30 Excellent Bookstore Windows From Around the World
Love, love, love it all…
“Where the Windwalk Begins” Preview
Great illustrator for a fantastic kids book…
Here’s a PREVIEW for the children’s book I illustrated by Todd Dillard.
The preview contains the story of ‘Balloon Head Eddie’ and the poem ‘Stuck.’ There are 24 poems in the full book.
If you would like a copy: ORDER NOW.
Or get a SIGNED COPY.
Weird poems, for weird kids.
The eBook version should be out soon.
Where the Windwalk Begins
Title: Where the Windwalk Begins
Poet: Todd Dillard
Illustrator: Paul K. Tunis
Too cute. These poems are ideal for lazy breakfast reading or luncheons on the patio. We love to read over our meals and kiddo has really enjoyed Where the Windwalk Begins.
I personally loved Airlephant, mostly because I have a ridiculously large soft spot in my soul for all things regarding elephants. Kiddo’s ears perked up the most, however for Flock of Flying Carpets, which I admit is pretty awesome. The alliteration of that particular poem fascinates little people, and her eyes lit up with delight at hearing the same sounds over and over again. We’ve been working on our phonics lately and you could see the recognition of certain letter’s sounds all over her face.
The poems are really fun and the illustrations are equally so. I was pleased with how well paired the illustrator was to the over all vibe of the book. Sometimes you can have a great illustrator and a really great storyteller or poet, but they don’t necessarily make the best pairing, but these two seemed pretty in tune to each other. Spunky and very light heart-ed, moms and dads everywhere should keep this title in their personal library stock.
Love is a Choice
Title:Love Is A Choice
Authors: Dr. Robert Hemfelt, Dr. Frank Minirth, Dr. Paul Meier
Publisher: Thomas Nelson Publishing
Genre: Psychology/ Self-Help/ Christian Living
Length: 275 pages
Back in college I read Happiness Is A Choice with a few girls I knew. We went to a Baptist school, but clearly weren’t behaving like the other little Christian girls we knew, so of course we devoured a book that seemingly addressed all that was wrong with us and how to fix it God’s way. Mostly, it just made us feel better.
Naturally, I spotted this in a giant giveaway pile, knew it was by the same authors, and impulsively picked it up. Approximately 3 years later (now), I got around to reading it.
It did not make me feel better.
At least not at first anyway.
Reading Love Is A Choice from a parental perspective can be daunting and, to say the least, overwhelming. The first half of the book had me completely convinced that everyone on the planet has been abused in some form or another… active abuse, passive abuse, this abuse, that abuse. Unless you’re Jesus, NO ONE IS SAFE. I am not Jesus, so essentially, all I determined was that my kid was going to grow up to have issues. NO MATTER WHAT I DID. For that, I kind of hated it.
However, because all these very human issues and mistakes run rampant in the world – because we are human – it ends up being a good read. Handy. Fair warning, so to speak. Be careful of this, be careful of that, be warned that these kinds of actions effect your children this way or that way into adulthood. And above all, put God first.
I can get on board with that.
Just remember when looking at this cover and judging whether or not you think this applies to you, codependency probably doesn’t mean what you think it means. I know I was fooled. Essentially the core sort of means the same as what I thought, but all the nuances are different. If you’ve read my blog for long, you know I love a few good nuances!
Anyway, it took up the better part of a week after my kiddo was asleep… when I wasn’t reading a Thomas Jefferson biography or going over homeschooling stuff… and I don’t feel like my time was wasted. Self-help isn’t typically a genre I care much about, so that means if I mostly like it then it’s probably pretty stellar. Check it out.
Below is a picture of me and my kid, who along with my husband, I choose to love every day – the best I can. P.S. The first week of October is Banned Books Awareness Week. BE AWARE! Read a ‘banned book.’ As far as I know, Love is a Choice isn’t banned anywhere and this statement has nothing to do with the review, just my t-shirt.
Photograph by Michael Palmer
Introducing the Octopus… and Tolkien Week
Weekly Low Down on Kids Books and Adventures in Homeschooling with an Octopus and Tolkien…
Title: Squishy the Octopus
Author: Mary Reason Theriot
Illustrations: Zoie Mahaffey
The last few weeks have been exciting. With the start of fall and the new school year and kiddo turning three in October, we’ve been diving more heavily into “school time.” There was a video floating around on facebook, courtesy of the Libertarian Homeschooler or maybe Practical Homeschooling – not sure which, dealing with the camouflage abilities of the octopus.
The video we watched (Where is the Octopus?) is here: http://www.sciencefriday.com/video/08/05/2011/where-s-the-octopus.html.
Add in discussions of legs, all things regarding the prefix “oct,” and an a event where Mary Reason Theriot debuted her children’s books, we’ve had quite a big week!
Authors Mary Reason Theriot & Jennifer Theriot
Theriot is quite a popular novelist on Amazon. Living in Louisiana with her husband and daughter, she avidly writes spooky thrillers with a southern twist that only the home of the Cajun seem to be able to offer. But most recently, with the aid of her extremely enterprising daughter, she’s branched out and started writing children’s stories as well.
In Squishy the Octopus, a little octopus with a big anger management problem learns to control his temper with the help of his other sea creature friends. On various pages, like in the video above, Squishy changes color. My own little kiddo got really excited when this happened, “Let me see the picture!” she’d exclaim, “What color is he now?”
Unrelated to sea creatures, but highly related to our homeschooling life, is the fact that this week is Tolkien week. September 21st was the 76th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. An day that was celebrated with the first annual Fall Festival at
Archie Rocks Acoustic, little Theriot and my own kiddo in the garden at GBITW.
Good Books in the Woods. There was a costume contest, a toast to Tolkien, Mary Reason Theriot doing a book signing, Aoristos portraits being drawn and more. It was a pretty neat event, which we wrapped up at home with the kiddo indulging in a long time favorite The Lord of the Rings cartoon (the 1978 one, we have it on VHS… and yes, we still use our VCR).
September 22nd (yesterday) was Bilbo and Frodo Baggins’ birthday! They were born in different years, but on the same day! Something, I suppose, only truly geeky Tolkien fans care about. So this week is Tolkien week.
I may work for Half Price Books, a company I absolutely adore for so many reasons, but I spend a good chunk of my spare time at Good Books in the Woods. It is definitely my home away from home these days. My kid plays in the garden and with the toybox set up in the kids section while I absorb the ambiance of a house taken over by books. If my husband ever let me, the inside of my house would look exactly like Good Books…
Not So Surprised by the Joy of Lewis
Title: Surprised by Joy
Author: C.S. Lewis
I don’t remember when C.S. Lewis was not a part of my life. Really, I don’t. I am sure at one point in time, possibly even recently, I may have remembered that first moment that I discovered the world beyond the wardrobe – but I can no longer recall it’s newness. I only have the strong sense of having always been to Narnia before. I can only remember various occasions that I visited, like a beloved vacation spot that has become home.
But now I am a grown up, and often when I have a longing for Lewis and his darling brain, I dive into his grown up things. It started with The Screwtape Letters, which I read for the first time in high school or so. Then I moved onto Til We Have Faces, kudos to a fellow named Brian Franklin, who somehow got that into my hands although I don’t recall by what means. Then, finally, most recently, I really started to grow up… and I started reading his nonfiction.
In my mid-twenties I picked up Mere Christianity. Something I wanted to read together as a family. I think I was newly pregnant. I recall being pregnant, maybe, but I don’t recall the big-as-a-house-belly. (After all, when you are pregnant, you are a house – literally – for the tiny human you are growing.) Either way, we read most of it aloud together, I think I ended up finishing the last half on my own, impatient for a conclusion. Now that I’m thinking of it, perhaps I wasn’t pregnant yet at all. Perhaps I just have a hard time imagining life without our little person, even in the memories she wasn’t present for…
Image from Jesse Furey
So now, during a month of what Holly Golightly would refer to as The Mean Reds… during the stress of true adulthood… during moments when my brain (as the brain of the ‘creative’ is wont to do) attempts to dive into a deep melancholy… I have picked up Surprised By Joy: The Shape of My Early Life.
Am I suddenly ecstatic? Does Lewis propel me into a sanguine excitement, heart all a flutter with happiness? No. Not even close. But Lewis has reminded me what a lack of joy can really look like. He has reminded me that my joy is never truly gone – even when I don’t feel it.
Sitting here in the wee hours of dawn, because I couldn’t sleep, debating how soon I should brew my coffee while the sun just barely peeks up into the tree branches and a haze of Houston smog, I am with Lewis. I am with him at Wyvern and Chartres. I am with his father. I am with his atheistic sadness and in turn his Christian philosophies. I am with his love for fantasy, satyrs, heroes, and mythologies. I am with him in his distaste for other children and his desire to be alone, except for one good friend.
What I am not with? My own bad mood, which I like to call The Funk. Apparently, Holly, we all have silly names for it and I stopped borrowing yours long ago. Am I surprised that Lewis can scoop me from my mood, at least temporarily, with such ease? No. (Although I admit he had the aid of my daily endorphin dose… the morning kick of pushups and crunches…) Would I do almost anything for the most gorgeous set of leather bound C.S. Lewis books for sale at Good Books in the Woods? Probably, but if I had the money there would probably be a throw down for it in the parking lot between me and my Emily, but at least I know she’d share if she managed to win.
The Debt & The Doormat & The Socially Awkward
Title:The Debt & The Doormat
Author: Laura Barnard
The Debt & The Doormat is a number one selling book on Amazon. It’s fun, flirty chick lit with glowing reviews about how hilarious it is.
I believe them.
But in the words of one of my co-workers, “Andi doesn’t like fun.” Apparently it’s true because my socially awkward self had the hardest time relating to the mentalities of the people in the book. On top of not being able to relate, I didn’t laugh, because what I did relate to just makes me tired. I have a lot of debt (students loans), I lead what some might find a boring life (like Poppy). My debt exhausts me and my boring calms me.
I see how it would be funny to other people. I can see this being one of those films starring Keira Knightly and/or Cameron Diaz, in an American version, and me not having any desire to go see it at all whatsoever. It’s There’s Something About Mary funny. It’s Adam Sandler funny. It’s Sex in the City funny. It is not Jane Austen funny. It is not Paul Collins funny.
Me not getting into it is not Laura Barnard’s fault. I can think of a dozen people I’d love to share this book with, because I know they will think it’s the best thing ever. Once I pass the book along, I will even invite them to share their thoughts as a guest blogger here on my blog.
The cover art is spunky, the premise is very Freaky Friday meets Sex in the City, and the writing itself is good. Try as I might, I’m just not that girl. Instead, I spent the better part of a week trying to get into Poppy and Jazz’s story, only to find myself distracted by a biography calling my name on the shelf, or a football game on television. I was almost head over heels involved in the story when the Texans were losing and I found Poppy tied to a bed by a British Thelma (of Thelma & Louise)… but then, of course, the Texans started scoring touchdowns.
Let me be clear, this is not a bad review. Please do not walk away from this post thinking, “I’ll never read that.” I’d say if the cover calls you, you SHOULD read it. If this is your genre, it’s probably one of the best in it. This is more of a testament to me and my reading habits and how much of a typical girl I am not. I will probably recommend this book to customers seeking Laura Giffin and Sophie Kinsella books. If you are a die hard McLaughlin & Kraus (The Nanny Diaries) fan, you will probably want to purchase this book STAT.
The Olympians
We finally finished The Lightning Thief (book one of the Percy Jackson series) a week or so ago. Man, reading that thing out loud was a bit of a doosey and took us a whole month of before bedtime reading. While reading Percy Jackson by night, bless his little adventurous demi-god heart, we’ve been going over our next Magic Tree House Adventure by day…
Magic Tree House #16: Hour of the Olympics
Magic Tree House Research Guide: Ancient Greece and the Olympics (which we just finished this morning over breakfast and coffee).
Also during this little stint we’ve read and re-read the Golden Books: Disney’s Hercules… over and over and over again. And the little Grecian wanna-be has enjoyed the movie probably too many times than can be good for her little developing brain.
The Odyssey retold by Robin Lister is a gem, but at this point – with kiddo not even three yet – we’ve only browsed through the pictures while actually reading Gods & Goddesses in the Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks. Kiddo is really into all this stuff and is still insisting we have her “Percules Birthday Party with three candles.” Which is poor people code for: all the children shall wear sheets and we’ll do a laurel wreath craft and play with cardboard swords because I’m not buying decorations. Also, it will be a good excuse to serve a lot of grapes…
All in all, tromping through this stuff now with her so little has helped me wrap my brain around the plans we have for ages 5 & 10, roughly. Keep lots of wiggle room in mind.
Ancient Greece & Rome Lesson Plan/ List Age 5
Start Latin Lessons
Haywood
pages 46-57
Black Ships Before Troy – Sutcliffe (Iliad) along with Haywood pg. 206
The Odyssey Retold by Lister
Memorize some facts about the people listed on Haywood pgs. 50-51
Haywood pgs. 108-115 (2 crafts)
Gods & Goddesses from Greek Myths
Haywood pgs. 168-175 (2 crafts)
Haywood pgs. 228-233 (2 crafts)
Haywood pgs. 342-349 (3 crafts)
Haywood pgs. 404-411 (3 crafts)
In Search of a Homeland – Lively (Aeneid)
Haywood pg. 466 + Mosaic project
Haywood pgs. 472-477 (2 crafts)
Of course I’d like to include a trip to the museum.
Relevant Magic Tree House Books: #13 Vacation Under a Volcano, RG Ancient Rome & Pompeii, and of course #16 Hour of the Olympics, RG Ancient Greece & The Olympics
Relevant Magic School Bus during any Pompeii study: #15 Voyage to the Volcano (although this title occurs in modern Hawaii, it explains in true Magic School Bus form all the inner workings of a Volcano)
Then come age 10-ish, we will start repeating the Ancient school lessons, as per our classical education plan. We’ll re-use Haywood, do projects we may have skipped over, repeat ones she liked a lot… but add these things…
Ancient Greece & Rome Lesson Plan/ List Age 9-10
Start covering the Greek Alphabet (we hope to be pretty Latin literate by then)
Archimedes and the Door of Science
Gods & Goddesses in the Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks
The Usborne Encyclopedia of the Roman World
The Odyssey as Retold Mary Pope Osborne (to be read on her own or together as a family), the author of the Magic Tree House books.
The Percy Jackson series by Riordan
Baby Steps in Homeschooling: The First Day
Yay for the ‘first day’ of school!
At last, the day you have dreamed of since giving birth to that teeny tiny screaming bundle of joy has arrived! The OFFICIAL START to his education! Sure you’ve read to him hours a day for the last three years (or you tried anyway when they weren’t running a Grey’s Anatomy marathon), curbed his television time to keep his precious brain from melting (except for that one time you got pregnant), bought him every educational toy and flash card and Baby Einstein video on the market (just kidding) but TODAY IS THE DAY!
It’s the chance of a lifetime to pour everything you know and everything you wish you knew into someone whose mind-up til this point-is filled primarily with the various body styles of matchbox cars. He will stay seated! He will read his books in an organized fashion! He will put his teeny tiny hand over his heart and…
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Breach in Coffee Shop Etiquette
BAhahaha… oh my Emily.
I finished The Archivist last night (more on that in a forthcoming post) and since beginning it several days ago I’ve found myself in a swoony mood. Swoony, introspective, and quixotic. Who wants to be home, reminded of unfinished housework in such a mood? No one. So this morning when my man people went to do man things-soccer watching and chest bumping at Grammy’s where they are served personalized breakfasts-I took my Ella-girl to Black Forest Coffee to sit quietly and read and journal for a few hours.
Located inside the Half Price Books’ flagship location, Black Forest is one of my favorite Saturday morning spots. Before lunchtime it is fairly empty. The baristas look as half-asleep as you do (the coffee shop maintains reasonable human hours so none of their employees have been at work since 4a.m.), and when you gurgle out something about “latte” and “caffeine” they don’t ask a lot of questions they just grin with understanding…
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Anakalian Whims 