Welcome to Day 24!
I love this book!
Have you seen it?
I read it to one of my five year old friends recently.
She’s related to one of my housemates,
and whenever she comes over,
she immediately runs upstairs to my room
to see what new books I have
and to play with my toys.
I have many toys that were my favorites as a kid:
- blocks,
- My Little Ponies,
- play food,
- and lots of costume stuff!
We always end up having fun together!
Well, last time she was over we read this book.
“Oh I loved that book,” she said.
“Except it was kind of sad closing the books one by one.”
When I asked her why, she said,
“I just kind of wish that books could stay open forever.”
I met Jesse Klausmeier at SCBWI LA, and she’s awesome!
If you haven’t seen this book yet, you HAVE to look for it!
Title: Open this little book
Published by: Chronicle Books, 2013
Written by: Jesse Klausmeier
Illustrated by: Suzy Lee
Word Count: 165
Pages: 40
In one word: Charmingly-interactive
In one sentence: Keep opening up the little books in this book to follow along with the story and have fun closing them too!
Favorite pages:
Likes:
- I LOVE the texture of the illustrations of the book covers. It makes them look very real.
- There is something so magical about opening and closing the books.
- The story is so simple and charming!
- the variety of animals.
- I love the call to action at the end!
- great repetitive sentence structure too!
Learns:
- Books about books are still awesome and people still want to read them. This makes me very happy, because I love books about books too!
- You can have a vision as an author for something that relies heavily on the illustrator, and, in this case, the design of the book.
Have you read this one?
Getting any ideas for your own stories through reading all these picture books?
again, thanks for reading along!
Until tomorrow (and it’s a multiple of 5, so GIVEAWAY!)
KE and SS
I read Book 1 in The Tale of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. I hope they have book 2 when I go to the library later.
I actually bought the final book in the series when it came out. I really wanted to read it to make sure it didn’t end badly. I haven’t though.
Hi KE, haven’t read that book yet. I will check to see if our library has it though. I read bread and honey yesterday by frank Asch. Loved it!
I also loved the look of the centerfold where all the books were opened. But I think the story was a bit too simple for me. Or maybe your friend has it right, and the sadness of closing all the books got to me.
My book for today is TOO MUCH GLUE by Jason Lefebvre, illustrated by Zac Retz, 2013, Flashlight Books, 710 words. Do yourself a favor and read this book. I was greatly impressed. The story is well written and chuckle-out-loud funny, and it’s perfectly balanced with delightful illustrations.
Matty uses too much glue in his school art projects. One day, he pours a “lake” of glue on his project and dives in — literally — and gets stuck. The kids in his class, the teacher, the school nurse, the principal… no one can get him loose. The story builds and the ending is very satisfying.
Love this book!
LOL! Yes, I just read that book. And I have met Jesse also. Read another Peter Brown book: “You Will Be My Friend!”
Today, I read GIRAFFES CAN’T DANCE by Giles Andreae. This book is 482-words. It is about a giraffe who could not dance until a cricket convinced him to listen to the sway of the breeze. It is witty, quirky, and fun. This book is written in rhyme and it was amazing.
Today I read Once Upon a Time…The End by Geoffrey Kloske. It is a really funny book about a father trying to get his son to sleep. As the night goes on, he keeps shortening the stories he tells. I thought it was hilarious because I do the same thing! Not so sure the kids got it though…
I’m glad that stories about books are still strong. I have a manuscript I wrote about books, too.
I read Skippyjon Jones in Mummy Trouble. I like how she weaves rhyme w/prose and invents fun words.
This book looks like such fun. Today I read SEA MONSTER AND THE BOSSY FISH by Kate Messner and illustrated by Andy Rash. I enjoyed the clever side comments and expressive illustrations and wonder if and how Kate wrote them into her manuscript when she submitted it. My favorite line is, “Doesn’t he know Carp is a vegetarian?”
I read Boxes for Katje by Candace Fleming and illustrated by Stacey Dressen-McQueen. This is a heartwarming, true story about reciprocity and generosity. In 1945, Europe was in ruins from WWII and so Americans sent boxes of goods to help out. A small box intended to help one little girl eventually grew to multiple boxes to help an entire community. This one would be great for Christmas since it highlights the spirit of giving.
Bought this one for my girlies at your recommendation!
We read “The Tree House” and “The Island” by Marije Tolman and Ronald Tolman, after seeing Island featured here. I enjoyed these. Both are wordless and feature the same magical world. The kids liked the oversized pages and immediately made up a story to go with the illustrations, so it definitely stimulated the imagination!