Day 140: Katy and the Big Snow

Much to my delight, this winter is proving to be one of the warmest on record here in New England.  We haven't had snow on the ground for more than a few days all season, and one of those storms was back in October.  Usually, I love a good snow storm and am happy have a white winter (at least for a little while), but not this year.  I think Mother Nature must be seeking forgiveness from last year's brutal winter, and I'll admit I'm appreciative of the gesture.  I've been waiting to feature one of our favorite winter reads for a day when we're getting a big storm, but with temperatures looking like they'll stay in the 40s (~ 5C), no snow in sight, and March just two weeks away, I'm just going to feature this wonderful book now and hope that spring is just around the corner.

Virginia Lee Burton has written some absolutely fabulous books for children, and Katy and the Big Snow is one of our favorites.  If you are unfamiliar with her stories, you really must look for them the next time you are at the library.  I promise you won't be disappointed.  Katy and the Big Snow was first published in 1943 and has been a classic ever since. "Katy was a beautiful red crawler tractor.  She was very big and very strong and she could do a lot of things."  Serving as tractor and bulldozer in summer and a plow in winter, Katy works hard for the highway department of the City of Geoppolis.  One winter, a big snow falls upon the city, and it's up to Katy to plow everyone out.  Each time someone new calls for help, Katy is there with her plow and a happy, helpful, "Follow me!"  Thanks to Katy, the police can get out to protect the city, the postman can get out to deliver the mail, the doctor can get to his patient, and the fire department can get to a fire.  The story line might be simple -- the town gets snowed in and Katy saves the day -- but it somehow never gets old.  In some ways, I feel the illustrations surrounding the text are what really make the story.  There are just so many fabulous little details in these images that bring such life to the book!  I just love Burton's border drawings of all the different trucks that make up the highway department's fleet, and my son always studies each one carefully.  I'm sure the fact that the story features plows and trucks and trains only makes him love the book all the more.  And the map of Geoppolis?!  Don't get my geography teacher self started on how much I love that!  What a fabulous way to introduce the concept of maps to young children!  Complete with a compass rose and a key of all of the buildings in town, this map is revisited throughout the story as Katy plows each building out, one by one.  It makes me want to find a big map of our town and show my son where are all of these buildings are near us, too.  Better yet, maybe we'll have to draw our own!  My son is begging me to read this him now as I write, so I suppose I'll wrap things up here.  But you see where I'm going with this.  Katy and the Big Snow is a must read, whether there's snow where you are or not.  This is one book I'm happy to curl up in the sunshine and read on this warm February day.

Day 96: Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site

I always love getting great book recommendations from friends.  Our good friend Melinda (who, in addition to being generally fabulous, is also a children's librarian) emailed me the other week to tell me about a great new book she thought my son would love:  Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site.  Sounding right up his alley, I made a mental note to look for it the next time we visited our library.  Lo and behold, the next time we went, there it was on the new books shelf, right in front.  My son immediately picked up the book and excitedly ran to the couch to read it with me.  If you know a child who is as obsessed with construction trucks as mine is, this book is a must read!  "Down in the big construction site, the tough trucks work with all their might.  To build a building, make a road, To get the job done -- load by load!"  Follow along as a truck crane, cement mixer, dump truck, bulldozer, and excavator work the day away, then finally settle down to rest after a hard day's work.  The cute, rhyming verses are fun to read, and I love that we are able to say goodnight to each vehicle along the way, slowly winding down a bit more with each turn of the page. My son might display the horsepower and destructive capabilities of a bulldozer some days, but even he will settle down a bit more when reading this before bed.  It's really a perfect bedtime story in our house:  my little guy always loves a good trucks book, and I'm always looking for a great bedtime read.  So snuggle up with your little one and give this book a go. "Turn off your engines, stop your tracks, Relax your wheels, your stacks, and backs.  No more huffing and puffing, team: It's time to rest your heads and dream.  Construction site, all tucked in tight.  The day is done, turn off the light.  Great work today!  Now... shhh... goodnight." 

Day 78: Roadwork

Roadwork is one of my son's favorite books to read right now.  We have taken it out of the library several times at his request, and even had to bring it on vacation with us.  (Miraculously, I even managed to not leave it behind.)  It actually was a fun book to have on hand as we passed by countless construction trucks on the highways during our vacation, and even more so as we sat in the traffic they created.  But really, I'm featuring this book today because it is one of the few times in my life that I can honestly say I have used the word onomatopoeia in a sentence.  I think the last time was probably in my 6th grade English class.  (I hope you're not offended, Mrs. Gianokis.) There are many cool things about Roadwork, but my son's favorite has to be the (wait for it...) onomatopoeia!, the fancy Greek grammatical term for words that sound like what they mean.  "Plan the road.  Plan the road.  Mark in on the map.  Hammer in the marking pegs.  PING!  BANG!  TAP!"  Or one of my son's favorite verses, "Load the dirt.  Load the dirt.  Scoop and swing and drop.  Slam it down into the truck.  BUMP!  WHUMP!  WHOP!"  He has memorized all of these fun sound effects and looks forward to saying them as we turn each page.  But aside from being colorful, lyrical, and extremely fun to read, Roadwork is also educational; it outlines the process of how a road is built from start to finish, from clearing away the earth to sealing the road and putting up the lights.  If you have a truck lover in your house, this book is a must-read, but even if you don't, I encourage you to check it out.  Any child will love saying the sounds along with you.  While you're at it, tell them all those fun words have a name: onomatopoeia. That's one word they'll definitely have fun trying to say! 

We have the hardcover version from our local library, but I also just saw that it is available as a board book, too.  Excellent!

Day 49: Little Blue Truck

My son has some kind of innate truck magnetism.  If a truck book is the needle and the library is the haystack, he can find that book in about 10 seconds.  It's amazing.  At a library visit several months ago, he came running over with a new story in hand and a big smile on his face.  "A blue truck book, Mum Mum!  A blue truck book!"   That particular story was Little Blue Truck Leads the Way, the sequel to Alice Schertle's popular Little Blue Truck.  Once we realized it was a sequel, we had to find the first book, too.  Both are wonderful, so we figured we'd feature the original story first.  Little Blue Truck is a fun, charming story about friendship and working together.  Aside from a blue truck, it features some of my son's other favorite things:  a giant dump truck and animals.  It's no wonder it was love at first read!  The lyrical rhyming lines are fun to read aloud, and will also help younger children learn their animal sounds. "'Cluck!' said a chicken, and her chick said, 'Peep!' 'Maaa!' said a goat.  Blue said, 'Beep!'  The illustrations, story, and message are all wonderful, making this a fabulous book to share with your child.  While many boys will no doubt like it because of the trucks, I think girls will enjoy it, too.  We hope you love it as much as we do!

Day 8: Cars and Trucks and Things That Go

This might be my son's favorite book of all time.  He has loved it so much, in fact, that we are actually on our second copy.  The first one was given to us as a hand-me-down and was in near-perfect condition, but the poor book was soon loved to shreds.  Literally.  Even mass amounts of heavy duty clear packing tape couldn't save it.  Granted, we probably shouldn't have given my son a non-board book when he was still only one, but he was so obsessed with cars and trucks that we couldn't resist reading it to him.  Needless to say, it was an instant hit.   It features drawings of every kind of vehicle you could possibly imagine and then some (would you rather drive a carrot car or a banana mobile?) and a rather silly story line about the Pig family's day trip to the beach.  It's long -- almost 70 pages -- but jam-packed with vehicular delight.  We love following that naughty Dingo Dog, too.  If you have a child in your life who is like mine and is obsessed with all things wheeled, this is bound to be a favorite.  Don't forget to find Goldbug on every page!