10 Kids' Book Blogs!

Children's Book Council has an informative blog.  Librarians, take note.  The June 14th entry covered a list of books for kids reading beyond their age level.  Huge help here!

My FAVE!!!  Betsy Bird at  A Fuse # 8 Production offers book reviews, book and publishing news, some opinions, lots of award predictions and good writing.  Books featured are picture book through middle grade.

First Book puts new books into the hands of very young children and into the hands of older children as well.  Dedicated to literacy, First Book has done its work for 25 years now.  Check out their book picks, articles and suggestions for literacy activities.

Like Picture Books and illustration?  Check out Seven Impossible Things before Breakfast. 

Literacious.    She is the director of a small public library.  And five days a week she posts book lists, book reviews, book news from her own library stacks and from the entire country.

 Girl Plus Book deals ONLY with YA books - books for teens and younger adults.  But that girl does a fine job of reviews. The New2YA segments let readers know what is on the bookstore shelves NOW!

 Erik started his blog when he was 9.  He's 15, now.  This Kid Reviews Book is the place for you to find the perfect book for the kid in your life. 

Kids Book Review is Australian      Features Australian publishers and authors but also talks about international English language books for toddlers through teens

Children's Book Daily.   Those Aussies!  This blogger is a writer, a librarian and a book reviewer.

Big Book Little Book is British.  It features lots and lots of book reviews divided into age groups.


Blogs are ephemeral.  I tried to pick useful blogs that have posted within the last two months.  So many great blogs have dropped into disuse because their writers found full-time employment, family life intervened - or in my case when I drop from view - distraction!

Further Adventures - Little Blue Bunny

(His name is Little Blue Bunny.  D says he is six years old.)    

Yesterday, Nutty Romomlia, celebrated her fifth birthday.  Little Blue Bunny wasn't going to give her a present.  She is just his little sister, after all.

But Nana found something that he could give her so he wrapped it up in aluminum foil.

Everyone wore stickers on their tummies (except Cuttlefish.  She hardly has a tummy.).  Nutty Romomlia was so excited.  D made an oreo cake and almost didn't have enough (imaginary) oreos to complete it.  Then she wrecked the icing and had to do it over.  Such drama for a small person birthday!

See the invisible cake?  It's on the green plate.  YUM!

The presents were wonderful; a pinecone, a wiggily head turtle, a huge noise maker, a box of crayons(!!) and a picture of stars!  Nutty Romomlia loved all of them.

Nutty and her presents and someone blue.

Little Blue Bunny had to wash up afterwards and that made him mad.  It WAS his turn to wash the dishes but there were so many of them.  Boy, he splashed and crashed and rattled those dishes clean.  And, then.... and then.... (DUM, DUM, DUMMMMM)

He left the (pretend) water faucet running - ON PURPOSE.  (D insisted that LBB did it on purpose.  The game had changed to Little-Blue-Bunny-Gets-In-Trouble-One-Last-Time, except even D realizes that it is never a "last" time.)

The (invisible) water overflowed the sink and soaked the floor and D slipped and slid and fell and couldn't get up.

Little Blue Bunny didn't even know about it.  He was off somewhere playing with his friends.

Nana had to help poor D who was now (pretend) cold and wet and sad and D had to huddle under a blanket while Nana made sure she was warm.

What a shock!  Nana called the water removal pros with their suctioning device and Little Blue Bunny got sucked up into the device!

Nana suggested that Little Blue Bunny be washed down the sewer - quite an adventure THAT would have been!- but D said No!.  LBB had to pay for making her wet and cold and possibly even sick.  So instead, the water was emptied into the sink and LBB climbed out, none the worse for wear.  Actually, he thought the whole thing was a riot!!

But NOT when Nana got hold of him.  Oh, he got such a talking to!  AND he got time-out.  AND he had to write D an apology.  AND he has to wash the dishes every night this week - WITHOUT overflowing the sink or breaking anything or making a mess.

Little Blue Bunny is sorry.  He's not sorry about the water overflowing, or the mess.  He's not at all sorry about the water suctioning pros - that was fun!  He's sorry that D got cold and wet and caught the (imaginary) sniffles.  Little Blue Bunny loves D.  She's his favorite "cousin" in the whole world.

Hmmm, what will happen to Little Blue Bunny today?

5 Things About Me - and the New Back Porch

1. I decided to get voice lessons. I have thought about doing this for YEARS. I found someone on Thumbtack.  And now I am making strange noises with my voice.

2.  I don't pay attention to detail.  Sometimes, this works out to my advantage.  More on that later.

3. I make up songs all the time.  I can't say I write songs because I rarely put them down on paper.

4. I am easily frustrated.  That might have something to do with #2.

5. People confound me.  Sometimes, I think hermits have the right idea.

So about #2 and that new back porch....

Our enclosed back porch had not been renovated since it was enclosed around 1926. 
The original porch railing and posts were still visible.  Above that railing two tall sets of windows had been sort of tacked in place.  This filled the porch with sunlight making it an oven in the summer.  BUT, since the windows weren't weatherproofed, the porch was a freezer in the winter.

I decided to get rid of those big drafty windows and replace them with a sliding glass door and put a window in where the original door was.

What I envisioned was a space full of sunlight in which I could grow plants during the winter.

The contractor did not offer me drawings of the finished project. We just talked it out.  (See #2 above.)  I expected a tall window where the door had been but I NEVER gave a size and he never offered a size to me.  He suggested a small overhang over the sliding door to minimize rain and snow hitting the glass,  but he did not explain what that would do to the quality of light.

With the overhang and the smaller window, what I HAVE is a clean, cool shaded area.  It's a wonderful mud room with built in enclosed storage.  It is not a quasi-greenhouse.

Right now, it is 90 degrees outside.  As soon as I step onto my new back porch from the deck, I feel the temperature drop. 

Maybe, it's not the back porch I envisioned. This back porch will keep us cooler this summer and that is no mean feat.  It is weather tight and that will keep us warmer in the winter.

Taken from my new kitchen window.

HOWEVER, I hope I learned something.
1.  When significantly remodeling an area, (changing door  or window or plumbing fixture placement), INSIST on drawings.
2.  Make sure you understand how the light or airflow or water runoff will be impacted with any built on improvement.
3.  Pay attention to details.  (In my case? HA! to that.)

Friday - Let's Not Forget

Let's Not Forget - Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle!   Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle lived in an upside down house and knew magic!   If ever a parent was at his or her wits' end because a child wouldn't go to sleep, share, tell the truth, eat vegetables - Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle had a cure.  The series, written by Betty MacDonald and illustrated by a number of different artists, including Hilary Knight, debuted in 1947.  The last book by Betty MacDonald and her daughter, Anne MacDonald Canham was published in 2007. 

The Wikipedia article has a nice little chart that lists bad habits and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's cures for them all.

And NOW!  Ann M. Martin, Newbery Award winner, author of the Babysitters' Club books and other marvelous novels, has started a new series about the upside-down house.  Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has gone off to find her husband, the pirate, Mr. Piggle-Wiggle.  Missy Piggle-Wiggle, a great-niece, arrives to take care of the pets and the other animals and to welcome the children for all kinds of fun. 
In Missy Piggle-Wiggle and the Whatever Cure, Missy has her hands full with a whole family of annoying children and their less than perfect neighbors.   There is a hint of friendship for Missy herself as she spends more and more time with the owner of the bookstore.  I am looking forward to the next book in the series.  Those LaCarte children can't possibly be as good as they sound.

So, don't forget Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle!  What books will you never forget?

Open Mics - Speaking up

Last night, I went to an open mic at Coffee house without Limits in Allentown PA.  My youngest brother and I offered up three children's songs we have been working on.  And we had FUN!

He stayed until closing.  I hung around for the next few artists.  Overall, awesome!!  Musicians sang and played original music - and they played and sang very well.  Poets spat words that wove the air around them with images.

Getting up and strutting your stuff - it's the subject of a lot of middle grade fiction.  Finding the nerve to weather possible ridicule, possible embarrassment - just thinking of it can give a person a wiggly stomach, and a dizzy feeling.

Catching a Storyfish by Janice N. Harrington focuses on just this problem.  Keet has moved from Alabama where she was a world class storyteller.   In her new home, her accent amuses her classmates no end.  Soon, Keet is as quiet as a mouse.  Fishing with her grandfather becomes her refuge.  How she finds her voice again is a touching story.

Climate Change - or Cleaning House?

I know people who think climate change is just part of the earth's cycle - or a hoax - or unconquerable.   It boggles my mind that it even matters.

The Earth is our HOME.  I don't let garbage pour over the sides of the containers. I don't spray the air with toxic chemicals, or smoke, or fumes. I don't add lead to my drinking water. I don't breed bacteria on my leftovers. I don't dig holes in my backyard to get at rocks and other things I might need and then let the holes create an unsightly mess and hazards.  Do YOU?? 'Course not.

Think about this.  When The Lorax was written, the terms "global warming" and "climate change" were not even in common usage.  The campaign to keep earth livable is not new.

IT. JUST. MAKES. SENSE. TO. KEEP.  OUR. HOME. CLEAN.

Rant over.

I don't understand climate change as well as I'd like. Here are books and book lists to help explain the effects and causes of climate change. And some that give us ideas on how we can take action.

Climate Change: Discover How It Impacts Spaceship Earth by Erin Twamley and Josh Seideman.  STEM and STEAM aficianados will enjoy this illustrated guide.  It includes 25 projects to increase students' and readers' understanding of the science of climate change, planetary movement, solar system....

Even Goodreads has a list of kids' books that explore climate change and pollution.

Crystal Ponti posted a list of 10 books about Climate Change over on parent.co.  There is some repetition, but still a great list.

I really like Inhabitots Earth Day post.  The books featured here are all about cleaning up the world.  This site is well-designed, colorful and useful and the 6 books featured are accessible to even our youngest earth cleaners.

And for all you grown-ups out there.
Climate Change and Children is a report out of UNICEF that will make your eyes tear up.  The Resource List offers articles and books that support UNICEF's claims.  This report is for grown-ups but share it with your older students to support discussions on possible solutions.

2 Publishers Announce Books for Fall !

Catalogs!!!  I joked that the library could build an addition with the catalogs that flooded into the building every season.  Since I retired, publishers reach out online.  So, get a head start on your Fall To-Be-Read list.  Macmillan and Scholastic have some bragging to do.

Macmillan editors gush about their favorites!!

Scholastic Online Preview.  Click on THIS link to watch short videos about new books coming in the Fall.  You might even win a book!