A Hungry Lion

When it comes to read-alouds, some books are just superstars. Here are a few of my favorite superstar books from storytime - hits with both kids and parents. Enjoy!

I'd Really Like To Eat a Child by Sylviane Donnio - Baby crocodile Achilles has some very definite ideas about what he'd like for breakfast! His parents worry about him. How will he grow up big and strong if he won't eat? I like to read the whole thing in a perfectly normal voice except that every time Achilles says, "I'd really like to eat a child," I use a low, sinister voice. The children laugh every time.

A Hungry Lion (or A Dwindling Assortment of Animals) by Lucy Ruth Cummins - There are a lot of animals on the first page... and not as many on the second... or the third. But that hungry lion is still there. Could there be a connection? Believe it or not, this one has a twist ending, and there's SO MUCH ROOM to read it with hilarious expression - exaggerated confusion at where the animals could possibly be going, outrage at the lion's smug face. A smash hit!

Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem by Mac Barnett - Mom says, "Billy Twitters! Clean your room or we're buying you a blue whale!" Billy's not worried. He knows you can't just have a blue whale sent to your house overnight... Except he's wrong. The best part of this book is the audience reaction. When the whale shows up in a FedEx truck, the kids nod knowingly ("Yes, that is how stuff comes to the house when parents order it."), and the parents say, "Hold on. What?" The kids think the whole think is logical and hilarious, while the parents just get more and more confused. It's a bit long, so you can skip some pages without losing the story or the spirit.

This Orq. (He Cave Boy.) by David Elliott - A cave boy's attempts to get his mother to love and accept his pet woolly mammoth do not go as planned. Poor Orq! The whole thing is written in simple, rudimentary cave-speak rather than complete sentences, making any dramatic readings unintentionally humorous.

- Tori Hamilton, Children's Library Associate, Glenpool Library