Here’s my Perfect Picture Book Friday choice:
100 Things That Make Me Happy
Author and Illustrator Amy Schwartz
Abrams Appleseed, 2014
Fiction
Suitable for: ages 3-6
Themes: Happiness, Numbers (sort of)
Opening Lines: {opening spread}
Red Socks
Building Blocks
Licking the Spoon
The man in the Moon
An orange Hat
An Orange Cat
Synopsis: Rhyming story of 100 things that make me happy.
Links to Resources: A simple idea is to write down a list or draw out items that make you happy. There are a lot of resources about happiness online. Project Happiness has some lesson plans for educators that will work for parents too.
Why I like this book: Because as I carried it downstairs this morning to take a picture of the cover, my son says, “I like that book.” Now, that always makes this mama happy.
The illustrations accompanying each item of happiness are fun and playful. This book is a feast of imagery for both parent and child.
I found this interview with Amy Schwartz.
For more PPBF selections, visit Susanna Leonard Hill’s blog.
In November, I participated in PiBoIdMo. I always appreciate the hard work of Tara Lazar to post 30-plus days of inspiring posts from authors and illustrators. While not every idea I jotted down on my iPhone is a winner, I have 154 ideas. Don’t get too excited for me. I have a tendency to think of another (similar) idea on a later date during PiBoIdMo that may or may not be more fleshed out than the first one. Maybe I’ll find one fabulous nugget for a story in my list. I did write my 12x November draft from a PiBoIdMo draft.
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Now to put on the thinking cap for a story for Susanna’s holiday contest. Perhaps I’ll write something about a boy, who wants to be a dragon in the church Christmas play. Not that I’m dealing with that issue in real life or anything. {hee hee}
This looks like so much fun, and perfect idea for the kindergarteners here – they have to ‘show’ 100 things as a counting exercise. Glad my library has it too!
Glad your library has it too. There are so many illustrations in here to enjoy.
I really enjoy book that focus on happiness/joy/gratitude for children. Important to use this language at a young age. And, there are so many ways this book and exercise can be used at home and in the classroom. Like Project Happiness. They have some creative ideas for kids. Lovely choice.
Yes. We struggle sometimes with the gratitude part at our house. This is definitely a great conversation starter. Many of the things in the book may have happened during the day too.
I love how punchy the text sounds!
It is punchy and fun. Very digestible for little ones.
So fun to read the interview. . .”7 Things Before Breakfast” website has done some fascinating interviews of authors. Congrats on PiBoIdMo. . . you are a workhorse Stacy!!
More like a crazy horse. I love those interviews too.
What a perfect book for the big 100 Day at school!!!! Fabulous idea! Thanks for sharing!!
Yes. My son will be at 100 soon.
100 seems like such a huge number. But when you look at all those simple things on the list, it’s not so big after all.
I know. I was thinking at first it was a counting book, but it’s not really. So it’s very manageable for little ones.
First of all…congratulations on 154 ideas in PiBoIdMo…wow…I hope our crit group will be seeing some of those as stories. 🙂
What a clever fun book, Stacy. And here we are, going crazy as we try to write picture books for kids (especially rhyming ones) to keep the sentences from becoming inverted, to drive the story forward without losing the meter, to use lots of action verbs…and ‘all’ we needed to do was make a list. 🙂 🙂 🙂 Don’t get me wrong…I know the author worked like the dickens to get this book polished so well…but It gets me thinking I should go back to my original ‘No Brother’ punchy rhyming pb. 🙂
Good luck with the dragon in the church play…it’s a busy wonderful time of year. 😉
Congrats on finishing PiBoIdMo with so many ideas. This book sounds adorable. I will definitely check it out. Thanks for telling me about it.
I’m thinking we need a little more gratitude around our house, as well. Maybe we should pattern our own family “gratitude” book after this one….hmmmmm.
Congrats on PiBo! I’m thinking that your best ideas from all those you came up with should really make you happy! 😀
Fun book! Great idea for the holiday contest. I haven’t a clue yet.
So many ideas for fun and rhyme 🙂 The older I get, the more I like rhyming words. I also love that Enzo says he likes this book. My kind of guy. (My guys -one falls asleep in the bookstore aisle; the other declines going. LOL).
Fantastic! Thank you for this. I subscribe to LIVE HAPPY magazine and have looked into the Happiness Project. I love that kids will get a chance to explore happiness through this awesome book.