Learning | Ice Cream!

We have had some hot days recently. Hot weather makes me think about ice cream. But that's not the only thing that made me think about ice cream.

There's a new book with a drawing of a scrumptious ice cream cone on the cover. It's called I Scream Ice Cream: A Book of Wordles.

This children's picture book isn't really about ice cream. It's about playing with words. As the inside flap of the front cover says, "What do 'I Scream' and 'Ice Cream' have in common? Nothing--besides the fact that they sound the same." This book depicts a phrase on one page, then illustrates a phrase that sounds the same on the next page.  The idea is to try to guess what the second set of words is, before you turn the page. I think when they say "wordles," they really mean "puns." Call these groups of words whatever you like, but they do inspire some silly thoughts. 

There are plenty of books that really are about ice cream at SSJCPL.  Some are stories, some tell the history of ice cream, and many of them tell us how ice cream is manufactured, or how to make it at home. 

Photo courtesy of Paul Pehrson's (docguy)

photostream on Flickr.com. Some rights reserved.

Learning | Rebuses

Rebuses are representations of words or phrases, using pictures, letters and numbers. For instance, the number and letter combination of B4 stands for the word "before." I see people using rebuses frequently when they're texting or chatting on social networks; for example,  "C U later" stands for "see you later."

SSJCPL's rebus books tend to be for an audience of young children. This makes sense, because rebuses are a fun tool to use to write words--and they are easy for emerging readers to understand.  You don't need to know how to spell, in order to understand a picture.  I suspect rebuses are part of the appeal of the immensely popular Dora the Explorer books.

There are plenty of rebus picture books:

Bruce McMillan's Puniddles

This is an unusual picture book. The pages are filled with pairs of black and white photographs that act as rebuses, suggesting a pun.

Can you guess the answer to the picture here?  Hint: The answer is the name of some sweet treats.  The solution to this puniddle is at the bottom of the picture, printed upside down. Click on the picture, to enlarge the image.

Judy Sierra's We Love Our School!: a Read-Together Rebus Story has rhyming rebuses on the left page, illustrated by a brightly colored picture on the right page.  The rebus symbols on the left page are easily recognized in the big illustration to the right.

 






If you want a complicated picture book, try Shirley Neitzel's cumulative rebus stories. 








For example, The House I'll Build for the Wrens has a narrator who adds another phrase to her recitation each time she plans another step in the birdhouse construction process.

Jean Marzollo's I Love You: A Rebus Poem is a very simple picture book with few words.  It's like a love poem with pictures.  It ends with a rebus version of "And I love you."
 

We have some easy readers with rebuses.  Easy readers are books for beginning readers with the call number "JEZ." Did you notice that this call number has a rebus? "EZ" stands for "easy."

A Friend for Noodles is a good example of an easy reader rebus book. We follow the story of  a little dog who searches for a lost teddy bear, and makes a friend in the process.

Somehow looking at rebuses gives me an itch to try it myself, especially when I look at the puniddles.  I hope you're inspired to try your hand at it, too.