I was introduced to Julia Cook through a social media page for kindergarten teachers and two particlar books caught my eye. The thing that impressed me the most was how both of them reinforced positivity over negativity. This is such an important concept when dealing with young children. The best advice I ever received as…
The two books that I’m going to review today are from the group of books recommended by our local children’s librarian, Jo. These two really don’t have much in common other than they both have animals as a theme. But I really wanted to share them with you since I found them to be delightful…
I’m excited to introduce you to our guest blogger, Jo, the local librarian that recommended the books I’ve been reviewing the past few months. Jo is a lifelong resident of our small town in rural Iowa. She has a husband of 40 years, three grown children and five grandchildren. Jo recently celebrated her 25th year…
In this day and age you hear a lot about how so many young adults don’t know how to solve problems because their parents never allowed them to encounter situations where they needed to figure things out on their own. I’ve heard people say that millennials don’t know how to handle rejection or failure because…
One of the most important things that I learned during my 36-year career as an early childhood educator was the importance of phonological awareness activities. Phonological awareness is a broad skill that includes identifying and manipulating units of oral language. Simply put, it includes activities such as rhyming (cat/hat), segmenting (the word cat is broken up by…
For those of you who are not familiar with Todd Parr, he is an amazing author/illustrator of more than 40 children’s books. Parr’s books encompass social issues that are prevalent in the lives of today’s children, but in simplistic terms. His books include the New York Time’s bestselling The I Love You Book, The Earth Book,…
Since I retired from the field of education last year I decided to look into all of the new(ish) children’s books from the last few years. Who better to give me input about these books then our local librarian at our public library here in town. Jo works with the little kids in our town,…
THE ROUGH-FACE GIRL by Rafe Martin, illustrated by David Shannon There are over 1,500 versions of the Cinderella story, but this one, The Rough-Face Girl, is truly my favorite. This one is an Algonquin Indian Cinderella, and actually a part of a longer traditional story. The Rough-Face Girl takes place in a village on the…
Autumn is upon us, and with Halloween just around the corner I thought it would be fun to review my favorite books for this time of year. It was very hard for me to choose just two because there are so many wonderful books! I may have to do a follow-up blog that includes some…
Since September signifies the beginning of a new school year in many areas, I thought it would be nice to review one of my very favorite children’s books that I would read during the first few days of kindergarten. What I love most about this book is that it is intended for children involved in…
Telephone by Mac Barnett One of my favorite games to play as a child was the “pass it on” game of Telephone. You whisper a simple statement to the person sitting next to you, they whisper what they heard to the person sitting next to them, and so on. The thing you whispered inevitably evolves…
Here is the second installment of my favorite farm books. As I mentioned in my previous blog, I have so many favorite farm books that I needed to make this a two-part blog. These books were published after my sons grew up, but many of them came out while I was teaching kindergarten, and they…
Since summer is now upon us and here in Iowa I am reminded daily of the work happening on the nearby farms in my community, I thought it would be fun to spotlight some of my favorite farm books for children. I am going to make this a two part blog because there are so…
I have been an elementary teacher for the last 36 years, and over those years I have read thousands of children’s books. Some of these books have been great, some have been good, and some have been real stinkers. The great books are timeless, some of them being the same books that my parents read…
Potterwookiee by Obert Skye Obert Skye’s The Creature from my Closet series features mashups of popular fictional creatures/characters. There’s Wonkenstein (Willy Wonka/Frankenstein), Pinocula (Pinocchio/Dracula), and Katfish (Katniss/Ariel, the Little Mermaid). The second book in the series is the Potterwookiee, which is a miniature Chewbacca with Harry Potter’s lightning bolt scar and accessories. Yes, a small…
