I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: THE OKEE DOKEE BROTHERS-“Can You Canoe?” (2012).

I found out about The Okee Dokee Brothers from Kids Corner.  They are two guys (one on guitar one on banjo) who sing folk songs about going outside, “with a goal to inspire children and their parents to get outside and experience nature. They believe this can motivate kids to gain a greater respect for the natural world, their communities and themselves” (from their website).

This is a fun folk song–easy to sing along to and very catchy.  It reminds me in spirit (but not voice) of John Denver–the guys have very good harmonies as well.

And since spring time may (finally, maybe) be coming, we should be busting out our canoe soon as well.  Perhaps we’ll sing along to this

Can you canoe on a little boat built for two?
Can you canoe? I’ll be your captain and your crew
Can you canoe if there’s nothing better to do?
I wanna float down a river with you.

In addition to the catchy chorus, there are some great lines in the song, too.  Like:

“We don’t need no outlets, we don’t need no wires
Primetime entertainment will be lightnin’ bugs and fires”

and

“I’ll take the bow brother, you can take the stern
I’ll move us forward, while you choose when to turn”

and

“Sound waves on the water don’t need to be amplified.”

I have become a quick convert to this band whom I’d not heard of until very recently.  I’m looking forward to my kids hearing this (and watching the videos too).

Here’s the video:

[READ: April 15, 2014] The Chicken Squad (1)

I grabbed this book for the kids because it looked like a lot of fun.  And indeed it was.  I didn’t realize that Cronin was the author of such fun kids books as Click, Clack, Moo and Diary of a Worm (and other insects).  This book is quite different from those picture books in that this tells a (admittedly short) longer story.  And it has chapters!

The story is told by the family dog, J.J. Tully, a retired search and rescue dog.  J.J. Tully is in charge of the yard and that includes watching out for the chickens.  He introduces us to the four chicks who live in the yard: Dirt (speciality: foreign languages, math, colors, computer codes), Sweetie [who has glasses] (speciality: breaking and entering, interrupting), Poppy (speciality watching the shoe [which is where they live]) an Sugar [has a triangle head–which comes in for a very funny joke later] (specialty: None that i can see).

The plot begins when a squirrel named Tail comes running into the coop.  He is in a panic shouting, “It’s after me.”  When the chicks question him, he can only get out variations of: “Its big and scary!!.” “It’s BIG and it’s SCARY!!”  And while he is panicking, trying to get out the details of what it looks like: (Big), J.J. comes in to see what the ruckus in.  And Tail faints dead away.

Tail, obviously afraid of everything, is especially afraid of J.J, who chases him around the yard every day (even when the chicks tell Tail that J.J. would never actually catch him–it’s just some fun).

After a few descriptions and a sketch, the chicks determine that the big and scary thing is a UFO.  And it is clearly after the chicks (because who would ever want a squirrel).  And they go to hunt it down.  Clark figured out what “it” was a few chapters before they revealed the answer, but I still thought the mystery was a good one.

Mostly this book is just funny.  There were a lot of good jokes and a lot of funny one liners.  We all laughed out loud a number of times when I was reading the book to them, especially when J.J. comes to the rescue at the end.

As I indicated earlier, this book is definitely for early readers.  It is fully covered with (funny) drawings–pretty much one on every two pages, so even though the book is 92 pages, it is a very fast read.  The illustrations, by Kevin Cornell, bear more than a passing resemblance to Angry Birds (particularly the triangle headed one), but I think the kids liked that, too.

I think we’re all pretty excited for Book Two.