Mommy's Favorite Children's Books

The potty training book our family LOVED - Toilet Learning by Alison Mack

2011-12-29T17:15:00.002-06:00

Our family has reached a wonderful milestone -- our youngest son has mastered use of the potty. It was the best Christmas present of 2011. One of the tools, and perhaps the primary tool we used for potty training was this book, Toilet Learning, the picture book technique for children and parents, by Alison Mack.

Originally I heard about this book on a parenting forum and sought it out on Amazon.com. The book is divided into two sections, the front for the parents, and the back part, a picture book for parents to read to their children. The picture book is excellent, it explains very nicely to children about using the potty and includes a lot of details that are interesting to children.... things like.... there are bathrooms almost everywhere you go... and.... that everyone uses the bathroom. The drawings feature a child that can be described as a boy or girl and the author recommends using the words for pee and poop that your family uses to describe them.

Happily, our third child's potty learning was the quickest and easiest of all our three kids. I don't know if we're getting better with practice, or if he's just caught on better. But this book has been a staple for all our three kids and we loved reading a book so much more than watching a video. Mr. Rodgers' book is also nice and we had some Elmo but this book was our favorite. I hope your children enjoy it too.

Mommy's Favorite Children's Books earns a commission on Amazon.com sales. Thanks for reading!

O Christmas Tree

2011-11-29T21:22:00.000-06:00

This year, we decided to make all of our Christmas ornaments as a family. The goal is to spend some time together creating. We started tonight, with no special supplies or plans, just what we had on hand, which was some construction paper, scissors, glue stick and we're doing big, chunky super-fast paper chains, that's it. The boys worked in a bit of a rush but we had all the kids around the table. It was nice.

Seymour Simon VOLCANOES

2011-11-29T20:48:00.002-06:00

We were just reading this book at bedtime and my oldest, Alek (age 7) pointed to a couple of the books on the back cover and asked for additional titles. This book is part of the Smithsonian series by Seymour Simon. We have at least one other Simon book, which is the Seymour Simon book of Trains. For now, let's talk about the Volcanoes book.

This book has been in our stash for a while. I like reading nonfiction titles to the kids, they are curious about the world and are very interested in many topics, space, ocean animals, science, etc. It's great to read to them and they sit quietly, and really listen to what I'm talking about. These books are geared toward slightly older kids, grades 1-5. My kids are 7, 5, and 3 now, and even the little guy pays attention. Right now I read to them, but I like that the books have a long life and later on the boys will be able to read the books again themselves. The text has great vocabulary, it's great to have the boys hear unique and interesting words as we read together.

The photographs are stunning, and the book has many details about volcanoes, along with specific examples of volcanoes around the world and various eruptions (which reminds me we have another volcano title called Eruption, by D&K) This book has greater detail, is a bigger format and has more dramatic photos. I like the map that shows the Earth's plates.

The book is 32 pages and includes a glossary. Tonight we didn't make it all the way through before bedtime, but it was a great reading experience. We're getting a few more books from this series for Christmas, I've chosen Lightning, and Earthquakes (the one my son requested). I expect they will be great reading experiences as well.

Mommy's Favorite Children's Books earns a commission on Amazon.com sales. Thanks for reading!

Dusting off...

2011-11-18T14:30:00.000-06:00

I've let the blog go idle for... a long while... we have been thoroughly enjoying family life! My oldest son is now age 7 and beginning to read independently, which is extremely exciting and we have been enjoying a lot of great books through our elementary school's library days. I will try to stop in occasionally and share our very favorites. Best wishes to you and yours! --Karen

Christmas shopping!

2010-12-17T09:00:00.000-06:00

Small update: My two oldest are now in K and 4K -- it's been good so far! My oldest is starting to learn to read. Awesome. Love our teachers, love library day every Wednesday -- the kids have been bringing home some great books!

I am doing last minute shopping and wanted to share this link -- I'm using it for reference to add some picture books to our collection -- this was a wonderful list to work with!!!

http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/afuse8production/2009/05/16/top-100-picture-books-poll-results-1-101/

Happy Holidays!
Karen

Butterfly Kit

2010-04-23T18:54:00.001-05:00

We're going to try a butterfly kit this spring! A friend who homeschools her preschooler son has done this and they loved it.

Update on the butterfly kit: it was a very interesting experience. A little traumatic for me when one of the butterflies was caught up and struggling in getting out of the chrysalis and ended up not making it. I blame myself for not removing enough of the stringy fibers around the chrysalis when transferring to the net container. Lessons learned through experience. I would approve of repeating the experience, the kids would love to do it again also.

Dinosaurs! The Complete Guide to Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Reptiles

2010-03-14T22:31:00.015-05:00

My 5 year-old-received this book as a gift, and it is AWESOME! I had
looked online for a while to find a good dinosaur book and didn't ever
find one that seemed right for a preschool-kindergarten age child. We are so lucky to have been given this book because it is wonderful --
the perfect dinosaur book for children!

See this book at Amazon.com

The reason our family loves this book is the wonderful illustrations --
as the cover states -- "more than 250 superb illustrations". Dinosaurs
of all types come to life, with great visuals, size references to adult
human beings, and helpful pronunciation guides. The book is oversized giving plenty of room for the rich visuals inside.

Who knew there were so many dinosaurs -- at bedtime my 5-year-old will ask to browse a few spreads and talk about these fascinating
creatures. It's wonderful to share and learn together, and I'm pleased to recommend this book as a great family exploration or as a great gift to share.

Mommy's Favorite Children's Books earns a commission on Amazon.com sales. Thanks for reading!

Baby Danced the Polka

2010-01-02T08:07:00.001-06:00

See this book at Amazon.com

First, I want to thank my friend Susan for recommending Karen Beaumont's book, Baby Danced the Polka! This is a sweet book with wonderful text, artwork and lift-the-flap details that make it a delightful book to read with our own children or to share as a gift.

Baby Danced the Polka tells the cute and fun story of a couple with their little baby living on an old-fashioned farm. The farm is an interesting setting, and ma and pa are trying to do their chores -- interesting chores, like starching long johns and fixing chow... and baby is supposed to be taking a nap... but... baby wants to DANCE!!!! And so, baby dances all through naptime with a variety of toy animals, cat, pig, cow and sheep.

In the end, the whole family dances the night away together.

Nearly every page has a lift-the-flap that shows baby dancing and dancing.

I love this book for the great words and lift-the-flaps and also the happy family relationship, along with the real and very familiar situation of mom and dad tring to get some things done during naptme.

Mommy's Favorite Children's Books earns a commission on Amazon.com sales. Thanks for reading!

What we are listening to: Junie B Jones

2009-11-16T15:08:00.002-06:00

The boys and I trekked to the library this morning after preschool. Library visits with three children 5 and under are interesting. I am thankful that the librarians are easygoing about the four of us getting a little crazy in the children's section (which is open to the whole library). The boys enjoy library visits, but baby Mark was having a little too much fun opening the audiocassette and CD cases in the audiobooks shelves.

Alek found magazines and he decided to check out one Highlights and two copies of Boys Life. (Unfortunately he was suckered in immediately by the toy advertisements and now wants an age-inappropriate marble run for Christmas. It's not happening.)

Getting to the point, we have been exploring audio books as something to do instead of watching TV. The boys are mildly interested. We checked out The House at Pooh Corner a few weeks ago, and now we found Junie B Jones on tape. Alek and I started reading a copy of Junie B Jones recently (about a farm trip) and the reading is holding his interest. I think it's nice that Junie B is about Alek's age and she's precocious and I think he relates to that and finds it funny.

That's what we're listening to this week!

Mommy's Favorite Children's Books earns a commission on Amazon.com sales. Thanks for reading!

What we are reading: The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin

2009-10-20T13:31:00.006-05:00

See this book at Amazon.com

Halloween is coming up! Last year we checked out and shared a great collection of poems -- It's Halloween! This year, our family borrowed a copy of The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin from the library and want to share notes about this cute book.

Spookley is a cute little story with a basic message -- it's OK and even valuable to be different from everyone else. The plot is like a Fall version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer... Spookley is a pumpkin who is square. The round pumpkins make fun of him until one night during a storm, Spookley saves the day. The farmer realizes how special Spookley is, and decides to plant his seeds in his fields the following year, which leads to a magical kind of surprise -- pumpkins of all shapes, colors and sizes!

The book comes with a bonus CD, which we listened to and enjoyed as well. Spookely is a cute book that our kids enjoyed very much. My oldest talked about Spookley a lot after reading the book.

Mommy's Favorite Children's Books earns a commission on Amazon.com sales. Thanks for reading!

Cardboard Building Blocks

2009-10-20T07:26:00.010-05:00

See this toy at Amazon.com

Sometimes the simplest toys are the most fun. This is true with one of our family's favorite toys, basic cardboard building blocks. I think these have been around forever, I remember playing with similar blocks waaay back when I was in preschool and kindergarten, and they are still in early childhood classrooms today.

We've owned our cardboard blocks for about two years now, and they have been the most played with blocks in our house. (We have three sets, the cardboard blocks, a set of very fine wooden unit blocks, and a set of wooden ABC cubes. I should probably also mention plastic peek-a-blocks, although those are separate in my mind as baby toys vs. building toys.)

What I like about our cardboard blocks:

They are lightweight, I do not have to worry about anyone getting hurt when they topple over
The boys are pretty good about cleaning up the large cardboard blocks -- we keep them in a not-so-attractive but very functional LARGE cardboard shipping box that sits in our living room. Clean up is often a game of toss-the-block-in-the-box. It's fun.
Everybody can play with them. The 5-year-old, 3 year-old and 1 year-old all play and everybody loves it. Dad and I play too, and we have a good time.
They are not made of plastic. Our family has many plastic toys, but it's nice to have something fun that's not plastic in the mix.
They are sturdy. They have been thrown, stepped on, kicked down and knocked over many, many times, and are still in good shape despite our rough handling.

What I don't like about our cardboard blocks:

They were spendy. Daddy purchased ours at a learning boutique store, and I remember saying -- you spent what on a bunch of cardboard?? cardboard??? The blocks come packed flat, and so it's very clear that what you have purchased is really not all that much in terms of material. Thankfully, the delightful experience of building big structures and the enduring play value of the blocks has made it seem like it was a good purchase vs. some of our other toys that have not gotten nearly as much use. (Frugal tip: a fun free alternative to purchasing cardboard blocks is to save up a lot of cardboard shoe boxes and let the kids play with them. This is what the boys' grandma has done, I walked into her house one day to an enormous tower of shoe boxes and it was also delightful. Grandmas are so smart!)
Storage. They take up a little room, so it may be useful to have a place in mind for keeping them. I am OK with a big shipping box full of cardboard blocks in the living room. These could fit in a closet if I were more organized.

What the kids love about the cardboard blocks:

They are large (comparatively). It does not take stacking many of the largest red blocks before my 3 year-old has a tower taller than he is, and that is just cool.
They are open-ended, and the boys get to be creative with them. We love building walls, and towers, and caves, we enjoy walling off a corner of the living room for a fort (and using the large storage box and couch cushions as additional building materials), we build statues... Most recently the boys have gotten into karate-chopping the blocks and kicking the blocks, which is a little rough on them, but it's been loads of fun.

I'm happy to share that these simple blocks are some of our favorite toys and recommend them for families with toddlers and preschoolers.

Mommy's Favorite Children's Books earns a small commission on Amazon.com sales.

Go Away Monster!

2009-10-19T21:00:00.007-05:00

See this game at Amazon.com

In all honesty, we don't play many board games in our house. That is kind of sad for me as a mom, because I grew up loving all board games and playing them as often as I could wrangle a willing friend or adult into playing with me. Perhaps the boys are still too young to love board games (and still working on turn-taking skills). My oldest (now almost 5!) loves Candyland. (Our three year old does not play it yet.) But one game that both our 5 and 3 year olds play is.... Go Away Monster by Gamewright.

Go Away Monster is a cute and simple game. Each player (up to four players total) chooses a game board that looks like a bedroom. There is also a small sack with game pieces that fall into two categories -- items that belong in your bedroom and... MONSTERS! If you happen to draw a monster, you get to yell GO AWAY MONSTER!!!!, and in our house, you get to toss your little monster across the room.

This has been loads of fun. The boys like picking their rooms and selecting items for their rooms in the game. The game has gotten my older son acting a little bit like a decorator, wanting to coordinate his favorite room with the best matching room accessories. The boys also enjoy all the monsters, they like the surprise of pulling a monster from the sack, and they love yelling GO AWAY MONSTER!!!

My nearly-five-year-old also at times decides that some of the monsters are nice monsters and he has chosen to invite them to stay and hang out in his nicely decorated room.

Game play moves fairly quickly, and it works with our kids' attention spans. The set packs up nicely in it's container, and it's an easy way to have a little family fun. The kids have not grown bored with it.

Go Away Monster is a simple, fun, delightful game that our family enjoys very much. I recommend it and think it's a great game to share with preschoolers.

Mommy's Favorite Children's Books earns a small commission on Amazon.com sales.

Scaredy Squirrel at Night

2009-10-17T04:44:00.010-05:00

See this book at Amazon.com

I had heard about Scaredy Squirrel around the kidlitosphere (that's the children's books blogging community) -- librarians and other kids' books fans had written favorably about it. But I had never made a big effort to go out and find it.

My oldest son (almost five) grabbed a copy of Scaredy Squirrel at Night by Melanie Watt when we were at the library a few weeks ago. (His book selection method right now is pretty much grabbing anything the librarians have on feature display, we are coming home with many great things!)

Scaredy Squirrel at Night is written in a cartoonish format with very cute illustrations. A simple plot summary: Scaredy Squirrel is very worried about having bad dreams. He has very specific concerns about the subject matter of nightmares -- he is afraid of things like polka-dot monsters and mean fairies and unicorns. (The drawings for all these things that Scaredy Squirrel is afraid of are cute, in a scary way.) Being proactive, Scaredy Squirrel comes up with detailed plans to avoid his bad dreams by staying awake. Unfortunately his plans go very wrong and poor Sacredy Squirrel has an unexpected adventure.

It's a cute and funny book. And I think my five-year-old has picked a winner. We recommend Scaredy Squirrel at Night and I'm making a note to also check out the original Scaredy Squirrel (and any other in the series that may exist.)

Happy reading!

Mommy's Favorite Children's Books earns a small commission on Amazon.com sales.

Back to blogging

2009-10-17T04:41:00.002-05:00

We had a wonderful summer! Our family has made several library trips recently and we have discovered several great books that we look forward to sharing with you!

I Spy Winners

2009-07-09T06:36:00.002-05:00

Grand Prize Winner:

#26 -- Laurie

One of my favorite children's books is The Girl with the Silver Eyes. I don't remember a lot of specifics, but I remember completely understanding the main character. She gets treated differently because of her intelligence (and her supernatural powers)!

I Spy A to Z Book Winners:

#11 Marielle

I'm pretty selfishly leading my children to my own childhood favorites. So far Ramona, Henry & Ribsy books as well as the infamous Amelia Bedelia get a ton of play around here. Reading Ramona books from the viewpoint of a parent is beyond hilarious.

#13 Lori

Right now I'd say I really like the Knuffle Bunny books by Mo Willems -- and my daughter loves them, too! Love the illustrations and some of the parental humor.

#10 Danielle

My favorite children's book is "I Love You Stinky Face" because the little boys goes through all these scenarios with his mom about if he was these different creatures and monsters and his mom just lets him know that no matter what he was, she would love him and take care of him. The illustrations are awesome and all 3 of my boys have loved this book and I love reading it to them. It's just a fun book with a sweet message!

#9 Carey

Our favorite book is Zin Zin Zin a Violin. The rhythm of the words is great and he uses the perfect words to describe each instrument and the pictures go perfectly with the words.

Numbers drawn by Random.org

I Spy... A Great Giveaway!

2009-06-15T06:29:00.012-05:00

It's been about a year since I started Mommy's Favorite Children's Books last summer and when it started, I hoped someday to do a giveaway contest with a great prize. Now I am happy to announce the first blog giveaway..... featuring I Spy books.

I Spy books are favorites of my 4.5 year old son. We have a few in our collection and he enjoys the photos so much. I love how focused he is while working on searching for items within the pictures. We love I Spy books for anytime, and they are very useful when kids need to sit a while while waiting or traveling.

This giveaway celebrates a brand new I Spy book....

I Spy A to Z!

Easy-to-read riddles by Jean Marzollo are paired with forty-six object-filled photographs by Walter Wick to create I Spy A to Z, the most engaging alphabet book ever! With more than thirty titles and 36 million books in print, the I Spy series continues to win the hearts and minds of parents and kids everywhere.

This giveaway offers FIVE prizes! Wow!

One very lucky reader will receive an awesome grand prize package valued at more than $80 with books AND games!

• Wii Video Game ‘Ultimate I SPY’

• Board Game ‘I SPY Memory Game’

• I SPY A to Z: A Book of Picture Riddles

• I SPY Treasure Hunt

Four (4) runner-up winners receive a copy of the new book I SPY A to Z: A Book of Picture Riddles! (Each book valued at $13.99)

HOW TO ENTER: Leave a comment (with your email or a link with a way to contact you if you win) and include 1) the title of your favorite children's book and 2) why you love it.

We're doing this the old fashioned way, one entry per person, please. No duplicates or incomplete entries. Entries will be accepted through July 6. US residents only, please. Winners will be chosen at random, announced and notified by email on Wednesday July 8.

(Anonoymous commenters and new visitors -- thank you so much for visiting --please be sure to leave me a way to contact you if you win, otherwise your entry is invalid. If you forgot and want to fix it, post an identical comment with a way to reach you, thanks.)

Thank you for reading and entering the I SPY giveaway at Mommy's Favorite Children's Books! Good luck!

First giveaway coming soon!

2009-06-13T15:55:00.002-05:00

Mommy's Favorite Children's Books will be hosting a giveaway to be announced on Monday!

Top 30 picture books - what we have read

2009-06-01T13:25:00.003-05:00

My friend Marietta at Bookworm's Booklist asked which of the Top 30 Picture Books featured at A Fuse #8 Production, School Library Journal we have shared with our family. Here is our list:

#1: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (1963)

#2: Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown (1947)

#3: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (1979)

#4: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (1962)

#5: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems (2003)

#6: Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (1941)

#7: Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson (1955)

#8: Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans (1939)

#9: Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag (1928)

#10: Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems (2004)

#11: The Story of Ferdinand y Monroe Leaf, ill. Robert Lawson (1936)

#12: Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann (1994)

#13: Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey (1948)

#14: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka, ill. Lane Smith(1989)

#15: Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes (1996)

#16: Owl Moon by Jane Yolen (1987)

#17: Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina (1947)

#18: In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak (1970)

#19: Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney (1982)

#20: George and Martha by James Marshall (1972)

#21: Bark, George by Jules Feiffer (1999)

#22: The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone, ill. by Mike Smollin (1971)

#23: Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban, illustrated by Lillian Hoban (1964)

#24: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, ill. Lois Ehlert (1989)

#25: The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton (1942)

#26: Corduroy by Donald Freeman (1976)

#27: The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter (1902)

#28: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst, ill. Ray Cruz (1972)

#29: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig (1969)

#30: Brown, Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? by Bill Martin Jr., ill. Eric Carle (1967)

I am not certain whether I will make it a goal or not to do the whole Top 30. The ones I am most interested in trying with our kids are:

-- Millions of Cats

-- The Monster at the End of This Book

-- The Story of Ferdinand

-- Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (I have seen this on PBS' Between the Lions)

A sweet classic board game: Candyland

2009-05-26T07:25:00.013-05:00

There are only two board games that get regular use at our house -- Candyland and Go Away Monster (review to come).

I wonder if there is anyone who is unfamiliar with Candyland -- this classic board game has been around for generations.

A (our oldest, 4.5 years), loves Candyland, he is willing to play it anytime.

See this game at Amazon.com

As a child I remember being very bored with Candyland. Perhaps it's because I was an early reader and I felt the color cards were too simple. I much preferred Chutes and Ladders . I think that may mean I'm unique. My new brother-in-law has detailed memories of Candyland's Lord Licorice..... uh, I thought, who is that?

It is interesting to compare various versions of Candyland published over the years. The current came has Princess Frostine instead of Queen Frostine. The molasses swamp has become a chocolate swamp, and the gameplay has changed. In the version of my childhood, a player would get stuck on a dot space until a certain color card was drawn, which made for a long, frustrating time stuck. The modern version has a photo of licorice on the sticky spaces and the unlucky player only loses one turn -- for a gentler and less frustrating wait.

The Hasbro web site has a history of the game and neat slide show with photos of the different versions through the decades. Which version do you remember playing as a child?

Now that I have a child that loves Candyland, I'm just now experiencing the best of this game with him.

I admit, I let my son cheat and win every time we play. He does not like getting sent back to an earlier point in the game by one of the special cards. For a little while the house rules were that pieces only go forward, but now I am sending my player back to try and model the correct way to play. A seems to be innately competitive, and he wants to win Candyland every time we play, cheering for himself when he receives double color cards and expressing disappointment when his game piece advances only a space or two. He sweetly invites me to join him in the Candy Castle as soon as he wins.

I have heard the new, electronic Candy Land Castle game suits younger players (2 and 3 year olds) who aren't ready for the classic Candyland game. Apparently the concepts are totally different, and Castle is about color and shape matching. I am not a big fan of electronic games though, and they can be expensive. Have you tried Candyland Castle? Let us know what you think!

A book for Father's Day -- I Love My Daddy by Sebastien Braun

2009-05-25T07:22:00.017-05:00

I've got to say, Infant Bibliophile is on top of things -- I visited today to find Father's Day books -- a topic that would very possibly have completely slipped my mind until the week of. I so admire the organized!

Anyway, I have a single addition to the Bibliophile's list. It's a beautiful, beautiful picture book called I Love My Daddy by Sebastien Braun.

See this book at Amazon.com

Just look at the gorgeous images! Beautiful color! Each spread depicts a father bear and baby bear spending time together in sweet everyday moments.

The boys have enjoyed this book, especially, "My daddy tickles me!"

I discovered this great-looking book when it was sold at Pottery Barn Kids a couple years ago -- those home decor style-makers picked a winner! Since this purchase I have perused the PBK book selections a few more times -- I didn't find anything that grabbed me as much, but kudos to PBK for making shelf space in its stores for children's books.

Added: When is Father's Day this year, anyway? I went and looked it up -- June 21! Mark your calendars!

(Also, yes, today is Memorial Day! Yes, I have the holidays all mixed-up! We do not have any books about flags, the USA or patriotism! It's a huge deficiency in our collection. And my husband was an Army reserve tank commander. I have one book about Abraham Lincoln, that's it! Any suggestions?)

Proud mama - A's spontaneous letter writing

2009-05-24T13:38:00.003-05:00

We were playing outside the other day and after being busy with other things for a while, I noticed that A had written these letters on the driveway. He said that he made the three A's for himself and the J for his brother.

I am so proud!

Sending gifts for a 2 year old's birthday

2009-05-24T12:54:00.014-05:00

Today I sent birthday gifts for a charming little two-year-old relative blessed with gorgeous red hair (like mine). You would think it's easy to choose books for gifts because I have this blog that is all about our recommended favorites, but it took a few minutes to think about what might be nice (and to remember what I've already given!) I ended up choosing two of our family favorites:

In the Small, Small Pond

Our family's paperback copy of In the Small Small Pond is tattered and taped. It has been very much loved. Honestly I'm not sure why the book is such a favorite.... perhaps it is the bold and beautiful warm colors, the wonderful and colorful animals (with a little frog that appears on every spread), or maybe especially the ear-pleasing phrases. All good reasons to love this book, which was recognized as a Caldecott honor book.

See this book at Amazon.com

It's everything I think a perfect children's book should be -- very, very, colorful, beautiful, simple and engaging.

Harold and the Purple Crayon DVD set

I may risk getting some hate mail from saying this, but here are my true feelings: The Harold and the Purple Crayon DVD set of the complete HBO series is... better than the books.

See Harold and the Purple Crayon at Amazon.com

Yup. These DVDs are awesome. Sharon Stone does a fabulous read, the music is wonderful and the animation of Harold creating his many drawings adds a lot to the stories. I found this series when I was searching for some family video entertainment that is age-appropriate, gently paced and not too scary. It fit our need perfectly.

I had not heard of Harold or experienced him in my own childhood. Harold is a young boy with a fantastic imagination and great artistic ability. He imagines things, and draws them, and they become real.... he has wonderful adventures, he experiences some dilemmas and challenges along the way and uses his trusty purple crayon to confidently take charge of things.

We did not experience the book until I picked up a copy at a resale shop. All I have to say is that after seeing the videos, the book was ho-hum. We still read the book, and sometimes books are more convenient and appropriate than videos, but given the choice, the videos are the superior media. And that's the truth. Hmph!

I hope baby B loves his gifts! (Is it right to call a 2 y.o. a baby? He's really a toddler!)

Knock Knock Jokes

2009-05-18T11:33:00.002-05:00

Knock, Knock!

Who's there?

Banana!

Banana who?

Is it just my favorite, or is the banana joke the most well-known knock knock out there?

We were traveling home from Thanksgiving when my 4-year-old decided to start telling us knock knock jokes with nonsense words for the who and punch line. It was clear that he enjoys them, and I started trying to think up any halfway decent knock knock to share with the family.

Coming up with knock knocks is not the easiest for me. I managed a few, "Harry up and open the door!" but after about 5 or 6 I was seriously stuck and made it a point to go purchase a knock knock book at Amazon.

We were just looking at one of the books last night, Good Clean Knock-Knock Jokes for Kids, as we were having another family knock knock session. (We improvised a great one in Jamaica based on the name of an appetizer on a restaurant menu. Here it is:

Knock, Knock!

Who's there?

Jamaica!

Jamaica who?

Jamaica me crazy!

Hope you like it!)

It is hard to review a knock knock book. Some of the jokes are good, some are OK, some are clunkers, some don't make sense. But.... having a knock knock joke book on hand is a fun, good resource for some fun family entertainment. I think making up your own is awesome and great brain exercise, but when you run out, a joke book keeps the fun going.

I want to get some videos of the kids telling knock knock jokes. They are not master joke tellers by any means, but they enjoy the interaction and pattern of knock knock jokes. I think that we'll enjoy knock knocks for at least a few more years. Perhaps I will remember a few more in time than just the banana and Harry.

I *think* that joke books fall into the nonfiction category. If you are interested visiting today's Nonfiction Monday, check it out here at the APCL Mock Sibert blog.

Top 100 Picture Books list

2009-05-16T08:49:00.002-05:00

Here is a link to the final listing of the Top 100 Picture Books (as voted on by members of the kidlitosphere) at School Library Journal - a Fuse #8 Production

The articles on each book are tremendous! I know I'll be referring to this list frequently as we explore new reads for our family. Enjoy!

Kumon Maze Books

2009-05-16T08:30:00.004-05:00

see this book at Amazon.com

As we were getting ready for a family trip to Jamaica, I was running around Target trying to get odds and ends for the trip. Knowing we would have a few long airplane rides, I checked out the activity books and decided to try a couple Kumon books.

Even before we left, A (age 4.5) found the maze book and sat in his room before bed tracing the paths with his finger. He loves it!

For people who have not seen activity books in years, it's a nice surprise to see the vivid color artwork. The pages are very attractive.

I recommend the Kumon maze books for preschoolers.

Edited to add: Exploring what's out there, I see other maze books and connect the dot books that also have nice colors that are by other publishers too. In the past I have printed connect the dots puzzles from free online sources, but I like the color illustrations and ease of a book format for organization too.

Nonfiction Monday - A Children's Picture Atlas for Earth Day

2009-04-20T00:01:00.015-05:00

See this book at Amazon

Welcome everyone to Nonfiction Monday!

I'm thrilled to share this beautiful picture atlas with you. It seems very appropriate to include this beautiful book about our Earth as we approach Earth Day this week. We recently purchased this at the recommendation of online friends and it is fantastic!

The 48-page Usborne Children's Picture Atlas is gorgeous, informative and wonderful for preschool and grade school ages. Its contents include a series of informational pages that show and explain our world and what kinds of things kids will see in the maps, and then nine beautiful spreads of maps illustrated with drawings of landmarks, people, animals, plants, and vehicles.

It's gorgeous to look at and very interesting to explore. I especially love the "Can you find these things on the maps?" lists that link the information pages to the maps in a fun and challenging game. We love our copy and I'd recommend it as a great addition to your child's collection or as a great gift book.

Nonfiction Monday bloggers, please share your posts in the comments. Thank you!

NONFICTION MONDAY LINKS -- APRIL 20, 2009

Roberta reviews two poetry books by Douglas Florian, insectlopedia and in the swim at Wrapped in Foil Blog

Spring is here! Great Kid Books reviews Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert, exploring the world of butterflies.

100 Scope Notes reviews A Mirror to Nature

Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect shares What Can You Do With An Old Red Shoe?

Sarah at In need of Chocolate reviews a Seashore field guide

The JustOneMoreBook! podcast contribution to non-fiction picture books this week:- a chat about The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau: http://tinyurl.com/cm8tyd- excerpts of Jason Lowe's session at NYC PEN group about response to Lee&Lowe's books:Baseball Saved Us Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story Su Dongpo: Chinese Genius Listen here: http://tinyurl.com/c73vpf

The Book Chook reviewed a wonderful picture book called Roadworks, great for little truckaholics or youngsters who'd like to find out how a road is made

Kim at The Wild About Nature blog reviews Where Should Turtle Be? by Susan Ring.

Lori at Lori Calabrese Writes! takes a look at What's so Bad About Gasoline?

Jules has a sneak peek of Steve Jenkins' new title, DOWN DOWN DOWN, at 7-Imp, aka, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Abby (the) Librarian has a post about multicultural books for preschoolers - Reading Around the World for Preschoolers

Amanda reviewed Recycle This Book at A Patchwork of Books

Simply Science takes a look at A Temperate Forest Food Chain by Rebecca Hogue Wojahn and Donald Wojahn. (Karen's note -- I checked out Simply Science and think I found a new favorite blog!)

The ACPL Mock Sibert Blog features Mermaid Queen by Shana Corey -- It's a beautiful picture book biography.

Book Scoops shares Onward: A Photobiography of African American Polar Explorer by Dolores Johnson

Katie from Katie's Literature Lounge says -- It's National Wildlife Week... I've got a bunch of reviews featuring all kinds of wildlife.

Thank you so much everyone for sharing great Nonfiction Monday articles! And thanks so much for your patience while I got the roundup finished. I appreciate it! --Karen

Top 100 Picture Books list (in progress)

2009-04-16T21:41:00.005-05:00

I've been glued to A Fuse #8 production at School Library Journal the last few days -- a great list of the top 100 children's picture books is being unveiled (as recommended by members of the kidlitosphere). I sent in my top picks about a month ago and so far...... none have appeared on the countdown..... Watch with me as the top 50 are announced, I wonder if (and where) my suggestions show up! I believe the question asked was "what are the top 10 most important picture books" and so.... it will be very exciting! The summaries of each book are great and it's a wonderful resource for ideas!!! Enjoy!!

P.S. Shall I share my votes?

1. The Little Engine That Could

2. The Snowy Day

3. The Very Hungry Caterpillar

4. Caps for Sale (#17)

5. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (#33)

6. Goodnight Moon

7. Dear Zoo

8. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (#24)

9. Trains by Byron Barton

10. In the Small Small Pond

Thank you for your kindness!

2009-04-07T07:13:00.011-05:00

Mommy's Favorite Children's Books recently received two wonderful blog awards from two very wonderful bloggers:

Back in February, the blog Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile presented us with a "Kreative Blogger" Award!

Then in March, Marietta at The Bookworm's Booklist gave us an "I Love Your Blog" Award!

What's really special to me is that I LOVE both Infant Biblophile and The Bookworm's Booklist, they are two of my very favorite blogs to visit and I enjoy reading their recommendations and reviews.

Also of note, more than 10,000 people have visited Mommy's Favorite Children's Books since the blog started last summer. A very big THANK YOU to everyone who has stopped by, and everyone who has taken time to participate and leave comments.

I'd also like to share my thanks for the Kidlitosphere community, a great group of people who are very welcoming and well-informed. It's been a pleasure to participate in the group and connect with other people who enjoy children's literature so much!

New Kohl's Cares for Kids books - Dr. Seuss

2009-04-05T13:09:00.003-05:00

The Kohl's Cares for Kids program is now featuring Dr. Seuss hardcover books and plush toys.

See all the merchandise at Kohl's com or visit your local Kohl's store to purchase items for $5 each.

The Dr. Seuss books available right now are:

I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?
And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street
If I Ran The Zoo

Melissa and Doug alphabet train floor puzzle

2009-04-05T10:03:00.002-05:00

This Melissa and Doug train puzzle was another $5 resale shop find that I'm very pleased with. The boys love trains, and A (age 4) was very excited to put the puzzle together. It was not as easy for him as I thought it would be, but with some encouragement he finished the entire puzzle (singing the ABC song a few times as he worked). J is very fond of the engine puzzle piece and we almost lost it because he insisted on carrying it around the house. (I was extremely relieved to find it in the sofa this morning.) The puzzle is big, it says 10 feet long, but it fit diagonally across our small family room floor with room to spare.

Here's a link to the puzzle at Amazon:

FLOOR PUZZLE ALPHABET TRAIN
It's a better value paired with a firetruck puzzle
Alphabet Train and Giant Fire Truck Floor Puzzle Assortment
Amazon has several kinds of train floor puzzles available.

Melissa and Doug Opposites puzzle cards

2009-04-05T09:46:00.006-05:00

The boys and I recently visited our local resale shop, and I found this educational puzzle made by Melissa and Doug for $5.00. I'm thrilled with the find and plan to use it as part of our "home education experiment" (doing some Montessori and other activities at home).

We are sad to leave the Montessori preschool where A attended this year, and so we hope to do some great learning activities at home. It is kind of exciting and I hope it's a good experience for everyone. At A's school, I had seen a similar matching puzzle with mother animals and their babies. So I was pleased when I found this similar matching puzzle for opposites. It is nice because it teaches about what opposites are, and it increases the kids' exposure to written words, even though they are not reading yet. A and J were working with the puzzle this morning and J (age 2.5) asked my husband, "what this word?" "what this word?" It was fun.

The puzzle cards come in a wooden box. For everything to fit, the cards must be assembled. The cards are nice and heavy and should hold up well.

Amazon has listings for these puzzle cards (only $4.20!, I guess my bargain was not that amazing) and other puzzle cards of different types if anyone is searching for similar items. Here is a link:
Melissa & Doug Opposites Teaching Puzzle Cards

IMDB Parental Movie Guide Wiki

2009-04-03T11:50:00.010-05:00

I did a quick Google search for the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (maybe my husband and I will watch it. I think it is not appropriate for our kids at their young ages.) Looking at IMDB, their parental guide (in wiki form) has very detailed notes for the movie. Check them out. I appreciate seeing this level of detail and as a parent who is cautious about media images, this parental guide will be very useful for checking what our kids might watch. I hope it helps you too!

Added to post on April 5:
To see the parents' guide for other movies, search the movie title at IMBD and scroll to additional details. The parents' guide is the third item listed, right after the movie rating.

I'm going to add more info -- here is the parental advisory for the movie Cars, one of our favorites. Because these parental notes are made by viewers and people registered at IMDB, all the info is contributed by various people. The quality of the information depends on the involvement of the community members. At this time, I see several details mentioned that I was unaware of. I have seen Cars dozens of times and had no idea that the word "hell" is said twice. (In fact, I would be interested to fact-check whether that is accurate or not.) Also at this time, I see that a scene that I feel is quite scary is not mentioned at all -- when Lightning is accidentally dropped out of Mack's trailer onto the highway and he is in a perilous situation as cars dart around him to avoid an accident, he is nearly run over by three semi trucks, and he is panicked and lost at night in an unfamiliar place. (In our first views of this movie, I would always fast forward through this scene.) I don't think the review mentions the taunting / teasing of Mack by a gang of four "bad attitude" cars either. Now that I think of it, the review does not mention Chick Hicks' role as a somewhat "bad guy" or any of the things Chick's character or his pit crew does that are somewhat mean, like teasing or bumping during races.

I'm going to have to join the IMDB community to help out with the Cars review! I encourage parents who value this to also work as a community to present the facts about movies to each other so we can all be informed about which movies our families choose to watch together.

Do you know of other helpful parental guide resources?

Mom's concerns about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

2009-04-03T11:33:00.003-05:00

So I have been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to my 4.5 and 2.5 year olds (and the baby, who is marvelous and now almost SIX months old! Time flies!) Our reading time has been fantastic, we all gather in the living room and the boys putter with toys a little bit while they listen to the story. We are around page 61 and Charlie is entering the factory after meeting Mr. Wonka. Both the boys love listening to the story and are very interested.

I mentioned in the other post about how I was scared of the oompa loompas (particularly in the movie, with their eerie song). I browsed ahead and I am worried about whether I should continue reading the book..... soon Augustus Gloop will behave badly, fall into the chocolate river, get sucked up the tube, and his parents will freak out. Honestly, it still freaks ME out. I'm a little disturbed by what happens to the kids in the chocolate factory. My first reaction is to skip the rest of the book. That's not a good lesson in starting what you finish. I wonder if the kids will have a better reaction than me, I wonder if I can read the story in a way that minimizes the fears and the events that I find disasterous and be more positive. I think maybe I could use it as a little lesson for my boys, talking about how Augustus really should not have drank out of the chocolate river and using the book as an example in manners and behaving well. Perhaps I can make it work out in a way that is good for the boys.

I am a little worried though. I was a serious child and I'm a pretty serious person and I am concerned that the kids are not freaked out by the story. My kids are sometimes serious and sometimes little goofballs..... I wonder if we can take the story as a goofy, make-believe thing.

I would love to hear your advice!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

2009-03-28T21:28:00.005-05:00

I have started reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory aloud to A and J in the afternoons (A has been on break from preschool for the past two weeks). They seem to like it. I will think they are not listening and ask A if I should keep reading and he has nearly always said "yes".

See this book at Amazon

I read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when I was in the second or third grade. Reading it again now, thirty years later, I still remember some of the things I thought while reading it way back then for the first time. I think my most sophisticated observation from childhood was --- this book has a LOT of exclamation points! And it does!

In tonight's read, Charlie found a golden ticket. A thought that Charlie might lose his golden ticket (which sounds like our life, where beloved toys get lost and re-found a lot). The gates to the Wonka factory just opened, and we will find out more tomorrow.

I was always scared of the Oompa Loompas, at least in the movie. I hope it is a happy read for the boys.

It is very, very exciting to be reading a long book to them and have it hold their interest. When I had tried showing A longer early reader books before, he was not interested in books without pictures on every page. It was a little bit of luck that we started Charlie and the Chocolate Factory --- A was talking about how much he loves bubble gum (he loves it! and he loves quarters for bubble gum machines -- these are very very hot things in his world right now) and so I told him I have this story about a boy who gets to visit inside a chocolate factory and --- he was interested!

P.S. This was one of our purchases from Sortfloorbooks.com. All in all I was pleased with our book purchases there, even though I spent $8 on shipping, the book prices were very good. Right now they have a free ship code if you are interested -- NRAA033109 (good on $24.99 and up). I don't know how long it will last.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar's 40th Anniversary

2009-03-21T14:29:00.008-05:00

See this book at Amazon

2009 marks the 40th anniversary of one of our favorite books, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. In honor of 40 years, there is a new pop-up edition available -- it looks very cute!

Amazon.com has a video segment featuring Eric Carle speaking about The Very Hungry Caterpillar and how he made the book. (The interview is delightful... don't miss it!) He says in the interview "I LOVE COLOR!" which makes me smile. Eric Carle turns 80 years old this year. Happy birthday Mr. Carle, and thank you for this very wonderful children's book!

P.S. Here's a link to Eric Carle's blog.

UPDATE April 6: I ordered a copy of the pop-up book but unfortunately it is fragile and I'm afraid it won't survive our boys' love. We prefer the board book version.

Neat site - Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves

2009-03-16T20:59:00.002-05:00

Came across this neat Web site today! Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves Enjoy!

Curious George board book giveaway

2009-03-16T18:05:00.002-05:00

One more giveaway folks! A Curious George boxed set of board books at BabyBox.com. (Yes, I am entering this one, we love Curious George!)

Easter Books and Giveaway at Infant Bibliophile

2009-03-16T14:11:00.003-05:00

I checked in on a new favorite blog today and found something I was looking for -- Easter book recommendations. I have just started thinking about what to put in the kids' baskets that is not sugar-loaded or too expensive. Check out this post at Infant Bibliophile for some great book ideas for your children's baskets, and enter to win two books!

Good Egg book giveaway

2009-03-16T14:04:00.001-05:00

Head over to Pink Lemonade and enter the contest to win a copy of the book Good Egg -- it's adorable!

Bargain hunting at Sortfloorbooks.com

2009-03-16T13:03:00.003-05:00

If you are looking for children's books at reasonable prices, check out Sortfloorbooks.com. I just tried my first order there last night -- in total, I purchased six books for $20 ($12 + 8 shipping), which works out to $3.33 per book.

The search is a little clumsy, but I was able to search popular authors (Karen Katz, Eric Hill, Ezra Jack Keats, Seuss, etc.) pretty easily. We purchased I Spy books, two Max and Ruby books by Rosemary Wells, a Karen Katz lift the flap and a copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Books may be marked used, and may have shelf wear. I will let you know how it goes!

I love Amazon, but this may be a worthwhile alternative.

Poetry Friday -- February 27, 2009

2009-02-26T21:14:00.035-06:00

Welcome to Poetry Friday! Please post your links in the comments. It's going to be a busy day but I will post as soon as possible. Thank you and have a wonderful weekend!

Here is the roundup -- I am so sorry this is so late, life has kept me away from the computer until now.

Yat Yee is in with Optimism by Jane Hirshfield.
Jill Corcoran wrote about the dearth of riddle and acrostic children's poetry collections with links to a few original riddle and acrostic poems. Be sure to read the comments, J. Patrick Lewis treated us to an original riddle poem included in his forthcoming riddle poetry Collection, SPOT THE PLOT
Jim of Haunts for a Children's Writer shares his lipogram poem Scrabble
Liz in Ink shares some wackiness from Richard Wilbur this week with a Paul Laurence Dunbar poem entitled On the Receipt of a Familiar Poem.
SusanWrites is in with Poems of 15 Words or less
John posts about Octavio Paz.
Susan selected a poem by Michele Elliot, saying, "I have recited Ms. Elliot's poem publicly and privately often."
Gregory K. reposts the first poem he blogged, three years ago: Reasons Why I Don't Write
Little Willow shares The Unforgiven by Edwin Arlington Robinson at Bildungsroman
Kim shares Fog is the order of the day.
Julie at The Drift Record has general rant about long winters as well as Sara Teasdale's lovely poem, "Redbird."
Mary Lee from A Year of Reading says, "Now that I'm back in rainy, chilly Ohio, my poem this week seems like a dream. I wrote it on Wednesday following a perfect afternoon at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. It is called No Words To Describe."
Cloudscome shares a review of Charles R. Smith's book on Langston Hughes' poem "My People" at A Wrung Sponge
Janet posted Shakespeare's version of Henry V's speech at Agincourt
Jama shares a spoonful of wisdom from Richard Jones
Jet concludes a series of love poems, saying "Today, it's a lovely poem by W.B. Yeats, The Wandering Aengus, from The Wind Among the Reeds."
Kelly is in with Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes by Ben Jonson.
Shelf Elf is in with a little original poem: a haiku about a grey cat who lives at the end of my street
Jennifer at InkforLit has philosophy in a carrot seed -- sounds fascinating!
LauraSalas has a poem by Billy Collins called "Evasive Maneuvers"
Sara shares Mary Jo Bang's And as in Alice.
Andrea from Just One More Book! shares "a chat about There's a Babirusa in My Bathtub -- a sly hybrid of silly poetry and hard-to-believe, non-fiction"
This week's poetry selection on The Stenhouse Blog is The Writer by Richard Wilbur.
Jone shares macaronic verse
Ruth shares "Late at Night in Bed," by Gregory Djanikian.
Nandini says, "I have `Ducks' Ditty.' From Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. It was a childhood favorite, though I also blame Wind in the Willow for my adverb habit. More on that on my blog ... Check it out at Notes from New England"
Jules at 7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast shares I'm in with Michael J. Rosen's CUCKOO'S HAIKU
Kelly shares the poem Gunslinger, which was written by more than one author.
David Elzey shares "a hybrid post, a collection of haiku and some suggestions for the publishing industry. You can ignore the non-poetry stuff and read just the poems if you like, I don't mind."
Karen E is in with some Ted Kooser today
Elaine At Wild Rose Reader shares an original poem, a macaronic verse, entitled The Exterminator's list of Thngs to do."
Blue Rose Girls has a poem by Mark Strand entitled Poet Roast.
Lorie Ann Grover has original poem, My Demon.
Readertotz features a poem called Icicle!
Tiel Aisha Ansari shares an original poem, Invisible Ink, at Knocking from Inside.
Debbie Diesen says "this week I'm back to my yearlong project of reading all of Carl Sandburg's poems"
Jennie shares classic Sesame Street songs!
Katie's Literature Lounge shares a book of poems called Falling Down the Page.
Florian Cafe serves a Jack Prelutsky poem at table 5
Ayuddha.net has "I Want to Be Your Shoebox" by Catherine Bowman, which inspired Cristina Garcia's middle grade novel, I Wanna Be Your Shoebox.
Kurious Kitty talks about Ashley Bryan and his role as promoter of poetry.
Martha Calderaro has been reading a biography of Langston Hughes this week and shares notes
Tracie Zimmer shares "At Blackwater Pond" by Mary Oliver
KiddosandBooks shares Rowena Bennett's Springtime In The Park.
Tanita S. Davis shares Courage by Amelia Earhart.
Becky at Farm School has a poem by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, "The February Hush"
Sam is in with a gross poem -- by a real poet this time.
Miss Erin shares a poem called Poppies
Stacey from Two Writing Teachers shares an original poem
Kim is in with Fogginess!
Carol shares a review of ORDINARY THINGS, a favorite Spring Poetry book, at Carol's Corner

Shopping Etsy for handmade toys

2009-02-16T10:31:00.004-06:00

My bank account is a little lighter (but not by much) this morning after making some Etsy toy purchases. I think it's often wonderful to purchase handmade items instead of manufactured items -- I delight in supporting talented people who are operating smaller crafts businesses.

So today I found two items I'm very excited about for the kids.

1. A taggie blanket for baby M. He's getting to the age where he will love it.

2. An I Spy pillow. I had been thinking of making one of these myself, and was collecting little bits and scraps for it, but then I thought to check Etsy, after buying the taggie blanket. Big score -- of course there are talented sewers who make these. Now I don't have to! We are going on a family trip in May which will includes a 4 hour airplane ride followed by a 2 hour bus ride, and... there will be 5 young children and one baby along... we're going to need some things to do -- I think these will be great!

Have you discovered great kids' items on Etsy? Please share your favorite finds and tips for searching -- thanks!

Poetry Friday - A Valentine Poem

2009-02-13T05:27:00.005-06:00

Question

Do you love me,

or do you not?

You told me once,

but I forgot.

- Anonymous

...from Good Morning to You, Valentine

Happy Poetry Friday!

This is one of my favorite poems, and so short!

Goodness knows since I have become a parent, I forget... a lot. You know about the parents mixing-up kids' names? This is me. Every day. Every time I speak to the children. I would have thought that I would escape this embarrassing truth of parenthood, but no. I feel awful that I call my kids all the wrong names, all the time. Boys, I love you, all of you, whoever you are! (And husband, I love you too!)

This week flew by... I have been thinking a lot about preschool, or not, for our two older boys next year. (The not-inexpensive preschool my oldest went to this year increased tuition by 12.7%, which is causing us to re-evaluate everything.) I hope to get back to more book posts soon!

An update on Lucky (the book I was considering altering because of an advertisement in it), I sent it back intact with my husband when he was running errands. I hope to speak with a librarian about it next time I have the chance. Thanks everyone for your feedback and suggestions!

The Poetry Friday roundup is at Big A, little a. Have a great weekend!

Poetry Friday and New Blog Design

2009-02-06T04:46:00.000-06:00

Happy Poetry Friday! Mommy's Favorite Children's Books is sporting a new design, created by Jennisa at Once Upon a Blog. (She is wonderful and fast!) The header image of a sunny summer day reminds me of this poem by Robert Frost, which helps me focus on the precious moments with my young children.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

-- Robert Frost

This week's Poetry Friday is hosted by Wild Rose Reader. Enjoy!

Oh no. I am thinking about defacing a library book.

2009-01-27T09:31:00.013-06:00

We have a brand new Breyer Stablemates book called Lucky that I checked out of the library a few days ago. My two year old and I started reading it the other night. I told him the title of the story is Lucky, and when we turned to the first page that showed a picture of the horse Lucky on it, he became excited and said, "THAT YUCKY!!" (he's still learning how to make the L sound) -- it was adorable. We have not finished reading Lucky yet, but I was thoroughly enjoying it and I'm becoming a big fan of the Breyer Stablemates books. I love horses, always have, and the stories are nice and have lots of great horsey language in them and nice illustrations. The books we've seen have featured all girl characters but that doesn't matter to the boys right now.

Lucky

So here's the problem. I was sitting in my son's room browsing the rest of Lucky and admiring the illustrations, and I see the last page of the book is an advertisement for Breyer products. Talk about YUCKY! I used to work in marketing, but seeing an ad in a children's book is almost revolting. My first thought was to rip that ad out. It seems that it could be torn or cut easily without damaging the book's content or cover. (The ad is double sided.) So, I could wipe out this ad without anyone really knowing (except me, and well, you!)

But... it's not my book. I am thinking of getting some Breyer Stablemates books for our own collection and I will definitely cut ads out of them. The other Breyer book we read, Snowflake, did not contain an ad. Lucky has one of the library's new stickers on it, so this must be a new thing.

So.... should I do other library patrons a favor by slicing out this ad? Or should I be more respectful of the library's public property? Maybe other patrons actually would benefit from the advertising message? (Look mom! A free catalog!) How do you feel about advertising in children's books? It makes me gag, even in this case, where I have a great deal of affection for the brand promoted. Most children's books don't have advertising. At most, I have seen cross-promotion for other titles (the back covers of our Sandra Boynton books come to mind). I would generally say it is an awful and disgusting thing to damage or mess with library property, but...I don't know! It might be good to keep the commercials out of kids' books, or at least, this particular copy of Lucky.

Leave your thoughts in the comments, and vote in the poll! We'll have this title checked out for at least 3 weeks, and I'm interested in your advice whether or not to actually alter the book. It feels right and wrong at the same time.

PBS Kids Island online games

2009-01-20T10:21:00.003-06:00

A and I have just discovered PBS Kids Island at PBSkids.org. It is a set of free games that teach reading skills. The system requires an email account and multiple kids can play under one email address. A parent / caregiver can check the account to learn a little about what their child is doing.

My feelings are mixed. A seems to like the games, but he was frustrated that more buildings are not on the island (after mastery of one area, new areas are added). I'm concerned about spending a lot of time online, although A has been free to play games at several kids' network sites.

Book Club 4 Boys

2009-01-18T10:02:00.004-06:00

Oooh, just saw Laura Blum featured as mom of the month in Family Fun magazine, and had to check out her Web site, Book Club 4 Boys -- Neat!

I'm just digging in myself, but have to go back to see what she's doing with her youngest son. Enjoy!

The Snowy Day

2009-01-14T20:00:00.002-06:00

The Snowy Day

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats is well-known as a classic book. Like Caps for Sale, this is a book that I never got to experience in childhood. That's sad, because The Snowy Day is wonderful! I had heard of the title, and checked it out from the library. Now having read it, I must get a copy for our family, urgently... I am clinging to our borrowed copy and don't want to give it back!

The Snowy Day tells a simple story about a boy's day exploring and playing after a snowfall. He has wonderful experiences -- making footprints, dragging a stick, shaking snow off a tree, watching a snowball fight and putting a snowball in his pocket to save for later. He goes home and tells his mom about his day, reflects on his experiences, and the next day, goes out in the snow again, bringing a friend to join in.

It's a lovely story. What I love most about this book is that it captures so well how children explore and experiment with simple things. How interesting snow is! How wonderful to make footprints and snowballs! It's great to feel, explore and enjoy natural wonders like snow. Reading The Snowy Day brings back the wonder and simple pleasures of childhood.

Peter, the main character in The Snowy Day, is black. As Dr. Seuss says in The Sneetches, you would think such a thing wouldn't matter at all... but it is notable, even in 2009. I was reminded if how hard it can be for black children to find examples of people who look like them at Christmas when I searched unsuccessfully in local stores for a black baby doll -- very frustrating! Having a main character with dark skin makes this beautiful book even more special.

Jim Trelease's Retirement Letter

2009-01-06T09:44:00.005-06:00

I just stopped by Jim Trelease's web site and saw his retirement letter posted January 31, 2008. With my four-year-old starting preschool I had dreams of having Jim come to our school to speak -- I love his book, The Read-Aloud Handbook, it's absolutely inspirational for parents and educators.

Best wishes to Jim and his wife Susan for a happy and healthy retirement, with wonderful travels and lots of time reading with the grandchildren!

Note: Oops! Looks like I'm about a year behind... but check out Jim's letter and Web site and book anyway... it's great stuff. (And a happy one-year retirement anniversary to Jim!)

Great Children's Book Recommendations

2009-01-06T07:00:00.005-06:00

Here's a wonderful article by Mr. Sheehy at A Teacher's Writes about his children's top 20 favorite children's books, according to the kids.

The 20 Best Children's Books ... according to my children, so far.

Great recommendations, I look forward to reading some of the titles mentioned that we have not yet read.

Also, check out James Patterson's new web site: Read, Kiddo, Read. I was particularly pleased to see Dear Zoo included -- it's one of our very favorites!

Toot and Puddle (and Olivia!) on TV

2009-01-05T08:36:00.018-06:00

My 2-year-old has been enjoying the Toot and Puddle shows on Noggin (my efforts to eliminate television are mostly a miserable failure, although we are increasing tour TV-off time and doing more reading together.)

Next step (I realize we are doing this backwards) is to check out the Toot and Puddle books.

Toot and Puddle are a pair of best-friend pigs who like to travel and go on adventures around the world. I love the theme, and the stories so far have been very cute and educational. I can't wait to see the books.

Another book is coming to TV soon... Olivia. Here is a New York Post article about it. I have seen previews for Olivia, but can't find the schedule info, and I'm not sure which channel -- Nickelodepn, Nick Jr. or Noggin. (UPDATE - it starts Jan. 26 on Nickelodeon, 11:30 EST. Here's another article about it.) We have a copy of Olivia that was a resale shop find. Honestly, it's not among my most favorites (perhaps because we have all boys) but we should give it more tries and we will definitely check out the new show. Perhaps like Toot and Puddle, the show will turn more families on to the book.

Olivia is also a pig, a precocious female pig that enjoys art and dancing, and wearing out her mama. She's described in the Post article as "the piglet with a passion for fashion."

It's all about pigs on TV!

This just in... Here's the Nickelodeon press release about the Olivia premiere, including channel and VOD info.

Pottery Barn Kids Dr. Seuss bed and bath

2009-01-03T10:57:00.005-06:00

Just saw Pottery Barn Kids Dr. Seuss collection in the latest catalog - pretty cute! The One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish shower curtain is adorable!

I saw a Seuss cake decorating challenge on Food Network recently too. They had a Seuss expert as a guest judge. What a wonderful job to be a Seuss expert!

Dr. Seuss never goes out of style! I wonder how the vintage Seuss decor market is doing. I am not a collector, but I sure see the appeal!

2009 Blogging and Reading Goals

2009-01-01T22:13:00.005-06:00

I shared some of my 2009 blogging resolutions with Cecelia at the Baby Kid blogs, and she's posted a roundup of what several blogging moms are planning. My #1 goal is to spruce up Mommy's Favorite Children's Books with a new design... I'm so excited! Thank you to Cecelia for asking this important question about "what's your goal?" to help blogging moms get focused for the New Year.

Also, I'm signing up my family for Marietta's 2009 chapter book challenge at The Bookworm's Booklist. (Check it out!) Spending time reading with my family is one of my top priorities. I look forward to checking out more chapter books as the boys are just getting to the perfect ages to start enjoying them more and more.

Have a wonderful 2009, I hope you achieve your goals!

Caps for Sale

2008-12-31T06:25:00.002-06:00

Oh, how we love Caps for Sale! What a wonderful, funny, classic children's book!

This classic tale by Esphyr Slobodkina was first published in 1940. The story is of a somewhat unusual peddler who has a very unusual encounter with a lot of monkeys.

One of the things we love about this book is the repetition. The peddler carries his caps on his head -- first his own black and white checkered cap, then the gray caps, the brown caps, the blue caps, and the red caps on the very top. This sequence is repeated several times within the story, as is the peddler's chant -- "Caps! Caps for sale! Fifty cents a cap!"

The best part of the story happens when the peddler takes an afternoon nap under a tree and his caps are stolen by a large group of monkeys. The poor peddler has lost his caps and becomes quite frustrated, while the silly monkeys just tease the angry peddler by imitating him and saying "tsz, tsz, tsz!"

In the end, the peddler gets his caps back, thank goodness, and continues on his journey selling caps. It's an absolutely wonderful story that is funny, fun to read, and it's fun for the kids to participate and imitate the angry peddler just as the silly moneys do.

I had never read Caps for Sale as a child, this is one of the many wonderful children's books that I missed... we discovered it at my mother-in-law's house with my children. (I adore her for keeping a small bookshelf full of great children's books.) Thank you Grandma for introducing our family to this book -- we got our own copy for Christmas and I'm thrilled to have this in our collection.

Caps for Sale (paperback)

Machines at Work

2008-12-29T20:36:00.009-06:00

Machines at Workis another one of Byron Barton's books that our family loves. Like all Barton books, Machines at Work features bold and simple full-page illustrations with bright colors and straightforward, simple phrases. Machines at Work is dedicated to construction equipment -- it's filled with bulldozers, steamrollers, cranes, excavators, dump trucks and a crew of male and female workers that put in a hard day's work building a building, from demolition to construction.

At first I loved Barton's Trainsmore, and so did my kids, but Machines at Work will now always have a special place in my heart because my two-year-old started repeating the phrases after I would read to him, and hearing my little peanut say things like "Build that building" and "Dump that rubble" in the sweetest little child voice was heart-melting. I'm going to remember it every time I see this book.

Machines at Work will be a quick, classic favorite of any child who loves construction equipment and all things machines. Our family has this in the hardcover format, it is also available as a board book.

Machines at Work

Machines at Work Board Book

Lang Lang: Playing with Flying Keys

2008-12-26T21:43:00.012-06:00

Loved it! After reading Erica Moore's review of Lang Lang: Playing with Flying Keys at The Well Read Child, I decided to check it out from our library for my own reading. I'm so happy that I did - this book is fantastic! I finished it within 24 hours of getting it home -- Lang Lang's life story and journey of becoming one of the world's most famous classical pianists is stunning.

The book brought tears to my eyes several times as I followed the drama of Lang Lang's struggles and triumphs -- the pressure of his father's stern, demanding, brutal drive for success, the sadness and love of his mother left behind to support the family, the generosity and caring of some teachers and friends, the enormous sacrifices made by Lang Lang and his parents, and the dramatic, perilous, ascent to the top of the classical music world.

I was fascinated by the descriptions of China and Chinese culture, and the actions of people in Lang Lang's life. An amazing read worth your time!

Wow, an award!

2008-12-26T21:00:00.008-06:00

Many thanks to Deanna at Once Upon a Time for bestowing a Butterfly Award to Mommy's Favorite Children's Books. What a surprise! Thank you so much, Deanna! I'm thrilled!

I'm happy to pass the honors to a few blogs and bloggers I love and find inspiring:

Marietta at The Bookworm's Booklist
The Z-kids at Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty
and Melissa at Chasing Cheerios!

Lunchtime Reading - Mouse Tales

2008-12-22T14:37:00.007-06:00

Here is a little gem of a chapter book we found at our last library trip - Mouse Tales by Arnold Lobel. The book has seven short stories about the adventures of little mice, and they read like old-fashioned folk tales. The stories are simple, with cute and colorful drawings on every page (and often interspersed among the text). The beginning of the book sets up the stories -- seven young mice are nestled in bed and their Papa will tell one story for each little mouse.

We are experimenting with lunchtime reading. On days when I am well-organized, the boys will sit at lunch and I will read to them. It works well, although if I hold the book so both boys can see the pictures, I end up reading upside down and/or sideways. Lunch reading is nice bonding and the boys seem to enjoy it too. It's a good opportunity for us to get more reading in besides bedtime.

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas!

2008-12-21T07:57:00.003-06:00

The tree is up, the cards are mailed, the presents are wrapped, and the very important Elf work is done (my four-year-old asked for a yellow ball just a few days ago - I am thankful that I found one on the first try (thank you, Wal-Mart! It was worth dealing with the crazy parking lot to fulfill the last-minute Santa request.))

We had a snow day on Friday for everyone and I'm looking forward to a wonderful week with the kids and family. Have a wonderful Christmas, happy holidays, and a fantastic 2009!

Exploring Chapter Books

2008-12-21T07:23:00.013-06:00

After making two recent trips to the library to explore children's reading materials (and ease up on my Amazon.com spending), my oldest son (just turned 4 in Oct.) and I have given more early readers and chapter books a try, and I have a better sense of what he likes.

The most important observation is that at this time, he prefers books to have pictures on every page. He also grows impatient if there is a longer paragraph with only a small picture. I was wondering and possibly dreaming that my young-four-year-old could listen using only his imagination but we're not there yet. However, he is very much interested in longer stories (as long as we start early enough -- and we need to work on that and giving ourselves more time in the bedtime routine).

He enjoyed a Breyer Stablemates book called Snowflake -- although he urged me to skip the text-only pages, the illustrations held his interest well and we got a pretty good sense of the story anyway. (I love horses and although the story has all female characters, I think my son enjoyed it too!) Snowflake is a level 3 reader and now we'll be exploring more 2's and 3's before moving up. We did a level 4 last night that was much too much text and not enough images.

I was surprised that A did not enjoy the picture only books we've tried so far. He instructs me to read the words and seems disappointed there are none. We'll try again when he's a little older.

I've got my copy of The Read-Aloud Handbook
ready and hope to use it next time as a trusty guide for future library adventures.

Teacher gifts and holiday presents

2008-12-13T07:00:00.002-06:00

My four-year-old son is in his first year of preschool, which means it's my first time planning teacher gifts. After quite a bit of thought, I'm planning to make Oreo truffles this weekend, and I've also done charitable gifts in honor of my son's teacher and assistant teacher via Heifer International. I hope the teachers like their gifts! Based on the responses I've heard from a few teachers to the ideas, they should go over well.

I'm a researcher and so I've been digging up other ideas for teacher gifts for future years. Gift certificates are a convenient and appreciated option, and gift certificates to bookstores, craft supply stores or popular everyday stores like Target also seem to be very good choices.

The charitable donations idea came to me after I was contemplating Target gift certificates. I had recently watched this Advent video about consumerism at the holidays, which made me feel that a charitable gift may be a wonderful option. I chose Heifer because it is convenient, a well known organization, easy to order online and has nice "packages" such as a flock of chicks, etc. Another option that would be wonderful that I'm considering for future gifts are donations to literacy and reading organizations -- issues close to most teachers' hearts. I asked online how people feel about charitable donations as teacher gifts and got a mixed response, many moms don't feel quite right giving that kind of gift, but -- most of the teachers who commented liked the idea!

Another great gift idea is giving to the classroom -- buying books or needed supplies, or giving a gift to the school. Ask your child's teacher or school librarian for ideas.

Of course, it's not required to give a teacher a holiday gift, and a kind thank you note from parent or child is always a wonderful idea. Everyone needs and deserves appreciation!

Do you give gifts to your children's teachers? Are you a teacher? What are your favorites?

New Favorite Children's Book Blogs!

2008-12-12T08:27:00.008-06:00

A few days ago, I found a wonderful, wonderful children's books blog full of great kids books and written by a parent who is dedicated to reading. A blog with great layout, reviews, tons of content - it's everything that I would like Mommy's Favorite Children's Books to be, but haven't had the time to develop. This amazing blog is The Bookworm's Booklist, and it is written by Marietta, a nice lady who just introduced herself to the kidlitosphere. The biggest compliment I can give Marietta is that after reading her blog, I immediately grabbed our library card and requested lots of books from our library's Web site. We went to the library the same day and checked out even more books. Marietta has a beautiful site that's full of recommendations and there is so much to explore -- I know that The Bookworm's Booklist is going to be a wonderful reference for our family's reading.

I am also very pleased to see a new blog that is dedicated to toddler level books - Readertotz. Readertotz is written by kidslit professionals / industry insiders Lorie Ann Grover and Joan Holub, who in addition to children's books, are sharing their relationships with children's book authors. Neat! It is brand spankin' new blog with only a few entries but it has an enormous amount of potential. I'm particularly excited to see the attention given to board books, a category we love and are very interested in. I can't wait to see more!

Hooray for great children's lit bloggers!

Poetry Friday! -- December 5, 2008

2008-12-05T01:00:00.006-06:00

Welcome to this week's Poetry Friday!

This is my first time hosting Poetry Friday, and in preparation I spent a little time reflecting on my life experiences with poetry.

At my 10 year high school reunion, I saw a former English teacher who said to me, "I remember you loved poetry," which was honestly a shock to me.... I don't remember that, although one of the many great experiences of Honors English was working through several poems in a Norton's Anthology of Poetry. I miss actually studying English, and that was ages ago.

I feel like the typical adult who has become very practical and has no time to think about poetry when shuttling a preschooler and changing diapers. This Poetry Friday is a nice break from ordinary mom life.

I wonder what my boys' poetry experiences will be like as they grow up -- hopefully they will have great English teachers and a wonderful introduction to poetry. Perhaps they will enjoy writing their own poems, appreciate well-written songs, and of course, pursue romance. Right now while they are still kids, I hope to find and share some great children's poetry with them and perhaps we can share some of the magic together.

Contributors, please share your links with Mr. Linky below. Thank you for visiting Poetry Friday!

St. Nicholas Day

2008-12-04T07:32:00.007-06:00

....is tomorrow, December 6. I just finished up wrapping two gifts for the boys -- a Schleich Nativityand a board book, Christmas in the Manger. (I also wrapped up two Byron Barton board books for my two-year-old nephew's birthday -- Trucks and Trains.)

It will be our first time celebrating St. Nick and I'm looking forward to it. Since I love books as gifts, I expect St. Nick will deliver more books and probably more Christmas books every year.

What are your St. Nick traditions?

(Tomorrow is also Poetry Friday!)

Advent Video

2008-12-01T09:31:00.001-06:00

Here's a link to the video.

Christmas Giving - less consumerism, more love

2008-12-01T08:56:00.008-06:00

Many thanks to Meredith at Like Merchant Ships for sharing this video.

My husband and I learned of a local charity run by nuns that does clean water projects and other services a few years ago. It has fallen off our radar for a while and I'm so glad this video brought the issue back to our attention.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-26T06:59:00.008-06:00

First of all, thank you to everyone who has stopped by this blog. It's been a wonderful experience to talk about books and share our favorites. I'm having a great time and am thankful to have the blog as a bit of a creative outlet and to "meet" great people along the way.

Next, HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Great holiday! What's better than sharing gratitude and food?

We are celebrating with extended family and are mostly packed up and ready to go. I think I've made a terrible error in planning though -- I have no book. Shoot! Vacations are one of the best opportunities for me to read and I realize this morning that I'm not prepared. Of course, with two young children and a newborn, I may not get all that much time to read, but with lots of relatives around, I'll likely get a few blissful, peaceful minutes here and there. Perhaps I will grab a novel my husband just finished or read one of our relatives' magazines. I'll survive, but next trip I want to plan better for reading. We are going to Jamaica next year for a family wedding and I need to make books for the trip a bigger priority.

(The boys will have plenty of books for the trip, it will be hard to keep it to just a few that fit in the suitcases.)

Here's a book I wish I had on this trip -- 2 Kids and Tired Book Reviews shares what looks like a very interesting book about First Families. Looks like great post-election season reading. I'm also very interested in this book about Lang Lang featured at The Well Read Child. I didn't know who Lang Lang was before reading the review but it sounds like a great book and I'm particularly interested in piano since we just brought one into our home.

Have a wonderful, blessed, and tasty Thanksgiving! I hope you get in some good reading too.

Karen and family

TV-free Tuesdays and Thursdays

2008-11-25T07:10:00.003-06:00

I've mentioned how I admire TV-free families and how I'd like to reduce our family's screen time (television and computer). Many advise to go cold turkey but that's a little frightening. Last week we were enjoying several hours of unplugged family time and I had the idea of starting with only a few days a week.

Less TV (and computer for me) is a good move. We enjoy family time when we're not watching television and I feel happier and more connected to the kids.

So when we do this.... who wants to join us?

(Disclosure: Today is a Tuesday and it's not happening today. I'm thinking of starting next week.)

Family Piano

2008-11-24T08:27:00.012-06:00

I've always dreamed that my family would be musical, envisioning a piano, guitars, sing-alongs, drum circles and happy children and teenagers who enjoy making music together.

On Saturday, my husband and I bought a digital piano. It was kind of an impulse purchase -- I had only started thinking about a family piano earlier in the week. After packing up all the kids and looking at a few models in the music store, my husband said, do you want to get it? I said yes, and later that afternoon we unloaded our piano into the living room. It was initially a shock it happened so fast.

My husband and I are both adult beginner players -- I had lessons on and off as a child, and he won a few lessons from a silent auction last year. We are both enjoying playing around with the piano and we're excited about becoming more musical and learning to play more.

Now I'm hunting at the library and online and this opens up a whole new area to explore -- learning more about music, composers, performers, and checking out YouTube performances, audio recordings, sheet music, lesson books and other titles. There's so much to explore -- just last night I discovered this Youtube, Horowitz plays Lizst Consolation No. 3 and I've also heard just a little music by Ludovico Einaudi. (Something I may be able to play eventually.) It's so exciting to experience new things! I'm looking forward to newly inspired library visits for recordings and sheet music and books!

A few things I'm going to look at soon as I continue to dream and plan our musical adventures.

I promise I will not be the pushy mom about these things. While these selections may look like I'm planning the kids' lives in advance, I'm hoping to learn more about the possibilities. I hope the kids will love and enjoy music, but I'll be content to have this as my hobby and support the boys in what they like doing even if it turns out to be all sports..... even the ones I dread most -- hockey and motorcycles. (Oh, ok, that might be VERY difficult..... I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for now.)

November Carnival of Children's Literature - The Gift of Reading edition

2008-11-16T18:19:00.031-06:00

Welcome to the November 2008 edition of carnival of children's literature.

The theme for this carnival is The Gift of Reading. As the holiday season soon approaches, people will start planning their holiday celebrations and gifts for their loved ones. I felt the Gift of Reading is the perfect theme for the November carnival -- a well-chosen book is a wonderful gift, especially to a young reader.

One of the reasons I blog about our favorite books is to support our family's commitment to reading. I hope to make gifts of books a significant tradition. I was lucky to learn to read, to have parents and siblings that read to me, and to enjoy reading throughout childhood. I'm not a sentimental person, but one of my favorite gifts is a dictionary my mom gave me for my 12th birthday, I still have it and it is a nice reminder of my family's commitment to education and learning.

This carnival is dedicated to the gift of reading. Enjoy!

On Literacy and The Gift of Reading...

Jen Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page shares the article A Gift for All Seasons at Foreword magazine.

Amy Smith presents tips from her family's read-aloud experiences on How to Maximize Learning During Story Time at Kids Love Learning.

Need inspiration? Have a look at The Babes at Read, Read, Read. Adorable!

Book Reviews and Children's Literature Gift Ideas...

Cinderberry shares a book that looks like a lot of fun and would make an interesting gift: The Klutz Book of Paper Airplanes.

Rebecca Reid shares several alphabet or ABC books, also known as Abecedaria at Rebecca Reads

Steven Bush presents We Belong Together and Queen Vernita’s Visitors at Book Dads: Fathers That Read!.

Peter Jones shares a children's book with a magical topic, A Modern Tale of the Tooth Fairy.

Becky Laney presents Gift Ideas for 2008 #1 posted at Becky's Book Reviews and Fly Me To The Moon: Fun Gift Ideas 2008 at Young Readers.

Lynn shares Unique Books & Gifts for Your Hard-to-Please Literary Friends at Imaginary Blog.

and Gifted Authors....

Tarie presents an interview with Paula Yoo, whose novel Good Enough is nominated for a 2008 Cybils award in the young adult fiction category.

That concludes the November carnival -- thank you contributors and visitors! Visit the next Carnival of Children's Literature at Jen Robinson's Book Page on December 17.

Pirates!

2008-11-15T17:01:00.015-06:00

My three year old nephew is very interested in pirates, so I'm searching out book options for his Christmas gift. Here's what I've found at Amazon that looks promising.

The thing about pirates is that I want to keep it age appropriate for a 3 year old. There is plenty of time to get into the more suspenseful adventures later.

Shiver Me Letters: A Pirate ABC -- more than a regular ABC list book, the pirates go in search of the alphabet in an adventure story

How I Became a Pirate -- gorgeous illustrations and looks like a very cute longer adventure story that's appropriate for preschoolers

Do Pirates Take Baths? -- cute and rhyming tutorial about pirate life

The trouble with picking books for my young nephews is that I end up wanting copies for our family!

Turnips for Dinner

2008-11-15T08:08:00.007-06:00

At 2 year old class, our teacher read a nice book, I think it is called Turnips for Dinner. If I'm finding the right copy, it is by Joy Cowley and out of print or hard to find. Too bad...... it has wonderful rhymes. The basic premise is that the zoo keeper has lots of tunips to feed to the animals, and almost no one likes them...... each animal's reaction to the turnips is written in a rhyming phrase, such as "the zebra whined and pined"...... in the end, the elephant "munched and crunched". I liked the book very much for the interesting rhyming words (lots of them!) and what I feel is a nice little message -- different people (and animals) like different things.

Has anyone seen this book?

The Apple Pie Tree

2008-11-07T19:00:00.004-06:00

The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall is another family favorite discovered at the resale shop. I love this book! It is a simple story told by a young girl about an apple tree at her home, how the tree changes throughout the seasons, (along with a family of birds that lives in the tree) and how in the fall, the apples are harvested and the family makes apple pie.

The illustrations are beautiful, I love the angles and perspectives shown of the girl, her sister, the birds and the apple tree. The back of the book includes a recipe for apple pie, which we have not tried yet.

This is a sweet, simple story that describes apples growing and the changing seasons. It's a great read for harvest time, but I like it all year round.

The Apple Pie Tree

November Carnival of Children's Literature

2008-11-02T05:54:00.005-06:00

The November Carnival of Children's Literature will be here at Mommy's Favorite Children's Books on November 19. The theme is The Gift of Reading -- I'm hoping to share articles from bloggers around the kidlitosphere about great gift books, books about gifts, and the gift of reading.

In the meantime, check out the October carnival, Snuggle Up with a Children's Book at The Well Read Child.

Play nativity set for toddlers - preschool

2008-10-22T16:14:00.011-05:00

My kids haven't used a play nativity set yet, but it is something I would like them to have. I didn't grow up with a religious Christmas, and this is something I would like to share with my family.

When I discovered Playmobil toys, I purchased their nativity set which I felt was a good value. However, the set has very tiny pieces and it's not quite right for my 4 year old and 2 year old boys. I will save the Playmobil set for 2-3 years from now when it will be better suited for them. In the meantime, I found a nativity set made by Schleich that looks beautiful -- we have several Schleich animals that the kids enjoy. I think this may be a great set, and I am thinking of getting it and giving it to the kids for St. Nicholas (another tradition I did not grow up with -- my husband did, and while I'm not keen on tons and tons of presents at the holidays, I think we can keep our celebration modest and frugal.)

However, I am torn..... at our 2 year old parent-child class at a local Christian school, the teacher has a lovely homemade nativity that has felt characters glued to wooden blocks -- super child friendly and it's homemade -- I love that. Not that I need another craft project to add to my list -- I am already thinking about making felt play food, personalized ABC photo books, and curtains for the new baby's room.... But the homemade nativity would be neat. I would need to search and see if I can find patterns for the people and animals. I would love to find if anyone has made these on a crafting blog, but my searches from last year came up empty.

Oooh, found via Google! A couple links -- a pattern for sale, and a project book with instructions. Also on Etsy -- patterns for felt dolls, very cute!

I'm not sure which path we'll take, but these are the current best ideas.

Then, we should look for some great Christmas story books for the family. So many projects, so little time! Any recommendations?

New Babe

2008-10-10T02:56:00.008-05:00

Happily announcing the arrival our third son, baby M!

Lucky Ducks - lots of fun if you can stand the quacking

2008-10-07T07:00:00.002-05:00

I hesitate to recommend Lucky Ducks. Play the video below and you'll understand quickly. It's not one of my favorites, but.... the kids enjoy it very much, and how can I not love a game that they love to play?

The problem is the quacking. Listen to the seven second demo below. The game is simple and easy to play -- there are 12 ducks, each with a shape/color on the bottom. There are four shapes to match. Each player tries to get all 3 of their matching ducks.

My boys can almost play this game together alone -- a huge bonus, and, another -- there aren't that many pieces to pick up when the game is over. The box could be a little bigger for all the pieces to fit well -- it's a tight fit (which is very frustrating -- game makers should think about making clean up easy and not skimp on the package design).

Lucky Ducks is a nice game, a game that doesn't require reading, a game that holds toddlers' interest with cute, dimensional pieces and easy to follow rules... But... the quacking! .....the quacking! Enjoy this game with your family if you dare!

Lucky Ducks

Beautiful homemade felt name book

2008-10-05T20:55:00.004-05:00

I've been interested in felt boards and came across this beautiful homemade felt ABC-style name book at the blog A miracle to me. Wow! What a gorgeous craft, and such a nice book.

Curious George - Kohl's Cares for Kids

2008-10-04T07:00:00.001-05:00

I just learned that the Kohl's Cares for Kids program is now featuring Curious George books and plush animals. We love Curious George. Kohl's sells the books and toys for $5 each -- a nice affordable price, and donates the net profits to support children's health and education.

The available book titles are:
   -- Merry Christmas, Curious George
   -- Curious George and the Firefighters
   -- Curious George at the Aquarium
   -- Curious George Feeds the Animals

The plush animals are Curious George, a dalmatian, a penguin and (I think) a hippopotamus. You can see the items here. Knowing how popular Curious George is, these may sell quickly. The items are available now through December.

Here's an article in our Business Journal about the campaign.

Halloween Poems for Preschoolers -- It's Halloween!

2008-10-03T07:00:00.004-05:00

Here is another great book our family discovered at the library -- It's Halloween by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Marilyn Hafner.

It's Halloween is a collection of rhyming poems about Halloween, with fun illustrations. What I like about this book for my almost four-year-old is that it's not too scary. I'm very sensitive to things that may make my kids uncomfortable, and this book passed the sniff test. The two most concerning poems in the book are one that describes an unfriendly (OK, mean) family who didn't give treats (and how they got tricked). It ends well though -- the people say, "We're sorry!" The other slightly sensitive poem describes a haunted house where all the spooky things are having a party and how the kids prefer to stay away -- it mentions witches and goblins, etc., but the context is more about having a fun time than about being scary. So it works for us. During our reads, my son seemed concerned over the mean people, so I made it a point to emphasize that they said sorry. And we talked about how sometimes people are mean. He's OK with the book and has requested several reads, insisting that all the poems in the book are read at each sitting -- no shortcuts for mom!

We've really enjoyed It's Halloween and I plan to get a copy for our kids' collection.

A note on formats: We checked out a hardcover from the library, but the most common format at Amazon is paperback. The cover graphics are different but interior illustrations appear to be the same as far as I can tell. Although I prefer the hardcover version, I'll probably buy what's least expensive.

It's Halloween

Today is Poetry Friday among the Kidlitosphere -- check out some wonderful poems shared by kids lit bloggers at this week's host, Two Writing Teachers.

Alphabet photo ideas for homemade ABC book

2008-10-02T07:00:00.000-05:00

Here is a list of ideas I've been working on for pictures to go in the boys' custom alphabet books that I'm planning to make.

I thought I was doing well, but V was the biggest stumper. Thankfully, I found an online picture dictionary that was quick and helpful. (Here is another.) I was happy to find quarter in a picture dictionary for the letter Q -- my oldest loves having quarters for bubble gum machines and searches them out of my wallet. The picture dictionaries are great to expand your options and find things that match your child's interests.

Getting all these photos will take a little time. (The mom I talked to at toddler class said she kept a list of needed photos in her purse with her camera.) Having a list will be very helpful for planning and organizing the photos. It will take some commitment to get the photos done but we may also have some pictures already to cover some of the letters.

If you have more ideas, please share in the comments -- thanks!

A is for -- apple, art, airplane
B is for -- books, bicycle, banana, baby, brother, birthday, balloon, beach, baking
C is for -- cat, costume, crayons, chocolate, cake, cookies
D is for -- Dad, dog, doll
E is for -- egg, elephant, eat, ear, eyes
F is for -- friend, flag, flower, funny faces, farm
G is for -- garden, game, grass, green, grapes, glasses, grandparents
H is for -- home, hug, horse, hat
I is for -- ice cream
J is for -- jump
K is for -- kitten, kite, kiss
L is for -- leaf, leaves, llama, lunch, lollipop
M is for -- Mom, muffin
N is for -- nap, night
O is for -- orange
P is for -- playground, pumpkin, pig, pony, piano, painting
Q is for -- queen, quilt, quarter
R is for -- rainy day, rest
S is for -- smiles, snow, sister, school, swimming, sand, scooter, sleep, soccer, scissors
T is for -- teeth, train, trees, trick-or-treat
U is for -- underwater, underwear,
V is for -- valentine, vegetable, van
W is for -- worm, winter, water
X is for -- xylophone
Y is for -- yellow
Z is for -- zoo, zipper

Making homemade children's books

2008-09-28T17:45:00.001-05:00

This week at toddler class I sat next to a mom who was taking a photo of her daughter during snack time. She introduced herself as a "crazy photo lady," and I asked if she also made scrapbooks. I do not make scrapbooks (uh, yet), but I have playgroup friends who are very into it. "Crazy photo lady" told me about a children's scrapbook format that has me very, very excited..... making our own children's alphabet books featuring photos of our family!

The idea is to make an ABC or alphabet book. Basically 26 photo images (personalized to include your child, or your child's environment and favorite things), and then words.... a simple A is for Apple, T is for Train, etc. etc..... or something more creative and personal....perhaps even rhymes! There's no limit to the creativity that could go into it.

I LOVE the idea and am very interested in making ABC alphabet books for my oldest two boys, possibly even in time for Christmas. Right now I'm doing a little research about costs and considerations of making a book with an online photo book provider (easy and professional, but seems to be more expensive), or making a simple 8" x 8" scrapbook with very basic layouts.

I've done a little online reading and have come across another great idea for older kids -- having them make their own ABC alphabet books themselves. It sounds fun and educational and I love the idea of kids making their own books too. As for our family's books, I've started an idea list for photo taking.

Anyone want to join me on a homemade children's book making journey? Has anyone made their own homemade children's books and want to share your experiences? I'll post updates as I learn more and plan to get started.

Schleich animals

2008-09-27T22:26:00.000-05:00

Schleich animals are some of my 2 year old's favorite toys. They are small, and very realistic, and very interesting to him. We have been lucky to make a small collection that he enjoys, including several dinosaurs, a penguin, a variety of rabbits (purchased specially off Ebay to appear in the Easter basket), and others. The elephant is a current favorite.

Target carries a limited variety and seems to change the selection from time to time -- our dinosaurs were purchased at the July clearance (it was nice to have saved a few dollars), and now there are no dinos. Prices seem to average about $5-6, per figure, some more or less depending on size. A quick search online shows that Ridge Road Station, the online store where I have been purchasing our Playmobil, also offers Schleich (I think they have the full range) and they offer free shipping on orders over $30, which is nice.

My oldest doesn't seem as interested in the Schleich animals as my 2 year old. Different kids like different things. However there is no doubt the animals are beautiful and really nice toys. I think they would make great gifts, or as a great bonus to add to a gift like a Zoo membership or animal books.

Getting closer to nature: Fireflies, Crickets, Worms

2008-09-27T06:23:00.001-05:00

Our oldest enjoys finding outdoor creatures. Earlier this summer we were entranced with fireflies, now it seems crickets are everywhere. I would like to find and share some books with A. about any of his favorite insects -- fireflies, crickets, grasshoppers, butterflies, moths or worms. We recently watched a Nova episode about bees and ants, but I didn't do a good job of remembering any of the details -- we observed many flying ants in our yard a few days ago and my mind went blank as to what exactly their task is....

Are there any children's books you would recommend? Thanks so much!

Off to pack for baby

2008-09-23T07:37:00.000-05:00

Our family may be welcoming a new member today! I'm off to pack bags for me (hospital) and the kids (grandma's house).

Lots of giggles reading Dick and Jane Jump and Run

2008-09-23T07:18:00.000-05:00

I was surprised last night when my oldest and I read a borrowed library copy of Dick and Jane Jump and Run before bed. It really gave my son the giggles! He immediately asked to read it again, saying it's a funny book.

Who knew that Dick and Jane would be a hit? Not me. As a modern mom who grew up in the 70's and 80's, I had the impression of Dick and Jane being terribly old fashioned, patriarchal, non-diverse and somehow very wrong for today, just too simple and old. (What is weird is that I'm fine with traditional roles and lifestyles but still I felt this strange gut resistance.) Maybe it's the little perfect blonde kids or something else about it that made me want to reject Dick and Jane. However, my mother in law collects old 1950's schoolbooks and has some Dick and Jane in her collection. I thought it wouldn't hurt to check one out at the library, and I considered that the word repetition would be a good experience for my oldest (almost four years old).

Enough of my weird bias. My son loved it. He seemed to enjoy the repetitive words and he also loved Puff (the kitten) and Spot (the puppy). He also laughed at all the lines and pictures with "funny, funny", as in.... (illustration of Spot running away with a stick) Oh, oh, Spot! Oh, oh, oh. Funny, funny Spot.) As a read aloud, I got to work on my vocal interpretation to make the story more interesting, which was fun for me too.

On our second read, I tried to persuade A. to read some of the words but he refused. We will try that again when he's more awake and after more reading. The kids' votes count -- Dick and Jane Jump and Run is a hit in our house, and anything that gives my son sweet giggle fits is welcome by me. I'm over my bias. We may need to add this one to our collection.

Read with Dick and Jane: Jump and Run (Dick and Jane)

Baby room photos

2008-09-21T08:10:00.000-05:00

Here are photos of baby #3's nursery. We got the room together just last Saturday, and the baby may be coming in the next few days! I love our "reading chair" -- an awesome Dutailier glider found on Craigslist. What the room really needs is a book shelf / storage. I have a small basket next to the chair for now, but I'll want to increase our book storage space soon. Picture #2 features a soon-to-be big brother.

I'm also going to try and paint my own artwork for the room -- I picked up some stretched canvases on sale and some inexpensive acrylic paints to make car and truck pictures for the walls. Nothing too fancy, but hopefully attractive! I'm also hoping to make a valance, a little intimidating, but I'm feeling inspired and encouraged by a favorite blog, The Nesting Place.

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear

2008-09-18T08:15:00.005-05:00

I love giving children's books as gifts... I mean, who wouldn't enjoy getting a great book for their kids? They're beautiful, they don't take up much space, and they have longer useful lives than many toys.

So I was extremely pleased when my husband's cousin Sherri (whom I've always admired as being a smart woman), gave us a copy of The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear at Christmas a few months after my oldest son was born. She said to me, "This book is one of our family's favorites and I hope you enjoy it too". Isn't that awesome? I love it! I love family members sharing their favorite books with each other.

And yes, The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear is a very enjoyable children's book. The story and illustrations are charming. It's suspenseful but not too scary, and I love saying "BOOM, BOOM, BOOM" when the big hungry bear tromps through the forest trying to find a red, ripe strawberry.

Lots of fun. Thank you Sherri!

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear

Admiring TV-free families

2008-09-16T09:30:00.001-05:00

After reading The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease, I am thinking again about limiting or eliminating our family's TV time. Trelease says in his book that kids can handle a maximum 8 hours a week before their education test scores begin to decline. My boys are still very young (ages 2 and almost 4) and I am afraid to track how much television we watch -- it's a lot. This is one of the failures of my parenting -- it started innocently enough.... we began watching Signing Time sign language educational videos (which are wonderful and I still love them so much), and then catching a few half hour episodes of kids programming...... but it has snowballed. We have a DVR and so Curious George (another family favorite) is always easily accessible -- probably much more available than it should be.

In high school, two of the smartest kids I knew were siblings who had no TV at home. They were both very intelligent (the oldest was accepted to MIT for college), and though I don't know what they did with their time, I'm quite sure they were avid readers. I really have no doubt that my children will be smarter and healthier if we watch less.

At these ages, it's so much more about my willpower than the kids'. We use television as a parenting crutch, and while I think we might be reducing our overall viewing, it's not easy. We tend to watch first thing in the morning (particularly if the kids are up early) and before bed (but we still read after that). I should be doing more reading with the kids in place of watching television, and the kids do play more when it is turned off. Last night we went to the library, which was wonderful, but my oldest wanted to check out a Thomas DVD, and we did... I have heard it might be best to go cold turkey but I don't know if I've got the strength. My excuse right now is that we have a newborn coming very soon and I think I *need* the TV while we are re-adjusting as a family and I am alone with two toddlers and a newborn. However, I really, really want to significantly reduce our viewing... I think it's important. I'm just weak.

Is your family tv-free or do you limit television?

Remo Rainforest 10-inch Tom Tom Drum

2008-09-16T09:00:00.000-05:00

One "noisy toy" I don't mind having in our home is our Remo 10" tom drum. I purchased this for my two-year-old son's birthday after reading about other moms' good experiences with them, and after having seen large Remo drums used at several of the children's music and movement classes we had attended (Music Together, Kindermusik).

It's a beautiful instrument / toy. The boys enjoy it, and it would probably be more fun to have two -- so the boys could both drum at the same time. I don't know much about drumming circles but it looks like something fun to explore when the kids get a little older.

The drum has a wonderful sound... want to hear? (This is my first video!)

The drum is available from Amazon as well as other online music stores. If you shop, you may want to do a Google shopping search to see where the best prices currently are. We bought ours from a store called Same Day Music, but I've heard of good deals on Remo appearing now and then at various stores.

Cookie Matching Game (Fisher Price)

2008-09-14T06:24:00.000-05:00

One of my friends in playgroup has this cute matching game at her house. It's called Matchin' Middles by Fisher Price.

Since my friend has this toy and the boys get to experience it at her house, I don't think I'll buy it for our own home -- it can be something special for our visits. But I like this toy very much and would absolutely consider giving it as a gift.

The pieces look like chocolate wafer sandwich cookies (you know, Oreos - yum!) and pull apart to show interior shapes. The two halves then puzzle together to re-assemble the cookie. I think this is a cute twist on shape sorting and matching, and the cookies are cute by themselves for use in a play kitchen or tea party. I like that the toy is dimensional and that the twelve shapes offer a good variety to identify and match.

FISHER-PRICE Games MATCHIN' MIDDLES