Explorink

Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!-Mo Willems August 21, 2007

Mo Willems’ (I do love this guy.) book, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, creates the most interesting problem in my library. The story shows us a very determined pigeon yearning to drive a bus. As the bus driver has asked us not to let that happen, we’ve got our work cut out for us. The students are the “No!” people and I get to do the pleading. The problem? The word “No.” Now, as any child knows, the word must be used just right. We can’t have a wimpy “No.”-you know, the one that has a question mark at the end, the one that says to the child, “Ahh, just two and a half more deliciously annoying whines and she’s toast.” nor can we have the yelled “NO!”. (There are classes next door, for Pete’s sake.) So we settle for the firm “I mean it but I’m not going to maim you No.” So it begins. The pleadings, (Oh, I’m so good at this.) the “No’s”. The pleadings, the “No’s”. This until the bus driver comes back and (Da-Dah!) success. The pigeon disconsolately fades into the…Wait! What’s that? A Semi?

Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
Written and Illustrated by Mo Willems
Accelerated Reader RL 0.9
(Review by Letha)

Bark, George-Jules Feiffer August 20, 2007

George is a dog with a problem. “George’s mother said: ‘Bark George’. George went: ‘Meow.’” George’s increasingly frustrated Mother keeps “encouraging” George to bark, but the results produce anything but an arf. Time to dust off the Health Net card and take the misvoiced dog to the doctor, er, vet. After some pretty invasive “surgery” (Dr. R., please don’t get any ideas.), George is cured. Did I say cured? Hmm. Bark, George is written by Jules Feiffer and is a great book to read to students, but in my James Bond super-spy mode, I’ve overheard students reading it to themselves with some rather realistic quacks and oinks and, no surprise here, giggles.

Bark, George
Written and Illustrated by Jules Feiffer

• Bark, George at Amazon
• Jules Feiffer Website

The Baby Beebee Bird-Diane Redfield Massie

Please say the following in a high-pitched baby bird voice: (Yes, there is such a thing.) “Beebeebobbibobbi beebeebobbibobbi beebeebobbibobbi beebeebobbibobbi beebeebobbibobbi beebeebobbibobbi.” And therein lies the premise for The Baby Beebee Bird by Diane Redfield Massie. The animals at the zoo “…were all asleep. The zoo was very still …until…” well, see above repetition. The zoo creatures, of course being unable to sleep, devise a scheme to, um, help the Baby Beebee Bird adjust his wakeful hours to a more reasonable time. After all, “Nighttime is really best for sleeping…especially for very little birds.” Alas, if nothing else, the kids at school can really relate to the annoying part-visualize a virtual plethora of sly grins. I should mention that I’ve been stricken from best friend status of many a teacher as their students “Beebeebobbibobbi” all the way back to class. The illustrations by Steven Kellogg-How could it be anyone else?-are colorful and kid-friendly. You know what? I probably should have written this review at a different time of day. Oh, well, beebeebobbibobbi beebeebobbibobbi beebe…

The Baby Beebee Bird
Written by Diane Redfield Massie
Illustrated by Steven Kellogg
Accelerated Reader RL 2.5

• The Baby Beebee Bird at Amazon
• Steven Kellogg-Illustrator

The Last Puppy-Frank Asch August 19, 2007

Frank Asch is probably best known in elementary libraries for his Moonbear series and the students at my school seem to gravitate towards them more than his other titles. But I don’t read Moonbear to students. I read The Last Puppy. It’s the rare child who doesn’t feel the sadness of “…the last of Momma’s nine puppies”, “…the last to open my eyes.”, “…the last puppy.” This, until a little boy saves us all by saying: “You know what? You’re my first puppy.” Yea! Happy ending! It had to be! Now, we all know children relate to little helpless creatures. (I sometimes think if I read another children’s book about mice, I’ll start squeaking.) Frank Asch brings us this helplessness and then leads on to a very clever conclusion.

The Last Puppy
Written and Illustrated by Frank Asch
Accelerated Reader RL 2.1

• Frank Asch Books 

My Lucky Day-Keiko Kasza August 18, 2007

“This must be my lucky day!” shouts the fox when a delicious-looking piglet knocks on his door by “mistake”. (Oops.) Somehow this “misdirected” piglet wangles a bath, a scrumptious meal and a massage before the “lucky” fox collapses from exhaustion. In Keiko Kasza’s trickster tale My Lucky Day, the table is set (literally) for fun. The students are swept along with the piglet’s plight-not plan yet-until we find the clean, well-fed, relaxed hero checking out his address book for his next victim, er, visit.

My Lucky Day
Written and Illustrated by Keiko Kasza
Accelerated Reader RL 2.3

• My Lucky Day at Amazon