Come 1, Come All! It's a Birthday Giveaway...

I'm celebrating! Our grandson Peter just turned 1, and his creative Mommy hosted a cute circus-themed birthday party in our backyard. (Giveaway details coming...)

Dumbo is one of my daughter's favorite Disney films (can you watch the "Baby Mine" scene without crying? Alison Krauss has a beautiful rendition, here).  

Elephants and circus images grace Peter's nursery - so I wasn't surprised when his Mommy chose a circus theme!

And I found three unique circus books - two feature elephants - for Baby Peter that I'm excited to share with you...(Giveaway details at the end of this post.)

One book for NOW...
Of course, when I saw this cloth book of Dr. Seuss's Circus McGurkus 1-2-3 (based on If I Ran the Circus - a family favorite), I knew I had to get it!  [for 1-2 year olds]

It's fun and interactive, with a rattle on the page about the "Drum-Tummied Snumm" drumming away on his tumm-tumm. (Peter's favorite page.)  Stupendous! 

One book for SOON...
A new find,  The Secret Circus [ages 2-6], by Johanna Wright, is simply adorable!   I was immediately taken in by the quiet opening sentence: 

Somewhere, deep in the city of Paris, there is a circus that is so small, and so secret only the mice know how to find it... 

(Read this book in a whisper!)

One book for LATER...
Here is an incredible story that Peter will enjoy when he's a little bit older: The World's Greatest Elephant [ages 6 and up], by Ralph Helfer, based on the true story of an elephant and a boy born on the same day in a small town in Germany.  They grew up side by side in the circus (the boy's father was the elephant trainer).

I discovered this poignant book a couple of years ago on Anita Silvey's informative Book-a-Day Almanac website - you can read her post here.  The illustrations by Ted Lewin are gorgeous. 

AND NOW, INTRODUCING THE BIRTHDAY BOY! (and a surprise...)

Baby Peter and his Mommy.

(I think Peter is going to love all his new books...but right now, he'd rather play with his birthday balloons!)

Leave a comment and Peter might just share with you!

• He'll help me choose 1 lucky winner...  
• Which book will he be sharing?  The Secret Circus    
• You can enter two ways: here on my post with a comment, and/or by leaving a comment on my Good Books Facebook page link to this post.
• Giveaway ends Friday, October 18, 2013 at midnight, PST.   
• Winner announced on Saturday, October 19, 2013.

WELL-READ PUMPKIN ROUNDUP

Check out this Cheshire Cat Pumpkin!
(source:  Weiss Guys)

Each October I look forward to finding literary themed jack o'lanterns and bookish costumes to share with you for Halloween.  (And at the end of this post I've also included some pumpkin-themed treats!) 

Where the Wild Things Are Halloween

Wild Thing (from Alpha Mom)

source 

Max (from Pottery Barn Kids)

Wonderland Halloween

I'm LATE! (from Weisse Guys)

One more: Alice grew! (from Misha Lulu)

Willy Wonka Kids' Costumes

(from Le Petit Arbre)

An Oompa Loompa with Mr. Wonka

Peter Pan

Costume tutorial on Make it and Love it

Harry Potter

Cute (and easy!) - source

(from Spearmint Baby)

You'd have to be a professional to pull this one off!
source - Tumbler

NOW FOR THE PUMPKIN-Y TREATS...

So easy - tissue paper and floral tape!
(source here)

Tangerine Pumpkins (and Banana Ghosts)

Pumpkin Spice Buddies recipe

Mommies:  CrockPot Pumpkin Spice Latte
(recipe here, from Stephanie O'Dea)

More (Non Scary) Halloween Fun...If you've followed my blog for very long, you know I like to find ideas that are family friendly and book themed for Halloween -- like a "Storybook Pumpkin Patch", "Literary Themed Parties for 'Tweens and Teens",  "Book or Treat", and "Literary Pumpkins".

Go to my Pinterest Board for more ideas and recipes.  Happy Fall!

October's Party

(by George Cooper)

October gave a party; 

The leaves by hundreds came- 

The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples, 

And leaves of every name. 

The Sunshine spread a carpet, 

And everything was grand, 

Miss Weather led the dancing, 

Professor Wind the band.

An Apple a Day...

Go to my past post, here, to read about this book that is
a geography and cooking lesson in one!

I hope you're all enjoying apples being in season as much as I am!  (Honey Crisp are my favorite variety.)

Try making one of these yummy apple treats this fall, and enjoy the Robert Frost poem at the end of my post.  (More recipes here).

Apple Peanut Butter Stack [source] 

Hollow out apples, bake with cinnamon, butter, and
sugar inside.  Cool.  Add ice cream and caramel sauce.
[source: Pinterest]

After Apple-Picking

by Robert frost

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree

Toward heaven still,

And there's a barrel that I didn't fill

Beside it, and there may be two or three

Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.

But I am done with apple-picking now.

Essence of winter sleep is on the night,

The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.

I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight

I got from looking through a pane of glass

I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough

And held against the world of hoary grass.

It melted, and I let it fall and break.

But I was well

Upon my way to sleep before it fell,

And I could tell

What form my dreaming was about to take.

Magnified apples appear and disappear,

Stem end and blossom end,

And every fleck of russet showing clear.

My instep arch not only keeps the ache,

It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.

I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.

And I keep hearing from the cellar bin

The rumbling sound

Of load on load of apples coming in.

For I have had too much

Of apple-picking: I am overtired

Of the great harvest I myself desired.

There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,

Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.

For all

That struck the earth,

No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,

Went surely to the cider-apple heap

As of no worth.

One can see what will trouble

This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.

Were he not gone,

The woodchuck could say whether it's like his

Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,

Or just some human sleep.

 [SOURCE: THE POETRY FOUNDATION]

A New Dome on the San Diego Skyline: It's a Library!

What does $184.9 million and 497,000 square feet of space get you?

source

A brand new nine-story library with a three-story atrium, domed reading room and terrace (8th floor), dozens of computer terminals, an art gallery, an auditorium, a special-collections wing, and a charter school!

The minute I entered the new Central Public Library in Downtown San Diego, I was struck by its vastness - you have to take an escalator to get up to the second and third floors!  After that, it's elevators (or the stairs, which we were relegated to because the elevators weren't working too well).

Three-story atrium with elevators greet you as you enter the library.

Not a bad view of the Coronado Bridge from the 8th floor Reading Room!

The 8th floor Reading Room, full of long tables and a pop of
 color from the BLUE chairs. [source for this photo here]

The ceiling and glass windows of the Reading Room

The area adjacent to the Reading Room houses Central Library's collection of baseball books. The collection is said to be second only to the baseball Hall of Fame's in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Life-size sculpture in the Baseball Book Collections area.

I ended my visit to the library with the Children's Library, which was back down on the first floor.

  

There were lots of fun Dr. Seuss murals in bright primary colors on the walls.  The low bookshelves, from a child's perspective, make the room more inviting than how I initially felt upon entering the very modern, basement-like area...

Honestly, it was kind of anti-climactic, with a very municipal feeling, despite the fun glass cases that met us, holding some of the library's special children's collections....

Mother Goose Vintage Collection

First Edition OZ books 

(I was surprised to see Ruby Slippers on the volumes. 

Maybe the kids who haven't read the books 

wouldn't have recognized Dorothy's Silver Shoes?)

Maurice Sendak Private Collection

Why are these cute green child-sized reading chairs empty?

Because all the kids are at the computers.  Sigh.  Well, hopefully they checked out some books to bring home!

But wait!  One little child liked the child-sized chairs.  My grandson, aka "Le Petit Prince"!

About as Close to The Emerald City as You Can Get: Hotel del Coronado!

We just returned from an idyllic family vacation at the Hotel del Coronado near San Diego, California. The weather was sublime.

The stunning Hotel del Coronado - The Emerald City?

And guess who else loved this place -- L. Frank Baum, who first visited the turn-of-the century seaside resort with his family in 1904.  He wrote at least three of his Oz books while staying at "The Del"...

Although L. Frank Baum hailed from the Midwest, he preferred to winter in the warm and welcoming sunshine of the picturesque community of Coronado, California, just across the bay from San Diego. 

Doesn't the Emerald City look familiar?

Some people think the author based his design of the bejeweled Emerald City on the Hotel del Coronado; but Baum had already written the first book which included the fictitious Emerald City (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in1900), before ever visiting the hotel in 1904.

L. Frank Baum had storytime with children on the lawn at the
Hotel del Coronado. (photo 1904, source]

Still, you can see why Baum found the hotel so entrancing. With its whimsical design, vibrant red roofs, magical spires, and one-of-a-kind setting, the "Hotel Del" is as close to Emerald City as you'll ever get!  

And Baum is credited with designing the stunning chandeliers in the "Crown Room" of the hotel - don't you think they're fit for the Cowardly Lion? [From Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920's by Kevin Starr, source]

Chandeliers in the Crown Room, of the Hotel del Coronado,
designed by Baum [source]

L. Frank Baum - who suffered from a weak heart - usually resided at the hotel for months at a time; in later years he would sometimes rent a house nearby.  During his years in Coronado, Baum wrote the third, fourth, and fifth books of the Oz series: Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz (1908); The Road to Oz (1909); and The Emerald City (1910).

The house L. Frank Baum's would sometimes rent on Star Park Circle,
 just around the corner from the Hotel Del Coronado. [source]

Something else to see in Coronado: The children's area of the Coronado Public Library is home to nine beautiful glass panels (a permanent exhibit, by Brenda Smith) displaying Oz culture and featuring many of Baum's characters. 

Wizard of Oz Glass panels, Coronado Public Library [source]

Detail: Dorothy and the Munchkins [source] 

Baum moved to Hollywood in 1910, where he spent the last nine years of his life at his home, "Ozcot" (he was one of the community's earliest residents).  

He passed away in 1919, but his memory and his legacy in California cultural history live on. 

I hope you can "follow the yellow brick road" someday to Coronado Island, and the Hotel Del! You won't be disappointed.

• Source info: "The Hotel del Coronado and L. Frank Baum"; and "How Frank Baum Became the Wizard of Coronado".
• Scanned color illustrations of the first edition OZ books can be seen here.

October for Anne Shirley...

From Anne of Green Gables
by Lucy Maud Montgomery

source

Excerpt from Chapter XVI: "Diana is Invited to Tea with Tragic Results"

October was a beautiful month at Green Gables, when the birches in the hollow turned as golden as sunshine and the maples behind the orchard were royal crimson and the wild cherry trees along the lane put on the loveliest shades of dark red and bronzy green, while the fields sunned themselves in aftermaths.

Anne reveled in the world of color about her.

"Oh, Marilla," she exclaimed one Saturday morning, coming dancing in with her arms full of gorgeous boughs. "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn't it? Look at these maple branches. Don't they give you a thrill--several thrills? I'm going to decorate my room with them."

"Messy things," said Marilla, whose aesthetic sense was not noticeably developed. "You clutter up your room entirely too much with out-of-doors stuff, Anne. Bedrooms were made to sleep in."

"Oh, and dream in too, Marilla. And you know one can dream so much better in a room where there are pretty things. I'm going to put these boughs in the old blue jug and set them on my table."

My October view: It's not Green Gables, but it's Home.