Wonderful Work by Denise Fleming!

books:

	• In the Small, Small Pond (Owlet Book) Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), 1998 - 32 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great Reading

Denise Fleming is great. This book is really fantastic and an excellent tool for science activities in the classroom.

Pulp fiction

My years spent in library school prepared me for all kinds of requests I would receive on that glorious day when I would become a children's librarian. I learned how to do reference interviews with five-year-olds and incorporate a fuzzy white mouse puppet into a preschooler storytime. I learned the best way to read "Bark, George" to screaming hoardes of children and what to do when a toddler throws up onto your carpet. I learned all of that but there were some things I didn't learn that would have been useful to know. Take ponds, for example. They're nice enough. Looking at them though you would have no idea that when you sit at an information desk in a children's room, one of the top requests you receive is, "Do you have any books on ponds?". Such questions always leave me a little stunned. You want books on ponds? Really? Why? I've never gotten a convincing answer to that question. All I know is that if I were to make a children's library from scratch, you can bet your bottom dollar that the pond and wetlands portion of the non-fiction section would be gigantic. Now sometimes people ask me for pond books and they want fiction. Picture books, to be specific. When that happens I can breathe a sigh of relief. Thanks to Denise Fleming and authors like her, there is no shortage of pond-related material out there. And when it comes to toddler storytimes, "In the Small, Small Pond" is a fine fine choice.

As with most Fleming picture books, we follow a particular animal from page to page in this story. In "Barnyard Banter" (a book this story has a close feel to) it was a duck. In "Lunch" it was a mouse. Here, it is a frog. After making a jaw-droppingly elegant leap past an awestruck child, it glides into the pond towards a series of small adventures. When it swims past some birds the text reads, "waddle, wade, geese parade", and near some turtles, "drowse, doze, eyes close". Herons make a dash for it, whirligigs turn above it, and when the winter comes it goes to sleep in a little hole of its own. "Cold nigh, sleep tight, small, small pond". Not only does the book show the wildlife living around a pond, and not only does it show the passing of the seasons, but it gives a pretty clear indication of the food chain and where exactly frogs fall on it.

Once again Jonas has returned to an artistic technique that's part collage part colored paper pulping. In some ways, "In the Small, Small Pond" shows an artistry that Jonas has never exhibited before. She does things with depth here that are beautifully accomplished. For example, at one point the frog is seen from above swimming below four or five whirligig beetles. The beetles are clearly perched on top of the water with little ripples emanating from their movements. The frog, in contrast, has the otherworldly underwater cast to it that animals get when they're below the surface of a lake or pond. So Jonas has managed to convey distance, the distortion of an image in water, and movement. All this with just her customary felt-paper technique.

I'd love to say that "In the Small, Small Pond" is the number one pond book readaloud out there, but to say such a thing would be lying to you. For one thing, "The Noisy Counting Book", by Susan Schade is the toddler storytime book I turn to at all times. For another, I always get "In the Small, Small Pond" mixed up with the fairly similar but more amusing, "Splash!", by Ann Jonas. Aside from these two books, however, Fleming's pond book is pretty darn fine. It reads aloud nicely, is great to look at, and a worthy purchase. It's not always my first choice at storytime, but rarely does it every disappoint.

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In the Small, Small Pond...

This Caldecott-winning book(a companion to Fleming's In the Tall, Tall Grass) was once one I too thought to be annoying and overrated. But when I first read this book, I was speeding through, without paying the needed attention deserved to these illustrations. And after reading about Fleming's strenuous process in making them (see Fleming's website for details), I was even more amazed, not to mention a little confused.

In the Small, Small Pond is about a pond (of course) and how the animals surrounding it react during the changing seasons. The one-line rhymes may be a little boring, but, again, the illustrations make up for that. Yes, "The Pond" may not be best for toddlers, but children old enough WILL appreciate it's content. Denise Fleming is a master at her work. Her books have went on to be some of my favorites and I hope to see more of them in the future. What I want to know is why Mrs. Fleming's recent books haven't been recognized by the Caldecott committe. I guess I'll never know...

As always, R, your friendly neighborhood reviewer

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Wonderful Work by Denise Fleming!

I like Denise Fleming's In the Small, Small Pond because she brings back memories now of when I was a young child and was learning to read. I can remember this particular book and it's wonderful illustrations. To look at her pictures and read the action words on each page is like really being there. I can imagine the sound of a firefly's wings hovering and the sight of minnows rushing away when something disturbs the water. Her choice in words and pictures together, make this book very easy to understand and hard to forget. I like Fleming's work in The Small, Small Pond because she bases her picture book from a frog's perspective. I think this is a wonderful idea for younger children. It may answer a child's questions about, "What are animals thinking?" This type of response is good for children because it stimulates the mind into wandering, why? Denise puts such a large amount of time in effort into what she does to prepare for a story as well as what she does to make the illustrations come alive. Her careful planning and creative ideas make her books very insightful. I think Fleming contributes to children's education very well. She shows areas such as science and nature in her books. I believe that since she puts so much time and effort into her planning, then authentically contributes to a child's education. In children's literature, she opens the door for imagination. Her illustrations are done by pulp-painting and she is very willing to give ideas and instructions on how to do them yourself. I think this idea is great because it can be inspiration to children who want to be writers or illustrators. She shows there is more to illustrating a story than simply throwing together words and matching them with pencil and crayon drawings. Her creativity is what keeps children interested. Good books invite children to play with new language, give excellent reference points for future understanding and might even open windows to other cultures. I believe that this book fits two of those criteria. In the Small, Small Pond shows young children how other animals prepare for the winter. Children could look at this book and then maybe compare it to some of the animals that are around their homes and remember what Fleming said about tadpoles, minnows and frogs then make connections. Another strong point that Fleming hits is a new way to say some of the words that children might hear every day. When the frog leaps into the water and makes a "splash", a child might think of what a "splash" sounds like. At the same time, a heron "plunges" into the water and then children can compare what a "splash" and a "plunge" sound like either in their head or sound it out. Fleming also allows children to use their imagination. A reader is allowed to see what it's like from a frog's point of view. He travels from the shores of the pond to under the water to learn about what each animal does for preparation for winter. As you can see, I love Fleming's In a Small, Small Pond and recommend it to any lower grades elementary classroom library, or even your own child's library at home!

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reviews: page 1, 2

Denise Fleming's Caldecott Honor book gives young readers a frog's-eye view of life in a pond throughout the seasons.

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