EVER BEEN ON A BLIND DATE...with a BOOK?

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Yesterday was Valentine's Day, and also "International Book Giving Day".  I wanted to donate some books, and decided to support my local library at the same time by donating some used children's books I knew I could buy from our library bookstore...  

With grandbaby in tow, my daughter and I went to one of our local libraries, where we were greeted by the cutest book display I've seen in a long time.  There was a sign that read, 

"HAVE A BLIND DATE WITH A BOOK!"

It seems that libraries (and high schools) all across the U.S. are getting into the act, trying to encourage people to read, and using Valentine's Day as their happy medium. 

Library card holders can check out a book from a shelf full of books wrapped in plain paper - their genre and title are hidden from the reader. 

Written directly across the wrapped book were words and phrases with hints telling library patrons a little about what’s inside; just enough to pique their interest! (The library barcode is on the back, for secretive check-out.) 

You unwrap your book when you get home, perhaps discovering a new favorite book or author. 

The best part? 

"If you don't enjoy the book, bring it back with no hurt feelings or awkward breakups."

So - what books did I end up with to donate on "International Book Giving Day"?  They were both chapter books. (I left them anonymously on a playground park bench with a note.)  Here are some hints:  

• Book #1: "Meet a Girl"; "American"; "Victorian"
• Book #2: "Bear"; "Orange Marmalade"; "Train Station"; "England"

Guesses?

How cute is this display? This library REALLY got into the Valentine spirit! [source]

Next year, inspired by the photo above, I think I'll wrap my books to donate as "Mystery Valentines" (kids don't go on blind dates!)

Even Maggie Smith has something to say about it! [source]

Paris (and Giveaways!), Je t'aime!

Before you learn about this special Valentine's giveaway, take a look at the book that inspired this post:

With St. Valentine's Day just around the corner, I was looking for a good "love story" to feature on my blog.  Of course, finding a good children's book about love is not particularly difficult.  The titles are abundant and diverse.  But I was looking for something truly special and unique, not necessarily about romantic love, but more of a love based in friendship.  I came across the perfect story, and after reading it, I can hardly wait to share it with you...

Kiki and Coco in Paris is the title I'm showcasing today.  Have you read it?  It is a positively charming story about a girl named Kiki and her adventure with her doll Coco as they travel together to Paris.  In addition to capturing the sweet love story a girl shares with her best-loved doll, the book features engaging and colorful photographs set on over-sized pages.  The pages are eye-catchingly bright, and remind me of the I SPY books my kids loved for years and years.  It's rare to find such wonderful photography in a children's book.  Author Nina Gruener's sweet and simple words are the perfect compliment to Stephanie Rausser's photographic chronicle of her trip to Paris with her daughter, Kiki.  And of course, don't forget Coco--the chic Jess Brown doll who travels with Kiki on her Parisian adventure.  

So why did I choose this as a Valentine story?  Well, first of all, the story takes place in Paris--the city of love...

...captured by photos so vivid, they'll take you and your child on a journey straight there!  

When I homeschooled my children, I would always make Valentine's Day a special holiday--we would enjoy a red and pink breakfast, make Valentines, read the story of St. Valentine, and my kids would receive small gifts (I know my daughter would've loved this book)!  I was reminded of this in the book...

...and also of a breakfast I enjoyed with my husband when we went to visit my daughter and son-in-law during their 8-month stay in Paris!  

Our own Parisian breakfast...

Complete with a cafe, mmm!

I also found the sweet relationship of Kiki and Coco so endearing!!  They share many special moments together, as any girl who has a best-loved doll can tell you.  And they truly love each other...

...as you'll see throughout the book, but especially on this last spread.

What a treasure!!  Boys and girls alike will relate with the story of a child and her best-loved playmate.  And if you have a child interested in traveling, or you want them to become more interested, please give this book a try.  You will not be disappointed!  

ON TO THE GIVEAWAY... (now closed)

And while we're on the subject of Paris, I have some goodies to share!!  I've partnered with Galison/Mudpuppy for a fabulous giveaway for two of their adorable products!  One lucky winner will receive...

Sweet and colorful French-English flash cards
will help your child to learn 26 new words!
I think that's tres bien, don't you!!??

These adorable Paris-themed mini Sticky Notes will brighten anyone's day!
I'm sure you can find many uses for them, but I think I'd
use them to mark favorite quotations in my favorite books!!  

All you have to do is comment on this post to be entered into the drawing.  (now closed) It's that simple!!!  Comments left on this post through February 13th will be eligible for entry.  A winner will be chosen at random and announced on Valentine's day, February 14th!  Comments entered on Facebook posts or Pinterest will not be considered eligible for entry - just here on the blogpost.  *NOTE: I'm sorry to any readers from abroad,  but this drawing is for US residents only!!*

Finally, some parting (visual) thoughts: I came across this quick slideshow of Stephanie Rausser's photographs from her trip with Kiki (and Coco) to Paris.  Many of the images are featured in the book, but all of them are whimsical and playful!  Enjoy!!!

2013 IS THE YEAR OF THE SNAKE

Tomorrow is the start of the Chinese New Year, the "year of the snake"! The Chinese calendar follows the moon and divides the years into groups of twelve. Each year is named for an animal, and people born in that year are believed to share the different traits of that specific animal. The SNAKE is the sixth sign of the Chinese zodiac, and represents wisdom, intelligence, and self-control. 

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I'm honestly pretty squeamish about snakes.  Most that I've come across in children's literature are pretty mean - intelligent, yes, but not necessarily wise or full of self control!

• Take for example "Asmodaeus Poisonteeth", from the Redwall series by Bryan Jacques - a giant adder who lived in an old sandstone quary near Redwall Abbey. When my husband would read aloud from the Redwall books to our kids, he'd always say "Aahhsssmodeussssss".
• I'm sure most kids know about "Kaa", the Indian Python from Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book.
• More recently there is "Nagini", Voldemort's giant python, from J.K. Rowlings' Harry Potter books.

Thanks to some suggestions that I received on Facebook from The Animal Store Alphabet Book (who I'll be partnering with soon for a giveaway), I was able to find a few picture book snakes of the nice variety!

My Snake Blake, by Randy Siegel, illustrations by Serge Bloc.

"My Snake Blake isn’t creepy at all. Blake the Snake is a little boy’s perfect friend right out of a birthday-present box. He calms the boy’s alarmed mother, spelling out reassuring cursive words with his body, and shows himself to be of invaluable service: Blake knows all the boy’s homework answers; helps with batting practice; and even walks the dog, serving as both ­walker and leash. It’s a very boy-centric story; snake-loving girls - seeing the contrast between reluctant mother and eager father, son and male snake - might wish for a snake book of their own". [source, NYT Sunday Book Review - here]

How about this vintage classic - Crictor, by Tomi Ungerer...

“Once upon a time in a little French town…” Madame Louise Bodot received a boa constrictor in the mail. She named the boa constrictor Crictor, and it became her pet. Crictor is a delightfully absurd exposition about what it might be like to have a boa constrictor as a pet.

For a more realistic snake story, try Verdi, by Janell Cannon.

Young Verdi doesn’t want to grow up big and green. He likes his bright yellow skin and sporty stripes. Besides, all the green snakes he meets are lazy, boring, and rude. When Verdi finds a pale green stripe stretching along his whole body, he tries every trick he can think of to get rid of it - and ends up in a heap of trouble. Despite his efforts, Verdi turns green, but to his delight, he discovers that being green doesn’t mean he has to stop being himself. 

I hope you enjoy these snake stories - why don't you read them while you snack on some fortune cookies!  And look for this cute book by Grace Lin...
Fortune Cookie Fortunes, by Grace Lin.

"Crack, crack, crack!" The cookies snap open and the family’s fortunes are revealed. Mei Mei wants to know how hers will come true. Jie Jie scoffs—they never come true. But Pacy isn’t so sure. As she waits and watches, she notices magical things happening in her family.

Could the fortunes really be right? And what about Pacy’s fortune: “You will see the world in a new way”? Well, yes, it’s true! Pacy has been seeing the world through fortune cookies!

This exuberantly illustrated story about every kid’s favorite part of a Chinese meal also includes a brief history of the fortune cookie.

Help Your Child Become a Reader...

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Looking Forward to February Fun!

There is so much to do and read about in February...

St. Brigid's Day is today, February 1st.  Celebrate by reading this beautiful book and making a St. Brigid cross!

St. Brigid was a contemporary of St. Patrick. She founded a monastery in Kildare in the 6th century. It is said that she converted her father to Christianity while making a cross from rushes. In those early Christian times the farmers adopted the custom of making these same crosses at the beginning of spring to protect their holding, placing the St. Brigid's Crosses in prominent positions in their houses and buildings.The tradition of making St. Brigid's Crosses on St. Brigid's Feast Day continues to the present day.

You can try your hand at making a St. Brigid cross, like this one, by going here.

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Ground Hog Day (February 2) Find my past posts, HERE for this day of Candlewax and Hedgehogs!

If Candlemas be fair and bright, 

Come, winter, have another flight. 

If Candlemas brings cold and rain, 

Go, winter, and come not again.

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Chinese New Year "Year of the Snake" (February 10, 2013) "Gong Xi Fa Ca!"  - this is the traditional Chinese New Year greeting that means “wishing you prosperity” in Mandarin.  I remember making Chinese paper lanterns in first grade!  You can see a tutorial for fun Chinese New Year crafts, here.

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Valentine's Day (February 14) - read my past posts here.  Of course, I'll be blogging about Valentine's Day as it draws near, but in the meantime, look for Robert Sabuda's book, Saint Valentine.

 

International Book Giving Day (February 14) I hope you can join me in donating some books - you can Give-a-book, Leave-a-book, or Donate-a-book.  Easy-peasy.  Go here for more details.  (If you're a blogger, you can join their BlogHop on the 21st.)  And there's more - go HERE to download free bookplates!

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President's Day (February 17) There are quite a few beautiful books available about Presidents Washington and Lincoln.  You can find my book recommendations here.

fun  resource page

More February Fun...

Favorite February Meal: this Winter Minestrone from Barefoot Contessa (found on Pinterest of course).  This stew is amazing.  I made a few changes - halved the recipe, substituted orzo as the pasta, and used Trader Joe's mirepoix, instead of chopping all those veggies. And I left out the last three ingredients (spinach, white wine, and pesto).

A New Tea for February: Thanks to a tip from artist Jeri Landers at her teatime interview today with Valerie Greeley, over at Acornmoon, I've discovered the most amazing tea - it comes with a little figurine in the box!  I sent some to my mom for a Valentine's Day teatime with her grandchildren (and of course, ordered a box for myself!) Find it here.  More: You can also send cute free Ecards from their site.

My February Read: I'm getting lost in the nicely done biography about the incredible Julia Child - Dearie, by Bob Spitz...

p. 40: "And no one's childhood was more satisfying than Julia's.  There was a house full of love, a community full of promise...While Julia was still very young, her mother spent long lazy afternoons reading her stories.  There was a small, wooden bookcase in the corner of Julia's bedroom crammed with well-thumbed volumes of children's favorites, among them:  Freckles, by E. Boyd Smith, Mother Carey's Chickens by Kate Douglas Wiggin, the Beatrix Potter classics, Tales of Peter Rabbit and The Tale of Mr Toad, Alice Caldwell's Mrs Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, and of course, the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen.  Julia would curl up on the living room couch, listening raptly, while Caro [her mother] delivered the narrative in a variety of stagy voices until, at some point each afternoon, the child would drift off to sleep."

I can't wait to take a jaunt over to Pasadena (her birthplace and old stomping grounds) and see her family home...

as it looked then - source

and now...

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I hope this post gives you lots of ideas for February.  I'll be in and out this month, since I've got some travel plans coming up...keep reading!

Lots Going on in the Caldecott World

English painter and book illustrator Randolph Caldecott (1846-1886),
for whom the award is named [source: NPR]

This year, the Caldecott Medal turns 75!  Some children's book illustrators might not have gotten a lot of sleep over the weekend. That's because they might have been wondering if this could be the year they win one of the grand prizes of children's literature: the Randolph Caldecott Medal... more here, from NPR.

This morning, this year's winner was announced:  John Klassen for This is Not My Hat...

It's a really nicely illustrated book, but I honestly thought Klassen's other book Extra Yarn, by Mac Barnett, would win (and I like the story better)!  

I have not reviewed This is Not My Hat, but you can Read Roger Sutton's thoughts here at the NY Times. He notes:
A plucky little fish has stolen a dapper little hat from a sleeping big fish. The fish is upfront with us about its theft (“This hat is not mine; I just stole it”), and prattles on about just why he is going to get away with the hat and the crime (“And even if he does notice that it’s gone, he probably won’t know it was me who took it”). Meanwhile, the pictures show the big fish waking up and methodically, inexorably hunting the little fish down until they are both deep in the weeds, from which the big fish emerges alone. Only God knows what happened, but the big fish has recouped his hat. 

As was true with “I Want My Hat Back,” in which a rabbit and a bear provide the dialectic, the ethical position in “This Is Not My Hat” is complicated. Don’t steal, obviously. But given that children’s literature champions the small and the weak, there is also this: Don’t get caught. Depending on where you are on the political spectrum, “This Is Not My Hat” could be a cautionary tale of either righteous class struggle or uppity proletarians. The decision to separate the action in the cool black, gray and green under­water noir pictures from the postulates of the text (“And even if he does guess it was me, he won’t know where I am going”) means that not all picture-book audiences will be old enough to thoroughly get it. I read the book to a 3-year-old, but it was too deep for him; when I watched a 6-year-old and her father read it together, they were appropriately and gleefully scandalized.
  

If you didn't read my review of Extra Yarn, you can find my post here. I love the message of this sweet story:
Jon Klassen's understated style matches this quirky, sweetly told tale. At the very beginning, we're told: "This looks like an ordinary box full of ordinary yarn.  But it turns out it isn't."  A girl named Annabelle come across the box "filled with yarn of every color" on a cold winter day in her cold, drab town.  With the seemingly endless supply of yarn, she makes rainbow colored knitted creations for everyone (and everything) in the town - even the mailboxes and buildings. 

A pompous and greedy archduke appears on the scene and tries to buy the box from Annabelle, who's not interested in selling it for anything.  He manages to have it stolen, only to find it empty. In a satisfying ending, we realize the box wants to be with someone who is generous in sharing any "extra" with others!

I honestly think all the candidates for the medal are amazing picture books - it's such a personal taste thing, in my opinion, and hard to pick a winner - which is why I don't follow this stuff real closely.  (To see all the contenders, click here). Have you read both Klassen books?  What do you think?

Tea, Cravats, and "Humpty Dumpty Logic": Happy Birthday to Lewis Carroll!

"There are 364 days when you might get un-birthday presents

...and only one for birthday presents, you know.

There's glory for you!"

- Humpty Dumpty (from Through the Looking Glass)

Today I'm celebrating the birthday of Lewis Carroll.  Take a peek into my cupboard as I decide which tea to take!

Did you know: Alice had tea with the Mad Hatter in Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland book; but the concept of an "un-birthday" was introduced to her by Humpty Dumpty in Alice's second adventure, Through the Looking Glass - it did not involve the Mad Hatter at all!

I've made my tea choice, and it's got to be this one!  Seriously, this Wonderland Tea is an amazing blend of loose black tea leaves with apricot and ginger bits, and calendula petals. How to make it?

Mad Hatter Tea Blend

According to the Mad Hatter's directions on the tin:

HOW TO MAKE HOT TEA

(a.k.a. Uncold Tea)

by the Mad Hatter

Start at the beginning

(and when you come to the end...stop!)

Use a teaspoon per 8 oz of water and steep for 3-4 minutes.

(We recommend your clock be two days slow).

Move down the table to get a clean cup. 

Now, sit and have a cup with me as you read the following fun exchange from Chapter 6 of Through the Looking Glass.  It's a
conversation between Alice and Humpty Dumpty - as they dicuss cravats, unbirthdays, and birthdays (can you tell Lewis Carroll was a logician and mathmetician??)...

'It's a cravat, child, and a beautiful one, as you say. It's a present from the White King and Queen. There now!'

'Is it really?' said Alice, quite pleased to find that she had chosen a good subject after all.

'They gave it me,' Humpty Dumpty continued thoughtfully as he crossed one knee over the other and clasped his hands round it, 'they gave it me — for an un-birthday present.'

'I beg your pardon?' Alice said with a puzzled air.

'I'm not offended,' said Humpty Dumpty.

'I mean, what is an un-birthday present?'

'A present given when it isn't your birthday, of course.'

Alice considered a little. 'I like birthday presents best,' she said at last.

'You don't know what you're talking about!' cried Humpty Dumpty. 'How many days are there in a year?'

'Three hundred and sixty-five,' said Alice.

'And how many birthdays have you?'

'One.'

'And if you take one from three hundred and sixty-five what remains?'

'Three hundred and sixty-four, of course.'

Humpty Dumpty looked doubtful. 'I'd rather see that done on paper,' he said.

Alice couldn't help smiling as she took out her memorandum book, and worked the sum for him:

365
 -  1
----
364

Humpty Dumpty took the book and looked at it carefully. 'That seems to be done right —' he began.

'You're holding it upside down!' Alice interrupted.

'To be sure I was!' Humpty Dumpty said gaily as she turned it round for him. 'I thought it looked a little queer. As I was saying, that seems to be done right — though I haven't time to look it over thoroughly just now — and that shows that there are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents —'

'Certainly,' said Alice.

'And only one for birthday presents, you know. There's glory for you!'

'I don't know what you mean by "glory",' Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. 'Of course you don't — till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"'

'But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument",' Alice objected.

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'

{You can read the rest of Chapter VI here at Project Gutenberg.}
For my previous posts about Lewis Carroll, click HERE.