While I was deciding which picture book to recommend for this final week before summer break, I seemed to develop a headache between my eyes. It was then I noticed the cat had come into the den and was sitting on the piano bench (which she never does). She was decidedly staring at the spot between my eyes. I tried rubbing, no good. It was then she (the cat) seemed to communicate, ‘You’ve written about dogs, the rabbit (multiple times-ugh), and not at all about cats! What gives?’ More thudding between my eyes. I could take a hint…… So this weeks pick, not at all influenced by any outside source is:
Title: Curious Kitties, A colors book
Author: Sam McKendry
Illustrator: Melanie Mitchell
Publisher: Piggy Toes Press (don’t you love that name?) 2005
Genre: fiction
Audience Age: 2-5
Themes/Topics: Colors, Kittens
Opening Sentences: “Curious kitty playing on the floor. Do you know what the yarn is for?”
Synopsis: A litter of kittens discover different colors of yarn while playing. A fun book to learn colors.
Why I like it: This large board book has a delightful feature. As you open 
each page a new string of yarn appears and runs from the left to right. Each successive page an additional string appears in a new color (6 altogether).
The kitties have their own story about guessing what the yarn will make. The story itself is done in rhyming couplets without mention of the colors, which is left to you to name. The final page has a fun pop-up of all the kitties rocking in a basket with mama kitty.
The art, by Melanie Mitchell, has cute kitties with a soft fuzzy pastel appearance. The background colors change to match the new yarn color.
This book has a place on “Grandma’s Shelf” of picture books (those special books that we want to preserve.) Curious Kitties has been in our family for about 3 years and is now on its 4th grandchild. The grandkids love turning the pages and touching the strings of yarn. They like to turn to their favorite color page and as they get older they start counting the number of yarn strings. Myself – I’d like to take the book apart just to see how they cleverly got all the strings to work. But I can’t do that because it goes on the ‘special shelf.’
Activities/Resources: 1)You could play I spy with your child, naming the color they need to find. 2)Name a color and see how many things you can think of that are that color. Also here is a wonderful resource page that has multiple color lessons and even other color related books. http://www.perfectlypreschool.com/Preschool-Lesson-Plans/Colors/index.php
Availability: Major booksellers
(Susanna Leonard Hill is the originator of PPBF and you can find all the other PPB recommendations and links on her blog.) We will all be taking a summer break from PPBF and will be back in the fall.
Well that’s all for this week….hmmm…my cat seems satisfied–she left the room….and I think my headache is going away……
Blessings and enjoy the book!
Laura (Grandmamiller)
Laura Miller (a.k.a. Grandmamiller) 