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The Library Doors
Home  The Library Doors Curriculum Guide The Library Doors Reader's Theater Script
Wheels on the Bus Books Librarians in Picture Books


 DOWNLOAD A The Library Doors PARTS OF THE BOOK POWERPOINT 

DOWNLOAD A The Library Doors PARTS OF THE BOOK SMART NOTEBOOK PRESENTATION



Jacket Art ©2008 by Nadine Bernard Westcott 

The Library Doors
by Toni Buzzeo; illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott
UpstartBooks, 2008
ISBN:  978-1602130371

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About the Book: Singing familiar songs gives children a feeling of mastery and comfort in new situations. Instead of walking through 'the doors on the bus,' sing your students through The Library Doors for a visit to the media center.

The library books check
IN AND OUT,
IN AND OUT,
IN AND OUT.
The library books check
IN AND OUT
All through the day!

Welcome students to your library media center with picture books based on this beloved song. Accompanying library lessons extend the experience with a focus on book selection, library etiquette, research concepts and more.

Reviews and Awards

"Westcott’s bright, energetic, cartoon-style pictures illustrate all the action and accentuate the sense that the library is a place of both serious activity and lots of fun. " ~Gillian Engberg, Booklist Online 12-28-09

"This book is a great introductory book to the library for preschool to second grade.  Toni Buzzeo uses the familiar tune of “The Wheels on the Bus” for the structure of the text in her book, The Library Doors. (Have you ever tried using that as a class book idea?)  This is a great upper elementary text to give readers a structure to make their own books or books for younger readers.

Children will be able to interact with the text in many ways.  The text shares information on how to search for books, use library markers, and even the updated scan to check books out.  Included with the book, Toni Buzzeo has an eight page Library lesson booklet for additional extension lesson.  I particularly like the hand/finger plays that go along with the text.

Savorings for reading and in writing for The Library:

  • Verbs – search, click, hold
  • Onomatopoeia – shh, tickety tick
  • Class book for procedures  – you could use the structure of the text to create a book about procedures in class
  • Hybrid – poetic, informational
  • Sequential"
~Mary Helen Gensch, BookSavors, 11-8-09 (reprinted in full with permission)

"A few months ago, my husband changed jobs from being a truckie to being a coach driver.  So, ofcourse, like any self-respecting grandma, I taught my three littlies "The Wheels on the Bus ..." sothey could sing it in his honour. (Which they do ... constantly.)

So you can imagine my delight when Toni Buzzeo, a mate from America, told me about a new book she has written called "The Library Doors" which is written to the same tune.  "The library doors swingopen and shut ..." and a host of other verses which describe those familiar library activities that our littlest learners need to learn as they start on their journey of becoming an independent library user.

Toni has written a number of books about using the library for this younger age group and they are always eagerly awaited in the US as essential tools in the teacher librarian's toolbox.

To accompany the book, on her website Toni has created a finger play so the children can be activeas they sing and heaps of suggestions for using the book as a learning tool.  She even suggests howit can be adapted to help the children extend their vocabulary, write their own version and use the OPAC. As an added bonus there is even a slideshow to teach the parts of the book, a lovelycomplement to our own "Parsley Rabbit's Book of Books" which was the CBCA winner this year.

I'm just waiting for my copy to arrive so my little ones can sing a song for ME, as well as the one for Grandad". ~ Barbara Braxton, Teacher Librarian, Australia

I want to add my enthusiastic two cents about Toni Buzzeo's The Library Doors. I'm the librarian at an early childhood center with about 500 three and four year olds. We use songs to teach everything and this book's lyrics and well-known tune make it much easier for pre-K's to understand some of the common workings of the library.

The illustrations are amazing! The illustrated library so resembles our library that my kiddos easily identified with it.  The checkout desk is familiar, the story area is familiar, and there is even a big bear that is quite similar to our Grandpa Bear whose lap welcomes little readers.  In fact, the librarian even looks a bit like me.

Some of the book referred to activities that older children do in the library--PAC terminal use, shelf marker use--but I explained to my students that these are activities that are waiting for them and very soon they will be doing these too.

I haven't tried the PowerPoint yet but I plan to. ~ Victoria Fisher, Lillie J. Jackson Early Childhood Center, Lewisville, Texas