Black History Month Blog Tour for Young Kids -- a First Look Tour

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge from Ideals Books./Worthy Kids. 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.

Can you believe it is already February? Today starts Black History Month in America and I get to share with you two board books to introduce perhaps the two most famous civil rights activists in America to the youngest kids. It seems like the perfect way to kick off Black History Month. The first book is The Story of Martin Luther King Jr. written by Johnny Ray Moore and illustrated by Amy Wummer. 

Fun Christmas Books for Little Ones

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

Today I am going to share two more Christmas books. These are for the younger kids. One is a board book and the other is a picture book. The board book is about the Christmas story and in particular the wise men. The picture book is entertaining and involves many storybook favorite characters. Let's start with the board book, The Story of the Wise Men by Patricia A. Pingry and illustrated by Alice Buckingham. It is recommended for ages 1 to 4.

Easter Board Books Perfect Additions for Little Ones' Baskets

 

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

Now that April has begun, Easter is just around the corner. This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday. Over the years I have struggled with what to put in the Easter basket. One of my favorite non-candy items is books. Today I am going to share two new board books with you that are perfect for those Easter baskets for kids whose age ranges from 1 to 4. The first is The Story of Easter by Patricia A. Pingry. 

Must Read Christmas Books!

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

 One of my favorite ways to teach Hazel about Christmas is using books that share the true meaning of Christmas. I have shared some here previously, and I have been pinning them to a special board. Today I am going to share all of them with you. I have divided them into two categories: the ones in Biblical time and the ones in more modern time.

Biblical Times

1) The Christmas Story by Patricia Pingry I love The Story of Mary also by Patricia Pingry as well for this time of year. It has a little more details in it.

2) Asleep in the Stable by Will Hillenbrand is a wonderful story. It describes all the animals sleeping in the stable except the owls. The baby owl notices the baby sleeping in the manger and asks his mother about him. The mother explains who the baby is as well as Mary and Joseph and God.

3) Hare's Christmas Gift by Eleonore Schmid is a tale about a little, shy hare who awakes to see all the animals heading towards him. He begins to follow the crowd to see what is going on. They all surround a stable. Eventually the hare gets enough nerve to go in and see the babe lying in a manger. The baby calms him so much that he curls up and keeps the baby warm while they sleep together.

4) The Birds of Bethlehem by Tomie dePaola

5) Christmas in a Manger by Nola Buck is a board book about what each animal and person will do for the newborn baby in the stable. It ends with the baby and stating that He is the reason for Christmas Day.

6) The Cobweb Curtain: A Christmas Story by Jenny Koralek, William Barclay, and Pauline Baynes is a tale about a spider at a cave who sees the Holy family hiding from the soldiers and spins a web over the cave opening so they will not be discovered. It is a wonderful tale for the Escape to Egypt part of the story.

7) Three Wise Women by Mary Hoffman is a tale of three women in different places who see the star and drop what they are doing to follow it. Each brings the baby a gift of her own without realizing where they are going or why, but having the faith to know they must go.

8) Voices of Christmas by Nikki Grimes is a tale about the various people in the Christmas story. It has a line about each person and then has what the person might say or think. It even includes a neighbor in Nazareth. It gives lovely perspectives on the story.

9) Who Is Coming to Our House? by Joseph Slate

10) The Third Gift by Linda Sue Park is the story of myrrh. The tale is told by a young boy whose father is training him to harvest myrrh (sap from a special type of tree). His father lets him remove the biggest tear, as they call them. When they go to market to sell their tears, the spice market merchant calls them in to meet his special guests who have been waiting for them. The special guests are the wisemen. Eventually it is asked who the gifts are for and the young boy wonders why they would bring myrrh to an infant since it is used in funerals. This book answered so many questions I had about myrrh. I really enjoyed reading it and learning from it.

11) Little Owl and the Star by Mary Murphy

12) The Story of the Three Wise Kings by Tomie dePaola

More Modern Christmas Books that Teach the Christmas Message

1) An Early American Christmas by Tomie dePaola

2) God Gave Us Christmas by Lisa Tawn Bergron is another one of her books with Little Cub. I love this series because they explain so much of God and religious ideas in ways children can somewhat understand. This one of course covers Christmas and who invented it. As always there are lessons about how God loves all of us in it.

3) A Goodnight Christmas by Nola Buck goes through saying "Good night" to all the people and animals in the Christmas story and more as you realize it is a little boy saying it as he goes to bed on Christmas Eve.

4) The Night of Las Posadas by Tomie dePaola is a great story to show what another culture does and a little Christmas magic.

5) Angel Pig and the Hidden Christmas by Jan Waldron gives the true meaning behind Christmas. There is no money for gifts and the pigs are upset, but they learn the lesson that the best gifts do not come from a store.

6) The Birds of Bethlehem oops! That was in the one above!

7) Moritmer's Christmas Manger by Karma Wilson

8) The Sparkle Box by Jill Hardie is my new favorite Christmas book. I won it recently from Teach Beside Me. (She has some amazing giveaways going on still.) This book is about a young boy who sees a sparkly box on their mantle and asks his mother about it. She says it is a gift for all of them that they will add things to it and then open it on Christmas morning together. The boy sees a homeless man while riding in the car and asks his mother about him. He sees him again when they are leaving a store. The boy had picked out a pair of mittens for his class's mitten tree and a piece of candy for himself, but he gives both to the man and yells "Merry Christmas!" as he leaves. On Christmas morning the boy sees the box under the tree. When he opens it, the box is filled with slips of paper. On the paper are the things the family has done for others this Christmas season. The parents explain that this gift is for Jesus. The boy asks how it is for Jesus since it was a gift for others. Needless to say it brings home a wonderful message about charity.  

I also won with this book The First Christmas Night by Keith Christopher. It is another wonderful version of the Christmas story. You can read a review of it at Teach Beside Me: Christmas Books Review and Giveaway.

9) The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg is an amazing story about a candy shop opening up in a small town. A stranger came and bought the shop and no one knew what it would be. One girl bravely knocked and asked if the stranger needed help. She was happy to see the boxes full of candy. Then she saw something she had never seen before, a candy cane. The shop owner tells her about the candy cane. How it looks like the shepherd's hook and a J for Jesus. Basically all the legends I have ever heard about it are in this book. The message however is that the candy cane represents a more important message. How God sent Jesus to save the world. The shopkeeper asks the girl to help him spread the message to everyone.

Now I am sure we will have more to share, but this at  what I have at this point. I am thinking maybe next year we will do a story Advent calendar. Hazel is loving the craft one this year though!

Board Books for Presidents' Day with Craft & More Book Round-Ups

 

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

Happy February!! With February comes so many different things from Valentine's Day to Presidents' Day and more! I thought we would kick February off by sharing two new board books that are perfect for Presidents' Day. When I was young, I remember getting both Abraham Lincoln's and George Washington's birthdays off. At some point they merged into Presidents' Day. Of course, if you look at the history of Presidents' Day it was begun to celebrate George Washington's birthday. Hmmm, somehow Abraham got forgotten there. Anyway, with both of their birthdays this month, I am going to share books about both of them. Both books are written by Patricia A. Pingry, and both are board books, so they are perfect for your youngest book lovers! Let's start with The Story of George Washington. These books are recommended for ages 2 to 5.

Christmas Around The World & Other Holidays!

Now that Thanksgiving is over, I am going to start my focus on our next big holiday, Christmas. I have joined a group of bloggers led by Beth at Living Life Intentionally to present Christmas Around the World. Each day a different blog will feature what Christmas or a winter holiday is celebrated in a different country around the world. This amazing event starts today! My post will be on December 10th. To check out all the amazing posts, just click the links above!!

To kick off the holiday season, I thought I would share a few holiday books and an amazing multicultural CD with you. First from my friend, Daria (who is also participating in Christmas Around the World). (You may remember Daria from my first Multicultural Monday. She is the one who inspired me to start Multicultural Mondays!)

Daria was kind enough to send me her holiday CD to review here. Now this CD is not a Christmas CD. It is a World Holiday CD. The difference of course being that it does not only have Christmas songs.

Now my favorite part of this CD is that on the back she gives a little information/history of each song. The CD has five songs on it. Two are Hanukkah songs: one from Spain and one from America. Then there are two Christmas songs: Feliz Navidad and a German song with an English verse added and finally it has a version of Jingle Bells with the history that it is actually a Thanksgiving song. So if you are looking for a way to celebrate the season and not just one holiday, check out this great CD. You can purchase it here! I should also add that we love her other CD's as well or at least the one we have. Also, if you should check out her Monthly Song Newsletter. It always has amazing giveaways, songs, and crafts. November she is celebrating Native American Heritage Month and has some amazing ideas there.

I also wanted to share with you some of the Christmas books we have found and love!

Of course several are from this month's author for the Virtual Book Club for Kids. You can check out the blog hop for some ideas to go with a few. 

The first is The Story of Mary by Patricia A. Pingry. This is a book I picked up at a discount store a few years ago, but we love it. It tells the story mostly from Mary's view and sticks pretty close to the Bible, but is in a way that Hazel has always loved.

The second is The Birds of Bethlehem by Tomie dePaola. This is the newest book by dePaola (and I know there are some posts in the blog hop on it). This story is about the birds discussing the different things they saw in Bethlehem the day before which of course was the first Christmas.

The third is The Story of the Three Wise Kings by Tomie dePaola. This book tells the story of the three wisemen in a way that children like to follow. We really enjoy it!

The fourth is Who Is Coming to Our House? by Joseph Slate and Ashley Wolff. This story is about the animals in the stable getting ready for their special guests on Christmas Eve.

The fifth is An Early American Christmas by Tomie dePaola. This story is about a small New England town where no one has Christmas trees, puts candles in the windows, or sings Christmas carols until a family from Germany and Pennsylvania move in. They make bayberry candles to put in the windows to light the way for the Christ child. They have a Christmas tree and sings Christmas carols and soon their neighbors start doing the same. This is one of Hazel's favorites!

The final one is The Friendly Beasts: an Old English Christmas Carol illustrated by Tomie dePaola. This English carol is about the roles the animals played in the stable to assist with the new baby king.

So here is our Black Friday post. I hope you will join us for the various events mentioned (Christmas Around the World, The Virtual Book Club Blog Hop, etc.)!

Focus on the Nativity

This year one of my goals is to really focus on the true meaning of Christmas. I feel our society is so much turned away from the religious side of Christmas and more into the commercialism and the receiving. I do not want to bring Hazel up this way. I want her to understand why we celebrate Christmas and why it is a special day. So I have been on the look-out for ways to do this.