By: queerspawn,
on 2/26/2011
Blog: Book Dads (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Book Review, Children's Picture Books, Fatherhood, book dads, harriet ziefert, Dads & Daughters, Contributor: Ryan LaLonde, ryan lalonde, Dads Reading, Dads & Sons, daddies are for catching fireflies, Add a tag
Daddies Are For Catching Fireflies by Harriet Ziefert (Illustrated by Cynthia Jabar)
Review by: Ryan LaLonde
About the author:
Harriet Ziefert began her career as a teacher, then entered the publishing field where she developed a language arts and social studies curriculum for kindergarteners. For the past 25 years she has been writing books for young children. As an author, her main focus has been to create age-appropriate content, in an age-appropriate format — content that considers kids’ emotional and intellectual development together.
Harriet has written more than 200 children’s books and is currently the Publisher of Blue Apple Books and the Publisher of Begin Smart Books. She also created the “I’m Going to Read!” series for Sterling Publishing.
About the illustrator:
Cynthia Jabar lives on a small island off the coast of Maine where she loves to paint, to kayak, and to illustrate books for children. Other books she’s illustrated include The Greatest Gymnast of All by Stuart J. Murphy and Mommies are for Counting Stars by Harriet Ziefert. She doesn’t love washing her car or the dishes!
About the book:
Daddies do so many terrific things. A daddy always gives you the best seat at the parade, he reads you bedtime stories, and he tries his best to fix your toys when they break (even if he doesn’t always succeed). Filled with soft, beauti-ful watercolor artwork and lilting text, this lift-the-flap book about all the great things fathers do is perfect for young children.
My take on the book:
Many years before our son was born, we spent a great deal of time playing with our nieces and nephews in Memphis, Tennessee. I’d create games like I Spy and kickball – basically anything I could think of doing in the backyard. As day turned to night, hordes of fireflies began to appear. As I pointed the bugs in the air – the kids seemed amazed – as if they had never seen them before. When I told them they could actually catch them like I did when I was their age – they bolted for the house to find anything that could catch them in. The containers they choose were outlandish, pots and pans, plastic bags and a school backpack.
I went in the house and grabbed the cliché Mason jar for the perfect vessel. To them I was a genius. I explained this is best and to make sure to put holes in the lid. We then began the task of catching them. The art of graceful catches was lost on their eager hands. We lost many fireflies that night. But the ones that survived the trip to the jar were perfect.
We piled into a closet inside, with the filled jar. The eight of us crammed in small coat closet was worth it for the firework display we watched. The kids never saw anything like it. And
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 12/10/2010
Blog: Where The Best Books Are! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Christmas books, counting books, alphabet books, 2010, Harriet Ziefert, Gyo Fujikawa's A to Z Picture Book, Gyu Fujikawa, Flensted Mobiles, Counting Chickens, Add a tag
Perfect for giving to a grandchild, niece or nephew, the book includes a whimsical nameplate designed with sticks to write the child's name. Fujikawa, who passed away in 1999, also wrote the darling book, Babies, published in 1963 -- a book I still have from my childhood with all the nibble marks of my mother's teething babies.
Blog: Margo Dill's Read These Books and Use Them! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Picture Book, Young Adult Novels, books for preschoolers, Reading Skills, Harriet Ziefert, Elementary Educators, Making Personal Connections, Personal Connections, Preschool to 1st grade teachers, Shared Writing, Art activities, Rhyming Words, Ehrlich Fred, Zieffert Harriet, A Bunny is Funny, Fred Ehrlich, Todd McKie, Add a tag
photo by nblumhardt www.flickr.com
*Picture book for preschoolers through first graders
*Animals as main characters
*Rating: A cute book with a lot of different animal descriptions that kids will love.
Short, short summary:
A Bunny is Funny takes a look at different animals you might find at the zoo. From crabs to skunks, from giraffes to lions, each animal has a rhyme and an illustration. Take for example the porcupine: “My quills act like a warning sign: Don’t mess with me. I’m a porcupine!”So, what do I do with this book?
1. Let students or your children pick their favorite animal illustration and rhyme. Then ask them to draw their own illustration and write a sentence to go with it. You can then create your own class book: A Bunny is Funny 2.
2. Each of the lines about the animals rhymes. Ask children to put a thumbs up when they hear a rhyming word pair. When you are finished reading the book to them, make a list of rhyming words. You can also extend the activity by asking children to come up with more words that rhyme with the pairs.
3. Take a field trip to a farm or a zoo and see how many of the animals from the book that you see on your field trip. Take photographs on your field trip and compare these with the illustrations in A Bunny is Funny.
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By: Lori Calabrese,
on 12/23/2008
Blog: Lori Calabrese Writes! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Mark Jones, Blue Apple Books, Harriet Ziefert, Snow Party, Add a tag
Snow Party
Author: Harriet Ziefert
Illustrator: Mark Jones
Publisher: Blue Apple Books, October 2008
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Have you ever played outside in the snow leaving snow angels, sled marks, and footprints behind? It's magical when a fresh snow appears leaving you a clean slate to work with. In Snow Party, the snow men, snow women, and snow children come out on the first day of winter for a special winter wonderland party. There's everything a party possibly needs- food, dancing, singing and a toast to the shortest day of the year. And the amazing pastel illustrations are just the right wintry mix to add to the festivities! Unfortunately, the party has to come to an end and the snow people clean up and head home just as a fresh blanket of snow begins to fall, erasing any evidence of the party- almost as if there was never a party at all. But we all know the truth! A wonderful picture book that will have you wondering what your snowmen do before a fresh snow!
Sooo cute!
Thanks, Brooke!
Two books! What a treat! As always, I am amazed by how you seamlessly integrate your picturebook reviews with dance. I have just recently met a dance teacher from New Zealand who visited Singapore for an arts research, and I was kind of reminded of you and what you do. ;-)
Thanks, Myra. That's sweet :) I actually hope to make it to Singapore one of these days, too. My husband has been twice and loves it!