Fox the Tiger by Corey R Tabor

Fox has found a book to read. It is a book about a tiger.

Fox knows tigers are sneaky, fast and big.Tigers are great! Fox decides to transform himself into a tiger! His friends can see through the disguise BUT they decide to join in too with this game of imagination. Turtle becomes a race car; and Rabbit becomes a robot. BUT then it starts to rain. Thank goodness for Squirrel and his wise words. Oh the there is a brilliant wordless twist on the last page which will give everyone a laugh.

A few weeks ago I talked about the Geisel Award and I mentioned that I hoped to read some recent winners. In 2019 the winner was Fox the Tiger. This is a terrific book for newly independent readers or to read aloud. Listen to these brilliant words - I prowl and growl; I zip and zoom; I beep bop boop.

Feel-good, make-believe fun. Kirkus

I would pair Fox the Tiger with this old book - The Tale of Tiki Tiger by Teri Wiltshire. This book holds a special place in my heart because I have used this book with preschool children for over 15 years in the term before they come to "big school". It is the perfect text because it contains a fold out surprise and because it has the repeated refrain "I'm doing something extra special today."  On the day of their visit to our school the preschool children used to begin in the school library, my huge tiger toy would be hiding in my library bag ready to lick the nearest child and following their morning visit to the library the children would then be taken to visit classrooms, the playground and the computer room - "something special today".

Here is an interview with Corey where he talks about his work. You can see some of his joyous illustrations here.

I now discover there are other books about Fox and in November another book will be published with the title Fox versus Winter.

Skyfire by Frank Asch

Image Source Broadcast Cover

Yesterday was National Find a Rainbow Day.  I love this idea. Looking for rainbows seems like a beautiful thing to do especially during these difficult times around the world. Rainbows have always seemed some how quite miraculous to me.

Moonbear has never seen a rainbow. He thinks the sky is on fire. He rushes off with his pot of water and after climbing a hill he tosses the water at the rainbow. Just at the moment the rainbow fades away.  Little Bird knows the truth about rainbows. He knows you can find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow and this is exactly what happens. Little Bird calls out to Moonbear and tells him to come over to the hollow tree. Inside they find honey!

"Bear made honey cakes.
After dinner they went for a boat ride.
For a long while they were very quiet.
Then Little Bird said, 'So it was a rainbow, and I found the pot of gold!'
'Oh no, it wasn't,' replied Bear.
'It was a sky fire ...  and I put it out!"

I love all the Moonbear books but my favourite is Happy Birthday Moon. This week we will have a full moon and as usual I will take a little time to talk to the moon just like Moonbear.

The series of Moonbear books by Frank Asch all contain four squares on the first page which explain or show the science principal behind the story. Here  are two examples:

This second one shows the changing seasons from the book Mooncake.

You are sure to need more rainbow books - my friend at Kinderbookswitheverything has set up a Rainbows Pinterest collection with lots of great titles to explore.