Book Reviews 

with Miss Katie

For this week, I wanted to review one of my favorite children's picture books, Olivia Forms A Band by Ian Falconer. This is the book I chose to read for last week's virtual lunchtime book chat/storytime Miss Rachel and I hosted!

This is a summertime book, with picnics and fireworks, so not especially timely, but surprisingly a good social distancing book picture book! The family go to a fireworks show, and sit alone without any other families pictured on the page. The main reason I enjoy it, though, is because of the creative music-making Olivia does! In my storytimes, I have been inviting the kids and their families to craft a home-made instrument out of household objects every Friday, but Olivia's one-girl band really takes the cake! I actually have a sticker of Olivia in this outfit on my bulletin board in the children's office! As with all of the original Olivia books, I love Ian Falconer's minimal color palate, his pop culture jokes he throws in for adult readers, and his use of negative space!

The audiobook is available on Hoopla, read by the British comedian Dame Edna!

This week, I also have been listening to the German language audiobook version of Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone, after I stumbled across it on Overdrive! I majored in German in college, and I am always looking for a reason to use it!

I don't tend to reread books, and actually haven't consumed that many kid's books in German that I have already read in English, except the first few books of the Series Of Unfortunate Events series for a school project, but it has been so long since I read the first Harry Potter (I was in sixth grade) that the story seems fresh again.

If you have any teens at home who are struggling through their foreign language coursework, this might be something to try out (and the series perennially piques teen interest, given how last summer's Harry Potter trivia contest "sold out" with a huge roomful of teens downstairs in Room A!).

I hope you get a chance to admire the leaves opening on the trees this week...what a beautiful sight!

Take care, and I will see you at storytime!

Best Wishes,
Miss Katie