March Classic Book - Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I was not planning on posting this book for this month's classic book, but we've been sick and have just been having some not-so-great days. From the blogs I've been reading the cold and flu season seems to be making it's rounds. So this month's classic book is Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day Day by Judith Viorst and illustrated by Ray Cruz . The title pretty much says it all. Poor Alexander wakes up to the start of a not so good day that just continues on it's not so great course. I must confess this book was a favorite of mine as a child. We all have days that things just don't go as well as they could. You make it through them through, and the next day is bound to be better. There's a nice use of humor in this book; I love the ability to find humor in things that go wrong. I would recommend it for older kids ages 5 and up. It's a fun read to share on days like we've been having. But we're better now and I have another fun grouchy read to share with you all soon.

February Classic Book - Guess How Much I Love You

Love is in the air this month so I thought I'd share Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney and illustrated by Anita Jeram for our classic book. It's a sweet story of a father nutbrown hare and his son sharing how much they love one another. I used to play the 'guess how much I love you game' with my Mom. Though back then it was just as wide as my arms could reach. While I've always found this read charming it really became a favorite in my heart when my son started playing 'I love you super duper much...' with me in the evenings. It was something he started up all on his own and I look forward to it as part of nightly routine. I guess there's just a time when kids realize that they feel a lot of love for their family and want to express it. As a parent I always want to share that I love them that much too and so starts up our own little game! My two will be getting this classic book for this Valentine's Day! Shhh, don't tell them okay? I love the soft and sweet watercolor illustrations as much as the story.

I would recommend checking out the entire series of Nutbrown Hare reads: When I'm Big (also titled Guess How Much I Love You in the Spring) Colors Everywhere (Guess How Much I Love You in the Summer) A Surprise for the Nutbrown Hares (Guess How Much I Love You in the Fall), Let's Play in the Snow (Guess How Much I Love You in the Winter) or get all four in the complete Guess How Much I Love You all Year Round.

January Classic Book -The Snowy Day

Happy New Year! I thought I'd start the 2011 blogging year continuing my classic book of the month series. First up The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. We just read this classic book for the first time from the library over our winter break. I was a little hesitant, it seemed a bit simple and it is indeed that. It's wonderfully simple, I'll be adding it to my favorite simple reads list. It's a sweet story of a little boy named Peter who heads out to enjoy a snowy day filled with all those little childhood pleasures found in playing outside in the snow. From enjoying the crunch, crunch, crunch of walking in the snow, making tracks, snowmen, sliding to trying to save a bit of the magic in your pocket. The illustrations have a fun vibe to them and are very cute. I love Peter's adorable red snowsuit and pointed snow cap. Your kids will be sure to relate to the fun Peter had on his snowy day and look forward to their own snowy adventures.

November Classic Book - A trio of books

These three classic books will warm your heart making them great cozy reads for upcoming chilly days. All were written and illustrated by Virginia Lee Burton. All were some of my favorite reads from my childhood days and I now enjoy sharing them with my two. First up The Little House a story with many teachable lessons, one of which is being careful what you wish for. You meet the little house being built, having a good life where she's loved and cared for but she is curious about the city lights in the distance only to find herself one day surrounded by the city that has overtaken the area. She finds herself neglected and forgotten. I love the lesson too of finding beauty and worth in the old house, as she is once more loved and cared for by the great great grandaughter of her original owner. Beautiful illustrations with lots of details show the changes of seasons and a slice through history as times change and so does the transportation and landscape of America.

Next up is Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel an inseparable, unstoppable team. With great skill and work ethic Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel have completed many big construction projects. They soon are forgotten though as new, bigger and better machines take over the construction jobs. Mike Mulligan never gives up in his beloved steam shovel, Mary Anne, and knows her true worth. Both these stories are full of nostalgia as well as finding value and reuse for everything.

And last is Katy and the Big Snow a magical winter tale of Katy and the Highway Department. It's a heoric tale of how Katy saved the day after the town was buried under a big snow storm. Katy is determined to get the job done. I've always loved the illustrations of the town being uncovered more and more by Katy until the final page where the whole plowed city can be seen. Burton's detailed drawings and illustrations will delight your young readers! I debated about adding Choo Choo to this collection but think I'll save that one for another day!

October Classic Book - Where the Wild Things Are

I am a little late posting this months classic book as I was participating in the blog tour for A Friend in the Storm on the 1st. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is my pick for this months' classic book. I've always loved this book and could not imagine not adding it too my little list here. I know everyone is well aquainted with this tale of adventure and mischief but here's a short summary from me.

Simple text and beautiful illustrations abound in this children’s classic. Max a young boy who has been mischievous one evening gets sent to his room. But that is not the end of his adventures, only the beginning. What could be more fanciful than your own room fading away as a jungle grows in its place. My children and I read this book again and again. You can feel their excitement and anticipation as we approach the wild rumpus that the wild things throw. And what a wild rumpus it is, lasting through 3 whole pages! I add dum, dum, dum, dee, dums to help set the mode as we go through the book. We giggle everytime, sometimes I bounce them up and down on my lap and sometimes we even get up and dance as we join in the rumpus fun.

Spotlight on the Author - Richard Scarry

One of my favorite childhood authors was Richard Scarry and I am thrilled to be able to share these books with my two. My oldest in particular has taken too Richard Scarry books and being that we are celebrating his Birthday this week, I thought I'd share some posts of his favorite reads. I couldn't just pick one book to feature there are just too many to choose from. I think even a top five Friday would be a difficult task. So I decided to just highlight some of the books we actually have in our collection. My sweet big Sister remembers how much I loved these books when we were little and she has bought several for us to enjoy!

Richard Scarry began his career in Children's books in 1949 with Little Golden Books. He penned and illustrated over 300 books but probably best known for his Busytown Series home to Huckle Cat and Lowly Worm. Have you seen the Busytown Mysteries series on CBS Saturday mornings? It's really great too! The cartoon illustrations are well, um, busy, packed with all kinds of detail on every page. Personified animals of every size fill the pages often the books have a find the 'gold bug' on them for added fun. Many books have the map of busytown in the front or back of the book too. I think that was one of my favorite pages to study when I was little.

Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever or similar collections of stories are a great way to go.

There are fun board books for the youngest of readers, like this title Cars and Trucks from A to Z where all kinds of zany cars and trucks can be found like Lowly's apple car.

Individual storybooks can also be found like A Day at the Airport.

Or smaller storybook collections like this Please and Thank You Book.

As you can see Richard Scarry's books cover a wide arrange of topics, filled with delightful, well mannered (for the most part) animal characters. There's lots to learn and a good dose of silly fun to have!

Top Five Fridays - Beatrix Potter

Well as my favorite season, Fall is approaching, I thought I'd share a top five of one of my favorite childhood authors, Beatrix Potter. Pictured above is the book: Beatrix Potter: The Complete Tales. I can't remember my age, but I do remember saving up to buy this book! Charming tales of animals, accompanied by equally charming watercolors are Potter's signature. There are even DVDs out now of these enchanting tales.

I would recommend age 5 and older for the original version for most of these classic tales as they are longer with a slower moving in plot. My oldest is just now able to sit through almost all these tales. The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Story of Miss Moppet and The Tale of Tom Kitten are shorter and good to start with. There are many picture books that have been adapted from these classic tales for younger kids to enjoy as well. There are also the Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes and Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes, also written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, that are fun to read/recite to the youngest of children. I would highly recommend introducing your children to these characters early. While we have the complete tales in one book, I still like getting the smaller scale books from the library. They are just the right size for little hands!

To explore more of the world of Beatrix Potter, check out this link. Here are the top five tales I read over and over again as a child:







1. The Tale of Peter Rabbit

2. The Tailor of Gloucester

3. The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle

4. The Tale of Tom Kitten














5. The Tale of Two Bad Mice

What are your favorite Beatrix Potter stories?

And have a wonderful Holiday weekend!

September Classic Book -Corduroy

Well, we were the fortunate recipients of a wonderful gift book recently. My dear Aunt and Uncle gave us Corduroy, by Don Freeman. I loved this classic book as a child and thought it would make a lovely feature for September's classic book. Freeman has wrote and illustrated several Corduroy stories some in collaboration with others. They are all wonderful adventures of friendship, curiosity and learning. In the first book of this series readers are first introduced to Corduroy, a little stuffed bear on the toy shelf at a department store. Corduroy goes unnoticed by most shoppers until one day a little girl named Lisa spots him and their adventures begin. Both Corduroy and Lisa find what they have been looking for, a friend. And even better we the readers do too!

August Classic Book- Blueberries for Sal

Take a journey back to simpler times with Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey which was first published in 1948. This is a sweet story of Sal and her Mom as they head for their annual blueberry picking at Blueberry Hill, to get blueberries to can for winter. Kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk go the berries into Sal's metal bucket but Sal being young eats more berries than she picks and has a hard time staying with Mom.

A mother bear and her cub are also out to enjoy the blueberries and there's a bit of a mix up as Sal and the cub wander. But not to worry both Mama bear and Sal's Mom know better than to stay close to a person/bear respectively. Sal's Mom hears the familiar Kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk and finds Sal doing what else, eating blueberries. The illustrations are simple black and white line drawings and have a wonderful old fashioned, vintage quality. I love the beautiful illustrated vistas of the sweeping mountainside.

I grew up picking blueberries from our own blueberry shrubs in our yard and I'm so looking forward to planting blueberries at our current home but until then we'll enjoy Upick outings and blueberries make a great Upick outing. Check out this site; pickyourown.org to find Upick farms near you and what crops and fruit that they have available and when. Blueberries are usually in season starting in July and ending in early September though this varies from place to place.

Check and see if you can get a copy on CD or if your library carries one for even more reading fun.

Top Five Fridays - Little Golden Books

How many of you grew up reading Little Golden Books? I bet pretty much all of you did. They have been in circulation for 65 years! You can read the history of Little Golden Books at Random House Publishing site. Little Golden Books made great books available for everyone when they hit the market selling for only 25 cents a copy. There are the classic books, religious/inspirational stories, seasonal/holiday books, Disney, Richard Scarry's Busy town books, Little Critter, popular kids characters like Thomas the Tank Engine and Barbie stories and more, whew.

I grew up reading them and now get to enjoy sharing them with my two. We've been fortunate to have been given several copies plus get to read old copies while visiting the Grandparents. They make a GREAT gift and I for one hope they publish Little Golden Books for along time.

Now, of course I have not read all the Golden Books that there are to read, but I have read dozens of them. So my top five are:





1. The Little Red Hen, by Diane Muldrow and J.P. Miller








2. The Pokey Little Puppy, by Janette Sebring Lowrey and Gustaf Tenggren







3. The Shy Little Kitten by Cathleen Schurr and Gustaf Tenggren









4. The Three Little Pigs by Golden Books (its the Disney version, I grew up listening to the songs in this book on a Disney record we had, I love to sing them to my two.)






5. The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown





What are your favorite Golden Books?

I am really looking forward to seeing what other titles we should check out!

Magic Beans 31 Days of Giveaways!

July Classic Book - Harold and the Purple Crayon

I just could not resist adding this book to my list. It's one of my absolute favorites. I actually didn't grow up reading this book; I'm sure we read it once or twice from the library, but it was not one of the books that I was read a lot as a child. It is one my two read all the time.

For those unfamiliar here's a short review of, Harlod and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson. It is a simple story matched by simple illustrations that holds an unbounded sense of adventure. This is definitely a key example of a read that does more with less, so much more. Young Harold and his beloved purple crayon set off one night on a moonlight walk. Only there's no moonlight, so Harold draws a moon, oh and there's no path, so he simply draws that too. His walk takes him far and away, there are a few missteps along the way, fun times and eventually he is lost but don't worry young Harold always keeps his wits about him. Harold finally remembers where his bedroom window can be found just in time to draw up his bed and blanket and drift off to sleep.

But wait there's more, Scholastics has a DVD version of Harold and the Purple Crayon with a collection of several other children's books made into short films.

HBO Family also has taken the tales of Harold and the Purple Crayon to DVD format, narrated by Sharon Stone. These stories are not an exact retelling of the classic story as the Scholastics' version is, though they are very enjoyable.

Crockett Johnson wrote several other tales of Harold and later Liz Baker has continued on the stories of Harold and the Purple Crayon based on the HBO series.

Truly a classic read that is sure to spark imaginations both young and old.

But there's more, my kids take to sidewalk chalk when they too want to go on an adventure like Harold. It’s a simple game we play where they draw, and I make up stories of what they are drawing and what adventure they are on. So, I wanted to share a few links to chalk making tutorials to add to the fun of your own adventures with Harold. First Alpha Mom has a how to make sidewalk chalk stars. Second ohdeedoh has a tutorial on making sidewalk chalk paint for more creative fun. And of course, Martha Stewart's site has a sidewalk chalk tutorial as well.

Here's some sidewalk chalk picks as well click on the pictures below:

             

Top Five Fridays - Eric Carle

There are so many wonderful classic picture books out there. There’s too many to realistically try to cover. I also try to stay away from well known, well loved classic reads but it’s not because I don't also love those. It’s just that I assume that everyone is already familiar them.

But, I thought it would be fun to do a little series that I've titled 'Top Five Fridays'. I'd like to feature a well established children's book author on Fridays for awhile. Then share my top five favorite books of theirs'. Yep, I'm a list maker girl!

First up I'd like to start with the children's books of Eric Carle. Eric Carle's picture books are often geared for the youngest of readers and the illustrations are truly works of art. I often like to feature his books and illustrations during our 'art' time talks with my two preschoolers. Here are my top five favorite Eric Carle's books:



1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar





2. The Very Busy Spider









3. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?







4. The Very Clumsy Click Beetle






5. The Tiny Seed







So what 'five' Eric Carle books make your list?

My First Little House Picture Books

I'd be willing to wager you, or your kids grew up reading and watching the Little House on the Prairie series like I did. The My First Little House Book series is a great introduction for the littlest readers to Laura Ingalls Wilder, Ma, Pa, and her sisters Mary and Carrie. I am always looking for editions of great literature written for my preschoolers’ age levels. It's a wonderful way to get them off to a solid start of reading classics. The more they read classic literature at their level the more confident, familiar and comfortable they will be to someday take on the hardest of books.

These stories are sure to delight your little ones as much as they may have delighted you and are accompanied with beautiful full-page illustrations. They are adapted from the writings of Laura Ingalls Wilder and illustrated by Renee Graef.

This particular series is a great way to excite their interest not just in literature but in history as they learn all about the pioneer way of life. There are currently 14 books in this series including Summertime in the Big Woods, Sugar Snow, Winter Days in the Big Woods, Going West, A Little House on the Prairie, A Little House Birthday, Going to Town, Prairie Day, County Fair, Dance at Grandpa's, Deer in the Woods, Winter on the Farm, Christmas in the Big Woods and A Farmer Boy Birthday.

There is even an A Little House Picture Book Treasury book with a collection of six stories.

Classic book of the month - June 2010

There are so many classic children's picture books out there that I wanted to add to my slowly growing list of favorite books. But I'm hesitant to because I know lots of people are already very familiar with these books. So, I've decided that I might try to post one classic book review a month.

This was an overwhelming task, so many to choose from and which should be first...so I decided to go with one that we currently are enjoying from our local library. It's Petunia by Robert Duvousin and was first published in 1950. I grew up reading this book and am now enjoying sharing it with my kids. Even better our library had a copy that came on cd. I highly recommend checking out books on cd from time to time. We've started getting 2-3 of them each time we go to the library.

Petunia is a silly goose that is until she discovers a book. With the book tucked under her wing she becomes prouder and prouder of what a wise goose she must be, after all she does have a book now. After offering up misguided advice and the farmyard narrowly escaping disaster Petunia learns a lesson in where true wisdom comes.

We checked this book out because I'm following my own suggestion and going through a character trait a week from the God's Little Boys/Girls books by Elizabeth George. Use this link or just scroll down a post or two. We're not following in order to the traits as they go in the book. First, because I have a boy and girl and am trying to merge the lessons from each into relatable ones and second, I wanted to start with the first lesson from the book of Proverbs itself. That God's little boys and girls are wise. Petunia fits this study perfectly and has made a great supplementary read to our focus on wisdom this week.

I hope you share this classic with your little ones!