Follow the Leader with Fluff and Billy

Read It. Move It. Share It. 
Each month I recommend a picture book for dance educator Maria Hanley to use in her creative movement classes in New York, and then we both share our experiences with the book. Our February book was Fluff and Billy by Nicola Killen. When you're done reading about the book here on my blog, stop by Maria's Movers to see what kind of movement it can inspire!

When my girls were younger, they really liked to play follow the leader, and I sometimes used this to my advantage. At bedtime, I could usually get them to go upstairs for bed if I did some super silly moves going up our staircase and asked them to follow along.

Fluff and Billy, published a few months ago by Sterling Children's Books, is a book about friendship and overcoming disagreements. But what made me think it would be a great book for creative movement classes is that the text and illustrations also inspire a good game of follow the leader!

"I'm climbing up!" said Fluff.

"I'm climbing up!" said Billy. 

"I'm sliding down!" said Fluff. 

"I'm sliding down!" said Billy.

Fluff''s a little bigger than Billy, and he's the one who seems to be the leader. When he climbs and slides, Bill follows along. When he screams, swims, splashes, runs, and jumps, Billy follows along again. But, when Fluff decides to roll a snowball, Billy doesn't quite follow along. Billy decides to throw the snowball at Fluff, and it hits Fluff hard enough to knock him down.

Just like when young friends or siblings play together a lot of the time and then have a fight, Fluff and Billy don't talk to each other for a while -- or at least for a few spreads of the book! Eventually, though, they make up and the book ends on a happy note.

The illustrations of Fluff and Billy are darling, and I love the simplicity of the color palette that was used to create them -- shades of black and gray for their bodies and orangish red for their beaks and feet. The backgrounds on every page of the book are a mix of white, blue, and yellow. I love books that use unique fonts, and this book does that, too.

If you want to see a few of the spreads from the book, you can see them here on Nicola Killen's website. And if you're curious to see whether Maria played a game of follow the leader with her young students this month, I hope you'll check out her post here.

My girls are six and eight now, and I haven't tried follow the leader with them in a while. They are actually getting pretty good at going upstairs on their own and at least getting the bedtime process started. It might be fun to surprise them with another game of follow the leader up the staircase one of these days, though. And I might even have to follow it up with a reading of this delightful book!

The Babies on the Bus Is Great, Great, Great!

Read It. Move It. Share It. 
Every month I recommend a picture book for dance educator Maria Hanley to use with her young dance students in New York City. Then I post about the book here, and Maria posts about it on her incredibly resourceful blog Maria's Movers. This month we are exploring The Babies on the Bus by Karen Katz. It's especially great for the toddler and preschool crowd!

The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. The wheels on the bus go round and round, all through the town! I think just about every toddler or preschooler has heard that song, don't you? It's just so fun to sing!

The Babies on the Bus by author/illustrator Karen Katz is a perfect book to go along with the song, which is just begging to be accompanied by movement. The bright and festive illustrations depict nine cute and cuddly multicultural children, a bus driver who looks like a toddler himself, and a brave teacher who is leading the children on a field trip to a local museum. There is a lot of movement in the illustrations, as you might except from a group of youngsters. You can get a feel for some of the movement in this trailer from the publisher...

After hearing the song in my head and seeing the energetic children in the book, I can easily imagine some of the movements that could accompany the song in a creative dance class. I envision children sitting in a straddle position on the floor and moving their legs "open and close" like the doors of the bus. They could tiptoe across the floor when the "driver on the bus says shush, shush, shush." Or they could create a movement sequence and perform it at different speeds when "the motor on the bus goes zoom, zoom, zoom."

When snooping around the web, I also found a really neat YouTube video called "The Wheels on the Bus with Miss Melodee." While singing the song -- with a beautiful singing voice I must say! -- Miss Melodee demonstrates how it could also be incorporated into a ballet class. Sometimes she uses classic ballet steps that fit the words perfectly, and other times she changes the words a little to fit a particular step. Here's the video if you want to take a look.  

So, I've been collaborating with Maria enough to know that she probably came up with something even different than I did or Miss Melodee did. What do you think? Let's find out here!

Also, in case you didn't know, I love Karen Katz! If you do, too, you might like to check out two other books I've featured on my blog. One is Nutcracker Twinkle Toes and the other is Subway, which Anastasia Suen wrote and Karen Katz illustrated. Like The Babies on the Bus, both are great for promoting movement with toddlers!

The babies on the bus say, 

"Bye-bye, bus! Bye-bye, bus! Bye-bye, bus!

The babies on the bus say "Bye-bye, bus!"

Now it's time to go.

Into the Outdoors: A Plethora of Prepositions!

Read It. Move It. Share It. 
Dance educator Maria Hanley and I explored Into the Outdoors as the August picture book in our monthly collaboration. Its unique blend of two themes -- camping and prepositions -- makes it a one-of-a-kind book for sure. And it's also a fun one to incorporate into dance classes for young children. After you read this post, you can see how Maria used it with her young dancers here.

When I was growing up, a few times every summer my family would lug our camper behind our car into the forests of Pennsylvania, where we would spend a few nights out in the wilderness with friends. Hiking, canoeing, playing in the creek, making fires, roasting marshmallows, and watching wildlife -- particularly chipmunks, deer, raccoons, and the occasional black bear! -- are all wonderful memories I have from my childhood.

Nowadays, once or twice a year my husband, our two daughters, and I head out into the Maryland woods, pitch a tent, and spend a few nights in the great outdoors as well. We haven't taken the girls hiking or canoeing yet and haven't seen quite as many animals as I did growing up, but hopefully we'll get there one day.

How about you? Do you have any special camping memories? Would you be interested in a picture book about camping? Or, although this may seem a little off topic, might you be interested in a book about prepositions? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, then I just might have the book for you!

In Into the Outdoors by Susan Gal, a family of four fill their car to the brim and leave the city to go camping in the mountains. Over the course of the book, the family partakes in many of the same same activities I did as a child. They go for a hike, they play in a stream, they build a fire and roast marshmallows, and they climb into their tent at night.

Throughout the day, the family also sees tons and tons of wildlife. Although they saw many of the same animals I usually see when I go camping, they saw a few others, too. Like a fox, a porcupine, and a moose! As you may be realizing, the story line of this book is quite simple. But, what makes the story so unique is its superfluous use of prepositions!

Alongside each other, we dream our dreams, 

beside the lake and beneath the moon, 

outside in the great outdoors.

I counted the prepositions in the book, and I came up with 19, all printed in yellow text to stand out from the otherwise white wording in the book. Almost all of the prepositions -- including across, along, around, behind, beneath, beside, over, through, up, and under -- would be great to introduce to a dance class. The youngest children might not know all of their meanings, but the illustrations can help show them. Plus, several of the prepositions are used more than once, giving the children extra opportunities to practice their meanings.

If I were teaching a dance class with this book, I think I'd set up a really neat obstacle course using as many of the prepositions as the kids could remember. Or, since there are so many prepositions, maybe I would use the book for a couple weeks and make a few different courses. Are you curious too see how Maria used the book? Let's see here!

If you're looking for other ideas for teaching prepositions, We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury is another picture book I recommend. Maria and I featured it around this time last year. Here's that post.

Stomp, Dinosaur, Stomp!

Read It. Move It. Share It. 
Today's post is part of my ongoing collaboration with dance educator Maria Hanley from Maria's Movers. Each month I recommend a book for Maria to use in her creative movement classes, and then we both share out experiences with the book. This month we're exploring Stomp, Dinosaur, Stomp! by Margaret Mayo and Alex Ayliffe.

Look at the Tyrannosaurus on that cover! A little scary, don't you think? But don't worry...once you open the book, he's not that scary anymore. In fact, he's pretty harmless, even in the presence of other dinosaurs. Mostly, this Tyrannosaurus just wants to stomp!

Mighty Tyrranosaurus

loved stomp, stomp, stomping, 

gigantic legs striding, enormous jaws opening, 

jagged teeth waiting for guzzle, guzzling!

So stomp, Tyrannosaurus, stomp!

As the book continues, we meet an immense Diplodocus, a crested Pteranodon, a fierce Velociraptor, and seven other prehistoric creatures. Like the Tyrranosaurus, each of the creatures has a signature move -- the Diplodocus a swish, the Pteranodon a glide, the Velociraptor a hunt -- plus additional moves that would hopefully inspire young children to come up with some moves of their own.

Although the Tyrranosaurus is mostly absent when we meet these other creatures, he does appear on the page devoted to a tough Ankylosaurus. The signature move of the Ankylosaurus is a whack, and poor Tyrannosaurus is the recipient of one of those whacks! He doesn't look like he minds, though, and this action adds a splash of humor to the already upbeat book. We then see the Tyrannosaurus one more time -- at the end of the book -- when, still stomping, he leads the whole pack of creatures in a dinosaur parade.

Girls and boys -- especially those who love to move -- will appreciate the many movement words in the text. I bet they'll also enjoy the bright illustrations, which take up every corner of every page and, in doing so, exaggerate the exuberance that the text already portrays. Let's see if Maria agrees! You can check out her post here.

Get Ready to Ride the Subway!

Read It. Move It. Share It. 

Each month dance educator Maria Hanley and I explore a different picture book for our "Read It. Move It. Share It" collaboration. I recommend a book, Maria incorporates it into her creative movement classes, and we both share our experiences. This month I'm recommending the picture book Subway.

I've traveled on the "BART" in San Francisco,  the "Tube" in London, the "Metro" in Paris, the "Metro" in Washington, DC, and the "Subway" in New York City. Now that I think about it, I've been on quite a few underground railways... and I really like them!

Sometimes I like the bustle of people in the subway station, like on a busy weekday morning or on a Saturday afternoon when the station is bursting with tourists. Other times I enjoy a quiet station, like in the late evenings, when just a few people are milling around. And I always love the whirrr of the train as it finally approaches the station and I know that I am one step closer to my destination.

Washington DC Metro -- near me!

New York City Subway -- near Maria!

In the picture book Subway, author extraordinaire Anastasia Suen uses simple rhyme and repetition to take young readers through a typical trip on the subway, starting with going underground and spinning through a turnstile. The “waiting for the train” part of the journey is absent from the book, but that is probably a good idea since I bet most kids don’t like that part!

The rest of the book is full of the sights, sounds, and movements of the subway and the people you might encounter in a subway station. This, I think, is what makes this book a good choice for young dancers -- and especially so in a place like New York City, where most children have probably ridden the subway many many times. Here are a few snippets that could inspire movement...

away we go

fast, not slow

go, go, go

on the subway

halfway there

we take the stair

step, step, step

to the subway

rock left, rock right

we hang on tight

rock, rock, rock 

in the subway

The recognizable style of illustrator Karen Katz, who throughout the book depicts a cast of characters including a mother and her young daughter, gives Subway a young and playful feel. 

One of my favorite illustrations is of five travelers sitting in a row aboard a subway. Their heads are not visible, so young readers can't help but focus on how the travelers are spending their time. One is reading a book, one is holding a guitar case and reviewing some music, and another is hugging a bag of groceries.

According to her bio at the back of the book, Katz spent many hours on the New York City Subway to find inspiration for the artwork in the book. That sounds like pretty fun research, don’t you think?

For anyone who wants to relive the subway experience or introduce it to a young child, I highly recommend this book. It even comes in a board book format--perfect for traveling with on the subway! And if you would like to incorporate Subway into a creative movement class or other activity, be sure to check out Maria’s ideas here!

This post is also part of this week's Poetry Friday, which is being hosted by Paper Tigers (a wonderful website highlighting multicultural books for kids). Enjoy the poetic offerings!

Artistic Masterpiece: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Read It. Move It. Share It. 

With spring winding down and summer just around the corner, dance educator Maria Hanley and I are exploring the classic picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by legendary author and illustrator Eric Carle. It's part of our monthly collaboration in which I recommend a picture book for Maria to use in her creative movement classes and then we both share our experiences with the book. 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which was published more than 40 years ago, is the first children's book I remember having as a child. When I think about other picture books and board books published around the same time, this one stands out so much in its creative design and universal appeal. 

I may be living in a cocoon of sorts (i.e., my own little world of children's books), but I can't imagine that anyone has not heard of this wonderful book, which tells the story of how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly in such a delightful--and delicious--way. A true artistic masterpiece...at least in my book! 

Just in case I really am living in a cocoon (which is entirely possible) and you haven't heard of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the best way to describe it is to simply "show" it to you. It just so happens that Barnes & Noble is featuring the book on its "Online Storytime" this month. Click here and you can see some of the collage art from the book and hear Eric Carle read the whole story. 

I also found a great video on YouTube of Eric Carle talking about the process of creating the book, the educational themes that run through the book, and the personal meaning that the book holds for him.

So why recommend this book for a creative movement class? That's a good question! I can't say the book is overflowing with movement words, but there are some good ones in there--like "looking" for food, "building" a house, and "pushing" out of a cocoon. Plus, the story is so simple that students could easily act it out using some of these words. I bet a lot of children would enjoy building a cocoon, and I know my favorite part would be turning into a butterfly. 

Oh, wait. Maybe my favorite part would be eating through one piece of chocolate cake, one ice-cream cone, one pickle, one slice of Swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, and one slice of watermelon. I just wouldn't want to get a stomachache like the hungry caterpillar does!

Students could also explore the way that a caterpillar moves in general--or how he moves when he's hungry versus how he moves when he's full. Or they could create their own dance on a subject other than caterpillars, but by using the educational themes of counting or days of the week that show up in the book. So many possibilities!

As usual, I'm very curious to see how Maria used the book with her young students. So let's crawl like a caterpillar over to Maria's Movers to see how her classes went! Then feel free to come back here and explore the extra links I've gathered below...

Getting to Know Eric Carle

The Official Eric Carle Website

Eric Carle's Blog

A Video Interview with Eric Carle (Reading Rockets)

Educational Tools

Eric Carle Author Study (Scholastic)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Teaching Plan (Scholastic)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Activity Plan (Scholastic)

More Fun Links

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art

Counting with the Very Hungry Caterpillar (App)

Happy 50th Anniversary to The Snowy Day!

Read It. Move It. Share It. 

For January, I decided to recommend The Snowy Day for independent dance educator Maria Hanley to incorporate into her creative movement classes in New York City. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the book, which is being honored in the media, through a national museum tour, and even in a new children's musical. Let's figure out how to celebrate it in dance class, too! 

Last week, the American Library Association announced the winners of some of the most prestigious annual awards in children's literature. Among them was the Randolph Caldecott Medal, which was awarded to A Ball for Daisy as the most distinguished American picture book of 2011. If you click here, you can see a full list of Caldecott winners and honor books from 1938 until today, including the 1963 winner The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.

This groundbreaking book was the first picture book to include an African American child as a main character, paving the way for the multicultural environment we more often see in picture books today. The book also stands out for its simple yet magical illustrations. The main character Peter is dressed in a bright red snow suit and iconic red snow cap through most of the book as he spends an adventurous day outside in the newly fallen snow. 

And what, you might be asking, makes this a good book for a children's dance class? Well, here is one of my favorite passages from the book, which convinced me that Peter possesses many of the same qualities that a dancer does. In fact, I bet Peter would have loved to take Maria's creative movement classes! 

Crunch, crunch, crunch, his feet sank into the snow. He walked with this toes pointing out like this. He walked with his toes pointing in, like that. Then he dragged his feel s-l-o-w-l-y to make tracks. And he found something sticking out of the snow that made a new track.

First of all, Peter is curious. He's curious to see what kind of tracks he can make in the snow with his feet. And later in the book, he's curious to see what happens when he smacks a snow-covered tree with a stick he finds on the ground. PLOP! It lands on his head! Peter is also creative. He not only thinks up lots of neat ways to move his feet through the snow but also pretends he's a mountain climber when he encounters a huge mound of snow later in the book.

And, like all passionate dancers, Peter loves to move! From the passage above, you know that he likes to move his feet in different directions and in different tempos. But he also likes to flap his arms, like when he makes snow angels. And he likes to move his whole body, like when he climbs up the snow mound and then slides all the way to the bottom, hands in the air and snow flying behind him. 

I'm sure Peter thought of lots of other things to do in the snow, too, since he was outside all day. And this makes me wonder what ideas Maria came up with to encourage movement in her creative dance classes. Did her students move like Peter moves in the book, or did Peter inspire them to move in other ways? You can find out here. 

After you read Maria's post, if you still want to know more about The Snowy Day and how it is being celebrated this year, here are some articles and sites worth checking out...

• More background about the book and its lasting impact on children's literature can be found in The Washington Post and The New York Times. 

• Publisher Viking Children's Books has issued a special 50th anniversary edition of the book, including eight pages of bonus material. Read more about this special edition and about a museum tour honoring the book here. 

• Adventure Theatre, a popular children's theatre based outside of Washington, DC, recently premiered a musical based on the book. The show has been well received, and it is running until the middle of February 2012. Learn more here.   

• If you want to know more about Ezra Jack Keats, the many books he created during his lifetime, and all the good that has come out of his life and his work, visit the beautiful website of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation.  

Here, There and Everywhere!

It's true that I haven't posted much on my own blog this month. But, I've been featured in a few other places around the blogosphere that I'm really excited about. Here's a little roundup of sorts...

• I've collaborated with independent publisher Barefoot Books a few times on my blog and am a long-time fan of their books, so I was thrilled when they asked me and Maria Hanley (from Maria's Movers) to be guests on their popular blog. Here's our post on Living Barefoot, where we offer its readers some practical tips on incorporating movement into reading time at home. You might remember that Maria and I have our own collaboration every month in which we explore picture books and how they can be incorporated into creative movement classes. You can check out our archive here.

• Last year, Nichelle Strzepek from Dance Advantage asked me to write a review of dance picture books published in 2010. I'm so happy that she asked me to write a review of books published in 2011, too. You can read my 2011 review here. And speaking of Nichelle at Dance Advantage, thank you again to everyone who voted for me in her Top Dance Blogs of 2011 contest. I came in 16th out of the 32 blogs that entered!

• I recently discovered a wonderful blog called the ABCs of Reading, where elementary school teacher Jayne Gammons gives recommendations on how to use the arts to teach reading comprehension. And she does it all with picture books! Earlier this month, Jayne highlighted creative movement ideas that Maria Hanley came up with based on a picture book I recommended during our monthly collaboration. You can see that blog post here, but I also recommend taking a look around Jayne's whole website. I just love the concept of her blog!

Since we are on the topic of roundups, don't forget to submit a post to my January Read & Romp Roundup if you've blogged about picture books or children's poetry combined with dance, yoga, or any form of movement lately. You can read more about the roundup and leave your links here. Submissions are open until January 31, 2012!

Boing.... Boing.... Boing....

Read It. Move It. Share It. 

This month I'm recommending the picture book Bounce for independent dance educator Maria Hanley to incorporate into her creative movement classes in New York City. This post is also part of a December of Doreen, in which I'm featuring three movement-themed books by author Doreen Cronin and illustrator Scott Menchin. After reading the post, bounce on over to Maria's blog to see how she used the book in her classes.

Although Bounce was not the final book published in the movement-based series I'm highlighting on my blog this month, I've saved it for last because it holds a special place in my heart.

In the summer of 2007, when my family was in the midst of moving from California to the Washington, DC area, we spent some time at my mom's house in Florida. And while we were there, we of course visited the local bookstore. My older daughter was two and a half at the time, and my younger daughter was several months shy of one. My mom and I together bought several books for the girls that day, but one of the only ones I specifically remember picking out is Bounce. I know we had lots of board books and a few picture books already, but I think of that moment as the start of the hand-picked collection of picture books that we truly cherish now as a family.

As a mother and as a lover of movement, it was hard to resist the bouncy rhythm of the text and the antics of the fun-loving dog who bounces in all sorts of ways--ranging from pretty normal to fairly outlandish--throughout the book. Here's one of my favorite stanzas...

It's hard to bounce in roller skates. 

It's fun to bounce on poles. 

If hippos bounced from place to place, 

imagine all the holes!

I just love that part about the hippos, and I love the illustration that goes with it. There is a huge hippo that covers a large portion of a two-page spread, and it's obvious that he is bouncing. Many large holes, made by his feet, are scattered about the pages. And in the right-hand corner of the spread, our fun-loving dog friend is peeking just his head and two front paws out of the hole. Adorable. 

Just as the book provides plenty of entertaining ways to bounce, it also cautions readers--in a truly delightful way--about some of the ways they probably shouldn't be bouncing. The illustration that makes me laugh the most shows the dog diving headfirst into a large pile of fruit, with the text mentioning that if you must bounce in the market, then it's probably best not to bounce in the fruits. I absolutely love the ending of the book, too. I won't give away the illustration on the final spread, but the combination of the art and the following text always gives me a chuckle...

A bounce can turn into a bump, 
a bump into a fall. 
But it's better to have bounced and bumped...
than never to have bounced at all!

So, I don't know about you, but I am excited to see how Maria has decided to use this book in her creative movement classes. Little ones are naturally good bouncers, and I'm sure Maria has thought up some innovate ways to take advantage of their innate ability! You can read her post here.

In case this is the first post you've read in my December of Doreen series, you can read more about the other posts here. I'll be ending the month with an interview with Doreen Cronin herself. Stay tuned!

Board Books Use Animals to Inspire Movement

Read It. Move It. Share It. 

This month I mixed it up a little. I recommended not one but TWO books for independent dance educator Maria Hanley to incorporate into her creative movement classes in New York City. After reading this post to learn more about the books, head over to Maria's blog to see how she used them in her classes. And thanks to publisher Blue Apple Books for supplying review copies of both books!

When I saw the new board books SWING! Like a Monkey and WIGGLE! Like an Octopus, I knew right away that I wanted to highlight them on my blog. Because many dance educators use animals to inspire movement in their classes, I thought the books would be perfect tools to assist them.

SWING! focuses on zoo animals and WIGGLE! on ocean animals, and both are filled with movement words that even the youngest dancers will probably know. Prance like a lion, anyone? Gallop like a zebra? Or, since it's still summer here in the states and some other parts of the world, maybe you would prefer to swim like a dolphin? Or waddle like a penguin? Author Harriet Ziefert includes lots of phrases like these throughout the 12 pages and about 100 words of text in each of the two books.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed that the meter of the rhyme is not always as smooth as I would have liked, and some of the couplets don't rhyme perfectly. But, nonetheless, I think the books would be great to use in a class of young dancers...probably best for two-year-olds and three-year-olds I would say.

The illustrations by Simms Taback (who by the way has won a Caldecott Medal and a Caldecott Honor for previous works) are simple and youthful as well. All of the animals are drawn with thick black lines filled in with solid colors. The backgrounds of the book, too, are incredibly simple. In some ways, the illustrations remind me of the pages of a coloring book. Even the colors that Taback uses are typical colors you would find in a big box of crayons.

And finally, I love that the covers of the books actually "move" when you tilt them. You can probably tell from the cover images in this post that the monkey really swings and the octopus really wiggles its arms. What toddler or preschooler wouldn't want to explore a book like that, especially in a dance class! Let's see how Maria and her students explored the book here.

Can You Dance Like a Windy Day?

Read It. Move It. Share It.
This is the fifth post in my super fun collaboration with independent dance educator Maria Hanley from Maria's Movers. Each month I recommend a picture book for Maria to incorporate into her creative movement classes, and then we both share our experiences with the book. You can read Maria's May post here.

It's that time of year. Storms are brewing, rains keep falling, and the wind is often howling. Even on a calm day, it's not uncommon for the trees to shake a bit as a cool spring breeze rushes past.

Wind inspires movement--movement not only of the trees but also of the grass, waves, windmils, flags, kites. The list goes on and on. So why not let the wind inspire movement of the body as well?

In the picture book Like a Windy Day, by Frank Asch and Devin Asch, the text and illustrations encourage readers to actually be the wind. Imagine the possibilities for a creative movement class!

I want to lift birds and butterflies in the sky. 

I want to steal hats, drive clouds and rain, sail boats, and make umbrellas fly!

Every spread of the book includes both a young girl, dressed in a long-sleeved blue dress with a pink and orange scarf around her neck, and a representation of the wind that resembles the young girl in many ways. If you look at the cover of the book, you can see that the wind is like a large shadow of the girl, with the same general shape as the girl and the same wispy hair flowing behind it. 

The text in the book is minimal but provides plenty of ideas for little creative movers to capitalize on. And, as you might imagine, the illustrations have so much movement to them. A single leaf also shows up on every spread, fluttering just out of reach of the little girl and the wind, to help carry the story--and the wind itself--from page to page.

I want to shake the dew from a spider's web and help her babies soar.

I want to blow through green grasses and crash big blue waves on the shore...

I want to play like a windy day.

The words "I want to play like a windy day" repeat several times throughout the book, but if you are using the book in a dance class, it might be fun to change the words just a tiny bit. "I want to DANCE like a windy day" has a nice ring to it, don't you think? 

Don't forget to find out here how Maria used Like a Windy Day in her creative movement classes and how her students interpreted the wind!