Pet Love

Harriet Ziefert celebrates creativity and the bond between pet and owner in her new book My Dog Thinks I'm a Genius. When a little boy paints a masterpiece he's certain that his dog thinks he is a genius. Little does he know that his work of art has inspired his pooch to do some creative painting of his own! When he comes home and his dog isn't waiting for him, what will he find? What has his dog been getting into alone in his art studio? Check out this enjoyable new picture book from Harriet Ziefert to find out!

This book is a great tie in to a free painting or coloring day during craft time! It's great to give kids the opportunity to just be creative now and then, and not have a project with specific instructions or a coloring sheet with line to color inside of. Free coloring and painting is also good for building fine motor skills and laying the foundation for writing later on.

The Quilt Walk

Sandra Dallas is a local Colorado author and her new book, The Quilt Walk, is her first book for juvenile audiences and does not disappoint. It tells the story of young Emmy Blue, her family, and their journey from western Illinois to the gold-rush boom town of Golden, CO in the mid-1860s. While saying their good-byes to loved ones in Illinois, Emmy's grandmother gives her a small package with a warning not to open it until they are across the Missouri River. When she opens it, her heart sinks. It is pre-cut pieces for a log cabin doll's quilt. Emmy Blue hates to quilt, she tries to think of any excuse she can not to finish her quilt.

Will she complete the quilt and maybe even learn to love quilting? Will her family make it safely to Golden? What adventures will she encounter while in the wagon train? Anyone who likes the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, playing Oregon Trail on the computer or with an interest in Colorado history is sure to enjoy this book. It's a great book for a family read aloud or for independent reading. Check it out!

Shelfari and Social Media

These things are already featured in the side bar are of this blog, but I wanted to highlight them in a blog post as well. Shelfari, Twitter and Facebook are all great ways to keep up with what I'm reading, book reviews on quality children's lit and interesting and exciting headlines in the education and library world.

Check out my Shelfari Bookshelf here. I only add books that I would give 3+ stars, these are the best books I've read and each is reviewed. Those books which are great for young children (0-6) are also highlighted with pre-reading skills they help to develop. Beyond young children I've also read and reviewed juvenile and young adult chapter books and non-fiction.

Click on the links in the sidebar to follow my tweets or check out the facebook page for this site!

Making Music

I wanted to highlight to Jazz inspired poetry picture books today. Poetry and Jazz seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly, and these two books are good compliments to each other as well. The first is I Live in Music by Ntozake Shange and the other is Jazz by Walter Dean Myers. Though not a book of poetry, a good prose book to throw into the mix is Song and Dance Man by Karen Ackerman. All three of these books, and their illustrations, speak to the way that music makes us feel more alive.

Putting together a dress up trunk like the one in Song and Dance Man is a great way to bring these books to life. Gather up some old clothes from relatives, garage sales and/or thrift stores, include shoes and accessories too. Put on some music, for these books I would recommend Putumayo Kids' New Orleans Playground CD and let your kiddos put on a show!

When I was little my sister and I had a dress up trunk of old dresses and costume jewelry that was given to us for Christmas by my great-aunt and great-grandmother. We occasionally added new pieces as old ones got worn out - but it was well used for many years. Creating a dress up trunk is not just an investment for one day's activity, but for years of pretend play!



As a side note: creating your own dress up trunk from used clothes is a lot more personal than just buying one of the pre-fab trunks or costumes that are available - and it is a good green option that cuts down on consumer waste!

Happy Father's Day

My local library had a great display of books up for Father's Day at my last visit, so I grabbed the one with the most interesting title. They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but title's are usually pretty telling and this one did not disappoint: The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish by Neil Gaiman (who also happens to be the brilliant author of the Newbery Award winning The Graveyard Book - someday I'll do a whole post of Neil Gaiman books, but today is not that day).

The illustrations, by Dave McKean, are wonderful and the story is engaging. I hope you will check out a couple great Dad's Day books this year to share as a family. Dads, reading to your children is one of the bests gifts you can give them, and will insure that you will be knee-deep in ties, soap-on-a-rope and "World Greatest Dad" mugs, paperweights and mouse pads for years to come!

Belated Christmas

I had very good intentions of posting a Christmas-themed reading selection BEFORE the holiday. But alas and alack, things at work got quite busy and I missed my window of opportunity before the holiday.

Still, I did want to give a shout out to the book How Santa Really Works by Alan Snow. This is a great picture book for sharing, or for older readers (2nd grade and up) to tackle on their own. The basic story is laid out pretty simply, but there are extra hilarious tid-bits in speech bubbles from the elves on each and every page. While it is a truly fun and whimsical read, it is subversively educational because the North Pole, it turns out, runs very much like a large business with its departments and divisions of labor. Somehow, it's more interesting when one is learning how Santa does it than how Wells Fargo Bank does.

I hope you had a Merry Christmas!

Thank you for reading, and keep an eye out in the New Year, for new posts and new ideas for taking adventures with books!

Snow, snow, snow, snow, snow . . . . .

Here in Colorado it is snowing again. I love the snow. Last year we didn't get a measurable snow until November, this year we have had two in October and I have loved it! Most snow books seem to revolve around Christmas, it is hard to find some just about the changing seasons - but I've managed it.

Snow Party by Harriet Zeifert tells the story of snow people who gather to celebrate the first snow of the season. Late at night while the snow falls around them, the snow people kick up their heels.

The Winter Visitors by Karol Hayes may be short on words but it is long on story. A simple read due to its low word count and simple word choice, it tells much more story through the pictures which appear in multiple frames per page like a comic or graphic novel. It is a great book for little ones to use their imaginations and practice their story telling by explaining to you what is going on in the pictures - a story within a story.

Last but not least Under the Snow by Melissa Stewart tells a simple story of how many animals make it through the winter. For instance, did you know that the wood frog can freeze solid under the snow and survive to thaw out and hop happily away come spring?

Now my family had a tradition that the first solid freeze or the first snow of the year we would have homemade chilli for dinner and a fire in the fireplace. Perhaps this is the year to start a tradition of your own, maybe chilli like my family did or perhaps pumpkin bread, candle making, s'mores, chicken noodle soup, meatloaf or chicken pot pie. The sky is the limit, use your family's tastes and your own favorite comfort foods and activities as your guide.