From: Sharon Grover <sgrover>
Date: Thu, 8 Aug 96 19:14:01 EDT

There is nothing more satisfying than observing a child connect with the book you are sharing. Someone has mentioned GOODNIGHT MOON and IRA SLEEPS OVER (my storyhour kids always voted enthhusiastically for taking the bear); add to those the chorus of uh-ohs when Officer Buckle and Gloria are watching themselves on tv, or the belly laughs when they finally "get" the joke in TRICKY TORTOISE. For older children, the little thrill of fear when you read JUMANJI is also quite delicious. The response of one wonderful 5-year-old, "Well, now he won't have to use his sleeve," at the end of OWEN, was a treat for the "story lady."

But then there are those books that leave you wondering... Several colleagues and I, all of whom loved James Stevenson's I MEANT TO TELL YOU, argued long and hard about its child appeal. I used it with my 4-6-year-old storyhour crowd and many of them did like it and could even articulate why ("I liked her dog;" "I liked that she was doing stuff with her daddy"), while those who didn't like it, "just didn't." But none of them LOVED it the way they would one of those books mentioned above. Has anyone else used this book successfully? If so, with what age group?

I can't wait to see and use the list of "real" picture books!

Sharon Grover Arlington County Dept. of Libraries Arlington, VA sgrover at leo.vsla.edu
Received on Thu 08 Aug 1996 06:14:01 PM CDT