Look Out, Suzy Goose

Look Out, Suzy Goose by Petr Horáček
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked this up to read at a storytime I did in April, and I honestly can't remember whether I ended up using it. It's a cute story about a goose who goes to the woods to escape the loud honking of her flock and is blissfully unaware of the predators stalking her (and each other). There are repeated sounds that kids can say with you (i.e. flip flop, creep creep, honk, etc.), which give great opportunities for interactivity, and you can have the children try and predict what will happen at the end. But I'm doubtful about the authenticity of the food chain depicted. Foxes might see geese as prey, but how often do wolves see foxes as food, or bears eat wolves & foxes & geese? And would any of those predators be scared off by an owl hooting? Maybe??

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Chicken, Chicken, Duck!

Chicken, Chicken, Duck! by Nadia Krilanovich
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I read the description of this book and had to do a double-take because, wait, there was humor? And the animals are "up to something"? Well, OK, at the end they stand on top of each other in a sort of animal-cheerleader-pyramid thing.

I read this book for a toddler storytime because I was looking for a book with a lot of different animal sounds in it. Having kids making/imitating animal sounds is actually an early literacy skill, which is what I was going for, and from that standpoint it was a success. But there is virtually no story to the book, so dialogic reading is essential if you want to keep the children's attention. To be honest, I hadn't noticed any humor or "surprising details in the illustrations"--although the illustrations are well-rendered, it's not like the animals are introduced in any logical order other than what (mostly) makes the rhythm flow.

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Glasswings: A Butterfly's Story

Glasswings: A Butterfly's Story by Elisa Kleven
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this book to my daughter's preschool class when they were learning about butterflies and insects, and the kids really enjoyed it, although they were very concerned when Claire, the glasswing butterfly, got separated from her family. It's a nice story that highlights how butterflies and other insects & birds benefit gardens: pollinating the flowers, eating insect pests, and spreading seeds. The part of the story where Claire's extended family finds her in the city was rather improbable, but it did reassure and calm the worried children.

When reading to an individual child and not a group, I'd suggest taking a lot more time to look at the beautiful illustrations and talk about what is going on in the background, such as the community members working on the garden.

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