If You Give A Mouse A Cookie........

Jacob Loved the Ladybug Girl book (library book).   Here he is reading it to himself.  

 Justin and I, flanked by a few "Aunt Cindy blankets"  read an old classic today, one of his favorite books.  I have fond memories of it myself because it was one I often read to a very young Claire.  I remember getting her a "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie " cookbook that came with a mouse cookie cutter! 

 Justin even shared a cookie with the mouse.

But the cookie was too good to leave for the mouse!  Justin thinks that Chocolate chip cookies go great with any book!

Just finished

An interesting read, though a work of historical fiction it seems to stick fairly closely to known facts.  I really liked that the author included a section after the book that explains where she departed from what it certain about Alice's real life.  I also liked that there is a section explaining that some of Charles Dodgeson's (Lewis Carroll's) actions are viewed very differently through a modern lens.......the aspects that so shock and intrigue us today would not necessarily have been seen the same way.  She also draws an interesting parallel between modern child stars and children who have served as literary inspiration.

Huck Finn and the "N" word

I'll just go on record as saying I am against the change to the classic, particularly because Mark Twain purposely used the "N" word-he wanted it to jarr you as you read the novel.  It's appropriate in the context of the novel and I am against sanitizing everything people might misconstrue. 

Qoted from http://www.parentdish.com/2011/01/07/kidpop-news-sanitized-twain-hazardous-nintendo-and-bawdy-kids/

"Huck Finn Gets Politically Correct



In a move that has already begun to stir up rafts of controversy, publisher NewSouth Books announced that, in February, it will release a new edition of Mark Twain's classic "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" with all 219 instances of the N-word removed. The new version, edited by Auburn University Twain scholar Alan Gribben, subs in the word "slave" for the racial slur.


On the one hand, this reeks of censorship and feels completely wrong to the truthfulness of a powerful work of literature (the new edit removes hateful words that, by many interpretations, Twain –- a well-known abolitionist –- purposely used to make a point on civil rights). But Gribben told Publisher's Weekly that he created the new edit in response to educators who told him they'd love to teach the book, but couldn't because of the racially-charged language ("Huckleberry Finn" has long history of being banned by schools). Also, kids have been marketed abridged, simplified, and "retold" versions of literary classics for ages. Is a sanitized Huck any different than, say, a modern-language "Romeo and Juliet?" Well, with the history of racial relations in this country being what it is, many would say yes.


So, is the hubbub over a P.C. Huck Finn too much? Or wholly justified? Whichever side of the argument you fall on, there's probably much to be learned from this debate.
As a side note, the new Twain edition, which contains "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" as well, also removes all occurrences of "injun."

Understanding allergies-a call for kids books

Just putting out a call over the interwebs in case anyone knows of good books on the subject of allergies for younger children.  I've seen a few for explaining them to older kids, but I'm looking for something for Jacob's age group.  He just turned three.  I saw a few on amazon.  But I'm thinking there may be more out there somewhere?  I'm hoping someone will run into this post and offer advice!  Plus I couldn't find any books dealing with a soy allergy.  Or environmental allergies.    I think those two are bigger factors for Jacob than peanuts, which seems to be the most popular subject for allergy books.

  Jacob knows he's allergic to peanut and soy, but that won't stop him from trying to eat either.  He will tell me that he's not allergic to them or that he isn't but Justin is.  I'll warn him that something will make him itch, but at his age he just can't make long term connections.  If he immediately began itching after eating, it'd actually be easier.  So I was hoping to find a few books to help him understand a little bit, and help his siblings understand as well.

Earning money through Amazon

I am up to a whopping $2.53! earned through Amazon.com!

Please remember to order through the link on my sidebar here, if you want to buy something from Amazon!!
Or use a link like the one below:
Bestselling books

More recent stuff

Bannana cake

Leanna's recent reading material

a pillow with legs

Spaghetti made with squash for the noodles

Guerilla Art

I've been reading Leanna's birthday present book: The Guerilla Art Kit by Keri Smith

It's not written for a child, but I love the idea, and with adult guidance, I think it could really be a neat tool.  Plus it has instructions for craft type projects.  I'm looking forward to opportunities to try this with her!  Admittedly, I recommended this book to Claire to get for her, so it's not surprising I like it.   The idea is that some type of anonymous work is created, installed, performed, or attached to a public space with the distinct purpose of affecting the world in a creative or thought provoking way.  It can be done to beautify the area, to question or challenge the status quo, or to interact with the environment or people.  Some examples of guerilla art: you could leave a note in a public place, leave a chalk drawing on the sidewalk or a building, insert a note in a book for someone to find, plant flowers in a sidewalk crack, doodle in the margins of a book, leaving political posters somewhere, leaving a poster or notebook somewhere with instructions for others to add comments, etc. etc.  I love the idea of leaving something to brighten someone else's day.  Just random kindness bombs thrown about! 

Some quotes I like:

"Public art says 'the human spirit is alive here."
"Modern culture with its overwhelming wealth of advertising,mass media, and mass communication often teaches us to tune out, or disconnect, because there is a limit to how much information we can process on a given day.  In many cases we have no choice about the quality or quantity of what we take in."
"For a moment I am taken out of my known world and presented with an alternative, one that is unexpected and daring, one that makes me think about the space a little differently.  These little gestures encourage me to not take our world so seriously, to contemplate for a moment something outside the predicable.  They reawaken a sense of connection to the environment by pointing out something I might not have seen, by adding a new image to the world that is unexpected, or by presenting an alternate point of view."

Mr. Popper's Penguins

We just started reading Mr. Popper's Penguins tonight and Leanna and Justin were LOVING that book.  I just found this free Mr. Popper's Penguin lapbook.  Really neat.  I love that you can find so many sources of really great ideas for education.  You don't have to homeschool to take advantage of these ideas either!

Jacob argued with me that those pictures were not of penguins!  "That's bird!" he stubbornly insisted.  We did have an interesting discussion after I stopped reading about the North and South Poles.  (Justin: Can you take an airplane to the North Pole?  Me: I think you have to travel by reindeer, like Santa!  Timothy, suddenly interested: Yeah!  Santa uses reindeer!!  Justin was asking questions about where the two poles were, so I'll have to remember to show them on a map.  It was hard to explain exactly how they are at opposite ends of the earth.  I'll show them on a ball, since our globe is in a box, who knows where! 

Products

Looks good, I've read good reviews........It's supposed to be good for keeping kids busy in a non-mind-numbing way!!

Just a reminder

Anyone buying books for easter, or any other occasion, is more than welcome to use the search bar for amazon on my blog......and in the process support a struggling family!!  (I still have no sales and not even a click through!  :  (  So keep me in mind when you make an amazon purchase) 
Or if I post a link for an amazon product here, I get credit if you click on the link)

Dinosaurs Love Underpants!

Sorry for all the product posts recently, but I found this book tonight and intended to look it up and to add it to my wishlist for Justin!  Dinosaurs and underwear???  Perfect! 

I found this book tonight at Barnes N Nobles, and flipped through it.  Really cute. 

Moving discoveries......

I am thrilled that I found


while packing up my craft room books. I love love love this series of books, though I only have two.  I loved them as a girl, and I remember I did attempt to share them with Maree, many years ago.  But she wasn't much interested.  Leanna, however, I am happy to report was just as into them as I was.  They're a great personal look at history....short stories with a moral-but not overly preachy-that a curious and strong willed child can certainly relate to. 

Talk to me Like I'm Someone You Love

I ran across this book on a post from Owlhaven, Talk to me like I'm someone you love. 



It made me immdeiately think of some feuding family members of mine.  : )    
Might make a nice resource for a therapist too! 
From Owlhaven's blog review of the book:

Some examples from the book:

–”I was making a big deal out of something that just isn’t that important. I want to let it go.”
(How nice would it be to hear that one in the middle of a disagreement? And what a gift to give that to a loved one!)

–”When you are so intense, it’s hard to take in what might be valid about what you’re saying.”
(so much better than saying, “Stop yelling at me!!” — a line I’ve tried on several people without any noticeable effect. )


–”I am upset. This doesn’t mean you are a bad person…It means that if you could just listen, I would feel incredibly loved.”
(for those moments when you need a listener, not necessarily a solution)


–”I love you. I hate fighting. Can’t we just hug?”
(this one is used not to ’shut down’ a person, but to come to some peace when a heated discussion isn’t seeming to get anywhere.)

House of Testosterone

I found this book called House of Testosterone in my amazon recommendations and it looks great! Keep this in mind for my next birthday (and used copies are as low as 1 cent plus shipping/handling!) I'm giving plenty of notice!  I started reading the sample pages and really wanted to continue.

JD Salinger

J.D. Salinger died at age 91 yesterday.  As a literature lover who enjoyed Catcher In the Rye (all the way back in 10th grade!), I felt compelled to add this bit of news here.  Kurt Vonnegut died not that long ago too.  I think John Updike also.  It's not been a good time for male authors!

EDIT: A link to a piece on how Salinger's Haulden Caufield influenced modern culture in so many ways. 

Nurture Shock

Someone just recommended this book and I checked it out and it looks very good. I like that they include the science, but also make it friendly and annecdotal to furthur illustrate their points. Just based on the reviews, particularly customer reviews, it looks really interesting. They say many of modern society's most popular strategies for raising children are in fact backfiring because key points in the science of child development and behavior have been overlooked. Two errant assumptions are responsible for current distorted child-rearing habits, dysfunctional school programs and wrongheaded social policies: first, things work in children the same way they work in adults and, second, positive traits necessarily oppose and ward off negative behavior. It covers things like excessive praise backfiring(I knew that!), sibling relationships, parent/teen relationships, sleep, why baby einstein etc doesn't work (I knew that!), IQ testing, talking about race relations, etc. etc.

I know my birthday is far far away, but I've added this book to my amazon wish list!

His other award winning book

Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are is now a movie and has always been a children's favorite. Did you know Into the Night Kitchen won awards also? And It's one of the most frequently banned books. Here's an article on the controversial book. I found this really interesting, I had no idea there was a holocaust theme to the story. My sister and I always loved it: "I'm in the milk, and the milk's in me! God bless the milk and God bless me!"

An excerpt:
The primary objection to the book, according to the American Library Association, has been Mickey's full nudity, including penis and testicles, through much of the book. According to the "2007 Banned Books Resource Guide" by Robert P. Doyle, the strongest language in a challenge to the book was in Elk River, Minn., in 1992 where challengers said it could "lay the foundation for future use of pornography." Doyle also notes at least one instance of short being drawn on Mickey in 1977 in Springfield, Mo.
Sendak, however, said the choice to picture Mickey naked was a purely practical one, noting that putting Mickey fully clothed though cake batter and milk could only make an ugly mess of his clothing.
In a 2003 interview on NPR's Fresh Air, however, Sendak did say he was trying to deal with another controversial issue in the book – the Holocaust. Sendak said the moustached bakers attempting to place the young Mickey in an oven was meant as a reflection of Adloph Hitler's orders to creamate those who were killed in World War II concentration camps. The ALA has not recorded a challenge on these grounds.
In an article on Factmonster, citing the National Endowment for the Arts, Sendak said that in his books he tries to help children deal with fears in a straightforward manner.
“The point of my books has always been to ask how children cope with a monumental problem that happened instantly and changed their lives forever, but they have to go on living," he said. "And they cannot discuss this with anyone. No one will take the time. Parents are embarrassed so they'll shush them up.”
In that same article, children's novel writer Stephanie Tolan also said challengers miss the point.
"There are many people (few of them children) in the world of children's literature (and rather more outside it) who are offended by some of Sendak's work for a variety of reasons," she said But I believe those to be the people who don't remember childhood, who have repressed it and like to look back on it as a lovely time of play and innocence and joy. Sendak has a real ability to enter the landscape of childhood—real childhood—and render its lights and its shadows, too."Read more: http://picture-books.suite101.com/article.cfm/maurice_sendaks_other_caldecott_childrens_book#ixzz0U2bhJhQZ

Current Read-Aloud book

The book I am currently reading to Leanna aloud. We do this at night, when the other kids are sleeping. So far we've read Little House in the Big Woods, Meet Josephina, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Glass Elevator, all as read aloud books. There are a few other smaller books we've read as parts of lessons and she's read more books on her own as well.

Why this book is particularly special to me.

I also remember reading this book in 2nd grade. I drew a picture of the mountain, goats, and Heidi and Peter that I can still see in my head, though I'm sure it's long gone physically.

Mimi's been on my mind lately.

Afternoon Reading

We had an afternoon at the library and reading and doing school yesterday. Timothy kept asking if the car book could be HIS! I had to literally pry Leanna out of the book to get her to do her work!

A new Winnie the Pooh

They'll be coming out with a new Winnie the Pooh book. A lot of people are disturbed by this. Apparently this is sanctioned by a Trust group for A A Milne. They're adding a sassy female otter with pearls. Hmmmm........and the author says, "I made Eeyore a little more proactive so he wasn't always the victim, although you can't turn him into Gary Cooper or something," he told the paper. They're messing with Eeyore? I don't know, you can write further adventures of beloved characters, (I don't see a need for it, but ok......) but to change their personalities? Here's a parentdish article on it.