Mudkin

"Rain's gone! Time to play!" commands the queen. Well, she's not really a queen—just an ordinary girl who has an extraordinary day. She meets Mudkin, a friendly creature who whips up a robe and crown for her. Away they go to meet Her Majesty's subjects. Even if the kingdom lasts only until the next rain shower, the crown Mudkin gives her is forever. In his unmistakable style, Caldecott-winning artist Stephen Gammell creates an ode to the most potent of childhood mixtures: mud and imagination.

It is late January 1968 when the first three incoming rounds hit Con Thien. It is undeniably the most terrifying event the rookie US Army soldiers have ever endured. Their doggie platoon sergeant, Walter Walling, who does not tolerate disrespect up or down, does his best to calm his troops. But with a North Vietnamese Army who likes laying in a few rounds and forcing the enemy to run, his job serving on the DMZ is a challenging one. As Sergeant Walling and his men, all from varying backgrounds and parts of the United States, do their best to learn an unfamiliar terrain and prepare for battle, the young American fighting men must bravely face the possibility of death while serving their country. But as a fight for power soon reveals the horrors of war in all its glory, one thing becomes certain: none of the men will return home the same as they were before. In this military story based on true events, a group of American soldiers find themselves at the end of a divided line between North and South Vietnam during 1968 and 1969.

How do we save play in a standard-driven educational environment? This edited collection, Play and Literacy: Play & Culture Studies provides a direct answer and solutions to this question. Researchers and theorists have argued for decades that play is the best way to learn language and literacy for children. This book provides theoretical and historical foundation of connection between play and literacy, applied research studies as well as practical strategies to connect play and literacy in early childhood and in teacher education. This book features chapters on the history of play and literacy research, book-play paradigm, play in digital writing, book-based play activities, play-based reader responses, classroom dynamics affecting literacy learning in play, and using play with adults in teacher education such as drama-based instruction. Variety of chapters addressing the strong connection between play and literacy will satisfy the readers who seek to understand the relationship between play and literacy and implement ways to use play to support language and literacy.

Wonderfully Wordless: The 500 Most Recommended Graphic Novels and Picture Books is the first comprehensive best book guide to wordless picture books (and nearly wordless picture books). It is an indispensable resource for parents and teachers who love graphic storytelling or who recognize the value of these exceptional books in working with different types of students, particularly preschool, English as a Second Language (ESL), and special needs, and creative writers. Every age group will benefit from Wonderfully Wordless, from babies and toddlers encountering their first books, to elementary age children captivated by the popular fantasy and adventure themes, to teenagers attracted to graphic novels because of their more intense content and comic book format. Even adults who are not yet readers will benefit from this uniquely authoritative resource because it will provide a bridge to literacy and give them books that they can immediately share with their children. Wonderfully Wordless is the ultimate guide to wordless and almost wordless books. Its 500 exemplary titles are a composite of 140 sources including recommendations from reference books, award lists, book reviews, professional journals, literary blogs, and the collections of many of the most prominent libraries in the United States and the English-speaking world. The US libraries include the Boston Public Library, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Denver Library, New York Public Library, and Seattle Public Library, as well as the academic libraries at Bank Street College, Miami University, Michigan State University, Penn State University, Stanford University, and University of Chicago. The international libraries include the University of Oxford, British Council Library India, British Library, Hong Kong Public Libraries, National Library of the Philippines, Toronto Public Library, Trinity College Library (Dublin), Vancouver Public Library, and the National Library of New Zealand. The 500 books included here are generated from a database with 7,300 booklist entries. In essence, the ranked list emerging from this compilation will constitute “votes” for the most popular titles, the ones most experts agree are the best. By pooling the expertise from the US and other English-speaking countries, Wonderfully Wordless is an unrivaled core list of classic and contemporary titles. This authoritative reference book conveys not the opinion of one expert, but the combined opinions of a legion of experts. If a single picture is worth a thousand words, then a multitude of the picture-only texts is worth a compendium. Wonderfully Wordless is organized by theme and format and readers should have no problem zeroing in on their favorite topics. There are thirty-one chapters organized by topics such as Christmas Cheer, Character Values, Comedy Capers, Pet Mischief, Creative Journeys, Fascinating Fantasies, and Marvelous Mysteries. There is a full spectrum of wordless fiction and nonfiction, concept books, visual puzzles, board books, cloth books, woodcut novels, graphic novels, and more.

Designed to promote literacy in young children and to empower parents, educators, and librarians, this guide is filled with simple strategies, creative activities, and detailed instructions that help make reading fun. Encouraging a love of reading in young children can be a source of both great frustration and immense joy. This handy resource provides essential tips, techniques, and strategies for making early literacy development fun and inspiring a lifelong love of reading. Read, Rhyme, and Romp: Early Literacy Skills and Activities for Librarians, Teachers, and Parents explores the six basic pre-literacy skills that experts agree are necessary for a young child to be ready to learn to read. Special sections within each chapter are dedicated to the specific needs of preschool teachers, parents, and librarians, making the content relevant to different settings. Recommended book lists, personal anecdotes, and literacy-rich activities combine to create an effective and accessible plan for implementing an early literacy program.

A beautifully nostalgic picture book about one grandfather's younger days that shows you're only as old as you feel! "In this affectionate story, three children follow their grandfather up to the attic, where he pulls out his old bowler hat, gold-tipped cane, and his tap shoes. Grandpa once danced on the vaudeville stage, and as he glides across the floor, the children can see what it was like to be a song and dance man. Gammell captures all the story's inherent joie de vivre with color pencil renderings that leap off the pages. Bespectacled, enthusiastic Grandpa clearly exudes the message that you're only as old as you feel, but the children respond--as will readers--to the nostalgia of the moment. Utterly original."--(starred) Booklist.

"Over the blazing campfires, where the wind moaned eerily through the thickets of juniper and fir, they spoke of it in the Indian tongue—the strange lake to the southward whose waters never rest. And Nawa, the medicine man, who had lived such countless moons that not even the oldest member of his people could remember a time when Nawa was not old, declared that, if only you arrived at the right time, on the right night, you would see the buffaloes rise out of the middle of the lake and come crowding to the shore; for there, he said, was the sacred spot where the buffaloes began." Ten-year-old Little Wolf, an imaginative and courageous boy, is determined to observe this spectacle, and his quest leads not only to a miraculous vision but also to the salvation of his tribe. This Caldecott Honor picture book and National Book Award nominee was hailed by Booklist as "an eminent picture book and, incidentally, one that proves that black and white can move as forcefully as color." The New York Times praised artist Stephen Gammell for his "spectacular scenes of tumbling clouds, of earth churned by flying hoofs, of teepees in the early dawn. But most of all he conveys the hulking, surging, rampaging strength of the shaggy buffaloes as they rise out of a shadowy mist, the mist of legend or dream."

The day gets off to a rough start, but soon the smell of pancakes fills the air and a family gathers for a breakfast feast.