You don't have to be a fan of jazz to enjoy Kristyn Crow's Cool Daddy Rat. You do have to be a fan of well-written, creative, rhythmy, and fun-rhyming text. Mike Lester's art, a sort of messy pencil with bright watercolors, seems to look like how jazz feels. With every phrase of story, Crow puts in a short, jazzy musical rhyme: hippy zippy zee zat, lookie lookie see dat, yipsy tipsy top dat. This is exactly the kind of book I make big hype about in our Emergent Literacy class. It's perfect for developing phonemic awareness in young children because Crow's text plays with language. Was that the author's intention, to make it into my recommended reading list for my EL class? I doubt it, but she does a great job anyway. Aside from the beautiful text itself, the story is sweet and endearing. You can feel the love between Cool Daddy and Ace, his stowaway son, both in words and pictures. A wonderful read aloud to read again and again. (P.S. - If you're wondering what the EL class is . . . call 852-6682. hurry scurry rat rat!)
Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs By Mo Willems New York: Balzar + Bray, 2012. Picture Book. "Once upon a time, there were three hungry Dinosaurs: Papa Dinosaur, Mama Dinosaur . . . and a Dinosaur who happened to be visiting from Norway. One day--for no particular reason--they decided to tidy up their house, make the beds, and prepare pudding of varying temperatures. And then--for no particular reason--they decided to go . . . someplace else. They were definitely not setting a trap for some succulent, unsupervised little girl. Definitely not!" --Editor Smart Vs. Strong! Written by Jill Esbaum Illustrated by Miles Thompson New York: Simon Spotlight, 2021. Easy Reader. 64 pages. "When Thunder gets stuck in quicksand, Cluck uses his smarts to free his friend." --Editor How Dinosaurs Went Extinct Written by Ame Dyckman Illustrated by Jennifer Harney New York: Brown and Company, 2023. Picture Book. "When a child in a museum asks how dinosaurs became extinct, Dad co
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