Merry, Merry Christmas to All

Yes, I did disappear for quite some time and chose this day before one of the biggest non blogging days to attempt a reappearance. I could go into many details for the absence, but lets just sum it all up in had wrist/hand surgery that took several months to recover from, can type now, handwriting looks worse then ever, various family illnesses, enjoying busy family life, wee one started preschool, we're doing lots of fun activities and projects, and now may attempt to keep this site up to date again.

So, let’s just start slow with a mention of a great group of books that we discovered these past few months and hope to enjoy more of. They are by the author Crystal Bowman and illustrated by Claudine Gèvry. We first found the book A Star for Jesus (2006). It tells the story of a special star that was put in the sky long ago to mark the birth of Jesus. Simple easy rhyming text that is engaging and has an easy to remember message that kids can keep in their hearts for years to come. This is indicative of the other books that we picked up by the same author such as J Is for Jesus: The Sweetest Story Ever Told, Christmas Angels and My Christmas Gift.

Bowman and Gèvry have a number of other books with different themes that are in a similar style. The ones we found are large/oversized die cut shaped board books. They would be great for first time Christmas books for babies, and preschoolers would love them too, at least ours does. I do think even some early elementary age kids would enjoy them as part of a story time, but would find them on their own a bit too simple.

Well, enjoy your holidays whether it be Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa or just the New Year.

Harvest time - Pumpkin Books

Oh, what a beautiful day for a stroll in a pumpkin patch. The family is taking some time off this week to treat our wee one to her first pumpkin patch/hayride experience. What a treat she had (we all had).
These beauties are just a few we selected. The place we went to was great in that they had already “picked” the pumpkins and just left them around the patch making it so much easier than trying to cut our own off the vine. Prior to the visit we have been reading the typical fall books with many including pumpkins as the theme. As I have mentioned in the past we are not Halloween people, but we sure love the harvest season.

This weekend I had a delightful trip with the wee one traveling just about an hours drive north of us to visit with a longtime dear friend. Along the way we had the pleasure of seeing field after field being harvested. There were trucks loaded or being loaded with grain while other fields that were complete were being tilled under for the winter. The drive and scenery made this wonderful harvest time so real and makes me so thankful we are able to have a table of plenty.

I won’t go into too much about the following books, but we found them entertaining and informative also they are varied in content when it comes to the text. Hope you find an opportunity to check one or two out from the library. They range in age interest from about one to eight years or so.

Pumpkins: A Story for a Field by Mary Lyn Ray illustrated by Barry Root 1996 - A man harvests and sells a bountiful crop of pumpkins so that he will be able to preserve a field from developers.

Biscuit Visits the Pumpkin Patch by Alyssa Satin Capucilli and illustrated Pat Schories 2004 (available in board book as well) - Biscuit visits the pumpkin patch where he not only finds the perfect pumpkin, but a new friend as well.



From Seed to Pumpkin (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1) by Wendy Pfeffer and illustrated by James Graham Hale 2004 - Pumpkins can be baked in a pie. Pumpkins can be carved into jack-o'-lanterns. Pumpkin seeds can be roasted for a healthy snack. But how does a tiny seed turn into a big pumpkin? Read and find out what a pumpkin seed needs to help it grow!

Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin by Mary Serfozo and illustrated by Valeria Petrone (board book) 2004 - Peter finds the perfect pumpkin so that he and his Dad can make a jack-o-lantern.



Patty's Pumpkin Patch by Teri Sloat 1999 - Rhyming text and illustrations featuring the letters from A to Z follow Patty as she plants pumpkins and watches them grow.

Board Books - It's a good Thing!

Ah, board books! Don’t you just love these types of books!? Well, at first I wasn’t a big fan. I must admit I was swayed by others thinking and didn’t do my own thinking. Plus, I lacked experience with them, as we really don’t carry this type of book in the elementary (K – 5) library setting. Unfortunately, I went into parenting with a slanted view thinking these books were really only for babies and many were just used to teeth on. I am happy to say that I have now truly experienced board books and have seen what great joy they can bring to little ones.

We have had board books since the wee one was born and have found most of them to be a delight. Many of the books we started with were the basic infant books with simple pictures, words, shapes, numbers, etc. Then about a year ago we added board books with more depth to them. It was then I noticed a number of picture books were being re-released into board book format and I wondered is this really appropriate for the toddler age group. Of course, my ignorance and lack of experience were definitely doing the thinking and speaking here.

Although my wee one enjoyed looking at picture books and their stories as with most her age group it can be difficult at times to turn those slippery pages. Now the board book pages at times can be difficult to turn as well, but they at least hold up to the try, try again mantra that wee ones everywhere attempt when turning pages. We have found that she really loves all her books, but I am so grateful that board books come in more complex stories than they use to.

Recent finds at the library and local bookstore have included:
1. Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar (which is great considered the pages are odd sized)
2. Alyssa Satin Capucilli Illustrated by Henry Cole Katy Duck (looks to be the start of a series)
3. Amy Hest & illstrated by Anita Jeram Kiss Good Night
4. Susan Boynton’s The Barnyard Dance
5. Jany Yolen & illustrated by Mark Teague How Do Dinosaurs Play With Their Friends

These are just a few of the great books available in board book format. They are also really a good size and strength for special needs children. Any of these authors are great to checkout and they have a number of stories in board book format. Don't limit these books to just the toddler and under set you would be surprised at the reception the pre-k and bit older set would give them.

Valentine's Day Board Books

Ah! Valentine's Day! Tomorrow we will celebrate loving others in generally and then also those that have an extra special place in our hearts. Here at our humble abode we have lots of love and lots to be thankful for on the romance day of the year that so many look forward to and so many dread.

We are celebrating simple as we have a winter snow storm in progress. The storm I am viewing almost like a layered cake. We received about 5 inches here so far at least that is what the say, but my husband shoveled about 12 inches out of the driveway and walkways this morning. Now, we are receiving several hours of the "icing", which will then be topped with another 5 or so inches of snow. Lucky for us, my sweetheart is able to work from home today in between the shoveling.

For the wee one, who turned the big "Two" over the weekend we found some special books to share with her tomorrow. The first two books are small little picture board books with sweet pictures of puppies and kittens with even cutier sayings. Kitty Love and Puppy Love were published by Dalmation Press in 2006 and we found them for $1.00 each in a large discount retailer's store a few weeks back. I haven't seen them elsewhere, but I'm sure will be well received by the wee one.

The other book we found for her is by Sarah Wilson and illustrated by Melissa Sweet. This particular version of Love and Kisses was released as a board book in 2002 and earlier as a picture book in 1999. The caption reads "Blow a kiss and let it go, You never know how love will grow!" The simple yet humorous short story follows a kiss as it is first shared between a girl and her cat and then amongst various other animals. So, to you and yours we wish you a day filled with more than normal amounts of love and fun.

Board Books - Animals A to Z

When life is crazy and you want a little slow down then I suggest an ABC book of the fun kind. One of my favorite author/illustrators, David McPhail has a really cute and clever Animals A to Z board book that will add pleasure to anyone’s day. At first glance it appears the book is a pretty straightforward ABC book, but then you start to realize there is more to it than that.

For instance, the first page starts of course with letter “A” where we find an ant and armadillo, but wait. The ant is conversing with the armadillo while standing under an apple tree with an arrow through an apple as an airplane flys overhead and an alarm clock sits in the corner. So, let’s see that is two “A” animals with four additional correlating “A” objects. It goes on like that throughout the alphabet. Only the letter “X” is missing a “companion” object, but in all fairness that really is a tough letter.

This book makes the alphabet fun and grows with the reader. Most kids will only first “get” the animal part of it, but it builds into a fun game of find the other items that begin with the same letter. The illustrations of course are captivating to the young ones and many include comical features such as a bear reading a book in a boat or a crocodile wear a crown. For all ages, but especially babies up through 1st grade will really enjoy this book. (It is also available in paperback too.)

Board Books - Zoophabet ABC

There are so many great reasons why I like board books. Even as the wee one grows older and is becoming quite good with handling traditional picture books, we both still like a board book’s ability to withstand rugged “book loving”. A recent find that the wee one and mama like is an ABC book. Ahh, do not turn away just yet let me explain why this ABC book is in the entertaining class versus the don’t bother group. I know there are a lot of ABC books out there that are just borrrring.

However, Zoophabet ABC by Kathryn Knight and illustrated by Cathy Heck I think is just adorable from the point of artwork and its content. I picked this up at that mega huge worldwide discount chain store for the upcoming holiday drive. It takes the reader through the idea of what animals would you put together to start a zoo(phabet). The text does a really nice job in finding animals for every letter (including “V” and “X”) along with humorous situations. For instance, would a rhinoceros wear ribbons on her tail and horns? We have found a number of ABC books that are fun and I think I might just start adding one here every week. This particular book would be good for little ones up through about 5 years old. I am not sure, but it appears the distribution on this book is limited for now and will be more widely available at the first of the year. It was a fall 2006 release.