Category: books

10/13: Kid Book suggestions

It’s been a busy new book month around here, and so I’m going to chat about 3 different titles today. Harper Collins sent me several new kids books to check out – and the girls and I recommend them all for a birthday, just because, or or Christmas gift. Most are for kids 5 – 8 or so… but Rebecca (Age 3) loves them all too. They’re boy or girl friendly too. Without further ado – here’s three great books.

My Mommy Hung The Moon: A Love Story by Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell is the first title – the child tells about all his (amazing) mom does. I love kids books that have a lot of detail, interesting things to look at, and that can start a discussion. This does all of that.

I love the whimsical drawings and sweet story of how the mom bakes all the biggest cookies, does all these cool things. I love the book page and the baking pages best.

I think that could be a lot of fun to give an expecting mom too. Next up, a cat I wasn’t familiar with…

Scaredy-Cat, Splat by Rob Scotton is a book I don’t think I quite got, but the girls ADORE it. In fact – the kids we read it to at Elizabeth’s “read with us” time at school loved it too. So obviously my “it’s ok I guess” rating means nothing. The kids all LOVED it!

He is a pretty cute cat, and the girls enjoyed how he was trying SO HARD to be scary and win the prize… but really wasn’t a scary kind of cat.

Speaking of animals – we also got to read about some rescue bunnies…

Rescue Bunnies by Doreen Cronin is about a trainee bunny (they ‘rescue’, though it wasn’t quite clear if they were meant to be police, fire, or something altogether different) and the mission to save a giraffe. They talk about what will happen if they can’t save the giraffe (the hyenas will come eat it) – that’s one point I’d warn you about. Though my kids watch Discovery channel programs often enough they know some animals eat other animals and weren’t bothered by the sense of urgency given here to saving a life.

I cracked up at the movie references randomly placed through the book. A bit of humor for the adults. Everything does indeed turn out ok in the end (of course) and since we have a daddy who’s job it is to help and even save other people it was especially great. The fact that it was bunnies made it even better for my girls – they loved that!

Stay tuned – I’ve got some other books to recommend for (upcoming) holiday shopping, and a few books to give away in the next few weeks!!

Blades of the Rose: AWESOME book series

Rarely do I yell out “this is a winner! READ it! I LOVE IT!!” Well this is one of those situations. I’ve already had friends tell me they love it too. Yes, I have found a fantastic new series (and new to me author) and I must share.

Author: Zoe Archer

Books: A series of 4 historical set (late 1800’s) action/adventure with a magical twist. The good guys are protecting magical sources (ancient strong magic) from the baddies, falling in love, kicking butt, and it’s all around FANTASTIC.

Why I love: BOTH the leading man and ladies of these books are heroic. They have skills, they’re good at heart, and they’re equally awesome. There’s no “he’s a rock star, she’s along for the ride”. NO! Everyone is pulling their weight. I also ADORE the way the author really sets the tone (you feel that desert sand and heat, smell the salty air and see blue skies in Greece…) without slowing down the story. She kept me 100% interested and engaged.  She also has a ton going on without being overwhelming. Action, adventure, romance, intrigue… wow. I’ve read the first two, and so far they are both entirely satisfying as stand-alone novels. The main characters are different in each book, but there are some plot lines that arc throughout the stories so I’d start at the beginning.

Have I said I LOVE these books?! So well written and with such great balance of many things I love. I kind of describe them as Indiana Jones-esque (meaning adventure + romance + great characters + a bit of magic/myth/mystical), and if that appeals to you I’d recommend these strongly.  Another thing I really appreciate is that they’re being released one after another. No waiting six months or a year! No, they’re coming out every month. LOVE that! Warrior is the first and Scoundrel is the second. They’re both available now!

Rebel will be coming out November 2 and Stranger is coming December 7. I have it marked in my calendar, and I’m counting days until I can take off on another wild adventure…

{thinking ahead to Christmas? This would make a GREAT gift!!}

School Rules. {Pinkalicious}

I really love the Pinkalicious books for my girls. She’s kind, imaginative, and marches to the beat of her own drum for sure. I received the latest {Pinkalicious: School Rules!} just before Elizabeth started Kindergarten. PERFECT timing!

In this story, Pinkalicious brings her (imaginary friend) unicorn to school (shown below, eating teacher’s apple) and has to show her around and make sure she doesn’t break rules. I love the illustrations as much as I do the cute stories. I can’t believe we only just discovered the joy of Pinkalicious this year!! I highly recommend all the books in the series – and I love the affordable paperbacks now coming out.

I know a few cute girls who will be getting pinkalicious-inspired Christmas gifts this year for sure.

Speaking of Pinkalicious, my own girl (aka the red queen – but in a good way not creepy Alice in Wonderland way) officially has her own school album.

Michaels carries these (I had NO idea – someone told me at a crop!) and their albums were on sale so this was only $10.99. My plan is that this will hold at least grades K – 6. I’m going to be really picky about what goes in here. I want it to be a more ‘special memories of school’ vs ‘every dang thing I ever did at school’. I will have some 4×6 divided protectors so that I can insert photos + journaling cards right into it to supplement the school layouts I do each year. On top you can see her Kindergarten school photo.

What can I say? School Rules!

book inspired page: Into the Wild

I loved the vivid greens + pinks on this cover and picked it up just to look… and when I opened the front cover and the author mentioned being inspired by action/romance flicks like Romancing the Stone (for which I am a HUGE sucker) I had to have it.

Into the Wild by Beth Ciotta wasn’t as good as I hoped. The heroine goes to South America after receiving a spooky package from her dad and finding his best friend dead. TV star (and hunk, duh) of adventure/treasure hunting show and her friend’s brother happens to be right down where she’s headed and he tries to help/look after her. Yada yada yada… happily ever after. In short I wish the author had hacked a bunch of dead weight and instead gave us more action & adventure & twists. It had way too much info about stuff that as I reader I didn’t need or want, then when the real adventure stuff was happening it’d just get cut short. *disappointed groan* Plus the heroine was a bit dumb in the beginning. Who goes to a country and doesn’t speak the language but trusts strangers over someone she has a character reference for? WHO!?? (moving on) It was a fun read – and it’s cover inspired a scrapbook page…

I was totally in love with this Sassafrass Lass paper to go with these pics, so the pink is more of an accent color vs main color… still. LOVE how the layout came out!! All that bits & pieces of paper & lace on that strip on the left? That IS the piece of paper. Oh how I loved playing…

I used plenty of Tim Holtz distress stickles and other fun bits too. Actually a pretty fast & simple page thanks to that cool paper.

If you notice that I’ve become a bit distress stickle obsessed… well I have. In fact even Tim made a comment when I emailed my last project to him. I’m SO ok with being known as glitter obsessed.

After all, I’m a mom living in the wilds of girl-world over here…

Cake Pops!

Oh for the love of cute. Speaking of blogs I love and people who cross all reasonable “normal” bounds of creativity. I love Bakerella.

I love www.bakerella.com – and I am really excited about her book. {amazon link} I’m picturing class parties and me being a hero of a mom. yeah! Or bouquets of cake pops just because. Otherwise just expanding my decorating skills beyond sprinkles and having FUN. Her imagination and creativity always blows me away.

These Mater cakes are still on my must-make list! {link to post}. I also saw her on the cover of a food magazine at the grocery store this week. The woman’s skills are definitely being noticed!!

Alas, I’ll have to wait a while for my copy. I ordered it along with the new Janet Evanovich (Wicked Appetite) coming out this week from Amazon and so I must be patient. I guess I’ll go make some calorie-free paper crafts so that I can have room for dessert when the time comes!!