The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by John Scieszka

This is the story of a misunderstood wolf. The poor wolf was trying to make a birthday cake for his grandmother, despite his sneezing cold, and ran out of sugar. When he went to the next house it belonged to the little pig who built his house out of straw. When he knocked on the door, it fell right down. So the wolf called out. "Little Pig, Little Pig, are you in?" He got no answer and was about to leave when he began to sneeze - and he sneezed the house down.
"And you know what? That whole darn straw house fell down. And right in the middle of the pile of straw was the First Little Pig - dead as a doornail. He had been home the whole time."

"It seemed like a shame to leave a perfectly good ham dinner lying there in the straw. So I ate it up. Think of it as a big cheeseburger just lying there."

He continues to try to borrow a cup of sugar, at the second little pig's house where another sneeze brings down the house. He eats the pig again. At the third little pigs house, the little pig says something derogatory about the wolf's grandmother and the wolf gets upset and starts banging on the door. That's when he gets arrested! He thinks he was framed - and he's still looking for a cup of sugar.

Most children in lower elementary really like this re-telling of the Three Little Pigs. John Scieszka writes a lot of terrific books with boys in mind, and this is one of them.

Paul Bunyan by Steven Kellog

"Paul Bunyan was the largest, smartest, and strongest baby ever born in the state of Maine. Even before he learned to talk, Paul showed an interest in the family logging business. He took the family lumber wagon and wandered through the neighborhood collecting trees."

After complaints his parents moved to the backwoods, where Paul grew into a boy who was so quick he could blow out a candle and jump into bed before the room got dark. When Paul was still a boy he rescued an ox calf from under a blanket of blue snow. Paul named him Babe and the calf always retained the blue color.

When Paul grew up, he wanted to move on so he left his parents and crossed the country with the best lumber crew available. He and Babe and his crew had several adventures. He dug the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes so that barges of maple syrup could be brought to camp.

After they had leveled the Great Plains and the slopes of the Rocky Mountains a blizzard began. It continued for several years, eliminating the seasons. Babe became so depressed that Paul asked a member of his crew to make green colored sunglasses. When Paul put the sunglasses on Babe, he thought he'd stumbled into a field of clover and began eating with such gusto that the treetops appeared. "At that point, all those pent-up springtimes simply exploded, dissolving the storm clouds and the remaining snow.

In Arizona, they grew tired and discouraged by the heat. Paul's ax fell from his shoulders and gouged out the Grand Canyon. Paul found a family that would sell him a barn of corn and brought it back to his men. "When the blazing sunrise hit that barn it exploded, and the lumbermen awoke to find themselves in a raging blizzard of popcorn. Dizzy with joy, they pulled on their mittens and began blasting each other with popcorn balls."

This book is lots of fun, and I think it is a good thing for children to know about some of these over-the-top stories that are part of the American story.. This book is not a definitive book on Paul Bunyan, because there isn't one. This one covers some of the stories and the illustrations are large and full of detail.

All children that I have read it to are fascinated expressions like 'in bed before the light went out' and by the idea of dropping an ax and creating the Grand Canyon. Often, after one tall tale they want others, such as John Henry or Pecos Bill.

Rain Makes Applesauce by Julian Scheer

This book is full of silly talk, but I love that. It's a long poem full of nonsense like
"I wear my shoes inside out and rain makes applesauce, My house goes walking every day and rain makes applesauce. Oh you're just talking silly talk." The large pictures are illustrations of the line of poetry. In the lower right hand corner is a picture of the making of applesauce starting with planting the apple seeds in the rain. By the end of the book they have picked and peeled and cooked the apples and made applesauce.

I first met this book while working as a live-in babysitter long before I had children. I loved it and so did the children I was working with. It is fun for when preschoolers are in that period when they like to play with language. I caution you though, my eldest son thought it was a dumb book even when he was a child. Some people are very down to earth and will not enjoy this at all!

My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett

Elmer Elevator met an old alley cat one cold rainy day and asked him if he wouldn't like to come home with him. The alley cat says, "I'd be very much obliged if I could sit by a warm furnace, and perhaps have a saucer of milk." Elmer's mother is not at all happy about it. She said, "If you think I'm going to give that cat a saucer of milk, you're very wrong. Once you start feeding stray alley cats you might as well expect to feed every stray in town, and I am not going to do it."

After three weeks of hiding the cat in the cellar, Elmer's mother found out. She threw the cat out. Later Elmer sneaked out and took a walk with the cat. The cat told him about a trip he had made last spring to the Island of Tangerina stopping at the port of Cranberry. He explored a nearby island called Wild Island and found a baby dragon who was being used to fly animals across a river. The cat proposed that Elmer go with him back to Wild Island to save the dragon.

Elmer agreed to do this and prepared for the trip. The night before he sailed he borrowed his father's knapsack and packed everything carefully. "He took chewing gum, two dozen pink lollipops, a package of rubber bands, black rubber boots, a compass, a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste, six magnifying glasses, a very sharp jackknife, a comb and a hairbrush, seven hair ribbons of different colors, an empty grain bag with a label saying "Cranberry," some clean clothes, and enough food to last my father while he was on the ship. He couldn't live on mice, so he took twenty-five peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and six apples because that was all he could find in the pantry."

He has a specific use for every item on that list. After he arrives on Wild Island he encounters various animals who want to eat him up. The picture on the front cover is of the lion who was worried about his mane. When Elmer first saw the lion, Elmer was hiding in the underbrush and the lion was trying to untangle his mane. His mother was coming to tea and he would be in big trouble if his mother saw his mane looking like this. Elmer took out the comb and brush and the seven hair ribbons of different colors and showed the lion how to comb, brush and braid his hair. Another danger averted on his way to rescue the baby dragon!

He does rescue the baby dragon. The book ends with Elmer and the dragon flying off to the Island of Tangerina much to the distress of the animals on the island.

The first time I bought this book I had a sick five year old at home. I went home and told him I had a new book and I would just read the first chapter and then he could go back to sleep. He insisted that I read chapter after chapter until we had finished the book! I have read it in classrooms also with the same effect. I rarely read more than two chapters at a time in case the class can not sustain attention for that long. This is an excellent first chapter book.

Annie and the Wild Animals by Jan Brett

It has been snowing for too long and there is something wrong with Annie's cat. She is eating more than usual and she sleeps a lot. In this Jan Brett book there are borders around the pictures that contain additional visual information. Right now, in the main picture you see Annie trying to hold on to Taffy, the cat, and on the facing page finding Taffy in the potatoes. Around the border you see Taffy sleeping in a picnic basket, in the cupboard, under a dresser, and on the rug. In the corners of the borders you see Taffy licking her bowl clean.

The next day Annie couldn't find Taffy anywhere - in the borders we see Taffy looking for a new place outside.
Annie decides that she needs a new friend and she placed a corn cake at the edge of the wood, hoping that a small furry animal would come and become her pet. As she places the corn cake down at the edge of the wood the borders show a moose coming and Taffy disappearing into the hole of a tree.

She continues to leave corn cakes by the edge of the wood. More and more wild animals come for the corn cakes. You can tell who is coming next by looking at the borders. The borders also show us pictures of Taffy and her new kittens. When a robin appears in the border and the snow starts melting in the main picture, Annie runs out of corn to feed the wild animals. The next day spring came and "as unexpected as the warm spring breeze, Taffy walked proudly into the yard.... out of the woods came three soft and friendly kittens."

I have never read this book in a classroom, although I could, partially because I love the additional info in the borders. I love to ask the child with me, "What do you think is going to happen next?" Then the child looks at the border and tells me which wild animal is coming next or that Taffy has had kittens or that the wild animals are finding their own food now.

Imogene's Antlers by David Small

Imogene woke up one Thursday morning with antlers! Getting dressed was difficult and getting downstairs was worse because she got her antlers caught in the chandelier. Her mother fainted. The doctor came and the school principal, but no one knew what caused this. Her brother after consulting an encyclopedia declared that she had become a miniature elk! The kitchen maid and the cook used her antlers to dry towels and feed doughnuts (hooked on the antlers) to feed the birds. Her mother called a milliner to make a hat to hide the antlers. It was an an eventful day.

The next morning - no antlers! The family was delighted to see her back to normal. Until she came into the room....now, she has a peacock tail!

Every child I've ever read this to has wanted to speculate out loud about what it would be like to have antlers or an enormous peacock tail. I read it in one class that had my grandson in it. When I mentioned it to his father, my son said, "Mom, you remember Ms C. my Elementary teacher? She would have had us write a story about what happened next." So I pass that suggestion on.

The Bones of Fred McFee

The Bones of Fred McFee is a poem written by Eve Bunting. Fred McFee is a plastic skeleton that the two children in the book have brought back from the Harvest Fair. They hung him up in their sycamore tree and "our skeleton dances the the dance of the dead, there in our sycamore tree." Strange things begin to happen, "our rooster used to crow all day,...now the rooster's gone and the hens won't lay..."

They decide to let Fred McFee stay in the sycamore tree until Halloween. The dog howls the night of Halloween and when the children get up the next day - " The morning's bright and filled with light,but where is Fred McFee?"
The see a rectangular mound in front of the sycamore tree and think they know what it is - but, who put it there?

This book has been requested by lower Elementary children who have heard it the year before. My experience is that it's best to read it first -with no pictures- as a poem, so the children can hear the rhythm. Then having gotten the overview, read it page by page with pictures. Children love this book and so do I.