Coloring the Rainbow - Book Review & Giveaway

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. I am working with The Children's Book Review and Catherine Rose to bring you this post and giveaway.

Today we are sharing a fun new picture book that is about the power of connection, diversity, and inclusion which is shown through musical instruments. The book is Coloring the Rainbow: A Story about the Power of Connection by Catherine Rose and illustrated by Jeffrey Dale. There is a giveaway at the end of this post!

ART -- Book Review & Giveaway

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. I am working with Kate Foster and The Children's Book Review to bring you this post and giveaway.

Over the years I have shared several wordless books. Books without words or with only a few words help develop children's imaginations. It can make story time really interesting and a wordless book's story can change each time. We have shared some of our favorite ones as well as new ones we reviewed. when we were at the Waldorf School it was suggested not to read young children books with words until kindergarten. Today I get to share another one that is very unique. It is Art by Marin Darmonkow.

Hidden Women -- a Multicultural Children's Book Day Review

Disclosure: Capstone Publishing sent me this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Have you seen Hidden Figures? It is in Hazel's top three favorite movies of all times. Our family went to see it on Martin Luther King Day last year. Last year I wrote about the real women in the story for Black History Month. And before the movie I had done a post about Katherine Johnson for a previous Black History Month. Needless to say this is a topic near and dear to us. I jumped at the chance to review a new book called Hidden Women: The African-American Mathematicians of NASA Who Helped Win the Space Race by Rebecca Rissman. 

Wishapick --Tickety Boo and The Blank Trunk Giveaway

Disclosure: I am receiving a small stipend for sharing this post with you. All opinions are my own.

Today I get to share with you an amazing giveaway!! Acclaimed Wishapick Tickety Boo and the Blank Trunk by M.M. Allen is making its musical debut!! In honor of this great debut M.M. Allen and Deborah Wynne are giving away an autographed copy of the book, the soundtrack CD and an Echo Dot. You can enter below!!

Author Inspired Books

Disclosure: I was sent these books free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Are you trying to get your child to read this summer? We all know about the summer slide and how much learning they lose with the two plus months off. Most schools now assign summer reading and even summer work to help stop this. Do your kids do it? I find it is important for kids to find books they want to read. They need something that inspires them and you know what--I am the same. If I cannot get into a book I will not finish it. I have always been that way. I am a slow reader and if I am going to take the time and effort to read a book, it has to be a good book. Today I am going to share some books about what inspires authors and one that is a John Keats poem presented in a new way. I hope some of these might inspire your kids to read more!!

The Book Bandit -- A Phoebe Chen Mystery -- Review & Giveaway

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am working with The Children's Book Review and Caron Pescatore and will receive a small stipend for posting my review.

Do you have an emerging reader who is ready for easy chapter books? Does he or she love mysteries? I have a fun, new multicultural book (and eventually a series) for you to check out. It is The Book Bandit by Caron Pescatore and illustrated by Amanda Neves. It is part of the A Phoebe Chen Mystery series. 

All About Vietnam -- Book Review & More!

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

May is Asian American and Pacific Island Heritage Month. All month long I will try to share books, crafts, and activities to help celebrate this fun heritage. Today I get to share the newest book from one of my favorite series about Asian countries. It is All About Vietnam: Projects & Activities for Kids: Learn About Vietnamese Culture with Stories, Songs, Crafts & Games by Tran Thi Minh Phuoc and illustrated by Nguyen Thi Hop and Nguyen Dong. It is a middle grades reading level but can be shared with younger kids if you do the reading!

Children's Halloween Books and Crafts

Toilet Paper Pumpkins

Today I thought I would share with you some of the Halloween books we have been reading and some of the Halloween crafts we have been doing (some tied into the books and some not). This morning we started our crafts with our toilet paper pumpkins. A tutorial can be found on The Sweet Life. These were easy enough for Hazel to be able to do and they look so cute. We have them on a window sill in our family room.

Vampire and Ghost

Mummy, Bat and Witch

I know I mentioned in a previous post Erica Silverman's book, The Big Pumpkin. This is a story about a witch who grows a pumpkin to make pumpkin pie, but the pumpkin grows so large she cannot get it off the vine. Along come a ghost, vampire, and mummy who each try, but cannot do it and then along comes a bat (much smaller than the others) who has the idea of working together. Then they have pumpkin pie at a Halloween party. It is very cute and in no way scary. Hazel really doesn't know what a witch, vampire, ghost, or mummy are, so she has been asking us all sorts of questions about them. While we had the book out of the library we read it at least twice a day. I had needle felted her some of the characters, but we also made the characters out of toilet paper rolls. We started with the bat after I saw the idea on Living, Loving, Learning Naturally. (Another great bat idea can be found on Reading Confetti--Handprint bats without the toilet paper roll.) To make the witch we painted the toilet paper roll green (well actually we had done this to make Christmas napkin rings last year, but we had one left over). Then we put black paper around the bottom and cut out a witch hat from the black paper. We added eyes and for her nose we cut a Christmas tree confetti in half and glued it on. Then we added a mouth. For the vampire, we covered the tube in white and then dressed in black and added hair and face. For the mummy we covered it in white and then added eyes and then covered it again in white strips. For the ghost, we covered it in white and then used a white paper towel over it and of course added eyes. Hazel loves having the characters from the book even though we no longer have the book at home.

Another story we like is Five Little Pumpkins by Iris Van Rynbach. While reading blogs the other day I saw this neat craft to make a puppet for the story on Family Ever After. She had a guest blogger from Delia Creates. You can also get a copy of the story from DLTK's website. She also has feltboard patterns there. And today, another of my favorite bloggers posted another craft for this story. Check out Rachel's craft at I Heart Crafty Things.

A few more of our favorite Halloween books are The Night Before Halloween by Natasha Wing. It goes along like The Night Before Christmas, but has to do with Halloween and the monsters, ghouls, witches, etc. preparing a party for the trick-or-treaters. Again, not scary for a toddler.

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams is a great book to read aloud. It has different things (mostly clothing) trying to scare the little old lady when she is walking home through the forest in the dark. All of the actions can be acted out so we have fun with it. It has a very happy ending, so I enjoy reading it to Hazel.

Trick-or-Treat, Smell My Feet! by Lisa Desimini is a great story about witch twins who terrorize the kids of their town. However their Halloween spell backfires. It is suppose to make the children unable to say "Trick-or-Treat" and instead say "Smell my feet!" However they make a mistake when they are laughing at the kids and become babies again. Hazel loves it and I certainly don't mind reading it over and over.

The newest book we have taken out is The Hallo-wiener by Dav Pilkey. This story is one of those that the dog who is always picked on for how he looks becomes the hero of Halloween night. And then is big enough to help his "friends" even further. Needless to say a very happy ending and a great book about friendship and dealing with bullying.

We have also been enjoying It's Pumpkin Time! by Zoe Hall. This book goes from kids planting pumpkin seeds to carving the pumpkins on Halloween and putting out the Jack-o'-lanterns before going trick-or-treating. It is a great look at pumpkins in a simplistic view. I like it because I plan to cut open a pumpkin and bake it in the next week or so with Hazel and talk more about pumpkins.

Spider toppers

Our Bat Toppers

Bat Topper

There are a few other books we have been enjoying, but these are our favorite Halloween stories. A few more Halloween crafts we did today: pom pom pencil toppers as found on Boredom Busting Mommy.

We also made some pom pom pumpkins.

Today we also visited a friend's store, Village Art, which is unfortunately closing at the end of November. The owner is a friend from elementary school (and we both had last names that started with E so we were always in home room together in high school). While I shopped her closing sale, Hazel did some art projects. (See above)

And finally we will share a preview of the Halloween cards we are sending to our family. Since I took this picture we added eyes and a mouth to each footprint ghost. I saw this idea somewhere, but can't remember where exactly (or should I say where I saw it the first time as I have seen it in several other places). We did the footprints yesterday pre-bath. I figured since she already needed one, we might as well have fun.

Katie Chin's Everyday Chinese Cookbook -- Asian Pacific Heritage Month Series

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

It is May and that brings several things. In the United States it means Mother's Day, the end of school is near and Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. This post is the first of mine in the Multicultural Kid Blogs Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Series and Giveaway. (Scroll down for the giveaway!) Today I am sharing with you a new cookbook from Katie Chin. This book is Katie Chin's Everyday Chinese Cookbook: 101 Delicious Recipes from My Mother's Kitchen with photographs by Masano Kawana. Katie Chin is sharing some of her mother's everyday recipes just in time for Mother's Day!!

Meow Is Not a Cat -- Book Review & Giveaway

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book for this review. I am working with The Children's Book Review and Kelly Tills and will receive a small stipend for this honest review. All opinions are my own.

As a former teacher and someone who has volunteered and worked at my daughter's school, I know there is always that child that thinks outside the box and sees the world in a different way. The child does not want to do anything wrong and probably does not even think he or she is doing something wrong but drives the teacher crazy. Today's book is for all those kids out there and for the adults in their lives! The book is Meow Is Not a Cat by Kelly Tills and illustrated by Max Saladrigas. It is recommended for ages 4+. 

When Mom Feels Great, Then We Do Too!

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am working with The Children's Book Review and Phyllis Schwartz and will receive a small stipend for this post. All opinions are my own.

What happens in your house when you are (or mom is) sick? I was lucky. As a stay-at-home mom of a toddler, I actually sort of got sick days. My mother-in-law lives five minutes from us and was always willing to take Hazel for the day. This meant I got some sort of time to rest. It had its own issues like feeding Hazel bacon after the stomach bug. Yup, she came home early that day. But I knew how lucky I was. I had several friends who had no one to help so when they were sick, they still had to be mom. It is hard. Now imagine what it is like if mom is really sick--seriously sick. How do the kids feel? Let's face it moms are important to kids. Mom being sick is a very scary thing for most kids. Today I am sharing a book with you that helps kids find their own role in helping when mom is sick. The book is When Mom Feels Great Then We Do Too! by Phyllis Schwartz and illustrated by Siski Kalla.

Jesús, Mary, and Joseph -- a Sweet Religious Christmas Story with Crafts to Go with It & Giveaway

 

Disclosure: I am working with Children's Book Review and Kathleen T. Pelley and will receive a small stipend for this review. I was sent a digital copy of this book to write this review. All opinions are my own.

Christmas is one of my favorite holidays. I love all the joy and happiness that the season brings. I also love the message of Jesus Christ being born and what that means for us. I always am happy to check out new Christmas books. Today I get to share a really sweet new Christmas book with you.

Virtual Book Club for Kids--Duck on a Bike

This month's author for the Virtual Book Club for Kids is David Shannon. Now I must admit, I was not too thrilled by this since we did not find too many of his books we liked, but we have found a few. His writing does not match our favorite type of stories and I personally see it more geared toward young boys. That being said we did find a favorite, Duck on a Bike. It has a duck in it, so Hazel loved it. She also loved that the duck rides a bike. I may have to get her a basket for her bike so Ducky can go for a ride as well.

For those who are not familiar with the Virtual Book Club for Kids, I have joined a wonderful group of bloggers to present books by a picked author for the month. We present a book (or books) by this author with an activity, craft, etc. to go along with it. Then we have a blog hop so others can join us. I have to admit I have discovered some amazing children's authors from doing this.  Here are the amazing bloggers who host this great book club.

Toddler Approved - Rainy Day Mum - Adventures in Reading with Kids - 3 Dinosaurs - Royal Baloo - The Educators' Spin On It - Inspiration Laboratories - Pleasantest Thing - Edventures with Kids - Two Big Two Little - Playing With Words 365 - Kitchen Counter Chronicles - Outlaw Mom - Mommy and Me Book Club - Crafty Moms Share - No Twiddle Twaddle - The Good Long Road - Ready. Set. Read 2 Me - Reading Confetti - Mama Smiles - Juggling with Kids- Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas - Creekside Learning - Creative Family Fun - The Usual Mayhem - Teach Preschool - PlayDrMom - CraftoArt - Here Come the Girls - Being a Conscious Parent - Smiling like Sunshine - Crayon Freckles - Train Up a Child - Smile Play Learn - Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - Coffee Cups and Crayons - Having Fun at Chelle's House- Love, Play, Learn - Juggling With Kids - Motherhood on a Dime - Growing Book By Book
- This Reading Mama - Fantastic Fun and Learning

  Now onto our book. This book is about a farm where a little boy leaves his bicycle out and the duck decides to go for a ride on it. The duck rides past all the other animals and says hi. All the other animals have different thoughts about seeing the duck on the bike--from he's crazy to I wish I could go on a bike. Then a large group of children come to the farm and leave their bikes outside and head inside. All the animals then give bike riding a try.

Now I must admit, Hazel and I have a cold and I was in hurry when we did this craft, but we were inspired by a craft Hazel made at our public library which was a plate with a slit and a duck on a popsicle stick that swam around the duck pond (the plate) by moving the popsicle stick in the slit. We cut a curve and put the duck on a bike and used stickers for the animals though we couldn't find any cat, dog and mouse stickers quickly so we drew them. Then after making one together, Hazel wanted to make her own. I had to run to church for work, so I cut the slit and helped draw the bike, and then she was on her own. We found one dog sticker after she drew one, so hers has two dogs. Not that you can tell the drawings are cat and dog.

Overall it was an easy fun craft to go with this fun book. She loved moving the duck around the "farm". We put the animals in the order that the duck passed them in the book.

In the next couple weeks we will share two more books by David Shannon. Now it is your turn. Have you done an activity with a David Shannon book? It is your turn to share here.

Famous Seaweed Soup -- Book Review & Giveaway

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I will receive a small stipend for participating in The Children's Book Review & Purple Butterfly Press's Virtual Book Tour with this post. All opinions are my own.

Spring is popping up all around me and that means summer is around the corner. Today I get to share with you a fun book that is perfect for those summer beach trips and more! It is Famous Seaweed Soup by Antoinette Truglio Martin and illustrated by Penny Weber. And there is a giveaway including the grand prize of an entire classroom set of this fun book!!

Virtual Book Club for Kids: Quiet in the Garden by Aliki

It is time for the Virtual Book Club for Kids and this month's author is Aliki. Now Aliki has wonderful children's books. Some are about historical people, some about things like the five senses and others about experiences. We have read several and Hazel decided her favorite is Quiet in the Garden.

Isabella of Castile and our Exploration of Spain -- Global Learning for Kids

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge from Goosebottom Books. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

This month the Global Learning for Kids group focused on Spain. We have already looked at Spain with Around the World in 12 Dishes: flan and gazpacho. That exploration included stories, crafts and cooking. We have also spent some time exploring Pablo Picasso since Hazel loves his work. Even more exciting was that her art was hanging at a local museum this month and her class's art was their Picasso-inspired self portraits. Here is Hazel's.

Books for Younger Readers

Disclosure: I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Today I am giving you a round-up of books for your younger readers. These books range in ages from 4 to 12 although one is suggested for 0 months and above. One book is about fears and seems perfect for this week with Halloween. Hazel has had high fears in the month of October especially when she was younger. She still does not like to see the Halloween decorations in the stores or on people's yards. Do you know any child like this? If you do this first book is perfect for him or her. It is Frankie's Scared of EVERYTHING by tattoo artist, Mathew Franklin. It is recommended for ages 4 to 8.

Animal Books & Crafts for Earth Day

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books (digital for stories and physical for crafts) in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Happy Earth Day! I am one who believes every day is Earth Day but today is the day the world celebrates this amazing planet and the nature that fills it. To celebrate today I am sharing three new children's books about animals with perfect messages for Earth Day and craft round-ups to go with them as well as two craft books with animal themes. We will start with the first two books. They are from the Surviving Wild series by Remy Lai. The series are graphic novels for ages 6 to 9. The first is Surviving the Wild: Rainbow the Koala. 

Payback on Poplar Lane Review

Disclosure: Penguin Kids sent me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Do you ever have an idea for a business? Well the sixth graders on Poplar Lane have gone beyond the lemonade stand ideas to more. Of course there is much more to business than just the idea of what to sell. In Payback on Poplar Lane by Margaret Mincks, Peter is trying to make money for several things--private school, his parent's mortgage, and to have a great business. 

Merry Christmas, Eve! Review & Giveaway

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am working with The Children's Book Review and Krueger Wallace Press and Riven Rock Project for this post and will receive a small stipend from them.

Christmas is such a magical time of the year. I know some people do not think kids should learn about Santa or his magic, but I think it is part of the fun of Christmas. Today's book shares a bit of the magic. We head to the North Pole where we meet one of Santa's elves, Eve. She begins to search for the spirit of Christmas in hopes of saving Christmas and all of Santa's elves. The story is Merry Christmas, Eve! by Adam Wallace and illustrated by Lena Bardy.