Monday, February 18, 2008

Picture Books - Easy Street

Typically in our area road construction runs from about March to November, but there are always those “quick” patches that are done year round. Previously, when I have been slowed or stalled from road construction I have usually tried to make light of it to our wee one by pointing out the various pieces of equipment. However, I really haven’t ever gone into to the “why’s” other than explaining the road needs fixing.

In Easy Street (2006) the author Rita Gray has gone the extra mile to explain the road building process in simple terms with the use of rhyming text. Surprisingly, the details behind constructing a road are there in the words and the unique artwork depicted by illustrator Mary Bono yet it isn't overwhelming to the reader. This is definitely a book to read with the coming construction season for those looking to be sitting in traffic. Also, this does have the familiar Bob the Builder look, but it is a bit more than that. Good for both boys and girls and probably a good reminder to us driving that road building is a process that is good, but tedious. My recommendation for ages would be newborn to 5.

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Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Hey There All! How Have You Been?

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted. I even missed my two-year blogging anniversary in January. Well, my typing abilities have always been a bit rough with proofreading even being rougher. But, with my wrist not working well these past years and even worse over the last three months, I can’t promise quality type here. Anyway, I have had a very, very painful shot of cortisone in my wrist that has eased the pain that was from shoulder to fingers and has allowed for increased usage of this very helpful appendage. Now, all I have to do is schedule surgery and we may be on the way to a more permanent recovery.

What has been very encouraging during this two month hiatus was to see my readership actually increase rather than decrease. After reviewing many of the statistics it appears that the increase is from readers reviewing past book postings and routing through the various children’s resources listed. One of my goals when starting this blog was to be a useful spot in finding or directing readers to children’s resources and commenting on some books. Looks like my little itty-bitty spot on the World Wide Web has been find useful to some. Yeah! And, thanks for tuning in.

Hopefully, over the next week or two I will start posting about books again and updating the resource list. Until then I hope you are enjoying your day and that the winter weather especially for those of us in the colder states aren’t getting too caught up in the gloomy weather.