Clap Your Hands!!

This is a JOYOUS, Clap your hands, dance a jig kind of day!  We just had 2 full days of glorious rain with NO thunder! My buddy Cisco is happy about that! The grass is happy. The river is happy. The water tank is happy. The fire department is happy. A JOYOUS day!

And to go with the JOYOUS day I present to you TWO JOYOUS books!  The 1st one is a fun, interactive, get your body moving book called Clap Your Hands! by Lorinda Bryan Cauley. It was published in 1992 by The Putman & Grosset Group. It is suitable for all ages. The illustrations are full of life and laughter with funny animals all dressed up along with kids romping through the book in a kind of follow the leader game. This book is meant to be read out loud and it is meant for kids to be up and moving. And kids do need some fun, active, wiggle time to wake up their brains! Each page offers a different instruction from Clap your hands, stomp your feet to rub your tummy, pat your head. From stick out your tongue and touch your nose to close your eyes and count to four. Silliness and fun is what it’s all about!

Here’s a fun video from a group called Hullabaloo performing Everybody Clap Your Hands. And another one from the Mother Goose Club.
And a website all about handclapping games. Enjoy!!

The next book is another interactive, get moving JOYOUS book. But this one is all about dogs! It’s called Polly Molly Woof Woof, a Book About Being Happy by David Lloyd and illustrated by Charlotte Hard. It was published in 2000 by Candlewick Press. Candlewick Press sure puts out some nice books! This book is suitable for kids 2 and up. It’s all about sniffing and barking. Dogs having a party! It invites the reader to join in the fun and bark and sniff along.

From the 1st page — “A funny thing happened on one lovely happy sunny summer day when Polly took Molly to the park.” Molly was happy and barked in a great loud voice. Woof! Woof! Woof! And when she met other dogs, they went sniff! sniff! sniff! and woof! woof! woof! They all had a great sniffing, woofing party and their kids all laughed a lot.  This book gets your imagination going, thinking about how different dogs might sound and sniff. And why do they all sniff each other?! Because that’s how we say “Hello!”

And here’s what a dog party looks like at my house —

Here is a clip of Bret McKenzie and Kermit the frog singing “Life’s a Happy Song”
And then there’s this one Happy Dog!!

Now if you’d like to visit Susanna Hill you might find some more fabulous picture books!
A JOYous PPBF to you all!
And now I have 294 more to read in 2013!