More Christmas Books

We have found a few more titles to add to our Christmas reading list.  After all, we have a lot of finding to do if we are ever going to be able to start an advent book pile like this one.

We are love love loving, The 12 Days of Christmas.  It is a simple board book really, everything you would expect from the title.  But the key is to sing it.  H and I couldn't help ourselves.  We sing it at the top of our lungs.  Each page only deals with the corresponding number and gift, but we then flip back through the pages and sing it like you would the actual song.  I would love to learn to sign this book too in ASL (one of our family goals for learning languages.)   But for now it is just, sing it Mama for me.  OK, maybe our kids will remember us a crazy, but at least they are having fun.

Also from our last trip to the library - in the seasonal category, is: What the Little Fir Tree Wore to the Christmas Party and Christmas In Mouseland (Angelina Ballerina).  If you haven't heard of the Little Fir Tree it is a sentimental little book about a little fir tree who longs to wear a white dress to the Christmas party.  It has lovely illustrations and you can almost imagine that all trees talk to each other after reading this one.

Lastly, I stumbled upon I Love Christmas, because I am a huge fan of Anna Walkers books, and it is just as lovely as I expected.  I was sad to give this one away as a gift.  Hmm, might have to pick up a copy for us.

Happy reading!

Floating Princess

 Just a quick note to say that we check out Princess Hyacinth (The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated) from the library the other day and are LOVING it!

The story is fresh and quirky with a funny narrative voice and the illustrations are joyful and fun.  So if you love a good princess story, but one with spunk and humor rather and tulle and wicked stepmothers, then this is a good choice.  I particularly like the images of Hyacinth enjoying floating and laughed that her floating was best done in the royal underwear.

Do you Readeo?

We did.

We finally tried Readeo with Mimi.  She read three stories to BB and LF and it went over pretty well.  Aside from LF's usually need to smack the keyboard, that is.  Here are my thoughts on it so far.  Please note: I have no affiliation with Readeo, this is not an ad, just my thoughts on a new way to read.

1) What a cool thing to be able to do!  How amazing is it that their grandmother can read to them from the other side of the country and they can talk about the story and look at the same images.  So cool in fact that BB woke up this morning asking if Mimi was going to read him another story.

2) Set up was pretty easy.

3) The book selection seems fairly good.  We don't have access to all the books at the moment as we are only using the free trial, but I can see all the titles.

4) It was a little difficult to start the first "bookchat" - we ended up starting simultaneous chats and could hear but not see each other.  But we figured that out pretty quickly.

5) The pointer tool isn't that great.  It is too faint and I think BB had trouble seeing where Mimi was pointing, but I really liked the idea so that you can discuss particular things in pictures or point to particular words.

6)  I like the layout of the page - Book centered above and video chat windows smaller below.

7)  The text was a bit hard to see, but we were only reading on my fairly small laptop screen.  I think that if we were on a larger desktop screen, it might have been better.  I might even hook my laptop up to the TV screen next time to see how it looks.

In a nutshell. It went really well and BB and I are looking forward to trying it again soon.  Also, Readeo sent out a survey straightaway after the chat, so it seems that they really care about perfecting the service.  (I haven't filled it out yet, but I will) and it will be interesting to see how the feedback is received.

Good Deals and Good Causes

  
As a self confessed book shopaholic (which brings up memories of the giddy fun of my Mom taking me to bookstore and letting me choose whatever books I wanted, on her) I thought I would pass on some good book deals that I came across lately.

You can pick up five different books right now in boxes of Cheerios.  We got No T. Rex in the Library the other day, which was totally exciting to BB.  We also picked up 1 Zany Zoo last time they did this give away, which is a pretty fun book.   I am definitely going to have to do a serious Cheerio stock up, not only because LF and I eat oodles of them, but also because I want a free copy of All the World.  Check out the Spoonfuls of Stories website, it seems like a really great cause to help get books to needy families.

The other good deal that I have been meaning to mention is Costco - I picked up Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas and Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters each at about $8 dollars under the listed price.  (More on Of Thee I Sing later.)

*I don't have an affiliation with Cheerios or Costco - just wanted to pass on some good deals.  Happy shopping!

Holiday Tradition Find

So I know that I harp on a bit about books from my past, and also asked recently what readers would suggest to me as far as holiday books - so when my sister sent me a link to Savouring the Details' Christmas book tradition, I was totally psyched.  Plus, since I have a pretty young family, I am always on the look out for new traditions to make our own.

What a wonderful idea to wrap up all of your favorites.  I already have visions of sugar plums BB and LF's faces as they rip open the wrapping on old favorites and exciting new additions alike.  That said, and don't tell H, but I have already started shopping to beef up our collection (more on some good book deals in the next post.)  Yippee!  I do love an excuse to buy books!

In our stack at the mo - Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas, The Littlest Angel, Eloise At Christmastime, Dear Santa, Lyle at Christmas just to name a few.  For more suggestions check out the this post by Savouring the Details.

High and Low Tech Reading Ideas

I am lucky at the moment that BB and LF love story time, especially BB - so I don't have to think of much other than great books to entice them.  But I am fully aware that this might change and so I am keeping my eyes open for cool new ideas to encourage reading.

The high-tech option:  We haven't tried it yet, but I found a mention of Readeo in a parenting mag.  It seems like a super cool service through which you can video chat and read a book with a child at the same time.  They call it BookChat.  I call it cool.  So we are going to sign up for the free trial offer and try it out with Mimi.  I will keep you posted once we try it, to let you know how it goes.

The low-tech option:  I was at a salvage yard today and BB bee lined it for what looked like a sweet little playhouse.  As I stood there waiting for him to agree to come back out, I looked down at the for sale sign and noticed that they were calling it a reading house.  On closer inspection I noticed that one outside wall was made an inbuilt bookcase (which created a little shelf on the inside too) and the roof had a little lip at the over-hang so that you could place books or magazines along the roof too.  The inside was pretty plain and just big enough for a couple of bean bags, a chair and table or whatever.

I was thinking to myself that it seems like a pretty cosy way for a little one to curl up with a book and feel like they were in a world of their own.  Also, I am guessing that this was meant to be an indoor reading house, so you would need a pretty big space, but I bet if you made the shelves on the inside, rather than out, you could have this in a backyard too.

My description probably didn't do it justice, so I will try to draw and scan the basics of this house, in case you want to make one for your own little ones.

Lastly - and back to high-tech, I am thinking a lot lately about children's ebooks.  My next move is probably going to be to download a few and see what BB and LF think of them.  I don't have an e-reader other than, I suppose, my laptop and my iphone, but that should suffice to get started.  I want to know more about the options before we jump to buying an actual dedicated reader.

What are your thoughts on e-readers for children's books?  I would love to heard from readers and authors alike.  Also, if you use them, which do you use and can anyone tell me how the graphics look on the Nook?

That's all for me.  I need to recover from the festivities this weekend of celebrating LF's 1st Birthday.

Head over heals for Art & Max

 Wow, I have never been so happy that the library was closed, despite my two trips (yes, two) there before remembering a poster I had seen saying that staff training would be taking place on Veteran's Day.

I am happy because I was big time craving some new books, and so decided to bring Bud Bud and Little Flower over to the books store in the absence of the library.

There we picked up some books on Thanksgiving and Christmas and then - Art & Max by David Wiesner.  Wow!  I had seen a suggestion for this book on another blog, but to be honest hadn't paid it much attention after finding out the the local library didn't have a copy.  But this book is just up my alley.

Arthur is an experienced painter who is painting "serious" portraits when Max bursts onto the scene - the story that follows is exquisitely illustrated in exciting and novel detail.  After Max literally paints Arthur, we watch him step after step deconstruct Arthur's color, form and line and then build him back up again.  The illustrations show artistic styles such as pointillism, abstract expressionism and ends with Arthur and Max painting side by side with joy and excitement.

An artist myself, an art history buff, and of course a children's book lover, I think this is a wonderful book.  A definite recommend!  You can read it straight through and just enjoy, or as I am always looking for, you can stop and talk to your child about so many aspects of the story, such as art making itself, art history and the physical actions of the characters.

Also, if you have an interest in how children's books are developed, click on the link about - which takes you to the Amazon page for the book, which includes a series of mock ups by the author as he developed the characters and story.  Very interesting.

Please help me make a Holiday List

    Ok, so I have a children's book fail to admit.  Not Just Another Jen asked me what my favorite Halloween books are and I didn't have an answer....  Firstly, I have to admit that I was too late to reserve any Halloween books from the two local libraries that we frequent (by the time I checked in late September, they were all reserved.) Second, I really only know specific holiday themed books from my childhood and a few that were given to Bud Bud in the last two years.  

So unless I am only ever  destined to read my children the books from my past (which, of course, I will still incorporate), I am going to need help.

Please, please help by posting your suggestions for holiday books (for all holidays) - it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Getting Nostalgic

           I have been wondering what books will stick with Bud Bud and Little Flower when they older.  Pictured above are some of the ones that jump to mind from my childhood, I have mentioned a number of them before.  All have special memories of my Mom reading them to me.  I hope I can do that for my kids.

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes  - just about my favorite holiday book.  I love the pastel-ish illustrations which are the colors that will always, in my mind, be associated with Easter.  I just love the egg with a beautiful scene inside and the wonderfully sweet face of the sleeping child.

Eloise - was just about my favorite book ever.  I wanted to be just like her, pour water down the mail shoot, lose my skate key and wear an egg cup as a hat.  I was even known to have visited her portrait at the Plaza a time or two.

The Secret Staircase (Brambly Hedge) - This book is Christmas for me.  I love the secret tiny life portrayed here and wanted nothing more than to join their mid-winter ball. 

The Littlest Angel - I am still taken with the idea of a box of treasured things from childhood, and even have one of my own.  (and I fully intend on making little treasure chests for the kiddos to keep their on beloved objects.)

The Velveteen Rabbit - Listing this book reminds me of how a wonderful book can become part of your families vocabulary.  My Mom always used to refer to our loved/well used stuffed animals, books, clothes as "real" - our birthday's were always our "Day of all days"  because of Dr Seuss, and there are lots of other phrases, but I won't bore you.

Here are a few more that I loved:  The Missing Piece, The Runaway Bunny, The Adventures of Lowly Worm, and Jelly Beans For Breakfast.

What books did you love and what books still stick with you?