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!

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.