I have an interview next week for a position as a children’s librarian. As part of the interview, they’ve asked me to prepare a ten-minute storytime suitable for 4 and 5 year olds. Most of what I know about kiddie lit focuses on the older end of the spectrum, so I’m turning to the Dope for help. Does anyone have any suggestions for fun books that would work for this age group? I’m leaning towards something published fairly recently.
Thanks!
My four and seven year old kids both love Denys Cazet’s Minnie and Moo series, and his Elvis the Rooster Almost Goes to Heaven. They’re lots of fun, they work well as read-aloud books, and you’ll likely enjoy them as much as the kids do. I’ve haven’t timed it to know if it’d fit into ten minutes, but if it does I think my pick of the Minnie and Moo books would be Minnine and Moo Go to the Moon, though I think I’d lean slightly toward the Elvis the Rooster title. One of the Amazon reviewers for Minnie and Moo Go to the Moon claims to be a children’s librarian who has regularly used it for preschool storytimes with great success.
do a search on Struwwelpeter… ah, the glory!
Judith Viorst’s Alexander and the horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day always seems to get rave reviews from this age-group.
*A Big Spooky House * by Donna Washington is my son’s favorite. Beautiful pictures, good story, and opportunities to do “voices”.
norinew, I loved Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day as a kid. Heck, I still have days where I identify.
rackensack and Dung Beetle, those sound like great possibilities. I’m heading to the library tonight, and I’ll see if I can find them.
Friar Ted, I think I’ll keep the horrible German fairy tales to a minimum, since I actually want the job. 
Alexander… is a great suggestion. Sometime I want to just move to Austrailia.
Have you looked at The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman? That’s a fun book. Dave McKean’s pictures and layouts lend themselves nicely to this being a “voices” book.
My daughter’s favorite is The Monster At The End of This Book, Starring Lovable Furry Old Grover. It helps if you can do a reasonable Grover-sounding voice.
Oh please oh please oh please: Bubba the Cowboy Prince! Or The Paper Bag Princess!
But only 10 min?! That seems kinda short…anyhow, from a burned-out catalog librarian dying to escape into Kiddie/Adult Reference, GOOD LUCK ON YOUR INTERVIEW! 
One I think you can’t go wrong with for kids of that age is The Gruffalo, by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler - I should know, I’ve been reading it every night for the last two years, and the fun just hasn’t worn off yet! :rolleyes: (well, for them anyway!)
Some version of *Curious George * was almost always a winner in my relative’s Kindergarten class version of TRL
The big orange splot by Daniel Pinkwater.
Clack type moo (I think that’s the title. Something like that. The cows start typing notes to the farmer demanding better conditions on the farm…)
One name, Robert Munsch!
whilst the age group is too young for your needs, I recently read Jack Ezra Keat’s Apartment 3 to my 14month-old son. He listened with great attention until he decided to (try and) tear pages out of the book (he didn’t succeed, but there was some yelling at daddy).
Anyways, I’m of an opinion that whilst JEK’s books aren’t particularly funny, they do have an emotional resonance. Maybe a learning value too.
Gene-o!
I know this doesn’t fit your requirement for something published recently (was that your own idea or is it something the library has suggested?) , but I think Dr Seuss stories are fantastic for that age range.
It all depends on how much exposure they’ve already had to it, I suppose; I know Seuss is hugely popular in the USA, so it might not have the same impact, but here in the UK, many people haven’t encountered much of his work, so you can take something like, say Yertle the turtle or The Sneetches and get all theatrical with different voices for different characters; I’ve tried this for groups of primary school age children and had them sitting there in goggling, rapt attention.
I think part of the idea behind a recently-published book is that it’ll demonstrate to the library that burundi is savvy about current kids’ authors and isn’t just choosing a book she remembers from her own childhood.
Strewwelpeter indeed.
Daniel
The California Academy of Sciences has a comprehensive story time program with the added benefit of being able to say “Story Time is located behind the T. Rex skeleton in Cowell Hall”.
Why not Lucy Cousins’ Maisy? Her books are usually short, but very engaging. Maisy on NickJr.
Or there’s the Rainbow Fish series by Marcus Pfister.
Also, Maurice Sendak’s Little Bear books. I like the animated series based on these books myself.
Dr. Suess’ “And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street” is a timeless classic. Book details
I’ve heard good reveiws on this book, but I haven’t got my hands on it to read it myself yet. “The Crane” Might be too grown up though.
This one looks good too. “The Princess Knight”
Good luck with your interveiw. Hope you get the job.
Have you ever looked at anything by Lauren Child?
She’s a British author who writes and illustrates some great books. She has a series about a young girl named Clarice Bean, as well as some individual titles.
I always check these out for my daughter (she enjoys them and I don’t get tired of reading them). I would especially suggest Beware of the Storybook Wolves and Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Book?. They are related stories about a little boy named Herb and characters who won’t stay in their stories in the former, and who are upset with Herb for shabby treatment of their pages in the latter.
The illustrations are fun and the typeface is different for each character (making it especially easy to do voices).
I’m a huge fan of Ms. Child’s work. (Nothing is too cutesy-poo in these stories.)
Jubal’s Wish by Audrey Wood