Celebrate Children’s Book Week

This year’s Children’s Book Week is less than 50 days away. Mark your calendar for the week of May 2 – 8 when the official Children’s Book Week takes place. Events are held around the country at local bookstores but you can host your own celebration, at home or at school, if you can’t make it to these locations.

Voting is now open for the 2011 Children’s Choice Book Awards. Voting ends April 29th so you have plenty of time to read all of the books by each of the finalists in time to make your decision on the author and illustrator of your choice.

For me, reading with my son is the best way to end our day together. At the end of the night, lying in bed with my husband while he reads next to me is another magical moment. We both look forward to the day when our baby boy will be able to join us in the reading circle.

Please share your favorite memory around reading, your favorite children’s book, children’s book author, illustrator, or anything else you’d like to share regarding books and reading with or to a child.

#ChildrensBookWeek
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Happy Healthy Hip Parenting
Peace Begins in the Home

Banned Books Week

I grew up in the library. I don’t remember how often we went, but I can still picture the white shelves, the children’s area and the YA section that I eventually “grew into.” All of the adventures I was able to experience by simply picking up a book helped create who I am today: curious, open-minded and genuinely excited to learn more about people, places and things.

Discovering that classic novels, such as Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird or modern fiction like  Harry Potter and Twilight, have been challenged in certain areas leaves me a little confused. I simply don’t understand the need, urgency or requests that these people make in trying to keep some books of the shelves or out of their child’s classrooms.

Kids are exposed to so much these days between TV, the web and simply walking down the street or through the mall (ads are everywhere, many containing what most would consider “adult content”). Books seem so tame in comparison. Those that were written in a different time or place lend opportunities to teach and educate readers, not exploit them or corrupt them.

Without preaching about my philosophy on Intellectual Freedom, I will just show this awesome poster created by the American Library Association.

In my opinion, one of the greatest gifts we can give to our children is a library card and instilling within them a love of language and literature that can take them places they might not otherwise go without their Freedom to Read.

Check out the list of the Top Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2009. Some titles will surprise you, others may be the next ones you reserve from your local library.

Happy Healthy Hip Parenting
Peace Begins in the Home

Children’s Book Review: Chicken Big

Chicken Big, the latest picture book by Keith Graves, arrived at our house yesterday and it was a huge hit. My son was super excited to take a bath since I promised him we’d read the book as soon as he was done. It was the quickest bath in our history of bath-taking…

He grabbed the book as soon as his pajamas were on (another record for him) and immediately informed me that it wasn’t so much a book as it was a comic strip. The layout of the back cover and many of the interior pages were set up in boxes with big, fun fonts that made it easy for him to follow along and even read on his own.

He laughed out loud and repeated the phrase, “This is getting ridiculous,” as the characters tried to figure out what Chicken Big actually was (spoiler alert: he really is a chicken).

We love reading time in our house and last night was especially fun since he asked if we could read Chicken Big again. He laughed in all the same places the second time around, although he couldn’t quite figure out how the characters knew they were in a book (you’ll have to see the title pages to understand his inquiry).

As a picture book aficionado, I adored the illustrations, the twist to the Chicken Little tale as well as the layout of the  entire book. Not a single page was wasted!

Keith Graves is the author of many hilarious books for kids, including Frank Was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance. Chicken Big was sent to me through the Chronicle Books’ Gold Review Panel program.

Silent but Deadly

My son’s summer reading list came in early July. He wasn’t remotely interested in any of the books on the list. They had pictures and words that he could read on his own, and yet I still couldn’t convince him to read any of them with me. Believe me, I tried. He’s stubborn but he also loves books so I did the next best thing I could to get him into reading mode and excited about literature all over again – I snatched up a review copy of Sweet Farts: Rippin’ it Old-School by Raymond Bean since I knew (yes, I knew) that he would be interested in that.

His face lit up when he first held the book in his hands and read the title to me. He burst into hysterics and immediately sat down and demanded (yes, demanded) that we start reading it right away.

Even though it’s the sequel to Sweet Farts, which we hadn’t read, we quickly caught up on what we missed since the author did a great job explaining how (in the original book) the main character’s science fair project became a worldwide success. Keith Emerson, a student at Harborside Elementary, had invented Sweet Fart tablets which cause farts to smell good, rather than horrible. Each flavor delivers a scent just like you would think (cookie dough, for example).

As a mom of a young boy who thinks passing gas and burping are the funniest things in the world (don’t boys of all ages think this?), I couldn’t help but imagine – as we read the book together – how awesome it would be if Sweet Farts tablets were really available. I’d give them to my son every morning, like vitamins!

I stopped counting the number of times the word “fart” appears in the story as we got nearly a third of the way thorough it and I quickly got used to hearing my son laugh out loud every time something disgusting happened (his favorite chapter was the one in which several people throw up).

I won’t tell you what happens in the sequel, but I will say that this book, along with the Captain Underpants series, has led my son to want to read more books and even inspire him to create his own. It’s even inspired him to come up with some great science experiments of his own that would actually serve to help others, like the experiment that Keith comes up with in this sequel.

I want to encourage my son to remain interested in reading and even though the stories he enjoys may also inspire more potty talk and fake fart noises, I know that along with every other phase we go through, we’ll get past this and his love of language and literature is something he won’t outgrow. As he matures (when exactly does that happen again?) so will his taste in subject matter. One can only hope.

His other favorites from when he was younger:
Everyone Poops
The Gas We Pass
All About Scabs
The Holes in Your Nose

Other books for boys can be discovered at GuysRead.com, put together by one of my favorite children’s authors, Jon Scieszka.

Happy Healthy Hip Parenting
Peace Begins in the Home

Thank goodness for that!

Books of all different shapes and sizes spill from my son’s shelves and luckily he’s grown to be as much of a bookworm as I was at his age.

From time to time, something happens or someone says something that causes one or both of us to say, “That reminds me of that one book…” Typically, when one of us can’t remember what the book was, the other one can.

Today, I was trying to figure out what book we have that best represents Thanksgiving and shows what it truly means to appreciate someone or something in our lives. While we have many books about Halloween and Christmas, not one single title came to mind that really focuses on giving thanks.

Without realizing what I was saying (to myself), I found myself thinking, “Thank goodness for that,” and was suddenly reminded of a great picture book with simple sentences – many with just one or two words – that shows early readers the meaning of being grateful in a way that is both fun and simple.

Cat, written by Mike Dumbleton and illustrated by Craig Smith, repeats the phrase, “Thank goodness for that,” as it follows a mischievous cat, along with the bird, dog and child that the cat chases, runs away from or plays with. With its up-close illustrations, Cat will have any animal lover laughing out loud and appreciating even the little things in life.

Happy Healthy Hip Parenting
Peace Begins in the Home

Wanted: Male Models

Gail Giles is a young adult author who recently wrote an article in School Library Journal that touched on a topic close to home. As a single mom of a young boy, I really work at trying to get my son involved in reading, sports and anything else that interests him (dinosaurs, cars, action figures). I want him to be educated, active and intellectual. He, of course, will become the young person he’s meant to become but for now, his interest in reading and books in general is pretty amazing.

In September, when his Pre-K teachers asked him what he wanted to learn this year his response was, “how to make books.” He makes his own books at home, from comic books to newspapers. He’s into pretending right now and reading and drawing are also of high interest.

From what Gail says in her article, Wanted: Male Models, I know that won’t last so I enlist my dad and other male role models to help instill a love of reading that I hope will last. She writes:

A boy doesn’t want to be a woman. He wants to do what a man does. And if he doesn’t see a man reading, he won’t read.

My dad is staying with us for the next three weeks and he loves to read. Both he and my mom taught me at a young age that reading can open your world and can provide you with experiences and insight that you might not be able to get elsewhere. You can explore different ways of living and get to know people unlike yourself.

I can’t help but think that the type of books children are exposed to also makes a big impact on whether or not they’ll continue to want to pick up a book later in life. My son, for example, enjoys non-fiction books. He likes reading books that tell him things, show him how to build things or how people invented machines or put things together. He likes numbers and facts, memorizing details like young boys used to quote baseball stats on the back of their collectible baseball cards. (Do kids still do that?)

Personally, I enjoy fiction, escaping into worlds unknown and stories that I know could only be make-believe. I’ve grown to appreciate non-fiction books over the last few years since I see how excited my son gets when seeing real photographs or images of dinosaurs that he will never be able to see in real life. I pick up books and suggest titles that he doesn’t want to read. I let him select books and I’m always amazed at what intrigues him, what captures his attention and what will keep him still – and paying attention – for twenty minutes a day.

Luckily, there are great websites that also keep me up to date with what other boys – and older men – are into reading. That way, I can get familiar with what to introduce to him as he gets older, guiding him to the perfect book that he’ll grow into and stories he can share with his classmates, cousins, and Grandpa.

Here are just a few articles and sites that I found to help other parents and educators get their young boys to read:

Boys Rule! Boys Read!
Boys Read
Guys Read

Why dads should read to their children
Why dads should read aloud

And a great resource guide: Gotcha for Guys!: Nonfiction Books to Get Boys Excited About Reading

Happy Healthy Hip Parenting
Peace Begins in the Home

Bloggers Unite

I continue to discover more blogs written by Moms and Dads. There are so many great writers that I now read on a regular basis that I am finding less and less time to write. It’s a good thing that reading helps inspire me, because I’m often compelled to respond to a post I come across with one of my own.

Here’s this week’s latest blogs written by some great parents:

• My Baby Our Baby
• Husbands and Dads
• Hope 4 Peyton
• Rockin’ Mama

Check out more great site for parents along the blogroll in my sidebar. I have included each and every mom and dad authored blog that I’ve come across. Please let me know what I’ve been missing.

Happy Healthy Hip Parenting
Peace Begins in the Home

Proud Mama

Michael Phelps has made history with his 8 Gold Medals and a World Record. One medal after the other…

What’s amazing to me is the fact that, not only was Michael diagnosed with ADHD as a child, but he was also raised (along with his two sisters) by a single mom.

This isn’t unusual, really. Tom Cruise, Bill Clinton, and Bill Cosby were raised by single moms. Even Barack Obama was brought up in a single parent home.

What bothers me is that there’s many different definitions of “single mom,” and it’s usually one that is the complete opposite of who I am.

I admit, my son’s father and I went through a stressful and drawn-out divorce (due to me and my bitterness), but now, we get along great and I don’t know what I’d do without his support. My son is with his dad right now, thousands of miles away. My son’s father is more involved than many dads. We’re lucky to have him.

Yes, I’m a single mom, which – to me – means that I am single and I am a mom. Nothing in those two words hint at whether or not there is a father figure in my son’s life but, there is. My son has many men in his life that act as positive role models for him. Right now, my son is spending 8 days with his dad on the East Coast, while I teach a parenting course and visit my family and friends back home.

I get to meet my sister’s youngest son (only 8 weeks old) for the first time today. I’m thrilled to finally meet him and spend the week spoiling him and his older brother. I haven’t blogged about it much or talked about it only because it’s difficult for me to be so far away but it gets easier as time goes by since I have so much to focus on, besides how quickly time flies by…while I’m having fun.

I am also going to spend time with my friends from college, meet my best friend’s (from high school) fiance, and, of course, get caught up in my reading – both on line and in print.

I look forward to sharing my travel experiences here so stay tuned for stories from the Midwest, where people are known for being real, honest and sincere. Minnesota Nice. I can’t wait to be back home.

Happy Healthy Hip Parenting
Peace Begins in the Home

Blog Day 2008

Blog Day 2008 is two weeks away. Are you prepared?

Participate by adding a badge to your site and research at least 5 blogs to share with others. Instructions are simple:

1. Find 5 new Blogs that you find interesting
2. Notify the 5 bloggers that you are recommending them as part of BlogDay 2008
3. Write a short description of the Blogs and place a link to the recommended Blogs
4. Post the BlogDay Post (on August 31st)
5. Add the BlogDay tag using this link:
   http://technorati.com/tag/BlogDay2008 and a link to the BlogDay web site: http://www.blogday.org

Happy Healthy Hip Parenting
Peace Begins in the Home

Y Not?

Printed on recycled paper and taking 10% of everything you spend to go toward changing the world, The Y Catalog is definitely a company and catalog that I encourage you to check out.

Here is a list of the organizations that receive a percentage of the proceeds:

CARE
The 11th Hour Action
The Fisher House Foundation
The Mukti Mission
Solar Meninos de Luz
Organic Farming Research Fund
YouthAids
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
Africa Yoga Project
Friends of Animals
The Santa Fe Mountain Center
Surfrider Foundation
3 Phases Energy
Trees for the Future
Y.O.G.A.
Shanti House
EBMRF
The Food Bank for NYC
Room to Read
Yoga Ed.
Teens for Safe Cosmetics
Seva Foundation
The Telluride Adaptive Sports Program (TASP)

Happy Healthy Hip Parenting
Peace Begins in the Home