Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming

Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming is a wonderful bed time story, but it's also a great book to use as a jump of point for all kinds of learning. Bear smells winter in the air and knows it's time to head to his den to sleep, but before he settles down he reminds snail that it's his bed time too. Before snail heads to bed he reminds skunk that it's his bed time, and so on.  Each animal notices another sign that winter is setting in and makes sure he reminds still another animal that it's time to prepare for winter hibernation.

Denise Fleming, both the author and the illustrator of this book and many other books, has done a great job of putting together words and pictures that make this story captivating.  On Denise Fleming's website you can read about the very interesting way that she makes her illustrations using pulp painting.  She even provides instructions on how to make your own paper.  Also on her website is a page dedicated to activities specifically for Time to Sleep. Actually, you'll find pages with activities for most, if not all, of her books on her site.  Anna and I had great fun using the patterns from her site to make the characters from the book.

This book can inspire all kinds of learning.  The interesting way the illustrations are made make this a great book to use for an art lesson.  The content of the book makes it a great resource for a science lesson talking about the changing of the seasons and/or hibernating animals.  I used it as a chance to talk about both with Anna.  I also found online A Kindergarten Lesson: Animals Prepare for Winter which includes Time to Sleep as one of the books used for the lesson and suggests ways to use it for a math lesson to teach ordinal numbers.

Whether you choose to use the book simply as a bedtime story or as a jump of point to some kind of learning, Time to Sleep is sure to be a book you will enjoy.

The Sweetest One of All by Jean Little

The Sweetest One of All by Jean Little is a very sweet book.  There are new born animals on the farm and each new born is told by it's mother that it is the sweetest one of all.

Anna and I both really liked this book.  It is just so.....sweet!  The wonderful illustrations by Marisol Sarrazin  add to the sweetness of the book.

There is a bit of alliteration in some of the text of the book and I had fun pointing that out to Anna.

Emma's New Game by Gerald Mercer

Emma's New Game by Gerald Mercer is actually the second book in a series of books about a little girl named Emma that lives in Newfoundland.  In Emma's New Game Emma's grandfather tells Emma and her friends about a game he and his friends used to play when they were younger.  The game was played with chestnuts.  Emma's friends run home to ask their grandfather's about the game and before too long the grandchildren and the grandfathers meet together for a match to find out who is the champion.

Both the author and illustrator, Jillian Nicol, are from Newfoundland. 

I love this book because it shows a wonderful relationship between the generations.  Anna wants us to find some chestnuts and play the game as soon as we can.  I've promised we'll do that early in the fall.

Emma's New Game would make a great addition to a number of different learning situations.  It could be used in a social studies lesson to start a discussion on the types of games people played in times past.  It would be a fun addition to a science lesson about different trees and tree identification and uses of trees.  It could be used as the jump of point to a math lesson about addition, discussing the way that champions were named in the game.

I see a revival of the game as children are exposed to the book Emma's New Game.

Watch out! Big Bro's Coming! by Jez Alborough

We loved this book!  In Watch out! Big Bro's Coming! Little mouse is terrified because Big Bro is coming after him.  He meets a frog and the frog asks how big Big Bro is.  Mouse stretches his arms as wide as he can and says, "This big!"  as he scampers off to hide.  Frog is now terrified and shares the news with another animal and stretches his arms as wide as he can to show how big Big Bro is, and so goes the story.  The news gets passed from bigger animal to bigger animal with each one using his own arm spread to show how big Big Bro is.  All the animals are rather surprised at the end of the story when they see Big Bro and discovered how big he really is.

Jez Alborough is both the author and illustrator of this book, and many others.  The illustrations are bright and fun and add so much to the story.  On his website, Jez Alborough shares The Story of a Picture Book  explaining how picture books are created and he uses the example of how he created Watch Out! Big Bro's Coming!

This is a great book to read just for fun, but it can also add some fun to a math class about measurement and the important of standardized measurements.

Watch Out! Big Bro's Coming! is sure to be enjoyed by everyone.

A Treasury of Jillian Jiggs by Phoebe Gilman

A Treasury of Jillian Jiggs by Phoebe Gilman is a collection of all five of Gilman's books about the Jillian Jiggs character.  It includes Jillian Jiggs, The Wonderful Pigs of Jillian Jiggs ,  Jillian Jiggs to the Rescue, Jillian Jigg's and the Secret Surprise, and Jillian Jiggs and the Great Big Snow.  Also included is background information on each of the books and clues of things hidden in the books.  It would make a great addition to any book shelf.

Jillian Jiggs by Phoebe Gilman was a favorite of my first three children, who are now young adults.  We read the book often but our copy of the book disappeared and I hadn't read it to Anna, our little surprise that arrived in our home when our first three were teenagers. I was thrilled to come across it while checking the shelves of our local library.  I hardly needed to read the words because I still remembered them from all the times I had read them years before.   The book starts with "Jillian, Jillian, Jillian Jiggs!  It looks like your room has been lived in by pigs!"  Like many children, Jillian Jiggs has trouble keeping her room tidy because she's too busy being creative.  The repeated phrases in the story make it so much fun!

I also remember reading The Wonderful Pigs of Jillian Jiggs to my first three children.  In this story Jillian makes herself a little stuffed pig, and then another, and then another, and before long her room is over taken by her stuffed pigs.  At the back of the book are instructions to make your own stuffed pig just like Jillian's.

The other three Jillian books I hadn't read until this past year when I found a copy of A Treasury of Jillian Jiggs in our local library.  I'm so glad we discovered it.

Jillian Jiggs to the Rescue is a cute story where Jillian comes to the rescue of Rebecca, her little sister, when Rebecca has a scary dream about a monster.  The book ends with a really cute surprise.

I didn't enjoy Jillian Jigg's and the Secret Surprise as much as the others, but it was okay.  It is Rebecca's birthday and Jillian doesn't have money to buy her a gift, so she decides to put on a play for Rebecca, but she has to keep changing her plans.  It is a cute story just not as catchy as the others.  In the back of the book is the script for the play Jillian did.  Phoebe Gilman's website also has a page with ideas on what to do to put the play on yourself

Jillian Jiggs and the Great Big Snow is almost as good as the first three.  Jillian and her friends have loads of fun playing in the snow, but Jillian keeps losing something - her hat, her mittens, her scarf.  She decides to replace her lost hat with a special hat from her dress up box and it results in some very creative snow creations.

Along with writing the stories Phoebe Gilman also did the illustrations.  Her pictures are fun and colourful but they are made even more special because of something neat Phoebe Gilman did. In each new book that she wrote, she included some kind of pictorial reference to all her previous books.  It is fun to look for those in the books.

If you click on the first four individual book titles above you will be brought to a page on Phoebe Gilman's website with information about the book and a list of things to look for in the illustrations.  I'm assuming she didn't get a chance to create such a page for the last book as it was the last Jillian Jiggs book she wrote before she died.

The Jillian Jiggs books are not the only books that Phoebe Gilman wrote, but they are our favorite ones and I love the fact that they are all together in A Treasury of Jillian Jiggs by Phoebe Gilman.

The Newfoundland and Labrador ABC Alphabet Book by Dale Ryan

What a beautiful book!  The pictures are amazing in this Alphabet Book that has a special Newfoundland flavour.  Every page of The Newfoundland and Labrador ABC Alphabet Book is an original painting by the author.  Many of these painting can be seen in Dale Ryan's art gallery on the Newfoundland Shop website.   The text is made up of rhyming couplets on each double page spread.  Every Newfoundlander will relate to the pictures, and the text in this book.  Sharing this book with a child is a great way to pass on pride for our home province and much of what makes us unique.  Anna and I both enjoyed this book we borrowed from our local library but I definitely want to get a copy for our home library.

My Promise Rainbow and the Story of Noah's Ark by Sally Lloyd-Jones

My Promise Rainbow and the Story of Noah's Ark, written by Sally Lloyd-Jones and illustrated by Patricia Jennings, was given us a while back by a family whose children had outgrown the book.  I don't think I'm going to be real quick to give it up because I love it so much.  

My Promise Rainbow and the Story of Noah's Ark is a shaped board book with over 25 flaps for children to peek under, and you know how much they love doing that.  There is a double page spread for 5 colours of the rainbow and the pages are cut and designed so that when the book is closed they make a rainbow.  All but one flap on each coloured spread hides objects and animals of the featured colour.  The other flap on each page hides a Bible verse of promise, each one for a different purpose - when you're scared, worried, sad,  lonely or need help.

On Sally Lloyd-Jones website I discovered that she has written many more books.  I will be looking for more of her books.

I see us reading My Promise Rainbow and the Story of Noah's Ark over and over again, and working on memorizing the promise verses.