Halloween at Half Price Books
HPB Humble Location
Story time, typically Wednesdays at 10:30 am, was stretched out over the course of 2 hours today (9 am – 11 am) in honor of one of the biggest costume days of the year. Good thing too, because our most interested little patrons came in early.
Equipped with a candy bowl, coloring sheets, crayons, and a few costumed employees who were more than happy to pose for the camera in their book-themed attire, story time commenced bright and early.
There are many versions of Snow White
Another bookseller, Veronica, promoted Astrid Lindgren’s young adult character Pippi Longstockings
If you are in the area and missed this bit of fun, be sure to check out Baldwin Boettcher’s Halloween Event this evening at 6:30 pm. Baldwin Boettcher is the public library inside the gates of the Mercer Arboretum off Aldine Westfield. It’s a hidden treasure of a library that often gets passed on the way to the botanical gardens with little thought to the fun things that may be happening indoors. And remember: It is never too late to celebrate your love for a fantastic book character.
If you missed this morning’s story time, and already have plans this evening, here are the books we enjoyed this morning. Maybe you can find copies and read them with your kiddo in the days to come as you sort out their candy haul.
1. A Pop-Up Trick or Treat book called Halloween Bugs
2. A Pull and Poke book called Pat the Beastie
3. And my favorite, a Halloween Adventure called One Spooky Night
Weekly Low Down on Kids Books 7/25/12
Title: But Who Will Bell the Cats?
Author: Cynthia Von Buhler
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
In 2009, I distinctly remember coming across an ad for this book (maybe from my days of stalking shelfari for hours on end). I sat clicking though the website (click book cover and it will take you there) thinking it was so cool and eerie. Finally, this year – this month actually – I had the pleasure of reading But Who Will Bell the Cats? to my kiddo. It is so wonderful.
Based on an Aesop’s Fable, But Who Will Bell the Cats? follows the adventures of a mouse and bat as they try to get bells around the necks of the royal princess’s eight cats. If they could hear the cats approaching, there would be more freedoms and amenities available to them around the palace, they would no longer be confined to the cellar in fear.
The story is a lovely twist on a classic dilemma with beautiful and riveting images not limited by your typical 2D art. Von Buhler has made real sets for paper dolls and photographed them, making the art fascinating, unique, and a little bit intense:
In addition to having written this story, I was also the painter, sculptor, interior decorator, mason, gardener, and plumber of the sets. The rooms were built by hand from wood. The stone walls were formed from plaster. The floors are handmade from inlaid wood, mother-of-pearl, and plaster. The characters were painted in oils on gessoed paper, then cut out and placed in the sets. I photographed the scenes with a Nikon D300.
– Cynthia Von Buhler
(Browse through each part of the castle/book and how it was made: http://butwhowillbellthecats.blogspot.com/2008/06/portraits.html)
We love it, and it is a great story to read right before nap time (due to the length on each page, you really need a settled kiddo to hold their attention if they are under two). For older kids, the website offers all sorts of activities and games to tie into the book, including printable paper dolls, like the ones used to make the book! Visit: http://butwhowillbellthecats.com/lookinside.html
Title: The Wishing Star
Author: M. Christina Butler
Illustrator: Frank Endersby
Publisher: Little Tiger Press
Today at the story time at Half Price Books in Humble, a little girl picked this title out for me to read. We all enjoyed it so much, her mother bought it before leaving the store.
Endersby’s art work is so lovely and eye-catching. Reminiscent of the Rainbow Fish
Together, they created magic.
Summer Reading Programs – July 2012 Update
Feed Your Brain display at Half Price Books in Humble
I’m proud to say that my little kiddo sat through all of her 500 minutes of reading time and then some, earning herself a certificate signed by the State Librarian and a free book from the library. Harris County Public Libraries have a fun little system going, and it has been fun logging all our minutes read over the last few weeks for the Get a Clue program.
In addition to that, Half Price Books has a summer reading program as well called Feed Your Brain. Reading time is supposed to be done during the months of June and July, but its not too late to get started now and earn prizes for both programs.
To help your kids earn their minutes, bring them along to Wednesday story time at Half Price Books Humble at 10:30 am. Books are read until we get tired (usually around 11:00 am, but if we’ve got a good attention span out of the kids that day, we may stretch it to 11:15 or so). Every now and then we are privileged enough to have children’s authors read their own book aloud and stay for a book signing. Snacks are always provided.
Story Time Party With M.G. King
With summer in full gear, story time at Half Price Books in Humble has become a force to be reckoned with, but mostly because M.G. King is quite possibly one of the coolest ladies I’ve ever met and she was kind enough to do a reading and book signing in place of the usual kid’s story time on Wednesday.
There was a fun little song, a reading of Librarian on the Roof!
Make your own poof book! http://www.vickiblackwell.com/makingbooks/poofbook.htm
Read my review of Librarian on the Roof! https://anakalianwhims.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/weekly-low-down-on-kids-books-31312/
Summer Reading Kick Off Party!
Every June Half Price Books hosts a party to kick off their summer reading program. At the store in Humble, we’ve made it a habit of inviting local Fireman Ricky Meehan out for the fun. He reads to the kids while we pass out snacks and brochures, and talks to them about being a fireman and shows off his gear. Last year he read Curious George and the Fireman, this year we laid out some fireman titles but got requests for favorites from the likes of Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein.
He read for nearly a full hour, kids came up and rotated out using the chairs. We maybe had about twenty smaller ones over all, but there were lots of tweens and teens that hung back, browsing the young adult section while munching on their snacks, pocketing the brochures so they could log their time and get the coupons too. HPB’s summer reading program is designed for kids 14 and under. If your child is too little read like mine, no worries, you can read to them and it still counts!
The Humble location will continue to do Wednesday morning story time at 10:30 am on a weekly basis throughout the summer. We wont have a fireman handy, but children’s authors have been known to do book signings on those days. Just last week we had local author Temara Moore read “Bloop! Bloop! Goes the Poop” later this month we’ll be visited by M.G. King, author of Librarian on the Roof.
A few of my personal favorites to keep an eye out for this summer:
Mary Pope Osborne’s Magic Tree House
Kids got to check out the gear and learn about how it protects our fireman from injury.
Every kid should spend a summer with old school greats like The Hardy Boys, The Boxcar Children, and Nancy Drew. When they are exhausted on those fabulous mysteries, most kids can handle Sherlock Holmes
Invitation to the Game
A great series for older kids to get into is Frank Beddor’s The Looking Glass Wars
Whatever you pick, if you’re 14 and under you should log your minutes and cash them in! More information can be found at the links below.
http://freebies.about.com/od/familyfreestuff/p/half-price-book-summer-reading.htm
Ladybugs and Dragons for Summer
The first time I saw Ladybug Girl
So lucky me when my daughter fell in love with the book too. I was certain she would because its familiar. She has walls of books. She has a hound (we have a beagle named Geoffrey Chaucer). She absolutely adored her ladybug costume when she tried it on after I decided to do a ladybug themed one year birthday party.
All these thoughts rushed over me when we were at the library this week and Ayla discovered a Ladybug Girl board book called Ladybug Girl Makes Friends, featuring moments from Ladybug Girl picture books. She loves finding familiar things, so of course we checked it out and I vowed to look for it today at the Half Price Books Humble Story Time today, where I bought Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad. (We already own Ladybug Girl, Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy, and I’m on a mission to find Ladybug Girl at the Beach.)
On top of all this Ladybug Girl excitement, we discovered The Touble with Dragons by Debi Gliori at the library this week. The Trouble with Dragons
Both these books are excellent choices to kick off your summer with, and they will both become long time favorites, through summer and beyond.
In additon to keeping your kiddos entertained, start your summer off right with by keeping your house smelling wonderful – lots of awesome summer scents available from Scentsy. Join the Summer Kick Off Party now: https://akklemm.scentsy.us/Scentsy/Buy?partyId=86754827
Little Monster Friends
Title: My Friend the Monster
Author: Eleanor Taylor
Publisher:BloomsburyChildren’s Book
Genre: Children’s Picture Books
February 1st was the “practice run” and kick off for a weekly gathering at Half Price Books in Humble, a gathering of infants to six year olds for story time. An informal endeavor, I chose a handful of books to read off the cuff and my niece, age eleven, alternated reading aloud with me from her own selections. We tried to pick a little bit of something for everyone, as we had twelve kids there of all ages, both boys and girls. We read from puppet board books, several picture books, a few shiny foil books – but the greatest success was My Friend the Monster by Eleanor Taylor.
My Friend the Monster is the story of a little boy (fox, actually) who moves to a new house and discovers a monster living under his bed. The monster, a large one eyed fuzzy creature is a big old scaredy-cat, and it’s up to Louis the child fox to teach him to be brave and confident.
The pictures are detailed and remind me of something from Highlights for Kids magazine (ie: Richard Scarry). Although the kids were well behaved and sat for all the stories, this one in particular had them leaning in to see the pictures, touching my knee to get a closer look. The story kept them completely riveted and entertained, with only one interruption from a small girl who asked, “Why does the Monster only have one eye?” To which I replied, “Because he’s a monster with one eye. I’m sorry I don’t have a better explanation than that.” She just nodded her head and we continued on with the adventure of Louis and his Monster.
I had flipped through this particular book the day before when I visited the store to get a feel for which books I might choose and make sure my daughter, only 15 months, would be familiar enough to follow directions the next day. Ironically, the page I thought would give me the most trouble while reading to the kiddos was the page that was the biggest success for the entire reading. It was the page where Louis takes Monster to the park for the first time and shows everyone the way… the sentences dance in circles around various images of Louis and his monster along the path. I thought the children would get lost, not being able to see the pictures well enough; they might start to fidget or look away and forget what was happening in the story. Instead, this was the moment I found them leaning in the most, nearly crawling into the rocking chair with me to see Monster and Louis on their merry adventure.
Of course, this convinced me that I had to have this book for Ayla, so as soon as story time was over, I bought a copy. If you’re a book toting mom, I highly recommend heading to the Half Price Books nearest you and grabbing up a copy if you can get your hands on it!
Also, if you’re in the Woodlands/Humble/Atascocita/Kingwood area and you have small children during the day, feel free to come to the Humble Half Price Books at 10:30 am on Wednesdays. I’ll be reading a few books every week as long as we can keep the children sitting (mostly) on their bottoms with bookstore level voices. I hope to make many new, little friends, and hope that all our Monsters can be as pleasant as Louis’.
Anakalian Whims 