I was recently gathering books for upcoming story times, and I noticed that I had chosen two tales by Valeri Gorbachev. One for a penguin story time called Turtle's Penguin Day and one for a story time on the color red called Red Red Red. Valeri Gorbachev is probably known to only a few of you but I would like to sing his praises a bit here, in the hopes of inspiring others to seek him out.
Turtle's Penguin Day stars Little Turtle whose father entertains him with a bedtime book about penguins. Little Turtle becomes so enamored of these feathery creatures that he spends the next day imitating them, much to the enjoyment of his family and classmates. The loving home life and nurturing classroom portrayed in this story make it a nice read aloud for preschool through grade 2. Humor plays its part as well in the silly antics of the characters and the foreshadowing of Turtle's next possible obsession.
Red Red Red stars a character simply known as Turtle who is on his way to find something red. He walks down city streets, through neighborhoods and into the wilderness. All the while gathering friends who are interested in his quest for something red. He passes by many red items such as socks, roses and a truck but doesn't stop until he reaches his destination, a beautiful red sunset. I think this book works best as a one on one read aloud as that allows time for the child to point out all of the red things that turtle sees and also reinforces the gentle snugly nature of the tale.
