Only a handful of members attended today’s Kids Book Club Meeting, and unfortunately the grass was still wet from the rain so we couldn’t sit on it, but it was still a lovely, fun gathering!
Today’s reading started off with the hilariously engaging “I’m NOT a chair” by American author/illustrator Ross Burach (ISBN: 9780062360168).
Giraffe’s first day in the jungle doesn’t start quite well – he is mistaken for a chair, and instead of being included in the ball game, he is sat on! He tries to clear up the misunderstanding right away, but doesn’t get the words out, and is sat on again and again… So he concocts a plan to show his animal friends that he is not a chair, but it is no use, they don’t seem to get the message! Surely humans would be better at identifying him as a living being… or will they?
Giraffe decides that enough is enough and that he would speak up to the next animal that wants to use him as a chair… but will he get the words out when a scary lion takes a seat on his back?
This hilarious, fun, easy to read story with its vibrant, playful and inviting illustrations and absurd logic addresses finding one’s courage and standing up for oneself, with a little bit of irony included in the end, that conveys the message of mindful living to the reader. There are lots of detail in the illustrations that add to the words to make a funny story and engage the reader.
You can listen to a reading of the book here:
The second story-time space was allocated to a story from Jacqui Shepherd’s more recent series, called “Hope-frog-ly” (ISBN: 9781770089730).
Hope-frog-ly is another Farm-tastic tale, (part of the Farm-tastic series), which incorporates wordplay, combining the names of farm animals with everyday values and attitudes to make for a fun-filled farm-themed read teaching valuable life-lessons at the same time.
In this particular story, the message of hope is combined with Benny the frog’s character, who always sees the silver lining around every dark cloud, to make up a fun word – “hope-frog-ly”.
Benny the frog loves rain, and rainy days are his favourite, but even when it gets unbearably hot, and everyone is too tired, grumpy and hungry to do anything but complain, Benny doesn’t loose hope that the rain will come. He always smiles because he’s always happy, and he’s always happy because he’s got hope! He manages to keep a positive, hopeful outlook, regardless of what his friend Flo says or how despondent and nasty she becomes. “Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good”, he tells himself, and eventually teaches Flo that “hope helps us to keep going. It helps us not to give up”.
When the rain at last comes, and food with it, Flo realizes that having a hope-frog-ly attitude got them through the worst of times! An important message, not just to Benny’s friends, but to every reader to keep hoping, dreaming, believing!
Other Farm-tastic Tales include Invisi-bull, Enor-mouse, Hap-pig-ness, G-lamb-orous, Un-hap-puppy, Imag-hen-ation, Fear-foal, For-goat-ten, and Dis-cow-very.
Wonderful lap-warmers!
After story-time was over, Meghann (9) started her “Book Club Sports” fun activities and games for the kids – who doesn’t love a game or two to win a lollipop?! It is great to have kids come up with these ideas to contribute to and make Book Club Meetings even more fun! Well done Megs!
Well, until next time (13 May 2019),
Happy Reading!
