"Inside a House that is Haunted" by: Alyssa Satin Capucilli ISBN:9780590997164
I don't know about you, but in my library Halloween books are one of those that circulate the best and almost year round. This one has a "there was an old woman who swallowed a ..." musical quality to it if you're inclined to sing, and if you get the kids to play out the parts with you (such as "knocking on the door" or moving their arms to "swoop with the bats") it will keep their attention the whole time, and give them the physical activity they need not to fidget during a longer story next.
"Dino Bites!" by Algy Craig Hall ISBN: 9781907967504
The simplest concept book I can find on the idea of small, medium and big sizes. Easy to pair with a big, bigger, biggest eating puppet with a little bit of creativity and some brown lunch bags after the story. Plus, no kid wants to turn down dinosaurs.
"Goodnight Little Monster" by Helen Ketteman ISBN: 9780761456834
Sing along to the tune of "Hush Little Baby, don't say a word" and you have a great sing-songy book that has the perfect mixture of fantastic illustrations, not too text heavy, and has those gross wonderful little details that make monster stories so well loved.
Hands down, my favorite story time book E-V-E-R. Great for younger or older audiences, and never fails me to lighten up a room. This is an interactive book that causes tons of giggles, and I only wish they had more like this one. It lends itself to easy art projects, and there's a digital app that's fun to play too.
A more recent alternative would be: "Don't Push the Button!" by Bill Cotter ISBN: 9781402287466
It has slightly more complicated pictures such as spotted monsters vs. stripped ones instead of more abstract art concepts with dots like the one above, but they're pretty similar works logistically speaking. I've used both, and they've liked them well enough.
Get the kids howling right off, and they will love to take turns shouting and hooting with the main character as the other forest animals run away as quick as they can. It has a foreshadowing of a big bad wolf, but with a delightful surprise ending that teaches kids not to be scared. Added bonus: try to get the kids to find his friend the spider hidden on every page.
"Open Very Carefully: A Book with Bite" by Nick Bromley ISBN: 9780763661632
This book is made of heavy cardboard stock which is great since all the kids will be grabbing the pages, and (in some pages) through them. The story begins well meaning enough, some fairy tale or another. Suddenly an alligator is eating his way through the book. It's a fun read on its own, but if you lay down a sheet (or "book page") for free play afterwards and let the kids chomp their way around the storytelling room they'll have a fun time being the crocodile.
"Where's Walrus?" by Stephen Savage ISBN: 9780439700498
A picture-only book that serves a "Where's Waldo?" function for a younger budding but equally truth-seeking curious crowd. When one of my shorter patrons refused to give it back after story time, I knew it was a keeper.
"Batman Shapes" by Benjamin Bird & Ethen Beavers ISBN: 9781479558926
For one, it's one of the few board books that's actually large enough to use for story time. The text is large, and the content is easy enough for any pre-kindergarten story time classroom. The awesomeness of superheroes goes without saying, and it is one of those rare books that can get boys screaming to participate shouting out things like "There is the square! That's the circle! I found the rectangle!" with more enthusiasm than they will probably ever show again in their life until they reach the age where they can buy their own batman costume and participate in any number of shenanigans as they pledge to their favorite fraternity.
*Warning: Using this book for children under the age of 4 years will more than likely result in crying and hysteria, and a potential life long fear of books!
"The Book that Eats People" by John Perry ISBN: 9781582462684
I discovered this book when I was trying to think of a well-meaning April Fools joke for a class I did outreach for. You can play it straight and just read from it, or you can walk around with your book, open/close it rapidly as it "bites" at people, or my personal favorite drag it out of your bag and wrestle it to the floor yelling for help to pin it down before reading.
"Let's Do Nothing!" by Tony Fucile ISBN: 9780763652692
I once had a Special Needs teacher from a middle school request a story time using books that weren't too text heavy and at the same time weren't too "kid-ish." It's pretty difficult to find a book that can cross that age-interest gap without relying hard on just droning on from a chapter book looking up every few pages to make sure that one kid isn't poking that other kid (you know who they are). This book worked pretty well with crossing the divide. Like most teenagers, these kids sat down for our first field trip with this "you're not going to make me do anything or enjoy this in any way" look on their face. That's when you ask them if they would like to do nothing. Suddenly you can get a series of affirmative responses. If you're really lucky you can get them to pretend and play along for doing a series of these "nothings" with the characters from the book, and they''ll learn that you really can't possibly do nothing.
Like many things in life, this is a product of absolute boredom. It's a fastening together of random ideas to throw at the wall and see what sticks. Help yourself to anything here especially since most of it has been taken from somewhere else in the first place. Call it Manifest Destiny if you need justification. Librarians are shameless thieves after all. From Hobbit quote tattoos they pull from Pintrest (right down to the curly cue font) to architectural designs in order to feng shui their programming room (You know what we do on our vacations? Visit other libraries. Sad but true) we take from a little bit of everywhere and add to our "collection". We try to bring the best this world has to offer, and present it with no further ado in our natural habitats. Our libraries.