Miss Kitty Presents: February 2015

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Read-Aloud Marathon

Greetings dear readers! I hope my local library families will have a chance to join me on Saturday, February 28, 2105 at the Corte Madera branch of the Marin County Free Library for a marathon read-aloud session of Roald Dahl's classic, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I'll be reading sometime around 2:00 but the day begins at 11:00am with a stellar line-up of talented readers.

My heart will surely break if you tell me you've seen this movie and this movie but have not read the book! You must! Perhaps this post from awhile ago will also tempt you. Naturally we will have real chocolate as well if that's what it takes. Hope to see you there. xoxo Miss Kitty

Thursday, February 5, 2015

So much depends on a ® Pantone 200 Radish Red Wagon

Last week I had the luxury of spending most of a day with the other talented MCFL children's librarians to do nothing but talk about children's books and eat lentil soup and persimmon pudding.

Alas, the notion that we librarians are able to spend our work days reading blissfully in silence at our desks is a lovely fantasy but quite far from reality. So it's wonderful when we do get a chance to spend time talking about award winning books and reading recommendations and what great reads are not to be missed.

Here are a few of my very favorite art books that are fantastic choices for all ages and especially artists and teachers looking for inspiration.

This board book, Colors by Pantone, amuses me greatly. I don't know of many toddlers quite ready to delve into the ®Pantone color system, but this is a fantastic tool for any person studying color. It is especially wonderful for early learning with the bright illustrations on the right side of the book for your toddler to identify and the lush ®Pantone color spectrum on the left side of the book for you to surreptitiously dream about a serene color palette for your own secret getaway hideout sanctuary.

This sweet little red wagon made me think of sublime poet William Carlos Williams.
Melissa Sweet's 2008 picture book biography of him, A River of Words, is not to be missed.
I've written about Melissa Sweet many times on this blog; I can't help it! I just love her work.

Let us take a look at how she illustrates the same lovely poem in the 2014 poetry book, Firefly July: year of very short poems selected by Paul B. Janeczko.

So much depends on a library card and access to beautiful books. The Usborne Book of Art Projects is one my favorite series for art technique. Here's a beautiful tissue paper collage from it to get you started on your own colorful path which I hope includes a library card but may or may not include white chickens.