Thursday 19 November 2009

Scaredy Squirrel - Sunday Salon

The Sunday Salon.com

Scaredy Squirrel
is a big hit among Canadian children. I know. Two of them live in my house, and reading time has become a big frenzy of who gets to read the book first. Why? you may ask. Why does everyone like Scaredy Squirrel? Who is Scaredy Squirrel?

This is Scaredy Squirrel. Scaredy Squirrel is afraid of a lot of things. Part of the fun of this book for children is that Scaredy Squirrel likes to list what he's afraid of. And he has a kit, a preparedness kit in the event that the unfortunate happens, and he has to leave his tree. See, Scaredy Squirrel is so scared that he has never left his tree.

And then the unfortunate happens. Scaredy Squirrel leaves his tree!! What happens? N-uh uh, I'm not telling. You'll have to get the book and read it for yourself. Then, if you know any children, read it to them. And see if you ever get the book back from them, or can ever read it by yourself again. I guarantee every child under the age of 95 will love this book.

There are two extra bonuses to this book:
1) it's Canadian, thus you would be one book further along in the Canadian book Challenge; and
2) there are three more books already in the series:
Scaredy Squirrel makes a Friend
Scaredy Squirrel Goes to the Beach (this one I have to read!)
and
Scaredy Squirrel At Night.

Luckily for our family, we had two recent birthdays, the eldest son (now 21!) and the youngest son, now age 5. At his birthday party he received Scaredy Squirrel at Night:

Much to my son's delight - ok, for all of us! , Scaredy Squirrel at Night is just as good as Scaredy Squirrel. Now is there anyone out there who has never lay awake one night, watching shadows on the wall, heart pounding? Anyone? Well, then Scaredy Squirrel is for all of us. Scaredy Squirrel in this book is so afraid of the dark that he is afraid to go to sleep. So how does he stay awake all night? what happens when he does? what happens when he eventually falls asleep? Kids everywhere will love this book. Mine love this one as much. Because Scaredy Squirrel has a bad dream action plan in case he does fall asleep and in case he has a bad dream. And then one night he gets to put the action plan into effect.......

I like Scaredy Squirrel. I can relate to him.

One of the many very very good things about this series is that the almost 7-year old and the now-5 year old both love these books. Best of all, the five year old, who almost never picks a book up on his own, has been seen reading Scaredy Squirrel at Night on his own, in the middle of the day.

Well, both children are now circling around me while I write this, asking what I'm saying, why am I writing about Scaredy Squirrel? I can see some reading time coming up again. Because they both want to read the books, we've had to work out a system where one child goes first one day to read one book out loud, and the next day the other child gets the chance. And don't ask why they can't take turns with the books on the same day, it's all about being first these days. Sometimes they have to read in separate rooms because they don't want to hear the other child reading it out loud! 'I can do it better than you!" No one ever said people in my family weren't competitive.....

My book-lover's heart is secretly overjoyed that they are fighting over who gets to read Scaredy Squirrel first. They are fighting over reading!!!

Happy Sunday reading everyone!

9 comments:

Hazra said...

Sounds like a really cute book! And a book that gets kids to read and fight over it sure must be a good one!

Anonymous said...

How awesome, fighting over reading. I am going looking for this one. I suspect I will have to order it, though, but it sounds great. Thanks.

Kailana said...

This looks fun! :)

Lisa said...

I am going to have to look for this, my son claims he's scared of the dark and I think he'd enjoy it.

Carl V. Anderson said...

I'm really wanting to check these out just because of the cover illustrations. Scaredy Squirrel looks like a cutie. :)

Susan said...

Hazra: It is cute! both books are. and we still have to take turns reading to them! lol

Book pusher: it is kind of awesome, isn't it? The youngest definitely likes the night time one now. Let me know if you can get it there or not. I can always send it, it's very flat!!! lol

kailana: have you heard of it? You can see the horrible stuffed one they are selling at Chapters this year. That squirrel is really scary! Not friendly at all like Scaredy Squirrel is...

Lisa: I hope you can find it, it should be on Amazon.ca at least, which does ship outside Canada, I think. Let me know. Maybe I'll have to do a draw or something if it's not available outside of Canada!!

Carl V: He is a cutie, isn't he? and very OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), which I think is much more common than anyone is letting on.....Scaredy Squirrel has that smile, too. I just want to go give him a little cuddle and lots of peanuts!!!

Phylly3 said...

Glad your family likes Scaredy Squirrel too! Our elementary school voted it as their favourite Canadian picture book a couple of years back in Ontario Library Association's Forest of Reading Contest-- Blue Spruce category (Kindergarten to Gr. 2). Libraries from all over Ontario signed up and their readers voted for their favourite of the 10 nominated books. Scaredy Squirrel won that year! Our students were so excited! Then the next year, Scaredy Squirrel Makes a friend won. Our students voted for that one too. Last year, the same author -- Melanie Watt won again, this time for "Chester" about a chubby cat who makes editing corrections all over the book with a big red marker. The kids were CRAZY about that one too!
This year, none of Melanie Watt's books are up for the award, even though there are at last 2 that could have been nominated. I guess they figure after winning 3 years in a row, it's time for another author to have a chance!

bermudaonion said...

Scaredy Squirrel sounds wonderful!

Susan said...

phylly3: I so want to get Chester the Cat for Christmas for the kids! Plus Scaredy Squirrel makes a Friend and Goes to the Beach. Tonight the youngest tore one of the pages while reading the book, and was in tears until I promised I could fix it easily with tape. He wouldn't let his sister look at the book after, no one was allowed to touch it!! Thanks so much for leaving a comment. It's thrilling to see a book that kids adore, isn't it? I've been spreading the word at work too, with all my friends and colleagues.

bermudaonion: can you get the book in the US? I hope so. It is wonderful!