Welcome to the first stop on the blog tour for Normal Norman (Sterling Children's Books @SterlingKids) by Tara Lazar (@taralazar) founder of PiBoIdMo, and illustrated by S.britt (@StephanBritt) and due to be published March 1. Join the crew blog by blog and on Twitter (#NormalNormanBlogTour). Normal Norman is a picture book with a retro look that adds humor and energy to this blend of science and nonsense. A young "junior scientist" in a white lab coat (a spunky girl-- yay!) who is also the book's narrator is on a quest to define "normal" In empirical ways. Her subject? A purple orangutan. So, we know this is going to be an interesting "experiment" from the get-go. And this orangutan (Norman) is not cooperating-- he speaks English, sleeps in a bed, and loves pizza! Each double-page spread is teeming with energy, details, and humor. Plus, it begs to be read aloud and should surely generate some interesting discussion about what is "normal"-- in the animal world, as well as in ours.
>>> Link this book with a Orangutanka: A Story in Poems by Margarita Engle to offer a contrasting (and more reality-based) look at orangutans. And just for fun, Sterling Kids Publishing has provided fun, interactive activity pages to accompany this book (below). Enjoy!
Special thanks to Josh Redlich for facilitating this fun!
So looking forward to this book, Tara. All of those puzzles are so cool!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this, Sylvia!
Man, the humor sounds fabulous and I love all the activity sheets.
ReplyDeleteFantastic activity sheets! Tara's humor is always spot-on so I can't wait to read NORMAN.
ReplyDeleteI love how this book is traveling from blog to blog, like a kid visiting different family members on summer vacation.
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