Hurray! It's Perfect Picture Book Friday!
And how nice to be back after 2 weeks off for the illustration contest!
I hope you will like today's book as much as I do :)
Title: Charlie The Ranch Dog
Written By: Ree Drummond
Illustrated By: Diane deGroat
HarperCollins, April 2011, Fiction
Suitable For Ages: 4-8
Themes/Topics: jobs/careers, working, perception, animals (dogs)
Opening: "
Oh, hello. My name is Charlie. I live in the country. I'm a ranch dog."
Brief Synopsis: Charlie is a ranch dog. He fixes fences, works in the garden, and helps his family out on the range. A ranch dog's work is never done! Or is it?
Links To Resources:
Charlie Maze, and recipe for Charlie's favorite lasagna;
Lesson Plans for Charlie (please scroll down until you see the book title);
a fun look at the creation of Charlie;
interview with the illustrator;
YouTube read aloud of the story by the author.
Why I Like This Book: Well, for starters, you know how I love dog books :) And this one is so much fun I really can't help myself :) Charlie
says he fixes fences, gardens, and helps his family out on the range, but in fact his friend Suzie is the one who does all the work while Charlie naps, and naps some more, and indulges his love of bacon :) He does manage to help for real at the end - but I won't tell you how, that would be spoiling it! Kids will enjoy the contradiction between words and illustrations, and also love that there is a chipmunk hidden on every page. This is not an action-packed thrill ride, but it's sweet and cute and funny :)
For the complete list of books with resources, please visit
Perfect Picture Books.
PPBF bloggers, please be sure to leave your post specific link in the list below so we can all come rave over your picks for this week and then descend on our local libraries!
Oh, and before we go, Happy Mother's Day to all the moms among you! :) If your house is like my house, it's just possible that no one will offer to vacuum, do laundry, and cook on Sunday so that you can loll about eating bonbons on the couch, so here's a little Mom's day treat just for you :)
Now go have a wonderful weekend! :)
For picture book fans there's a new Charlie the Ranch Dog book from Ree Drummond, and Tad Hills has the bestselling duo Duck & Goose featuring in a book perfect for some pre-summer reading. Middle Graders have more from The 39 Clues and How to Train Your Dragon series, while teens can indulge in Kami Garcia's Dangerous Creatures.
Book: Charlie Goes to School
Author: Ree Drummond (@ThePioneerWoman)
Illustrator: Diane deGroat
Pages: 40
Age Range: 4-8
I like Ree Drummond's series about lazy ranch dog Charlie (see my previous reviews of Charlie the Ranch Dog and Charlie and the Christmas Kitty). In the newest installment, Charlie maintains his self-deceptive laziness ("I'm helping, of course" as he snoozes away near a project) as the ranch family begins their new school year. There's not actually much in the way of plot to Charlie Goes to School. It's more of an introduction to the joys of homeschooling, on top of the recurring gag of Charlie's self-absorption.
Still, considering the vast number of picture books that take place in traditional schools, it's nice to see one dedicated to homeschooling. The text is matter-of-fact, without getting into any reasons why one might homeschool. Just:
"Lots of kids go to school at school, and lots of kids go to school at home."
The focus remains on Charlie, of course, rather than on the kids, but we still get a look at reading time, creative math (subtraction via animal crackers) and recess. And when Charlie decides to homeschool the other animals on the ranch, gentle laughs are had by all.
Drummond's text and Diane deGroat's illustrations are tightly coupled here, with the whole story only apparent when both are considered together. Like this:
"Kitty Kitty needs to practice his math. Numbers are very important when it comes to counting food." (Picture of Kitty knocking animal crackers on the floor.) "DON'T PLAY, KITTY KITTY. COUNT!"
or
"The ranch horses need to brush up on their history." (Picture of a horse attempting to lift a book with his mouth.) "EXCUSE ME! BOOKS AREN'T FOR EATING!"
Charlie's melodrama when talking with the other animals should make this a fun read-aloud. I could see "EXCUSE ME! BOOKS AREN'T FOR EATING!" becoming a household catchphrase in our home. Fans of Charlie the Ranch Dog will certainly want to take a look at Charlie Goes to School. Homeschooling families will also want to check this one out (making it a recommended purchase for public libraries).
Publisher: HarperCollins (@HarperChildrens)
Publication Date: June 25, 2013
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher
FTC Required Disclosure:
This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).
© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook.
With 11,525 votes, The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling has won the Best Fiction award at the Goodreads Choice Awards. Earning 20,328 votes, Veronica Roth was named Best Goodreads Author for Insurgent.
We’ve collected all the winners below, each winner nominated and picked by Goodreads users.
What do you think of the choices?
continued…
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Having done a Storytime Corner on cats, it only makes sense that we’d have to do one on dogs, right? I’m a cat person myself, but these dog stories are completely irresistible. And to keep all your parents and kids happy, you could even consider mixing up the dog and cat stories to make an integrated “Pets” program!
STORIES:
IF YOU GIVE A DOG A DONUT by Laura Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond (On-sale 10.4.11)
THAT PUP! by Lindsay Barrett George
NO DOGS ALLOWED! by Anne Davis
TEN LITTLE PUPPIES/Diez perritos by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy, illustrated by Ulises Wensell
Usually when I do storytimes, I like to make some books available for checkout that follow the theme. Here are a few ideas of books you can display for checkout post-program:
CHARLIE THE RANCH DOG by Ree Drummond, illustrated by Diane deGroat
DOGS by Seymour Simon
HARRY THE DIRTY DOG by Gene Zion, illustrated by Margaret Bloy Graham
HIP HOP DOG by Chris Raschka, illustrated by Vladimir Radunsky
I AM THE DOG by Daniel Pinkwater, illustrated by Jack E. Davis
MAGGIE’S BALL by Lindsay Barrett George
ZOOMER by Ned Young
I started compiling song, rhyme, and craft ideas…and then I realized that Storytime Katie had most likely already put together something fabulous for a dog-themed storytime. And she had. Check out her
With Book Expo going full-blast in town and my library celebrating its Centennial all at the same time, blogging is possible but slightly more difficult than usual. I am amused to find that when I skip a day some folks worry that I might be in labor. Fear not. I’ll find a way to update the blog with that news, come hell or high water. Tonight, meanwhile, is also my final Kidlit Drink Night (at least for a while) so if you’d like to view my largess (or, rather, largeness) here are the details. Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . .
- So I go into the administrative office the other day to pick up my room’s checks and WHAM! Two gigantic Lego statues of Patience and Fortitude (the library lions) are just sitting there, chewing their cuds (or whatever it is Lego lions chew). I showed them to a class of second graders on a tour a day or so later (they’re on display in our main hall, if you’re curious) and one kid said that looking at them was like looking at a computer screen. He had a point. They’re mighty pixilated.
- Wow. That’s pretty cool. The organization Keshet (“a national organization working for the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Jews in Jewish life”) is releasing posters of LGBT Jewish Heroes. One of the posters available? Leslea Newman of Heather Has Two Mommies and my favorite LGBT board books Mommy, Mama and Me and Daddy, Papa, and Me. Thanks to Marjorie Ingall for the link.
- Do you have what it takes to take on the Sixth Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge? I don’t want to hear your excuses! I want to see you reading. You’ve some time to prep so get those eyeball stalks limbered up.
- Recently I attended SLJ’s Day of Dialog (slooooow emerging blog post to come on the subject). The keynote speech was delivered by Katherine Paterson who began, much to my delight, with some praise of New Zealand children’s book superstar Margaret Mahy (who would be a superstar here if they just friggin’ republished The Changeover *coughcough*). Anyway, it seems she recently won in the picture book category of the 2011 New Zealand Children’s Book Awards. What would you like to bet me that someday they’ll rename those awards “The Mahys”? I give it ten years, tops.
I had a pounding headache and a bit of a neural spin, so I retreated to the couch with this week's
New Yorker. The article "O Pioneer Woman: The Creation of a Domestic Idyll," Amanda Fortini's story about
Ree Drummond, the blogger, found me. I read.
It's not as if I hadn't previously heard about this millionaire blogging phenom. I was just insufficiently informed about the size of Drummond's empire—the numbers of books and their rapid succession, the appearances, the 23.3 million page views per month and the 4.4 million unique visitors (according to the article), the million-dollars-plus revenue Drummond received in 2010 for her blog alone. She's a pretty lady with a big camera, a Marlboro Man husband, four kids, and a diesel-powered blog that offers photo tips, recipes, giveaways, and up-to-the-minute details of her life as it is on her Oklahoma farm (and, increasingly, in her celebrity haunts). It's all turned her into a mega-star—her stories about closet cleanings and book tours, dyed hair and laundry runs.
Who'd have thought it? She certainly originally didn't, so the story says. Indeed, Drummond started blogging because it seemed like a "fun, efficient method of keeping in touch with her mother" and her first posts were "... audio recordings of herself burping, and folksy,
Reader's Digest-style anecdotes about country living, such as happening upon two dogs mating."
Is it my mood? Is it the weather? Is it any wonder that I wonder (don't we all wonder) how, of the reported 14% of online women who blog, a woman writing about burping and dog love rose so very quickly to the top? Can anyone ever, truly, predict stardom, Big Things, It?
We can't, I think. We can't prescribe it or force it; we cannot choose whose voice will smoke its way up and through, whose images and stories will dominate.
We can only watch and wonder.
I know what’s wrong with that ridiculous picture. I mean, with good feta and Greek olives, no way is that only 230 calories. Absurd! Thanks for sharing…..
Sometime you’ll have to tell us what it was like to write a picture book, ma’am, because although the Pioneer Woman had a lot of fun, that seems too … easy…
Aw, Greg, you caught on right away. There’s no getting past you!
And yeah, as I say it’s not exactly an instructional how-to-make-a-picture-book post so much as a long and lengthy bit of praise of Diane deGroat. Which, to my mind, the world needs more of.
I enjoyed reading about Ree’s picture book experience, but it’s the veeeery rare author who gets to “write the art”! Usually, the illustrator is left in peace to proceed with his/her own creative process once the manuscript has been passed along. In fact, the editor tends to protect that process from potentially meddling, non-artist authors!
Wait – are you pregnant?
Oh, great, now I’m blind.
Lenny Kravitz was excellent in Precious. I think you’ll find he makes a perfect Cinna.
I am so looking forward to Mother Reader’s 48-Hour Book Challenge! In fact, I think you have the right idea, and I will have to practice up during the upcoming 3-day weekend.
I had to laugh at that quote about it being good toddlers not having a say in book choice. Both of my kids when they were toddlers certainly made their opinions on books known. They would close them, sit on them, hide them if they didn’t like them. They would take them out of my hands and replace them with books they did like. And neither of my kids liked Goodnight Moon.
My older son’s favorite book for a long stretch when he was a toddler?
Get Your War On.