I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

Bear lost his hat. He politely goes up to other animals and asks if they have seen his hat. When they tell him no, he says "thank you anyway" and he goes on to the next animal.

When he gets to the rabbit he asks:

Have you seen my hat?

No. Why are you asking me?
I haven't seen it.
I haven't seen any hats anywhere.
I would not steal a hat.
Don't ask me any more questions.

OK. Thank you anyway.

The reader finds it curious that the rabbit seems so nervous, and as the bear continues his search he realizes he actually has seen his hat. What an enjoyable story with a surprise ending.

A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka

In this wordless picture book we follow Daisy the dog as she plays with her red ball. One day while out at the playground with her owner, Daisy loses her ball to another dog who pops the ball. Daisy is very sad, she tries to make her ball come back, but it won't. Her owner takes her back to the playground where the other dog has a surprise for Daisy.

The illustrations in this book are amazing. Tonight at our PJ Library Night my Hilton JK/K, 1st and 2nd grade students voted in our Mock Caldecott event and picked this book to win the medal. Yesterday the ALA announced the winners at their annual conference and A Ball for Daisy won the gold Caldecott medal. So exciting that we picked the same book as the professionals.

Click here for the complete list of medal winners.

Snowballs by Lois Ehlhert

Where is the snow? January 11, 2012 and Brighton, Michigan does not have snow on the ground, what is up with that? Today I shared a wonderful snow story with my Kindergarten students. Snowballs by Lois Ehlert. The story starts out very similar to Brighton, no snow. The children in the book have been collecting "stuff", waiting for the snow. When it finally snows the children take their "stuff" and build a snow family. They build a snow dad, a snow mom, a snow boy, a snow girl, a snow baby, a snow cat, and Spot-their snow dog (the spots are all buttons). What will happen to the snow family when the sun comes out?

Ms. Ehlert's beautiful collage illustrations are intriguing. It was fun going on a treasure hunt looking for all the "stuff" - strawberries, raisins, buttons, popcorn, bolts, screws, hats, scarfs, forks and other items that Ms. Ehlert used to decorate her snow people and snow animals. What can you find in your house to put on your snowman? Maybe this weekend you will be able to build a real snowman. If you make your own collage snowperson at home, remember to bring it to school so we can hang it in the school library.