Little Miss Muffet Reviews Little Excavator by Anna Dewdney (2017)

In this brand-new picture book from Llama Llama creator Anna Dewdney, there is lots of work to be done on the lot where Little Excavator and all the big rigs have just arrived. Little E is eager to help, but all the jobs are just too big for a machine as small as he is - all of them, that is, except one.

I shared this book with my three-year-old, Little Miss Muffet, and then asked her some questions. Here's what she thought of Little Excavator! (My questions are in bold; her answers follow. Answers were taken from two separate discussions about the book - it was hard to get her to tell me everything in one sitting!)

MISS MUFFET ON LITTLE EXCAVATOR

What is this book about? 
Digging.

What did they dig? 
A park.

What did you like about the book? 
I liked it because I like digging and I like work. I like it when they said, "Mighty Little Excavator, go, go, go!"

Anything else?
It's good.

Why is it good? 
I like little things and I like Little Excavator.

What do you like about Little Excavator?
I like that he gets tall, tall, tall. I like that he has this digging thing. I like the part where he gets in a jam.

What do you like about the pictures? 
I like the pictures because it's about digging. And because it has little in it, and I like Little E. I like that there's big things and little things.

What do you think about the colors? 
I like orange. I like yellow. I like the orange light [on the backhoe].

What was the best part of the story? 
The best part of it is where the car is drowning [on the beginning end papers].

Why did you like that part? 
Because I like cars. I like driving. And I don't ever drown. But sometimes cars drown.

Was there anything you didn't like about the book?
No!

Did you like the way the story ends? 
Yeah.

What kind of ending was it? 
Good because at the end it's happy.

Do you think other girls and boys who are three years old would like this book?
Yeah!

What would you like to tell other children about the book? 
I'd tell them what I telled you.

Miss Muffet has been very enthusiastic about this book since we first read it, and I have shared her enjoyment. I love the detailed end papers. At the beginning, they show the lot in a state of disrepair and the rigs coming up the road; at the end, they depict the new park and a proud, smiling Little E. I also love the use of onomatopoeia and the smooth, carefully matched rhymes. The construction subject matter isn't new, and neither is the "little people can do big things" message, but this book is one of the better-written titles on both topics.

Little Excavator is a memorable and lovable character who makes a strong impression.  When we went to our city's Public Works Equipment Show a couple of weeks ago, Miss Muffet had the chance to sit in an excavator, and without hesitation, she excitedly called out, "It's Little E, Mama!" It was nice to see her connecting the book to a real-life experience, and to see her joy at seeing a hint of a new favorite character in her everyday life.

Giveaway!

Enter for a chance to win one (1) of five (5) copies of Little Excavator by Anna Dewdney (ARV: $19.99 each).

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Enter between 12:00 AM Eastern Time on May 22, 2017 and 12:00 AM on June 19, 2017.  Open to residents of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia who are 13 and older. Winners will be selected at random on or about June 30, 2017. Odds of winning depend on number of eligible entries received. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.

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Week One:
May 22 – Homeschool 4 Life
May 23 – Inspiration Laboratories
May 24 – The Plot Bunny
May 25 – A Story a Day
May 26 – The Children’s Book Review

Week Two:
May 29 – Quiet in the Chaos
May 30 – Here’s to Happy Endings
May 31 – Margie’s Must Reads
June 1 – Confessions of a Book Addict
June 2 – Gypsy Road

Week Three:
June 5 – A Peace of Mind
June 6 – Books and Giggles
June 7 – Wandering Bark Books
June 8 – Bea’s Book Nook
June 9 – Read-At-Home Mom

Week Four:
June 12 – My Storytime Corner
June 13 – A Rup Life
June 14 – Pirates n’ Pixie Dust
June 15 – Swoony Boys Podcast
June 16 – Good Books & Good Wine

Little Excavator is in bookstores now. Thanks to Penguin Random House for the review copy. 

Poetry Picnic: May 26, 2017

We had a great poetry picnic right before Memorial Day weekend! Here's what we read while we enjoyed lunch and chocolate chip cookies! (Anthology titles link to Goodreads; poem titles link to online full text when available.)

From All Together:

• Night and Morning by Dorothy Aldis
• My Nose by Dorothy Aldis
• Grown-Up People by Dorothy Aldis
• The Seals by Dorothy Aldis
• In May by Dorothy Aldis
• The Storm by Dorothy Aldis
• Goodness Me by Dorothy Aldis

This collection is perfect for preschoolers. I want to work on getting Miss Muffet (age 3.5) to memorize and recite some of these poems herself. "Goodness Me," which is about a child realizing she might be starting to be good all the time, would be a good one to start with since it connects with her own struggle to behave well! 

From Sing a Song of Seasons:

• The Big Swing-Tree is Green Again by Marchette Chute
• The Worm by Ralph Bergengren

I wasn't sure Miss Muffet would understand the humor of "The Worm," but she did seem to laugh appropriately. Both of these poems were taken from the summer section of the book.

From The Year Around: Poems for Children: 

• Remembering Day by Mary Wight Saunders
• Secret by Esther Hull Doolittle 
• Jack-in-the-Pulpit by Ivy O. Eastwick

These poems were taken from the Memorial Day and Summer sections of the book.  I suspect this will be my go-to source for upcoming poetry picnics, since there is something for almost every holiday and occasion.

From Poems to Read to the Very Young:

• Good Morning by Muriel Sipe
• I Saw a Ship a-Sailing
• Near and Far by Kate Cox Goddard

I found this book at a used bookstore and snatched it up because I love the illustrations. We have all of these poems in other anthologies, but the pictures really appeal to Bo Peep (20 mos.) and I chose these poems with her in mind.

From Beneath a Blue Umbrella: 

• In downtown Philadelphia... by Jack Prelutsky
• Idaho Rose... by Jack Prelutsky
• Captain Flea and Sailor Snail... by Jack Prelutsky

We received a copy of this book free at a recent city truck touch event. The poems are Prelutsky originals but they read like nursery rhymes, and the illustrations are by Garth Williams. The individual poems do not have titles, so I have just listed them here by first line. 

The RAHM Report for 6/5/17

I have a deadline for a chapter of my own book coming up, so I haven't done that much reading over the past couple of weeks, but I have a few books to report about, as well as some short stories.

Adult Books

Adult books always end up taking a backseat to kids' books, so I'm still plugging away at both The Cat Who Blew the Whistle and A Novena for Murder. I did, however, finish my NetGalley ARC of About a Dog by Jenn McKinlay, which I will review on Goodreads in the next couple of days. Now that I've gotten back into contemporary romance a little bit, I'd like to go back and finish the Shaughnessy Brothers series by Samantha Chase, but I will try to finish the two mysteries first.

Deal Me in Short Story Challenge

I was seven weeks behind for this challenge until last night when I read two stories: "I'll be Waiting" by Raymond Chandler (♦2)  and "The Parker Shotgun" from Kinsey & Me by Sue Grafton (♦10). The Chandler was strange, and I had trouble concentrating on what was happening. The writing style was something different, and I didn't dislike it, but I also found myself thinking "so what?" at the end of the story. The Grafton story was better, probably because Kinsey Millhone is one of my all-time favorite characters. I also hear audiobook narrator Judy Kaye's voice in my head whenever I read Sue Grafton now, so that makes Kinsey feel more real. The mystery itself was solid, but not earth-shattering. I mostly just like reading about this character.  

I have 5 more stories to read this week if I want to catch up. Fingers crossed! 

Children's Books

I finished Speed of Life by Carol Weston, and I plan to write a review at some point, probably on Goodreads. I've also gotten a good start on my reading for this month's Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge theme of "required reading" with Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Anne of Green Gables. I enjoyed both (though I liked Anne better than Rebecca) and I will have reviews coming up hopefully next week. My next priorities in terms of children's novels are Almost Paradise by Corabel Shofner, The Secret Garden (which I have never read!), Go Jump in the Pool! by Gordon Korman (my turn came up on the wait list at OpenLibrary) and Let's Pretend We Never Met by Melissa Walker, my NetGalley copy of which expires in just over a week. I also have a library hold on the new Sarah Dessen book, Once and For All, and as far as I can tell, I'm 9th on the list and there are more than 20 copies. If the library gets its copies on time, I hope to have that in hand by the end of the week too.

Since it's Monday, I'll be linking up today with It's Monday! What Are You Reading at both The Book Date and Teach Mentor Texts.

Dabbling in Diverse Formats: How I Use Ebooks and Audiobooks

I typically prefer to read books in their traditional print format, but over the past few years I have become more willing to explore other formats on occasion. Today, as Armchair Book Expo delves into diversity, I want to share how I use ebooks and audiobooks.

Ebooks

• Reading digital ARCs. I first started reading ebooks regularly when I started blogging in 2011 and joined NetGalley. Back then, I read on a Nook. Now that my Nook is long-dead, I either use the Kindle app on my Android phone, or I read in Adobe Digital Editions on my laptop. I have come to prefer Edelweiss over NetGalley, and I read far fewer ARCs now than I have in the past, but it's still nice to be able to carry an entire library with me without weighing down my purse.
• Downloading hard-to-find library books. If a book is unavailable in print from my local libraries, or there are many holds on the print edition, sometimes I will download the book through Overdrive or one of the library's other ebook portals just in the interest of gaining access to it quickly. 
• Discovering new and old favorites on OpenLibrary. Internet Archive maintains an amazing database of scanned books, including many vintage kids' books, at OpenLibrary.org. These can be downloaded in .pdf or .epub format, or read directly from the website. This has been a great source of lesser-known titles by favorite picture book authors and illustrators, and OpenLibrary's titles are the only ebooks I will read to my kids, because they have the look of the real book, including marginalia and library markings. 
• Previewing picture books. The last way that I use ebooks is to preview certain picture books. I tend to be skeptical of popular picture books, so before I go to the trouble of tracking down a print copy, I will check to see if I can download a digital copy and get a taste for the story. If I don't like it, I don't bother putting the physical copy on hold. If I think it has promise, I'll track down a print copy to read all the way through and share with my kids.

Audiobooks

• Traveling. If I have to sit on a bus or a train, I will download a bunch of audiobooks. I don't always concentrate that well, so I try to make them books I've read before so I can drift in and out. When my kids were a little bit younger and would nap consistently in the stroller, I also used to listen to audiobooks while walking with the stroller. I got a lot of extra reading done that way last summer! As a family we also listen to audiobooks on car trips. My husband usually chooses, and I have found quite a few new favorites this way. 
• Reading nonfiction. I am not very good at reading nonfiction on the page, so if there is a factual book I want to read, I'll try to get the audiobook edition. Audiobooks always slow me down, which is frustrating with fiction, but really necessary for me to do if I am going to comprehend nonfiction. I figured out that this would work for me by listening to podcasts. I realized I enjoyed the content when someone read it to me, but not as much when I had to work through it myself. 
• Getting into books more easily. If I'm having trouble getting started with a book, sometimes it helps to listen to the first chapter or so instead of reading it myself. This helps immerse me in the world of the story and in the author's writing style, and it sometimes makes it easier for me to pick up the print copy afterwards. I will also sometimes listen to an audiobook if I need to finish a book (for a challenge or a discussion or something) but am struggling to enjoy it. 
• Enjoying a particular narrator. I am particular about who narrates an audiobook, but when I find someone whose voice I like, I will be more likely to listen to the audiobook all the way through and even to look for other books read by the same person. Some of my favorite readers have been Elizabeth Sastre (Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild) Judy Kaye (Sue Grafton's books), Robert Sean Leonard (the books he narrates are not always that interesting to me, but he was m favorite on House MD), and Joel Johnstone (The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt.)

Are you an ebook or audiobook reader? What do you like (or dislike) about these formats?

  

3 Fun Ways to Connect with the Online Book Community

Armchair Book Expo's second topic for today is about collaborating and connecting with the online book community. As I have drifted away from the library world, I have really enjoyed finding new and different ways to connect with like-minded book lovers. Here are three of the fun ways I have discovered new connections.

First Line Monday

Every Monday, the members of this Facebook group post the first line of whatever they are currently reading. Many different genres and types of books are represented, and it's a great way to learn about new titles that would otherwise not be on my radar. Because it has such a specific focus, and we only post once a week, the group is very relaxed and friendly, and completely free of spam and unpleasant arguments. Even if I don't have a line to share, I always pop in to see what everyone else is reading.

Tuesday Night Book Loving Mamas Chat 

Every Tuesday night on Instagram, a group of book loving moms, led by @buildingliteracywithbooks, post a series of questions related to reading. Participants hop from one account to the next answering questions until they complete the loop. I've only answered the questions twice now, but everyone has been so welcoming, and it's been a fun way to see how other moms use books with their kids.

Bout of Books

This is a read-a-thon that happens three times a year. I've participated 5 times, and even though I'm often one of the only children's book bloggers, it's a great motivator for getting reading done. There are usually two chats during the week, which is a great way to meet people, and the atmosphere of the read-a-thon is very relaxed and fun. Sometimes I read a lot, and sometimes only a little, but I always enjoy it.

What Do I Want From a Book?

Today, Armchair Book Expo is asking "What Do Readers Want?" After giving it some thought, I've made a list of the ten things that the books I enjoy all tend to have in common.

Believable and sympathetic characters.

For me to connect with a character, she needs to be someone I can root for. I don't necessarily need to have anything in common with the character in order to feel a connection with her, but there has to be something relatable or fascinating about her to keep me interested for the length of an entire book. I don't think the character even necessarily needs to be likable, as long as there is something about her personality, history, or transformation throughout the story that intrigues me. I also like characters who feel real, and who have a few flaws and foibles that make them feel human.  In the case of child characters, they also need to act like kids rather than mini-adults,

Realistic dialogue.

Dialogue is a big part of character development. Awkward or false-sounding dialogue really grates on my nerves and brings me right out of the story, so it's important for characters to sound real and for their dialogue to flow smoothly. I don't mind an author using local color to help a character come across more realistically, but I prefer that thick accents and regional slang don't become so overpowering as to obscure what the characters are saying. Characters' speech should also align with who they are as people. Well-written dialogue makes it clear who is speaking, not just through dialogue tags, but through the style of each character's speech.

Memorable descriptions.

Samuel Johnson identified an engaging author as one in whose work "New things are made familiar, and familiar things are made new." When I think about the kinds of descriptions I most enjoy in books, this is what I mean. I love it when an author shows me something I have seen many times from a new angle, and I like it just as well when an author can introduce a new concept to me in a way that makes me quickly understand it. There is such a thing as too much description (don't get me started on The Yearling), but authors who describe things well, especially using metaphors that arise from the world of the story itself, tend to become my favorites.

Interesting use of language.

Directly connected to a talent for description is an overall fresh approach to using language. I like it when an author uses certain turns of phrase that represent his or her overall writing style, and which can be easily identified specifically with that author. I also appreciate it when authors avoid cliches, especially the really common ones, such as the dreaded "She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding." 

Attention to detail.

I'm the kind of reader who gets really hung up on little details, sometimes to the point that I can't keep reading if something seems out of place, until I've figured out the problem. I am especially bothered by anachronisms in historical books, and complete misrepresentations of religious and cultural customs which can easily be researched with minimal effort. When an author appears not to have done his or her research, it feels like they don't care about the book, or its readers, and that makes me less inclined to care about the book, too. 

Appealing and convincing setting.

Setting is not always important to me. I can sometimes happily read a book with a very generic setting if it has little bearing on the plot. But if a specific setting is named, I need it to be described well enough that I can picture it. For me to really want to spend time in a setting (especially over the course of a series), it needs to come across as a place I would want to visit. I also find that settings meant to sustain entire series become more engaging if there are hidden depths for readers to discover as the books wear on. 

Strong plot structure.

Obviously certain genres (mystery, romance, etc.) have their own specific plot structures, and I do appreciate it when books adhere to those requirements. When it comes to novels outside of those genres, however, I prefer to read books that are at least a little unpredictable.  I don't like to be confused by the events of a book, so it's good for the story to be well-organized, but I also don't want to be able to see where it's going before I even hit the halfway point. I also like it when seemingly irrelevant details mentioned early in the story end up being important to the outcome.

Attractive and meaningful illustrations.

If a book has illustrations, they should be appealing to look at, but not merely decorative. Illustrations - even just line drawings - should add something to the book. This might be context for the events of the story, additional information to support the text, diagrams to help decode difficult concepts, or beautiful illuminations of key scenes. Illustrations shouldn't just be a substitute for lazy writing, or filler, but as much an integral part of the book as the text.

Subtle messages.

All books have messages of some kind, but I like it best when these are not overt and are left open to interpretation. I don't want a book to manipulate me into having the "right" attitude about a social or political issue. I'd rather the book tell its story well and leave it up to the plot and characters to steer me toward careful thought about the issues at hand.

Respect for the reader.

Finally, I like it when an author clearly trusts the reader and believes that the reader is smart enough to understand the story being told without lots of hand-holding, over-explanation, or commentary about the story. In general, if a book feels condescending, or tries to tell me how I should interpret it, I give up after just a couple of chapters.

Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge, June 2017 (Required Reading)

The sixth month of the Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge begins today!

This month our focus is on Required Reading. This includes all of those books that "everyone has read," especially classics and those often assigned in schools. If there are classics you've missed, now's your chance to cross one or two off of your to-read list!

To participate, read a book or books connected to this month's theme with a publication date in the decade of your birth or before. Post about it on your blog, or wherever you typically review books. At the end of the month, I will publish a link-up post for you to share your reviews from the month.

Feel free to share what you're planning to read here in the comments and/or on social media using #oldschoolkidlit2017. Happy reading!