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And a happy Thursday to you all. It’s May 21st and that means another episode of Fuse #8 TV is up and running. As per usual I kick the whole kerschmozzle off with a new edition of “Reading (Too Much) Into Picture Books”. Though I had a recent request to tackle The Giving Tree, I couldn’t find an adequate hook. Until I do, I find that the board book Subway by Anastasia Suen (illustrated by Karen Katz) has a spy thriller vibe going on just below its seemingly innocuous surface. Doubt me? Check it out.
As for our special guest, I was pleased as punch to speak to Geoff Rodkey. For years I’ve been a fan of his Chronicles of Egg series. Now he has a whole new bunch of books out, this time with Little, Brown. Beginning with The Tapper Twins Go to War (With Each Other), Geoff speaks frankly and honestly about his screenwriting life, publishers he’s dealt with, and the true nature of his work on the Carmen Sandiego video games.
Read It. Move It. Share It. Every month I recommend a picture book for dance educator Maria Hanley to use with her young dance students in New York City. Then I post about the book here, and Maria posts about it on her incredibly resourceful blog Maria's Movers. This month we are exploring The Babies on the Bus by Karen Katz. It's especially great for the toddler and preschool crowd!
The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. The wheels on the bus go round and round, all through the town! I think just about every toddler or preschooler has heard that song, don't you? It's just so fun to sing!
The Babies on the Bus by Karen Katz is a perfect book to go along with the song, which is just begging to be accompanied by movement. The bright and festive illustrations depict nine cute and cuddly multicultural children, a bus driver who looks like a toddler himself, and a brave teacher who is leading the children on a field trip to a local museum. There is a lot of movement in the illustrations, as you might except from a group of youngsters. You can get a feel for some of the movement in this trailer from the publisher...
After hearing the song in my head and seeing the energetic children in the book, I can easily imagine some of the movements that could accompany the song in a creative dance class. I envision children sitting in a straddle position on the floor and moving their legs "open and close" like the doors of the bus. They could tiptoe across the floor when the "driver on the bus says shush, shush, shush." Or they could create a movement sequence and perform it at different speeds when "the motor on the bus goes zoom, zoom, zoom."
When snooping around the web, I also found a really neat YouTube video called "The Wheels on the Bus with Miss Melodee." While singing the song -- with a beautiful singing voice I must say! -- Miss Melodee demonstrates how it could also be incorporated into a ballet class. Sometimes she uses classic ballet steps that fit the words perfectly, and other times she changes the words a little to fit a particular step. Here's the video if you want to take a look.
So, I've been collaborating with Maria Hanley enough now that I'm going to guess she came up with something even different than I did or Miss Melodee did. What do you think? Let's find out here!
The babies on the bus say,
"Bye-bye, bus! Bye-bye, bus! Bye-bye, bus!
The babies on the bus say "Bye-bye, bus!"
Now it's time to go.
2 Comments on "The Babies on the Bus" Is Great, Great, Great!, last added: 10/8/2012
Each month dance educator Maria Hanley and I explore a different picture book for our "Read It. Move It. Share It" collaboration. I recommend a book, Maria incorporates it into her creative movement classes, and we both share our experiences. This month I'm recommending the picture book Subway.
I've traveled on the "BART" in San Francisco, the "Tube" in London, the "Metro" in Paris, the "Metro" in Washington, DC, and the "Subway" in New York City. Now that I think about it, I've been on quite a few underground railways... and I really like them!
Sometimes I like the bustle of people in the subway station, like on a busy weekday morning or on a Saturday afternoon when the station is bursting with tourists. Other times I enjoy a quiet station, like in the late evenings, when just a few people are milling around. And I always love the whirrr of the train as it finally approaches the station and I know that I am one step closer to my destination.
Washington DC Metro -- near me!
3 Comments on Get Ready to Ride the Subway!, last added: 6/30/2012
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This does sound a great book - and I love that you seek out books to accompany a movement class. I do the same with the small choir group I run of 4-6 year olds - I always try to end with a music-themed picture book, and the kids love it. It's a good way to calm them down before they go home too, after lots of action songs!
This sounds like a wonderful book for little kids and their parents. I love the double entendre of the lines "rock left and rock right... etc" Does the book have other clever parts like that?
I’ve become a bit of a board book connoisseur in my old age. While my cohorts are reading speculative YA fiction and high end narrative nonfiction I’ve been getting up close and personal with books that have pages that can double as coasters. Aside from realizing just how difficult the darn things are to write (darn hard, she said cleanly) I’ve noticed that board books just don’t get a lot of credit on the interwebs. There are no board book blogs. No board book Goodreads Groups. No hashtags for #boardbooklove or #boardbookwarrior (there are hashtags for #bbforever but they have nothing to do with titles for tots). With all this in mind, I think there’s room enough in the universe for a post about some of the board books we’ve seen this year so far and what they have in their favor. Cause when you read something 500 times, you’re either going to go insane or you’ll internalize it to the point where it’s the most fascinating thing you’ve ever read. In the latter (or is it former?) category:
Bizzy Bear: Off We Go by Benji Davies – So here’s the deal with Bizzy Bear. On the outset, I wasn’t impressed. I got some of these books sent to me by Candlewick and give them this sort of cursory glance. They star a bear. He’s British (a fact you’ll notice in a couple of the driving scenes). The most striking thing seemed to be that you could move things or lift things with these strangely sturdy little circle cut outs in various pictures. So I brought some home for the small fry and didn’t think much of it. Fast forward three months and I’m part of the unofficial Yanks for Bizzy Bear Fan Club. I can even pinpoint where the change of heart occurred. It all comes down to Bizzy Bear: Off We Go. The plot, such as it is, concerns our titular bear as he hops a cab to a train to a plane to a vacation where he rounds out the story with a lovely lass he must have picked up mere moments after arriving (well played, bear). I read this book quite a few times, impressed with its ability to stand up to a baby’s beating. There must be some superior form of cardboard at work on this puppy since Bizzy take a licking and keeps on ticking. But it really wasn’t until we got to an image of a roundabout that my mind was blown.
The set-up shows a little roundabout with traffic moving. There are trees on the left and right sides of the roundabout and the traffic sort of disappears under them. Turn a little wheel on the right and the traffic circles around the roundabout. Simple, no? I’m ashamed to say that it probably took me thirty-some readings of this book before I realized something strange. Normally when a baby book contains wheels that turn n’ such the characters appear rightside up and then upside down. It’s a circle, after all. Not so with Bizzy Bear. By some miracle of modern construction there must be two separate wheels at work that make it so that the characters never appear upside down. It has been all I could do to keep from tearing my child’s beloved book into shreds in order to figure out what the internal logistics where of something that many parents won’t even notice. All the books in the series work (and, thanks to their poundability, are perfect for library collections) but this is the one that truly has my heart. Head over to There’s a Book and you can see a video of some kids putting Bizzy Bear through his paces.
The fascination with board books is a sure sign you are getting older and younger at the same time–a most curious condition. I hope you are happy with that, especially today. Happy birthday! I am sure that our neglect of board books is related somehow to the general tendency to undervalue those who work with preschool children? Cheers to you today.
Elizabeth Bird said, on 4/23/2012 4:46:00 AM
Agreed. And thank you for the birthday wishes!
Debbie Reese said, on 4/23/2012 5:40:00 AM
Hey! Cool to see CRADLE ME here! Thanks, Betsy. And if your readers are interested in more books like CRADLE ME, I’ve got a list at my site. Here’s the link:
You’re so right. More people should blog about board books. I’ve thought about it myself but our board books are so shabby, they are the most borrowed books in our library. Our central library can’t send us enough!
jacqueline said, on 4/23/2012 6:31:00 AM
When standard PBs get made into board books it’s interesting to see how they get pared down. We had the board book version of Dr. Seuss’s ABC book first and would argues that the rhythm/cadence of the board book’s text is superior to the original PB.
ChrisinNY said, on 4/23/2012 6:36:00 AM
Fine…..you couldn’t have written this 4 weeks ago before I sent off a batch of books* to my brand new great niece? I’ll try to bookmark it for future babies.
*I did use the previous 100 Favorite Picture Book Poll to select the titles I sent: Goodnight Moon (in boardbook); Miss Rumphius; and The Library.
Jennifer Schultz said, on 4/23/2012 6:36:00 AM
This is excellent. I need to order new board books, so this gives me some great titles. One of my favorite board book series is the Busy —- series by John Schindel. Busy bear cubs, busy pandas, busy birds, busy elephants, busy dogs, etc. Simple board books depicting animals at play (using photography). Our copies are constantly circulating.
ChrisinNY said, on 4/23/2012 6:38:00 AM
PS I hope you add these titles to your review links.
Mary Gibson said, on 4/23/2012 10:54:00 AM
Thank you for your great review of “Cradle Me!” “Cradle Me” is flying off the shelves, our first printing of 8500 are almost gone! Reprinting now, expect delivery July. Look for “Cradle Me” soon at the Smithsonian gift stores in DC.
lisainberlin said, on 4/23/2012 11:49:00 AM
Sticky parts, wheels with bears that never come up upside down…you make me curious! I wish you a very happy birthday!
Sondy said, on 4/23/2012 12:41:00 PM
Our library system doesn’t even try to alphabetize board books, and you can’t put them on hold. This might be construed as a lack of respect for them, but it’s probably just that it’s easier to put them in a basket than a shelf, because of all the different sizes. Besides, with all the mouthing that goes on, I think board books are one type of book I prefer to purchase for a baby. And even though my own son is almost heading off to college, my little sister is now expecting a baby! So I will use this post for purchasing ideas! Thanks, Betsy! And Happy Birthday!
Elizabeth Bird said, on 4/23/2012 6:20:00 PM
Oh a post on board books that are more successful in BB form than their original picture book format is a post in and of itself! I’d add Orange Bear Apple Pear to such a list.
Chris, is it weird that I’ve never read a board book of Goodnight Moon to my own offspring? I suspect this will need to be remedied. I thought about linking to this post on my wiki but I dunno. They’re not technically reviews though, so I may hold off.
And Sondy, I can understand not wanting to be able to place holds on board books since they’re a devil to locate when they appear on the holds lists. But since I don’t really want to buy ‘em all and since I love the convenience of getting to take loads of them home, I’m awfully glad we can. Are they gross? Sure, but my baby’s essentially a walking pile of goo. C’est la vie, non?
Samantha said, on 4/23/2012 7:03:00 PM
As I love a good board book, I want to add two favorites. “Hippos Go Berserk” by Boynton is a hall of famer for us. It may be the number 1. It accompanied my son to parks, restaurants, across state lines, you name it. It has been close to 4 years since I’ve regularly read “Hippos” and I am confident that I can still recite most of it by heart. “One hippo, all alone, calls two hippos on the phone.” I still LOVE it’s rollicking rhythm. The other board book my son and I adored is a shortened version of a successful picture book: “One Hungry Monster” by Heyboer O’Keefe. Lynn Munsinger’s illustrations are fabulous and the rhyme and pace are wonderful. Both are counting books, but that’s not the only reason why we love them. When your daughter is older, don’t miss “Harry the Dirty Dog” by Zion in board book format. A very happy birthday, Betsy!
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Video courtesy of MacmillanChildrens: “Watch this book trailer video and see The Babies on the Bus sing la la la! The Babies on the Bus is a picture book for children by best-selling author and illustrator Karen Katz. Follow along as this adorable children’s picture book comes alive in this video!”
Instead of a book review today, I thought I'd start the week focusing on an artist whose work I so admire: Karen Katz.
I discovered Karen's work on my first NESCBWI conference trip. Art Director Laurent Linn (then of Henry Holt, now of Simon & Schuster BFYR) gave a lecture which I attended. In the lecture, he spoke of books he had designed, and he featured one of Karen's books (Can You Say Peace). On first look, I was smitten with the art and the book! I purchased it at that conference, and from that point forward I became a big fan of Karen's unique, folky, multi-textured style of art and whimsical style.
Check out her Amazon page to read about her career and what has inspired her as well as detailed listing & information on her amazing body of book work!
I'm a big (new) fan of Karen Katz's work too. My son loves her lift-the-flap books - and they are well-loved, and worn out at our libraries. Counting kisses is a particularly sweet story.
My kids hate clothes. That’s why the majority of toddler-age pictures of my younger three children show them in various stages of undress. Not for my flock is that on-demand baby trick of pulling up your shirt or dress to show your adorable belly button--no need to pull up what’s never there. They were, and one still is, just a consistently half-naked bunch of hooligans freed from the bonds of restrictive clothing. I once heard a woman at a child’s birthday party sniff condescendingly, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Connor wear shoes.” She was a bit of a patronizing beezy, but she did speak the truth. I believe shoe-wearing is Darwinian--I provide the shoes and the technique for donning them, the kid does the donning…or has to stay quiet about the cold feet. There’s something liberating about bucking social convention, albeit vicariously through my little streakers, but most family photos look like a scene from Swiss Family Robinson. I was once saw an amazing documentary on Jane Goodall that showed her son spending his childhood cavorting with the chimps in nothing but his birthday suit, and I remember thinking that my kids are proof you don’t have to be a famous naturalist to have kids who are most comfortable in the nude. In Karen Katz’s Where Is Baby’s Belly Button?, we get to spend some fun time lifting flaps to see adorable baby feet, hands, and yes, belly buttons. It’s pretty cute, but the babies all seem strangely overdressed.
Counting Kisses: A Kiss & Read Book by Karen Katz Reading level: Baby-Preschool Board book: 32 pages Publisher: Little Simon; Board Book Edition (January 1, 2003) Language: English ISBN-10: 068985658X ISBN-13: 978-0689856587
For this week's baby-preschool selection, I'm featuring a board book that has become a favorite in our house. Counting Kisses: A Kiss & Read Book by Karen Katz introduces a tired little baby receiving all kinds of kisses from Mommy, Daddy, and even Grandma. From "10 little kisses on teeny tiny toes" to one final kiss on the baby's "sleepy, dreamy head," parents can bond with their little ones by giving the same kisses to their child as the baby in the book receives. It's also a great way to introduce or practice counting, number words, and words for body parts to preschoolers. My one-year old giggles and giggles when I kiss her as I read the book.
Karen Katz's colorful, cherubic illustrations will also grab children's attention.
This book is a great way to have fun with reading and to share affection with a special child in your life. It would also make a great gift for new parents or new grandparents.
0 Comments on Counting Kisses by Karen Katz as of 4/8/2008 7:02:00 AM
Anonymous said, on 4/8/2008 9:11:00 AM
My parents just bought my 5 m.o. daughter and me "Mommy Hugs", also by Karen Katz. It's a great book! She loves the pictures and it's a great opportunity for us to get more snuggle time in. What could be better than that?!
Jill said, on 4/8/2008 11:03:00 AM
Anon--Thanks for the recommendation! I'm always on the lookout for more snuggle time opportunities. I love Karen Katz's books, but we don't own a copy of Mommy Hugs. I'll have to add it to my wish list.
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This sounds and looks like a fun book. We're Karen Katz fans, too. :-)
Thanks for linking up to RAT!
Thanks for the opportunity, Amy. RAT is a great feature!