Review of Queen of the Sea

Disclosure: We were sent this book for free in exchange for an honest review.  All opinions are our own.

    Queen of the Sea by Dylan Meconis is a delightful tale about a young orphaned girl, named Margaret, that has lived at a convent all her life. She had a quiet, happy life until the King died, and the true identity of the new ruler is questionable. A mysterious prisoner arrives at the convent, and as they befriend each other, Margaret begins to unravel the mystery of who she really is.

Multicultural Christmas Books

I promised last week to share some of the multicultural Christmas books we have been reading and/or have found. Today is the day to share! Now you may be asking why share books about other cultures. First I know I want my daughter to know about other cultures and show respect for all. Second, I think it is important to see books with people besides our own kind. The world is a diverse place and to be a part of it, we need to understand a bit about each other so we can find a way to be at peace with one another.

The books I am sharing I have divided into a few categories. The first is different culture books--they contain more than one culture in each book.

• Santa's North Pole Cookbook by Jeff Guinn is a book with recipes from all over the world. I find food a wonderful way to share cultures with Hazel.
• Three Wise Women by Mary Hoffman is one of my favorite Christmas books. It is about three women who see the star and follow it. They do not know how long they walk, but they know they must follow the star. They meet and walk together and find the stable with Joseph and Mary. Each finds a gift to give the baby. One woman brings bread she was baking, one tells stories and the third has only her young son, but he reaches out to the baby and shows love.
• Elijah's Angel by Michael J. Rosen is a story told by a young Jewish boy about his neighbor and friend, Elijah. Elijah is an elderly black man and a barber and woodcarver. As their friendship grows from visits after school, Elijah gives his young friend a Christmas angel he has carved. The Jewish boy is afraid to show the angel to his parents, but he loves it and his parents give him a way to accept a Christian gift and still be Jewish.

Now the groups are divided mostly by race. The largest group of books I found include Hispanic people. We have not found time to read all of these thus far, but I wanted to share them for you. I will give brief summaries and/or thoughts on the ones we have read.

•  A Doll for Navidades by Esmerelda Santiago is a wonderful story about Three Kings' Day and a young girl hoping for a doll. Her younger sister is also hoping for a doll. The younger one gets the doll they both want and the older girl must learn to deal with getting something else. It was a wonderful introduction for us to Three Kings' Day and the three kings instead of Santa Claus.
• Federico and the Magi's Gift by Beatriz Vidal is another story about Three Kings' Day. A young boy is afraid he will get nothing for Three Kings' Day since he was reprimanded for doing something wrong that day. It is his story about waiting for the Three Wisemen to bring the gifts.
• Carlos, Light the Farolito by Jean Ciavonne
• Nine Days to Christmas: A Story of Mexico by Marie Hall Ets and Aurora Labastida
• Mimi's Parranda by Lydia M. Gil
• La Noche Buena: A Christmas Story by Antionio Sacre is told by a young girl who is spending Christmas with her Cuban American father and his family in Miami for the first time. She discovers why her father describes Christmas Eve as the best night of the year.
• Grandma's Gift by Eric Velasquez is a story about a Puerto Rican boy spending the Christmas vacation with his grandmother. After preparing the Puerto Rican meal, they go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the boy sees for the first time that he wants to become an artist. The grandmother gives him the perfect gift--a set of paints.
• Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto
• The Night of Las Posadas by Tomie dePaula is a wonderful story with a Christmas miracle/mystery in it. It describes the tradition of the Night of Las Posadas through the story. 
• Mama Had to Work on Christmas by Carolyn Marsden
• A Pinata in a Pine Tree by Pat Mora
• When Christmas Feels Like Home by Gretchen Griffith
• Three books on the story of the first poinsettia: each tells the tale of a poor child ashamed to go to mass in Mexico without a gift for Jesus and being told by an angel to bring weeds that become beautiful red flowers.
• Pablo's Christmas by Hugo C. Martin is a story of a young Mexican boy who has to take care of his family when his father leaves to find work in America. Pablo is not sure how he is going to make Christmas happy for his family and especially his young sisters. 

For our Native American Stories, we did not get a chance to read or even find too many at the library. However each of these books share different tribes stories of Christmas. Some are the traditional Christmas story in Native American pictures and others are more modern stories and/or memories of tribe members. Then there are a few that are Christmas songs--two of which are The Huron Carol.  Instead of giving each description I thought I would share this great YouTube video of The Huron Carol.

For our African Descent books, I found nine plus the two from Kenya I shared last year: A Kenyan Christmas by Aunty Kiko and A Kenya Christmas by Tony Johnston. Some of these are about African Americans, some from Africa and one is from Trinidad. One of these books reminded me a of a dear friend with an angel collection. She tended to buy any black angel she found since they were not easy to find here.

For our Asian Christmas books, I found a few picture books and a couple chapter books (the last two). 

• Yoon and the Christmas Mitten by Helen Recorvits tells the tale about a young Korean girl who wants to celebrate Christmas now that she lives in America or at least she wants Mr. Santa Claus to come to her house like he will for the other boys and girls at her school. 
• Tree of Cranes by Allen Say is about a young Japanese boy and his mother preparing for the boy's first Christmas.
• The Stone by Dianne Hofmeyr is a Persian legend about the magi. This is a story that Hazel and I both really enjoyed. Each magi brings a gift for what he thinks the new king will be and when he accepts each gift and gives them a gift of a stone in return they are puzzled, but realize he is all three things: Healer, Ruler and Holy One.
• Mama Bear by Chyng Feng Sun is a story about a young Chinese American girl who wants to find away to buy an expensive teddy bear for herself and her mother for Christmas. Her mother needs to fix the heater and cannot afford to buy it for her. The girl discovers some important lessons throughout the story.

Those are the multicultural Christmas books we are checking out this year. Do you have any to add to the list?



If you are looking for some books about the nativity check out here.

Darkroom -- a Mommy Time Review

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge. 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.

Today I am participating in The Dangerous Darkroom Tour with Mary Maddox and Novel Publicity. My review is below but I have to admit this book is right up my alley. I love to read suspense mysteries and this one fit the bid.

Spatial Math for Little Ones -- Two New Books

 

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

Holiday Gift Recommendations & Where to Shop This Year

 

Disclosure: All of these recommendations are based on reviews I have written or will write for products that were sent to me in exchange for a review. Some links will be affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage if you purchase through them. Thank you for your support!

This year there will be shortages for gifts, especially toys. They are saying to shop early and not wait to see if things go on sale. I decided to provide my gift recommendations and my favorites of 2021 for you earlier than usual. I went through what I have shared with you and some of what I will share with you to give these recommendations. I may make additions in the future since I don't have everything I will review this year yet. I am dividing it up by ages for actual gift recommendations! Many of the recommendations are for books. If you follow the rule of four for gifting this should be helpful! I hope you find this list helpful!

Sharing Saturday 18-27

We are back to weekly Sharing Saturdays!! It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. So glad you joined us!!

On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! 

Emus and Hippos!! Book Reviews

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of these books free of charge to 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.

Today we are sharing two fun and educational animal books from Candlewick Press. They are written in the same style as Grandma Elephant's In Charge and Big Red Kangaroo which Candlewick Press sent previously to me to review (and we bought one as a birthday gift for one of Hazel's friends because we love them so much!). These books tell a story about a particular animal and/or group of animals as well as have aside facts about the animal.

The first we travel to Australia to learn about emus, with Emu written by Claire Saxby and illustrated by Graham Byrne.

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures: Moss Gown

This week we are sharing a fairy tale out of the Eastern part of North Carolina. This story seems to have so many different parts of other stories from all over the world. It amazes me how many seemed to come up in the story and remind me of the other Cinderella tales.

Source

First a little bit about North Carolina. North Carolina is in the Southeastern part of the United States. It is known as the Tar Heel State and the Old North State. The capital is Raleigh and is named after Sir Walter Raleigh. North Carolina is the 28th most extensive state and the tenth most populous.

In 1584, Elizabeth I granted Sir Walter Raleigh a charter for the present day North Carolina (then part of Virginia). He tried to establish two colonies, but both failed. However on August 18, 1857, the first English child, Virginia Dare, born on American soil was born on Roanoke Island (one of Raleigh's colonies). Dare County is named after her.

Sir Walter Raleigh (Source)

In 1663 King Charles II granted a charter to settle a colony and named it Carolina in honor of his father King Charles I. In 1710 the Carolina Colony split into North Carolina and South Carolina due to disputes in governance.

Some other interesting facts about North Carolina:

• In 1795 North Carolina opened the first public university in the United States, University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill
• Krispy Kreme donuts was started in North Carolina
• Pepsi Cola was first developed in North Carolina
• North Carolina's largest two metropolitan areas are among the top ten fastest growing in the US (Source)

Now onto our book. This week we are looking at Moss Gown by William H. Hooks. In his Author's Note, Hooks discusses some of the history of North Carolina. He discusses the tradition of storytelling perserving the Elizabethan culture as well as Virginia Dare's birth. He uses both of these to tie in the elements of King Lear as well as Cinderella to this story. There is apparently a similar story in the Western part of North Carolina called Rush Cape where the dress is made of something else since there was not Spanish moss in the Appalachia. He also discusses the term gris-gris being French and known in the Carolinas as a kind of spell that often, but not always is evil. These are the words the magic cat woman uses to help Moss Gown.

Now the story. A wealthy man lived in a large Southern mansion with his three daughters. He was growing old and no longer enjoyed riding his horse around his land or hunting in the swamp. He tended to sit on the porch and stare out. One stormy day his youngest daughter, Candace, ran out to get him out of the rain, but he said to call her sisters because he had gifts for them. The older daughters who had been watching it all came right out when hearing the word gifts.

The man told his daughters to tell him how much they loved him and based on their answers he would divide the land. The oldest two told him they loved him more than jewels and riches. While Candace thought about her answer and wanted something truly from her heart. She replied that she loved him more than meat loves salt. Now if you have been following this series for awhile you may remember this storyline from a Jewish Cinderella that takes place in Poland. The older sisters laughed at her answer and Candace could not find the words to explain what she meant. The father gave the oldest daughters all of his land. That night they chased Candace out into the storm since they now owned the land.

Candace wandered in the storm. Strangely she was not afraid even when the wind picked her up and flew her over the cypress treetops in the swamp. The wind put her down on a soft bed of Spanish moss. There she fell asleep. She was awoken by someone singing. When she opened her eyes she saw a black woman with green eyes who she felt looked like a cat. She was singing a song with the words, "Gris-gris" in it. As stated above this was known in the Carolinas to be a magic term that usually caused evil. The woman was holding a beautiful gossamer dress. Candace hid from the woman, but the woman left the dress with her and told her if she ever needed her to say the rhyme. After she left, Candace put on the dress and her feet seemed to know the way she should go. At sunlight her dress turned to rags made from moss. (Now this part of the story reminded me of the Alaskan Cinderella where the dress changed in sunlight.)

Her feet brought her to a house that looked very much like her father's. She knocked and the mistress of the house took pity on the girl dressed in rags and moss and sent her to do chores in the kitchen. Not wanting to reveal her real name, she told the first cook that her name was Moss Gown (like the cat woman called her in the swamp). The kitchen staff gave her the worst jobs, but she did them. She always dreamed of returning to her father's home, but after six months she realized she never would since she was not wanted there. 

One day the First Cook announced that the young master of the house was going to host a three-day frolic with a ball each night and all of the household staff could go to the balls if they had a ball dress. Since Moss Gown did not have a ball gown and only had her moss rags and borrowed clothes she was the only one not to go. While trying to fall asleep the first night she could not due to the noise. She remembered her moss dress that was under her bed and the cat woman. She pulled out the dress and called the cat woman with the line she had been told. The cat woman appeared and touched the dress. It became the beautiful gossamer gown again. She warned Moss Gown that it would be rags again as the morning star disappeared. 

Moss Gown made quite the entrance. The young master danced the night away with her. He asked her name, but she played coy with him. Then as the sun was rising he asked to walk her home. She slipped away. She repeated this the next two nights. 

After the frolic the young master went off to find the mystery woman he fell in love with. He rode the countryside searching. Eventually he sadly returned home and refused to eat. The First Cook was saying how he was wasting away and needed to eat. Moss Gown asked to serve his dinner that evening. She ran to her room and called the Cat Woman. The Cat Woman told her not to run in the morning this time. Moss Gown appeared with his food and when he realized it was her, he was so happy and ate. They spent the evening together talking and when the sun rose she did not run. Afraid he would no longer love her in rags, she asked him how he felt about her. He said rags could not hide her beauty. They were married the next week. 

At the wedding there were two unknown guests, a black cat-like woman and an old man. The black cat-like woman disappeared shortly after the wedding festivities, but the old man was confused and stayed. The kitchen staff took pity on him and let him warm himself by the fire and fed him. He told them a story of two daughters who spent all his money and kicked him out to beg for his food.

 The next morning Moss Gown saw him and asked him if he knew who she was. He did not. She told him he was always welcome at her table and went in and told the first cook to plan a dinner with no salt. The old man pushed away the plate. Moss Gown handed him the saltcellar and said to him, "I love you the way meat loves salt." At that moment he knew it was his long-lost favorite daughter, Candace. The husband invited the father to stay with them as long as he wished. They all lived happily together with much celebration.

As you can see I saw so many connections to other Cinderella versions. I found this one to be so interesting and since it probably morphed from tales brought to America with the colonists, it seems like the perfect American version.

Chapter Books for Various Ages: Beginning Readers through Adults

Disclosure: I was sent these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

Today I am sharing five chapter books with you and each is for different level/aged readers. We will work from youngest to oldest. The first book is the fourth in a series Hazel fell in love with. It is The Princess in Black Takes a Vacation by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale and illustrated by LeUyen Pham. We shared/reviewed the other versions: First, Second, and Third. I began reading this series to Hazel and the newest book she read to me!! Now Hazel loves to bring these books with us when we visit my parents. If she gets bored she pulls them out and reads them to herself. They are fairly easy reads and have pictures throughout the chapters. The suggested grade levels is kindergarten to third. 

Fun Facts about Lollipops with Craft and Recipe Round-Up --National Lollipop Day

I know it is Monday and I usually do my Black Lives Matter post, but today has been a bit crazy and I want to dedicate the time to make it a good post, so I will share it tomorrow. Since today is National Lollipop Day, I thought I would do a quick post sharing some fun facts about lollipops with a quick round-up of crafts, activities and recipes. 

Picture Books Review

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

Do you have a child who loves picture books? Or maybe you are looking for something to spark his or her imagination this summer. I have a picture book for every child and they are full of creativity and imagination as well as other fun ideas. Our first book is An Atlas of Imaginary Places by Mia Cassany and illustrated by Ana de Lima. 

Not Your Average Superhero Middle Grades Novel -- Ben Braver

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

Do you have a child in the middle grades (grades 2-5) that loves superheroes? This book is for him or her. It is  not your regular superhero book. The Super Life of Ben Braver by Marcus Emerson. It is the first book in the Ben Braver series. 

Sharing Saturday 17-46 - Two Week Party

It is time again for Sharing Saturday! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. With Thanksgiving and Black Friday next week, we are going to keep this party open for a week and a half and have extra features in two weeks!! Be sure to come back and share again as well. 

On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop.

Biographies of Black People for Grades 3-5 -- Multicultural Children's Book Day Review

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

It is January and that means Multicultural Children's Book Day is coming. This year it is scheduled for January 31, 2020, and I will be cohosting it so be sure to tune in then to see all the amazing books shared. Today I get to share three books from Capstone Editions. This collection of books share a look into the lives of three black Americans that you may or may not have heard of but are perfect books for the upcoming Black History Month. They are all recommended for grades 3 to 5. We will start with Ona Judge Outwits the Washingtons: An Enslaved Woman Fights for Freedom by Gwendolyn Hooks and illustrated by Simone Agoussoye. 

Troubles and Doubles and Reflections Askew and Shrieks and Sounds and Things Abound -- Double Book Review and Giveaway

 

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

Today I get to share with you two great picture books that have lessons of self-control and self-love. Both books are by Dr. Drew Palacio and illustrated by Apolline Etienne and are recommended for ages 4+. The newest of the books is Troubles and Doubles and Reflections Askew. The other book is Shrieks and Sounds and Things Abound. Both are offered as prizes in the giveaway at the end!

10 Interesting Facts about the Salem Witch Trials & Salem, Massachusetts

So Multicultural Kid Blogs has a new series 10 Fun Facts About.... I wrote one the other night for Native American Heritage Month (it goes live on November 6th). It got me thinking about different subjects that would be fun to do. I decided with Halloween next week, I would do one on the Salem Witch Trials. Salem, Massachusetts is crazy for the entire month of October. On weekends it is impossible to get in or out of Salem. People are there all month long in costumes. They have a Witch Museum; a street called Witch Way; an elementary school called Witchcraft Heights Elementary School; and the high school mascot is Salem Witches. After all Salem calls itself The Witch City. Even the police cars have a witch on them.  You can read about one of our visits to Witch City.

Wind Catcher -- Multicultural Young Adult Book Review

Disclosure: Evolved Publishing & Novel Publicity sent me a copy of this book free of charge in return for an honest review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

I have a confession. I enjoy reading young adult books. Perhaps it is from teaching high school for so long and checking out the books my students were reading, or maybe now it is due to the fact that I have so little time to read for me and young adult books tend to be easy reads, but either way I tend to enjoy them. One of my friends got me hooked on the Twilight Saga and now I have the honor of sharing the first book in a series that I quite honestly say I enjoyed more than Twilight. The book is Wind Catcher by Jeff Altabef and Erynn Altabef. It is the first book in the Chosen Novel Series. The second book, Brink of Dawn, is coming out this fall, and I have to say I cannot wait to read it. 

Sir Isaac Newton -- Father of Physics or Alchemist?

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of this book free of charge to 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.

Now I am sure you have heard of Sir Isaac Newton. He is considered the father of physics. You have probably heard the story of the apple falling from the tree and he discovers gravity. Well today's book tells the true story or at least as true as we currently know. The book is Isaac The Alchemist: Secrets of Isaac Newton Reveal'd by Mary Losure. 

The Falling Between Us -- YA Novel Review

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

Today I am sharing a young adult novel that has mystery, suspense, love, fame, and rock 'n roll. Could you ask for more? The book is The Falling Between Us by Ash Parsons. 

Rhinos in Nebraska -- a scientific look at the changes in the USA

 

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

How much do you know about the history of our Earth? Did you know part of the United States use to be a savanna and have animals like rhinoceros and elephants roaming around? I know I certainly didn't. Today I get to share a middle grades book (ages 8-12) that takes us through the science of discovering the history of our land. The book is Rhinos in Nebraska: The Amazing Discovery of the Ashfall Fossil Beds by Alison Pearce Stevens.