RACCOON (Monday Poem)

by Charlotte Zolotow


Raccoon,
with your black-ringed eyes
and tiny paws,
startled at your work,
to you my garbage can
is full
of treasure.



from The Beauty of the Beast: Poems from the Animal Kingdom, selected by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Meilo So, 1997, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

PIGEONS (Monday Poem)

by Charlotte Zolotow


A gray-blue pigeon
blows up his feathers
and struts
across the path
to other pigeons
waiting in the grass.
An old man
scatters breadcrumbs
and the pigeons
ripple up to his feet
in a blue and silver wave. 



from The Beauty of the Beast: Poems from the Animal Kingdom, selected by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Meilo So, 1997, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

Ocean's Alive (FAMILY magazine reviews)

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Once the school year is over, children sometimes forget what they have learned. Parents can encourage their child/children to read during summer weeks to keep this from happening. When children go to the beach, or out in a boat, the questions they ask show their interest in the living world around. Don’t hesitate to “wonder” with your child/children about what they see and smell, feel and hear.  A few ideas below can add to what parents already do:

·      Read out loud with your child -- this helps her/him grow in understanding, vocabulary and decoding words. Whatever her/his age, it raises interest in reading on their own.

·      Excite your child to read with a variety of books and magazines at his/her interest level. Keep reading material in cars, bathrooms, bedrooms, and family rooms, even beside the TV.

·      In your daily routine, include 15-30 minutes when everyone in the family reads together silently. Your child’s interest in reading grows when she/he sees you reading. And it makes her/his reading smoother and more confident.

·      Invite your child to read signs, grocery store items, menus, movie time listings, weather reports, board games, and other necessary everyday information. Keep something to read with them or for them to read when they wait for appointments or travel in the car.

·      Visit the library regularly with your child to help them choose books to borrow. This is a great way to get new reading materials, let him/her make their own reading choices, and build their reading interest.

·      Most important, give them genuine praise for their efforts to read, and share your own reading pleasure with them!

A few summertime book choices are below. Happy vacation!  

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These Seas Count! by Alison Formento 

illustrated by Sarah Snow

Albert Whitman, $16.99 (hardcover) 

Interest Level: Junior Kindergarten – Grade 2 

(This book is available to purchase from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)

           

Mr. Tate’s class is at Sunnyside Beach to help on Clean-Up Day.  Working with Captain Ned and counting the ocean’s animals, students pick up trash. They talk about weather, air and water, and the fish they like to eat.

            Digital collage illustrates a dirty, then clean beach and ocean. Busy seascapes are paired with counting language and children’s questions and comments. 

Lively text and alert children and animals drive readers’ interest in this environmental storybook.  Additional information about oceans is included at the back.

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Ocean Commotion: Life on the Reef by Janeen Mason

Pelican, $16.99 (hardcover) 

Interest Level: Grades1-3 

(This book is available to purchase from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)

                 

A too-tight tulip shell house sends a hermit crab on a hunt, across the living reef, for a new home.  The author/illustrator, a Florida resident, uses sunlit colors and active shapes to create an undersea adventure. 

Vivid language propels hermit crab. She tiptoes “through a garden of anemones,” and past turtle grass.  Readers meet sea creatures like pufferfish, sea urchins, parrotfish and more. After a powerful storm, hermit crab discovers a perfectly sized whelk shell house.

End matter includes an Illustrated Glossary and letter from the author.

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Out of the Ocean by Debra Frasier 

Harcourt, $7.00 (paperback) 

Interest Level: Pre-Kindergarten – Grade 2 

(This book is available to borrow at the Miami Dade Library; Main Branch. 

Also may be purchased from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)

           

With a pleasing mix of photos, cut paper and found objects the author/illustrator welcomes readers to share her delight. Ocean treasures create a collage of words and pictures.  Asking the sea to bring something often depends on remembering to look for it, the girl and mother in the book find out together.   

            This winning picture book works its wonder, shaping a magical experience.  Those who read this book will be eager to search a beach for what is waiting to be discovered.  An Ocean Journal at the back adds richness to this Florida story.

           

 

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Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out! by April Pulley Sayre

illustrated by Annie Patterson 

 Charlesbridge, $7.95 (paperback) 

Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2 

(This book is available to borrow at the Miami Dade Library; Main Branch.   

Also may be purchased from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)

           

Starting on a Florida beach, this picture book shows the dangers a young turtle must find her way through, in order to survive. Beginning with eggs, and then hatchlings, each part of a sea turtle’s life is risky. The author uses the repeated words of the title to warn. Many hands help in different ways to keep rare turtles alive. 

Blues, greens and purples in watercolors and pastels suggest day and night for turtle’s water world.  The artist adds contrast and detail with golden browns for turtles, beaches, other animals and sea creatures.  Additional pages -- Helping Hands for Sea Turtles, and, Sea Turtle Species – are included at the end.

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Try any of these terrific books too:

The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino 

Knopf,  $7.99 (paperback) 

Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2 

(This book is available to borrow at the Miami Dade Library; Main Branch, Little River. 

Also may be purchased from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)

The Earth Book by Todd Parr 

Little Brown, $9.99 (hardcover) 

Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2 

(This book is available to borrow at the Miami Dade Library; Main Branch, Allapattah, Culmer/Overtown, Little River, Miami Lakes, North Dade Regional, Opa-Locka. 

Also may be purchased from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)

Down Down Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea by Steve Jenkins 

Houghton Mifflin, $17.00 (hardcover) 

Interest Level: Grades 1-3 

(This book is available to borrow at the Miami Dade Library; Main Branch, North Central. 

Also may be purchased from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)

Mayday! Mayday! A Coast Guard Rescue by Chris L. Demarest

Simon & Schuster, $17.99 (hardcover) 

Interest Level: Preschool – Grade 2 

(This book is available to borrow at the Miami Dade Library; Main Branch, Miami Lakes, Miami Springs, North Dade Regional. 

Also may be purchased from Books & Books online: http://www.booksandbooks.com)

THE ANTS CRAWL (Monday Poem)

by Eleanor Schick


The ants crawl
over my arm
and back
into the grass
again.

They mean me
no harm.

I am only a
mountain
to them.



from The Beauty of the Beast: Poems from the Animal Kingdom, selected by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Meilo So, 1997, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

RAIN (Monday Poem)

by Joanne Ryder


Rain
bends
the tall grass
making
bridges
for ant.


from The Beauty of the Beast: Poems from the Animal Kingdom, selected by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Meilo So, 1997, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

FIREWORKS (Monday Poem)

by Deborah Chandra

A hiss,
Howl,
Rush,
A thunderous roar!
Wild beasts burst
In fiery hordes
To mix with shadows
In the sky,
Flashing teeth
And tiger eyes.

Sizzling tongues,
Leopard spots,
Lion mouths
Red, round and hot!
Bristling paws
Climb the night,
Golden glowing
Balls of light
That pounce, then sprawl,
There . . .
                  now there,
      and there,
Burning, trembling
In the air--
To fade,
Falling
On earth below;
Soft as milkweed,
Silent as snow.



from Balloons and Other Poems by Deborah Chandra, illustrations by Leslie Bowman, 1993, Farrar, Straus and Giroux