children's literature

Free Books Online for Kids

By sarajean on 5/26/10 12:06am
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Boy do I miss LookyBook.com! Do you remember that incredibly awesome site? Hailed as one of the best new websites of 2008, LookyBook.com let you read actual full children’s books online. You could click to turn the pages as if they were real books, and they had a massive selection. Every week more books were added to the site—from favorites, like Franklin and Olivia, to classics, to cool new books. We found so many wonderful books there that we went on to purchase later—like Little Pea and Round is a Mooncake. I think I was more depressed to see that site go than I was over my own layoff—both due to the financial constraints of that stressful year.

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A Charlie Brown Valentine

By sarajean on 2/3/10 1:25am
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Oh, Charlie Brown! Do you know anyone who’s more unlucky—more filled with the “Charlie Browniest luck in the world”—than the poor balding block head created by Charles M. Schulz? Having been a little red-haired girl, I used to giggle over ol’ Chuck’s attempts at telling his little red-haired girl his feelings for her at Valentine’s Day. Of course, we all know that, like with most other things in the poor boy’s world, the confession was doomed from the start!

(You have to wonder why we love Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang. Sure, they’re funny—but don’t you pity the title character more than you enjoy him falling on his back every time Lucy tries to make him kick a football? Just sayin’.)

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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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Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me

By sarajean on 8/31/09 7:36am
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Fans of Eric Carle will not be disappointed with this beautiful, expansive book. Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me, dedicated to Carle’s own daughter who asked the very same question as a child, tells the story of a little girl, Monica, who wishes to play with the moon. Try as she might, however, she just can’t reach it.

So her loving father gets the largest ladder he can find and climbs atop the tallest mountain and asks the moon permission for his daughter to play with it. The moon is happy about the idea but says he’s simply too big. However, he will get smaller, and when he is small enough, Monica can play with him.

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Ella Enchanted is an Enchanting Read

By sarajean on 8/30/09 12:59pm
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It’s no wonder Gail Carson Levine’s charming adaptation of Cinderella won the Newberry Award. Ella Enchanted is a truly enchanting read for both children as well as any lover of fairy tales, magic and fantasy.

As a child, I always wondered why Cinderella didn’t just leave her wicked stepmother and stepsisters; after all, she had free will, and she was resourceful enough to make it on her own. That must have been what Levine was thinking as she penned this amazing novel.

Ella in this version is strong-willed, but cursed to follow the orders that anyone gives her through the “gift” of a well-meaning but ditzy fairy. Because of this “gift” of obedience, Ella must do as she is told by everyone. She is protected by her loving mother until she is fifteen, when her mother dies.

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A Million Visions of Peace

By sarajean on 8/17/09 11:16pm
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Like any intangible concept, peace can be a difficult lesson to teach to children. We can start with basic lessons—be nice to your friends, don’t hit your sister, don’t throw the cat—but even teaching what peace is can seem a bit tough to do. It’s very easy to complicate—even a simple explanation, like “Peace means not hurting each other,” can get mixed up with questions like, “But what about when we argue/ Jennifer takes my toys/ I get a time-out?” on the table.

Even if your child is likely to come up with his own eloquent and beautiful idea of what peace is—and he probably will—it may not encompass all of the ideas that you wish to share with your own values. Does peace include the environment? A universal brotherhood among all countries? Being a good neighbor? Is it simply the absence of violence, or also the continual goodwill and helping of people by all of humankind?

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Baby Bat’s Lullaby

By sarajean on 8/15/09 9:03am
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Do you ever do summer reading programs with your children through the local library? We do every summer, and our preschooler loves it. There are usually awesome games, treats, hands-on activities and of course, plenty of books to go with each theme. Then there are the prizes.

Our daughter always gets the weekly prize; we have read every day since she was in the womb and it’s easy for her to get the required number of minutes per day (this summer it was fifteen). However, this year she won a drawing for the first time, and was given a copy of Baby Bat’s Lullaby as her prize.

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I Love the Night

By sarajean on 6/20/09 9:18pm
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hostahostaAll of Dar Hosta’s books are enchanting, but this one is perhaps my personal favorite. With its soothing nighttime story and stunning graphics, it’s no wonder the book was the winner of the Teacher’s Choice Award in 2004.

The story itself is gorgeous enough for older readers, with or without the images; but Hosta’s art is, as ever, enchanting enough for all ages to fall in love with.

Hosta gives a friendly face and a neighborly voice to animals like crickets, spiders and bats—animals that normally may seem strange and scary to little ones. Hosta gives them a calm sort of beauty, and a definite place in our world that we start to feel a reverence for creatures we may have once feared.

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Puff the Magic Dragon

By sarajean on 6/12/09 9:35am
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Even if you only marginally like the song—and who doesn’t love “Puff the Magic Dragon”?—chances are you will love this book—and so will the children in your life. Here are ten reasons why this is an incredible book, both for the young and old.

10. There’s nothing overtly trippy. Sure, the dolphins in the book wear graduation caps and glasses, and the plants have faces, but there’s nothing to indicate the song’s supposed “ulterior” meaning that many claim it has.

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The Peace Book

By sarajean on 5/24/09 8:50pm
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The Peace BookThe Peace BookMy preschooler and I are huge fans of Todd Parr. I bought The Peace Book for her when she was just a newborn and we have read it over and over again since.

The pictures, like the pictures in all of Parr’s books, drew her in when she was a tiny thing. They are simple, but bright and colorful, and very child-friendly. From creatures to people, beings are always accepted no matter how they look—and each and every one looks every different. Brown, yellow, black, red—some of Parr’s people are even blue or green! Everyone you meet is a friend in Parr’s world.

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