Gift Guide 
Like clockwork every month, High Five artists delight and challenge your kids to find the odd, the offbeat, the ridiculous, and the improbable hiding in plain sight on two colorful pages.
Askew this month: There’s an elf fast asleep on a shelf in a library filled with children; a boat is afloat in a moat under a window; and a vendor is selling Popsicles from his cart.
See how many oddities your child can find!
How to Extend the Activity:
1. Ask your child
- Who looks happy in this picture? Why do you think they are happy?
- How do you feel when we read books together?
- If you could be any character in this picture, which would you be and why?
2. Add some math
- Encourage your sleuth to guess how many books are in the picture.
- Offer a prompt: do you think there are 10, 50, or 100 books? Count them together. (Correct answer: 95)
3. Let him think, and think again
- What’s not silly about this picture?
- What’s happening here that you would also expect to see in our own town library? (Hints: children listening to a story; a boy reading a book; a librarian helping a boy check a book out of the library; books and plants on a library shelf.)
4. Help boost her vocabulary
See if she can find the following five items. Explain what they are used for or what they do.
- A scepter
- A harmonica
- A trench coat
- Spectacles
- A Viking ship
5. More activities to share
- Act out a scene from the story. Have your child guess which role you’re playing. Let him take a turn next!
- Make a book together. Fold a few sheets of paper together and staple at the fold. Select a title, write words, and draw pictures. Some suggestions: my family; my favorite things; an adventure to remember.
- Take a walk or drive to the library and enjoy looking at new arrivals together.
- Play “library” at home! Set up a cozy reading corner and a book check-out area, and even make pretend library cards.
