100 Books for Children" in 2007, and it won the 1984 Newbery Award. 

It is the story of a boy named Leigh Botts.  Leigh is given a school assignment to write a letter to a chosen author, asking them questions about their job and work, and to write a report about the author's response.  With this project, a friendship of letters builds between Leigh and the author he chooses, Mr. Henshaw.  Along with this story line, Leigh is also dealing with his parents' divorce, loneliness, and the pains of growing up and finding who you really are.  

What is your favorite Beverly Cleary book?  Are you a Ramona reader?  Or are you more of a The Mouse and The Motorcycle fan? There are so many good ones!

recommended age: 9 and up

spring's sweet harvest: the first strawberries retold by joseph bruchac and anna vojtech

Hi everybody!  I went to the farmer's market this past weekend, and there waiting for me was my all-time favorite spring time treat - strawberries!  There is nothing like an in-season strawberry.  The smell, the color, the sweet taste - perfection!  Today's book pick - The First Strawberries - is a Cherokee folk tale retold by super talented Native American tale specialist, Joseph Bruchac.  Bruchac has written tons of books all focused on preserving Native American culture and folklore.  

In this book, the world's first man and woman are created and live together happily until they have their first argument.  The woman marches away, saying she will not live with a partner who uses angry words.  The man is immediately regretful for the argument and chases after her, but she is too fast.  He can't catch up to her to apologize.  The sun sees the man struggling and tries to help by shining on the earth causing berries to grow in the woman's path and possibly distract her.  She refuses to stop for the raspberries, then the blackberries, but when she spies the strawberries, they just look too delicious to pass up.  She stops to pick them.  The man catches up to her.  They both apologize and share the sweet berries.  

"To this day, when the Cherokee people eat strawberries, they are reminded to always be kind to each other; to remember that friendship and respect are as sweet as the taste of ripe, red berries." 

Storytime conversation starters: 

• This is a story about people who lived a long time ago.  What ways are their lives different?  What ways are they the same? 
• Have you ever used mean words and hurt someone's feelings?  Has someone ever hurt your feelings?  How was the hurt resolved?
• How many different berries are in the story?  Which one is your favorite?
• Strawberries became a reminder to be kind in the story.  What is something that could remind us to be kind? 

Folk tales are such a wonderful window into other cultures, and they can teach us so much.  What folk or fairy tales do you read with your kids?  Do you have any favorites? 

a hug in book form: you're here for a reason by nancy tillman

Hi there!  Take a look at this sweet and encouraging work from author Nancy Tillman.  You're Here For a Reason, like most of Tillman's work, focuses on promoting love, acceptance, self-love, and self-worth.  Everyone has a purpose, and even children can sometimes feel insecure about what they contribute to their family, classroom, environment.  This beautiful book is simply written but still provides comfort and encouragement in such an uplifting way.  The illustrations are these fantastical depictions of children playing with animals, and they are delightful!  Nancy Tillman has been very prolific.  She has over ten titles and each aims to teach children that they are loved and unique.  Thanks for stopping by! 

lemony snicket's 13 words by maira kalman

I fully recognize that I do indeed have this little problem with children's books in that I love them all so very much and want them all to reside on my book shelves.  That being said, 13 Words by teamed up geniuses Lemony Snicket and artist Maira Kalman is such a special book!  Here are thirteen reasons why: 

1. Lemony Snicket is synonymous with quirky, playful, and unique.  
2. Previous Lemony Snicket books were chapter books for upper level readers.  This book brings that quirky playfulness to a younger audience.
3. Artist Maira Kalman is such an amazing artist.  You will want to frame pages of this book and display them.  
4. If you love Kalman's art in the book, check out her site for a listing of the other children's books she has illustrated through the years.  There are more than I realized! http://www.mairakalman.com/books/children/

5.  Most teach-a-word feature simple words like apple, cat, dog, sun.  This book teaches more complex words like panache, and haberdashery, and despondent.

6. Once you read this with your preschooler, you can chuckle to yourself as you hear a four year old use words like panache, and haberdashery, and despondent.

7. Cake plays a big part in this book, and with Kalman's illustrations of beautifully frosted treats, you will have to drive to your closest bakery for a slice or two. 

8.  Reading this will inspire you to learn more about Lemony Snicket, and they have an amazing website.  http://www.lemonysnicket.com/

9.  There is a goat that wears a very smart suit and drives a convertible. 

10.  There is a bird who loves to paint and eat cake and wear outlandish hats. 

11.  There is a baby haberdasher that loves to make outlandish hats. 

12.  There is a mezzo-soprano opera singer who sings a delightful song at the end. 

13.  Wonderful artwork + new vocabulary + cake = happy!  

Cheerio and read something fun today! 

who doesn't love a treat? treat by mary sullivan

This comic-strip style picture book needs only one word to tell its story - TREAT!  This pudgy little pup really, really, really wants a treat.  He goes around his house, from family member to family member, asking, begging, beseeching them for the smallest nibble of biscuit.  His need for a treat gets more and more crazy as the book goes on which makes the story funnier and funnier.  This one was a real, well, treat to read.  (Sorry had to go there.) recommended age: 3+

poetry by month: part two

Hi there!  Here is part two of our poetry by month calendar! 

June 

Caroline Kennedy has done so much for the cause of bringing poetry to children.  I love the fireflies on this magical cover! 

Poems to Learn by Heart

By Caroline Kennedy

Buy on Amazon

July 

Learn fun and obscure facts about the Presidents past in funny poem form! 

Rutherford B., Who Was He?: Poems About Our Presidents

By Marilyn Singer

Buy on Amazon

August 

This collection has beloved and new authors writing some of the best poems about animals you can find, plus with National Geographic, you know the photography is going to be great! 

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry: 200 Poems with Photographs That Squeak, Soar, and Roar!

National Geographic Children's Books

Buy on Amazon

September 

September brings the start of school, and with that, the start of projects!  This poetry collection will come in handy planning out your kid's next science project. 

The Poetry of Science: The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science for Kids

By Sylvia Vardell, Janet Wong

Buy on Amazon

 

a great website for madeline fans!

Hi there!  If you are as big of a Madeline fan as I am, you should head over to Madeline.com .  I recently discovered that our favorite French red head as a great website dedicated to Ludwig Bemelmans and his most treasured work.  

The website has a complete list of the Madeline books, free printable coloring sheets, games and activities, and fun facts about the history of Madeline.  

Here is a post about my favorite Madeline collection and the perfect French cookies to nibble while reading!

http://www.booktomato.net/new-blog/2015/7/19/story-time-snacks-madeleines-for-madeline

story time + snacks: viking edition!

What makes a good book even better?  Snacks!  What makes a good snack even better?  Cookies!  Today we are reading tales about some of the most interesting characters in Scandinavian folklore -viking gods and goddess, frost giants, eight-legged flying horses, and trolls - and we have a Danish sugar cookie named Brunekager to nibble on as we read.  

Trolls and Norse Mythology are both by 1930s co-authors and married couple, Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire.  They wrote and illustrated several books of Norwegian folk tales with beautiful wood-block sketches and lively retellings of classic Scandinavian stories of trolls, gods and goddesses, snow giants, and more.  We have become very familiar with the characters in these stories lately with the popularity of the Avengers movies.  Well, here are the stories of some of the original Avengers!  Thor and his powerful hammer, the tricky Loki, the world of Asgard and its rainbow bridge, that all started here with Norse myths.  

The book of trolls is just as entertaining.  Trolls can be friendly and helpful or mean-spirited and greedy.  We had fun baking some Danish sugar cookies and reading these lively, dramatic stories!    

Brunekager 

Adapted from The Culinary Arts Institute The Cookie Jar

ingredients:

1 cup butter

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp cardamom 

• preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 
• Cream the butter and sugar together until fully combined and fluffy.  
• Add the egg and beat well. 
• Gradually add the flour and cardamom.  Blend well. 
• I like to scoop cookie dough with a basic ice cream scoop.  It makes the cookies uniform but may be a bigger cookie than you prefer (I like big cookies). If you want a smaller cookie, roll the dough into balls with your hand. 
• Press the dough with your hand or with the bottom of a drinking glass to slightly flatten it.  
• Bake on a buttered cookie sheet until there are golden edges, around 10 minutes. 

poetry by month: part one

Good morning and welcome to Booktomato! April is National Poetry Month, and to celebrate, we have collected a book of poetry for every month of the year.  Let's begin with part one of our collection! 

January 

Rimshots: Basketball Pix, Rolls, and Rhythms (Picture Puffin Books)

By Charles R. Smith

Buy on Amazon

You might assume that our January pick would be something related to snowflakes or snowmen, but Memphis is a big basketball town!  January is a big basketball month because the holiday fun is over, it's too cold to play outside, and we have a great NBA team playing several games a week downtown.  We have featured this poetry book on the blog before.  This one is for those sporty "I don't really like to read poems" readers.  The subject is something most kids will find interesting, and the language has a great fluid motion that keeps the reading lively. 

February

Honey, I Love and Other Love Poems (Reading Rainbow Series)

By Eloise Greenfield

Buy on Amazon

These love poems are dedicated to the simple pleasures of childhood, and if you haven't read anything by Greenfield, this is a perfect introduction to her work.  

March 

A Child's Garden of Verses

By Robert Louis Stevenson

Buy on Amazon

I had a very special teacher who I loved more than anything in elementary school, and every day she would recite "The Swing", a poem in this collection by Robert Louis Stevenson.  To this day, I can recite this poem and love this poem because of her.  These poems capture what it means to be a child - swinging really high, stomping in rain puddles, hearing birdsong, and discovering one's own shadow.  All of it is very tied to nature, so this feels like the perfect book for March and the beginnings of spring.

April 

For Laughing Out Loud: Poems to Tickle Your Funnybone

Knopf Books for Young Readers

Buy on Amazon

April is the month that begins with a laugh with its practical jokes on April Fools Day, so funny poems are the best pick for this month.  Humor is the best way to engage reluctant poetry readers, and no kid, young or old, can resist some of these funny poems!  This one has great illustrations too. 

May 

Poetry Speaks to Children (Book & CD) (A Poetry Speaks Experience)

Sourcebooks MediaFusion

Buy on Amazon

Once school is out at the end of May, we always are heading off some where on a road trip where we will spend approximately one million hours on a highway.  Along with snacks, dvds, and crayons, bring this book with you on your next long car trip.  It has a CD recording of the actual poets reading their poems aloud.  Your kids can use the book with its awesome illustrations to follow along in the backseat. 

Hope you enjoyed the first part of our poetry calendar!  Stay tuned for part two! 

have an out-of-this-world weekend! mousetronaut by astronaut mark kelly and c. f. payne!

TGIF!  We've all made it to the end of the week mostly unscathed and ready for a fun weekend!  What are your weekend plans?  Spring fever has officially set in at my house, and I'm finding it hard to get anything done that doesn't involve sitting on my porch swing.  

While we were in Chicago checking out their amazing science museums, we found this little gem in the Planetarium gift shop.  My preschooler is space obsessed, so this is right up his alley.  Your little astronauts might love it too! 

The author of this book is Mark Kelly, one of the Kelly brother astronauts.  Mark and Scott Kelly are twins who both work for NASA, and this past year, in order to study the long term effects that space has on the human body, Scott Kelly went into space for an entire year while his brother Mark stayed on Earth.  Because the brothers share similar DNA, NASA can compare them at the end of the prolonged time in space and see if there are any negative differences.  Scott Kelly just landed safely back on earth a few weeks ago.  

This is the story of a mouse named Meteor who is one of the mice being trained to go on a space mission with the astronauts. Only the biggest, strongest mice will be chosen for the mission, and Meteor is the smallest of the group, so he knows that the chances of him being picked to go are pretty slim.  But when an astronaut sees how hard Meteor works at his training, he picks him anyway, and Meteor gets to go up in space!  While on the mission, Meteor is needed to save the day, and he earns the official title of mousetronaut! 

Have a great weekend!  

old macdonald had a truck by steve goetz and eda kaban

Take a look at this cute version of Old MacDonald that is perfect for fans of construction trucks!  Farmer and Mrs. MacDonald are busy, busy building something, and they need every construction truck they can find.  What they are building is a fun surprise at the end. 

Most kids I know go through a MAJOR construction vehicle phase, and this is perfect for delving into everything construction from the names of the vehicles to the sounds they make all in a fun song! 

on the look out for a new book series!

Hi there!  Welcome to Booktomato.  If your new here, every day we share our favorites in children's literature - some new, some classic.  My nine year old needs a new book series to read.  He has read every How to Train Your Dragon and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and he needs to find something new.  I relate to his love of series.  I love to read about the same characters going on different adventures.  It makes me feel like I really get to know them, and they become friends!  

Here are some of the book series that I am eyeing for him.

Secret Agent Jack Stalwart Book 1: The Escape of the Deadly Dinosaur

By Elizabeth Singer Hunt

Buy on Amazon

Rescue!: A Bindi Irwin Adventure (Bindi's Wildlife Adventures)

By Bindi Irwin, Jess Black

Buy on Amazon

Oona Finds an Egg (The Oodlethunks #1)

By Adele Griffin

Buy on Amazon

An Excellent Invention (The Tinklers Three)

By M.C. Badger

Buy on Amazon

What do you think?  I want to hear your recommendations for favorite book series!  

have a colorful weekend! planting a rainbow by lois ehlert

What are your plans this weekend?  The plant nursery in my neighborhood has put out loads of new plants for spring planting, and I think I will go get a few flats of flowers to plant this weekend.  Here is a little gardening inspiration from the master of colorful children's art - Lois Ehlert! 

This sweet little board book features Ehlert's characteristic collage style art work.  Little readers learn the process of planting a garden from seed and bulb all the way to beautiful blooms.  I love the back pages that sort the flowers by the colors of the rainbow.  So happy and pretty!  

Whatever you do this weekend, make sure to take some time to read a good book!  

reading rainbow makes a comeback! a review of skybrary school

Butterfly in the sky!  My heart broke into a million pieces a few years ago when it was announced that Reading Rainbow was being taken off the air.  I wanted my kids to have the same wonderful experiences that I had while watching this beloved show.  Well, Lavar Burton and Reading Rainbow are back and better than ever!  I signed up for a trial membership with Reading Rainbow's new online service to be able to report back to you what I found.  

WHO: Lavar Burton and Reading Rainbow

WHAT:  Skybrary School, an online subscription service that provides teachers with access to hundreds of digital books and educational videos on any subject you could want.  

HOW:  When I signed up for a free trial of the service (which by the way - you can sign up for one too.  I'm not a teacher or school employee, and even though this is touted as a service for classroom teachers, it still allowed me to sign up as a parent.)  I was directed to a dashboard command center for the teacher to organize and record everything from a list of her students, what books each student read and how much time they spent reading them, a Reading Rainbow blog with literacy tips, a library tab with several hundred digital books, a tab to record and organize her reading curriculum.  So much!  

The digital books - as I scrolled through the books offered in the library, I saw many, many Caldecott and Newberry winners.  It was a really good selection.  Each book gives the option to have the book read aloud to the student, or the narration can be turned off so the student can read it for themselves.  

In addition to the library, there is also Skybrary.  It is like a magical world of floating islands with each island representing a different book genre.  When you click on an island, you get a list of books and a collection of Reading Rainbow videos that are related to the genre.  For example, I clicked on "Adventure", and I found a list of books and videos about travelling to far away places, pirates, and archaeology.  

WHERE: https://www.readingrainbow.com/school  The subscription is a bit pricey.  It is $179 for a yearly membership.  I do feel like teachers would really use this though, and I know that purchasing the amount of books available in their online library would be way over the cost of membership.  

VERDICT: Despite the price of membership being a bit high, I was impressed with the quality and quantity of great kids lit that Skybrary offers.  The graphics were fun and interactive.  I know my kids would be really engaged with the material offered here.  I might see if several parents in my child's class want to go in together on a membership for our teacher as an end of the year gift.  Go to the website and give it a free try today.  Signing up gives you an entire month of great books and videos for free! 

bear and bunny by daniel pinkwater and will hildebrand

Hello there!  Welcome to Booktomato!  Today we are reading this sweet little water-colored picture book, Bear and Bunny by Daniel Pinkwater and Will Hildebrand.  Come read along with us! 

"The bunny and the bear are friends.  They like to wander in the woods, look for things to eat, and talk things over."

While reading this story of a bear and bunny companionship, I was reminded a lot of another bear and bunny friendship, well actually, a bear/bunny/donkey/tiger/piglet/owl relationship.  This book is very much like and maybe even inspired by The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in the story's tone and pacing and the way the characters get their facts delightfully wrong sometimes.  This isn't a BAM POW action in your face book, but instead, Bear and Bunny have slow paced, gentle but entertaining conversations as they walk through the forest.  Towards the middle of the book, they decide to find themselves a pet to love and care for, and they find the cutest little frog to take home with them.  

We enjoyed this story a good deal, but with one edit I made as I was reading.  The story meanders like a little stream, and the slow pacing combined with its larger word count made it just slightly too long to read in one sitting with my preschooler.  I found as I read it that there are several natural stopping places within the story almost like the book wants to have chapters.  I just broke the story up into those chapters and read it in installments for my three year old.  Naturally, an older child, like a first grader, could sit through the whole thing.  

Have a great day and take some time today to read a good book!