Spotlight on FLIP: "Press Here" by Herve Tullet

Have you noticed the black bags with blue or green labels at your local St. Louis County Library branch? Those bags are part of an awesome program called FLIP (Family Literacy Involvement Program). FLIP was developed by the Houston Children’s Museum in partnership with the Houston Public Library. SLCL received a grant to create a limited number of kits for six branches in 2011. The kits proved to be so popular we had to create more! Now FLIP kits are in all 20 SLCL branches. And we are creating more every year!

FLIP kits contain everything needed for parent and child to have a great shared literacy experience. Each kit contains a book, activity sheet and supplies.

FLIP KIT: Press Here by Herve Tullet

Ages: PRESCHOOL (3-5 years)

This kit contains the book “Press Here” by Herve Tullet. After reading the book with your child use the activity sheet to get ideas for creating his/her own 'magic' book. The kit also contains a small notebook, dot stickers and pencils/crayons to help your child create their own book to keep for themselves.

Staff Review: "My Blue Is Happy" by Jessica Young

Teaching color recognition can be lots of fun. You can use crayons, paint, construction paper, songs, and games to help your child recognize color. But why not use feelings to talk about color, like in the book "My Blue is Happy" by Jessica Young?

Each page of "My Blue is Happy" features a scene saturated in one color, and the little girl narrator shares how a person in her world feels about the color, then explains how she feels differently. "Dad says brown is ordinary/ Like a plain paper bag./ But my brown is special/ Like chocolate syrup . . ./ And a piece of earth/ that's just for me."

What a great way to talk about colors and feelings! Appropriate for grades 1-3.

--Andrea W., H.Q.