Picture Book reviews: All About the Bunnies!

9780062307835

I snorted. 

Declan is a sweet little toddler monster who cheerily greets every stick, rock, and tree he meets. His excitement cannot be contained, however, when he sees...bunnies!!! Bunnies!!! Bunnies!!! For some odd reason, however, much like the deer in my yard this morning, the bunnies are a bit unnerved by the shrieking toddler monster racing toward them at top speed. Poor, sad Declan!

There are very few words in the text, and the pictures are aDORable. I was recently treated to a video of one of my young patrons 'reading' the book Ball by Mary Sullivan, and I can see this one being 'read' the same way. So, E., if you are at story time tomorrow, I have a book for you to check out - after I read it, of course!

9780062287809

Cat and Bunny.

Bunny and Cat.

It's always been just the two of them—daydreaming, having adventures, playing their special game.

Until the day someone else asks, "Can I play?"

I was reading somewhere recently that it is important for kids to have moments when they figure out a secret. Those moments help them feel empowered and grown-up, and encourage more critical thinking and analyzing. Toddlers will feel quite astute when they realize cat and bunny (and giraffe and quail and...) are actually children in costumes. When a real kitten shows up on page, you have the opportunity to discuss real vs. pretend (a conversation we are having at home a LOT lately!)

The story is a common one - two best friends, a third is introduced and someone feels left out. A common story in books, because it is a common story in real life, and the resolution is simple and cheery. Soft watercolor and pencil illustrations.

Shaving Cream Easter Eggs

(***published the day AFTER Easter because my computer was being difficult - bookmark it for next year!)

Ever third Mommy blog seems to feature shaving cream Easter eggs, so we thought we'd give it a try. Shocking, I know, that we would be drawn to something messy. All we had in the house was shaving gel, but fortunately Daddy was headed to town, so we sent him on a side trip. Supposedly whip cream will work, too, but I didn't have much of that either, and I didn't want to risk wasting it!

So, we hard-boiled our eggs, then filled baking pans with shaving cream and a few drops of food coloring.

By "we" I mean "Mommy". I'm not totally crazy.

 

Swirl it a bit with a toothpick, then you're supposed to roll an egg from one end to another.

 

Ours didn't roll, they just scooted. Too much shaving cream? Too little? I have no idea.

 

No matter, everyone was happy to just squish them around.

 

We do a lot of semi-naked crafting, for obvious reasons.

 

 

Mmm-hmm. Being the overachiever she is, Sheridan didn't stop with getting her hands messy.

 

NO idea how that happened.

 

Aaaaaand, on to the sink!

We let the eggs sit on paper plates, covered in shaving cream, while we ate lunch, then wiped them off.

 

Pretty! Mostly pastel-type colors. I may experiment next time with gels vs. liquid food coloring, or see if we should have added more drops. At any rate, the kitchen and dining room smell nice and fresh - although Sheridan's arms kept their greenish tint for a while...



Easter Books from HarperCollins

9780062075543

 

Things I always wondered about the Bear Family: When Baby Bear grows up, what will they call her? Why are they referred to as the Bear Family, when there are a million other bears around? What are they called? How come some animals talk and wear clothes, and others act like...animals?

 

Middle-aged musings aside, Mike Berenstain seems to be just as capable as his late parents. In The Easter Parade, Brother Bear resists the idea of shopping for and dressing up in 'nice' clothes, but changes his tune when he gets a few compliments. Sound like anyone in your household? The Berenstains always tried to write about issues that were timeless and uiversal, and this one sure fits the bill. (Off question for this one, though: Sister Bear is the one most excited about dressing up and wearing a fancy hat, but in the end she seems to be dressed the same as she always is - and no hat. ?!)

 

 

9780062252227

 

The Chipmunks' many DVDs are among those most watched in our household. Something about that trouble-making Alvin seems to appeal to my kids, can't imagine why. In Alvin's Easter Break, the Chipmunks' easter vacation is spoiled by the constant attention of their three biggest fans - or is it? Younger kids may not quite see the problem, but oler siblings annoyed by their tag-alongs may respond to this gentle nudge to include rather than avoid. Or not. But it's worth a try!

 

 

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With cards, poster, and stickers. Because gimmicks are an easier way to make sales than actually writing something worth reading. Sorry, but these are just getting worse and worse.

 

Two to try and one to pass on! Thanks to HarperCollins for the review copies.



Easter Read-Alouds

978-006-212-5248

 

"The day of the annual town Easter Egg Hunt has arrived, and Marley and his family are ready to find the biggest, most eggstravagant egg! Marley is great at spotting the eggs in trees and behind plants, but he just can't seem to get the eggs to Cassie or Baby Louie before someone else snatches them up. So, in true Marley fashion, Marley decides to forge his own path . . . right through the doors of the town shops. Stopping into the grocery, the bakery, and the party store, Marley creates calamity wherever his paws touch. But will his wild egg chase end up with Marley finding the big, glorious egg before the hunt is over?"

 

Millions of dog owners recognized their own misbehaving pets in Grogan's novel, Marley. In this, one of the many picture books that have resulted from that novel's success, children are bound to identify with the messes their pets (or they themselves) can cause when on a single-minded quest. I look forward to reading this one in story time in a couple weeks, and anticipate many gleeful groans! We may even forego the usual egg decorating activity, and try decorating a puppy outline instead. The brightly-colored illustrations just scream Easter, and will no doubt make it one of the first picked off the shelf.

 

978-006-223-7095

 

Any children's librarian who has been on the job for more than a week can point you towards the seek-and-find-type books without looking up from her desk. This series from HarperCollinsChildrens is just tricky enough for young children to be challenged and not frustrated (this old lady, however, would find it helpful if the back included a cheat sheet!) In the above example, readers must help the Easter Bunny solve a mystery. When they find him in each scene, they find the next clue. The final pages include other items to go back and look for, and of course, parents can make up their own challenges for each page, keeping repeated readings fresh and fun. Obviously, the format would make this a difficult read for a group story time, but just right for a little pre-bedtime snuggling.

 

Thank-you to HarperCollins for the review copies!

 

 

 

 



Tie-Dyed Easter Eggs

One of the few non-book-related blogs I follow is Our Best Bites. They frequently have recipes that sound so yummy I want to try them immediately - but, time being what it is, they usually get relegated to the stack of recipes sitting on my kitchen counter, waiting for one of my all-too-infrequent-marathon-cooking days.

Monday, however, their post was not for food per se, but for these Tie-Dyed Easter Eggs. Tie-dyed as in, you dye them using old silk ties! The second I saw it I thought, "I HAVE to try this," posted it to my Facebook page, told all the mommies in story time about it, and then at lunch time, ran right out to Goodwill to buy five of their most interesting silk ties.

That was Monday. Today is Wednesday. That time thing again!

Today, however, since we have story time, and since our theme is eggs, and our craft is decorating paper eggs, I decided I was justified in trying the eggs here at work. I had a few questions, making this a little bit of a science experiment. For one thing, most eggs bought in the store look like this:

Whereas the eggs in my refrigerator look like this:

Yes, the store's are cleaner, but they look pretty pathetic, don't they?

The question is, will the white ones take the dye better? I decided to do some in each color and see.

I also wanted to know if it would make a difference if the egg was blown out or not. It would certainly make a difference if they turned out really pretty, and I wanted to keep them! To blow out an eggshell, just poke a hole in each end with a straight pin, and blow really hard into one hole.

I was going to do half this way. Not taking into account that I have a really bad cold. About the time I finished this first one, my head exploded. It was quite a mess.

Hard-boiled it is, then!

basically, what you do is cut up a silk tie, and wrap the eggs print-side-in:

Aren't these pretty already?

Then you wrap it again loosely in a light-colored cloth:

Place in a pot,

Cover with water, and add 1/2 cup of vinegar. Or so. I don't measure. That can cause problems sometimes, but this doesn't seem to be an exact science.

After boiling for about twenty minutes and really stinking up the library, I set the eggs out to cool (still wrapped). The water was a dark blue at this point, and since I can't even throw dirty water away without feeling guilty, I popped in some more white eggs, and the scraps from the two ties I had used.

Deosn't that look...er...appetizing. It turned out well, though:

Purple is, after all, the new pink!

I decided to make myself wait until the end of story time to open these. We had several other egg decorating ideas to look at, so these tied (pardon the pun) in nicely. Besides dye, markers, tissues, etc., we have two old cigar boxes of hand-decorated eggs donated by a local family some time back:

Isn't the detail incredible? They started making these together many years ago, after reading this book:

which they also donated, and which I read parts of this week.

Some of the older siblings that come to story time jumped on this idea, and I would not be surprised to see some cool artwork featured on Facebook in the near future! (Yes, L.S., I am talking to you!)

I'm not quite brave enough to give toddlers real eggs to decorate, so we went with paper. Monday's group made folding egg-shaped cards, while today's experimented with different media and making patterns:

Finally, the grand un-wrapping:

The two eggs on the left were brown, and the one on the top right was green. The other three were white. The colors all brightened up as they dried. I want to experiment more with wrapping them closely, so more of the pattern transfers. I may try rolling them in the fabric and then tieing both ends. Pretty cool, either way! If you try/tried these at home, please let me know how they turned out, and what variations you have tried!