January 2010

  • The Magician’s Elephant

    By sarajean on 1/31/10 10:38am
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    I’m still raving about yet another delightful tale from Kate DiCamillo!

    The Magician’s Elephant is the story of ten-year-old Peter Augustus Duchene and his search for his long lost sister, Adele. Peter, an orphan being raised by a cantankerous old soldier with ailing health, chances his luck with a fortune teller one day, who tells him that his baby sister, whom his caretaker told him had died in childbirth, is still alive—and that an elephant will take him to her.

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  • 6 Ways to Explore Children’s Authors and Illustrators

    By sarajean on 1/31/10 8:34am
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    Next week is Children’s Authors and Illustrators Week. Here are 6 ways to celebrate with the children in your life.

    Take them to story time. Most libraries have a weekly story time. Others may have special story times you have to sign up for. Ask your local library for information on their story times and what the featured books might be. Other places to find story times include recreation centers, museums, and book stores.

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  • You'll Never Guess Which Book Just Got Banned

    By becksta on 1/24/10 2:57pm
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    Banned DictionaryBanned DictionaryWhat do Shel Silverstein, Judy Blume, and now Merriam-Webster have in common? All are authors in disrepute due to the “offensive language” or “inappropriate story-lines” in their works. In other words, all of them are writers whose works have been banned.

    Just today, the AP wire reported that the Merriam-Webster dictionary has been taken out of classrooms in a kindergarten-8th grade school district in southern California because one rather investigative student discovered the words, “oral sex” within the dictionary. Apparently, “oral sex” is not the only offensive word in the dictionary, as the Assistant Superintendent has claimed that many of the words within are “age inappropriate”.



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  • The Curse of the Darkling Mill

    By akgoemans on 1/18/10 9:44am
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    The Curse of the Darkling MillThe Curse of the Darkling Mill

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  • Shel Silverstein's "Where the Sidewalk Ends"

    By becksta on 1/15/10 3:58pm
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    Shel Silverstein's "Where the Sidewalk Ends"Shel Silverstein's "Where the Sidewalk Ends"Whenever I walk on the sidewalks, I always avoid the cracks in order to ensure the safety, health, and well-being of my mother’s back. Possibly due to this mentality or maybe because of the sidewalk reference in the title, but more than likely because of the sheer genius of the book, I still like Shel Silverstein’s “Where the Sidewalk Ends" after all these years.

    Even as a grown-up person, I love how the illustrations go with the poems, and how the subjects of the poems sometimes reflect the real-life day-to-life situations of kids including entire poem about taking away the garbage out and the absurd which is reflected by another poem about Martians with a clever illustration of an alien with a head in a rather curious place.


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  • The Snowy Day

    By sarajean on 1/12/10 8:22am
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    In the Midwest where I live, it’s a perfect time of year to enjoy Ezra Jack Keats’s The Snowy Day. Published in 1962, it’s the story of an adorable little boy named Peter who, donned in a gnome-like red snowsuit, embarks on a simple yet lovely adventure into the snow on the first snowy day of the year.

    Peter engages in the very same things most preschoolers would find interesting to do in the snow. He admires the highly piled snow, crunches his feet in it satisfyingly, experiments with different ways to walk in the snowy powder, uses a stick to explore the snow, makes a snowman and a snow angel, and other activities. Peter even contemplates joining the “big boys” for a snowball fight but knows that he’s just not old enough—“not yet.”

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  • Emily the Strange: The Lost Days

    By becksta on 1/9/10 12:19pm
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    Emily the Strange: The Lost DaysEmily the Strange: The Lost DaysWith her dark hair and strange penchant for cats, Emily the Strange has been a kind of cultural icon for the last few years. Now, “she” has her own book detailing the lost adventures she has in “Blackrock”.

    Poor Emily awakens one day to find herself with no memory of who she is, where she is, how she got there, or why cats are so friendly to her. Unlike most of us who might have sought out help from a doctor, the intrepid young heroine searches for clues for her lost identity on her own with the idea that people might be looking for her.


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