Imagine That

One of the best traits of good picture books (really, any good book) is their ability to show the way into the reader's own imagination. 

I am 98% convinced that my own beloved rabbit, who disappeared without a trace after being by my bed for fourteen years, turned Real. More on that later.

But the newest book on the block to tickle imagination buttons, in a very 2011 way, is:

The trailer is pretty cute, yes? Nothing sums up the interactive originality of the book like seeing it for yourself. I thought the book was clever, and I'd like to try some activities linked to it with a group of five-year-olds. When is it that kids start manipulating technology with instructions like press here, or tap twice? (My 15-month-old learned how to scroll through the pictures of her on my phone 4 months ago.)

Happy Back to School! What's on the reading docket for your kids/students/self this year?

We're Veggies

Baby A and I have been (mostly) vegetarian for about 10 months. I haven't been 100% successful at maintaining my new lifestyle, but I am committed. We eat some fish and we eat dairy, but not meat or meat products.

I settled on this lifestyle choice as the best way for myself and my daughter. She hasn't noticed yet. You can't miss something you never had. But I've been wondering how I'll discuss it with her when she does notice. 

Like usual, I turned to picture books for support and enlightenment. I found a great list of vegetarian/vegan picture book suggestions/reviews here. 

I scoured the library, and left disappointed with their selection.

But I was also disappointed with some of the books. 

The Gnats of Knotty Pine portrayed the hunters as fat, buck-toothed idiots, so after I flipped through it, I put it back on the shelf.

Farmer Duck was cute and worth a read--it's illustrated by Helen Oxenbury and written by Martin Waddell. But I thought the animals' emancipation was only vaguely related to supporting a vegetarian diet, mostly because it isn't terribly relatable in that particular theme--none of the farmers or ranchers I've ever known shared any qualities of laziness or gluttony like the human farmer in the book.

Charlotte's Web is wonderful, and deserving of its canonization, but not many of the animals people eat are famed and saved thanks to excellent image or brand managers working long hours advocating for them. (Perhaps more than I think are saved that way.)

Looking for a more direct message, I read That's Why We Don't Eat Animals, by Ruby Roth. The message is direct. Roth points out the tragic realities of factory farming and mass ranching, and over-harvesting in the ocean. The brief descriptions are evocative, but not graphic, frightening nor exaggerated. The illustrations are well-done but not my personal style. I would read this to a four-year-old, but not my toddler. 

I'm still on the look-out for a vegetarian book that feels a little more positive. Is this naive? Can there be compassion without grief? Or responsibility without judgment?

Tell me, have you found any books for young children that encourage healthy lifestyles, whether you're veggie, vegan, or omnivorous?

Tips for a Pool Day with Baby

I recently realized Baby A and I had seventeen more punches on my punch card, to be used before Labor Day. 

So, we'll practically be fish for the next month, and when Labor Day comes around to break my heart with its soft-spoken declaration of the beginning of fall, we won't have any regrets about this summer.

I've learned how to be that really efficient and prepared mom at the pool. Or, at least, I've learned from many mistakes, so I can dole out advice and then remind myself to take it.

Apply sunscreen all over, generously, 15-30 minutes before going out. I like the baby/child sprays for the body, and the sunscreen sticks for the face. And for goodness' sake, put a hat on that baby--they protect the scalp and hair and shade the eyes of babies who think they are too cool for sunshades.

Use a reusable swim diaper. They cost as much as a pack of disposable swim diapers, but they can be used until they don't fit anymore. Just wash them in cold water with the swimsuits and hang to dry.

Baby A goes to the pool in a loose dress and a diaper, and I slip her into the swim diaper and suit just before she runs for the water. Let's just say I learned the hard way that swim diapers are not meant to absorb.  

Be paranoid about drowning. Without fail, whenever Baby A is one and a half arm's length away in the baby wading pool, she will fall under the water.

After an hour, take a snack/drink/sunscreen re-application break in the shade. Our favorite snacks to throw in the pool bag are bananas and graham crackers, or some other kind of cookie pretending to be healthy.

Get baby cozy in a zippered, hooded towel. Baby A wears her towel during breaks, and home. When it's time to go, I slip her bathing suit straps down, put on the towel, and slip the swim diaper and suit off and a regular diaper on. Changing is easy, and we can avoid wrestling on the slimy tile of changing rooms. (I step into the changing room to slip off my suit and slip on a sundress.) She is dry and warm on the ride home, and her car seat is, too.

Pack:

• towel for you
• towel for baby
• swim diaper and suit
• back-up swim diaper (in case of BM)
• sunscreen
• drinks
• snack
• sunshades
• hats
• plastic bag for wet suits

What would you add?

Mailing May and Post Office Fun

Have any of you traveled in the cargo compartment of a train through mountains during the winter?

One young girl went for a 75-mile ride like that, with postage pinned to her jacket, in order to visit her grandmother in 1914. Her grandmother didn't know she was coming--wouldn't that be the best surprise parcel delivery?

A few years ago, I got to hear that story, and the story of how Mailing May was researched and written from its author, Michael O. Tunnell. Illustrator Ted Rand worked from photographs and descriptions, and added warmth to fairly accurate portrayals of the scene. I find the story inspiring, because of the flexibility and kindness of the people. But I also find the book inspring, because it reminds me that telling true stories can be fun and meaningful to children (and adults). 

It's a dream of mine to research a little piece of history to be preserved in a picture book.

Mailing May would be a great book to introduce a mail game to children. Here's one idea that can be tweaked for the age of the players:

Choose a pen pal.

Each week, send them mail and challenge them to send their own version back to you. Alternatively, the players could send something similar, plus a new challenge, so that the initiation goes back and forth.

Here are some examples of what to send:

Week 1: Send a postcard from where you live. Write about what you like to do in your city or what your city is known for.

Week 2: Ask someone in your family to secretly set an alarm in the afternoon. When the alarm goes off, freeze and have that family member take a picture of you. Send the picture with a note explaining what you were doing. (If you can't print a picture, draw or describe that "frozen" moment.)

Week 3: Pick flowers or interesting plants from your yard. Arrange them between card stock paper and flatten them for a day in  a stack of heavy books. Remove one paper, and slip the flowers on the other paper  into a plastic sleeve and sent it.

Week 4: Make a list of your favorites, such as favorite ice cream flavor, toy, movie, outdoor game, time of day, and bedtime story. You could even draw pictures of these favorites.

Week 5: Find or create a mad-lib story. Write a letter or postcard asking for the words you need (noun, name, adjective, etc.). When your pen pal replies with the list of words, fill out the mad-lib and send them a copy.

Week 6: Take a picture of something in your house from an unusual angle, such as up close to it or from underneath it. Write a note on the back asking if your pen pal can guess what it is. (If you can't print a picture, write down clues, such as "It is usually only noticed in the dark" for night light.)

Week 7: Make a list of the back-to-school supplies you need. Send a pencil, bookmark or folder that matches one you use.

We'll be sending mail and challenges to our cousins in Finland. Do you have more ideas? Are you going to play?

Friday Friend: Seeker of Happiness, She's So Darling!

via Carrie's pinterest

I'm so excited Carrie is here at wise owl baby today! I didn't want to interrupt her beautiful post once you start the pleasure of reading it, so here are a few of my favorite posts of hers I wanted to make sure you checked out: book clock tutorial, lavender cookies, and cheap date ideas.

I am THRILLED to be guest posting here- albeit a little intimidated by Anna's mad writing skills. I'm Carrie from Seeker of Happiness. I'm also Anna's cousin. Correction: Anna's slacker cousin who was asked MONTHS ago to do a guest post for her awesome blog and kept saying: "I'll do that today" and never did. I could try and blame the fact that my 5 week old baby was born unexpectedly early, but she asked me way before that. She even gave me a list of things I could talk about if I couldn't think of anything. I have no excuses for how long this post has taken me to put together.

But the point is not that.

The point is books. Children's books.

When I think children's books, I think of a lot. I think of the Precious Moments bedtime story book and all the little lessons I loved to learn and relearn from it. I think of Amelia Bedilia and the beginning of my love for puns. I think of The Giving Tree, Frog and Toad, and the Little Engine that Could. And while I have started and restarted post after post about these books, there is really just one children's book that sticks out in my mind.

Peter and Wendy by Sir James Matthew Barrie

Peter Pan was originally a play written in 1904. Though it's meant for the stage, reading it is still a delight. The stage directions really give you insight into the emotion- not just "crosses stage left" and that.

Anyway, in 1911 Sir Barrie adapted it into a novel titled Peter and Wendy and it is this book that has affected the way I have lived my childhood, come to grips with growing up, and the kind of mother I am today and want to be.

You see, every child, except one, must grow up. And while this is a sad concept, we all have to do it. But what MATTERS is not our age nor our maturity, but instead, our tolerance for the young and the innocent.

Through the novel, we watch Wendy grow up. We watch her struggle with it, and ultimately accept it. Most of my life, I have felt like Wendy. I have related to her the most. The heart-broken little girl that wants so badly to be loved by the boy who can never love her back. The imaginative child who finds romance and delight in playing house and mermaids. The Darling daughter who wants to be just like her mother.

Over the years, as I have done my own growing up, I have found that I relate more and more to Mrs. Darling- a character I have always wanted to become. I can't describe this as I am in the thick of this stage of life right now- but read the book and you will understand.

Did I get too personal here? I hope not. I just love this book so much. And maybe you're not into all of the "how does this kid's book relate to my life" stuff. To you, I say read it for the pirates. Read it for the fairies. Read it for the lost boys and the Indians and adventures and the mischief.

Allow yourself to go back to the reality of Neverland.

I'll meet you there.

 

 

 

 

Winners!

The winners of the giveaway to celebrate wise owl baby's 100th post have been randomly selected:

Congrats, CC and Mom's Sewing Vault! 

Email me to tell me which book you'd like!

Isn't it nice to win? Get ready for a segue...

Do you know who won the Caldecott this year?

How about the Newbery?

I don't think I could be on the committee for these awards-- I knew someone who knew someone who was on the Newbery Award committee; apparently it takes weeks of review and voting to pick a winner and the honorable mentions-- not without controversy and perhaps even some politics. The authors/illustrators/books are nominated to be considered. I say I couldn't be on it because I'd never be able to vote between such amazing books! The Newbery is apparently the oldest children's book award; it's been given to the "most distinguished American children's book" published in the previous year since 1922.

What do you think about awards for books? Do you want to read those books now, because they're winners? (I do.) 
Is it a good way to increase exposure for quality books? 
And do you think it's like the baby sibling of a Nobel Peace Prize for Literature-- to pat an influential and dedicated author on the back?