Stories for All Seasons

Spring

The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
Flower Garden by Eve Bunting
It's Spring! by Else Holmelund Minarik
Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash by Sarah Weeks (Other good "spring cleaning" theme books include Alpha and the Dirty Baby by Brock Cole, The Man Who Didn't Wash His Dishes by Phyllis Krasilovsky and Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish)
Thunder Bunny by Rodney Alan Greenblatt
Jennie's Hat by Ezra Jack Keats
A Match Between the Winds by Shirley Climo
The Big Fat Worm by Nancy Van Laan
The Best Nest by P.D. Eastman
The Talking Eggs by Robert San Souci
Also, to help April showers bring May flowers,go to
Stories for a Rainy Day Or for a rabbit storytime go to, Reading for Rabbits
Or to create an "It's Not Easy Being Green" storytime (fun around St. Patrick's Day), check out these hoppy books!

Summer

The Great White Man-Eating Shark by Margaret Mahy
Lottie's New Beach Towel by Petra Mathers
Isaac the Ice Cream Truck by Scott Santoro
Heat Wave at Mud Flat by James Stevenson
Super Saturday Sand Castle by Stuart J. Murphy
The Summer Snowman by Gene Zion
My Life with the Wave by Catherine Cowan and Mark Buehner, based on the story by Octavio Paz
One Hot Summer Day by Nina Crews
The Umbrella Party by Janet Lunn
Lemonade for Sale by Stuart J. Murphy
Froggy Learns to Swim by Jonathan London
The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle
The Fabulous Firework Family by James Flora
Night at the Fair by Donald Crews
Wan Hu is in the Stars by Jennifer Armstrong

Fall

Fall is Not Easy by Marty Kelley
Teaching Hint: In this book, a tree tries to change color, and ends up looking like a rainbow, a hamburger, a smiley face and more! Children will love drawing their own trees in the midst of changes!
The Little Scarecrow Boy by Margaret Wise Brown
Teaching hint: It's fun to make paper plate masks of Scarecrow Boy's increasingly ferocious faces to use while telling the story! Adapts well to a puppet show format, too.
Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens
Autumn Leaves by Ken Robbins (non-fiction fit for read-aloud!)
Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert
Look What I Did With a Leaf! by Morteza E. Sohi (great craft ideas!)
Pumpkin Light by David Ray
Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper
Jeb Scarecrow's Pumpkin Patch by Jana Dillon
I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie by Alison Jackson
Thanksgiving: Stories and Poems edited by Caroline Feller Bauer
'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey
Molly's Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen
Heetunka's Harvest by Jennifer Berry Jones

School Stories
David Goes to School by David Shannon
The Day the Teacher Went Bananas by James Howe
The Teeny-Tiny Teacher by Stephanie Calmenson
Rotten Teeth by Laura Simms
Teaching hint: follow with some good old-fashioned show and tell!
School Bus by Donald Crews
When Will I Read? by Miriam Cohen
Morris the Moose Goes to School by Bernard Wiseman (Outstanding, inexpensive video version available from Library Video Company, 1-800-843-3620)
Minerva Louise at School by Janet Morgan Stoeke
Pippi Goes to School by Astrid Lindgren
Ms. MacDonald Had a Classs by Jan Ormerod
We Share Everything! by Robert Munsch
Spider School by Francesca Simon
Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish
The Teacher from the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler (Librarian, Principal, School Nurse and Gym Teacher also available!)
Lunch Bunnies and Show and Tell Bunnies by Kathryn Lasky
A Pocketful of Cricket by Rebecca Caudill
Crow Boy by Taro Yashima
Yoko by Rosemary Wells
Hooway for Wodney Wat by Helen Lester
The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn (great for preschoolers)
Jessica by Kevin Henkes (also great for preschoolers)
Ruby the Copycat by Peggy Rathmann
Miss Nelson is Missing by Harry Allard
Teaching hint: stop after page 24 and have the children write and illustrate what they imagine happened to poor Miss Nelson!
Best Enemies and Best Enemies Again by Kathleen Leverich (short chapter read-aloud)
Frindle by Andrew Clements (short chapter read-aloud)

HAUNTED HOUSE CONTEST IS A GREAT LIBRARY PROMOTION!

In October, the school library is everyone's favorite haunt, thanks to the extremely popular Haunted House contest. I ask students to make their own haunted houses out of cardboard boxes and bring them to the library during the weeks preceding Halloween! The children come up with some pretty creepy creations, and the library grows spookier and spookier every day! Then, all the children who enter get invited to a SPOOKY STORYTELLING PARTY, where I fill a jack-o-lantern with dry ice and water so it smokes like witches' brew, share some of these stories and then announce the the grand prize winners who get beautiful scary story books! Candy for everyone! This event might be the most popular of all; the first year, I had 16 entries, and this past year, I had 75 haunted houses in the library!

**Not TOO Scary Halloween Stories**

The Ghost's Dinner by Jacques Duquennoy
Monster Mama by Liz Rosenberg
There's a Nightmare in My Closet by Mercer Mayer
Do Not Open! by Brinton Turkle
Little Monsters by Jan Pienkowski
Scary Party by Sue Hendra
Halloween Hoots and Howls by Joan Horton
Go Away, Big Green Monster by Ed Emberly
Velcome by Kevin O'Malley
In A Dark, Dark Room and Ghosts! collected by Alvin Schwartz
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (have a "wild rumpus" march during the double-page spreads!)
Stellaluna by Jannell Cannon (especially fun when prefaced with pictures from Extremely Weird Bats by Sarah Lovett)
The Devil and Mother Crump by Valerie Scho Carey
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams
Old Devil Wind by Bill Martin Jr. (great for choral speaking!)
Boo! Stories to Make You Jump edited by Laura Cecil
"What Was I Scared Of?" from The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss (be ready with a pair of pale green pants to pull out at the climactic moment!)
"The Baddest Witch in the World" from Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary
Ghosts and Goose Bumps by Bobbie Katz

Special Fall Celebration:

JOHNNY APPLESEED'S BIRTHDAY, SEPTEMBER 26

September 26 is my favorite American's birthday: JOHN CHAPMAN! Better known as Johnny Appleseed! I love reading The Story of Johnny Appleseed by Aliki or Folks Call Me Appleseed John by Andrew Glass outside under a tree whenever possible on this day. Also available are Johnny Appleseed by Steven Kellogg (more of a tall-tale version) and the lovely poem in picture book format by Reeve Lindberg, "Johnny Appleseed. Follow along with Rain Makes Applesauce by Julian Scheer, How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman, Albert's Field Trip by Leslie Tryon, The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall and a playing of the "William Tell Overture" by Rossini followed by a reading of William Tell by Margaret Early. For a good female "Johnny Appleseed," try Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney. For teacher background knowledge, read The Real Johnny Appleseed by Laurie Lawlor, The Life and Times of the Apple by Charles Micucci and The Amazing Apple Book by Paulette Bourgeois. It would be easy to tie a Johnny Appleseed tribute storytime into a whole "Apple Afternoon" fundraiser! Here's some more ideas:

Sell taffy apples and apple juice boxes! Sell apple seeds in kid-designed seed packets!

Apple pie eating contest! (Hint: Who can eat the most pie in one minute, or who can eat a whole piece of pie first...I don't think grade school children should be encouraged to actually gobble down an entire pie.)

Bob for apples!

An apple-in-the-bucket toss!

Play "hot apple" instead of "hot potato!"

Make apple prints! These make nice cards for teachers. In my classes, we printed out apples on parchment and made our "Johnny Appleseed's Birthday Resolution," writing out what small thing we would try to do consistently that would make our country a better place. Apple print bookmarks are nice, too!

Make pink tissue paper apple blossoms.

Make paper apple wreaths by cutting out the middle of large paper plates and decorating the circumference of the plate with apple cut outs and glitter.

Make simple bee puppets out of construction paper, with pipe cleaner antennae and popsicle sticks as handles. Bees looove apples! For bee stories and other buggy books, click here.

Also, for more inspiration be sure to visit Appleseed Alley, the Johnny Appleseed website!!

Appleseed artwork by Hailey Nelson, 2nd grade.

Winter

Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
When It Starts to Snow by Phillis Gershator
Geraldine's Big Snow by Holly Keller
Snow! by Uri Shulevitz
Snowball by Nina Crews
Something is Going to Happen by Charlotte Zolotow
The Biggest, Best Snowman by Margery Cuyler
Stan, the Hot Dog Man by Ethel and Leonard Kessler (great storm story!)
Antarctic Antics: A Book of Penguin Poems by Judy Sierra
A Little Bit of Winter by Paul Stewart (tie-in with hibernation!)
Trouble with Trolls by Jan Brett
The Mitten by Jan Brett (Check out Jan's web site! It's full of teaching ideas for using her books.)
Brave Irene by William Steig
The Snowman by Raymond Briggs (look for the award-winning video!)
Froggy Gets Dressed by Jonathan London
The Mousehole Cat by Antonia Barber
Is That You, Winter? by Stephen Gammell
The First Snow by David Christiana

December Holidays

The Little Reindeer by Michael Foreman
The Reindeer Christmas by Moe Price
The Oldest Elf by James Stevenson
Olive, the Other Reindeer by J. Otto Seibold
Santa's Book of Names by David McPhail
When Mindy Saved Hanukkah by Eric A. Kimmel
Harold at the North Pole by Crockett Johnson
Christmas for Ten by Cathryn Falwell
Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins by Eric Kimmel
In The Month of Kislev: A Story for Hanukkah by Nina Jaffe
The Little Match Girl retold by Rachel Isadora
The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
The Black Snowman by Phil Mendez
Seven Candles for Kwanzaa by Andrea Davis Pinkney

Special Winter Celebration:

THE HUNDREDTH DAY OF SCHOOL

The Hundreth Day of School is a holiday that was invented by primary teacher Lynn Taylor, and is now celebrated in schools nationwide! This special day usually falls in late January/early February! Great ideas abound in the picture book Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the Hundredth Day of Kindergarten by Joseph Slate, such as drawing yourself when you are 100 years old, making a 100-bead necklace and a recipe for "100 Day Hash!" Other recommended books for the 100th day are The Wolf's Chicken Stew by Keiko Kasza and One Hundred Hungry Ants by Elinor J. Pinczes.

Seasons in General

Circle of Seasons by Gerda Muller
Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak
To Every Thing There Is a Season by Leo and Diane Dillon
Four Stories for Four Seasons by Tomie DePaola
A Bear for All Seasons by Diane Marcial Fuchs

Artwork by Sonam Tantuwaya, 2nd grade

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