Sources: Animal Shenanigans: 24 Creative, Interactive Story Programs for Preschoolers

Animal Shenanigans: 24 Creative, Interactive Story Programs for Preschoolers. By Rob Reid. Chicago: ALA Editions, 2015. 248 p. Paper $50 (ISBN: 978-0-8389-1271-3).

If your storytimes are feeling a bit stale and in need of some inspiration, get ready to walk on the wild side with Rob Reid’s Animal Shenanigans: 24 Creative, Interactive Story Programs for Preschoolers. Reid uses his experience as a professor of children’s literature and an author of beloved books on children’s programming to craft this guide to animal-themed story programs. As the title indicates, the book features two dozen thirty-minute storytime plans for a preschool audience, although the plans could also be adapted for an older group.

While the story programs are animal-themed, they also tackle other topics such as imagination, colors, reading, and problem solving. Each plan includes four or five picture books, movement activities, musical activities, fingerplays, storytelling tips, and five backup picture books. This volume focuses on newer titles, listing only picture books published between 2010 and 2014. The summaries of the picture books are very descriptive and include full bibliographic information. Reid’s passion for picture books is clear as he provides storytelling tips for each title and great ideas for engaging children with the books. The backup picture books are invaluable, as they allow librarians to customize the storytime plans or to create entirely new programs. Each plan also contains a plethora of “in-between” activities; some of these are traditional and well-loved by children’s librarians, but Reid also includes seventy original ideas for songs, activities, and imagination exercises. The new songs are easy to learn, as traditional melodies are utilized, but some of the activities are trickier to envision and may need to be adapted. The single index is very thorough, and books are listed by both author and title. Songs and fingerplays are indexed with their titles in quotation marks, and titles of books and CDs are italicized.

Reid’s upbeat, conversational tone makes this volume a fun read, and readers will feel as if they are discussing storytime ideas with a friend. Although the book may appear small in size and scope, the original songs and activities are fantastic, and no end of inspiration can be drawn from the titles and the tips. Like Reid’s other programming titles, this guide’s quality and creativity make it an essential addition to any storytime collection.—Jackie Thornton, Children’s Librarian, East Baton Rouge Parish Library, Baton Rouge, Louisiana