Jul 5
It’s been a while since we’ve done a Kid’s Corner post so this month we’re featuring a book I received at BEA from Faber & Faber. This book is perfect children over the age of 3+ and is a great way to introduce your child to poems and/or broadway musicals. Read more
Mar 21
Our daughter is at the age when she is constantly asking us for the story behind things and whether things are “real.” Is Santa real? Unicorns real? Fairies? I haven’t quite figured out how to respond. Do I destroy her sense of wonder and fantasy or do I help her distinguish between fact and fiction? Usually I just mumble some noncommittal answer and try to change the subject. So imagine my pleasure when she asked if Winnie the Pooh was real and I actually had an answer for her — based on a book that had just been released. Read more
Dec 21
There always is a surge of top ten lists at year-end, and we did our part last week. But The New York Times, Washington Post, and even our effort don’t hold a candle to the top ten list of my 5-year old daughter. E picked out the top 10 books she read in 2015. Keep reading to find out what she selected and why.
To say that E has a lot of books is an understatement. I believe she inherited my book addiction. E also loves playing book-related games for the blog and was excited to get to create her own top ten list. How did we do this? We first laid out all her books on the floor of her room. Then she selected her 10 favorite. Finally, she lined then up in descending order from most to least favorite. Here are are top ten and the reasons she gave for their making it on to her list. Read more
Aug 24
Until recently, my 4 (almost 5) year-old was convinced that princess was a viable career path. I remember receiving an email from her preschool about career day dress-up, requesting that parents explain to their children that princesses, mermaids, fairies, and pirates were not real career options. Interestingly many of the “problem careers” were stereotypically female. If you think about the children in your life, you may notice that little boys will rattle off real career options (albeit also highly gendered options) like fireman, builder, and policeman whereas girls tend to mention magical or false ones. While I don’t expect a preschooler to have his/her career path mapped out, but I find it curious that girls often aspire to futures that are untenable. I’m convinced that books and television have a large role in these early dreams. I spent years of my childhood convinced that I was going to be a detective thanks to Nancy Drew. Then thanks to my grandmother’s favorite TV show, I decided to become a lawyer. For the record, I became neither a detective nor a lawyer.
I say “until recently” because E’s career aspirations changed a few months ago after reading a book that one of our readers recommended: Rosie Revere, Engineer
Jul 22
July is National Blueberry Month (yes, that’s a thing) so what better way to celebrate than by selecting an oldie but goodie for our July Kid’s Corner? E is four and a half and getting her excited about healthy foods can be a challenge. As an infant and toddler she ate almost everything but at age 3 she started protesting anything that wasn’t a carbohydrate. One thing that has been effective has been to take her to where her food comes from. We are members of a community farm share and, over the summer, we like to take her to pick her own foods. We’ve picked green beans, snap peas, cherry tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries, shell peas, bush beans, husk cherries, and tomatillos. But by far our favorite is blueberry picking. Blueberries are perfect for little fingers and are pretty versatile, thus easily integrated into a variety of foods.
So this month E and I reviewed Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. Keep reading to find out what E thought of the book. We’ll show you what we made with all the blueberries we picked (with recipe), and I’ll end by recommending some of my favorite books to teach young children about healthy foods. Read more
Jun 22
In keeping with the theme of books that teach a lesson, we decided to review A Tale of Two Beasts by Fiona Roberton. E picked this book out herself during one of our trips to the bookstore. It’s certainly eye catching with it’s bright orange cover and vivid illustrations inside the book, but Emma liked the cover because “that girl is trying to talk to the cute animal.” Read more
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Nicole Del Sesto
The Reader's Room 