Scott Menchin

A young girl practices for her upcoming piano recital in this picture-book examination of stage fright and improvisation. Although confident that she will do well, the girl nevertheless wears her lucky hat, shoes and underwear. Despite all of her preparations however, when the big moment comes she freezes up. Can she save the day, with an improvised "Song of Middle C...?"

Although a little bit of suspension-of-disbelief is required here - would everyone really have been that impressed by the show more girl's performance? - Song of Middle C is still an engaging book, one which explores an experience that many young musicians and performers will find familiar. The happy ending offers some reassurance to such children, highlighting the idea that stage fright happens to many of their peers, and that it is something that can be worked through. I had a few reservations about the artwork by Scott Menchin - the characters' fingers were out of scale, and slightly off-putting to me - but all in all I liked the humor in the illustrations. Recommended to anyone looking for children's stories about practicing a musical instrument and/or confronting public performance for the first time. show less

There's not a lot of story here, but there is plenty of fun as a playful, rump-shaking pup leads toddlers through some of the many ways to move around: "Do you wake up with a wiggle?/Do you wiggle out of bed?/If you wiggle with your breakfast,/it might wind up on your head." The dog goes on to jiggle and dance with various objects and creatures before falling asleep beneath the moon. Menchin's lively, digitally rendered art incorporates elements of reality–photographic bits and show more pieces–that are well integrated into broad, bright cartoon illustrations. Cronin's nonsensical text is rhythmic and buoyant. Pair this sunny, silly book with Jonathan London's Wiggle Waggle (1999) or Katie Davis's Who Hops? (1998, both Harcourt) for an active storytime about animals in motion. show less

Wiggle made the perfect ending for the dance-themed storytime I did this week for various ages. The shorter text and opportunity to participate in the story by wiggling as indicated worked well for the younger kids and those who were just worn out by paying attention for almost half an hour! The art, Scott Menchin, was rendered digitally and is mostly composed of cartoon style characters and objects with a few photographed objects thrown in for spice. My favorite spread has the text "If you show more wiggle with your breakfast, it might wind up on your head." The left page shows our puppy protagonist flipping a photographed pancake out of his skillet, his wiggly self not quite contained by his outlines. The right page shows the pancake now upon the wiggly puppy's head, covering one eye. Particularly suited to toddlers, I highly recommend this for wiggly storytime groups.

Used for dance themed storytimes March of 2009: Terrific Ts, Preschool and Family. show less

I liked this book for 3 reasons; language, point of view, and illustrations. the language was so clear and simple. It turned out to be a lot more descriptive than I thought. One of the Characters asked a lot of questions relating to what the other character was looking for. For example, "Is it sloppy? Smelly? Silly?" and the other character responds with "Not sloppy! Not smelly! Not silly!" I think that this language can really help students learn to ask questions and not just simple ones show more but some descriptive questions.
I also liked the point of view because there was no narration, it was just the two characters having a conversation as they wait for what they are waiting for. It also doesn't get confusing because it's just two characters having a conversation and no more.
Lastly the illustrations. I loved that it looked like rough draft sketches, but it also went perfectly along with the written text. It shows the two characters walking through the forest and each page is a different scene. on one page the two characters pass deer, squirrels, and a snake. So one asks the other "Does it have legs or a tail?" and the other responds, "No legs! No tail!" as they walk away.

This book was about a raccoon and a rabbit, the raccoon asks to join the rabbit , along the journey he asks the rabbit a series of questions to figure out what . they are waiting for and in the end it was a sunset. show less