Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin

Growing up, I do not really remember learning about communism.  In elementary school, our “social studies” classes focused mainly on Michigan and the United States.  I do recall in about 4^th grade learning about countries of the world, but I don’t really recall anything about wars or specific world conclicts until I reached high school.

Books like Number the Stars by Lois Lowry and Jerry Spinnelli’s Milkweed , as well as others, were published much later  (yes, I am old) so I really wasn’t exposed to anything so mentally challenging, so eye-opening, until I read Elie Wiesel’s "Night" when I was approximately 20 years old.   I am glad to see that in recent decades, the tide is turning and children are exposed to “world history” much earlier in life.  I think it helps to open their young minds and get them thinking.

Breaking Stalin's Nose had me from the first chapter. I was expecting a light novel for kids and what I found was an easy to read yet thoroughly thought provoking look at a slice of Russia’s history.   The pages are not crammed full of text - there is plenty of white space and many illustrations by the author that both add to the story and help it flow.    The story is deep enough to provide a good look at Russia through the eyes of a child during the Stalin years, yet also light enough so that the violence and atrocities are not thrown in the reader's face.

I can definitely see this title being used in classrooms - there are many possible discussion topics.

Great book to recommend to reluctant readers or those interested in world history.   It might leave some kids feeling a bit uncomfortable, yet will definitely provide many opportunities for important discussions.

Owl Cake

A friend of mine just made this cupcake cake and I had to share!!!  How cute is it?!?!

Looks like pretzel sticks were used as branches, and are those gummy Lifesavers as the eyes?!  Probably cut up ones as claws and beaks, and those look like Oreo cookies (or something similar) for the wings and eyebrows.    I've done Monkey cakes for my son (and should post them too), but this is really so creative and yummy looking!  

If you're having an owl party, check out my Owl Storytime Ideas too!  Give a hoot :)  Eat cupcakes!

Circle of Secrets by Kimberley Griffiths Little

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started Circle of Secrets.  I hadn't read any reviews or even the description; it was required reading for me being part of an award committee and the title had received starred reviews in literary review journals.  Basically, I looked at the cover and thought "huh, wonder what this is about" and began to read. 


Immediately I was drawn in to the life of Shelby and the mysterious magic of a Louisiana bayou.  I typically enjoy books with a bit of mysticism, so that part wasn't a shocker for me, but what did surprise me is that the story felt like something new; a story I hadn't read before or that had been redone for a new audience.   Suggest to your child if they enjoy books with real yet flawed characters, ghosts, magic, and a lot of deep emotion that needs to be confronted and dealt with.


From the book:   A year after her mother deserted the family, eleven-year-old Shelby goes to stay with her, deep in the Louisiana bayou, where they both confront old hurts and regrets.

Definitely a middle grade read; probably 4th grade on up.  It's not difficult, but does get a bit haunting and may disturb younger children.   Next up for me will be Little's debut novel The Healing Spell which has gotten great reviews but I never read when it first came out in 2010.

Rosie Sprout’s Time to Shine by Allison Wortche

This unassuming book tells quite the story; one very familiar to most school age children or those with many siblings.   .  We’ve all met that one perfect person – the  kid in the class who always gets the highest grades and is the best, fastest, highest, loudest – everything-est – in absolutely everything they try.  When is it your turn to shine?!  We all like a bit of attention, and it is ok to admit it.  This simple sounding statement is at the heart of Rosie’s struggles.

Rosie’s nemesis is Violet.  Violet can do no wrong.  Everyone knows this, even the teacher, but it most especially bothers Rosie who isn’t real fast or loud or fancy  and just wants her own chance to be the best at something too.  Right at the beginning of their “pea growing” experiment, Violet catches the measles and misses two whole weeks of school!  What will happen to her little pea sprout?!  Will this be Rosie’s chance to be the best?!

Allison Wortche eloquently and compassionately tackles the complex mess of emotions that we all face at one time or another and doesn’t show typical rosey-eyed reactions with Violet miraculously changing or Rosie getting mad and stomping off.  A mature Rosie reaches a conclusion  that is satisfying to the reader and provides a great discussion starter in the classroom or at home  (either on peas OR peers!)  Check it out!

Love Rocks!

Ok, this is when I wished that blogs had a "share" button like on facebook.   I was looking for other Valentine's Day ideas on the net and stumbled upon this website.  Aren't these rocks the cutest things?!  If you don't want to use Modge Podge with little ones, you could always use some watered down Elmer's glue instead.  Then give them a spray of a sealer when the little ones aren't around if you're going to be leavning the rocks outside.  

Check out Red Bird Crafts full directions (and more photos) on how to make conversation love rocks.

The possibilities are endless with this craft.  I can see kids of all ages getting into making little love rocks.   One person in the comments even mentioned how she was thinking of leaving decorated rocks in random places and hoping that people may pick them up and get a smile.  What a cool idea. 

Caldecott & Newbery Awards 2012

All those book lovers who work with children anticipate this day - the announcement of the 2012 Awards, in particular the Caldecott and the Newbery winners and  honor books.

This year a somewhat biographical fictional book about a boy who gets grounded by his parents and for punishment must work for an old neighbor-lady writing obituaries was named the Newbery winner  Written by Jack Gantos, Dead End in Norvelt grabs you from the get-go and can be both humorous and enlightening at times.  The story does wane off a bit at the end, but stick with it; you won't be sorry.

The two Newbery honor books are: Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai; and Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin.

The American Library Association also awarded the Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children to A Ball for Daisy , illustrated and written by Chris Raschka.  This is a wordless picture book utilizing Raschka's signature style illustrations to tell the story of Daisy, a dog who loses her ball and then gets a new one. 

Three Caldecott Honor Books were also named: Blackout by John Rocco; Grandpa Green by Lane Smith; and Me . . . Jane by Patrick McDonnell (the wonderful creator of the magnificant comic strip MUTTS ).

The third award I watch closely is the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for beginning reader books.  This year the award went to Tales for Very Picky Eaters by Josh Schneider. There were three Geisel Honor Books that you might want to check out too: I Broke My Trunk! by Mo Willems; I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen; and See Me Run by Paul Meisel.

Valentine's Day Storytime

Love is in the air!   Well, almost.  February 14th will be here before you know it and of course, being Valentine's Day, it's the perfect time to remind someone how much they mean to you!   The toddler set may not understand the concept of Valentine's Day (a lot of adults don't either!), but there are plenty of books on "love" in general that would be perfect to share:


For younger tykes:


You Are My Cupcake by Joyce Wan
Illustrations and brief text explore some of the food names that people use as terms of endearment.


Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
During a bedtime game, every time Little Nutbrown Hare demonstrates how much he loves his father, Big Nutbrown Hare gently shows him that the love is returned even more. Includes pop-up illustrations.


Love (Baby Max and Ruby) by Rosemary Wells
Baby Max gets so much attention it is difficult to decide who he loves best.


Tucker's Valentine by Leslie McGuirk
Tucker the dog spends Valentine's Day with people and friends he loves, even though Cupid's love arrows keep missing him.


Elmo Loves You! (Sesame Street) by Sarah Albee
Elmo explains how each person has something special they care about. For example, babies love noise and kids love toys; Bert loves pigeons and pigeons love to coo, etc. At several points the lively rhyming text breaks for a moment to remind young readers that ‚Elmo loves you!




With older kids or those in school, you can pull out the books that are more specifically about the holiday and the whole idea of making cards, etc.   There are some great non-fiction titles for kids out there too, which would give them a little background into the holiday's creation.   But for a few titles that are here to simply enjoy, check these out:


Titles for older kids:


Be Mine, Be Mine, Sweet Valentine by Sarah Weeks
A tour of the animal kingdom showing what each of the animals might give his or her sweetheart on Valentine's Day.


The Ballad of Valentine by Alison Jackson
An ardent suitor tries various means of communication, from smoke signals to Morse code to skywriting, in order to get his message to his Valentine.


Love, Ruby Valentine by Laurie Friedman
After Ruby Valentine misses her favorite holiday of the year, her parrot, Lovebird, convinces her that every day is the perfect day to say "I love you."


Love, Splat by Rob Scotton
Splat the cat has a special valentine for a certain someone in his class.


Zombie in Love by Kelli DiPucchio
Mortimer, a zombie, is looking for love, but when all of his attempts to locate a sweetheart fail, Mortimer decides to place an ad in the newspaper.




Here are a couple of songs that I have used in storytimes in the past.  They are fun to do, easy to sing, and any actions you can do with the kids helps to engage them and get them interested in the theme.  Try these out:


Songs & Rhymes to share:

H-E-A-R-T
(Tune: "Bingo")

To show you like your special friends,
Just give them each a heart.
H-E-A-R-T, H-E-A-R-T, H-E-A-R-T,
Each heart says I like you!

Five Big Valentines 

(great as a felt board rhyme)


Five big valentines from the corner drug store
I mailed one to a friend - then there were four
Four big valentines, lovely ones to see
I mailed one to my Mommy - then there were three
Three big valentines - red, shiny, and new
I mailed one to my Daddy - then there were two
Two big valentines, the best is yet to come
I mailed one to Grandma - Then there was one
One big valentine, the giving is almost done
I mailed it to Grandpa - and now there is none

Now it's time for a craft.....


Craft:

There are hundreds of Valentine's Day crafts on the internet and I don't have anything original, but the one I've included here is something that I've done with my kids in the past and I love it (more importantly, they love it too).


I think it's about making something using a bit of yourself.  We have 'feet turkey' that still get giggles "You mean, that's was my foot?!?" and of course these hearts.


This is actually a very simple craft project.  You only need some paper (two sheets of different kinds or complimenting colors work best), a pencil, some scissors and a glue stick.   


For the very simple version I did here, I used two different colored papers and traced one hand only one time (you need two hands total) with all the fingers together.  So I get a left and a right hand, I put one piece of paper right-side-down on top of the other and cut out the traced hand (my paper is only colored on one side)


Next, lay one hand on top of the other as seen in the picture, with the thumbs overlapping and glue!   That's it!


Now, you can get more complicated if you wish... You can cut each individual finger apart from the other (cut slits down between each finger) and then weave the fingers in and out and then use a glue stick to secure.  TIP:  Cut the slits between each finger AFTER you have cut out your hand shapes!  This is a little difficult to do, so I would either help your young child, or leave this for the older kids!

Owl Storytime

There are so many wonderful owl books out there, I had to include the feathery theme when planning my winter storytimes.  One of my favorites is A Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na.   There isn't much text, but that very fact plus the gorgeous, dream-like illustrations make it a perfect bedtime (or last book of storytime) read.

Another book I really wanted to include is Bear's New Friend by Karma Wilson.  Even though it takes place in spring, it's a nice introduction to owls with a fun repeating "Who" the kids can join in on.  In addition, it taught me that there are "burrowing owls" - something I never knew before!  Gotta love it when you learn something from a book!

The other two books I included were  Little Owl Lost by Chris Haughton (already reviewed on this site) and Cock-A-Doodle-Hooooooo! by Mick Manning.  Manning's book is a hoot (pardon the pun)!  Kids love the cartoon like illustrations and the humorous story of an owl trying to find happiness in a hen house.  Yes, this is a children's book :) 

A couple other older books that definitely should be included in any owl storytime are:

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen (A Caldecott winner!)
Owl Babies by Martin Waddell

Now time for a song!   This is a fun song to sing and the actions will have your kids acting like owls for sure... the tune is to "The Wheels on the Bus":

Just Like an Owl

Flap your wings and fly around, fly around, fly around.
Flap your wings and fly around, just like an owl.
Open your eyes big and wide, big and wide, big and wide.
Open your eyes big and wide, just like an owl.
Land on the ground and hop along, hop along, hop along.
Land on the ground and hop along, just like an owl.
Turn your head and say "Hoo! Hoo!"
Say "Hoo! Hoo!"
Say "Hoo! Hoo!"
Turn your head and say "Hoo! Hoo" just like an owl.

Words by Joe Stover

And lastly, it's craft time!!!   Last fall I picked up an "Owl Frame Kit" with self adhesive foam pieces and thought "wow - this will be great".  It was 75% off in an end-of-season bin, so I really can't complain, it isn't however a "picture frame".  I suppose you could stick on a photo if you really wanted, but there isn't a whole lot of space.  In any case, the owls turned out really cute.  I included self adhesive magnets so the finished owls could be displayed on fridge and left out my tub of google eyes in case they wanted to use them (yes, they did). 

I also played around with some construction paper to see if I could easily create a cheap paper owl, and look at the results!   (bottom picture).  I cut out two wings and a basic body shape with ears; added a couple of google eyes, and there ya go!  An Owl!   Attach a magnet and he would look great on a fridge, or if you have a magnet AND an old cloths pin (the pinching kind), then he would make a great fridge note holder!   Use a variety of paper for a wonderful owly display.