Keisha Ann Can!

Kirk, Daniel. 2008. Keisha Ann Can! New York: Putnam.

Who can catch the school bus for the early-morning ride?

Who can wait in line until it's time to go inside?

Who can sit in front because she's teacher's biggest fan?

Who can stand to say the pledge?

KEISHA ANN CAN!

A bright, cheerful, rhyming story of a confident young girl in Kindergarten. Even when her blocks fall down or she misspells a word on the board, Keisha Ann takes it all in stride - trying again until she gets it right. Finishing with an upbeat message to the reader, "you can do them, too!" Keisha Ann Can! should help to dispel any first-day-of-school jitters.

The illustrations, also by Kirk, are bright watercolors of a smiling, multicultural class. The protagonist is an African American girl with pigtails. Whites, Latinos and Asians are also represented. Each painting (many are double-spreads) is filled with color and only two have any white space. The backgrounds show a lot of texture and almost appear to be sponge-painted. The text is large, with only a sentence or two per page. A great book to share with children entering PreK or Kindergarten.

Library Mouse and more

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a presentation by author and illustrator, Daniel Kirk.

He read his book Library Mouse and walked us through the process of writing and illustrating and of course, publishing, a children's book. Library Mouse was written in response to his publishers request for a library-related picture book. It's a delightful book that tells the adventures of Sam, a mouse that lives behind the shelves of the children's reference department. Sam writes books at night and leaves them on the librarian's desk. When the stories become popular with the children at storytime, everyone wonders who the mysterious Sam might be. They don't find out in this book, but Daniel Kirk has a Library Mouse sequel in the works. He read the galley for our group. I like it even better than Library Mouse. Look for it soon!

Kirk also entertained us by performing poems from his poetry collections, Dogs Rule! and Cats Rule! He sang several poems and accompanied himself on the guitar. He could easily be a children's entertainer. After hearing the poems, it was difficult to believe that he's actually not a dog or a cat person and is allergic to both!

Finally, I received an advance copy of his new YA novel, Elf Realm: The Low Road. It will be the first in a trilogy, and I believe it's due out in September. More on that later.