Bird and Little Bird

Alphabet Glue: Volume Five Has Arrived!

 

Volume Five of Alphabet Glue has arrived!  I'm so excited to share this issue with you all, in part because of all of the encouragement I received from readers regarding the more frequent publishing schedule, but also because I just think that you will really like the projects in this volume.  Volume Five contains some of my very favorite Glue projects to date, including some very fun miniature mailboxes that have great potential for adventures in letter writing and that we've used at our house to start a little in-family postal service.  I kind of can't get enough of them and will have some additional mailbox related projects to share later in the week.

I think another reason that I'm so happy with the results of my work on Volume Five is because of how enthusiastic Mariam has been about this issue.  She really enjoyed working on the projects with me and I love the feeling that we made this issue together.  The collaboration between grown-ups and kids around reading, writing and crafting is the entire idea behind this publication and it is so gratifying when that vision can be realized!

I hope that you and yours will enjoy this issue of Alphabet Glue as much as I do.  As always, you can get all of the details about Volume Five and download a copy by visiting the Alphabet Glue page here. 

The Week That Was.

Last week...

- The subject of the role of monkeys in Cold War era space programs came up.  News of the monkeys' fate, though presented as gently as possible, was not well received by our resident animal lover.  She spent the rest of the day fashioning space helmets for her stuffed monkey from printer paper and duct tape.

- The monkey was also given a rocket pack, but the cat ate it.

- We realized that Mariam spending so much time reading my Childcraft encyclopedia set from the early 1980's raises occasional issues. See above.

- We finished another of the Moominland series, Moominpapa at Sea.  And, we started in on Moominvalley in November.

- It certainly feels like November around here.  We still have no consistent snow cover and it has been raining again.  It's like we live in the land that winter forgot. Oh, except for all the days when the temperature has been below ten.

- I spent hours building a great book list for Alphabet Glue in honor of February being National Poetry Month.

-I discovered that National Poetry Month is in April.

- I built some other great book lists for Alphabet Glue.  Look for them in Volume Five.  This week! 

 

Library Monday: Gooseberry Park.

I sometimes joke that I should just retitle my Library Monday posts "Ode to Cynthia Rylant."  As anyone who has read this blog for any period of time (or who has read an issue of Alphabet Glue) can attest, I'm a big, big fan of Rylant's books.  Fair enough.  She writes wonderful stories for small folks, particularly for children in the preschool and elementary years.  It wasn't until about this time last year, however, that I realized that in addition to her beloved series (Poppleton, Henry and Mudge, Mr. Putter and Tabby), Rylant also writes chapter books.

Among Rylant's longer books is Gooseberry Park, a tale of a grand and dangerous wintertime rescue mission conducted by a labrador retriever on behalf of a dear friend of his: a squirrel he met in the park one day.  With the help of a bat and a hermit crab, our loyal hero sets out to find his friend after an ice storm destroys her winter nest and leaves her separated from her baby squirrels.  Gooseberry Park is, among other things, a creatively woven tale of friendship, loyalty and bravery.  There is just enough dramatic tension to keep the tale moving along at a good pace, but not so much that young readers will fear that the story might end badly.  It also gets points at our house for incorporating a bit of humor in just the right places.  Rylant's ability to weave in funny moments is one of the reasons that Mariam enjoys her writing so much, and she does a fine job of it in this book, without losing the thread of the narrative as a whole.

The weather here in Vermont has suddenly turned very, very cold and icy over the last few days.  Because of the baby's relative newness, this has meant that we've chosen to stay in for the last few days rather than to brave subzero temperatures with a newborn.  Too bad that it took me until this morning to realize that we might have used the time to reread Gooseberry Park- it really is the perfect book for these icy afternoons! 

Library Monday: The Moomin Family.

I had lately begun to feel that Mariam and I were in a bit of reading rut.  We read a number of really fantastic books together last year, but towards the end of my pregnancy I was super exhausted and fairly grumpy (especially towards bedtime) so we had kind of moved back in the direction of rereading favorite (short) picture books instead of the chapter books we had been using for nightly read-aloud time. Then, my dad sent Comet in Moominland to Mariam as a gift.  Just a few chapters in, it was clear that picking up the other books from the Tove Jansson series was a must-do.  We quickly read two, and then ordered four more.  We've been reading them day and evening both, and plans are already in the works to reread them once we've gotten through the first pass.

 

I'm not sure how I previously missed the thorough and amazing genius of the Moominland series, but there is certainly no time like the present when it comes to remedying such an unfortunate situation.  These books are good in the way that Pippi Longstocking, The Phantom Tollbooth and From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler are good.  They are fantasy for the whole family; gentle, subtle and clever.  Full of understated adventure underpinned by subtle lessons about friendship, loyalty and flexibility in the face of life's unexpected, the Moomin family tales might be my favorite kids' literature find in recent memory.

 

The books have a mid-century Scandinavian sensibility about them that will likely appeal to fans of Astrid Lindgren and Elsa Beskow and I especially like the fact that the natural world plays a starring role in the series.  I also like that there is much that happens in each story that is inexplicable, magical and strange and that for the most part, the inexplicable remains that way.  Jansson doesn't make too much out of trying to clarify every mysterious event that takes place in the stories, and the result is a feeling of enchantment that is enjoyable, funny and unique.

 

I haven't had much success finding books from this series in our own local libraries, perhaps because the titles seem to be just beginning their renaissance as popular children's literature.  However, I believe that Amazon has a deal going where you can get the fourth book free when you buy three of them, and they are certainly worth having copies of your own for reading again and again.  Speaking of which, Mariam is home from school today with a sore throat, so off I go to read her another chapter of Moominsummer Madness.  I better hurry too because I'm pretty sure that she's reading ahead without me right now. 

Alphabet Glue: Volume Four is Here!

 

I had originally aimed to have the new issue of Alphabet Glue go live tomorrow morning, mostly because December 1st seems like a more sensible time to launch the winter edition of something than November 30th does.  However, I think that since it is already dark here this evening and really, December 1st is only a few hours away, we might as well go for it.  Right? Goodness, I have a hard time keeping a secret. 

 

So, click on over to the Alphabet Glue page to check out the details of the newest issue of the magazine and to download a copy for your very own!  There are penguins, paper flowers, booklists, snowglobes and storytelling.  Plus, some bookmaking, book sharing, origami and a science experiment turned art project.  All good things, and I'm very happy to be sharing them with you!

 

Also, this time around I'm offering the first four issues of Alphabet Glue as a single PDF file at a discounted price.  So, if you haven't had a chance to check out the previous issues, this might be just the time.  And, if you want to send any of the issues to someone other than yourself as a gift this month, I'm more than happy to send the files via email to the recipient along with a nice note saying that they're from you.  Just send me an email at birdmail@gmail.com and we can get it set up! 

Library Monday: Owen & Mzee.

There are a few books floating around our house that we have owned long enough and read enough times that I start to assume that everyone else has read them too, and I forget that I really should share them with you all.  Such is the case with Owen and Mzee, a true story about a very unlikely friendship between two very different animals. 

When Owen, a young hippopotamus, is left stranded and orphaned after a tsunami, he is taken to an animal refuge to live.  There he meets Mzee, an Aldabra Tortoise who is well over a century old and not the friendliest fellow. To the amusement (and slight dismay) of park staff, Owen decides that Mzee is going to be his new family, and his persistence eventually pays off.  The two become inseperable, and I've got to say, if you don't find the story of these two animals becoming buddies for life at least a little bit touching, you might be a robot. 

You can find out more about Owen and Mzee on their website, but if you haven't already, I'd recommend simply picking up the first volume of their story at your local library and getting acquainted the old fashioned way.  I think you'll be glad that you did.

Library Monday: Great Reads for the Littlest People.

The other day, amidst the lazy-paced organization of onesies and diaper covers that has been going on around here, I had a sudden and happy realization: a new small person means getting to revisit some of my favorite picture books with someone who is getting to experience them for the very first time.  This got me thinking about which books I was particularly looking forward to reading again and again with a very small person in my lap.

 

Hondo and Fabian by Peter McCarty

The Hondo and Fabian books feature some of the loveliest illustrations around and of course, any book that features a dynamic duo of chubby cat and goofy pup is bound to be a winner.

 

The Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel

What can I say? These are childhood classics for good, good reason.  In fact, I don't actually need to have all that much nostalgia for these titles because realistically, Mariam still lets me read them to her all the time. I'm pretty well convinced that Frog and Toad are equally lovable whether you are two years old or ninety-nine. 

 

Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin

If I remember correctly, I bought this book before Mariam was even born and then saved it for the day when she was old enough to appreciate how very, very funny and ridiculous it is. Not only do the cows type, they demonstrate some seriously well-honed negotiations skills, and this is something that is worth reading about. I promise.

 

Olivia by Ian Falconer

A precocious pig with an affection for Jackson Pollack paintings and nap avoidance?  Yes, please.  This is a book that is at once clever, funny and unique and I'm very pleased to be spending a little bit more time with Olivia, Ian and of course, Edwin the cat.

 

Library Monday: Ocean.

As soon as we brought this book home from the library last week, I knew that I wanted to share it here.  But I wasn't quite sure how to categorize it in the bookshop for you all.  Ocean isn't a read-aloud per se, although we have certainly been reading certain sections of it as a family.  Indeed, particularly for the smaller set, this is more of a browsing book.  And, a beautiful one at that.  In the end, I decided to let it live with the Kitchen Table Science books that I've been adding to the bookshop over the last couple of weeks. 

Ocean: The World's Last Wilderness Revealed is what many people might call a coffee table book.  A beautiful assemblage of photographs and factual information about the oceans of the world, Ocean covers everything from the creatures that dwell beneath the surface to the relationships that people have cultivated with their waters and beaches around the world.  There are whales, sharks, jellyfish and various things that I have never heard of and honestly, hope never to meet.  Mariam finds the book fascinating and over the last week she has spent hours flipping through the pages while nested on the couch.  This book very nearly came between us and homework completion last week. 

Ocean is a hefty volume, and not inexpensive.  It is something special, after all.  So, I'd encourage you to make a library trip for this one.  It has been around for a few years, but is still relatively recent, so it should be widely available.  Both myself and the resident little person around here highly recommend it.

A Bit of Book Exchange Help.

 

Greetings from the land of sudden and surprising sub-freezing temperatures!  Apparently, this impending winter business is not just a rumor.  Anyhow, I've had a few emails regarding the book exchange in the last week or two, and it would seem that a number of books have either not been sent to begin with or, have been lost in the mail.  A particular quirk of this round of the exchange seems to be some kind of problem with international mail; most of the missing books that appear to have been legitimately sent on time were sent between the U.K. and the U.S. 

So, I could use a bit of help. This hasn't ever happened to this extent in the past, and I really don't like the idea of there being kids out there who worked hard on books to send out to their exchange partners and then received nothing in return.  Because who likes checking the mailbox and not finding what you are so, so hoping will be there?  No one.  In the past, Mariam has always been willing to make an extra book or two to cover shortages like these, but honestly, Dan's crazy schedule at the hospital is taking its toll on us all and I can barely get her to do her school work these days, let alone anything else that isn't her idea to start with.  If anyone has a child who is willing to make an extra handmade book to send to one of the kids who hasn't received one, I'd be forever grateful.  And, if you don't have them all already, I'd happily let you choose an issue of Alphabet Glue in return for the favor.  Here's what I need:

- a book for a nine year old in the U.K.

- a book for a five year old in the U.S.

- a book for an eight year old in the U.S.

- a book for a seven year old in the U.K.

- a book for a twelve year old in the U.S.

If you are willing and able to help out, just send me an email at birdmail@gmail.com and I'll get you all the information that you need.  Thanks in advance!

Library Monday: Pumpkin Picture Books.

 

October is many things, most of them very, very good.  Here in Vermont the leaves change and fall, the days are often crisp and cool but still a little sunny too and of course, it is the month of pumpkins.  I'm not entirely sure what exactly it is about pumpkins that is so wonderful, but I suspect that we can all agree that pumpkins are something quite special. What other vegetable do you know that makes small children squeal with delight?  (And yes, I do understand that pumpkins are technically a fruit).  Broccoli is all well and good, but it doesn't get nearly the love around my house that a nice, round pumpkin does.  So, for you on Library Monday, a few favorite pumpkin-centric picture books.

 

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? is a particularly good book about pumpkins, math and the oft-cited truism that good things can come in smaller than expected packages.

 

I used The Pumpkin Circle quite a bit back in the days when I taught a lot of garden and outdoor education.  It provides a nice overview of the plant life cycle with the added benefit of being about pumpkins, which as we've already established, is a good thing.

 

Gail Gibbons.  Need I say more?

 

From Seed to Pumpkin is a non-fiction title from the Let's Read and Find Out Science Series. I'm not sure how many of you are already fans of this series of books, but they are seriously great.  We have a lot of the Stage 2 books, which are slightly more involved, but to date, we haven't read one of these books from either of the levels that we didn't thoroughly enjoy. They manage to achieve the delicate balance between being simple enough for small people to understand while also being detailed enough to satisfy scientific curiousity. 

 

Oh, and it looks like Tanya is the winner of the BIG Kids Magazine giveaway.  Your copy of the magazine was in my mailbox when I arrived home this afternoon, Tanya, so I'll be in touch via email about a mailing address!