Hi, Miss Julie

In honor of the end of summer I presented a fly themed storytime for a visiting camp group today.

Tiny Little Fly by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Kevin Waldron

This book is absolutely gorgeous. I love the shapes and expressions of the animals, the colors, and the textures used throughout. As a large-group storytime selection, the text lacks a little panache, but it is still entertaining.

Old Black Fly by Jim Aylesworth, illustrated by Stephen Gammell

Gammell’s illustrations are delightfully creepy, and Aylesworth’s alphabetic text features some wonderful alliteration (which Julie Jeanette Jurgens always approves of).

Thelonius Monster’s Sky-High Fly Pie, a Revolting Rhyme by Judy Sierra, illustrated by Edward Koren

Before I read this book, which borrows heavily from the classic “I know an old lady who swallowed a fly”, I performed that rhyme using the monkey mitt and puffball characters. Since the crowd was a bit older, I joked that I wrassled a real monkey for my monkey mitt. None of the kids really laughed, but one kid did say that he could wrassle a monkey. (We both said wrassle. It’s how we do.)

I also sang the itsy bitsy spider with variations (huge enormous spider, very quiet spider, and the SILENT spider), the peanut butter and jelly song (because “the old lady swallowing a fly song made me hongry”), and “I’m bringing home a baby bumblebee.”