Five For Fun

The books we read this week were very...um..different. Monday's read was Honey...Honey...LION! by Jan Brett. This was an African folk tale sort of a story about a bird called a honeyguide and a honey badger who are partners and work together to get honey. The honeyguide finds the honeycomb and the honey badger breaks it open and they share the sweet treat. This is the way it has always been until one day, when the honey badger decides not to share and gulps down all the honey! But tomorrow is another day....where will the honeyguide lead the badger to today?!! The art work in this book was wonderful showing all of the exotic animals that live in the Okavango Delta of Botswana.

On Tuesday we read One Monday Morning by Uri Shulevitz. This story is set in the drab grey tenements of the city, where a little boy imagines a royal company comes to visit him. When the King, the Queen, and the little Prince come to visit on Monday Morning....the little boy is not home. The royal family decides to come back on Tuesday....but....the little boy is not home. Which day will they find him there? and how many members of the royal party will be added to the guest list? Maybe we'll find out on.......

In Brown Paper Teddy Bear by Catherine Allison Jessica is awakened at night by a strange light that reveals an old toy cupboard. As she looks through the old toys she finds a Teddy Bear wrapped up in brown paper. The teddy bear asks her if she wants to meet all his old friends and is whisked away to a playroom filled with toys from long ago. She has a wonderful time playing with them but must leave and return to her room by morning. When she wakes up, she tells Grandpa all about the cupboard and the wonderful old toys. I'll leave you guessing whose toys these are. The neatest thing about this book is that all the pages are brown paper.

Slow Down For Manatees by Jim Arnosky shows how these gentle sea cows live in Florida's shallow canals and really don't have any natural enemies. However, the most problematic thing for them are boat motors. The story tells of a manatee that is injured by a boat motor, rescued, and released back into the wild. A small surprise is also found out about. This book is a fictional story, but in the author's notes he shares about a manatee that was hurt and released in this same way. In the end, slow down for manatee signs are put up in the canals which help remind the boaters to look out for these sea creatures.

Finally we read Pancakes For Supper by Anne Isaacs. This is sort of "fable-esk" story where a little girl meets several wild animals as she is lost in the woods, each one desiring to eat her. With each animal she cleverly figures out how to make each one the grandest in the forest. She escapes from danger just in time to see all five animals fighting over who is the grandest and the next thing you know they begin to chase each other around and around a tree so fast they turn into a brown puddle. Just as Ma and Pa come to find her she has a great idea...Pancakes for supper..covered in sweet brown maple syrup from the tree where the animals turned into a puddle. If you ever have read the book Little Babaja you will recognize some similarities with this tall tail.

 Our hands down favorite this week was Honey....Honey...Lion. Great artwork and the moral at the end of the story says it all. We hope everyone has a great week. Ours will start with a trip to the library for our next set of FFF!