There's a Pest in the Garden and What Is Chasing Duck? by Jan Thomas

Today's post is from Paige Bentley-Flannery. Paige is a Community Librarian at Deschutes Public Library. She is a former Chair of the ALSC Notable Children’s Book Committee and ALSC Digital Content Task Force. Twitter @chapterpaigeone

Did you know that ducks eat turnips? Jan Thomas's favorite characters from A Birthday for Cow, The Doghouse, and more are back in a beginning reader format with There's a Pest in the Garden and What Is Chasing Duck? Both books offer creativity and humor that will engage readers.

In There's a Pest in the Garden, Duck, Sheep, Dog, and Donkey are trying to get rid of the "PEST" that's eating up their garden. How will they stop it -- and who is the PEST? Children will be drawn to the animals' wacky facial expressions, which could serve as conversation starters. What is each animal thinking? For example, Donkey says, "Yippee! He ate ALL the PEAS!" Here, Donkey is happy yet the rest of the animals look sad and surprised. On the next page, Donkey explains that he doesn't like peas. Details in each of Thomas' illustrations lead to the next action or question in the story -- making for a great fit with the Geisel Award criteria.

In What Is Chasing Duck?, Sheep is asking the titular question. Children will appreciate Duck saying only one word in different ways so they understand whether "Quack" is an exclamation or a question. The illustrations match the spare words, letting the reader's imagination fill in, for instance, what is both wild and hairy. The story continues with Sheep and Duck running and Donkey trying to guess what is chasing them. Phrases like "BIG TEETH!" in bold, capital letters add emphasis. When Dog makes them face their fears, will they continue to run, or will they work together to figure out what is chasing them?

These two books feature fun and joyful illustrations with a sheep wearing garden gloves and a dog wearing overalls. The words are perfect for readers pre-K through grade 2. Although both titles may pull towards the younger reader, the subjects are fun and engaging for a 1st and 2nd grader to practice reading while laughing, answering questions, and solving problems. Children will appreciate the use of big fonts in speech bubbles, and bold letters that highlight excitement, such as "YIPPEE! A PLAN!" or action: "QUACK!" in bold red letters.

Are the cleverness, writing style, and illustrations distinguished enough for the Geisel committee to view either of these books as a contender? Both offer a strong reading experience filled with a wonderful "rhythm that can carry the child along from start to finish." Also, both feature main characters with problems to solve, and simple messages which will appeal to young readers.

Although There's a Pest in the Garden might be a stronger contender, it will be fun to see what the committee selects. The silliness and humor might lead Geisel committee members to view it as more of a favorite story time or programming book, but overall it does achieve the literary and artistic quality called for in the award criteria guidelines.

Keep an eye out for My Friends Make Me Happy and My Toothbrush is Missing by Jan Thomas coming out in January 2018.

A Pair of Pizzoli

In today's post, we'll look at two picture books illustrated by Greg Pizzoli: North, South, East, West with text by Margaret Wise Brown, and I Love You Like a Pig, with text by Mac Barnett.

Every once in a while, a forgotten manuscript pops up from an author of classics. So far, these books have not found recognition with the Geisel Committee, but anything is possible!  Let's look at a new book from the posthumously prolific Margaret Wise Brown. In terms of Geisel suitability, we can talk about several things: there's a nice number of words per page -- usually just a sentence or phrase -- and a standard font, adequately sized, is used -- no tricks with fancy scripts or words interacting with the illustrations. Most words are simple; and the potentially unfamiliar "sycamore" appears three times.  There are other instances of repetition, including the titular "north, south, east, west."  And, though the book is not entirely in verse, there are some nice instances of occasional rhyme.  The illustrations are simple and pleasant, and match up well with the text. Of course, there are also elements of the book that might come under scrutiny at the Geisel table.  In discussions of this book, I would have to look at the length of the sentences and the complexity of the sentence structure.  The text has a lovely, poetic feel, but near the end of the book, I counted a sentence with 44 words in it. This sentence appears all one one spread, and the line breaks fall sensibly, but it's still a lot for a beginner to wrangle.  I'd also have to try this book out with beginning readers -- I'm not sure that you could make much of an argument for a page-turning dynamic or general kid appeal. 

On the other hand, I Love You Like a Pig has a wacky weirdness that will certainly appeal, at least to some kids.  And, though not specifically published for beginning readers, it conforms to many conventions of beginning reader books. The font is generous and clear (though it does include my pet peeve: those typeset g's and a's that don't look like the ones we write), and each page holds one short sentence.  There's a repetitive pattern at work that will help readers along, and the illustrations will give a clue to longer words like "raspberries." Indeed, the illustrations do some heavy lifting in this parade of similes: how can a window be lucky?  If it holds a cooling pie.  Why is a banker sweet?  Well, maybe that banker is handing out lollipops! My initial reaction to this book was bemusement, but in examining it in light of the Geisel criteria, I have found hidden strengths.  The real proof of this book, though, will be in the reading, specifically reading with and by beginning readers. What will they make of the unexpected comparisons?

Have you shared either of these books with young readers?  What did they think?

Meet Woof and Quack and Woof and Quack in Winter by Jamie Swenson

Lizzie Nolan is our guest blogger for this post. She's a Senior Librarian in Youth Services at the San José Public Library. Under the great inspiration of this very blog she helped start a mock Odyssey award blog for great childrens’ audiobooks at Ears on the Odyssey.

Woof and Quack are a classic odd couple. Woof isn’t like most dogs, and Quack isn’t like most ducks. Woof doesn’t want to play Fetch and Duck doesn’t want to fly south for winter.

In the mold of the Elephant and Piggie series, young readers will find comfort in these goofballs friends. Meet Woof and Quack and Woof & Quack in Winter have straightforward plots that are offset with just the right amount of silliness. The duo will play fetch with a banana or a cake instead of a ball or build a “snow duck” and a “sand dog” instead of snowman.

Both books do repeat words, phrases and sentence structure to help readers. In the panel below, the opposites of throwing and fetching are mirrored with the sentences “Woof threw the banana” and “Duck fetched the banana.”

The illustrations are cartoony, multicolored and illustrate the action of the plot. The drawings have bright colors, big expressions and thick black outlines that are eye catching to young readers. The background color changes when a new idea to the plot is introduced but stays the same when the idea in the panel isn’t resolved.

In this sequence of a cake falling, wobbling, and splatting the illustrator uses different background colors and literal drawings to convey meaning. Though the meaning of the plot could be understood with the illustrations alone, the words could prove to be more difficult to decode. They are written in a large typeface and but with different fonts and a vertical angle.

One of the most interesting design choices is the word bubbles. The color of Duck’s words are green while Woof’s are purple. Like Mo Willems says of his clever Elephant and Piggie fans, many readers will be quick to spot that Woof’s collar is purple and Duck’s face is green. This color coded dialogue serves as a clue to readers on how word bubbles function. The word bubbles have white backgrounds that help it stand apart with each colorful page change.

On the one hand, the use of color is fun and fast paced. On the other hand, it feels at times like too much is happening for a beginning reader. The constantly changing background could be too hectic and information overload for reader just learning to read. And color blind readers might find all the changes overwhelming and confusing. Woof & Quack in Winter in particularly with its’ snow falling and beach scenes feel busy in this trim size and could be a lot to visually digest for beginners.

This is a bold book with a lot happening to grab the young readers’ attention, but this year’s Geisel Committee will have to decide if one of these Woof & Quack reads will be deemed the most supportive for young readers.

What This Story Needs is a Bang and a Clang and What This Story Needs is a Vroom and a Zoom by Emma J. Virjan

This week's contributor is Gigi Pagliarulo, a librarian for the Denver Public Library. Gigi is especially interested in youth services, early literacy, and issues of diversity and multiculturalism within children's literature and programming, and has served on the steering committee of Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy.

The wild and be-wigged pig and friends are back for more rhyming, madcap fun in two new titles in Emma J. Virján’s popular Pig in a Wig series. What This Story Needs is a Bang and a Clang and What This Story Needs is a Vroom and a Zoom are both funny, bright, and boisterously illustrated books that have great appeal to kids, with well-placed humor, silly and entertaining subject matter, relatively simple text, and fast-paced plots that motivate new readers to read to the end. However, there are inconsistencies within both titles that could trip up new readers, making for a less than successful reading experience. Thus, while they are deservedly popular and well-reviewed, neither book is a strong contender for the Geisel Award.

For music lovers, noise makers, speed racers, and general silliness aficionados, What This Story Need is a Bang and a Clang and What This Story Needs is a Vroom and a Zoom are the raucous fourth and fifth titles in the series. Bang and a Clang finds the pig in a wig attracting a whole ensemble of animal musicians to come “twang,” “tootle,” and “doom-doom-doom,” until a mouse scares an elephant and hilarious chaos ensues. Vroom and a Zoom also keeps a fast and furious pace as an oversleeping pig dashes to her racecar with seconds to spare before the big race. Naturally there are bumps in the road that lead to a total spin-out, breakdown, and comical pandemonium. Brisk plotting, satisfying rhymes, and colorful, detailed illustrations lead both stories quickly back on track to happy and clever resolutions.

There is certainly much to help new readers in both books; the subject matter is, as the Geisel criteria state, “intriguing and motivational,” and the hyper-saturated, cartoony illustrations are appealing, entertaining, and full of clues for helping readers decode word meanings. There are a limited number of words per page, and sight words are included. The kid-engrossing, giggle-inducing, zany plots of both books certainly create that “page-turning experience” that the Geisel Award Committee is looking for.

A main factor that hinders these books’ utility to early readers is their vocabulary word choices. The Geisel criteria establish that “new words should be added slowly enough to make learning a positive experience” and “words should be repeated to ensure knowledge retention.” While the silly sound words that the books use are easy and fun for adults to breeze through as an entertaining read-aloud, for new readers, they are unfamiliar, can be difficult to sound out, and are frequently irregularly spelled. Both books are peppered with these new and odd words, and without much repetition to help kids build familiarity. This can detract from the positive reading experience when kids try to read these books on their own, and can’t sound out many of the words without help; meaning is lost and so is much of the humor and motivation.

These newest titles in the Pig in a Wig series are as entertaining and appealing as their predecessors, and for that they are valuable and useful within the canon of beginning readers. Unfortunately, many of their difficult and inconsistent vocabulary word choices make these books hard for new readers to truly get through independently, are not in line with Geisel criteria and rule out their consideration as Award contenders.

Design Discussions with Heidi Kilgras, Editorial Director at Random House Children’s Books

Hi there,

Heidi Kilgras - photo courtesy of Heidi

For this month’s Design Discussion I interviewed Heidi Kilgras, Editorial Director at Random House Children’s Books. Heidi’s also been running Random House’s Step into Reading line for over 20 years.

Heidi provided insight into design elements that are standard across all Step into Reading books. The font is the same across all levels, or “Steps”. Within each step, there are specific guidelines for font size, leading (the space between lines of text), word spacing, and margins. Adhering as much as possible to strict word count ranges for each Step is also important to ensure that the reading experience from book to book within a level is similar. Spot art is utilized in most Step into Reading titles, “Particularly for the youngest Steps, you don’t want text printing on top of art and creating confusion or an impediment to the important work of decoding.” Heidi wants the art to support the pacing of the text and create breathing room and natural pauses for readers.

 For the very earliest of readers, she specifically looks for stories that take place in real time. No flash-backs or -forwards, dream sequences, or major subtext. The art must mirror what’s happening in the text. She notes, “To some writers, this might feel like a limitation, but within these boundaries, you can really play and build text that reads aloud well and aids comprehension. Write visually!”


Image from Time for School, Little Dinosaur
by Gail Herman, illus. by Michael Fleming

Heidi told me that getting suitable submissions can be challenging, “Some writers are tricked by the simplicity of leveled readers and think they must be easy to write.” She often manuscripts that may seem like easy-to-read text, but upon closer scrutiny, don’t measure up to the Step into Reading standards. What does she look for? Text that creates a visual narrative that allows for the art and text to have interplay. “Art must directly reflect the text, serving as a visual cue to the reader working to decode the text. If the text says, ‘the cow tipped his hat,’ there had better be a cow on that page doing just that!”

I’ve become very curious about the relationship between author, illustrator, and editor in the process of creating a beginning reader. Random House provides writers with guidelines that discuss suggested word count ranges, sentence length, number of lines per page, and page length for each Step. Adhering to these guidelines allows consistency across books in the same Step, and ensures there will be enough room for art. Writers are also given information about the vocabulary, punctuation, grammar, and syntax appropriate for each level. Heidi gave me the following example, “it’s ideal for Step 1 books to have rhyme, rhythm, and repetition; lots of monosyllabic words are best (e.g., consonant-vowel-consonant); and, please, no independent clauses, run-ons, or contractions.” However, Heidi points out, “We do not provide sight word list at all; they ran counter to the thinking of the late, great publishing maven Janet Schulman, who created Step into Reading in 1984.”




Image from Go, Go, Trucks! by Jennifer Liberts, illus. by Mike Yamada

Heidi often works with writers who are not illustrators. So design discussions with illustrators cover very specific art notes about what should be depicted on the page to align with the text. “Unlike picture books, there shouldn’t be a separate visual narrative running through the background—the art should directly reflect the text. If the reader is struggling to decode the text, they should be able to look at the art and ‘read it.’”


White space is an important design element, and “both illustrators and designers come up with innovative solutions to scaffold the text while providing pleasing, fresh, playful, and surprising illustrations.” Ultimately, it’s that interplay between art and text that Heidi strives to cultivate. “We want the whole package to be integrated and seem simple and organic; when that happens, we know we’ve done our jobs well!”


I have a few pet peeves when it comes to beginning readers (those pesky page breaks!). What’s Heidi’s? Too much dialogue! “Some submissions have no visual narrative to the writing, and the illustrations would basically have to depict two characters talking throughout the book. As clever as the dialogue may be, if nothing happens, it’s going to be a very boring book, visually!” She’s also tired of all the “episodic/chapter buddy book” manuscripts that come across her desk, “People feel the need to keep trying to recreate Frog and Toad, I guess!”

When asked about her favorite beginning readers, Heidi narrowed it down to a couple stand outs. Molly Coxe’s Step 1 readers, such as Big Egg and Hot Dog, “are really wonderful...and successful.” Heidi’s heard so many personal stories about how Coxe’s books helped kids unlock the mystery of reading. She also really loves Jack and Jill and Big Dog Bill by the late Martha Weston who “skillfully wrote a 150-word reader using only 28 distinct words. The text matches the art, but there is a variety to what is happening on the page that keeps the story lively.” (2018 brings a sequel, Jack and Jill and T-Ball Bill, written by Terry Piece and illustrated by Sue DiCicco with the blessing of Weston’s estate.) Last, but not least, she’s always loved Cynthia Rylant and Arthur Howard’s Mr. Putter and Tabby books, “The personalities! The line work! Just delicious.”

Overall, Heidi says that most important quality of a beginning reader, no matter the level or line/series, is that it creates a successful reading experience. “We want our books to be decodable, fun, and most of all, to support burgeoning reading skills. We want nearly instant gratification, or at least by the end, we hope the kid will put down the book and proudly say, “I read that!” Excitement and success beget more excitement and greater success. The more excitement emergent readers feel, the more likely they are to stretch themselves in terms of level. That’s why we provide such a wide array of topics in Step into Reading. Leveled readers are a gateway drug to chapter books and novels! The end goal is to instill a love of reading.”

Charlie & Mouse & Grumpy by Laurel Snyder, illustrated by Emily Hughes

When I first encountered Snyder and Hughes’ first Charlie & Mouse title, I was delighted! Not only does the book support beginning readers in many important ways, it’s also set in Hawaii and features biracial brothers. Two things I’ve never encountered in a beginning reader title (please comment if you know of any!). For more about the first title, check out Elisa Gall’s wonderful post from earlier this year.

So imagine my joy when I found out there was to be a second book, and that it would be published in the same year! In this second title Charlie and Mouse’s bespeckled grandfather, affectionately known as Grumpy, comes to visit. Whereas the first book shared neighborhood adventures, the four episodic stories in the second book all take place inside Charlie and Mouse’s house. First, the siblings meet Grumpy at the door and talk about how Charlie is getting big; Mouse admits he’s only getting medium. The next morning, the brothers are excited to pounce on a sleeping Grumpy, but he’s already awake! Later, the boys enjoy a “Grumpy Night” while their parents go on a date, filled with pizza, forts, movies, and bedtime songs. All too soon it’s time for Grumpy to leave, but Grumpy tells the sad boys that, “Sometimes, it has to rain. So that you can be happy when the sun comes out again.”

The plot of each episode is subtly built around repetition so that readers gain confidence with the completion of each chapter. Italics are used sparingly and always to show readers something of import. For instance:

 “And how many hot dogs can you eat?”
asked Grumpy. “When you are medium?”
“You can still eat three hot dogs,” Mouse said.
“But not with mustard. Mustard is not medium.” 

Using the same soft and muted colors as the first book, Hughes’ graphite and Photoshop illustrations never overwhelm the text. Instead, they set the tone, provide visual context clues, and give insight into character relationships and emotions. No small feat!

There’s also a lot to be admired in the design and layout. The slightly wider trim side allows for truly glorious amounts of white space on all sides of the text. Line breaks are thoughtful and logical. This is especially important with so much dialogue and the quotation marks that go along with it.

All of these elements combine to create four poignant and gently humorous vignettes that draw readers like a cozy, comforting charm. When it comes down to it, both books are strong Geisel contenders and I’d be hard pressed to say which one I like more. Might this be a year when two books from the same series are recognized by the Geisel Committee?

I'm Smart by Kate and Jim McMullan

This post is contributed by Jamie Holcomb, a reference librarian at the Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales branch of Denver Public Library. She recently co-presented on reader's advisory for beginning readers at CAL's 2017 conference.

Kate and Jim McMullan continue their enchanting series of vehicle books with a school bus. As the "I" narrator, the bus takes very seriously the responsibility to pick up the children, keep them safe, deliver them to school, and pick them up again afterwards. When a construction site causes a delay, the "smart" bus must think fast to keep the children in their seats and still reach school on time.

While the vocabulary includes primarily sight words, other features make it clear that this title is for an adult and child to read together, rather than for the latter to read alone. The decorative font includes a mix of capital and lowercase letters, with some words in color, and words sometimes merge into the illustrations or curve around them. The result, though attractive, is not likely to create a "successful reading experience" for a child learning to read.

Rather than being a Geisel contender, this one is better read to school-age children. The school bus's palpable excitement about their own lights and stop sign and their sense of urgency make I'm Smart fun to read out loud -- to a child, not by a child.