GOrillas! on the Move!

Today I had the perfect kind of social interaction day!
Sue Matott, the children's librarian at the Pillsbury Free Library - (our local library here in Warner, NH) - chose my book, Ready, Set, GOrilla! for Storytime!

[Book Info: "Ready, Set, GOrilla!" - written by Melissa Stoller,
and illustrated by Sandy Steen Bartholomew
Spork (Clear Fork) Publishing
Released - November 13, 2018]
And she didn't make me read - I got to do the craft project with the kids (the fun part). I had tattoos and coloring pages for them to take home and, in the library, I let them be illustrators and make really cool buttons with their art.

Because this was a group of two to four year olds, I drew simplified characters from the book, in circular frames and pre-punched the circles. Part of the image gets folded around the metal button, so I wanted to make sure none of the important image was lost. I chose the characters with larger areas to color (ie: panda and penguin... B&W - not so interesting).

Once they'd finished coloring (and their grown-ups were finished with their art pieces too) -

- each kid brought their art over to the button machine and pressed their own pin. Even the shy kids got really into it and helped me pull the heavy lever.

Everyone was really excited by the finished pieces!

Even the scribblier attempts looked like masterpieces once they were mounted and pressed. I loved watching the kids' awed expressions after they loaded up the press, pulled the lever, and then saw the shiny button emerge! SO much FUN!!

And to make it even BETTER! - "Ready, Set, GOrilla!" is the featured book on the StoryWalk this month! So if you are in the area, start at the lower level of the library and then follow the RiverWalk (RailTrail) path to read the whole book. It's a beautiful walk - and a really fun book - but bundle up because it's crazy cold out there!

If you'd like to get your own copy of the book, you can order it from my Etsy shop, Bumblebat or from Amazon. There are really good reviews on Amazon - it's a great book to talk with little kids about bullying and playing fair - and wonderful illustrations! (of course!)

Here are easy links:

Ready, Set, GOrilla! Book on AMAZON (price varies, used copies available too)

Ready, Set, GOrilla! Book on Etsy (Bumblebat.com) - ($25) - comes with an original sketch in the book, lots of tattoos, and I'll send you a file of the coloring sheets you can print out - remind me! Oh, I also will send some cute little pins I made.

GOrilla! and Friends Removable Tattoos on Etsy ($10) - 2 each of five designs. They can also be used on paper.

Ready, Set, GOrilla! Coloring Sheets on Etsy ($3) - a PDF with 5 different pages that you can print out as many times as you like.

Nudge, nudge... this makes a great Holiday Gift!!