BROOKIE AND HER LAMB: STORY HOUR KIT

Best Users: Story Time, Public Libraries, Early Childhood Educators, Home Learners, Family Read Alouds
Best Audience: Children Grades 00-02

These wee picture books — perfect for online story time screens — are back in print after decades!

ABOUT THE STORY HOUR KIT

To engage your readers in your space or online, we have provided a series of activities drawing on the most engaging elements of Brookie and Her Lamb: the love of Lamb, the kindness and ingenuity of Brookie, and the power of singing and reading together. Activities include:

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Brookie’s Lamb: Paper Stuffie
With the offered two-sheet cut-out, a glue stick, and a tissue, readers can make themselves a lamb to love. With the two parts of the lamb cut-out partially glued together, a tissue can be slid into lamb’s belly. With the rest of him sealed with a spot of glue, his “woolen” belly is quite squeezable.

A Book for Lamb
In the first part of the picture book, Brookie teaches her lamb how to read, but “all he could read was Baa baa baa.” Brookie, though, is not deterred. She returns later in the story with Book for Lambs, 
a volume whose words all read, “Baa baa baa.” With this paper craft, your readers can create a wee book for Lamb. With blank pages to fill, they can tell a new story with words or pictures. Those words can be in their language or the lovely language of Baa baa baa.

Songs for Lamb
Similarly, Brookie teaches Lamb to sing, but all he can sing is, “Baa baa baa.” She, of course, finds a music book with songs that all have “Baa baa baa” as the lyrics. A reproducible 1/4 sheet invites readers to replace the lyrics of Row, Row, Row Your Boat, If You’re Happy and You Know It or another favorite with “baa.” Invite your readers to sing and just try not to laugh along with them!

DOWNLOAD Brookie and Her Lamb: Story Hour Kit (PDF)

Story Hour Sharing
Share your event with a Story Time poster and/or a web-ready banner.
DOWNLOAD Brookie and Her Lamb: Poster Template (JPG)
DOWNLOAD Brookie and Her Lamb: Web Banner/Image (JPG)

Images © M.B. Goffstein

ABOUT M.B. GOFFSTEIN & THE REISSUE

M.B. Goffstein’s books are back after several decades of being lost to readers. The New York Review Children’s Collection has lovingly republished Brookie and Her Lamb and the Caldecott-honored Fish for Supper. 

Why reissue these books?

“Brooke’s work is unusual in that it’s so strongly imbued with her sensibility, which makes you feel as if you know her — not because her work is autobiographical (though Fish for Supper is) but because she found the right art form, the right structure and patterning, to distill her life experience, her sense of the world. What’s remarkable is how she managed to compress an entire philosophy into a single line — or two lines rather, the line of the drawing and the line of the text. Simplicity, humor, compassion, self-reliance but also care, curiosity and pleasure. We tend to think of frugality as a negative trait, as the opposite of generosity, but Brooke’s work demonstrates the possibility of a generous frugality, a paradoxically pleasurable parsimoniousness, a concentration of purpose and feeling whose generosity comes from its being shared with the reader. Her books provide models for a sustainable, and sustaining, life.”
—Editor Susan Barba in conversation with Betsy Bird (A Fuse #8 Production)

 

ABOUT THE BOOKS

Brookie and Her Lamb
By M.B. Goffstein
Published by The New York Review 
Children’s Collection
ISBN-13: 9781681375458
(c) 1967, renewed 1995 M.B.Goffstein
Age Range: 3 years and older

Now back in print! A classic tale of reciprocated love between a little girl and her lamb, this tiny picture book is as memorable as the nursery rhyme about another little lamb and a girl named Mary. Brookie wants to teach her lamb to sing, but all he sings is Baa, baa, baa; she tries to teach him to read, but all he can read is Baa, baa, baa. A bit discouraged, but undeterred, Brookie takes her lamb for a head-clearing walk. She gazes at the lamb grazing, and a smile returns to her face. Back at home, she reconsiders her lesson plan and arrives at a creative solution, a happy ending for both lamb and girl. An ideal read-aloud for young children, this is a tender tale of mutual love and appreciation and a lasting achievement in storytelling and illustration.

“These deft and lovely and authentic and resonant little books of Brooke’s are timely and timeless works…They’re important books, perfectly done.”
—Sandra Boynton
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“Using poetic tellings accompanied by whimsical pictures, Goffstein reveals basic truths….Each Goffstein book is small and fits comfortably in the hand…Their simplicity is their strength….M. B. Goffstein is one of the finest illustrators/writers of our time.”
—The Washington Post

Fish for Supper
By M.B. Goffstein
Published by The New York Review 
Children’s Collection
ISBN-13: 9781681375458
(c) 1967, renewed 1995 M.B.Goffstein
Age Range: 3 years and older

Selected as a Caldecott Honor Book in 1977, and now back in print for the first time in a decade, this is a charming picture book about a grandmother and her simple, idyllic daily routine.

Fish for Supper is M.B. Goffstein’s Caldecott Honor story of a grandmother and her regular routine in summer: waking at five o’clock in the morning to make the most of a day on the lake, “with cans of worms and minnows, some fruit for lunch, bobbers, lines, hooks, and sinkers.” Delightfully and wittily, Goffstein departs from the usual fisherman’s tale to give us a day in the life of this no-nonsense, patient fisherwoman who catches “sunfish, crapper, perch, and sometimes a big northern pike,” who capably cleans her catch, and who can bake to boot. She relishes every bite of her well-earned supper, and the pleasure she takes in her self-sufficiency and graceful work becomes the reader’s as well.

THE GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Curious City gave away 22 individual hardcover copies of M.B. Goffstein’s picture book pair — Brookie and Her Lamb and the Caldecott-honored Fish for Supper — to educators and librarians. Our thanks to The New York Review 
Children’s Collection for the generous donation!

Alicia Salinas of Alice Public Library in Alice, TX was our grand prize winner who received the two picture books + a M.B. Goffstein stuffie, mug, and calendar lovingly created by Tonkachi in Japan.


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And the book winners are…

A Mitchell Powell Jr Branch Library of CPLS Newnan GA
ANGLICAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL JERUSALEM JAMAICA NY
Bertha Bartlett Public Library Story City IA
Burlington County Library Westampton NJ
Campbell Court Elem Bassett VA
Canton Public Library Canton MI
Estacada Public Library Estacada OR
Fishkill Plains Elementary School Wappingers Falls NY
Hilltop San Francisco CA
James L. Dennis Elementary Oklahoma City OK
Marcia Buker Elementary School Library Richmond ME
New Market Elementary Sophia, NC
Newport Elementary School Newport NC
North Avondale Montessori Cincinnati OH
North Branch Bridgeport Public Library Bridgeport CT
Paw Paw District Library Paw Paw MI
Portland Public Library of Sumner County Portland TN
Reading Public Library Reading MA
Shirley Hills Primary School Mound MN
The Kokomo Howard County Public Library Russiaville IN
Villa Park Public Library Villa Park IL