Today’s Preschool Storytime was all about the library!  (Okay, and about a chicken.  The chicken insists I mention that.)

Click the picture to find it at a library branch near you!
Click the picture to find it at a library branch near you!

 

Our first book, Lola Loves Stories by Anna McQuinn, was about a little girl who reads stories in books and then imagines herself becoming the characters she reads about.  Books can be a valuable tool to inform the play that is such an important part of a preschool child’s intellectual development.  Lola and her parents model how you can use the library to find books that spark your imagination and inspire play.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click the picture to find it at a library branch near you!
Click the picture to find it at a library branch near you!

 

Next, it was the chicken’s turn.  Our second book today is a fun book about animals who get bored and lonely on the farm and go to a library to find something to do.  Book! Book! Book! by Deborah Bruss invites kids to connect barnyard animals with the sounds they make, even though those sounds can’t be understood by the librarian!  This book is something preschoolers can identify with because it’s often difficult for them to make their requests heard and understood by adults.  But they can take a lesson from the hen’s persistence and refuse to let that spoil their enjoyment of the library!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click on the picture to find it at a library branch near you!
Click the picture to find it at a library branch near you!

 

After singing some “Old MacDonald,” we acted out the classic story I Took My Frog to the Library by Eric A. Kimmel.  This story recounts all the damage that one little girl’s pets do to the library–and ends with an exhausted librarian begging her to please leave her pets at home!  One little girl got to play the part of the very well-behaved elephant… who unfortunately is too big for the library.  A compromise is worked out at the end: the animals stay home and the elephant reads to them.  This is a funny book that nonetheless teaches etiquette about using libraries and handling books.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click the picture to find it at a library branch near you!
Click the picture to find it at a library branch near you!

Then we watched an animated film based on Wild About Books by Judy Sierra.  You can click the picture to find the book in our catalog or find the film on our Napping House DVD at the Central Library Children’s Room.  This book is about how a library inspires all the animals at the zoo to start writing books of their own.  It includes some very cute insect haiku.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

chicken_puppet

Well, that’s all for today.  The chicken wants me to make sure you know you can also find these other fun stories about libraries and books by clicking on the pictures below.  (The chicken loves libraries and can’t get enough “Books!  Books!  Books!”)

beatrice doesnt want to  Beverly-Billingsly-Borrows-a-Book library lil library lily library_mouse library-lion