Swing Around The Sun is an inviting kids' picture book featuring upbeat original poetry by Barbara Juster Esbensen against brilliant, full-color illustrations drawn in a simple yet inviting style by Cheng-Khee Chee, Janice Lee Porter, Mary GrandPre, and Stephen Gammell. An excellent book for reading aloud to young ones, Swing Around The Sun would make a welcome and popular addition to any family or community library collection. "Together, / In the sapphire sky / They float: / The milkweed / And a burnished / Trumpet note."

Do you remember being told as a child that some relatives (whom you didn't really recall) were coming to visit? If so, this book will evoke all of the trepidition and excitement of those days . . . not to mention the scattered inconveniences you experienced, that were quickly forgotten in oceans of warm acceptance.

The strength of the book is in its illustrations, which warmly capture emotional closeness, like being tucked into bed by your Mom after a wonderful but tiring day. For those illustrations, The Relatives Came won a Caldecott Honor Award in 1986 that is well deserved.

The images are very happy, soft and fuzzy all at the same time. The illustrations look as though they were produced with pastel pencils using very fine points, constantly sharpened. With rounded faces and bodies, everyone seems very open and comfortable in hospitable surroundings. I have rarely seen a book that sets a better illustrated tone for a friendly family gathering. It caused me to recall my favorite family reunions.

The story is not as strong as the illustrations, but is more than adequate. One part of the family lives in Virginia and is leaving before the grapes are ready to be picked. They get up at 4 a.m. and drive straight through in a food and luggage packed station wagon. They leave the same way, weeks later, after having spent a happy summer camping inside the relative's house they visit. The initial nervousness and homesickness give way to missing their relatives, based on the happy times they share together that summer. The solution? Do it again next summer!

The story is designed to pick up on the physical aspects of closeness, and use those to convey a connection to emotional closeness. For people who are kinesthetically oriented, this story will be gripping and realistic. For people who are visual, the story's illustrations will provide happy connections and experiences. For those who are auditory, the sound of breathing is described to extend the senses in that direction.

The story's strength is in drawing on happy memories of having been in the middle of such family visits. For children without such experiences, the book will seem abstract and disconnected. I suggest telling a story about experiences in your family that are like the one here. That will help your child make the connection to the themes expressed here.

Perhaps the best way to enjoy the story is to act out the physical actions and sounds with your child. You can take turns being one or the other part of the family.

Does your family have opportunities for extended closeness with relataives? If you don't, hopefully this book will cause you to consider making that happen. That will be one of the finest inheritances you can provide your children, a connection to deep wells of extended family love and acceptance.

Hug your family whenever you can!

This children's book is a joyous and hilarious visit by a very large family to relatives in another State. Although everything gets very hectic, when the relatives finally leave, everyone seems to miss the visitors right away and already are looking forward to the next visit. I think that every family can relate to this story. The book was illustrated by Stephen Gammell and it was a 1986 Caldecott Honor book (that is, a runner-up to the Medal winner) for best illustrations in a book for children.

My favorite part of the story is when they traveled and they saw strange houses and bigger mountains. This part reminds me of when I was traveling to my cousin's house. I saw a baseball field and townhouse. It was beautiful too.

I remember reading this for the first time, when i was very young, maybe 3rd grade, 1993, and it was the scariest thing book(before i experienced exorcist) I think what made this book so scary to me was because i had a very active imagination, and i could picture all the events going on, while i was reading it. recently, i found my old copy in the garage now, 11 years later, i read it, and i didnt' find it scary at all. I thought it would have been scarier maybe if the author had elaborated more on the stories, and gave more details to the envirement and atmosphere of the story. Every story in the book ends very abruptly, and it doesn't send any chill up my spine. i'll give you an example, one story ends "the next day they were found dead" thats it.. I give this book 4 stars because i liked it so much when i was a kid, but when you're an adult, you should expect more in a book. Most of the stories here can be read in less than 3 minutes, ( i remember it taking me more than a half hour when i was 7) and they aren't very satisfying. If you're a parent, buy the book for your kids, sometimes its good to be scared, kids have better imaginations than adults, and this book is great just for them. by the way, the drawings are sick, and maybe thats why this book is banned from many schoools, i doubt its the stories.

awaiken@hotmail.com

I don't know where to begin, these books have been such a huge part of my life! I remember discovering these when i was in 3rd grade, in 1993. I was truly obsessed, when friends would come over I would just read, read, read out loud to them, some of them scared to death by the stories, others mesmerized by the awesome illustrations (thank you steven gammell!) I still talk about them till this day (im a junior in high school) its been 8 years and I have still not forgotten these books. Alot of the stories live on in my mind, "The big toe," or "Bloody Fingers" (COOL IT MAN, GET A BANDAID!) ahhaha I lovem! I recommend this book to every living soul on the face of this planet, go out and buy all three! (More scary s's is the best, i think) I LOVE THESE BOOKS!

Ok, I'm not just saying this. I first picked up the sequel, More Scary Stories to tell in the dark, when I was 10. Soon after, the book fair arrived, and I bought a copy of both the original(Without even reading it yet) and the sequel. Although the original is scariest in my opinion, ALL are definitely well worth owning. The book, when I purchased it, had a specified age group suggested for its readers, ages 9 and up. If you feel your child is THAT brave at 9, more power to them. At 10, the stories gave me nightmares, unless I had looked at the illustrations before going to bed. In that case, it was the stories AND the pictures that did it. I'm a 22 year old Marine now, and the whole series still gives me the heebie-jeebies. I would suggest testing the waters before reading them to a child.

Song and Dance Man was about two grandchildren and their grandpa who used to be a song and dance man on the vaudeville stage. He takes the children up to the attic and shows them some of his old dances and costumes. He performs for them and the children feel just as if they were at the vaudeville stage watching this magnificent dance. This book shows the close relationship between grandparents and there grandchildren and is a wonderful book for children to read.

This delightful book written by Karen Ackerman depicts a fun and loving relationship between a grandfather and his grandchildren. The children are delighted with their grandfather's antics and his tales of a time long ago when he was young, dancing on the vaudeville stage. The book depicts the grandfather as an energetic and vivacious elderly person and a joy for his grandchildren. Young children will love the vibrant and colorful llustrations by Stephen Gammell which add a sense of excitement and reality to the story.

Note to teachers: This book can be used in a unit pertaining to family and would be an excellent source for teaching another area of diversity, the elderly.

With a peep into the past, it's also the best of good old-fashioned values. A really warm, sweet, and simple story of just having fun - as a family, intergenerationally and without electronic noise. And the book is not heavy-handed, but the story sends a message about fun - and how we can all create fun without props and just our own voices and body and each other - is a good, and needed, one for both children and adults. I bought it for my 28-month-old and highly recommend this book - it leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling inside and is just a good, clean, nice story.

This book was a treasure we found in a used book store. I read it aloud to my 9-year old daughter who was entranced. It's a book about an aging loner, whose ancestors were witches, who one day spies a kelpie in her pond. They become friends and reminisce together. The kelpie gives the woman a necklace of pearls from the bottom of the kelpie's lake. When a greedy wanderer finds out about the pearls, trouble begins. Included in the tale are the loch ness monster, an abused boy who loves nature, tourists, scientists looking for the l-n monster, magic, and a description of the peace which comes to the old woman riding away on the kelpie (transformed into the death horse) as she is returned to her youth and beauty. The words and phrasing made me try to imitate a Scottish accent, for they were too beautiful to read in my midwest voice.

I read this book when I was in the fourth grade and I was enrolled in the Scholastic Book Club - I loved it then and I still like it as an adult. I bought it for my son who also likes myths, legends, and fantasy; he enjoyed it very much as well. Great book for young adolescents, a good story to read to kids at bedtime, and a quick read for adults who just want to sample a story about a witch woman and a kelpie.

I read this book when I was about 9-11 years old and I loved it. I read and re-read itover and over. I loved the story.
Now I have a little boy who reads books about old myths and legends. I want him to experience this book and I want to read it again for myself.

Dear. Amazon We liked the story Wing Shop because the boy had a sence of humor, different type of wings, colorfull wings, bat wings, the buter, And how the bee wing got the little boy homw

The author and publisher of Whing Shop as Elvira Woodruff and are publiser is Holiday Hose. We hope to actually meet Elvira Woodruff in our school in March. We have some questions for her when she visit. 1. What is your favorite book? 2. Why did she write Wing shop? 3.How did she get all thos wings in the wing shop 4. What was your favorite type of wing in the wing shop. 5.How did you get this job.

The superb illustrations attract the reader first. Then the story takes over. Reading the pictures turns out to be as rewarding as reading the story over and over again. The story explains moving and change to little ones and is not boring for adults who have to read it several times in a row several days in a row, ........

The illustrations make this book come alive and provide the adults with some good belly laughs. You can feel yourself flying with Matthew and yelling "whoa!!!" as different pairs of wings take you on all kinds of unexpected rides. Great fun for everyone

This has been my daughter's favorite book since she was six months old. We read it "Motown Style" with lots of back beat. The rhythm is great and now, at ten months, she spends time looking at the pictures -- looking for the bad old fly, the baby, the cat and the dog. Even when I forgot the book on a trip, I was able to use the rhyme (and alphabet) to make up my own story about Old Black Fly. Buy it, you'll love it!

Great book! This is one of my kinder's favorite books. The rhyming and chanting are so enjoyable for the kids. While the fly is being chased through the house and through the alphabet, the children are hearing the sounds of our language. It's an excellent book to help develop phonemic awareness and early literacy skills. More than anything, it's just plain fun!

This book is just plain fun to read -- over and over again! It was one of the first books that my toddler would actually sit and listen to, and now at 18 months he's an active participant -- searching for the old black fly on each page and giving him a playful SWAT! I definitely recommend purchasing this book in hardcover, as the soft binding is simply no match for its popularity.

I think the book "Day of the Blizzard" by Marietta Moskin is a great book because it is about a brave girl named Katie. She is the main character. The book is mainly about Katie running an errand for mama,because mama was sick and mama couldn't do it. The errand was to go to the Pawnshop to get back the brooch. Katie went through a lot of trouble to get the brooch, but Katie managed. I like the book because it was exciting and unpredictable to guess what will happen next. I think you should read this book because it is a very fun book. I think it is a good book, so I will give it four stars.

Marietta Moskin's book about Westerbork camp, Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and Biberach internment camp gives a very realistic insight in Nazi camp life. I should think it would be great if there was a German translation. It might be well used for history lessons. I favour this book since For the first timeI was informed about details of life in Biberach Internment Camp.

Is That You, Winter? Is about an old, grumpy man who has to get up every day to go out and make it snow. While driving his truck of snow around, he begins to wonder for whom he makes it snow. Upon returning from his long day of work, he has a terrible accident and finds himself lying helpless in the snow. While the story in this book is amusing and well written, the illustrations do not seem to add to the experience of reading this book. The artwork appears to have been done by a five-year old. The colors seem to have been simply thrown onto the paper with no concern for what it is meant to look like. At times, the illustrations convey no sense of the emotions in the corresponding pages, and overall it seems that the illustrations were a mere afterthought thrown onto the pages in a rush. Perhaps a different method of illustrating would have added more to the telling of this book's story. However, even with the current illustrations, Is that You, Winter? is an interesting, and amusing story.

Up here in Northern Minnesota we always knew Old Man Winter had it out for us big time, but we never really knew why. Stephen Gammell provides an interesting explanation in his book "Is That You, Winter?" We discover that Old Man Winter is an ornery old cuss, who releases his icy blasts from the back of his truck. But Old Man Winter has a question: "Who do I make it snow for?" The answer is to be found in this book and you will not be surprised to learn it is an answer that makes even Old Man Winter happy.

How much you like this illustrated children's book is probably going to depend on how much you like Gammell's artwork, which strikes me and my limited knowledge of art as something of an impressionistic cartoon. Certainly the work is stylized and I would be willing to bet that children are going to find it more acceptable that some adults. I sort of like the way he depicts the snowstorm and you have to admit it is pretty distinctive.

Who ever thought there really WAS an old man, Winter? This story certainly makes one a believer after meeting Winter, an old man who also happens to be very grumpy. His morning goes from bad to worse as he wakes up in a bad mood, misplaces his hat, misses breakfast, and struggles with the eternal question, "Why do I always have to go to work?". His day is "saved", however, when he crashes to the ground into the world of a little girl who thinks of him as very improtant. She even defends him from her teasing playmates and makes Winter feel special again. With friends like this one, one can hardly stay grumpy for long- not even Winter! The pictures are absolutely hilarious. From the cowboy-like Winter, sporting a handlebar mustache and a ten-gallon hat, to his snow-creating dump truck, one cannto help but smile. The splashes of color and white, done in pastels, pencils, and watercolors, make the reader feel like he or she has run right into Old Man Winter- Brrrr!

Alvin Schwartz can write some really scary stories. While I was reading this book I kept getting scared. Some parts in this weren't very scary though. But most of the time the stories were scary or funny. I would recommend this book to people who like getting scared or like to read funny stories. I like the fact that this book has lots of short stories. They leave you wondering what will happen next.

The second in the Scary Stories series, this one has even darker stories and even spookier illustrations than the first! Pure nightmare inducing fun for youngsters (and even us adults, I must admit). These books are written in perfect, around the campfire brevity, which only adds to their greatness. A must for any kid who plans on going to overnight summer camp! Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell ought to be honored for bringing young kids such a memorable approach to spook stories! The scariest illustrations in this volume are for "One Sunday Morning", "Somebody Fell From Aloft", "Clinkity-Clink", "The Bride", and "Oh, Susannah!". A must have for the young Horror fan!

You know what, this book still scares the living ... outa me. There are some things that I won't even do today like go in a really dark place, or walk down a street at night. This is one book where the illustrator can be appreciated as much as the author was. You have got to get this book!!!