A Pocket Full of Kisses
Remember when I had a Weekly Low Down on Kids Books… yeah, this is me remembering that I’m supposed to do those!
Title: A Pocket Full of Kisses
Author: Audrey Penn
Illustrator: Barbara Leonard Gibson
Some of you may be familiar with The Kissing Hand, it’s a story of Chester the Raccoon and his mother. It’s a beautiful tale between mothers and children and one my daughter loves. As she grows, I have found myself often opening her palm to plant a kiss there.
Did you know there are sequels?
A Pocket Full of Kisses is great for only children and siblings alike. It’s mostly about the jealousy that comes from having a younger sibling and thinking there won’t be enough love from your mother to go around – but just like the stars, a mother’s love is limitless.
Out of all the Chester the Raccoon books, this is Kiddo’s favorite. She just brought it to me to read this morning, insisting that I pay closer attention to her than just mindless morning snuggles. I don’t know why this is her favorite – but it is. In the vast world of kid’s books (millions and millions of book written, of course, FOR the children) this says a lot about a book.
Eratosthenes
Title: The Librarian Who Measured The Earth
Author: Kathryn Lasky
Illustrations: Kevin Hawkes
I stumbled on this book by complete accident. Most my homeschooling tools I seek out or find while searching the non-fiction section with a thought in mind. This book I merely acquired and had no idea it was going to be added to our core curriculum.
Although I love the Sir Cumference books, I often wondered how I would properly include those books into a classical education for my child when studying the circumference belongs in the times of Ancient Greece. Now I have my solution. Sir Cumference will be fun re-iteration of facts learned. Where The Librarian Who Measured will definitely be a part of our first years of school.
I’m sure I learned about this guy at some point in school, but it didn’t sink in. His name didn’t even sound vaguely familiar when I started reading this story to kiddo before bed last night. But as I read, my mind raced to the day we will sit and discuss Eratothenes in context. We will talk about Ancient Greece and the ancient libraries. We will discuss oranges and circumferences. We will talk about the planet and maps of the world. We will study things in a manner in which she will remember it – as opposed to a passing one liner in a text book. This book made me happy for days of school in our future.
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.
The Vikings Take Over Our Library
As everyone else heads back to school, I looked over the last month and realized we really did treat the hottest months of the year like a summer vacation this year… mostly lolling around the house between events, taking extra naps after our dance parties in the living room, and mostly hiding our pasty skin from the hot, Texas sun. So I tackled cleaning out the closets, while everyone else was out buying school supplies, and organized our life the way it has always been organized in my brain… in unit studies. Of course, that got me in the mood to really tackle “school time” with more vigor and this last week or so we jumped back into the swing of things with Ancient Greece and Rome and then The Vikings and the Celts.
Viking Ships at Sunrise by Mary Pope Osborne was next in our Magic Tree House Adventures. We have not acquired the Viking research guide yet, but I believe there is one. We also re-read DK’s Eye Wonder Viking book, we had read it once before while perusing the exciting world of piracy, and a little repetition is good for a kiddo.
But the really exciting book for this particular unit study was The Hero Beowulf.
Eric A. Kimmel’s retelling of Beowulf is a pretty neat picture book add on for little people. It’s illustrated by Leonard Everett Fisher and is complete with an author’s note about the original poem in the back. Beowulf, after all, isn’t just a monster myth, it’s the “oldest surviving epic poem in English literature,” all the way from the sixth century, to your hands now.
I can’t reiterate enough how much the classical education style appeals to me by teaching so much history through the other subjects… or rather teaching all the other subjects by tackling history so thoroughly. I love that there are so many resources, like Kimmel’s picture book, to make the tales and the culture more real and the epic poem more accessible when the time comes to tackle the original work; because in classical education everything repeats at a higher level over and over again.
After reading The Hero Beowulf, kiddo ran to grab other books with Viking ships on them and said, “Look mommy, more Beowulfs!” So she doesn’t entirely get it yet, but hey, she’s two.
This Is Monstropolis
A Weekly Low Down on Kids Books and Guest Blog by Maura M! (2 in 1!)
Title:This Is Monstropolis!
I’m excited to share this little piece of toddler entertainment gold. This Is Monstropolis is an adorably illustrated flap book that is stuffed to the brim with things for little hands to explore. There is not much text here. The real beauty of this book is the vast amount of things there are in the illustrations to describe to your little one. In the 3 days that we have owned This Is Monstropolis, I’ve probably spent more than an hour discussing the scenes on the 14 pages of this book and what is happening behind each flap. This book is recommended for 3 year olds and beyond, but my 2 year old enjoys it immensely. The Richard Scarry-esque illustrations can be adored by child and caregiver alike and curious 2 year olds can’t get enough of the flap flipping.
Greek Mythology… with children
(Weekly Low Down on Kids Books)
Unfortunately this awesome image is not from a book. I think it’s from a video game.
The kiddo and I have been reading Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Is she a little young to catch everything, of course, she’s not yet three. Is she following the story? Better than you might imagine. I highly recommend that parents read kids stories that are far outside the child’s reading level. By doing this they are exposed to mature language styles sooner, learn new vocabulary words, and in the case of Rick Riordan, appreciate Disney movies like Hercules that much more.
We’re not finished reading Percy Jackson, so this review isn’t about that. This review is about picture books we’ve been reading during the day in preparation for our before bed time romps with Riordan’s Olympians.
Title: Gods and Goddesses from Greek Myths
Publisher: McGraw Hill Childrens/ Peter Bendrick Books/ Octopus Publishing Group
Retold by: Pat Rosner
Illustrated by: Olwyn Whelan
ISBN: 1-57768-508-3
Typically I provide links and images to the book, where you can find and purchase it, etc. But it seems that Gods and Goddesses lives an off the grid book life. It seems to be extremely difficult to find online and I was in the middle of typing here that I could not find it when I got the idea to check hpbmarketplace.com. I purchased it from a Half Price Books a few years ago, but sure enough the marketplace wins again! As you browse through the prices, you’ll see some are quite expensive. I only paid about $5 for this at the store, I wonder if it is currently out of print. Mine is in mint condition.
The illustrations are delightful, the retold myths thorough but easy to grasp. It’s not kiddo’s favorite book, but I can tell it has helped her grasp what is happening in the Percy Jackson books. Sometimes she just flips through the Greek style pictures while listening to me read Riordan’s work.
If I were in McKinney, TX right now I’d purchase the Fantastic Creatures from Greek Mythology as well, because I like these so much and I think Olwyn Whelan is a genius illustrator. Everything she touches, I think, would be great homeschooling resources.
Other resources we enjoy:
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Kings
The Weekly Low Down on Kids Books/ Adventures in The Magic Tree House
Title: Crouching Tiger
Author: Ying Chang Compestine
Illustrator: Yan Nascimbene
This book was an unexpected treasure from the public library. Kiddo picked this book out herself and I was really excited about it once I was in the middle of reading it.
As a third degree black belt who grew up around a lot of Chinese culture, I love finding unique children’s stories like these. It teaches etiquette, respect for your elders, culture appreciation, diligence, perfection through practice, and each page also has a diagram of a Tai Chi stance.
This was an excellent book to jolt us into our week on Ancient China.
Title: Day of the Dragon King 
Author: Mary Pope Osborne
Publisher: Scholastic
Although we don’t have a research guide for this topic, we’ve been perusing all things Ancient China while reading this book this week. There are pages from Life in the Ancient World
Although we didn’t do anything crafty with this week’s topic, we did enjoy some stir fry for dinner and kiddo got to practice eating with her toddler chopsticks.
The kiddo’s chopsticks are an orange elephant, but the concept is pretty much the same. These things are so handy and I think they are a great way to give your tiny person an ounce of how other countries live.
If I Were a Frog… or a puppy…
A Weekly Low Down on Kids Books
Title: If I Were a Frog
Author: Duncan Jones
If I Were a Frog is cute and clever. A detailed journey of constantly trying to see the world as another animal who is wishing to be another animal, Jones teaches children the concept that the grass may seem greener on the other side but only because you’re seeing it from far away – up close it’s still just grass.
The kids at the Half Price Books Humble story time really enjoyed this one. They caught on really quickly that the animal in the background was soon to be the featured subject and they couldn’t wait to find out about the the Lion King and the Bear.
I’m proud to have this as a part of my child’s library. She already picks it up from the stack and asks to have it read. We cheated and have been reading it every day this week before story time, even though the author specifically sent it for us to read AT story time… it was too good to resist.
Title: Tell Me How You Say Goodnight
Author: Teddy O’Malley
Photographer: Angie Dickens
This was another we received from the author this last week to read at Half Price Books Humble story time. The kids could not stop gushing about puppies and how cute they were. Obviously, using puppies to get a kid to go to sleep while teaching them how to say goodnight in languages around the world was a good call!
Kids love practicing saying new words and phrases just as much as they love playing with tiny puppies and snuggling things that are soft. What a cool way to document the lives of a litter of puppies! Have them be household names and teachers to children around the world.
I find it is the simplest books that are the most appealing to kids. My kiddo sees me flipping through ‘the puppy book’ and immediately dictates: Read it again, read it again!
Finder’s Keepers
THE WEEKLY LOW DOWN ON KIDS BOOKS
Title: A Rock is Lively
Author & Illustrator: Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long
Genre: Non-fiction Picture Books/ Children’s
As a child, I collected rocks. I think many children do this… bright, shiny objects with a splash of color are enticing. Small pebbles from river sides are exciting and make you feel like a million bucks when they are so tiny in your own tiny hands. I had a rock tumbler and every little piece of nothing could be made magical. On family vacations I used my pocket money to buy gems and stones native to the area we were visiting. With my sister and cousins, we would go on exploratory rock hunts together. I remember hearing shouts of: Finder’s Keepers!
I have also always adored books, and as an adult I try to find the most awesome of children’s books to share with my daughter. Last week at the library, while I browsed the children’s section of Baldwin Boettcher, I stumbled across A Rock is Lively
Except I will have to return this particular book and go buy a copy.
A Rock is Lively is an excellent introduction to geology – for all ages. My daughter will be three in October and she was riveted by all the colorful detail of gold, amethyst, peridot, and gypsum. The page about how rocks are mixed up and the description of how calcite, sodalite, pyrite, and lazurite becomes Lapis Lazuli excited her. She enjoyed telling me about all the colors she was seeing as I told her what the rocks were called.
Over and over again this week she has brought me the book, “What’s that?” she’ll say as she points to hematite… “What’s that?” she asks as she opens up the two page spread on obsidian. “What’s that?” she wants to know about the geodes…
A Rock is Lively is a must have. We will definitely be finding our own copy to own as well as the other books in the series: An Egg is Quiet, A Seed is Sleepy, and A Butterfly is Patient.
Easy Breezy Reads…
Title: Mercy Watson Fights Crime
Author: Kate DiCamillo
I heard a rumor that Kate DiCamillo used to work for Half Price Books. With that being said, and me being an event coordinator for the company, I am bound and determined to get her in my store. So of course, I have to read everything she wrote aloud to my daughter in the interim.
And the kiddo loved Mercy Watson. It’s an easy reader chapter book with lots of pictures, and after sitting through countless Magic Tree House books, her attention span is right on par with these pig stories.
I highly recommend Mercy Watson books for toddlers on up to kiddos who can read this for themselves (8 years?). Mercy is highly entertaining as are her co-stars.
And for the Adults in the room…
Stay posted for future signings.
Title: Don’t Die By Your Own Hands
Author: Reeshemah Holmes
I booked nutrition coach Reeshemah Holmes for a book signing at Half Price Books in Humble. The signing was just last night and she was kind enough to give me a copy of her book to read and review.
It truly is a busy person’s guide. It’s just shy of 70 pages and depending on your reading speed could take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to conquer. I read it right before heading to bed after coming home from the signing.
It’s a great motivational tool for those who have already selected a diet plan; encouraging them not with a specific diet, but the tools to stick to the diet they’ve chosen as a lifestyle rather than a fad.
Don’t Die By Your Own Hands is definitely worth while for anyone wanting to change their life but uncertain of their power to do so… or someone who is convinced that they can change at any time, but haven’t changed yet.
For homeschooling parents who read my blog, this is also a good book to hand your teens as a lifestyle guide to follow their sports/ P.E. programs and rituals. There’s a lot of good advice about handling goals, nutrition, and staying healthy mentally in order to stay healthy physically.
Coach Reeshemah Holmes talking with customers at Half Price Books Humble book signing, May 2013.
Anakalian Whims 