Kids' Picks: Dragons and Mice

We've been doing a lot with our library lately and just returned home with another stack of books yesterday. (There are books littering the floor of our home. Literally. I'm trying to sift through books as quickly as possible because I think books are what is making our house messy at the moment!! Is that a bad thing? You tell me.)

One book on the living room table is a new one from WaterBrook Multnomah Press entitled The Dragon and the Turtle.



I pulled this one out to read with Bookworm1 (age 3 1/2) and it received an instant request for a re-read. (We've read it quite a bit, actually!)

This tells the story of Padraig the Dragon who befriends Roger, the lost turtle. Roger has lost his home while out on a pirating expedition. Padraig befriends him and helps search out and find Roger's home by flying over the island. He is on the look out for a brown home that sounds like singing, smells like cookies, and tastes like strawberries (from the bushes out front.) The key verse surrounding this book is Proverbs 17:17 which says, "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." There is a small study guide after the story which prompts children to think about what it means to be friendly and helpful towards other people.

The illustrations by Vincent Nguyan are perfect for the story. He gives the dragon a friendly look and feel, making both Padraig and Roger look like baby versions of the animals. This is appealing to my three year old who has recently dubbed all baby animals as being "so cute." At the very end of the book there is also a recipe for Chocolate Chip Snappers for anyone interested in a chocolate fix!

Thanks, WaterBrook for the opportunity to check out this new book!

Next up!

Some time back I said that I was going to talk about Christopher Churchmouse and I haven't gotten around to it quite yet.


A few years ago I stumbled across a copy of The Christopher Churchmouse Treasury and snatched it right up! Growing up, Christopher Churchmouse was a bit of a celebrity in our house, given that my brother is named Christopher. Finding a cute little character to teach some moral and Biblical lessons no doubt delighted my mother to no end. I, of course, liked the name but also just enjoyed the mouse and remember reading these books with my brother when he was 4-6 years old.

I picked up this copy of the The Christopher Churchmouse Treasury and tucked it away until just recently. Figuring Bookworm1 was about ready for them, I pulled out the book and I was not at all disappointed by his reaction to the stories. The Treasury includes 6 Christopher Churchmouse stories: Rainy Day Rescue, A Load of Trouble, The Shiny Red Sled, A Flood of Friends, A Short Tail and The Tattletale Tongue. Each one focuses on a specific Bible verse and shares a lesson through the Churchmouse interactions with each other and their friends.



Written by Barbara Davoll and illustrated by Dennis Hockerman, these books originally appeared in the late 1990's. They are kind of hard to find these days, but I highly recommend them should you stumble across them. Davoll and her husband apparently have (and do?) operate a Christopher Churchmouse ministry to connect with children. You can learn more about that on their website if you'd like.

In the meantime, if you want to check out what other books are littering our floors, our tables and every chair in the house - visit Reading My Library to see what we've been hauling home recently!

If You're Happy and You Know It - Kids' Picks

It's time for another Kids' Picks carnival over at 5 Minutes for Books and this time I'm going to share one favorite from each of my kids. Both books happen to be Barefoot Books, and both suit each of my children so perfectly in personality that it's amazing. Check these out:



Bookworm1 was a huge fan of Barefoot Books' musical books with singalong CD's when he was younger - his favorite being Knick Knack Paddy Whack (which I reviewed before and if you click on the title it will take you to my prior review.) Therefore it should really come as no surprise that Bookworm2 is equally attracted to stories through song, Barefoot-style. Then again, it really doesn't come as any surprise to me that any child would like these music/book compilations because they are engaging and fun, welcoming children in to a world with singing, dancing, and much clapping of hands.

There are two songs that I have sung with Bookworm2 since his arrival into our family: Eensy, Weensy Spider and If You're Happy and You Know It, that caused some fun interactions between the two of us. When I saw that Barefoot Books had a singalong for If You're Happy and You Know It, I knew he'd be a huge fan. I was completely right! He loves it!

(By the way, singing this song with a child who breaks out into huge dimples when singing makes it even more fun. Not to show prejudice against non-dimpled children. I have one of those too! There's just something about singing, "then your face will really show it!" and having those two cuties pop out.)

In this particular version of the song, they chose the phrase, "If you're happy and you know it, and you really want to show it" instead of the original "then you're face will really show it" but he doesn't seem to mind the change up.

Read this book or sing along with it - either which way it's guaranteed fun.

Drum roll for the next one please...



It didn't take me long to figure out that Octopus Opposites would be a hit around these parts!

"Octopus fat, octopus thin."

And the thin octopus, he declares, is actually a squid. This does not bother him in the least because his second favorite tentacled creature is the squid (third being the jellyfish) so this book just got better, as far as Bookworm1 is concerned!

Illustrated by Stephanie Bauer, (who apparently lives in Oregon!), this book is bright, lively and creative good fun. There are all kinds of creatures in here that we've found reason to love from pelicans, to beluga whales, to kookaburras! The book is very bright and cheerful and deals with some fun opposites such as bold and shy, empty and fall, climb and fall, etc.

Octopus Opposites is absolutely a winner in our home and we recommend it to you.

Of course, we tend to be quick to recommend Barefoot Books because they are a fantastic children's book company. To find out more about why I like them, see my post over at Reading My Library.

In the meantime, thanks, Barefoot Books, for providing two perfect titles for two kids that I think are pretty special.

Kids' Picks - One Too Many

Time for another Kid Pick carnival at 5 Minutes for Books.

This month, we explored and discovered One Too Many: A Seek & Find Counting Book by Gianna Marino.

Bookworm1 surprised me by really liking this book. Not that it is unlikeable. I just didn't think he would get it. But he did and he loved it!

Illustrated with black and white illustrations, you count up the animals, from one to 'one too many!'

On the first page we see a fly bouncing into the page. It, of course, is black. It bounces into two cows - jerseys, of course. By the time you turn the page, you are looking at one fly, two cows and three black and white horses which start to make the eyes feel energetic and the page feel a bit crowded. But we're not done! Oh no! There are a lot more animals to add to this barnyard scene and it because trickier and trickier to count them out of the crowd.

Bookworm1 is a fan of the I Spy books so I shouldn't have really been so surprised that he latched on to One Too Many so quickly. From beginning to end, he enjoyed figuring out what animals had joined the scene and was working at hunting them all out!

So, despite it's simplistic (and yet complicated!) design and idea, we're happy to recommend this one. Think of it as a sophisticated I Spy book with farm animals. It's definitely more artsy. I don't meant to sound so surprised about liking it but, in truth, I am!



Ever been surprised by what your kids pick to love? I hope you'll decide to share with us over at 5 Minutes for Books!

Oceans

Welcome again to another Kids' Picks carnival over at 5 Minutes for Books. Last month we talked about ocean animals and, guess what?! This month we're going to do the exact same thing because why!? Repeat after me: We Love Sea Creatures. Oh yes, we do. They are "our" focus right now.

Imagine the surprise and complete delight on Bookworm1's face when the following book arrived in the mail, courtesy of Silver Dolphin books:



Oceans is labeled as being "The Ultimate Guide to Marine Life" and it certainly holds up the claim (especially if you are three and have devoted your entire life to the study of marine life.) Although my three year old is making the most out of this book right now, this is a book we can grow with, being designed with older kids in mind. I would say that this book is probably "best" for ages 6-12 but, like I said, my son is three and we like it just fine!

This book is hardback but spiral bound which I find an absolutely fantastic combination. (I love books like this!) Immediately upon opening the book you discover two wall posters (folded up and protected inside plastic zip pouches) depicting Life on a Coral Reef and relating to ocean depths. The "Ocean Depths" poster indicates various layers of the ocean and which sea creatures you might find on what level. Sharks, sting rays, whales, dragon fish, a lantern fish, etc., etc. you get the idea!

The rest of Oceans is laid out like a set of files in a filing cabinet, but thanks to the spiral bound book, you can easily navigate through the files which are labeled as follows:

* Animal Profiles (with see-through pages to help the young learner understanding anatomy of various things like hermit crabs and lemon sharks.)

* Oceans of the World (elf explanatory.)

* Invertebrates (with discussions of things like jellyfish, sponges and mollusks - not to mention - and indeed we must not forget!- an octopus.)

* Fish

* Reptiles and Birds

* Sea Mammals (whales, of course!)

* Human Impact (with discussions involving oil spills, ocean power, sea levels, etc.)

This book does a tremendous job providing basic information on a large variety of sea creatures and ocean concerns. The photographs used in this book are crisp, clear and delightful to look at. In fact, we have enjoyed looking at this book for hours on end, learning new things about the ocean that we didn't know before. I love the layout of this book. It feels very organized and straight forward, allowing you to focus on particular sections of ocean life instead of having it all thrown together in a big mess for you to sort out. "Amazing Facts" are scattered throughout the book on coral reefs to penguins alike. Oceans receives four thumbs up from us (2 thumbs per person) and we're happy to recommend it to you.

THIS POST ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AS A GIVEAWAY, BUT THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

Thank you, Silver Dolphin Books, for your tremendous generosity!

Kids' Picks

I missed last month's Kids' Picks carnival at 5 Minutes for Books so I'm sort of getting back in the groove. It's no secret around here that we have a sea life obsessed three and a half year old running around these parts and so you shouldn't be at all surprised by the fact that his picks involve ocean life.

His first pick and a frequent requested read around these parts is My Visit to the Aquarium, by Aliki. I've written about Aliki before over at Reading My Library. She's a rather private author/illustrator and it's been hard to learn more about her, but just about everything that we've picked up by her we have absolutely loved. This book is no exception. In fact, it's greater than the general rule.

This book lays out a young child's visit to the aquarium, talking about how you can walk through coral reefs, touch things in a tide pool, see sharks being fed., etc. Actually, the book reminded me a great deal of aquarium in Long Beach, CA that we had the opportunity of visiting last year. My Visit to the Aquarium really sets up expectations well for a visit to the aquarium, whetting my young boy's appetite for real life visual encounters with octopuses, sharks and various and sundry sea life.

I don't know if you could marry two subjects more perfectly for my son than to combine Thomas the Tank Engine and sea creatures. If your child has an interest in either, you should check out Down at the Docks which sits on our coffee table, very close by My Visit to the Aquarium. In this particular story, Thomas goes down to the docks to see if he can be of any use and he finds Salty toting around some aquarium cars which contain a dangerous looking shark (that scares the bejeebies out of Percy) and an octopus. Due to Percy having been frightened by the shark, a huge catastrophe occurs and the help of a brave and very useful little engine is required in order to clean up one huge mess!

It's a cute story and it's about Thomas (oh, and an octopus!) and so we're happy with it.

Speaking of an octopus - we went and saw one yesterday. Thanks to a tip from a friend, we heard that you could see a real live octopus being fed at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. So we decided to take a day trip to see it and it was every bit as amazing as we were led to believe! (Thanks, anonymous friend of mine. ;) ha!)

Bookworm1 was dancing jigs to be able to see a real octopus and he watched with fascination as the octopus ate his meal of a dungeness crab. His prayer at bedtime, following our return home, was full of thankfulness for the opportunity to see this beast hide under a rock and then come out and eat a crab.

He was made even more thankful because, although I meant to heed my friend's warning about the Science Center's book store, it was a bit more tempting than I anticipated. We walked away with a new toy octopus and the following book which we have read multiple times already and also recommend it to you as a great ocean life read:



Gentle Giant Octopus tells the story of a mother octopus who is in search of a cave in which she can lay her eggs. She has a run in with a crab and an eel before she finds the perfect spot to place her babies. Did you know that an octopus can lay around 60,000 eggs at a time!? Any guesses as to how many survive?! I was blown away when I heard the answer.

This book very nicely affirmed everything that the octopus feeder/tour guide told us when we were at the center which made this book the perfect follow-up for our trip.

Lastly, in anticipation of our upcoming trip to see our sea friend, we made a cake. I told Bookworm1 that I would put the icing on and then he could get whichever sea creatures of his that he would like to put on the cake and decorate it himself. This is his cake:


Haha! I love looking at it. I loved watching him decorate his cake too! He was just so very happy!

We had a wonderful three day weekend together as a family. We're storing up the memories of our excitable and thankful child and learning so much about the ocean as we go!

Kids' Picks

Kregel Publishers sent us a few books to check out that, ever since they have arrived, have been spread out on one end of our dining room table. I think it's very fitting that they been talked about in conjunction with the Kid Picks carnival at 5 Minutes for Books because my son just loves playing with them and reading them!



Just released this year, the My Noah's Ark Jigsaw Book and the My Nativity Jigsaw Book are perfect ways to engage young children who love puzzles with these two Bible stories. Of course, perfect for Christmas is the Nativity book and we've kept that one out for permanent play throughout the month of December. The story itself opens with an angel appearing to Mary saying, "You will be a mother; your child, God's Son." There is a 9 piece jigsaw puzzle that fits inside the opposite page for instant play if you so desire (or you can finish reading the story if you are so very lucky!). There are six page spreads and therefore six 9-piece puzzles within the book. In it, we travel with Mary and Joseph to Bethleham. We see the baby Jesus laying in the manger, and then meet the angels as they are appearing to the shepherds.

I would recommend that an adult remove the puzzle pieces during the first use of the book to prevent destroying the pieces. (Or, at least, I recommend the adult of any 3 year old doing so!) The pieces come out easily enough after that and are of good quality. They will not rip easily and re-lock into the page and the square provided for the puzzle quite well. I was curious as to how well these puzzles would hold up with our three year old but he has been playing with them quite a bit and they seem to be doing just fine. Bookworm1 is right at the 9-piece stage so these are absolutely perfect for where he is at developmentally as far as the puzzles are concerned. The stories themselves are written to be well within the understanding of a two year old though. There are about two sentences per page spread to make it a nice, easy read. (This is probably a good thing, being that there are puzzles to distract from the story itself! Simple sentences are best and you can elaborate while working on the puzzle.) The illustrations are well done and are bright, cheerful and happy.

Both the Nativity and the Noah's Ark books are appreciated around these parts: one because it represents a super, duper fun holiday and the other for the animals. But it's a start and it's right where we are at and therefore I appreciate them very much for the fun and the frolick!

To add to the fun here are a couple of vidoes we find absolutely fascinating:

Because we are being well-trained in the ways of Steven Curtis Chapman, we're enjoying this:



And because we love yelling out the names of animals we see, it doesn't matter whether or not this video has sound:



Hope you enjoy!

Iza Trapani

It's time for another round of Kid Picks at 5 Minutes for Books so I thought I'd share a series of books by an author that Bookworm1 just loves. ANYtime we have one of these books laying around, it's snatched up and it receives its requested read/sing. What am I talkin' about? Check these out:




She was born in Poland and entered a family as one of three children. At age seven, she sailed with her mother across the Atlantic Ocean, to come to America. In Poland, under communist regime, entire families were not allowed to travel overseas at one time. Therefore Iza's mother sailed with her seven year old girl, leaving husband and two other children behind. Iza's mother hoped to eventually bring the rest of the family over to America, but unfortunately, before she was able to do so, she died.

Before much longer, Iza's father also died in Poland and Iza was not able to be brought over to her home country and her siblings, a brother and a sister. Iza spent 3 1/2 years in a Catholic orphanage in New York, before completing high school and then moved to the Hudson River Valley. It would be twenty-five years before Iza would be reunited with her brother and her sister.

This story has a familiar ring to it, historically speaking. America is used to the tired, poor, weary and downtrodden entering its shores and finding rest and opportunity here. It does not take too much to imagine that a little seven year old Polish girl would immigrate to America with her mother, only to find herself an orphan in a strange country.

It is harder to imagine that Iza made this journey in 1961.

Her story sounds like it belongs in the late 1880's, not in the second half of the 21st century!

Iza learned to read and speak English with the initial help of a Mother Goose book. She spent her early years working as a nanny, short order cook and waitress while earning an art degree at the State University in New Paltz. Always it was her dream to write picture books for children.

At this time, Iza has a wonderful collection of children's books to her name. (You can see the whole list of her books here.) She lives in Rifton, New York with her husband and stepson on a farm. You can see pictures of the farm by visiting her website.

While Iza Trapani's name and history might have been unfamiliar to you, it is likely that her children's books have caught your attention before - at least by title! It was suggested to Trapani that she write verse additions, or to retell, classic story rhymes. Trapani wanted to pick titles that were familiar to children, so as to draw them to the books, and to pick sweet stories and songs such as Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

Bookworm1 and I were first introduced to Trapani through her book Row Row Row Your Boat. In this old/new song we travel down the river with a bear family who, bargaining for a fun family adventure, do not envision rainstorms effecting the journey. However, a little rain doesn't stop them from enjoying the journey and we meet all kinds of animals in the woods as they travel along. My mom brought this book along with her when she came up to Oregon to visit and we fell in love with it.

The next book we snatched up was Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star which took us on a magical journey late at night, flying in the sky over lighthouses and other sleeping children. Trapani's verse additions fit in with the rhythm and tune of the original song and instead of feeling like an add-on or it feeling anywhere near dysfunctional, it adds to the song in a delightful way. She really did a good job of drawing her readers into simple songs and taking them on fun journeys.

We have continued to explore Trapani's works through our local library, feasting on the songs and adventures of I'm a Little Teapot as Miss Teapot travels around the world. We have also enjoyed Baa Baa Black Sheep who doesn't appear to care for any of its animal friends until they all discover that while they thought he didn't care, he was using his wool for good purposes.

Timeless songs + clever stories = a great deal of fun.

If you haven't yet stumbled upon Iza Trapani's books, I would encourage you to do so. They are specifically geared for children aged 4-8 but my two year old has enjoyed them very much. Children are drawn to music and song and these books fit the bill completely, allowing you plenty of time to sing and read and dream a bit with your youngster. I am delighted to have some of these books in our family collection and hope to continue to add to it over time!

For more information about this talented author/illustrator, visit Iza Trapani's website.

Most importantly, have fun!