Winter Friends

Winter Friends by Mary Quattlebaum and illustrated by Hiroe Nakata, 2005

Brief annotation:

A snowfall.
A lost mitten.
A chance meeting.
A winter day just right for new friendships and fun.
The weather outside may be frosty, but Mary Quattlebaum’s lively story in poems and Hiroe Nakata’s joyful illustrations celebrate the good times to be had by all. So curl up with Winter Friends and delight in the simple pleasure of the season!

Themes include friendship, poetry and winter.

This book in verse is good to ease the youngest readers into an appreciation of poetry. It is a good storytime book during the winter months.

Bark, George

Bark, George by Jules Feiffer, 1999

Brief annotation:

"Bark, George," says George's mother, and George goes: "Meow," which definitely isn't right, because George is a dog.

And so is his mother, who repeats, "Bark, George." And George goes, "Quack, quack."

Themes include animals and the sounds they make as well as humor.

This book is a fun and funny book for young students to express themselves as different animals and to identify the sounds that George is making every time his mother instructs him to bark.

Up the Steps, Down the Slide

Up the Steps, Down the Slide by Jonathan Allen, 1992

Brief annotation:

Rhyming text and illustrations featuring a pair of cats present such opposites as over and under, on and off, and open and shut.

Themes include rhyming and repetition to illustrate opposites and get children guessing what will come next.

This book is a good introduction to opposites that occur in everyday life. The rhyming gets young readers involved by introducing vocabulary that they quickly become familiar with and are able to fill in the blanks on second reads. Good for new readers as well to build confidence and maybe get to read in front of their classmates.