Today was our first meeting for this year, and it sure was fun!
The kids were energetic and excited, and it sure is contagious! It is always great to see a child get excited about a book, and having difficulty deciding which book to take and which to leave is very reassuring and uplifting, taking into consideration today’s age of technology where it is “work” to sit down and read something.
When an unspoken competition arises between kids as to whom gets to take out a book first, and when rhythmic text gets stuck in a head or two, we know we’re accomplishing our goal in assisting parents and encouraging reading and literacy amongst our kids, and ultimately in the community!
So, today the first book we read was The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen, ISBN: 9780374360979, which is about a fish with a constant pouting face, spreading the “dreary-wearies all over the place”!
Mr Fish acts all glum because he believes it is just who he is, he is “destined to be glum”, and regardless that his underwater friends say that he mopes too much and tell him to cheer up, he continues to be a Pout-Pout fish. That is, until he meets a silver shimmering fish who turns his frown upside down through one simple act of love!
The story takes little readers on a journey under the sea between all the colourful swimming creatures. The pages are beautifully illustrated in detail – lots for little eyes to observe! And the rhyming text is catchy – the kids picked up the chorus quickly and chanted it as we read the story!
The Pout-Pout Fish opens up a lot of discussion topics related to happiness, purpose and meaningfulness.
You can listen to a reading of the book here:
Listen to the song:
The theme for the day was actually “problem solving”, but we deviated a bit to make space for “The Wonky Donkey” by New Zealand author/musician Craig Smith (ISBN: 9780545261241), which is a silly song illustrated in a hilarious picture book! The book is based on a song that Smith wrote in 2005, and the book was originally published in 2010, but made a great comeback in 2018!
The song won the APRA New Zealand Children’s Song of the Year Award in 2008, and the book received the Children’s Choice Award by the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards.
The kids absolutely enjoyed the story, as the narrator describes the *interesting* donkey he met while walking down the road, ending up with a spunky hanky panky cranky stinky dinky lanky honky tonky winky wonky donkey!
Illustrated by Katz Cowley to brilliantly compliment the text!
Listen to a read-aloud of the book:
Listen to Craig Smith singing The Wonky Donkey song:
Watch the unofficial music video:
Craig Smith’s philosophy for writing children’s books:
Until next time!
Happy Reading!
