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Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Matthew Myers, Most Recent at Top [Help]

Results 1 - 6 of 6

1. Battle Bunny

By: Julie Fortenberry, on 7/6/2014
Blog: Children's Illustration (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Jon Scieszka, Mac Barnett, Matthew Myers, 'Battle Bunny', Add a tag

Jon Scieszka, Mac Barnett and Matthew Myers have come up with a delightfully subversive children's book, 'Battle Bunny'...

Read an interview with them all at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast...

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2. Perfect Picture Book Friday - E-I-E-I-O How Old MacDonald Got His Farm [with a Little Help from a Hen]

By: Susanna Leonard Hill, on 4/18/2014
Blog: Susanna Leonard Hill (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Judy Sierra, Candlewick, Matthew Myers, Perfect Picture Book Fridays, Add a tag

Happy Friday, Folks!

While I was writing up this post, my ever-vigilant dogs suddenly roused themselves from a sound sleep to bark and snarl and hurl themselves at the french doors that look out on the back yard. Assuming such behavior could only mean an invasion of some type, I went to investigate. Was the bear up from his long winter's nap? Had a pack of hungry coyotes dared to breech The Perimeter? Were we being attacked by giant meatball-headed spaghetti people from Mars?

Shockingly, no!

Here was the cause of the alarm:

One of last year's babies, looking a little scruffy in between
winter and spring coats

My dogs take their duty as Protectresses of the Family Homestead a little too seriously sometimes :)

I did not let them out. I figured this little miss could use some green grass after the long winter. So she snacked and the Protectresses sulked and I went back to writing this post.

This is just a little sample of the kind of action-packed, emotionally-charged, wild and crazy life we live up here on Blueberry Hill :)

Although Tuesday night's snow is still melting, I insist on believing it is spring and I have a fun, spring-appropriate title to share with you all today which is especially fitting in view of the wildlife on my lawn that makes this place feel like a farm (of sorts :))! (And no jokes about the funny farm! :))

Title: E-I-E-I-O How old MacDonald Got His Farm [with a Little Help from a Hen]
Written By: Judy Sierra
Illustrated By: Matthew Myers
Candlewick, February 2014, Fiction

Suitable For Ages: 4-8

Themes/Topics: composting, gardening, perseverance, innovation

Opening: "Old MacDonald had a house E-I-E-I-O! Around that house there was a yard MOW MOW MOW MOW MOW! MacDonald said, "I love my yard, but mowing grass is mighty hard." So off he went to get a goat E-I-E-I-O!"

Brief Synopsis: In case anyone was wondering how Old MacDonald got his farm, it all started with too much mowing. Old MacDonald's solution? Get a goat. But the goat only ate the edges and then chewed a hole in MacDonald's hedges. Luckily, a smart little red hen came along and taught Old MacDonald a thing or two about sustainable farming :)

Links To Resources: Do The Rot Thing: A Teacher's Guide To Compost Activities, all about Worms, Recycling and Composting, How To Plant Seeds With Kids

Why I Like This Book: I always love new twists on familiar stories. Judy Sierra has taken Old MacDonald to a whole new level. The story is humorous (and so is the art - be sure to read the hen's diplomas and all the picket signs :)) and young readers will learn about composting and growing a garden right along with Old MacDonald. This is a great story for spring, and a wonderfully fun way to introduce kids to the concept of green farming.

For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.

PPBF peeps, please leave your post-specific links in the list below so we can all come see what fabulous books you've chosen this week! And to all who celebrate, Happy Easter and a belated Happy Passover.

Have a great weekend, everyone!!! :)

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3. #527 – E-I-E-I-O: How Old MacDonald Got His Farm with a Little Help From a Hen by Judy Sierra & Matthew Myers

By: Sue Morris, on 3/31/2014
Blog: Kid Lit Reviews (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Children's Books, Picture Book, Favorites, Candlewick Press, children's book reviews, ecology, judy sierra, sustainability, gardens, matthew Myers, Library Donated Books, 6 Stars TOP BOOK, Top 10 of 2014, eieio, environmentlism, old macdonald had a farm, organic frming, Add a tag

cover .

EIEIO: How Old MacDonald Got His Farm with a Little Help From a Hen

by Judy Sierra & Matthew Myers, illustrator

Candlewick Press 2/25/2014

978-0-7636-6043-7

Age 4 to 8 32 pages

“Once upon a time, Old MacDonald didn’t have a farm. He just had a yard—a yard he didn’t want to mow. But then, under the direction of the wise (and ecologically sensitive) Little Red Hen, Mac learns to look at the environment in a very different way, and whole new worlds start to bloom.”

Opening

“Old MacDonald had a house, E-I-E-I-O!”

The Story

Old MacDonald had a house with a big backyard he didn’t like to mow. In fact, he waited so long to mow it that Old MacDonald would sweat after just a short push of his power mower. There had to be a better way. So Old MacDonald got a goat. E-I-E-I-O! There were problems with the goat. MacDonald knew there had to be a better way, so he searched the Internet for help. He got that help from the Little Red Hen, the smartest hen in the world. But could she help Old MacDonald with his backyard lawn mowing aversion?

Review

A fun story that will have kids and adults laughing from the beginning, E-I-E-I-O puts Old MacDonald in the middle of suburbia. He has a house with a large backyard and Old MacDonald doesn’t like to mow. He gets a goat but the goat eats the hedges, putting a window between MacDonald and his neighbor. But MacDonald’s real trouble—and fame—doesn’t begin until he hires the Little Red Hen. I love bringing in a character from another story. It adds more flavor to the story and most kids will instantly recognize the Little Red Hen. Plus, this wise hen has an agricultural diploma—perfect for Old MacDonald.

First, Little Red Hen gets rid of the grass. At first, I didn’t get what she was doing—nor will most kids—but soon it became clear. Until that could happen, the neighbors join and form a protest, insisting, as one sign put it, “A LAWN in every YARD.” I love the signs. One says the neighbors formed a mud watch group. But the sign stating, “Change is BAD” pretty much sums up the problem: no one like change. Though there is one little guy who may like change. His sign says, “No More Mud,” but he put a line through one of those words. Not until Old MacDonald has a workable farm, producing organic veggies, does the neighborhood change their feelings toward the smell of Old MacDonald’s backyard farm.

The illustrations are fantastic. They tell the story as well as the text tells it. The details are terrific and sometimes surprising, but you must look carefully to appreciate all the effort that went into these spreads. Colorful, informative, and humorous are but three words that immediately come to mind when looking at E-I-E-I-O. I love the part when Little Red Hen has Old MacDonald throw his trash onto his backyard, well, actually, his back-mud. Old MacDonald looks like he has given up when he tosses his corncob out the window onto his back-mud.

Kids inherently think the word “poop” is funny. Well, Little Red Hen cannot make her compost without it, or worms, so kids will love these spreads. Of course, Little Red Hen stays out of the muck, calling directions out from atop her hen house. Yes, she is one wise hen. Eventually, Old MacDonald gains the neighbors’ favor and a new career in one of the most entertaining, yet informative, picture books this year.

E-I-E-I-O: HOW OLD MACDONALD GOT HIS FARM. Text copyright © 2014 by Judy Sierra. Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Matthew Myers. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.

E-I-E-I-O- POSTER

Learn more about E-I-E-I-O: How Old MacDonald Got His Farm with a Little Help From a Hen HERE.

Get your copy of E-I-E-I-O at Amazon—B&N—Candlewick Press—your local bookstore.

.Meet the author, Judy Sierra at her website: http://www.judysierra.net/

Meet the illustrator, Matthew Myers at his website: http://www.myerspaints.com/

Find other great books at Candlewick Press’ website: http://www.candlewick.com/

Also by Judy Sierra

Wild About You!

ZooZical

Suppose You Meet a Dinosaur

Also by Matthew Myers

Battle Bunny

Bartholomew Biddle and the Very Big Wind

The World According to Musk Ox 9/2014

.New from Candlewick Press

Ocean Creatures: A 3D Pocket Guide

FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman: Doggie Duties

Peppa Pig and the Great Vacation

eieio how old macdonald got his farm

Filed under: 6 Stars TOP BOOK, Children's Books, Favorites, Library Donated Books, Picture Book, Top 10 of 2014 Tagged: Candlewick Press, children's book reviews, ecology, eieio, environmentlism, gardens, judy sierra, matthew Myers, old macdonald had a farm, organic frming, sustainability

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4. Holiday Gift Idea #8: Wings to Fly

By: Jenny Miller, on 12/21/2012
Blog: Where The Best Books Are! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: best picture books, inspirational books for kids, boy who flies, seize the moment, books about flight, Bartholomew Biddle, books about letting go, imagination, 2012, holiday gift idea, Gary Ross, Matthew Myers, Add a tag

Bartholomew Biddle and the Very Big Wind, by Gary Ross, illustrated by Matthew Myers, Candlewick, $17.99, ages 6 and up, 96 pages, 2012.

A boy flies away from home to escape his ordinary life, only to discover that he misses his parents, his tasks and routines.

In this exhilarating poem by film director Gary Ross, Bartholomew Biddle straps on a bedsheet and soars out of his window at night to see what the world has to offer.

"'Why, that looks like fun! / Just look at those trees! They're bending in half -- yeah, that's quite a breeze,'" he says, as a wind blows in to carry him away.

In bare feet and pajamas, Bart paraglides out over houses and cars, and fancies himself the "World's Best Bedsheet flier."

"'Wow, this isn't bad!' / he said, swooping and soaring, / buzzing the rooftops while / people were snoring."

Bart climbs higher and "levels 'er off," then decides he's ready to go somewhere. In the next chapter, Bartholomew wakes up cradled in his sheet between limbs of a banana tree.

Looking down, he realizes he's on a tropical island and sees a band of pirates as merry as can be. In no time, they invite him down to dig up gold and feast on mango pie. It's paradise. And yet it's almost too perfect even for pirates.

One day, Bart hears crying and learns that the pirate's captain is homesick for the sea. The captain misses being surprised by life and not having things work out perfectly right: "Fun isn't fun fun / when it's all that you know."

Bart realizes he misses those things too, and tells the pirates he's "gotta be going" and sets off in search of home. "'Cause tough as it was / to admit to himself / he missed his old room / and the toys on his shelf."

"And even his mom / at a quarter to eight: 'C'mon sleepyhead -- you're one hour late!"

As Bart takes flight again, the wind ripples through his pajamas, now tattered at the cuffs like those of a pirate's slops -- reflecting the adventuring he's already done.

But wind, like life, is uncertain and as Bartholomew coasts for home, he finds himself plummeting down into more peculiar places: where people never leave because they're afraid to or they feel stuck.

Each landing comes abruptly, while Bartholomew is reflecting on things he misses back home, and is also serendipitous: while stranded in these places, Bart learns what it means to really live.

First, the wind peters out over a sad little town where men head off to work with their eyes toward the ground. While Bartholomew loses altitude, he wonders if his dad is like these men, shuffling off to work in a daze.

"Each morning and night / he'd pass through that door, / but what comes in the middle? There's got to be more..."

Then Bartholomew remembers a glistening day, when he and his dad lay on the floor with 500 shades of crayons, marveling at all of the possibilities life has to offer.

"You're young, and the future / is yours to be plucked," his dad said that day.

But then Bart clips a tree and is startled back to reality. He falls into a mucky pond by an austere-looking boarding school, where students have so many rules, they can hardly keep track.

"No running, no jumping, / no chewing of gum, / No teasing, no sneezing, / no crying for your mum."

But then Bart befriends one of the students, Densy, who longs to explore too and Bart asks him to fly away with him. Though Densy longs to do so, he's afraid to break the rules and at the last minute, chooses to stay.

Reluctantly, Bart leaves his new friend behind and soars up until Densy is just a dot on the ground. Soon, Bart is lost in a cloud that leads to a storm and then he's pitched back to the ground.

With rain pelting down and his sheet tearing, Bart plummets into a canyon where all sorts of explorers and risk-takers are stranded. Among them an aviator "Amelia", a balloonist, windsurfers, a Swiss mountaineer and pioneers.

The canyon is enclosed by sheer cliffs and everyone has assumed there's no way out. "They sit and they stare / at nothing at all," having lost the spirit of adventure that got them there.

Will Bart lose his ambition too? Or will a friend new to all this adventuring take a chance, and come and try to save him?

Ross' debut into children's writing is wondrous and though the poem is epic (for a picture book), it has an easy cadence that keeps readers bounding along to the end.

The message for children is simple and wise, and reminiscent of something Dr. Seuss would write:

Life's for living -- seize the moment, break free. But then come home -- check in, learn the things you need to know before setting off again.

I read this to my eight-year-old son and knew almost instantly we'd read straight to the end. It was his punctuated laugh and beaming face that cued me in, as he reacted to the line, "He'd turned from a ten-year-old / to a small plane."

It took almost an hour to read the book and though my voice got a little craggy, we didn't want to stop till the end. When the last page did come, we felt as if we could float off to bed.

Myers' paintings are exhilarating, particularly those of Bart in flight, and have whimsical touches that float about the page. When Bart learns how explorers blew into the canyon, Myers scatters humorous images of them between poem columns.

The edges of the pages become the walls of the cavern as characters tumble down: On one side, a tornado whirls down with a flag at the top, representing a golfer who got swept away, and below that a man falls clutching the arm of a giant clock to represent being in the right place at the "wrong time."

Not all of the pages are illustrated, but after awhile it didn't matter. By the end of the poem, I realized we'd already filled in all of the blanks with our imaginations.

This is a joyful read for any child who wishes they could lift off and fly.

Of course, we don't want children experimenting with flight. (A cautionary note appears at the beginning of the story.) But wouldn't it be great to see them in the backyard on a windy day, running around with a sheet at their backs?

Ross is the director of many acclaimed films, including The Tale of Despereaux, Pleasantville, and The Hunger Games.

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5. Gary Ross May Direct Adaptation of Peter & the Starcatchers

By: Maryann Yin, on 7/20/2012
Blog: Galley Cat (Mediabistro) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Peter Pan, The Hunger Games, Ridley Pearson, Matthew Myers, Jesse Wigutow, Add a tag

Rumors have been swirling that The Hunger Games director Gary Ross was lured away from Catching Fire‘s director’s seat by another kidlit project; a film adaptation of Peter & the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson.

MTV reported that Ross (pictured with actress Jennifer Lawrence, via) is currently talking with Disney about helming a movie version of the first book in the Peter Pan prequel series. The movie studio has already signed up The Prince screenwriter Jesse Wigutow to pen the script. Who would you cast as the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up?

Here’s more from The Hollywood Reporter: “The Peter Pan fantasy, a prequel of sorts, follows a young Peter who befriends Molly, a shipmate he meets on the Never Land ship headed toward King Zarboff. Molly tells Peter of a mysterious trunk filled with magical starstuff that must remain out of the hands of the pirate Black Stache (who will lose his hand and become Captain Hook). Peter and Molly lead an effort to recover the trunk, which takes them on a treacherous journey.”

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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6. Father’s Day: Books for Dads and Their Kids