Month: January 2015

A Girl with Gumption: Julia’s House for Lost Creatures

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Source: Macmillan

Source: Macmillan

Name Your LinkIn Ben Hatke’s lovely story Julia’s House for Lost Creatures you will quickly fall in love with the protagonist.  Julia is a little gal with gumption.  The petites and I love this book.  The magic starts even before the story begins with the amazing illustrations – Julia’s house resides upon a giant tortoise!  The petites screamed with delight, the adventure continues just as you would expect.  Julia is delightful, she has a lovely house with a fire and toast and tea, but alas her house is too quiet.  Although I have to say I think her house is delightful, I love that she is sitting reading by the fire with a cup of tea, Julia is my kind of girl.

She gets to work making an inviting sign for Lost Creatures and low and behold the most amazing bunch show up; dragon, mermaids, goblins, ghosts and trolls are just a few.

These lost creatures are not very good at cleaning up, as my petite pointed out during the story.  Julia then goes to work again making a chore chart for her new guests.

The story is completely delightful, the illustrations are divine.  I love that she opens her home to lost creatures and has this sweet nature about her.  I also love that she helps the creatures to be responsible and creates a chore chart – this was a huge hit with my petite, she asked if she could have a chore chart too…thank you Ben Hatke, thank you very much.

I adore Julia, her strong will and gumption.  Those amazing red curls.  Everything about this book is visually pleasing, it is a book that has to be read numerous times to see all of the little details, a book you want to read to discover said details with your petites.  I can’t wait to see what Mr. Hatke comes up with next.

Petite Historians: John, Paul, George & Ben

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My husband loves history and reading all about it.  One of the very first things we bought for our daughter (years before she was born, actually) was an Abraham Lincoln stuffed doll at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.  One of her favorite stuffies was Lincoln, she took him to preschool for show and tell.  It was pretty cute.

Lincoln

We’ve come across some really great history picture books for petites over the past few years.  Here is just one of my favorites.

John, Paul, George & Ben

I love this book, it is really funny and my five year old is just really starting to get into it and the funny parts.  It is a fun read because Lane Smith wrote about the Presidents and John Hancock in such a relatable way.

I really like that this story tells you fun little tidbits.

I am so partial to our Lincoln doll that I strongly believe no petite historians’ nursery would be complete without one of these dapper fellows from The Unemployed Philosophers Guild.

Stay tuned for future installments of Petite Historians.

If you liked this post you may also like:

An Inspiring Read…What Do You Do With an Idea?

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Title

The petites and I saw What Do You Do With an Idea? the other day and immediately fell in love with the stunning illustrations by Mae Besom and the inspiring story from Kobi Yamada.  This is one book that I think all parents and teachers will want to add to their repertoire.

This is the story of a petite who has an idea, it starts out small and then grows into something beautiful.  The illustrations are amazing in that the little one is androgynous, letting the reader decide.  The idea follows him/her around and sometimes people look at him/her a little funny, but he/she perseveres and keeps on growing the idea.  The idea is a little golden egg with a paper crown, the image is so perfect.

 

What I loved the most about the idea is that the crown is made from paper and held together with tape, I love that Mae Besom thought to make the idea exactly as a small child would do it.  Brilliant.  While the idea is growing he/she gets more and more comfortable with it and in doing so eventually gets to a point where he/she really dedicates time to the idea.  Then the most amazing thing happens, his idea hatches and turns into the most beautiful colorful images.  With one of my favorite final lines of a book.

What do you do with an idea? You change the world.

For Teachers:

I think this would be an amazing book to use at the beginning of a writer’s workshop.  There are so many points in this story that are so valuable

  • that the idea starts out small
  • the idea is something the petite isn’t sure about, is almost nervous about
  • the idea is always there
  • with dedication the idea it begins to grow and blossom.

After reading this book, I started to think about whose classroom I could guest teach in just to read this amazing book.

I absolutely love this book.  I plan to get this for my girls because I believe that reading this story with them will foster confidence in their ideas.  As a parent this is something I think about often, how our little people especially girls don’t always have confidence in their ideas – especially those really quiet petites.  I believe that this book put in the hands of parents, teachers and librarians could empower our petites and inspire them to put their ideas out into the world.

Want to know more about the author:

Kobi Yamada is the CEO of this really amazing company in Seattle called Compendium they make some pretty amazing journals, notecards and really beautiful gift books that are sure to inspire and you might want to check out. 

We’re Going on a Book Hunt, Going to Find a Good One

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Going on a book hunt

A friend of mine asked me just the other day how I come across so many cute books – she said she always gets so overwhelmed with all of the choices at the bookstores.  I spend a huge portion of my time  sitting on the floor at my local public library pulling books off the shelves and reading little snippets.  I go to the library on average three times a week.  I have checked out hundreds of books over the past year; and have the library fines to prove it.  Although I check out so many I only share with you the ones that we really love.

I spend a lot of time on the  internet reading about illustrators and publishers and what books are coming out.  I follow a lot of my favorite authors and illustrators on Twitter and pay attention to who they follow.  Here are some of my favorite places to get inspired with all of the amazing books that are out there.  When I am looking for books on specific topics, I check out No Time For Flash Cards, this is a fantastic resource books that are already organized by theme/topic.  Little Crooked Cottage is so helpful in sharing about new books that they love.  Not to mention, my local indie bookstore and of course indie bound for what new releases are going to be on the shelves soon.

No TIme for Flashcards

No Time for Flash Cards

Little Crooked Cottage

Little Crooked Cottage

Elliot Bay

Elliot Bay Books Blog

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When I hear about a new book coming out I try to get my hands on it as soon as possible.  I am a big proponent of using the public library – I am so fortunate that I have seven libraries within a four mile radius to choose from – basically, I place a lot of holds on books.

There are so many books out there that are just not my cup of tea.  Honestly, it is shocking how many books are just massed produced and don’t have any literary value to them.  I realize saying that makes me somewhat of a snob, but that is okay.  I have those mass produced books too – my kids love them and they serve a purpose.

How I Choose the Books

However, with this blog what I want to do is showcase the books that are special, extraordinary, inspiring and important.  On my quest to find these books I’ve realized I have a criteria for the books that make it into the tote bag and come home.

  1. positive story that is well written
  2. illustrations that support the story
  3. illustrations that are stunning
  4. a strong willed character
  5. something different that we don’t normally read
  6. a cover image that intrigues
  7. a new or novel way to tell a story
  8. story that inspires
  9. a story where you learn something new or want to learn more when it’s over
  10. story that my kids love (even if I don’t get why)

These are the criteria that the books I share with you, my lovely readers, have met in some way.

At this point I am reviewing and sharing the books that we love.  However, if you would like me to review your book please contact me to do so, but please note, my thoughts and opinion are my own.
Erin

Alphabet-abulous!

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Awesome Alphabet Books for Petites

There are so many books out there about the alphabet…so many.  When I think of all of the board books and picture books that we have, I am guessing we own probably 15 to 20 books.  However, some of these alphabet books are stand out books that go above and beyond and are a pure delight to read.

My husband picked up this amazing book, Have You Ever Seen a Smack of Jellyfish? that is a true treasure in our house.  For the petite who loves interesting facts about animals I bet this alphabet book would be an absolute wonder.

Have You Ever Seen a Smack of JellyfishSarah Asper-Smith has created and illustrated such a fantastic first book.  This book has been around since 2010, and needs to be added to your petites bookshelf or library queue immediately.  These are the prints of the book and as you can see your petites will learn all of the fabulous names for groups of animals you may even learn some knew ones too…I know I sure did.  What I really love most about this is that the illustrations do not distract from the playful words which are what is so entertaining and educational about this book.

Art Prints

Source: smackofjellyfish.com/print.php

Recently we picked up Work: An Occupational ABC  at our library, this is another first book.  This book was just published in August and is so incredibly unique.  Kellen Hatanaka has chosen out of the ordinary occupations to showcase in this awesome alphabet book; some of our favorite are: butcher, explorer, grocer, horticulturalist, K-9 officer, oceanographer, and skateboarder just to name a few.

WorkABC_PLC_Square_KELLEN

Source: KellenHatanaka.com

The illustrations are done in a minimalistic style.  What I love best is that the men and women in the illustrations do not conform to gender roles, we have female K-9 officers, Naval Architects and Oceanographers which I think is great.  The illustrations are delightful and humorous, my petites especially like the butcher with the raccoons stealing the sausage.

We chose these books because the illustrations are stunning, not traditional alphabets, with fun and engaging words that are new my girls.  With so many options for alphabet books I wanted to share two of our favorites.

Erin

2015 Petite Stag Book Challenge

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Happy New Year!

I’ve seen a lot of book challenges recently on Pinterest.  I’ve been thinking a lot about what I read this year and what I want to read in 2015.  I found that in the past 19 months I’ve not had as much time for reading adult books as I would have liked – babies sometime change your nightly reading routine.  However, I am hopeful that 2015 will prove to be a better year for my reading goals.  I hope to read more than 10 books all year, but here is the Petite Stag Challenge.

2015 Book Challenge

1. A classic

    The Sun Also Rises

     The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

2. A historical fiction

All the Light We Cannot See

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

3. A young adult book

Paper Towns

Paper Towns by John Green

4. Read a book that you’ve bought but haven’t had time to read

The Good Lord Bird

The Good Lord Bird by James McBride

5. A book set in your hometown/favorite place

Nora WebsterNora Webster by Colm Toibin

6. A book that everyone is talking about

euphoria

Euphoria by Lily King

7. A book you chose based on the cover

Wildalone Wildalone by Krassi Zourkova

8. Re-read a book you read (or should have read) in school

The Complete Grimm Fairy Tales

The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm

9. Read a book from a genre you don’t normally read

When Books Went to War

When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning

10. Read a guilty pleasure book

The Book of Life

The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness

What’s on your reading list for 2015?  I’m always looking for a new book to add to a pile of to be read books around the house.

Also, congratulations to Ingrid who will be receiving a copy of Flora and the Flamingo very soon.  If you entered and didn’t win this time don’t worry, stay tuned we will be doing more giveaways in the weeks to come.

Erin