Gung Hay Fat Choy! Or Happy New Year. Friday February 16, 2018 the Year of the Dog begins. Many traditions surround this holiday. One of my personal ones is to read books about the Chinese New Year. Two new (to me) books, are Ruby’s Chinese New Year by Vickie Lee and Joey Chou and Home for Chinese New Year: A Story Told in English and Chinese by Wei Jie and Xu Can. Ruby’s Chinese New Year hints at Little Red Riding Hood and tells the […]
What Can I Be?
What Can I Be? asks Ann Rand and illustrator Ingrid F. King. Everyday shapes (squares, triangles, circles, etc.) colors and lines are presented to you, the reader, and Rand offers possibilities for what they could become. Author and illustrator also encourage their readers to use their imagination to conjure other formations that these simple, everyday things could be. A green triangle could be a tent, Christmas tree, a kite, a sail of a boat or all of the above. The only limitation is what the […]
Hedgehogs, Robins and One of a Kind
Picture books are a fun way to get your children, grandchildren or students into reading by reading to them. Once they get older, these books can become a “first read” portal for them. I still remember the books my family read to me, and what I read to my sister and nephews (and I hope they remember as fondly as I do Moo, Baa, Laa Laa La and my edits of a not-for-their-age-group read I was reading aloud to them….) Three books coming out in […]
OMG… Is He Also a Witch?!
OMG… Is He Also a Witch?! is the third in the OMG series by Talia Aikens-Nunez. I’m choosing to start with this book because the first two have not been read by this reviewer. While the adult reader can pick up the “back story” most readers need to start with book one. The story has been done before: Girl finds out she’s a witch. Has a few friends who know of her secret. Everyone keeps it a secret from her parents/the adults. The “bad guys” […]
Bramble and Maggie: Snow Day
The main review is for Bramble and Maggie: Snow Day, yet I will plug all books of Jessie Haas still in print. Mostly these are the Bramble and Maggie series. Haas loves horses. How do I know? Most of her books feature a horse in them, even the one she did for the American Girl series. As well as almost every time she and her husband stop by the bookstore I work at, they would stop in and say “Hi” and we would talk horses. […]
The Noisy Paint Box: The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky’s Abstract Art
When a proper Russian boy is given a box of paints from his aunt magic occurs. From a young age (and well into adulthood) Kandisnky did what was expected of him. But when colors sing out and music paints a picture, you must follow your heart and create art! This is a quick introduction into the life of an abstract painter. An afterwards gives more detail. The illustrations are powerful and capture the text and the work of Kandinsky perfectly. First: my take on the […]