Wo-hoo, Day 3!
This book’s cover and title caught my eye.
I’ve never been a night owl.
If I absolutely HAVE to, I’ll stay up late,
but I’ve never,
no once,
NOT EVER
had a problem going to sleep.
I have,
MANY TIMES,
had trouble staying up late!
So, this book intrigued me 🙂
Title: The Insomniacs
Published by: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, a division of Penguin, 2012
Written by: Karina Wolf
Illustrated by: The Brothers Hilts
Word Count: 600
Pages: 32
In one word: Affirming
In one sentence: Everyone’s different and that’s ok; it’s how you make the differences work for you that really matters.
Favorite pages:
Likes:
- The use of light in the illustrations. You’d think it’d be tricky since most of the story takes place at night, but the illustrations are wonderfully done.
- The language of of the sentences makes the whole thing feel so poetic.
- Great idea and a unique concept
- Awesome information about things that thrive at night…plants and animals.
- A child reading the story will feel like, “It’s ok to be different. It’s ok to be me.”
Learns:
- 600 words isn’t too many. This book didn’t feel long to me at all, though 600 as a number feels long.
- Stories about a family and their collective problem are very cool!
- Take one thing and flip it (staying away at night instead of during the day) and it can lead to a great story like this!
Whew!
All this talk about the night makes me want to go back to bed…
and it’s 6 in the morning!
Has anyone read this one?
And what are you reading today!
Until next time,
KE and SS
I’ve heard about this book but haven’t read it. And it IS bedtime here. hehe. I read Linda Sue Park’s “Tap Dancing on the Roof,” a poetry book using Korean-style poetry, similar to the Japanese Haiku. I’m trying to learn how to write this kind of poetry called shee-jo.
Neat! Glad to learn about shee-jo Tina.
That’s cool, Tina.
I’ve never heard of that kind of poetry.
Thanks for sharing!
I’m definitely a night owl. Always have been. I sometimes have to force myself to go to bed at 1 or 2 a.m. So when I read this book, I totally related. Felt like I was reading about my ancestors. LOL For those of you who haven’t read it, go find it!
I’m off to write with my group. Will post again later with what I’ve read. (Hmmm…wonder what it will be?)
Wow, being a night owl is tough Carol. Way to pull it off!
I have not read THE INSOMNIACS, but I will read it w/i the next 48 hours.
Today, the book I read for the Picture Book #31in31 Challenge was WILEY AND THE HAIRY MAN retold by Judy Sierra and illustrated by Brian Pinkney.
This book is long for a picture book – 1871-words. However, it took me less than 10 minutes to read. This is a story about a boy who outwitted a monster who wanted to capture him. His mother assisted him and I feel like it had the elements of “David and Goliath” with an African Folktale twist. I enjoyed reading it.
1871 WORDS!
WOW!
This sounds like a good book but 1800 words…I almost can’t believe it.
I’ll have to check it out.
Love Brian Pinkney’s art!
Thanks for sharing!
I read “Frankenstein A Monstrous Parody” by Ludworst Bemonster. If you are a fan of the “Madeline” books, you might like this one too!
I love the Madeline books!
And parodies!
I’ll definitely have to check this one out.
Thanks for sharing!
I have read “The Insomniacs” and loved it too! Of course, I am a night owl and have suffered from bouts of insomnia. If I remember correctly, I may have read it while under the spell of jet lag.
Today I plan to read “Scaredy Squirrel”, which I found at the library. It is his birthday, after all.
Scaredy Squirrel…what a guy!
He’s hilarious.
And the spell of jet lag…yikes.
That’ll turn anyone into an insomniac.
Thanks for sharing!
I have not read THE INSOMNIACS but it’s going on my ever- growing list. I read LLAMA LLAMA AND THE BULLY GOAT by Anna Dewdney. Anyone else a Llama Llama fan?
I feel like I’ve read Llama Llama, but I can’t remember them.
I’ll have to give them another read.
I’ve heard they are a lot of fun.
Thanks for sharing!
To be seasonally appropriate – I read “How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin” by Margaret McNamara.
Summary: Charlie, the smallest child in his first grade class, is amazed to discover that of the three pumpkins his teacher brings to school, the tiniest one has the most seeds.
1153 words – yikes!
This sounds great!
Very parallel story between the smallest child and the smallest pumpkin.
1153 words!
Wow.
I hope more longer picture books get published; sometimes you need more words to tell a story.
Thanks for sharing!
For Day 3, I read “Halloween Good-Night” by Doug Cushman. More Halloween books will surely follow, considering what month it is and how much I love Halloween and all kinds of seasonal children’s books.
“Halloween Good-Night” is a charming fantasy of well-known Halloween characters saying “good-night” to their little ones. Most of the illustrated examples are simply of silly ways these characters could say good-night. The two exceptions include a little mummy and his mummy mommy saying “good-night” in hieroglyphs and an alien mother and children saying “good-night” in an unreadable alien language. To add to this minor theme, the final page features word bubbles saying “good-night” in different languages.
The illustrations are playful and funny, and what I found the most fun about reading this book aloud was saying all the different versions of “good-night” in scary Halloween voices.
Doug Cushman wrote/illustrated “Christmas Eve Good Night” too! Same concept, with wintery characters like polar bears, snowmen, elves. I read both at their respective holiday last year and enjoyed them.
I love using scary Halloween voices.
This one sounds fun.
I’m intrigued now about the different kinds of creatures!
Thanks for sharing!
Sounds interesting. Love the illos; I’ll have to check it out! I read Sweet Moon Baby by Karen Henry Clark. Illustrations are so, so adorable. Story is very sweet.
I’m a sucker for sweet stories; I’ll have to check this one out.
Thanks for sharing!
I read AGAIN! by Emily Gravett (author/illustrator). If you have a little one who asks for a book to be read again, you’ll relate to this book. And you’ll laugh and appreciate the imagination at the end. If you get the book to read, don’t look at the back of the book until you’ve read to the end. 😉
btw, where are y’all getting word counts?
I loved that book Carol!
Thanks for sharing it.
I love what happens at the end.
I’ll put a link in the post tomorrow about where I get the word counts.
It’s a pretty handy little tool!
One of our picks today was a great read-aloud, “Hattie And The Fox” by Mem Fox and illustrated by Patricia Mullins. My 2 year old and 5 year old both love the gentle tension as a fox slowly emerges from the bushes while all the farm animals except for Hattie the Hen remain unconcerned- until it’s almost too late! The repetition allows for listeners to anticipate what’s coming next and the cast of animals makes for some silly read-aloud voices. The resolution and final illustration are very funny.
I remember this book as a kid, Stacey!
I also remember loving the same things…especially the fox sneaking up.
Thanks for sharing!
I read LITTLE RED WRITING by Joan Holub, illustrated with
such brilliant details by Melissa Sweet. It’s a great fractured
fairy tale focused on writing, and as a teacher I plan to use it as
a mentor text. Chronicle Books has a fantastic teacher guide
too.
Awesome, Susan!
I saw this book on the big screen at SCBWI LA.
I loved the fractured fairy tale element as well,
and imagine it would go GREAT in the classroom!
Books from Chronicle are THE BEST!
Thanks for sharing!
I read “The Day I Met the Nuts” by a local northern VA author, Mary Rand Hess, illustrated by Candice Hartsough McDonald. I actually reread it because I’m doing a “Picture Book Fun” class in two weeks at my sons’ elementary school for an afterschool program for Kindergartners and First Grade. Anyway, I wanted to showcase a few local authors so I picked her fun book about a little boy who finds out he’s allergic to nuts. On every page you can find a squirrel, so we’re doing a squirrel art project too. It’ll be so fun!
Debra, you live in Northern Virginia? Me, too! Where in Northern Virginia do you live?
Hi Lily, I live in Sterling. What about you?
I live in Fairfax, right outside Burke.
Way to support the local authors, Debra!
Thanks for sharing!
(Also, I think my spirit animal is a squirrel so I can totally relate. My friends and I like to ponder our spiritual animals from time to time!)
You like to talk about spirit animals? Me, too! This just might influence another book I share…
Another books to add to my ‘must-read pile’ I like the look of the illustrations in ‘The Insomniacs’.
Today I read ‘The Skeleton Pirate’ by David Lucas, another author/ illustrator. I quite liked the quirky sense of humor including a map of the inside of a whale with a sign on a door to its ear!
Yvonne,
This book sounds great!
I’m a sucker for pirates and quirky.
thanks for sharing!
Today, we read A Pet for Petunia. It’s about a little girl who desperately wants a skunk for a pet. At first, I thought it was going to be just another pet book (there are so many out there), but it turned about to be pretty funny. I think I laughed harder than the kids did!
A skunk, huh? I’m always looking for books about stinky things.
Kirsten:
I’ve heard great things about this book.
And I agree, it’s hard to do “another pet book” but the ones that break the mold somehow are often super hilarious!
(I’ve actually got a “pet” manuscript with my agent right now that we’re both really excited about. It kind of turns the genre on it’s head a little bit. We’ll see what happens with it!)
Thanks for sharing!
Today I read “Hopalong Jack and the Blue Bunnies.” It’s a wonderful story of being special and unique, but what really makes it take the carrot cake is its beautiful illustrations. These illustrations are among the most detailed I’ve ever seen in a children’s book. They depict a very elaborate bunny community both in the forest and underground.
This particular copy I got signed from the author (who’s also the illustrator) at a crafts fair. She wrote: “Writers are always welcome in our hollow as long as they eat their peas.”
I read “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane!” I LOVE this book! As you will see from some of my future choices this month, I am a sucker for stories about come to life toys. (Can you guess which bunny book makes me cry now)? Anyway, it would be AWESOME to win this signed copy!