How to Talk To A Girl:While I didn't love this one as much as the first two, I still enjoyed it. Well, parts of it at least. There were scenes that were just hilarious. Scenes where the humor really worked. And then there were other scenes--some of these being shown in the illustrations--that were just uncomfortable and disappointing.
1. Listen with both ears.
2. Look her in the eye.
3. Nod or smile to show that you are doing no. 1.
4. Use your indoor voice.
5. Don't scream.
6. Don't carry a concealed weapon.
7. Don't carry a weapon period.
8. Don't wear a mask.
9. Don't burp.
10. Don't fart.
11. Don't do anything you think might impress her. (See 5 to 10)
12. Just be yourself.
13. Show no fear.
Little Fox was making music. "La, la, la!" he sang. "Shhh! said Daddy Fox. "Listen!" Little Fox stopped singing. "Tweet-tweet-tweet," sang the tree, sweetly.Daddy's Little Scout is a companion to Mommy's Little Star. In this adventure, Little Fox and Daddy Fox are exploring nature. Daddy is teaching Little Fox about the world around him. Together they are meeting different animals. Daddy Fox teaching him, showing him, where different animals live, where they make their homes. It's a book celebrating spring too.
It is nighttime and the fathers are coming home.I didn't love The Fathers Are Coming Home. Not at much as I'd hoped anyway.
The fish father swims home to his little fish that live in the gurgling brook.
The bug father flies home to his little bugs that live under the log.
The lion father lives alone, so he comes home to himself.This example doesn't match the premise, and it seems out of sorts with the rest.
My father knows the names of things,A little boy celebrates his father in Jane Yolen's newest picture book. What makes this little boy's father so special, so great? Read and see for yourself!
Each bird that sings,
Their nicknames, too.
He knows the names of dogs
And cheese
And seven words that all mean blue.
He knows which mosses are the fuzziest,
He knows which insects are the buzziest,
And when we're sailing on the sea
He tells the names of fish to me.
Daddy loves his little girl,I think you can get a good idea of what this one is about without me saying much. A case of what you see is what you get. If you're looking for a sweet, affectionate story--with poetic touches--then you'll enjoy John Carter Cash's Daddy Loves His Little Girl.
with arms spread open wide.
He cherishes the love you give
and holds it deep inside.
Daddy loves his little girl,
deep as the ocean blue.
Wide as the mighty river,
forever he'll love you.
My name is Ollie. I love my dad.This is a simple book about Ollie and his father. Ollie is sharing just why he loves his dad so much. If anything, this book celebrates the simple, the ordinary, the small moments in a family's life.
We make banana bread--yum, yum!
Hot cocoa for everyone.
I ride my bike.
"Dad, look at me!"
Daddy is a fish with fins when summer heats the air. We splish and splash in crashing waves--a wiggling, wriggling pair.Daddy is a Cozy Hug is the perfect companion to Mommy Is a Soft, Warm Kiss. It's a sweet celebration of fatherhood. It celebrates the ordinary moments of life, of parenthood, of family life--through each season of the year. One of my favorite lines?
Daddy is a tap-tap hammer, building things with me. We work tap-tap and make a house for birdies in our tree.
Daddy is a sneaky fox when playing hide and seek.The story is told through rhyme, but it's good rhyme so it works well! I also liked the illustrations. I thought they worked well with the text.
He makes himself so hard to find...I sometimes have to peek.
Daddy calls me Goo-and-Go...we make some mucky messes.and
Daddy calls me Mini-Me...we're swinging right along!Daddy Calls Me Doodlebug would be a nice companion to Mommy Calls Me Monkeypants.
Baby Bear was grumbly. He didn't want to go to bed. He didn't want his bath, and he didn't want to kiss his mom and dad good night.Is this night destined for a fit? Or can Daddy Bear turn things around? As the two prepare for bed, Daddy Bear keeps trying to sneak in kisses--giraffe kisses, koala kisses, crocodile kisses, bat kisses, tiger kisses, monkey kisses, etc.--but Baby Bear is stubborn yet. No kisses for Daddy. (Mom got a big bear kiss early on soon after the drama started.) Is there a happy ending in store? Will there be peace yet? Read and see for yourself in this little board book.
"Come on, grumbly bear," said his dad. "A big bear kiss for Mom, a big bear kiss for Dad, then bath and bed."
"No," said Baby Bear.
Wildflower was a celluloid doll with long black braids of real hair, pale skin, and big brown eyes with painted-on eyelashes. Guy was a dark-skinned plastic doll in army fatigues. It did not matter that they looked nothing alike.Rockstar also has a boyfriend. But her boyfriend isn't a boy at all.
The first time Madison Blackberry lay them down next to each other in the white lace canopy bed and their arms brushed, Wildflower and Guy knew they never wanted to be separated. Because Wildflower had lived so long and seen so much of the world, she would have been content just to sit beside Guy for the rest of her existence. (7)
B. Friend was a devastatingly handsome stuffed bear with button eyes, an embroidered nose, and jointed arms and legs. He was a studious fellow with round wire-rimmed glasses with lenses made of clear dried nail polish. B. Friend wore a red crochet beret and a red flannel vest and britches. (9)Miss Selene is a fairy doll. Since she doesn't have a soul mate, she spends her time trying on dress after dress. That is when she's not feeling sad about something she can't quite remember.
A hippo's yawn doesn't mean she's tired. It means she wants to fight.If you enjoyed this one, you should definitely seek out Animal Faces by Akira Satoh and Kyoko Toda. Also Creature ABC by Andrew Zuckerman.
These fat, fleshy feet are holding up a lot of hippo! That's why each foot has four webbed toes. They splay out like fans to share the heavy weight of the body.
See the eyes and nostrils high atop the hippo's head? That's so the hippo can see and breathe while she sits in water all day long--just like a frog.
Welcome to my room. You will notice that it is very clean. I'm going to show you how you can clean yours, too. The first thing we need is a messy room. The messier, the better.How To Clean Your Room In 10 Easy Steps is one very silly book. It may just make your little ones--if they're messy--laugh out loud. What's the first step? Can you guess? It is
"Always wait until your mother hollers, "GET UP THERE AND CLEAN YOUR ROOM--NOW!" using all three of your names."It continues,
"You can pretend you're too busy to hear. Or you can answer her. Say, "But my room isn't messy. I know exactly where everything is!" When she hollers again, you'd better get moving."The second step?
I won't tell you ALL the steps. After all, I want to give you plenty of reason to pick up the book for yourself. My favorite step would probably be #5.
"Pull everything out of your drawers and closet and shelves. Every Single Thing."
"Carefully arrange all your stuffed animals on your bed."It goes on to add,
"It's very important that you stop to remember ever single animal's name."It's easy to relate to this one--as either the kid or the grown-up! I would definitely recommend this one.
When Grandma comes to visit, she asks so many questions about school. What is your teacher like? What's your favorite part of the day? Who is your best friend? Who is your favorite teacher? Who do you play with? Who is your second-best friend? Who's in your class? This time, instead of giving her the same old boring answers, I have an idea...I'll show her!
The art shows a boy with globes for eyes, magnifying glasses for glasses, a pencil for a smile, and a microscope as a nose. This book--in many ways--all about the art, the illustrations. The way you can use objects--everyday objects--in art. I also liked the language--the text is just as rich as the art in some ways. I like the way the librarian is described:
Jack knows everything about every country in the world.
Jack is as sharp as a pencil,
as curious as a magnifying glass,
and as precise as a microscope.
© Becky Laney of Young Readers
Listening to Mrs. Sheila, the librarian, is as exciting as rubbing a magic lamp.
She is as interesting as a book full of stories.
When she reads them, her eyes shine like marbles.
She can be as funny as a clown or as scary as a monster.
The Phoenix and the Carpet. E. Nesbit. 1904. 224 pages.
It began with the day when it was almost the Fifth of November, and a doubt arose in some breast--Robert's, I fancy--as to the quality of the fireworks laid in for the Guy Fawkes celebration.
The Phoenix and the Carpet is the sequel to Five Children and It. It stars Robert, Anthea, Jane, Cyril, and Lamb. (Though Lamb isn't a big star in the novel, he does manage to steal a few scenes in this one!) If you thought the magical adventures for these children were over--now that they've returned to the city and are far from their Psammead--you'd be wrong. (The Psammead is the "It" from the previous book.) For the delightful-sometimes-dangerous adventures are just beginning. After an "accident" in the nursery ruins the carpet, the carpet is replaced with a magical one. And this magical carpet holds another secret--for within it was an egg. Not just an ordinary egg. No, the Phoenix hatches from this egg--once another "accident" lands it in the nursery fireplace. The children now have THE Phoenix and a magic carpet--so you see the adventures are just beginning. Do you think these children are any wiser this time around? Do you think their wishes will lead them into trouble? Or into trouble that they can't think themselves out of?
Some of my favorite passages:
On this particular Sunday there were fowls for dinner, a kind of food that is generally kept for birthdays and grand occasions, and there was an angel pudding, when rice and milk and orange and write icing do their best to make you happy. (52)and
Mother was really a great dear. She was pretty and she was loving, and most frightfully good when you were ill, and always kind, and almost always just. That is, she was just when she understood things. But of course she did not always understand things. No one understands everything, and mothers are not angels, though a good many of them come pretty near it. The children knew that mother always wanted to do what was best for them, even if she was not clever enough to know exactly what was the best. (73)There were many things I loved about this one. I loved the trouble that comes about when the wishing carpet makes its own wish--and brings back one-hundred and ninety-nine Persian cats. Of course, that is only the start of that particular mishap...
Nesbit, Edith. 1902. Five Children and It. Puffin Classics. 237 pages.
The house was three miles from the station, but before the dusty hired fly had rattled along for five minutes the children began to put their heads out of the carriage window and to say, 'Aren't we nearly there?' And every time they passed a house, which was not very often, they all said, 'Oh, is this it?' But it never was, till they reached the very top of the hill, just past the chalk-quarry and before you come to the gravel-pit. And then there was a white house with a green garden and an orchard beyond, and mother said, 'Here we are!'
They may have their wish a day, but their wish ends at sunset. And as they discover, this is a VERY good thing!
I daresay you have often thought what you would do if you had three wishes given you, and have despised the old man and his wife in the black-pudding story, and felt certain that if you had the chance you could think of three really useful wishes without a moment's hesitation. These children had often talked this matter over, but, now the chance had come suddenly to them, they could not make up their minds. (17)
One False Note. Gordon Korman. 2008. Scholastic. 160 pages.
The hunger strike began two hours east of Paris.
One False Note is the sequel to Rick Riordan's The Maze of Bones. In the first book, readers are introduced to Dan and Amy Cahill. These two children are just two of the people who accept the strange challenge set forth in Grace Cahill's will. They are just part of the mad clan dashing frantically around the globe trying to unearth the family secrets and piece this puzzle together. Time matters. Loyalty does not. Can any person be trusted?
In this second adventure, the two are trying to puzzle out how Mozart figures into the family secret. Where is the clue hidden? And why do they need to go to so many boring--at least boring-to-Dan--museums to solve the mystery?
I'm not the biggest fan of this series--well the two I've read so far. But I am not the target audience for this one. I think they are quick reads. I think they're well-paced. I think there is enough action and adventure and mystery involved to keep readers reading. (At least if readers are initially hooked.)
Riordan, Rick. 2008. The 39 Clues: The Maze of Bones.
First sentence: Five minutes before she died, Grace Cahill changed her will.
So, if you're like me, you're probably wondering...how does MAZE OF BONES compare to The Lightning Thief and the rest of the Percy Jackson series? Better than? Worse than? Bout the same? I'll try to answer that question in my review of this first book in a new series.
One of the things that first struck me about Riordan's writing way back when--before Percy Jackson became the ever-so-popular series that it's become--was how great he was at crafting sentences and hooking readers. The Lightning Thief impressed me because almost every single chapter began with a great first sentence. Something so clever, so witty, so catchy, so intriguing that you wanted to keep reading.
Here are a few of the first (chapter) sentences in The Maze of Bones.
"Dan Cahill thought he had the most annoying big sister on the planet. And that was before she set fire to two million dollars." (4)
"Amy Cahill thought she had the most annoying little brother on the planet. And that was before he almost got her killed." (21)
"Dan felt a dizzy rush, like the time he ate twenty packs of Skittles." (35)
"Amy could've lived in the secret library. Instead she almost died there." (47)
Of course, those are just the first few examples, and the pattern doesn't always hold up later on in the book...but by this point if you're not hooked in the story, then chances are you won't be.
The book is all about mystery and adventure. Dan and Amy are a brother-sister team who have the once-in-a-lifetime chance to discover the family secret and perhaps save the world. True, the premise is a bit of a stretch. Two kids from a crazy-wild-dysfunctional family--orphans, but what else would you expect--set out to prove themselves worthy of the challenge set forth by their grandmother's will. The Cahill family, the clan, has the secret of all secrets. And it's a secret that some feel holds the key to the world's fate--for better or worse.
Dan and Amy aren't the only ones looking to discover this secret--revealed one clue at a time--there are teams from within the Cahill family. And they're all in a race to be the first. There can only be one winner after all. And most teams will stop at nothing to win--even if it means turning evil and trying to kill the competition.
This first book reveals the first clue and its focus is on Benjamin Franklin.
There will be ten books in all. The second book, One False Note, will be out in December 2008, it is by Gordon Korman. The third book, The Sword Thief, will be out in March 2009. It is by Peter Lerangis. Seven more books will follow. The tenth one is *supposed* to be out in the fall of 2010.
My thoughts. The book is entertaining enough. The pacing seems to be about right. The characters don't have as much depth (at least not so far) as I'd hoped. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. After all, some stories are all about the characters and others are all about the action. And if you're looking for action, adventure, mystery, (and plenty of explosions) then this one will satisfy. The series seems a bit gimmicky in all honesty. Not that I think kids will mind that. The books. The trading/collector cards. The games on the website. etc. It's important to keep in mind that I'm not the book's target audience. What is important is if this book--and the remaining books in the series--will appeal to kids and keep them reading. Books need to be exciting to read. And series books feel a certain need. An important one. [It's not that Babysitter's Club had any *true* literary merit, but as a reader at that age, at that time, they felt a very real need. And I think these books can do the same.]
http://www.the39clues.com/info/about
Dear Teacher,
I might be a bit late for the first day of school. The weirdest thing happened today. The head of the secret service turned up! They need me for a special secret mission to find a missing explorer. I did mention the math test, but he just said that the future of the country depends on me. I couldn't say no. Sorry Miss Brooks.
From Michael
P.S. Bruno's coming with me he makes a great bloodhound.
P.P.S. The stuff I've told you is Top Secret, so please eat this letter.
Benny?Benny and Penny are upset to hear that Cousin Bo has come to play. Why? Well, Bo is a toy-breaker. And the two don't trust Bo at all. Can these two find a way to play nicely? A way to play where everyone is happy and no one is crying? One thing is certain, there is plenty of drama to be had by all...
What are you making?
A map! It shows you how to find loot.
Oh, loot!
What's "loot"?
On Monday Abby wore a red-striped shirt, raggedy pants, and a black patch over one eye. She swaggered around and sliced the air with her sword. "Yo, ho, ho!" she shouted. "A pirate!" said Mama. "Just what I need." So, Abby helped Mama swab the deck. Swish. Swish. Swash.
"So Abby helped Mama do the royal shopping. The store doors opened at her command. She rode high in her silver carriage and called out her orders: "Five bananas! Two loaves of bread! One jar of peanut butter!" She helped pay with coins from the imperial treasury. Plink. Plink. Plink."I've never read a book about chores that was so charming.
