Book Sharing Monday - First Dog

My kids are crazy about animals in general, and dogs in particular, so whenever I see a new picture book about a dog, it usually ends up in our library bag.  This one was a real winner!  The main canine character travels all over the world, meeting dogs in different countries (Shar Pei in China, Chihuahua in Mexico, etc.), and then coming back to the U.S. to find a very special home on Pennsylvania Avenue.  Short on text but easy to read aloud and with great pictures, First Dog gets a thumbs up from my family.  Written by J. Patrick Lewis and illustrated by Beth Zappitello.

Book Sharing Monday is hosted by Alex at Canadian Home Learning.

Book Sharing Monday - Food, Glorious Food

I've missed Book Sharing Monday and am so happy that Alex has started hosting it again!

My kids, especially the youngest, are all pretty picky when it comes to eating.  The older two have become more adventurous as they've gotten older, but the youngest keeps deleting foods from his diet and not adding to it.  In an effort to expand his palate a bit, I've checked out and requested books from the library that have to do with food and nutrition, and, for a bit of a science tie-in, food chains.  So far we have the following books on hand:

 The Edible Pyramid--Good Eating Every Day by Loreen Leedy (a Reading Rainbow book).

The Monster Health Book--a Guide to Eating Healthy, Being Active & Feeling Great for Monsters & Kids by Edward Miller.

Who Eats What?  Food Chains and Food Webs by Patricia Lauber; illustrated by Holly Keller (a Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science book).

Food Chain Frenzy--a Magic School Bus Chapter Book by Anne Capeci; illustrated by John Speirs.

Others that are on their way:

Why Do People Eat? by Kate Needham (Usborne Starting Point Science)
Good Enough to Eat: a Kid's Guide to Food and Nutrition by Lizzy Rockwell
Food & You: Eating Right, Being Strong, and Feeling Great by Dr. Lynda Madison (for Jane)
Food for Thought: the Stories behind the Things We Eat by Ken Robbins
Cool Snack Food Art: Easy Recipes That Make Food Fun to Eat! by Nancy Tuminelly
Oh the Things You Can Do That Are Good for You! All about Staying Healthy by Tish Rabe

I welcome suggestions.  Happy reading!

Book Sharing Monday - Poetry books for Patriots' Day

I had never heard of Patriots' Day until we moved to Massachusetts over a decade ago.  Commemorating the battles of Lexington and Concord, the holiday is a huge deal in this area: parades and celebrations abound.  Evidently the day is also celebrated in Maine, but it was completely off my radar during the four years I lived there.

While my crowd-shunning family rarely goes to parades, we do enjoy a patriotic read from time to time.  Here, then, are a few books of American poetry for kids that we found last week at a local library.

The Smithsonian Institution's Celebrate America in Poetry and Art, edited by Nora Panzer.  This book pairs prints or photos of artwork from the National Museum of American Art with poetry by American poets.  Carl Sandburg's "Niagara" with George Innes's painting of the same name, for instance, and a selection from Maya Angelou's "On the Pulse of Morning" with a print by commercial illustrator George Giusti, as another example, make this book one to savor.

The Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children's Poems, edited by Donald Hall.  This book contains poems from anonymous Native Americans to Sarah Josepha Hale to many well known 18th and 19th century poets all the way through to some lesser known 20th century writers.  It seems to have something for everyone, and ranges from the solemn (Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes) to the poignant (Rachel Field) to the silly (Nash, Prelutsky, Seuss, and Silverstein).

A Revolutionary Field Trip: Poems of Colonial America, by Susan Katz with illustrations by R.W. Alley. This cartoonish book of amusing yet informative poetry for younger children ("Grace Dips a Candle," "Blacksmith Shop," and "Shearing Poor George" are three of the twenty titles in the book)  would be a good accompaniment to a real field trip to a historical reenactment site such as Old Sturbridge Village or Plymouth Plantation or a similar colonial American site.

Especially appropriate for Massachusetts readers on Patriot's Day is the ever popular "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere."  Several illustrators have taken on the task of illustrating Longfellow's poem, and one we like especially is the one illustrated by Christopher Bing's engraved paintings.

I've saved the best for last.  My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States, with poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins; illustrated by Stephen Alcorn.  Each region of the country is represented by several poems and a map, and each state is given its own box with capital, nickname, etc. as well as a Great Fact or two.  For instance, did you know that the first baseball World Series games were played in Boston in 1903?  (I didn't.)  The Boston Pilgrims were victorious over the Pittsburgh Pirates. ☺  Poets represented in the book include David McCord, Frank Asch, Carl Sandburg, X.J. Kennedy, Myra Cohn Livingston, Elizabeth Coatsworth, Douglas Florian, and many more.  Highly recommended.

Happy reading!  Book Sharing Monday is hosted by Canadian Home Learning.

Book Sharing Monday - Poetry books

Since April is poetry month, I thought I'd share some of the poetry books we think are worth keeping on our shelves.  I just realized that my fluorescent orange copy of Chief Modern Poets of Britain and America is missing from this photo, as is Leaves of Grass.  Those are in with the classic literature in the study, but for some reason Antonia Fraser's Scottish Love Poems is on with a shelf of mostly kid-friendly titles!

For learning about poetry, we have Michael Clay Thompson's Music of the Hemispheres and Building Poems from Royal Fireworks Press, as well as Knock at a Star, by X.J. Kennedy and Dorothy M. Kennedy.  I also have a copy of Rose, Where Did You Get that Red? by Kenneth Koch, which must be out on loan (or is in another stack or on another shelf somewhere in this house that is full of what I like to call décor des livres when I'm not complaining about a house stuck in the "late grad school" period).  I give all four my highest recommendation for teaching kids from about grades 3-8.  

Some favorite anthologies include Helen Ferris's Favorite Poems Old and New and A Journey through Time in Verse and Rhyme, edited by Heather Thomas.  We've begun many a fine day of learning at home with poems from these two books.

No children's book collection is complete without at least some Shel Silverstein!  That copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends is my own well-loved copy from thirty-some years ago.  And another childhood favorite of mine that I bought just after Jazz was born is The World of Christopher Robin, which has both A.A. Milne volumes of poetry: When We Were Very Young, and Now We Are Six. 

My eldest child knows me very well, and his thoughtful gift last Mother's Day was Haiku: An Anthology of Japanese Poems, edited by Stephen Addiss.  Highly recommended.

Children's book illustrator Susan Jeffers has illustrated at least a couple of books based on famous poems, including Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost, and Hiawatha, by Henry Longfellow.  Her fairy tales are not to be missed, too!

For more picture books, try Jane Yolen's Ring of Earth (a gorgeous book of poetry about the seasons) and Caroline Kennedy's collection, A Family of Poems.  Missing from the photo above are two of our very favorite poetry books, which are off the shelf because they've been in use quite a bit this month: Talking Like the Rain (short poems for young children illustrated by Jane Dyer), Poetry by Heart, edited by Liz Attenborough.  We also like the Poetry for Young People series, which has over twenty titles which are still in print and widely available.

Book Sharing Monday is hosted by Canadian Home Learning.  Hop on over and join the fun!

Book Sharing Monday - Easter

While we're desperately waiting for spring to arrive here in the Northeast, I have two spring-y books to share today: The Bunny Who Found Easter by Charlotte Zolotow and Helen Craig and Jan Brett's The Easter Egg.

There's something about Charlotte Zolotow's writing that is captivating to me.  There's definitely a poetic quality to her words, and her books have a gentle feel to them.  The Bunny Who Found Easter pairs the author's lovely story with illustrations by Helen Craig (Angelina Ballerina).

I was thrilled to find that Jan Brett has an Easter tale.  This author's books never fail to delight me on a visual level, and this one has a particularly creative storyline, as well.  Jan Brett has a website filled with excellent resources.  I highly recommend taking a look.

Book Sharing Monday is hosted by Canadian Home Learning.  Alex has a post about a spring book today, too!

Book Sharing Monday - Me. . . Jane

New book alert!  It's supposedly not out until April, but Amazon shipped my copy this week.  We really enjoyed this brief look into Jane Goodall's childhood and absolutely adored the charming illustrations by Patrick McDonnell (creator of the comic strip MUTTS).

Jane Goodall currently travels the world to inform others about animal welfare and conservation in general and about chimpanzees and their habitat in particular.

Book Sharing Monday is hosted by Canadian Home Learning.  Stop by and see what books others are blogging about today, or add a book that caught your eye this week!

Book Sharing Monday - Hanne's Quest

Olivier Dunrea has been a favorite in our house for some time.  His Gossie series is not to be missed for young children, and Bear Noel is a perennial Christmas read-aloud for us.  But the first book of the author's that we ever came across was Hanne's Quest.

This dense picture book tops out at about a hundred pages, so it's not one we've gobbled up in one setting.  But the story of Hanne and her adventures is rich and well worth diving into!  All ages will enjoy this tale.

Book Sharing Monday is hosted by Canadian Home Learning.  Drop by and share what caught your eye this week, or get some new titles for your library queue!

Book Sharing Monday - The Pea Blossom

While I still need to update our Core 5 substitutes page with all the wonderful books about Korea and China we've enjoyed in the past few weeks, I do want to share this particularly lovely title for Book Sharing Monday:

The Pea Blossom, retold and illustrated by Amy Lowry Poole

Poole has take the Hans Christian Anderson tale "Five Peas from a Pod" and given the story an Asian setting:

Once upon a time, in a small garden near the great city of Beijing, there were five peans in one shell.  They were green, and they believed that the whole world must be green, for that was all that they knew.

Poole's beautifully tinted watercolors gave us such pleasure that we find ourselves flipping through the book almost daily to view them.  Poole has two other titles we'll be seeking out, as well--The Ant and the Grasshopper and How the Rooster Got His Crown--and we look forward to more books by this artist, whose delight-filled website is here.

Book Sharing Monday - picture books featuring Korea

We're slowly making our way around the Eastern Hemisphere, and I've especially enjoyed supplementing Core 5 with picture books for the six-year-old.  Here are the books we've found for this week's study of Korea:

The Green Frogs--a Korean Folktale, retold by Yumi Heo

The Firekeeper's Son, written by Linda Sue Park with illustrations by Julie Downing

Bee-bim Bop! written by Linda Sue Park with illustrations by Ho Baek Lee

Behind the Mask, by Yangsook Choi

The Name Jar, by Yangsook Choi

The Have a Good Day Cafe, by Frances Park and Ginger Park with illustrations by Katherine Potter

Count Your Way through Korea, by Jim Haskins with illustrations by Dennis Hockerman

In addition, the older two have read or are reading these books by Linda Sue Park:

 

A Single Shard
The Kite Fighters
SeeSaw Girl
When My Name Was Keoko


Jazz gives A Single Shard high marks, and is starting When My Name Was Keoko tomorrow.  JaneG. admits that The Kite Fighters was a good story, even if it was about two boys.  She's reading SeeSaw Girl now.

Book Sharing Monday is hosted by Canadian Home Learning.  Stop by and find some new books to enjoy and share what caught your eye this week!