Book Review: A Book of Sleep

Title: A Book of Sleep

Author: Il Sung Na

Illustrator: Il Sung Na

Publisher: Knopf  Books for Young Readers, January 11, 2011

Age: 1 - 3

Topic: Animals, Sleep

Opening:

When the sky grows dark
and the moon glows bright,
everyone goes to sleep . . .
except for the watchful owl!

Summary: Join owl on a moonlit journey as he watches all the other animals settle in for the night.

Resources:
Animal recognition: point at all the animals and name them. Talk about the sleeping style of each animal.
My Thoughts: A sweet bedtime story that children will love to read over and over again. I love that owl appears on each page as he watches over all the sleeping animals. With wonderful illustrations and spare text, children learn how various animals sleep, including owl.

Book Review: The Mitten

Title: The Mitten

Author: Jan Brett (adapted)

Illustrator: Jan Brett

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile, October 4, 1996

Age: 1-3

Topic: Seasons: Winter, Woodland Animals, Sharing

Opening: Once there was a boy named Nikki. He wanted mittens as white as snow.

Summary:
When Nicki drops his new white mitten in the snow, some curious woodland animals find it and crawl in for warmth. First comes a mole, then a rabbit, a badger and others, each one larger than the last.

Resources:
These animal masks would be great for a play reenacting The Mitten story. For this art activity, cut out the mittens and the animals and let them crawl in just like the animals in the story. Teach story sequencing using sequence cards from Creating & Teaching's blog. Homeschool Creations has lots of printables to use with the story. With my one-year olds, they glued yarn on an oversized poster board cutout of the white mitten

Why I like this book:
In this lovely illustrated story, a lonely white mitten becomes a cozy winter resting place for a variety of woodland creatures. It starts off with a small rabbit, and as more creatures appear, the larger they get until a bear squeezes in with the other critters. But when a tiny mouse tries to make his way in, the creatures get a big surprise! I love this edition because of it's brevity yet beautiful illustrations. The toddlers in my classroom love to look at it and listen to the story.