Book talk: Shh! We Have a Plan by Chris Haughton

[For this booktalk, I used two props: a net and a small plush red bird. ]

[Holding the net and pretending to "net" the bird.] How easy is it to catch a bird? How quick on your feet do you have to be? Do you think you could catch a bird with a net?

[Picking up book.] Shh! We have a plan! We're going to catch that bird!

[Show picture]. Almost!

[Turn the page.] Okay, so that did NOT go well.

But remember, we have a plan.

And now we have a BOAT. You just cannot fail with a boat and a net, you know?

[Ask kids to predict what will happen with the boat.]

Yep...man in the water!

Fine! Time for a new plan!

Shh! We Have a Plan by Chris Haughton. Candlewick, 2014. Booktalk to PreK-2nd grade. Also, good introduction to the concept of the refrain.

You Can't Make Me: Funny, Subversive Picture Books

Any toddler or preschooler who hasn't gotten his or her way can be creatively subversive and funny, too, if you're not on the receiving end.

Maybe you do need a bath.

Mo Willems' picture books featuring the Pigeon are both hilarious and true: hilarious because the pigeon is subversive by nature, and true because he's basically an intelligent, strong-willed preschooler. The Pigeon Needs a Bath!, one of Mo Willems' newer ones, has snarky flies (even they think the Pigeon reeks), zesty Pigeon diatribes and excuses, and a satisfying ending.


Meet the next level of the will to power. Achilles, a young crocodile, would really like to eat a child. We know that this is a bad idea, but he sticks to it anyways.

Achilles really is pretty cute.

His parents bring him all kinds of edible treats, but his ingratitude grows, as does his desire to eat a child. Sure enough, Achilles does encounter a child. Will we be grossed out? Find out in Sylviane Donnio's I'd Really Like to Eat a Child. (Yes, it's completely appropriate. Duh.)



Ever been interrupted by a young child? Repeatedly? You'll appreciate Peter Catalanotto's Ivan the Terrier in which Ivan repeatedly interrupts the narrator's fairy tale with his hyperactive barking.

Ivan the Terrier by Peter Catalanotto

Exhausted, the poor narrator keeps switching to a different tale, only to get interrupted again by barking. But Ivan, like a young child, will get tired (eventually). Young children will delight in finding Ivan in pictures where he is barely visible.

That appliance looks unreliable!

Fix this Mess by Tedd Arnold begins with my own dream come true: a Remote Operating Basic Utility Gizmo ("cleans your house!" according to the box) -- R.O.B.U.G, super cute and looks portable. Looks are deceptive. Every time ROBUG's owner asks him to "fix this mess," ROBUG only makes the mess worse, while relocating the mess to a different location in the house. Sounds exactly like someone I know.

Book talk: Little Nelly's Big Book by Pippa Goodhart

[For this booktalk, you might want to have a prop: an elephant puppet or a stuffed elephant toy. If you don't have one, just use a picture of Little Nelly from the book.]

[Pointing to your elephant prop.] This is Little Nelly. She is huge and gray. She has a long trunk, big ears, and she loves to read!

She has this great book, and she is learning a lot about herself from this book. The book says: Mice can be gray. Mice have big ears. Mice have skinny tails.

She's a mouse, right? [Hear children's protests.] She's an elephant, you say? An elephant?! Well, don't tell her that! She is convinced that she is a mouse!

Plus, her book has some other very interesting info!

It says mice have holes in the wall where they live. Makes sense, right?

So Little Nelly crammed part of her huge, massive head into part of a tiny hole in the wall, and she interrupted a little mouse family: some of whom were watching t.v.!

Can a huge elephant live with a tiny mouse family? Will she step on them? Will Little Nelly ever find out that she's NOT a mouse?

Little Nelly's Big Book by Pippa Goodhart, ill. by Andy Rowland. Unpaged. 2012: Bloomsbury. Booktalk to kindergarten-2nd grade.

Book talk: Again! by Emily Gravett

Who would want to hear the same story every single night? Little dragon. Little dragon loves his book about Cedric the red dragon who has never, ever been to bed.

Guess who does NOT love little dragon's book? Little dragon's mother! It's a long book, and she gets more and more tired reading it. It goes on and on and on.

A sleepy dragon mother -- if she's smart -- will take a long story and make it shorter. And shorter [display pages]. Uh oh, I think she's falling asleep!

But what happens to little dragon when you make his favorite story shorter? He gets mad. What happens when dragons get mad?

Do you really want to know?

Again! by Emily Gravett. Unpaged. 2011: Simon & Schuster. Booktalk to PK-2. 2013 Kate Greenaway Medal nomination.

Emily Gravett

Book talk: The Princess and the Pig by Jonathan Emmett

In fairy tales, there are good queens and bad queens. 

In this fairy tale, the queen is completely stupid. {Show page 4}. When looking at her new baby girl, stupid queen holds her by the edge of the tower. Mistake #1. Then she decides her new baby girl needs a diaper change, so she leaves her alone to get a nanny to do it. Mistake #2. Then she doesn’t even notice when her own daughter falls off the edge of a very, very high tower. Mistake #3. Poor baby. Stupid, stupid queen.

Luckily, a poor farmer with a soft cart of straw was below. In his cart he had a little pink pig which no one would buy. Down comes baby, hits the cart, and up goes the pig, landing in the baby’s cradle. I know, it’s a fairy tale. But it really happened.

So now we have a stupid queen with a pig in her baby’s cradle, and a poor farmer with a princess baby in his straw cart. A recipe for disaster, right? But who do you think is the better parent…the stupid queen or the poor farmer? If you guessed the poor farmer, you’re right. That princess baby probably got a good set of parents instead of an idiot royal pair.

Wait until you see how the pig acts when she gets older [show example page/s]…what a disaster!

The Princess and the Pig by Jonathan Emmett, illustrated by Poly Bernatene. Unpaged. Walker and Company, 2011. Booktalk to K-2.

Book talk: That is NOT a Good Idea! by Mo Willems

[Start this book talk by asking the children if they can repeat the refrain, "That is not a good idea!" when you prompt them (with a hand gesture, etc.)]

A hungry fox would love nothing more than to eat a plump, delicious-looking goose for his supper. Yum.....goose!

If you were a goose, and a fox came up to you and asked you to go for a stroll with him, what would you think? [Now have them repeat, "That is not a good idea!"]

And if this hungry-looking fox then asked you to walk with him into the deep dark woods, what would you think? [Repeat refrain.]

And if this fox asked you to visit his nearby kitchen? [Repeat refrain.]

And if this fox asked you to help him get a really big pot of boiling hot water ready? [Have kids repeat refrain.]

[Sigh and wipe your forehead in relief.] Luckily, you all make one collectively smart goose. But do you think the goose in this story is as smart as you? Dumber? Smarter? Can she outfox the fox?

That is NOT a Good Idea! by  Mo Willems.Unpaged. Balzer + Bray, 2013. Booktalk to pre-K through 2. Great read-aloud.

Book talk: I Am So Strong by Mario Ramos

The big bad wolf had a very high opinion of himself. He thought he was the fiercest, scariest, strongest creature in the woods.

 After all, he is the bad bad wolf, right?

So he strolled through the forest demanding that others tell him how strong he was. 

On the way, he met a very small rabbit, Little Red Riding Hood, 

the three little pigs, and the seven dwarves. I have this nagging feeling I'm forgetting someone, though. Each one told him how strong he was, probably because none wants to get eaten by the big bad wolf.

Oh, shoot. There was one other encounter which may have changed things - really, really changed things. But who is bigger and badder than the big bad wolf?

I Am So Strong by Mario Ramos. Unpaged. 2011: Gecko Press. Booktalk to K-2.

Book talk: The Three Ninja Pigs by Corey Rosen Schwartz

What do pigs have in common with the martial arts? Have you ever seen a pig practice karate or jujitsu? No?! 

Well, you've heard the classic story of the three pigs and the big bad wolf, right? You've never heard the funny martial arts version? What a shame. It's called The Three Ninja Pigs by Corey Rosen Schwartz.

The three little pigs were fed up with the wolf and his threats, so each one enrolled in a different form of martial arts: Pig 1 took aikido, Pig 2 took jujitsu, and Pig 3 took karate. Although these were determined pigs, not all of them actually stuck to and practiced their martial arts skills, though. You have to practice this stuff. There's no getting around it, seriously.

Luckily, one of the pigs practiced, but I can't tell you which one. And I can't tell you what happened when this pig got called "bacon" to his or her face. You don't mess with a ninja pig, and I don't care if you are the big bad wolf.

The Three Ninja Pigs by Corey Rosen Schwartz, illustrated by Dan Santat. Unpaged. 2012. Booktalk to K-2.

Book talk: The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School (Virginia Readers' Choice, 2013-2014)

[For this booktalk, you’ll be acting out one scene from the story. You’ll need a whistle or a baseball hat (something coach-like) and a ball – a soccer ball or anything comparable – and a little paper gingerbread man, missing part of his foot.]

Hi, I’m the coach of the elementary school just down the road, and kids lose stuff in gym class all the time. Just today I found the oddest thing in the world stuck to a soccer ball. I was just bouncing this soccer ball and all of a sudden it started making noises. I looked down, and guess what?

There was a cookie stuck to my soccer ball! And it spoke to me!

“I’m the gingerbread man, and I’m trying to find / the children who made me, but left me behind.”

What kind of children would leave behind a gingerbread man?

So, being the good coach that I am, I advised him to run after the kids, but the story keeps getting weirder and weirder.

The poor little gingerbread man had lost his toe! So he looked for it and finally found it, and he went off limping to the nurse’s office. Gee…I hope he’s okay. I felt sorry for the poor little fellow. Hey, have you seen him lately? I wonder where he is now?

The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School by Laura Murray, illustrated by Mike Lowery. Unpaged. 2011: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Virginia Readers’ Choice, 2013-2014. Booktalk to primary grades.

Gingerbread Man Loose in the School

Book talk: I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll (Virginia Readers' Choice, 2012-2013)

When I was your age, I was afraid to look under my bed at night because that’s where the monsters live. Don’t laugh. I know you feel the same, but you don’t have to admit it. Ethan actually knows the monster under his bed. Yeah: they’re buddies. Isn’t that weird?

Ethan is a lot braver than I am, but he’s got a problem: his monster is going out of town for a week. Don’t ask me why, but Ethan has to have a monster under his bed. He will NOT be without one, so he starts interviewing monsters to see which one is suitable to stay under his bed at night! I know: I don’t get it, either.

How hard can it be to find the right monster? Okay, one was wearing a bow, one had an absurdly long tongue, and one was green but not scary. Agghhhhh!!!! How many monsters does a boy have to interview before he finds one appropriately terrifying to stay under his bed?

 I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll, illustrated by Howard McWilliam. Unpaged. Booktalk to K-2. Virginia Readers’ Choice, 2012-2013.

I Need My Monster

Book talk: Blue Chameleon by Emily Gravett (Virginia Readers' Choice)

[Show cover]. Meet blue chameleon. Poor guy. He's blue in two different ways: can you think about that for a second? [Pause.] Obviously, he is blue, right? But he also looks as if he's feeling blue: he's feeling sad, down, discouraged. I wonder why...

[Turn to first page.] Well, no wonder! He's thinking, "I'm lonely." Well, that should be easy to solve: right?

[Turn the page.] Hey?! What just happened? Why did he turn yellow? [Wait for answer.] Yes, chameleons can change colors, but what's he mimicking? [Wait for response.] A banana! Does a banana make a good friend? No! A banana only makes a good snack! Poor chameleon...he's confused. You really cannot be happy being friends with a banana.

[Turn page.] Oh my goodness! What color is he now? He's pink! He's trying to befriend a pink bird called a cockatoo! But take a close look at the cockatoo's face: what expression is he wearing? Suspicion, distrust: that cockatoo does not want to be friends, clearly.

[Return to cover image.] Chameleon, you're off to a rocky start. No wonder you look so blue.

Blue Chameleon by Emily Gravett. 2010: Simon & Schuster. Unpaged. Booktalk to pre-K through 2nd. Virginia Readers' Choice, 2012-2013 (Primary).

Blue Chameleon

Book talk: I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

[Pacing, agitated.] I lost my favorite hat…actually, I think it’s my only hat, and I’m a bear, so I really need my hat back because I’m out in the cold weather all the time. I’ve spent the whole day walking around the woods looking for my hat and asking various animals if they have seen my hat. Wait…did I ask you this yet? Have you seen my hat? [Wait for reply.] No?!?

Well, let me tell you. Those other animals are no help at all. I asked a snake hanging from a branch, and you know what he said? [Mimicking snake] “I saw a hat once. It was blue and round.” Well…that’s helpful! I mean, mine is red and pointed and he’s telling me about some random hat he saw once. Thanks a lot, snake!

I asked another animal – he was kind of weird-looking, to tell you the truth, and he didn’t even know what a hat was! Useless! Absolutely useless!

Okay, I gotta dash. But if you happen to see my hat – which is RED – please just let me know! Don’t make me come back here again!

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen. 2011: Candlewick Press. Unpaged. Booktalk to pre-K through 2^nd. Virginia Readers’ Choice, 2012-2013 (Primary). 

I Want My Hat Back