Thunderstorm

Whew! We just had quite the exciting Monday morning! It was raining cats and dogs here. I was waiting for tennis balls to drop from the sky, but no such luck.  😦  It was quite nasty outside. The wind was howling, the thunder was barking, and the lightening was tearing up the sky. And the Mom Person was dancing and singing Yahooooo!!

We happen to have the PERFECT Book for a day like this! ANOTHER Arthur Geisert book!!

Thunderstorm
by Arthur Geisert
published by Enchanted Lion Books in 2013

This is another fascinating Arthur Geisert masterpiece! An incredible amount of detail is found in his hand colored etchings. The “story” follows a thunderstorm as it moves across the farmlands, almost minute by minute, throughout the afternoon and into the evening. We see all the havoc that is wrought on the landscape by this terrible storm. Lightening strikes and wind and even a tornado! We see the farmers trying to prepare for the coming storm and we see all the little critters in their burroughs under the ground and in the trees. Soooo many raccoons!!!! Aaacckkk! One thing that struck me while studying the pictues is that none of the people seemed at all distressed by all that was going on around them. They seemed to be just taking it all in stride. And after the storm moved on, all the neighbors gathered together to help out with clean up and repairs. There are no words in this book other than notations at the bottom of pages telling the time. And no words are needed!

For more about Mr Geisert and the making of Thunderstorm visit HERE.

And an NPR story about the book HERE.

Now Mr Geisert welcomes you to his studio! This video is a little long, but very amusing.

I wish you clear skies and bright mornings!
Your library friend
Rhythm

Pigs From A to Z

The Mom Person took Electra/Dogzilla to her Puppy Kindergarten class the other evening. I don’t go along for these events. I’ve been there done that. BUT, they also went to my favorite shopping spot – Half-Price Books! Not fair!

This puppy does not appreciate a good book! But she was nice and brought me a surprise. A real treasure, in fact!!!!!

Another Arthur Geisert alphabet book!!!!! (You might remember that I recently did a post about another ABC book by Mr Geisert – Country Road ABC.) AND, this one is signed by Mr Geisert!!!!

To the student Friends of
Fairview Park Regional Library
Arthur Geisert
V / XVI / MCMLXXXIX

Is that not awesome?! I have no idea where that library is, but I’m sure glad the book found it’s way to our Half-Price Books! And I don’t know how Ms Electra managed to find this treasure – she says it smelled like pigs, so she thought it might taste good. Then she remembered that I liked that name. She might turn out ok after all.

Soooo –
Pigs From A to Z
by Arthur Geisert
published by Houghton Mifflin Co. in 1986

 This is a most incredible ABC book! Besides being an ABC book, it is a story and a puzzle! The story is about some little piglets building a tree house. Pigs building a tree house! Just imagine! In each illustration of each letter, there are hidden letters and hidden piglets. Each picture has seven piglets, five forms of the given letter, and one form of the letter that comes before and after the given letter. Sooo – for the letter R, there would be five Rs and one letter S and one letter Q. And they are all hidden in the fabulous detailed etchings created by Mr Geisert.

I had to concentrate really hard to find everything. Those little piggies hide really good! I tried to get Dogzilla to help, but she was more interested in looking for hidden cheerios in our blanket.

I hope that you can find this book and check it out! You’ll be glad that you did!

Now for some entertainment! I present — Nellie the pig!!

And a little more from Nellie —

Wishing you a week full of surprises and treasures!
Rhythm

A Country Road

We live in the country on a country road. In Texas it’s called a Farm to Market Road. FM. It’s a long and windy road that begins in the town and follows the river out of town for a long long way. There aren’t a lot of houses on our road. Or much traffic. There is lots of pasture land. You might see sheep and cows and horses and goats and emus. You might see some deer or an armadillo or a road runner running by. There are even dinosaurs!!!

It’s a fine, fine road to live on.

We have a book about a country road and all that goes on on that road.

Country Road ABC
An Illustrated Journey Through America’s Farmland
by Arthur Geisert
published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children in 2010
suitable for K and up
Theme — alphabet, farming

It begins —
A
is for ammonia fertilizer

Ammonia fertilizer?! Yes, that’s right. Ammonia fertilizer. Ammonia fertilizer is well known these days as a bomb maker. It happens to be at the center of the big explosion that wiped out part of the town of West, Texas last year. But it also happens to be an important farm tool that farmers use to grow better fields of produce.

This is kind of an unusual ABC book. It is a fabulous ABC book! You not only learn your ABCs, you also learn all about farming. Like fertilizer, and D is for disking, E is for erosion, G is for grinding feed, I is for inoculate! And my favorite — K is for kick!! As in the cow kicking the farmer!

The illustrations are D is for detailed and M is for mesmerizing. Mr. Geisert illustrates all his books with hand colored etchings. A tedious process, I think. This long country road starts in the city and moves out to the countryside where the farmlands begin. You get a very good picture of life on the farm and in a small town. (like Glen Rose, Texas!)

At the end of the book is a farm glossary that gives you further explanations for all the alphabet words used in the text. There is also a big thank-you list to all the owners of the sites and farms that you get to visit in the book. It’s all REAL!

After reading this book, you might want to do an ABC story of your own town. Is your town a farming community or a big city? Or something in between. What different things do you see in the city and the country?

This book would go very nicely with any farm unit that a class may be doing.

TeachingBooks.net has a nice little video interview with Mr Geisert in which he talks about his etching process and about some of his books. You can find it HERE.

And another interview in which he talks about the making of Country Road ABC.

Now it’s time to move on down the road to Ms Susanna Hill’s blog to view the list of Perfect Picture Books that appears on her doorstep every Friday!

Have a Good One!
Your country friend
Rhythm