Read a Banned Book!

September 25 - October 2 marks Banned Books Week, the American Library Association's annual celebration of the freedom to read.  It's a great time to read some books that have been challenged or banned, to think about why people might have a problem with certain material, and to be grateful that we are able to make up our minds for ourselves and within our families-- without others trampling our liberty.

My work is about sharing stories, and my desire for people of all ages to enjoy stories & reading together; since most of what I tend to do is within my field of Early Childhood Education, though, I decided to search for the banned books that fall within the scope of children's literature.  You may be surprised to find some of your own favorite books & authors within the ALA's lists of banned or challenged kids' books! There's Dr. Seuss & Maurice Sendak, the hilarious series of books about Junie B. Jones & Captain Underpants, and the perennial favorites by Roald Dahl and Shel Silverstein.  Objectionable fantasy series?  There's Harry Potter, of course-- but he was preceded by Philip Pullman's "His Dark Material" series (which includes The Golden Compass); The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and even The Wonderful World of Oz!  And my meager list doesn't even scratch the surface of challenged titles.

The right to decide what media your family consumes is your own.  I celebrate the freedom to think about & ultimately choose what books can be read within my own home, and that is why I am celebrating Banned Books Week.

**Join me on my Facebook page, where I am posting some of my favorite video celebrations of Banned Books week!**

Read Up! A Few Favorites to Share

I’d love to hear that you’re already familiar with at least some of these books—they’ve all been around a while, and offer fun stories & beautiful, colorful illustrations.  Got your library card ready?  Okay, here we go:

 

Yoko 
Rosemary Wells
As an adult, it can be annoying when someone says “YUCK” at your favorite food—but for a child, it can be painful! Yoko is a sad little kitten, until her teacher comes up with a delicious idea.




The Big Orange Splot 
Daniel Pinkwater
You’ve seen neighborhoods like Mr. Plumbean’s before—all the houses look nearly identical, and you’ve got to wonder how people find their own home at night! Then something happens that gets Plumbean—and his neighbors—dreaming.




The Araboolies of Liberty Street 
Sam Swope & Barry Root
Definitely a family that would have the homeowners’ association working overtime pumping out cranky letters! Things escalate, until a sweet little girl saves the day.






It’s Okay to be Different 
Todd Parr
Is it REALLY okay to eat macaroni & cheese in the bathtub? That’s up to you (though it seems the cleanup would be a cinch)! Simple, colorful illustrations and wild flights of fancy are a hallmark of Parr’s work—and the image of a kangaroo with a puppy in her pouch is a real smile-inducer!


We’re Different, We’re the Same 
Bobbi Kates & Joe Matthieu
“We’re different. Our noses are different.
“We’re the same. Our noses are the same. They breathe and sniff and sneeze and whiff.”
Rhyme, layers of attractive illustrations, and even Sesame Street characters draw the reader into this topic which preschoolers will be very excited to discuss!



The Paper Bag Princess 
Robert Munsch & Michael Martchenko
Her kingdom has just been destroyed by a dragon, but Princess Elizabeth is no damsel in distress! She has got the situation handled, and she won’t let anything get in her way. Princesses & dragons with a twist, told with typical Munsch humor.





  Check these books out! Have fun with them, & let me know what you think. Do you have any favorite books about princess, or neighbors, or lunch, or being an individual--or whatever? Please let me know!


Click on this link & READ UP!  I have many more great books to share with you!

Storyteller John Weaver

Upcoming Events

A selection of what's up ahead. Connect with me for regular updates: Storyteller John Weaver on Facebook.




Coming in NOVEMBER!  Date TBA

Children's Fairyland
Storytelling at 1:30 & 2:30 each day. 



Preschool & Family Storytimes
Livermore Public Library
Join John for the fun each week:
Mondays: 7pm Family Storytime, Civic Center
Thursdays: 10:30 & 11:00 Toddler & Preschooler Storytimes, Springtown
Fridays: 10:30 & 11:00 Toddler & Preschooler Storytimes, Rincon



More events to be added as dates get closer.  No private events, or school visits appear on this list.
Connect with me for regular updates: Storyteller John Weaver on Facebook.

Read Up! Summer Fun

Summer: a great time of year to bask in the glow of some great books!  Here are a few suggestions you can enjoy whether you spend the season at the shore, or by the pool, or wishing for a special garden, or dreaming of winter!

I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean! By Kevin Sherry

A fun game of under-the-sea one-upmanship featuring eye-catching art and quite a surprise ending.  Great silly fun!

A Beach Tail by Karen Lynn Williams and Flloyd Cooper
This sweet new book chronicles an adventurous day on the beach with a boy and his dad.  It's also a tale about a tale--the tail of a lion young Gregory draws-- and draws, and draws, and draws...

Froggy Learns to Swim by Jonathan London and Frank Remkiewicz

“Bubble bubble, toot-toot!  Chicken airplane soldier!” That’s the fun refrain your little ones will be wanting to call out both in and out of water after seeing the always-funny Froggy struggle to learn to do what most would think would come naturally.

The Great White Man-Eating Shark: A Cautionary Tale by Margaret Mahy & Jonathan Allen

It’s not safe to go back to the beach when little Norvin is around—but he’ll soon learn his lesson.  A story with a good moral and enough laughs to keep the big kids turning the pages, it’s worth biting into again and again.

Rhinos Who Surf by Julie Mammano

Want to have some radical fun with the tale of rhinos in beach jams?  Pull out your gnarliest surfer accent and shred on through!  At storytime, this one always presents ridiculous fun for the grownups, and ridiculous new vocabulary for the kids.  Tubular!

My Garden by Kevin Henkes

When I was little, I buried a fortune cookie—and boy, was I upset when nothing grew!  The little girl in this book fantasizes about a garden with jellybean bushes and chocolate bunnies, opening the door for fun conversations at home about what you & your kids would like to grow—real or imagined.

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

Yes, a “snowy” book on a summer list—because there’s always someone out there (certainly not me) dreaming of winter!  Peter does just about everything he can think of in the snow—even collects some snowballs in his pocket to perhaps pull out in the summer.  I’d sure like to find a way to keep summer with me all year!

Read Up! Some tasty tales

 

     Here’s a small serving of books, each with something extra—a recipe!  The stories stand on their own, of course, but the opportunity to bring the book into the kitchen with your family enriches the experience of the story, and demonstrates how reading is useful in many ways.  Additionally, it might even be an incentive for the little ones to try a new food!  As you read your way through the library, you’ll discover many more great stories with a recipe tucked in.

Bee-bim Bop! By Linda Sue Park & Ho Baek Lee

This rhyming book with a catchy repeated line is one of my favorites.  It’s beautifully-illustrated, and features a child who loves to help her family get ready for a meal.  Better yet, it just sounds fun--children at storytime always end up jumping in to chant along with the text!

The Giant Carrot, by Jan Peck & Barry Root

Another fun picture book with plenty of repeated phrases, this story finds a whole family dreaming of how they’ll eat this huge carrot—if only they can manage to get it out of the ground!  I still haven’t tried that recipe for carrot pudding.

The Ugly Vegetables, by Grace Lin

A little girl wishes her mom would plant beautiful flowers like their neighbors. When the ugly vegetables become soup, though, it's the neighbors who want to trade!

Cook-a-Doodle-Doo! by Janet Stevens & Susan Stevens Crummel

Fans of the Little Red Hen will be interested to learn that great-grandson is a baker, as well.  Rooster has a lot of help—but it is not necessarily helpful help.  The story is funny, there are a lot of lessons about kitchens & cooking along the way, and there’s a tasty recipe at the end.

Pizza at Sally’s, by Monica Wellington

Your little pizza lover will learn how the pies are made, as Sally (and her cat) prepare to open her pizza to a very appreciative & hungry neighborhood of children.

Eight Animals Bake a Cake, by Susan Middleton Elya & Lee Chapman

Animal lovers will love this story, which even throws in a bit of Spanish as it depicts eight good friends cooperating for a very sweet result.

And finally, a whole storybook full of classic tales:

Fairy Tale Feasts: A Literacy Cookbook for Young Readers & Eaters, by Jane Yolen, Heidi E.Y. Stemple, & Philippe Béha
Read Jack & the Beanstalk—and then make “Jack’s Magic Party Beans!” The story of Snow White includes Snow’s recipe for baked apples, and there’s a whole picnic basket of recipes to accompany Little Red Riding Hood!

 

21st Annual Sunnyvale Library Storytelling Festival

Such a fun event, I loved being there!  The photographer from the San Jose Mercury News caught me in one of my classic poses:

Drop Everything and READ!

Have you got 30 minutes to set aside for reading?  Today (April 12) is a great day to try: it's Drop Everything and Read Day -- but any day (and every day) is a great day to celebrate!

 

D.E.A.R.'s April 12 date is to celebrate the birthday of Beverly Cleary, who wrote the great Ramona books, but since reading is for everyone (this means you), you can read whatever you like: favorite picture books, mysteries, stories that have been turned into movies, ghost stories, comics-- even the New York Times!  The goal of the occasion is for families to find regular time for reading-- reading together, and reading individually (or reading individually, together).

Why not visit your library & load up on a selection to take home for everyone to pick through & discover new favorites?  For more info on Drop Everything & Read, and lots of games plus downloads for parents, teachers & librarians, visit the D.E.A.R. website.

Blurb time...

"John has the wonderful talent to engage both kids and adults alike. His interactive approach to storytelling lets all of us become part of the fun!"

--C.J Hirschfield, Executive Director
Children's Fairyland

The Many Faces...

Storyteller John Weaver manga-fied by Alan Bosco Ocampo

Two Greats on NPR: Jon Scieszka & Dave Barry

NPR’s “Weekend Edition” is always a great listen, but the Saturday, November 29 broadcast was especially so—at least for lovers of children’s literature. The program featured two of my favorites, Jon Scieszka and Dave Barry.

Scieszka is the Library of Congress National Ambassador to Children's Literature, and of course the author of “The Time Warp Trio” series, “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs,” “The Stinky Cheese Man,” the new “Truck Town” series for little ones & so much more.

Humorist Dave Barry has been reinventing himself as a talented children’s author over the last few years as co-writer of a new and exciting series of Peter Pan adventures. His new book for middle-schoolers is called “Science Fair.”

The “Weekend Edition Saturday” pieces were funny & informative, and you can listen to them online—as well as read excerpts from their new books—at www.npr.org.

Author Spotlight: MO WILLEMS

I’ve been a big Mo Willems fan since well before I ever heard his name.

Watching “Sesame Street” in the late 90s with my son, we’d laugh at the “Suzy Kabloozy” cartoons, so hilariously voiced by Ruth Buzzi. Willems (Suzy’s creator) was a writer on the program at the time—an Emmy-award-winning writer. He went on to create still more TV cartoons before leaving the field to pursue his career as an author.

This year, Mo Willems won another honor: the American Library Association’s Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for “most distinguished American book for beginning readers.” The medal honors “There is a Bird on Your Head,” a new entry in Willems’ “Elephant and Piggie” series, a hilarious line about two very good friends.

The Elephant & Piggie stories are indeed great beginning reader books, as they contain simple, large text, repeated ideas, and very appealing cartoony illustrations. The books are also fun read-alouds, giving parents and teachers the opportunity have a great time giving voice to these two silly characters! What’s more, free teachers’ guides are available online, with discussion questions, extension ideas & activity sheets, at http://www.pigeonpresents.com.

I hope you already know that pigeon from that URL—he’s the star of the Caldecott Honor-winning book “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus,” the first of a growing number of comic Pigeon adventures, and certainly another home & classroom must-read! Read the books together, create voices, and let the children talk back to the books—they’ll love it.

While you’re looking up Mo Willems’ books at your library, don’t forget to pick up the “Knuffle Bunny” books, “Leonardo the Terrible Monster,” “Time to Say ‘Please,’” and whatever else you can find. You’ll have as much fun reading them as the kids will have listening—and that’s why I present them here. Happy Reading!