Dog's Colorful Day: A Messy Story About Colors and Counting
written and illustrated by Emma Dodd. 2001. New York: Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers. 32 p. (0142500194)
Author/Illustrator Website: http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Emma-Dodd/45978073
Media: pen and ink (colored digitally?)
Awards and Honors: none
Audience: Preschoolers
Annotation:
Dog is completely white with only one black spot on his ear, but after a very messy walk he ends up covered in colorful spots.
Personal Reaction:
This is a bouncy little counting and color concept book suited for toddlers and preschool aged children. Dodd's cheerful illustrations, paired with an uncomplicated storyline, make this book a winner for sharing with young children.
As Dog goes through his day with an adorably goofy expression on his face, he gets dirtier and dirtier, though he's blissfully unaware of the multiplying spots on his coat. Kids will love feeling like they know something Dog doesn't as another drop of ice cream or spot of paint splashes onto Dog. The forbidden excitement of mischief and messes and the onomatopoeic "squish" and "splurt" sounds that accompany Dog's new spots also draw kids into Dog's adventures.
By the end of the day, Dog goes home with 10 brightly colored spots on his coat, which are lovingly scrubbed off by his owner. Happy, but exhausted, Dog is left with only his own black dot as he climbs into his bed to dream of multicolored bones.
Props and Flannel Story:
I created a very simple flannel board story for this book- just Dog and 9 different spots in their respective colors. As I read the story, I add one spot at a time to Dog.
The Deep Blue Sea: A Book of Colors
written by Audrey Wood, illustrated by Bruce Wood. 2005. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. Unpaged. (9780811879545)
Author/Illustrator Website: http://www.audreywood.com/
Media: digital illustration
Awards and Honors: none
Audience: pre-k
Annotation:
A colorful, cumulative story for pre-schoolers featuring a brightly illustrated tropical island and its inhabitants.
Personal Reaction:
Audrey Wood is a master at creating stories that appeal to very young children. Books like The Napping House and The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and The Big Hungry Bear are well-known and loved by children and parents, teachers and librarians alike.
Wood's simple, immediate prose paired with the colorful and bold illustrations of her son, Bruce Wood, make The Deep Blue Sea a great choice for preschool aged kids. I'm not partial to digital illustrations, and I find the ones in this book a bit charmless, but they do have kid-appeal. Overall, the illustrations are eye-catching and work well with the story. With a cumulative story structure, The Deep Blue Sea is a good choice for a participatory storytime. It's also a color concept book and kids will jump at the opportunity to identify the colors of the various objects in the book as they are added to the pages, one by one.
Props and Flannels:
I created a flannel story to use with this book in storytime. Using full pieces of navy and sky blue colored felt, I first created a background. Then I created each object from the story so that I could add the pieces one by one onto the background. Typically I freehand my flannel board stories, using the books illustrations as reference, which is what I did here. I decided against creating the rain, the singing fish and the rainbow at the end of the story. These seemed to be actions as well as objects, and were either small or hard to represent using felt. Because I'm reading the book while I'm presenting the flannel board, I don't think the narrative is affected.
