Library Book Advent Calendar

Hello there, Mary here again--I'm WendyLady@Good Books for Young Soul's daughter, and mother of her grandchild! Over the weekend, I shared my reflections and memories of observing Advent in my childhood Orthodox Christian home.  Today, I'll be sharing about a new tradition that I'm hoping to make an annual undertaking as my own family observes Advent: making an Advent Book Calendar! For this my first attempt, I used mostly library books from two local libraries, and also a few books from my own stash. Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll leave a comment on today's post, my previous post, or Good Books for Young Souls' Advent book giveaway post for the chance to win the beautiful book Can It Be True? by Susan Hill and illustrated by Valerie Greeley! Entries via comment must be made by 12pm noon Pacific Standard Time today, Monday November 17. 11/17 update: Giveaway over. Congrats to my winner was TawniM!

Now, onto the tutorial:

Step one: get some good tea--this project does take time! But is well worth the effort!

 

My son absolutely loves to read (though I understand that this is not so typical of a barely-two-year-old). He can sit with me reading to him for an hour if he's focused enough, but he also enjoys "reading" to himself. SO, making him an Advent Book Calendar seemed like the perfect way to really introduce him to the Advent season of anticipation, and especially to the story of what we are waiting for: the Nativity of Jesus Christ! We are Antiochian Orthodox Christians, and so observe a 40 day Advent from November 15-December 24. But whether you observe a 40 day Advent season or a 25 day Advent season in the month of December, this is a wonderful project and a great tradition to share with your family!

As I said about my son, he's barely-two-years-old, so for our first Advent Book Calendar this year, I tried to get a mixture of books. Finding nearly 40 GOOD Nativity and Christmas books at my local libraries--I felt like I was on a treasure hunt! Of course, I chose many books about St. Nicholas and different tellings of the Nativity story. Grandma gifted us with two wonderful Nativity books, Room for a Little One and Christmas in the Manger last year. But my local libraries provided other great versions in The First Night,  The Donkey's Christmas Song, Little Bunny Finds Christmas, The Friendly Beasts, The Story of Christmas, We Three Kings and a lovely 1952 vintage copy of Christmas in the Barn! I did also get some "seasonal" books that are by some of our favorite authors and illustrators...Jan Brett, Olivier Dunrea, Nancy Tillman, Jean de Brunhoff, Richard Scarry, Karen Katz, and Alexandra Day, to name a few. 

Gennady Spirin's ethereal illustrations depict the lyrics of the well-loved song in We Three Kings.
This might be the book I purchase this year! It looks like a medieval masterpiece!

I was so pleased to find this lovely book, Jane Ray's The Story of Christmas, at my local library!
The illustrations are absolutely beautiful and captivating, and the text is adapted directly
from the Gospel texts about the Nativity. A real treasure!



The Spirit of Christmas by Nancy Tillman.
Am I the only one who wishes my dreams were Nancy Tillman illustrations?!?!
So beautiful, I just want to jump into the book!

Here's how I did it:

Step 1 - Compile the books!

I am on a Budget (with a capital "B").  Advent is 40 days long, and buying 40 books is just not something I can afford to do right now. So I headed to my local library, and while my son played and looked at books, I went to the "Christmas" shelf in the Children's section. I found some books that were favorites from my childhood, but also some "new" treasures. Lucky for me, my library does NOT have a limit as to the amount of books I can check out (woohoo!), and I can also renew online twice (woohoo x 2!) so long as no one has requested one of my books. So off I went to the checkout with 22 Christmas books...in the second week of November. I had a couple books of my own at home, and the rest I got from another local library (I didn't want to "hog" all the good ones at the nearest library. SHARE the bookwealth, by all means!!) *NOTE: My mommy has listed some FANTASTIC Advent and Christmas books on her blog in past years, which you can see here and here and here!

Step 2 - Get organized!

Since I checked out SO many books, I needed to make a system to be sure I returned the right books to the right places. I didn't want 40 wrapped packages and then to get a notice that I had to return some due to requests and have to unwrap them all to figure out which one. I organized the books into categories: Nativity books (a big stack!), saints books (St. Nicholas, St. Lucia, the Magi), Toddler/Concept books (counting, alphabet books), and "other" (where I threw in The Nutcracker by Susan Jeffers and How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss). I kept my receipt printouts from the checkout so I could reference the titles and due dates to easily renew the books online.

Step 3 - Wrapping the books!

Plan ahead--this step takes time! I bought a giant roll of Kraft Paper at Michaels that cost $5.99 but I had a 40% off coupon for the WIN! Once I wrapped each book, I lightly wrote in pencil on the back the title and author/illustrator for each one, so that in CASE I need to return one, I know exactly how to find it. 

It saved time and paper to wrap books of the same size at the same time!
I just sliced the paper between the books and voila!

Step 4 - Number the books!

I went through and compared the books to my calendar...the first books I numbered were those surrounding feast days (St. Nicholas books were the week around his feast day on Dec. 6, St. Lucia book on her feastday Dec. 13, etc). Next, I knew we'd be out of town for a few days at Thanksgiving and did not want to risk losing library books during the weekend, so I made sure to number those books from my own stash. Finally, I chose my favorite Nativity books for the week leading up to Christmas. The rest of the books, I spread out across the remaining days using my "categories". Phew-that was hard to explain, but really quite easy to execute! I'm SO glad I wrote the names in pencil on the back!!

Step 5 - Display the books!

Pinterest search for "Advent Book Calendar" and you'll be amazed at some of the cute and creative ideas that comes up! As for me, I'm all for cuteness, but let's be practical--my kid is two. I decided to try to make part of this project reusable: I made 40 felt ornaments for a felt Christmas tree for him (so cheap and very easy!) Each package has an ornament attached, and so each day he gets to fill up his tree a bit more. And I stuck with some sticker numbers leftover from another project to number the packages. I displayed them with my son's manger scene, which is great because then it's right there to reference and re-tell the story whenever we read a Nativity book!

Step 6 - Enjoy the books!

I think that my son will really love this tradition, and I can't wait to recreate it every year as my family grows.  I hope that it will help to teach him the anticipation and even fasting that we practice during Advent. We limit ourselves to one a day, but as we open each book, we get one day closer to the Nativity! My plan is to buy my children one or two books each year for our Advent Book Calendar, so that by the time they've "outgrown" this tradition, they'll have a wonderful arsenal of Advent and Christmas books to pass along to their children! I think that using library books is GREAT for this idea because it's a FREE way to discover what books your family will love most, and to THEN make the investment into those books.

Here is Peter, opening his first book, Christmas in the Barn by Margaret Wise Brown.
He so enjoyed reading it and putting his little felt ornament on his tree!!

Other Ideas:

So thank you for letting me share my thoughts! Here are some additional thoughts I have that I wanted to share that might tailor better to your needs. If you've done an Advent Book Calendar with success in the past, please feel free to share your ideas in the comments section below!
- If you don't like the idea of wrapping, try a large box or chest with a lock (or without and trust your kids not to open it!) and let them choose one book each day!

- If you want to be even more "economical" with this project, in addition to using library books, why not wrap them in newspaper, last years' wrapping paper, Trader Joes bags (seriously, I could write a book about things I've made with these!), or even cloth! 
- If you are looking to buy books, consider buying used books online, at thrift stores, garage sales, or (my personal favorite!) find a fantastic Library Used Book Store!

- For older children, why not print out the lives of the saint(s) of the day for them to read? There's a great resource on the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese Website for this!

Memories of Advents Past

Hello there! My name is Mary, and I am daughter of the fantabulous Good Books Lady, Wendy. Nice to meet you! Today I'll be sharing a post about some of my childhood memories of the Advent season that we celebrated in our Orthodox Christian home (on the "new calendar," from November 15-December 25) and about how I'm now the mommy of a sweet two-year-old-boy and working to keep the Advent season a special time in my own home. I'll also be guest posting next week when I'll share with you about the Library Book Advent Calendar I'm making for our son! These posts are specifically about my experiences and ideas, but I've tried to include lots of hyperlinks to past posts and external sites for your reference. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy the journey! Blessed Advent!

*Don't forget to check out Good Books for Young Souls Giveaway on the beautiful book Can It Be True? by Susan Hill, Illustrated by Valerie Greeley. Comment on today's post or yesterday's post for a chance to win this beautiful book!*GIVEAWAY OVER!

This is me...25 years ago in our church's Christmas Play!

Childhood memories and the foundations of faith during Advent

I remember Advent from my childhood. Advent was a time of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, but also of great blessing and anticipation! In the Eastern Orthodox Christian Faith that I practice, Advent is a 40 day observance as we journey to be with Christ when He comes, glorified in the flesh, born of the Virgin in a humble manger.  Advent means “coming” or “arrival”, especially of something important or anticipated: in this case, the Incarnation of our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ.  

We would light the candles of our Advent Wreath each night, and sit around the table in the darkness, save for the flickering flames. My dad was usually the one to read the scriptures for the day, and we would each get to build our own advent chain with illustrations based off of what we listened to.  We would sing an Advent hymn. My brothers and I especially loved the journey of Advent through the Old Testament, beginning at the beginning with creation, and then on through the stories of the prophets and saints who were awaiting the coming of the Messiah. As children, you don't really understand all of the imagery and prophecy and foreshadowing and perhaps don't quite grasp what it means that Jesus is coming to be born among us as the incarnate God, but WOW, looking back, when I hear these verses as an adult and hear the genealogy read on Christmas Eve, I think back on these childhood memories, and appreciate how those times laid the foundation for a faith that has become my own.

Me and my brothers with our godparents and godbrother around my mom's
German Christmas Pyramid, fondly known to us as "the whirligig."
It has beautifully carved nativity scenes displayed on each of three tiers!

The Advent Season also meant the celebrations of two of our favorite saints: St. Nicholas of Myra and St. Lucia of Syracuse! These feast days were landmarks of the season, and brought more church services with beautiful hymns. And as the Nativity drew closer and our Advent candles burnt lower, it meant our parish's annual St. Lucia procession and Christmas program! Things we loved; things I still love!  

My parents seemed to strike a healthy balance of helping us to keep focus on the season of Advent in the midst of the consumerist “holiday season” all around. They didn’t expect us to be monastics, and we still had our fair share of cheer, a Christmas tree, and did activities that helped us to anticipate the Nativity! 

Me and my younger brother, Jonny, making gingerbread to give to friends and family on Christmas

But we ended our days with our thoughts turned heavenward, to the Christ who was coming to save us. For 40 days we fasted, and once us kids were old enough, we participated in abstaining from meat and dairy products together with our parents. We gave charitable donations as a family, whether we gave away clothes and toys and food, or gave financially to organizations. And of course, we attended church services that helped us to maintain focus on the season of Advent!

I am so blessed to now be a wife and mother, raising my son in the Orthodox Faith and in an Orthodox Christian home. I have been married to my wonderful husband for almost 7 years (we met at my home parish 11 years ago!) and our sweet son was baptized into that same parish that I was baptized into 27 years ago. I find such guidance and peace in the wisdom of our Mother the Church, and the beautiful faith we practice there! I remember last year when my son was just 15 months old at Christmas, I would show him an icon of the Nativity at church and he would say "Jesus!" "Baby!" and "Tokos!" (for "Theotokos"). I thought How incredible! Even in infancy he has a frame of reference and is learning his faith through looking at icons! This Advent, he is just over two, and is quite the talker. He absolutely loves going to church, will make almost anything he finds around the house into a censer, and prays daily for our clergy. He already has his manger scene out and it is one of his favorite storytelling toys (though we try to treat this toy with the special respect it deserves)! 

For myself, I have found that the blessing of motherhood has challenged and increased my faith, and being equipped with the tools and pillars of the Church (scripture, services, prayers, sacraments, feasts, saints, etc) I feel so blessed to hold my son's hand as he learns his faith and learns to love God on his own. Advent is such a rich time to help to teach him the beginnings of that faith as we anticipate the birth of the Godman Jesus on Earth, come to save us from our sins. So as we await this coming, I hope to teach him to the best of my ability, as I learn anew myself! There's a saying in Orthodoxy, that you cannot and should not ever "know it all" in regards to faith. We are always learning! So I learn humbly to stand in awe before Jesus our Lord alongside my little ones, my husband, and the Body of Christ--His Church.

The "whirligig" Nativity is still captivating, all these years later!

Next week I'll be sharing a "how to" post about how I made a Library Book Advent Calendar for my little guy! In the meantime, my mama has compiled a helpful list of Advent and Christmas Resources you can take a look at. And here are a few additional Advent ideas that I remember our family carrying out in my childhood...

- Wake up at dark-thirty on St. Lucia's day (Dec. 13) and dress up like this amazing saint to bring coffee, cocoa and Lucia buns to your family!
- Make a tradition of giving gift-filled stockings or shoes on St. Nicholas Day (Dec. 6--since really, Santa has nothing to do with the Nativity, but coincidentally the feast of St. Nicholas falls during the time of preparation for Nativity, and he's famous for giving gifts!) Just a note since I know some families are hesitant about this...my brothers and I never once thought it was odd that St. Nicholas visited us on his feast day, while Santa visited most other kids on Christmas. :)
- Spend the day and evening on St. Nicholas Day doing charitable works in secret. We would sometimes donate clothes or toys to a needy family at church or in the community, and it was such a joy for us when we pulled it off without them knowing!
- Minister to the homeless and the elderly. For years, our family regularly visited a sweet wheelchair-bound elderly woman, Margaret, who was paralyzed from MS. She was a treasure! We would spend extra time with her during Advent!
- Give charitable contributions as a family. My parents used to sit us down with a stack of Monopoly money (representing our available funds) and a stack of donation letters to various organizations and let us help decide what to give where. They'd encourage us to give from our own allowances!
- Go to church, celebrate the feasts, fast and pray and sing together! Your Nativity celebration will be much the richer when the time finally comes to say "Christ is Born! Glorify Him!!!"

An Advent Giveaway: "Can It Be True?" YES!

Just like opening windows on an Advent Calendar, your children can open books each night during Advent until December 25. Advent is, after all, about anticipation - it's a time to prepare our hearts and draw nearer to God in anticipation of His coming.

source:  Valerie Greeley

My Eastern Orthodox tradition observes Advent for 40 days before Christmas, with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.  That's why I start blogging about Christmas books in November. Hopefully it helps give you a head start in planning a Book Countdown to Christmas for your children (whether you do a 40-day countdown, or just the 25 days of December). 

~~Go here for my recommended Christmas book list Resource Page. (And watch for my daughter's guest post tomorrow - she'll be sharing about the Advent Book Calendar she's making for my grandson.)~~

My Advent Book Giveaway offering this year, Can It Be True (by Susan Hill, with illustrations by Valerie Greeley) is, like Advent, full of anticipation.  And it's just the right size for little hands to (carefully) hold!  

It's small  - only 4 and 3/4" x 5 and 1/4" - and perfect as a stocking stuffer, or for your Advent Calendar of Books.  

Leave a comment here on today's post (and/or my daughter's post tomorrow) to enter to win your signed copy, donated by my blogger friend, artist Valerie Greeley, from Acornmoon (the book is signed by both her and the author.) 11/17/14 Update: Giveaway now over.  Winner:  TawniM.  Congrats!

I know your child will love reading along about a message passed 
from animal to animal...
On Christmas Eve.
And can it be true?
(The animals banter back and forth.)

You'll have to read it, to find out what the animals do...

Valerie's illustrations are, as expected, exquisite and the perfect accompaniment to Susan's engaging prose poem.  This little gem will be appreciated by readers of all ages!

In addition to this special book, I'll also be sending my winner two little Dover Christmas sticker books.

Giveaway winner announced Monday, November 17, 2014.   Leave a comment here to enter!  I'm happy to mail anywhere inside or outside the U.S.

Valerie Greeley Interview and Book Give-away!

Cheshire, England is a long way from Orange County, California, and if it weren't for blogging, I probably never would have "met" British author and gifted artist, Valerie Greeley.  

Every time I visit her blog, I am treated to a quick peek into her latest projects or wanderings around England! (Besides writing and illustrating children's books, Valerie is a textile and surface pattern designer.)

I'm delighted to tell you that one of Valerie's books White is the Moon has recently come back into print.  To celebrate, I'm doing an interview with Valerie, as well as a review and give-away of the book!  Leave a comment on this post today through midnight Thursday - for a chance to win the Give-away on Friday, April 20, 2012. (If you're not the lucky winner, you can find her book here on Amazon.) Update 4/20/12: Give-Away over - watch for my new post today.  As soon as I've made contact with the winner, I'll post her name.

White is the Moon is a poetic circle of text and color that takes us on a journey from forest, to sky, to sea - all in one day.  Beginning in the dark, with an owl and a full white moon, we are drawn into a day full of different colorful creatures and their habitats.

Title page.

Each of Valerie's perfectly detailed illustrations shows a peaceful scene as one animal encounters another, while her lyrical text leads us to the next creature's surroundings. The moon sees an owl, the owl sees a fox...

Red is the fox

Sly and fast

Sees a frog

Hopping past

The fox sees a frog, who sees the rising sun, which shines on a bird, who finds a crab...

Pink is the crab

Crawling up

Sees a seal

With her pup

The book ends after coming full circle, as nightfall returns with a full moon being gazed upon by a Puffin seabird.  A perfect bedtime story for ages 2-6. Remember to leave a comment at the end of this post, for a chance to win the Give-away of White is the Moon, on 4/20/12 - Friday! (shipped to an address within the U.S. only, please)

You can visit Valerie Greeley's website, which links to her portolio, Etsy page, and information about her other children's books.  Now that you've been introduced, let me help you get to know this very talented lady a little better...

Valerie, all your artwork is so beautiful.  What inspires you?

I have always been inspired by nature and in particular the sort of environment I am surrounded by. The lanes and woodlands around my home provide endless references, plants, flowers, birds, and bees that all appear in my illustrations.

    

How did you get started illustrating children's books?

I had some Camden Graphic's greeting cards in several high street shops in the UK in the eighties. A young lady with small children liked my cards and thought they would look good in the nursery. She happened to be Rosemary Lanning, the children's book editor at Blackie and Son ltd. She contacted the greeting card publisher and they very kindly forwarded her letter to me. (no email in those days!) 

She invited me down to London to discuss the possibility of illustrating a series of wordless baby board books. The office was in High Holborn, I remember it like yesterday. I waited in the board room, a library style room with a portrait of a kindly Cicely Mary Barker on the wall. I felt she was smiling at me, fortune certainly was that day!

Who are your favorite illustrators?

When I was a little girl my father introduced me to the world of books, and they were few but precious in our house. I particularly remember a Children's Treasury of Classics which he gave me as a Christmas present. There were illustrations by many of "The Golden Age" illustrators like Arthur Rackham and  Edmund Dulac and Heath Robinson. They were my earliest influences. Later I discovered the Pre-Raphealites and fell under their spell and tried to paint every leaf and blade of grass.

I also admire the work of Angela Barrett, Nicola Bayley, Gennady Spirin, Frances Tyrrell, Una Woodruff - and many more.

What keeps you busy, these days?

I am now working with my husband Tony Corrigan, a retired English teacher. We are creating new titles for young children, not only for print but for Apps also. We have been contacted by a publisher in South Korea and are in the process of finalising the contract for a new baby book which we have written together. 

We recently created our first children's App with Mobile Children's Books called The Bird with the Rainbow Tail and are looking at getting a print version to market, whilst working on a new calendar for 2013 and a range of greeting cards. I am also very involved with the study of traditional print making techniques, bookbinding, and hand bound books which is a whole new world of discovery.

Well, I'll look forward to reading about that world of discovery on your blog! Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, and good luck with all you do!
With all good wishes from a very warm spring day here in England! 

CELEBRATING "GROUNDHOG DAY" WITH SOME FAMOUS HEDGEHOGS...

If you read my February 2nd post last year, you may remember that hedgehogs have everything to do with what we Americans call "Groundhog Day" and the simultaneously occurring Christian celebration of "Candlemas" (last year's post is HERE).

Paper sculpture by Canadian artist, Calvin Nicholls [photo source here]

This year, I thought it would be fun to remind you of some famous literary hedgehogs.  As you will see, they show up quite often in British children's literature...

Hedgehogs were an intricate part of Alice's game of croquet:
"Get to your places!" shouted the Queen in a voice of thunder... and the game began. Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life; it was all ridges and furrows; the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and to stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches.

illustration by Sir John Tenniel
from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)

The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo: she succeeded in getting its body tucked away, comfortably enough, under her arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she had got its neck nicely straightened out, and was going to give the hedgehog a blow with its head, it would twist itself round and look up in her face, with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out laughing: and when she had got its head down, and was going to begin again, it was very provoking to find that the hedgehog had unrolled itself, and was in the act of crawling away: besides all this, there was generally a ridge or furrow in the way wherever she wanted to send the hedgehog to, and, as the doubled-up soldiers were always getting up and walking off to other parts of the ground, Alice soon came to the conclusion that it was a very difficult game indeed.


American author/artist Jan Brett's Picture Books: 
Have you noticed who's wearing The Hat?  Hedgie also shows up in Jan's books The Mitten, and Hedgie's Surprise.  Her website has some easy instructions on "How to Draw a Hedgehog".

Hedgehogs often show up in the Redwall Series by Brian Jacques:
These prickly beasts come from all walks of life, from warriors to cooks to riverbeasts. They are typically easy-going and friendly, though a few have been known to become eccentric or insane in old age. Many Hedgehogs come from a clan or tribe, such as the Dillypins or Waterhogs, and it is traditional (though not exclusive) for the cellarkeeper of Redwall Abbey to be a hedgehog. [source: Redwall Wiki]

Note: British author Brian Jacques died last year on February 5th.  His wonderful series was a family favorite.  To read my short tribute, click here.

Hedgehogs can do laundry. 
Well, at least Beatrix Potter's "Mrs. Tiggywinkle" could.  (She is probably my favorite hedgehog.)

Water Color Artist, Valerie Greeley...
I'll leave you with this cute little hedgehog, by Valerie Greeley. You can buy the print here from her Etsy shop, Acornmoon. The print is a reproduction of a water color illustration from her children's book, Down the Lane.  Another picture book by Valerie featuring hedgehogs is Field Animals.  (Both books - though currently out of print - are available on Amazon.)

Hedgehog, by Valerie Greeley

A NIGHT OWL, OR AN EARLY BIRD? - WHOOO ARE YOU?

When insomnia hits (which happens more frequently, the older I get!), I sometimes get up and work on my blog in the middle of the night.  Once in a while, just outside the window, I'll hear an eerie "screeech!"  I decided to google "owl calls" and found a website, THE OWL PAGES.  It has everything you'd want to know about owls, including both sound and photo galleries.   The owl screeching in our backyard was a Common Barn Owl.  (I discovered that Screech Owls don't actually "screech", they have a very lovely "hoo-hoooing" call.)


The downside to staying up late is that I miss lots of sunrises...but my husband and son, who are Early Birds, make up for it!  They went on an early morning walk last week and snapped some great pictures of two Great Horned Owls, up in a tree, watching the sunrise.  

Maybe I could get some tips from these "Morning Owls" on how to wake up after a night of no sleep!  They reminded me of some of the beautiful artwork by artist and children's book author and illustrator Valerie Greeley...

Visit Valerie's Etsy site, Acornmoon

One particular house we lived in years ago had rather interesting (and outdated!) wallpaper in several rooms when we bought it. An upstairs bedroom that was to be my daughter's was plastered in greenish-gold owls.  She was afraid she'd have nightmares with dozens of "owl eyes" staring at her all night and refused to sleep there until she'd helped us peel it off the walls.

This print, "Wisdom to the Nines",  by Rachel Caldwell had to have been
influenced by our retro wallpaper.  A little scary for a little girl, huh?

I love this Baby Snow Owl - you can find it
HERE on Etsy by Myko Bocek.

Well, all owls aren't scary and maybe our daughter wouldn't have been as squeamish, if she'd grown up reading some of these irresistible picture books about owls that I've discovered since then:

GOOD-NIGHT, OWL! by Pat Hutchins.  Will Owl ever get any rest?  His sleep is constantly disturbed by neighboring animal noises!  Just when it starts to quiet down, someone new lands in the hollow tree and wakes Owl up.  Your kids will love Pat Hutchin's artwork and the fun twist at the end of the story. (ages 2-5)


WOW! SAID THE OWL by Tim Hopgood.  This is the story of a little owl who decides to take a nap one night in order to stay up all day and see what the world looks like by daylight.  She discovers all sorts of colors that are "WOW" worthy. (Preschool-1st grade)


IN MY TREE by Sara Gillingham and Lorena Siminovich.  This cozy little book comes with a finger puppet owl.  Simple, sweet story - perfect for toddlers.


THE OWL WHO WAS AFRAID OF THE DARK by Jill Tomlinson, illustrations by Paul Howard. Howard's stunning illustrations give new life to the late British author's 1968 tale of an owlet frightened of the night. "The dark is scary," Plop tells Mommy Barn Owl, who wisely instructs him to learn a bit more about it before passing judgment. Soon, Plop is off to find new friends, both human and animal, who tell him their favorite things about the evening, from fireworks and campfire singalongs to viewing constellations.  Ages 3-up.



OWL MOON, by Jane Yolen. A girl and her father go owling on a moonlit winter night near their farm. They trudge through snow "whiter than the milk in a cereal bowl"; here and there a fox, raccoon, fieldmouse and deer, hidden in the shadows, watch them pass. An air of expectancy builds as Pa imitates the Great Horned Owl's call once without answer, then again. From out of the darkness "an echo/ came threading its way/ through the trees." I love that many of the water-color illustrations offer a bird's-eye view of the farmhouse and its surroundings, as if we're flying with the owl.  Ages 4-8.


(Owl lovers, don't miss this CUTE website:  MyOwlBarn.com)