Play Time Mystery

Alas, I write to let you know that I will be away from my blog due to our family vacation. The honey and I are desperately needing some R & R. So we are taking a few days of time to just chill. I will not be blogging about great books for kids, though I may find some on my travels. I will miss you!

Meanwhile, the above picture is a mystery of sorts. See if you can figure out where I took that photo on a former vacation. Let me know what you think.

Wait for me, I'll be back!

My Little Round House ~ Picture Book & KID KANDY

My Little Round House
by Bolormaa Baasansuren
adapted by Helen Mixter
(Groundwood Books, House of Anansi Press, 2006/2009)

My Little Round House is the story of a young boy who was born in Mongolia. Jilu lived in a nomadic community that traveled to new places in the different seasons.

Little Jilu remembers his first round house - his mothers' stomach. After he was convinced to come out by his father, Jilu begins to appreciate the round house of his family, or ger, with its round circle of sky blue in the roof. The story of Jilu and his round ger is enchanting as it weaves the seasons of life in pictures and words. Baby lambs lived in the ger to be fed by Jilu and his grandmother. Spring brought dumplings and fermented milk for meals and warmth after winter snows.

Reading My Little Round House made me want to live in a ger!

Summer, autumn, winter, spring, and summer again bring Jilu to his birthday. Jilu plays with animals and friends, running free in the summer green grass. Jilu loves the blue sky overhead, which reminds him of the sky blue circle in the roof of his ger, his home.

My Little Round House shows a different life than the one we are accustomed to in America. Readers will be enthralled to see how a small boy in a different country lives his life in a ger.

KID KANDY:

Make a Round Home

Materials: sticks, rocks, fabric scraps, string, tape, toy people figures

Look at the pictures of the ger to see how it is shaped and formed. Use the sticks to make a round structure, anchoring the sticks in the dirt to make them stable. Rocks, tape, and string can help hold your ger together. Cover the ger with fabric pieces. Let your toy people figures live in the ger. Add toy animals and other natural materials to your community.

Did you make a circle in the ger rooftop? Is there a door? What do you like about a round ger? Would you like to live there? Why?

***I have the hardest time trying to get good pictures of the library books that are covered in plastic! I apologize for the quality of photos, but I do want you to be able to see the cover.

The Baker's Dozen, A Counting Book ~ Wacky Wednesday Picture Book & KID KANDY

The Baker's Dozen, A Counting Book
by Dan Andreasen
(Henry Holt and Company, 2007)

Everyone knows how many treats are in a baker's dozen, right?

Maybe not. It is sort of wacky that a dozen equals 13 when it is used to describe baked goods. Of course, I would love one more bakery treat than 12 when I purchase a baker's dozen - oh, let's say of donuts or cupcakes or brownies or anything full of calories and flavor!

The Baker's Dozen, A Counting Book, is full of examples of delicious bakery chef created delectables. Each page gives descriptive vocabulary words for special desserts and places the number of goods on that page in a prominent location. Every illustration shows the baker performing a baker's task as he prepares yummy mouthfuls of joy.

Food is important to me and desserts are special treats. Readers who appreciate baked goods and young children who are learning about numbers will enjoy counting their way through The Baker's Dozen, A Counting Book.

KID KANDY:

What is a Baker's Dozen?

Materials: egg carton, variety of counting objects

Help your child place one item in each egg section of a carton. Count the objects together. Trade objects and count something else. Discuss that 12 is called a dozen, but in the baking world a baker's dozen is 13.

Help your child figure out how to put 13 things in the carton and count them.

Play a counting game. Ask your child to close his eyes. Place either 12 or 13 objects in the carton. Tell your child to count the objects and tell you if it is a dozen or a baker's dozen. Repeat the game again and make sure you take a turn closing your eyes!

After you are done, go to the bakery and buy a baker's dozen of a special treat to share for dessert. Your child will surely remember baker's dozen after that!

TipTop Cat ~ Picture Book & KID KANDY

TipTop Cat
by C. Roger Mader
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014)

TipTop Cat combines two of my favorite things - cats and Paris.

Mr. TipTop cat was the very best birthday present. He liked his new home, especially the balcony where he could go and climb up to the rooftops. From there, this beautiful black and white cat could survey his domain - the entire world.

Except for that one day, the day when a pigeon landed on his balcony. What else could he do but attack that intruder? Disastrous results left kitty with a broken spirit but no broken bones. A surprise inspiration helped Mr. TipTop cat reclaim his throne on the top of the world (of Paris).

Cat lovers and readers who love adventure will enjoy TipTop Cat.

KID KANDY:

Up, Up, Up

Draw a Cat on Top of a Building

1. Gather paper and pencils.

2. Draw a large rectangle at the bottom of the paper to make a building. You can add windows and doors if you want.

3. To draw a cat, start first by drawing a large circle on top of the building roof. This is the cat body. Attach a smaller circle to the top for the cat head. Draw 2 small pointy triangle ears on the head.

4. Cats have 4 legs with paws and claws at the ends. They also have a long moving tail. Add legs, claws, paws, and tail to the large circle body.

5. Add eyes, nose, and whiskers to the smaller circle head.

6. What color do you want your cat? Color your tiptop cat and give it a name.

My two gray kitties love to be up on top of the world. The highest place inside the house they enjoy is on top of a tall, almost to the ceiling, fancy hutch that is filled with pretty glass dishes. Outside, they both try to sneak up on top of the roof of the house!

Where is the highest place you have seen a cat?

Honeybee Man ~ Picture Book & KID KANDY

Honeybee Man
by Lela Nargi
pictures by Kyrsten Brooker
(Schwartz & Wade Books, 2011)

If you are like me and are concerned about the plight of honeybees, you will want to read Honeybee Man.

Fred lives in Brooklyn like so many other people. What is different about Fred is that he has three bee colonies (and hives) on the top of his home. All summer long, Fred visits, talks to, and watches his bees zoom to and fro, searching for flowering plants from which to drink nectar. When the hives are full, Fred harvests honey from the top of each hive and fills jars with the beautiful results of the work done by the sister bees.

Honeybee Man is a story about a man who loves his bees and the honey they make. But it is also a tale of bees and tells who lives in the hives, the jobs of each type of bee, the life cycle of bees, and the tasty treat that is found inside each hive. Readers will learn much about bees and how they create honey.

By the end of the book, you will definitely have to go have a peanut butter and honey sandwich or a cup of tea with honey.

KID KANDY:

Investigate Honeybees

Materials: flowering plants and magnifying glasses

1. If you do not have any flowers in your yard, honeybees will love it if you plant some! Flowers attract honeybees. In my yard, lavender, thyme, sunflowers, squash and zucchini, raspberries, and strawberry plants have flowers that the honeybees love to visit.

2. Holding a magnifying glass, slowly and calmly approach flowers that are being visited by honeybees. Hold the magnifying glass in front of your eyes and look at the bees. If you stay calm and move slowly, they won't mind you at all. They will just keep working.

What do you see? Can you see the body parts of a honeybee? The wings? The legs? The long tongue?

Have you tasted honey? It is super duper sweet and delicious. Try some on a spoon or spread a bit on top of peanut butter on bread. Don't forget to thank a honeybee!

Pacific Northwest Writers Association Conference

Hello, friends!

This week I will be away from home (though I leave hubby in charge of garden, cats, grands, house, and the watering - yikes).

The agenda? First I will spend 2 glorious days creating rubber stamped cards with my college roomie. Oh, we may sneak in a summer concert at the U Village and ice cream. But the main event will be creating works of art. Or at least cards that use up a variety of scraps and utilize our 'feeding off of each other' ideas.

Next I will travel to the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Conference that will be held just south of Seattle. I am so excited to meet with other (crazy) writers like myself, learn more about the writing craft, and have the opportunity to mingle with and pitch book ideas to literary agents and editors. Yes, while this time is exhilarating in reference to hanging out with fellow pen pushers, it will also be fraught with nerves, blunders, and stuttering conversations during pitches and chats.

But worth it? Definitely.

I will be offline as far as blogging, so I leave you with a photo of one of my favorite chapter book series - The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. These books are near and dear to my readers' heart. I was introduced to C.S. Lewis and Narnia in grade school when the librarian, who was probably at her wits' end after I had read every-single-horse-book she had, suggested that I check out The Horse and His Boy.

And that was all it took. From horses to Narnia to wardrobes to Aslan to centaurs and many other fabulous imaginative characters.

Happy Reading! I will see you next week.

A Rock Can Be . . . ~ Picture Book & KID KANDY

A Rock Can Be . . .
by Laura Purdie Salas
illustrations by Violeta Dabija
(Millbrook Press, 2015)

Rocks! I love rocks.

A Rock Can Be . . . is a fantastic book about many of the things that are made of rock or from rocks. Not only are the ideas of things made with rocks wide and varied, they are clever, rhyming, and colorfully illustrated. Even I, an adult, was reminded about objects made from rock that I knew, but had forgotten as I have gone about my adult life.

A Rock Can Be . . . is the perfect book for any child who loves nature. Especially those little ones who show up with pockets full of rocks or the kids who give you a special rock just found on a walk or in the backyard.

Rocks are amazing and everywhere. Read A Rock Can Be . . . to remind yourself about the importance of rocks.

KID KANDY:

Rock Walk

Rocks can be found anywhere. Go for a walk in your neighborhood. Play a game to see how many things made with rocks you can find. Play the same game when you travel or run errands with your parents.

Some other great places to look for rocks:

- the beach
- the mountains
- big cities
- old cities
- out in the country
- on the farm
- at playgrounds
- near rivers, streams, and lakes

Can you find examples of the things made from rocks found in A Rock Can Be . . . ?

Happy rock hunting!