When I daydream about the 'perfect house' that I'd love to have someday, the requisite beautiful wood floors are there, along with the shiny new appliances and the great big tree-filled yard for the kids, of course. But, the best image is the large play room with an entire reading area filled with shelves of picture books. Sure, my kids will grow up, but I will never outgrow the joy of picture books! In my role as a round two judge for this year's Cybils awards in the Fiction Picture Books category, I spent a lot of time with the seven finalists. I blogged about them, I read them to my children, I read them on my own, I studied their illustrations, I even dreamed about them. (Yup, that's true!) I happily shared my thoughts about the winner, All The World by ...
Category Archives: ages 6 – 9
This Little Prayer of Mine
I love listening to the prayers of children—how innocent and precious they are! As a parent, I hope to teach my children that their prayers are important and that taking time to talk with God is an essential part of life. Of course, children learn by example, and I try to model a life of prayer, but I also appreciate good books that can help my children to understand the importance of a faithful walk with God. In his new book, This Little Prayer of Mine, Anthony DeStefano uses engaging rhymes to teach children that their prayers are important to God. He also discusses good times to pray: when we are fearful, when we are sad, when we need to make a decision, when we want to ...
Cybils Winners Announced!
While many of us were celebrating Valentine's Day today by showering our loved ones with candies, cards and kisses (real and chocolate varieties!), the book blogging community was also busy showering twelve children's, middle grade, and YA books with some Cybils love. Yuppers- the 2009 Cybils winners were announced, which I personally take as a motivation to update our library to-look-for list immediately. I have a couple of favorites on the winners' lists, but I'll surely be looking up the others for future reading with my kids! I'm happy to say that Jennifer and I both had the immense honor of serving as round two judges, in the Middle Grade/Young Adult Nonfiction and Fiction Picture Book categories, respectively. I am over the moon with the winner selected for my category, and I can say with ...
D is for Drinking Gourd: An African-American Alphabet
I don't often review picture books here. Dawn, Carrie and occasionally Lauren take on those books, and I think that they do a much better job. However, when we had the opportunity to review (and give away!) some books from Sleeping Bear Press, the title D Is for Drinking Gourd: An African American Alphabet really caught my eye. I assumed that I was picking up a picture book that would share simple facts about the African American experience. I even thought I knew that the drinking gourd referred to an old-fashioned simple drinking vessel. Boy, was I wrong all around. The "drinking gourd" was actually another name for the Big Dipper, which pointed to the North star, which led the way to freedom. It was also a ...
Books on Screen: The Mr. Men Show
I knew that there was a new Mr. Men Show on Boomerang/Cartoon Network. But I made a snap judgment that it was a smart-alecky show with no redeeming value. Then when Carrie reviewed the Mr. Men and Little Miss books, I reconsidered a little bit, but we still didn't start watching them. This week, I posted in my "I Read It!" post that we've recently enjoyed some of the books, and Kyle has been watching the show when he's home from school (which has been all too often with several morning delayed openings lately), so I decided to watch it with him. I was wrong. While it's not educational per se, it does seem to hold to the spirit of the books. In the TV episodes, we see a whole cast of characters ...
Bugs and Bugsicles
Soon into my career as a preschool teacher, I realized that I needed to overcome my mild aversion to bugs. There was no way around the fact that many of my students showed great interest in the little critters that shared the playground with us or occasionally made their way into our classroom. Any fear or distaste that I exhibited, I absolutely knew would be transferred, and I didn't want to be a part of any quashing of curiosity in three and four year old minds. Now, many years later, I have found that my one-time aversion has transformed into a personal interest, and my own children and I not only take a passing interest in insects and bugs, but actually have gone out of our way to study them! An abundance of children's literature exists on this ...
Lessons in Life (Picture Books for Children)
Recently I was talking to another mother who said that she wanted her children to learn to be grateful people. Unfortunately, at the time of our conversation, I had yet to read Gracias / Thanks which is all about that very thing! A bilingual book, author Pat Mora lists various things one could be grateful for, such as friends, NOT being stung by some bees, for chocolate (I hear you!) and for his mother who helped him find some lost homework. At the conclusion of the book, Mora encourages young readers to think about things that they themselves might be grateful for. This is a great book for getting one to think about thankfulness and for ...
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Jennifer Donovan
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