Totally Tuesday Book Club

I have always enjoyed reading as well as writing. That's probably why I have always loved sharing my love of books and reading with children.  There was not a day during my teaching career that I would skip read aloud time with my students.  Sharing the love of reading is that important!  To this day, I still enjoy some great children's and young adult books as well as my usual books.  Yes, I like to read!

Today I'd like to share the titles that our Totally Tuesday Book Club at my church has chosen for this year.  Of course, these are for us instead of the children.  We need time to read and discuss our books, too!  Maybe there is something here that you might enjoy. Or maybe you have some suggestions of books that you have enjoyed that you could share with me.  In future posts, I'll share some of our past books that we have enjoyed.  And, I'll even tell you which ones we read but didn't enjoy.  Yes.  That happens, too! ;)

Keep reading!

BOO TO YOU!

 

Halloween is both a fun and a scary time for young children.  Walt Disney World knows how to capture the fun with just a tinge of the scary to give children a great experience at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.  Children and parents can safely dress up, trick or treat, visit attractions, dance with favorite villains, watch HalloWishes and watch a great parade with a Headless Horseman.  Oh, to be in Walt Disney World this month.

For those of us who are a little too far away to make the trip, there are many great Halloween and “scary” books to entertain the children this month.  I have a few that are my absolute favorites for this month.

The Witch Who Wasn’t by Jane Yolen is the one that I never missed reading to my classes at the Halloween party each year.  It is a story about a little witch who wasn’t ugly, wasn’t scary and couldn’t even think up a scary spell.  She felt that she was disappointing her mother and grandmother and all of the other witches.  But, something happened to help her understand that her being different was special, too.  You may have to search the libraries or the used book sites, but this book is a great Halloween one with a good lesson, too.  Another favorite of the kids was Nate the Great and the Halloween Hunt by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat.  Children enjoy this series and the Halloween story has all of the familiar characters, like Fang, Rosamond and Little Hex, with some of them going missing.

Do you have a little one who is afraid of all of the Halloween happenings?  Scary, Scary, Halloween by Eve Bunting  and illustrated by Jan Brett is perfect.  A family of scared kittens experiences what it’s like to see scary trick or treaters.  And the illustrations by Jan Brett are lovely.  Speaking of being scared, this is a perfect time of the year for Stellaluna by Janell Cannon and Owl Babies by Martin Waddell.  I guarantee you’re your little ones will be remembering Stellaluna and the baby owls for a long time.  Scared of spiders?  Raffi’s Spider on the Floor would be fun to read and sing together.  Finally, The Bookstore Ghost by Barbara Maitland would make a nice read aloud this month.  Mr. Brown tries to sell ghost books, but the mice are up to mischief until the cat takes over. 

After the kids are in bed, there are plenty of scary books for the adults to read, if the tired adults aren’t too exhausted to read!  Have you read The Kingdom Keepers Series by Ridley Pearson?  If you haven’t, get them now.  You will never look at a visit to Walt Disney World the same again.  And you might have a few nightmares, too!

 

So, as we near October 31, pick up some Halloween books for you and your children.  You might even find a classic Disney DVD with The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad to introduce your children to the Headless Horseman.  Turn down the lights, snuggle together and have a scary time!

Boo to You!

Halloween Books

Babar and the Ghost by Laurent de Brunhoff

Batbaby Finds a Home by Robert Quackenbush
Bats Around the Clock by Kathy Appelt
Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman
The Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Steven Kroll
The Blue-Nosed Witch by Margaret Embry
*The Bookstore Ghost by Barbara Maitland
Cinderella Skeleton by Robert San Souci
Five Little Bats Flying in the Night by Steve Metzger
Franklin’s Halloween by Paulette Bourgeois
Georgie and the Robbers by Robert Bright
Georgie’s Halloween by Robert Bright
Gus and the Baby Ghost by Jane Thayer
Gus Was a Friendly Ghost by Jane Thayer
The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow
How Spider Saved Halloween by Robert Kraus
Junie B., First Grader BOO and I Mean It! by Barbara Park
Little Witch’s Big Night
Louanne Pig in Witch Lady by Nancy Carlson
The Magic Schoolbus in the Haunted Museum (Sound) by Joanna Cole
My First Halloween by Tomie de Paola
*Nate the Great and the Halloween Hunt by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
The Night Before Halloween by Natasha Wing
*Owl Babies by Martin Waddell
*Scary, Scary, Halloween by Eve Bunting  Illustrated by Jan Brett
Shake Dem Halloween Bones by W. Nicola-Lisa
Skeleton Hiccups by Marjorie Cuyler
*Spider on the Floor by Raffi
The Spookiest Halloween Ever by Teddy Slater
The Spooky Halloween Party by Annabelle Prager  Illustrated by Tomie de Paola
Spooky Hayride by Brian James
*Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
The Witch Who Was Afraid of Witches by Alice Low
*The Witch Who Wasn’t by Jane Yolen
The Witch’s Vacation by Norman Bridwell
Tilly Witch by Don Freeman

Familiar Characters at Halloween

Angelina’s Halloween by Katherine Holabird

Arthur’s Halloween by Marc Brown
The Berenstain Bears and the Prize Pumpkin
Clifford’s Halloween by Norman Bridwell
Corduroy’s Best Halloween Ever by Don Freeman
Dragon’s Halloween by Dave Pilkey
Froggy’s Halloween by Jonathan London
Happy Halloween, Mittens by Lola M. Schaefer
Mickey’s Halloween Treat by Thea Feldman

Scary Creatures

Creepy, Crawly Baby Bugs by Sandra Markle

Fantastic Bats by Justin Mc Cory Martin
Super Spiders by Jason Blake
The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
Zoe’s Webs by Thomas West

 

 

Counting the Days

Wishful thinking on my part!
Graphics by Barrie Brewer at
DVCRequest.com

Do you count down the days to something special?  First day of school?  Christmas?  Last day of school?  Vacations?  How many more days?  How many more sleeps?  How long until we get there?  Counting down to Disney is my favorite!  That’s one of the things that we all do when we have a trip planned.  My friend, Barrie Brewer, just recently created the most wonderful Days to Disney graphics for David's Vacation Club Rentals. (Love my Disney friends!  Thank you, Barrie and David, for all you do!)  Counting down to  something special is fun for kids and grownups!  And counting down to Disney trips certainly makes me happy! 

For many of us it’s already back to school time.  So for a little mixture of fun and learning, let’s turn to books with a math theme.  There are many math themed books written for children with themes such as counting, telling time, measurement, shapes, etc.  The illustrators of many of the counting books use various media to produce excellent artwork to captivate the reader.  Some authors have written series of books that are especially appealing to children.  Author Jerry Pallotta has written many books, among them counting books and alphabet books.  They are always a favorite with children.  What child can resist a book called The Icky Bug Counting Book?  Delight your children by checking out Jerry Pallotta’s books.  Author Robert E. Wells has written 11 books in his science/math series explaining many topics.  My favorite is his Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is? in which he compares the size of a blue whale to mountains, the Earth, the Sun,  etc.  Children love the illustrations and the opportunity to imagine the immensity of their world. 

Cat and dog lovers?  You are not forgotten.  Phyllis Limbacher Tildes’ Counting on Calico features delightful, colored pencil drawings of Calico and her kittens while counting through the pages and sharing facts about cats.  Loreen Leedy’s series about Penny the Boston Terrier are excellent.  Measuring Penny is my favorite.  Penny is even measured in dog biscuits!  Leedy has also written Mapping Penny and It’s Probably Penny. 

Visit your local or school library or bookstore for some of these wonderful math themed books for children.

My Top Favorites

A Cloak for a Dreamer by Aileen Friedman

Chicka Chicka 1 2 3 by Bill Martin, Jr.

Counting on Calico by Phyllis Limbacher Tildes

Fish Eyes: A Book You Can Count On by Lois Ehlert

How Big is a Foot? By Rolf Myller

Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is? by Robert E. Wells (11 books in science/math series)

Measuring Penny by Loreen Leedy (Also Mapping Penny and It’s Probably Penny)

One Hundred Hungry Ants by Elinor Pinczes

The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns

The Icky Bug Counting Book by Jerry Pallotta

The King’s Commissioners by Aileen Friedman

 

More Great Math Books

10 Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle

12 Ways to Get to 11 by Eve Merriam

26 Letters and 99 Cents by Tana Hoban (Two books in one!)

Can You Count to Googol? By Robert E. Wells

Click Clack Splish Splash by Doreen Cronin

Each Orange Has 8 Slices by Paul Giganti, Jr.

Eating Fractions by Bruce Mc Millan

Emily’s First 100 Days of School by Rosemary Wells

Five Little Monkeys series by Eileen Christelow

Five Ugly Monsters by Tedd Arnold

From One to One Hundred by Teri Sloat (Lots of details for counting!)

How Many Feet?  How Many Tails? By Marilyn Burns

How Much is a Million by David M. Schwartz

How Much is That Guinea Pig in the Window? by Joanne Rocklin

Just a Minute by Teddy Slater

Just Enough Carrots by Stuart J. Murphy

Math Curse by Jon Scieszka (author of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and The Stinky Cheese Man)

 

Mission Addition by Loreen Leedy

Monster Math by Grace Maccarone

Monster Math Picnic by Grace Maccarone

Monster Money by Grace Maccarone

Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh

Much Bigger Than Martin by Steven Kellogg

Stay in Line by Teddy Slater

Super Saturday Sand Castle by Stuart J. Murphy

Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss

Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews

The 100th Day of School by Angela Shelf Medearis

The Giraffe Numbers Book by Gene Yates

The Grapes of Math by Greg Tang

 

So, as you count down to your next Disney trip, cultivate your math skills and reach for an enjoyable math book and share it with a child.  3…2…1… Go and read!

Wonderful World of Color

Wonderful World of Color

My newest rug!
www.itsalinda.com

The world is a carousel of color, wonderful, wonderful color…

I can still hear those opening lyrics when, as a child, I knew immediately that it was time for one of my favorite shows.  One of Walt Disney’s contributions during his lifetime was Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color.  Although it has appeared in varying formats on and off since the fifties, the time of the sixties, with the addition of color televisions to people’s homes, Walt Disney was able to bring his magic directly into people’s homes through television.   As the show began, colors burst forth and the words and music of the Sherman Brothers transported the viewers into the world of, and through, color.  Every Sunday evening, children and adults caught glimpses of the imagination and talents of Walt Disney.  Audiences were able to explore and discover many things and to travel without leaving their living rooms.  Episodes included cartoons, live action segments and informational material presented only as Walt Disney could do.  Ludwig Von Drake even attempted to explain color television in his unique style!  True Life Adventures, with all of the beautiful colors of nature, were my favorites.  The audience saw color in so many places.

Children, as well as adults, are drawn to color.  Think about those wonderful boxes of Crayola® crayons that we’ve all enjoyed.  I can see and feel and smell those crayons right now.  Especially my favorite color red!  Color brightens the day and excites the senses. Going to school for children means brand new boxes of crayons.  As a first grade teacher, I wrote my own Color Unit with lessons, activities, songs and, of course, books, that I always used to begin the school year.  Children love color and, luckily, many children’s authors have written good books about color.  Here are some of my favorites.

• The Art Lesson by Tomie de Paola (Off to school with a big, new box of crayons…or not?)
• Color Dance by Ann Jonas (A beautiful book about mixing colors, complete with color names children love, like chartreuse and magenta and marigold!)
• Do You Know Colors? by Katherine Howard
• Elmer by David Mc Kee (What’s not to love about a multi-colored patchwork elephant?)
• Freight Train by Donald Crews
• Growing Vegetable Soup and Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert (Lois Ehlert’s collage style utilizes color very well.)
• Hailstones and Halibut Bones by Mary O' Neil (Poems about colors)
• How is a Crayon Made? By Oz Charles (A visit to the Crayola® factory)
• If You Take a Paintbrush by Fulvio Testa (We can all be color artists.)
• Mary Wore Her Red Dress by Merle Peek (Watch how the colors evolve from page to page!)
• Monet by Mike Venezia (Great book in a series about artists, written for young children)
• Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh (The mice use color to their advantage to trick the cat!)
• My Crayons Talk by Patricia Hubbard (Written along with Bill Martin, Jr., this book is a fun one to read and reread together out loud.)
• Purple, Green and Yellow by Robert Munsch (Oh!  What fun and trouble all kinds of markers can be!)
• Roses Are Red.  Are Violets Blue? By Alice Provenson
• Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young

Sometimes books about colors can teach us much more.  All of the books below teach children about each other and the world around them through color.  They can also provide adults with a wonderful way of teaching children about accepting and understanding others.

• A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni (Everybody has a special color!)
• All the Colors of the Earth by Sheila Hanamaka (Absolutely beautiful drawings of children showing the beauty in similarities and differences)
• The Land of Many Colors by Klamath County WMPC Preschool Staff and Children (Interesting book that was written by preschoolers and their teachers using colors to teach acceptance and tolerance.  We can often learn from children.)
• Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni (A classic book that uses simple color and illustrations to teach an important lesson to children and adults!
• Regina’s Big Mistake by Marissa Moss (Sometimes mistakes can become masterpieces!)
• Do You Remember the Color Blue? By Sally Hobart Alexander (Although not a book about color, it is a book written to help children understand the author’s loss of vision.  Our school hosted Mrs. Alexander for an author visit.  She is a wonderful author and speaker.)

Colors are everywhere and they make the world a beautiful and exciting place.  At a recent conference, I was privileged, once again, to hear a powerful presentation by Justin Muchoney, the Chief Magic Official.  Justin is a tremendous asset to Walt Disney World and also an excellent speaker.  He spoke about dreams and making your first mark and crayons.  Walt Disney knew a lot about dreams and color and making his lasting mark.  So, grab a book about colors, grab your favorite crayons and make a difference for your children through books and imagination.

(By the way, the photo above is of one of my beautiful handmade "It's a Linda" rugs!  It's made by a very talented artist, Linda Surace, whom I discovered at Shaker Woods Festival some years ago.  She is truly an artist who makes rugs that last and last and last!  It's almost time to go back and get another to add to my home.  You will find her at Shaker Woods Festival in Columbiana, Ohio during the 2nd, 3rd and 4th weekends of August.  In the meantime, you can find out more about her at www.itsalinda.com .)

Spring is Here!

Welcome Spring!

March is here and spring is just about to “spring”!  It’s the time of the annual EPCOT® International Flower and Garden Festival at Walt Disney World.  I have never been to the festival, but I’ve seen many photos and heard many stories about the flowers and butterflies, the topiaries and Flower Power concerts.  Someday, I’ll be there.  But until then, I’ll enjoy spring right where I am.  Even before Walt Disney began making feature films, he made many spring themed shorts as part of his Silly Symphonies.  And of course, Fantasia and Bambi can give you a taste of spring.

With more hours of daylight, maybe we adults can find more time to read.   I find myself starting to look for new and fresh books to read myself.  There are lots out there.  Looking for a biography?  Why not try Dick Van Dyke’s My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business.  I especially liked his recollections of the making of Mary Poppins and his thoughts about Walt Disney.  If you are looking for some nice, quick reads, try the Lillian Jackson Braun’s The Cat Who…books or Rita Mae Brown Mrs. Murphy series.  And if you haven’t already read The Help by Kathryn Stockett or The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, I highly recommend them.

Spring

March began with Read Across America Day and Dr. Seuss’ Birthday celebrations in our communities and schools.  Dr. Seuss’ Bartholomew and the Oobleck makes us thankful for the “normal” things that come down from the sky in the springtime.  And making Oobleck is so-o-o-o-o-o much fun!  There are recipes out there in cyberspace, but basically 1 ½ cups of cornstarch and 1 cup of water and a couple drops of green food coloring will do it.  Mix it.  Play with it.  Have fun.  And keep it off carpets and fabric! ;)

Spring is also the time for nature or season themed books for children.  St. Patrick’s Day, Easter and Passover provide a good source for books to read to or with children.  My absolute favorite for this time of the year is The Easter Egg Artists by Adrienne Adams.  It is a wonderful story of Orson Abbot who desperately wants to help his parents with their painting.  His adventures and the beautiful pastels used in the illustrations are priceless.  This is the kind of book that will be read and reread and remembered for years.  Another favorite of mine is Bentley and Egg by William Joyce, who is also the creator of Rolie Polie Olie.  You will long remember Bentley Hopperton, an artistic and musical egg-sitting frog, long after you finish reading this to your child.  And look for the special signature of William Joyce inside the book!  Here are more great spring books.

The Easter Egg Artists by Adrienne Adams

Bentley and Egg by William Joyce (Who is the creator of Rolie Polie Olie!)

Waiting for Spring Stories by Bethany Roberts

Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel (Especially the “Spring” story!)

The April Rabbits by David Cleveland

That’s What Happens When It’s Spring by Elaine W. Good (Part of a series of four-one for each season)

Four Stories for Four Seasons by Tomie de Paola

The Lamb and The Butterfly by Arnold Sundgaard and illustrations by Eric Carle

The Reason for Seasons by Gail Gibbons (Here’s a non-fiction for you!)

The Spring Rabbit by Joyce Dunbar

Snip, Snip Little Lambs by Tomie de Paola

The Little Rabbit by Phoebe Dunn (Beautiful photography, as in all of the Phoebe Dunn books!)

The Chocolate Rabbit by Maria Claret

Max’s Chocolate Chicken by Rosemary Wells

Henry and Mudge and the Big Wind by Cynthia Rylant

The Wind Blew by Pat Hutchins (Great cumulative tale!)

Hopper Hunts for Spring by Marcus Pfister (Author of The Rainbow Fish)

The Easter Egg by Jan Brett

Special Spring Days

Leading up to, and even after, March 17^th, many children enjoy the fanciful tales centered around St. Patrick’s Day.  Tomie de Paola’s Irish side shines through in the two Jamie O’Rourke books.  Disney’s Darby O’Gill and the Little People would be a great DVD to watch this month, too.  Springtime also brings us both Easter and Passover.  Here are a few books that children enjoy.

Jamie O’ Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie de Paola

Jamie O’ Rourke and the Pooka by Tomie de Paola

St. Patrick’s Day in the Morning by Eve Bunting and illustrations by Jan Brett

Clever Tom and the Leprechaun by Linda Shute (Never trick a leprechaun!)

My First Easter by Tomie de Paola

Biggest Easter Basket Ever by Steven Kroll

It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown by Charles Schultz

*The Berenstain Bears and the Easter Story by Jan Berenstain

The Matzoh That Papa Brought Home by Fran Manushkin (who wrote the lovely Latkes and Applesauce, too!)

*The Berenstain Bears and the Easter Story was published early this year, shortly before the death of Jan Berenstain.  Stan and Jan Berenstain, and now their son Mike, have given us many books for all seasons.  Generations of children and parents are thankful for the many stories of the Berenstain Bears.

Spring is here!  The weather is warm, windy and changeable.  Visit your libraries and bookstores and find some good spring books.  It’s another great time to read!