Bunny's Book Club by Annie Silvestro

Preschool and Kindergarten

This book tells the story of a book-loving bunny who sneaks into the town library and borrows books for all his forest friends.

I found this book at the library and it is absolutely adorable. I love how each animal wants a book about a different subject. It shows that there is a book out there for everyone.

This is a perfect book to read to introduce little kids to the joys of the library and how great it feels to curl up with a good book.

And because this is my blog and I can do what I want, here is not one, but two comics that feature great books and the joy of having a library card:

Madeline Finn and the Library Dog by Lisa Papp

Preschool and Kindergarten

Madeline Finn DOES NOT like to read.

Fortunately, Madeline Finn meets Bonnie, a library dog, and learns that reading out loud can be fun when you’re not afraid of making mistakes.

I actually found this book during a Library Dog Reading session.

I love library dogs. Dogs don’t laugh if you make a mistake and they are so warm and comforting. I wish my library had library dogs when I was a kid but they didn’t have them until a couple of years ago. I still went to pet the dogs though. It was like reading to a big warm teddy bear. Who wouldn’t want to read to a nice warm dog?

My dog Dude would make a great library dog. He loves to be read to and he loves kids. He’d probably spend the whole time licking the little kids’ hands. Problem is he would have trouble being around other dogs, he’d want to play with them instead sit and listen to the kids read.

I can kind of understand why Madeline doesn’t want to read out loud. I never wanted to read out loud as a kid. I still don’t, mostly because I don’t really like the sound of my own voice.

This book is extremely sweet and well-drawn.

As a bonus, here are some cute pictures of dogs reading books:

The Boy who was Raised by Librarians by Carla Morris

Elementary School

Melvin lived in the Livingston Public Library. Well…he didn’t really live there. He just spent lots and lots of time there.

Melvin discovers that the public library is the place where he can find just about anything – including three librarians who help in his quest for knowledge.

“The library is a wonderful place to be if a person is curious.”

Librarians are prepared for anything. I know this for a fact. Let me tell you a tale. One day I took my service dog, Dude, to the library and he barfed out his breakfast. The librarian immediately came running with an industrial sized tube of wipes to clean it up. Apparently, that wasn’t the first time someone had thrown up in that library. My mom and I came back a couple days later with cookies to thank them.

I think I’d make a pretty good librarian. As an elective in 7^thand 8^thgrade, I worked as a librarian assistant. I’d reshelf books and made sure they were in alphabetical order by author. I enjoyed putting the series books in the correct order. I was never asked to do that but I have this need to put things in order. 

Mr. Shelley, the middle school librarian, was really cool. He once told me that the author of ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ came up with the word ‘Oz’ when he looked at his filing cabinet and saw ‘A-N’ and ‘O-Z’. Since ‘Wizard of An’ didn’t sound very exciting, he went with ‘Oz’. I really don’t know if this is true or if he was just getting back at me for asking him if he was related to Mary Shelley.

As a bonus, here’s a funny comic about libraries:

Rules by Cynthia Lord

Happy National Autism Awareness Month!

And to celebrate, here is a book that does a great job explaining Asperger Syndrome.

For anyone who knows someone on the autism spectrum

12-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She’s spent years trying to teach David the rules – from ‘a peach is not a funny-looking apple’ to ‘keep your pants on in public’ in order to stop his embarrassing behaviors.

But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a surprising, new sort-of friend, and Kristi, the next-door friend she’s always wished for, it’s her own shocking behavior that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal?

Anyone remember ‘How to Speak Dolphin’ by Ginny Rorby? Well, similar to that book, the main female character must learn how to understand a brother with autism and a new friend with a different disability. 

What makes this story cool in that the author does have a son with autism, so she knows first-hand how difficult it is to handle a child with autism. Read the Q&A with Cynthia Lordat the end of the book to find out more about the author and the ideas for Rules.

I can understand why her brother gets on her nerves. I know I get on people’s nerves. In fact, I get on my own nerves sometimes. 

People with autism don’t always understand the basic rules of living that other people come by so naturally. (Examples: Knock before entering someone else’s room. If you want to get away with something, don’t announce it first. It’s fine to hug Mom, but not the clerk at the video store.) Stuff like that. But people with autism have their own set of rules that, in their mind, they must follow. Here are a few of my own: What I’m working on must be perfect or I’ll get upset. If something is bothering me, I’ll watch TV until the pain goes away.

I relate to David in two ways. 1) We both love the video store. You might remember me mentioning the wonderful world of video stores back in ‘The Ghost’s Grave’ by Peg Kehret. I loved videocassettes as a kid. Going on Netflix and Hulu is a lot easier but it just doesn’t feel the same as walking around the store and holding the video you want in your hands. And 2) we both cover our ears when something is too loud. I usually do this when a plane goes over my house and when there’s a sudden loud sound.

But this book isn’t just about autism. It talks about a familiar subject. Anyone remember the first book I reviewed, ‘Out of My Mind’ by Sharon M. Draper? Catherine’s new friend Jason uses a wheelchair and a communication book. The communication board itself is pretty sad because Jason can only use words that someone else has given him. His book is pretty limited before Catherine comes along.

I didn’t really grasp how difficult the communication book must be to use the first time I read this book. But then I watch a new TV series called ‘Speechless’ and I understood.

For those of you that haven’t watched this show, Speechlessis about a family with a child with cerebral palsy. This show isn’t some after-school special type of show. It’s about a family that’s good at dealing with challenges and excellent at creating new ones. The best thing about this show is that the actor who plays J.J. does have cerebral palsy, which to me makes the show all the more real. 

I bring this show up because both Jason and J.J. use the same sort of way of communicating. But instead of a book of words, J.J. uses a communication board and a laser pointer attached to his glasses to point at certain words and an aid to speak for him.The difference between Jason’s communication book and J.J.’s communication board is that J.J. has the alphabet so he can spell out the words that aren’t already spelled out for him. See picture of J.J.’s communication board below:

Well, I hope you all enjoyed with post, check out with book and ‘Speechless’and have a happy National Autism Awareness Month!