Review - A Christmas Pout-Pout & a Giveaway

          Visit Jen at TeachMentorTexts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders to see what they've been reading, along with everyone else who links up.   

         
 

Come visit, and tweet at #IMWAYR. Thanks to Jen, Kellee, and Ricki for hosting!

        Today I have the pleasure of sharing a new book in the Pout-Pout Fish series by Deborah Diesen with illustrations by Dan Hanna. The title: The Not Very Merry Pout-Pout Fish. The Macillan Children's Publishing Group (publisher - Farrar, Straus & Giroux) -  is generous enough to offer a giveaway of this title, US citizens only, sorry. The giveaway begins at midnight, Nov. 16th.

Social media handles:

Hashtag #poutpouttour

@MacKidsBooks, @prbythebook

Here's a link to the publisher's page.

           I reviewed the first Pout-Pout Fish book when it first came out, and have since given a few others as gifts for young children. Thanks to Farrar, Straus &Giroux for this review copy. 
           Deborah Diesen writes the stories in rhyme, just right for reading aloud. And Dan Hanna's expertise in cartoon-like drawings adds extra fun to the read aloud. The illustrations are bold and colorful, each page filled with briny detail, like imagining dear Pout-Pout lamenting his problems to a sympathetic sea star leaning in to listen well. While the ocean creatures aren't exactly realistic, they do exhibit the correct shapes and relative sizes.

Monday Reading - Last Week's Wonders

          Visit Jen at TeachMentorTexts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders to see what they've been reading, along with everyone else who link up.  Others join Sheila to share adult books at Book Journeys. 

           
       It's my second post today. See the other one for a giveaway! I read quite a few books this week and wanted to share those, too.
 

Come visit, and tweet at #IMWAYR. Thanks to Jen, Kellee, and Ricki for hosting!

The Girl On The Train - Paula Hawkins

I don't want to give anything away. The story is compelling, but hard to read. I kept going, but didn't want to. I knew early on how it would play out because of the character so thinly developed, and I wondered why. My favorite part of the writing: the voices. Oh those voices, those women that I wanted to yell at and hug all at the same time. Others have disliked it, others have praised it. Haven't you always imagined things going on behind a window as you walk in the evening? The story of Rachel begins with her view as she sits on the commuter train, watching as her old neighborhood goes by. Her state of mind makes things imaginary become real, and so the story begins, with Jess and Jason, a love Rachel sees as something she's lost, something to gain back? Paula Hawkins has had Rachel throw that pebble into the pond, and the ripples widen and widen. It's quite a story.

A Mom for Umande - written by Maria Faulconer and illustrated by Susan Kathleen Hartung

       This is a fiction story, but based on a beautiful true one. Umande, a newborn lowland gorilla at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, Colorado is born to a young gorilla, and she doesn’t know how to care for this new baby, won’t pick him up or take the steps needed for Umande. The zoo keepers take over and for eight months pretend to be his mother. They feed him, play with him, carry him around, and once in while see if his mother won’t begin to bond with him. She doesn’t. A connection is made with the zoo in Columbus, Ohio and a loving mother, an older gorilla names Lulu. It took a few days, but before long Umande had his mother. The backmatter tells more of the story and the extensive research the author did to tell this story. The pictures allow us to see the story, too, with sweet pictures of Umande and his early life.

When Dad Showed Me The Universe - written by Ulf Stark and illustrated by Eva Eriksson

         From New Zealand,

        Dad took his young boy out on a cold night. He said he wanted to show him the universe.  The boy tells about this journey, the magic and the surprises, the fact he needed to look up instead of down. Although looking down made him see some beautiful things too.

        It’s a rather quirky book, the boy so trusting, and the dad so earnest.  They looked and talked and chewed gum as the stars shown brightly. The ending is pleasing, a pull away from the serious contemplation of the universe, and funny for the young boy. I think there might be lessons here for both adult and child. Funny is good; it’s good to laugh. Sometimes adults want to be sure their children have special knowledge, and children take that seriously, but also want to laugh.

Celebrating - Always

              I (usually) celebrate each Saturday with Ruth Ayres at Discover Play Build and the rest of the wonderful community that celebrates together. This time, Sunday calls!        
                                                   Tweet at #CelebrateLu

          I spent a long day yesterday watching the news from Paris. I know I didn't need to watch over and over, but felt stuck and sad. The worry of the 'what can happen' returned, the time of Columbine, 9-11, Sandy Hook, on and on returned. And now the questions, what can I do? I want to make our world better, and now, at my age, for my grandchildren, and for other children everywhere (for us older ones, too, actually).  I got out the Goo-Gone (ha!), & did the following:

I read some words from A.A. Milne. Winnie the Pooh says: "“A little consideration, a little thought for others, makes all the difference.”

I read a poem by Barbara Crocker, who writes a poem titled Sustenance:
  
       in the middle:

"It’s hard to remember we swim in an ocean 

of great love, so easy to fall into bickering 

like little birds at the feeder fighting over proso 

and millet, unaware of how large the bag of grain is"

The rest is here.

And I got busy working on a new idea for a picture book. I'm doing PiBoIdMo and am enjoying it a lot.

I sketched and listened to music. Still working on it, but it took me out of the worry, into something I love doing.

I did have a good week. 

We celebrated my daughter's birthday, and had a lovely dinner out. I posted a few old pictures of her, good memories!

I had the pleasure of Ingrid on our usual Friday night time. We read lots of books, of course, and she enjoyed coloring in a book I found at the bookstore about mountain lions (coloring pages and info). She's studying big cats this year at school. And, I had my third time working at the bookstore. That's another post, but it's going to be a good thing to do!  

Thanks for reading about my day. I wish so much good for all, am happy that I moved into happier thoughts. Celebrating on the weekend helps, so thanks, Ruth for making this happen again and again!

Cats on Friday the 13th - No Problem

            Thank goodness someone is explaining a little bit about Friday the 13th on Poetry Friday today. And that would be Bridget McGee at Wee Words for Wee Ones, sharing a few words about 'fear'. Thanks Bridget, especially for explaining "paraskevidekatriaphobia". I didn't know!

          I've found I'm a little superstitious, thanks to one grandfather who taught me about ladders and umbrellas, also to count stairs, and to step over one if I found there were THIRTEEN! And when I had a wonderful cat that was dark grey, we were extra careful on Friday the 13th or on Halloween because too many wanted to catch these cats and play tricks, or something worse. You can discover more about what people believe about black cats as fearful here, and I'm glad the same article also mentions the good side too.

Beautiful, right?

          But for me, even on this Friday the 13th, I prefer to celebrate Charles Chigna's A Carnival of Cats, a book of wonderful poems for young children. I just bought it for my youngest granddaughter who loves ALL books, but discovered she really liked poetry when I read Lullaby & Kisses  Sweet (Lee Bennett Hopkins and Alyssa Nassner) to her one day. Then I found I See Fall by Charles, and that too was a hit.You should know that Imogene also loves to sing and already has learned many songs. I guess she has the rhyming bug, right?

Non-fiction Picture Books - Good Stories

   Thanks to Alyson Beecher's Non-Fiction Picture Book Challenge at her blog, Kidlit Frenzy.   

      Come read to discover everyone's recent non-fiction picture books.

       Tweet - #NFPB15

             Finally had the pleasure of reading a few books I've been waiting for. All interesting, but for different ages.

     I'm going to give the mock Siebert a try, went through Alyson's lists from all year (see Alyson's last week's post), noted the favorites that I've read, and listed those I want to be sure to read. If you have a favorite, let me know!

Tricky Vic: The Impossibly True Story of the Man who Sold the Eiffel Tower - written and illustrated by Greg Pizzoli

         While the story makes me wonder how Robert Miller, aka Count Viktor Lustig, managed to con so many people, including Al Capone, I imagine that he was charming, and a born liar, although this book does not say that. Pizzoli's illustrations are clever; cut paper, some cut photos, and fingerprints create the pages. One fingerprint is all ever seen of Lustig's face. After all, he didn't want anyone to recognize him most of his life. The only way he was caught was that someone remembered a long scar from left ear to the jawline, given by an angry poker player. What is most known is his huge scam of selling the Eiffel Tower. Bits of history are included in the story, side pieces add additional information, like about the controversy over the "rickety" tower itself, giving Lustig the idea of selling it to scrap dealers. It worked, and he made thousands of dollars. The book is for younger middle grade students, or older ones who are interested in learning the basic information before deeper research. There is a glossary, a copy of Miller's death certificate, and a long list of sources.