Mootilda's Bad Mood - review and giveaway - 9.11.2020

 Have you ever had one of those days where lots of little things go wrong?  And when so many little things are wrong, it just feels like one big, ginormous bad day?  That's the kind of day Mootilda is having and I think readers will understand!

Mootilda's Bad Mood
written by Corey Rosen Schwartz and Kirsti Call
illustrated by Claudia Ranucci
published by little bee books

Mootilda wakes up and is already having a not so great day.  Her pillow has disappeared and her doll is almost all the way off her bed hay.  If that's all that happened, she might have been ok, but her bad luck continues.  She drops her ice cream on the floor (now that's a travesty), gets tangled up in a jump rope, and gets massive belly burn from a dive that went wrong.  And those are just the first few things that happen.  After each one, she declares she's "in a bad moooooood!"  Readers can definitely relate, especially with our current climate and events.  It's hard to be positive sometimes.  However, Mootilda finds some friends to commiserate with and when one more big accident happens.... Mootilda discovers that sometimes laughter is the best medicine.

Teachable moments:

• puns - don't miss the silly play on words by the other animals.  They are fun to look for!
• rhyming and cadence - I'm always looking for strong rhyming books.  I like recommending them to early education teachers, but sometimes finding the right books can be hard.  Sometimes rhymes are forced and then it's hard for littles to hear the rhyming words.  This one is perfect to read out loud!
• teaching central message?  Lots to talk about here - laughter is the best medicine, look for the positives, bad days happen.
• great to add to your Social Emotional Collection - I think it's important to talk to readers that while it's great being positive about things, it's also ok to feel anger and frustration when times are tough.  This book has a positive ending, but it also shows the main character going through feelings of frustration. 

Don't miss the extra storyline that is happening in the illustrations.  Eventually, we see Mootilda with chickens and they commiserate about their bad days.  The chickens list off some of the frustrating things that have happened to them, but if readers are really paying attention to the illustrations, they will have already seen those events happen in the background of each spread.  And, unbeknownst to Mootilda or the chickens, some of the chickens' mishaps were caused by Mootilda - unintentionally, of course!

Would you like to add this book to your collection!  Enter the Mootilda giveaway, open until Friday, Sept. 18th.  Guarantee - this will put the winner in a very good MOOD!