Give me a show of hands if your children (and, let’s face it, you…) are obsessed with Jory John’s and Pete Oswald’s Seed/Egg/Bean series! If you, like my girls and I, have your hands in the hair, then rejoice, because… There’s a new member of the gang! Today, I’m thrilled to introduce you to The Couch Potato, by the fantastic John and Oswald duo! Read on to get a little insight into this hilarious addition to the series.
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Do you know Trudy Ludwig’s books? I’ve written before about Sorry! and The Invisible Boy. Those books have been two of our favorites for a while in our house, and both made it onto a variety of Family Focus Trait booklists this year. In other words, they’re wonderfully done and very powerful. So, when Trudy Ludwig reached out to me to see if my family would like her newest book, The Power of One: Every Act of Kindness Counts, you can bet I jumped on that offer! Read on to see a little about this new gem of a book.
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Do you have a favorite last line from a book? I usually think about my favorite leads, or first lines, in books. I mean, it doesn’t get much better than when Fern asked her mother “Where’s Papa going with that ax?” to open Charlotte’s Web. How could you not keep reading after that, because you just have to know where Papa is going and what he’s going to do with that axe! But, I shared two closing paragraphs from some nonfiction I’d read recently last week, and today’s recommendation, Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina has another incredible closing line. The kind of finality that sticks with you after you close the book. One that makes you think and makes you want to return to the book again and again.
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How do your kids keep track of what is happening and when it will happen in their lives? For probably three years now, we’ve used this little beauty (it lives on one of our kitchen cabinets next to our eating table)… When the girls were really little, I’d just write their initials and draw a little picture representing what they were going to do each day (since they couldn’t read). When quarantine hit, I took it off of the cabinet, because there was no reason to have it up. But, we dragged it out again a few weeks ago, because we finally have a few (socially distanced, outdoors, and safe…) things to do these days, and we realized both children benefited from having control over knowing what to anticipate each day and week.
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Have you seen the “A Kids Book About…” series yet? I had seen the books floating around Instagram for a while and been intrigued, so I decided to take advantage of a 25% off sale (plus free shipping on 3 or more books) that they had this summer and give them a try. With more than 25 titles to choose from, it was a tough decision which to buy, and I could have spent a small fortune on these. But, I managed to narrow it down to A Kids Book About Money, A Kids Book About Empathy, and A Kids Book About Racism. Read on to learn a little about the series, to see our impressions based on these three books, and to get a quick peek at which titles I have my eye on next!
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Okay, so we all know that it’s important — and hard — to stand up to people we don’t know well, or strangers we don’t know at all, when they are doing something wrong, hurtful, or mean… But let’s be honest for a minute. It’s just as important, and often much harder, to stand up to our friends when they do wrong. And unfortunately, children’s books about standing up to our friends are often much harder to find! For an elementary audience, you all know that I love The Hundred Dresses (you can read my full review of this gem here). Today, I’ve got a delightful picture book aimed at younger readers and listeners about doing the right thing when your best friend is trying hard to pull you off track — Hunter’s Best Friend at School by Laura Malone Elliott, illustrated by Lynn Munsinger.
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Okay, everyone, I have an extremely delightful bedtime board book for you today, and to make it even more lovely, Bedtime on Noah’s Ark was written by a father/son duo, Brock and Declan Eastman! Read on to learn a little about their inspiring book.
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When everyone was sharing first-day-of-school books, Our Favorite Day of the Year popped up on tons of lists. I had to wait for our library to get it in and processed, but I was first in line for it when they did… and it’s just delightful! We paired it with Hats of Faith, a terrific board book, for a wonderfully informative and diverse storytime. Read on to see what makes these two books so special!
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On Sunday night, we had our next Family Focus Trait family meeting about being upstanders. During this meeting, we read the book Say Something by Peggy Moss, illustrated by Lea Lyon, and we went through a few role plays in which we practiced what we might say or do to be upstanders. If you don’t know the book Say Something by Peggy Moss, please read on to learn about it, as I think it’s a valuable book for both home and classroom libraries!
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If you’re a parent, then you’ve likely battled a child over bathtime at some point in your parenting career. And, as with most parts of a child’s day, did you know that people have written wonderful books for children about bathtime, helping to make bathtime fun and exciting for your reluctant bathers? Reminiscent of Chris Van Dusen’s If I Built books, Bobby Babinski’s Bathtub, written by Judy Young and illustrated by Kevin M. Barry, is one such book. Read on to see what makes this such a delightful celebration of taking a bath!
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