Betty's Books: Great Read-Alouds

Looking for a terrific way to bond with your grandchildren? Offer to be a "Grandparent Reader" in their classroom!

On our last trip to Atlanta, my daughter-in-law had arranged for us to be “guest celebrity readers” in our grandchildren's classrooms. Talk about pressure! Is there a tougher audience than 9-year-olds — especially if one is your granddaughter? But we passed with flying colors, thanks to finding the right “read-aloud” books with illustrations worthy of show-and-tell.

A swashbuckling kitten

We started in our third-grader's classroom, with the first book in Judy Schachner's

Skippyjon Jones series (Dutton, 2003). Skippy is a riotous Siamese kitten with an overactive imagination. Given a time-out in his room, he visualizes himself as Skippito Friskito, a heroic Chihuahua sword fighter (Skippy is never content just being a kitten) who rescues a town terrorized by the infamous Bumblebeeto Bandito.

Holy Guacamole! The fun, of course, stems not only from the vivid illustrations and beguiling text but also from Schachner's inspired plays on English and Spanish phrases, such as:

Holy Frijoles! This book is just plain fun, for the reader as well as the listeners.

Moving onto the first of two first-grade performances (we have twin 7-year-old

grandchildren), we read Oliver Jeffers's The Incredible Book-Eating Boy (Philomel, 2007). Henry, the hero of this ingenious story, loves books — but not in quite the same way that most youngsters do. Henry loves to eat books. The more he eats them, the smarter he gets. And Henry loves getting smarter.

Do you see a train wreck in the making? You are so right. In his quest to become the smartest person in the world, Henry ups his intake of books to four at a time, at which point everything he learns becomes jumbled in his head, giving him a horrible stomach ache.

But wait: There’s a happy ending after all. Henry discovers that reading books is even more fun than eating them. And, if he reads enough, he might still be on track to become the smartest person on earth.

The highlight of this read-aloud was when we showed the class the back of the book, which has an actual bite taken out of the cover. Seems Henry might still occasionally revert to his old habit.

Our featured creature

On to the other first-grade classroom, where we read Tony DiTerlizzi's Ted (Aladdin,

2004), a tale of a child's imaginary friend. Introducing this book, I told the assembled students that my granddaughter’s Uncle Todd once had an imaginary friend, and for weeks on end, we had to set an extra place at the table for "Bob." (Not to mention he also shared Uncle Todd’s bunk bed.)

In this book, a little boy is frustrated that his businessman dad is too busy to spend time with him. As if on cue, Ted, a huge pink creature, appears on the family doorstep. Chaos follows Ted's arrival, as the boy and his new pal, among other things, flood the father’s study to create an indoor swimming pool. It's all done, of course, to gain Dad's attention. But the plan backfires. Ted is banned from the house, and the boy, left with no one to play with, follows.

What ensues is laugh-out-loud merriment, as this dynamic duo continue to attempt to pull the father into their fun. And when Dad finally joins them in a revival of his own childhood memories, it’s the perfect happy ending.