Counting Colors

Counting Colors by Roger Priddy

If you're ever looking for a gift to give to someone under 1, this is it.  Counting Colors:  Search for the hidden objects and learn your colors and numbers (or Seek & Find in the newer version) is a book that your child can grow with.  They say it's for ages 2 and up  -- but I think it's a great book for babies as well.  I have a 9-month old who loves it.

Each two-page spread is dedicated to one color, and there is absolutely no question at all what the color is.  The text, which is written in the border around the pages, challenges children to find different objects scattered along the pages.  (For example, 1 squawking parrot, 2 roses, 3 airplanes)  Then against a white background are amazingly vivid photos of hearts, tomatoes, shoes, ladybugs, etc of all sizes.  Look at the cover above -- wow!

So you can use the book multiple ways:
1)  teach colors
2)  name objects
3)  teach numbers and counting
4)  search-n-find

A winner, all the way around.  This is published by Priddy Books, and I haven't seen a book by them that I don't like!  They are aces for their clear, colorful photos. 

Other great Priddy Books (my daughters love these):

• My Big Truck Book: I desperately needed help to teach my daughter the names of construction trucks!
• Animals, Colors, First Words, Trucks:  four separate books, and wow!!
  
• Happy Baby Words:  This has a little bit of everything (colors, body parts, toys, food, clothing, etc)
• Baby Mates:  In the Bath  -- This was my older daughter's first bath book.  She LOVED it and now it's a favorite of my younger daughter as well.   There is a rubber duck attached to this -- lots of fun!
• Baby Touch & Feel Puppy Love:  Such soft cuddly puppies!  I'm not a dog person and I love it!
  

Other great books that teach colors:

• Planting a Rainbow by Lois Elhert also teaches about flowers and will inspire you to start a garden
• My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss compares colors to emotions
• What Color is Your Underwear by Sam Lloyd is a funny lift-the-flap book that teachers colors and the importance of underwear!
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, both illustrated by Eric Carle.
• The M&M's Brand Counting Book by Barbara Barbieri McGrath is a FUN AND YUMMY way to teach colors and counting!  Make sure you have a pack of M&M's ready when you read this book. My homeschooled daughter says, "mom, let's do math!" with a big smile on her face when she pulls this book out.   

Learn More:

• Priddy Books on the web!
  

• Fun ideas for teaching colors to little ones! 

• Smart Snacks Rainbow Color Cones:  This is the most awesome toy!  We bought it when my oldest daughter was 2.  It's basically an ice cream cone with removable scoops of ice cream that can be attached to it.  For example:  (Mom) Please may I have a vanilla / chocolate / strawberry triple-scooper?  (Daughter) Coming right up!  And she hands me the cone with a scoop of white, brown, and pink ice cream on it.  Teach colors and their corresponding flavors.  It's still a favorite toy and she's almost 5 years old now.   

• Uno:  Remember playing this game as a kid?  It's perfect for teaching both colors and numbers.  We play this regularly at my house.  While my daughter still needs to learn how to hold a deck of cards... she also needs to learn how to not be a sore loser.   Fun for the whole family -- you can even get big brother/sister to play!
  

Tumtum & Nutmeg

Tumtum & Nutmeg:  Adventures Beyond Nutmouse Hall by Emily Bearn, illustrated by Nick Price

My daughter is in preschool and is crazy about books and movies where animals talk.  She is especially fond of rodents (by definition a rodent is a mammal whose incisors do not stop growing), and particularly mice.  While I was looking for a book by Judy Blume at the library, my eyes were immediately attracted to a book by another "B" author, Emily Bearn, which on the thick spine had a drawing of two mice in clothing!  I've been looking for a chapter book to read to my daughter, and this one, which is written at the 2nd-4th grader reading level, turned out to be perfect!

Mr. and Mrs. Nutmouse live in the broom cupboard of Rose Cottage in Nutmouse Hall.  They enjoy the quiet life in their mansion.  Despite the fact that there is a banquet room, billiard room, and a ballroom -- 36 rooms in all -- Mr. Nutmouse prefers to spend the evening reading with his feet up by the fireplace and Mrs. Nutmouse cooking or sewing.  Tumtum (as Mr. Nutmouse is called because he has a bit of a tummy) and Nutmeg (called so because her fur is that color) would probably have lived out their days quietly.  However, they occasionally scamper into Rose Cottage, and find that the family there is not doing well at all.  The widower Mr. Mildew is such an absent-minded inventor that his house is in total disarray.  And so Nutmeg's maternal instincts kick in, and she and Tumtum begin to watch over the children, Lucy and Arthur.  They never dreamed that so many adventures would come to them because of this!

Three books are contained in this volume.  In the first, "Tumtum & Nutmeg", the Nutmouses secretly begin to tidy up the house, darn holes in socks, and occasionally rest in Lucy's dollhouse.  The children find traces of it being inhabited, and a letter-writing relationship between Nutmeg and the children is established in which she calls herself "a fairy of sorts".  When evil Aunt Ivy comes to visit, the Nutmouse family faces extermination, and so General Marchmouse rallies the troops and they hasten her departure from Rose Cottage, as she was making the children miserable as well.  The method they use to do so... well, without giving the story away, let me just say that it had my husband and daughter busting a gut from laughing so much!

In "The Great Escape", General Marchmouse, who is retired and longing for adventure, comes to visit the Nutmouses.  Arthur and Lucy's toys are too much for him to resist, and he goes from creating mock battles in the attic with toy soldiers to being held prisoner in a cage with naked gerbils at school!!  And finally, "The Pirates' Treasure" finds our dear Nutmouses secretly joining the children on a camping trip as Nutmeg is worried about them.  Then General Marchmouse shows up -- everyone roll your eyes, because you know an unwanted adventure is about to begin -- and the mice find themselves stealing Arthur's toy boat, crashing it into the newly named Marchmouse Island, and using their wits (and some help from the children) to escape from the pirate Rats!

As soon as we finished the book (503 pages in all), my daughter wanted me to immediately start reading it again.  There were some parts in the book that were very intense for her.  She is a VERY sensitive 4-year old, and the threat of death was in each story. Consequently we read for a long time some nights, so she wouldn't go to bed upset. But if your child is in the publisher's recommended age range, no worries.  My husband enjoyed listening to it as well, cozying up on the couch with us each evening.  He even mentioned that he was impressed with some of the vocabulary used in it as well.

The illustrations in the book are just lovely in black and white and add a rustic feel to this English import.  As for myself, I'm not a fan of the talking-animal genre... but it won me over as well!  I'm going to add this one to our home library.

Other chapter books about mice you might enjoy:   

• The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo
• Stuart Little by E.B. White (one of my husband's childhood favorites)
• The Ralph Mouse Collection:  The Mouse and the Motorcyle, Runaway Ralph and Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Cleary
• Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin by His Good Mouse Amos by Robert Lawson
• Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk (this one is a picture book but it's great!)
  

Learn More:

•  Tumtum & Nutmeg Official Website:  Learn more about the world of Tumtum & Nutmeg.  Visit the gallery to see illustrations from the book.  Check out the chapter sampler read a bit of the book online.  Nutmeg shares her favorite recipes with you, and there are some fun pages to print as well.
  

• What You Should Know About Selecting a Pet Rodent by the American Veterinary Medical Association -- because they will ask about a pet mouse after reading this book 
  

• Found:  A New Rodent!  A Time for Kids article
  

• Kid's Corner of the American Fancy Rat and Mouse Association has a kid's care guide for mice and rats, as well as printable coloring pages, puzzles/games (wordsearch, connect the dots, crossword, mazes, etc), and a paper doll rat family.
  

• Calico Critters:  These are ADORABLE little figures!  They have two mice families, the Norwood Mouse Family (pictured) and the Milky Mouse Family, and they can live in Cloverleaf Manor (among other fashionable toy houses).  The furniture they come with -- wow -- it's so cute!  There are all sorts of accessories that I am sure Nutmeg would use in her kitchen.  You could totally pretend you've got your own Nutmouse family!!  Of course, there are also squirrel, bunnies, chipmunks, etc etc -- but we ARE reading a book about mice!  Good for hours and hours of fun!  (I threw a few of these items into my store -- there are a TON more at Amazon!)
  

Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas

Fancy Nancy:  Splendiferous Christmas by Jane O'Connor, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser

Nancy loves Christmas time, because everything is fancy this time of year!  From choosing a tree, to decorating the house and cookies, to caroling at Mrs. DeVine's, Nancy's joy is contagious.  But an impatient little girl gets a little too exuberant and -- uh-oh -- will her Christmas tree be ruined?  Grandpa comes to the rescue and teaches Nancy to improvise ("that's a fancy word for using whatever's around to make something").  As Nancy joyfully declares:  "There's no such thing as too much tinsel!" 

If you've never read Fancy Nancy before, you are in for a treat, especially if you have a little girl in your life to share it with!  Nancy doesn't like anything plain -- everything must have lace, or be frilly or sparkly.  Unfortunately, the rest of her family is not like that and it can be so frustrating!  She also likes to use big words -- including some in French -- because they sound fancier.  In her Christmas book, you'll find words like "aroma", "heirloom" and "compromise" used, which will indubitably make it into your fancy little girl's vocabulary!  

This is the newest Fancy Nancy book -- it just came out this fall.  Keep your eyes peeled for an Easter book available next month!  Au revoir!  That's French for "good-bye"!
 
Learn More:

• Splendiferous Christmas Kit:  Event Guide and Activity Suggestions --  invitations, gift tags, tree decoration crafts, color pages -- everything you need for a Fancy Nancy Christmas party!  

• Decorate a Christmas tree and print it or turn it into an ecard to send to a friend!  From the Fun & Games page, click on Christmas Tree Decorating.
  

• Fancy Nancy website at HarperCollins Children's:  Fun and games (including paper dolls and printable activity packages for each book), make and send eCards, and meet the creators of the books.   In the adult section, you can also find party kits and activities to do while reading with your child.
  

• The author's website:  Jane O'Connor  Another book I love by this author is The Snow Globe Family, about a little family who lives inside a snow globe! 

• The illustrator's website:  Robin Preiss Glasser and an interesting interview with her as well!
  

Fancy Nancy Books:

• Fancy Nancy
• Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy
• Fancy Nancy:  Bonjour, Butterfly!
• Fancy Nancy's Favorite Fancy Words:  From Accessories to Zany
• Fancy Nancy:  Explorer Extraordinaire!
• I Can Read Books:  Fancy Nancy at the Museum and Fancy Nancy and the Boy from Paris (there are many more!)
  

• There are quite a few sticker / activity books available.  I'm not as familiar with these as my daughter isn't a fan of stickers... but there are a whole bunch available on Amazon.  Click on the Amazon link on the right side and search for "Fancy Nancy".  Books, toys, stickers, games, oh my!
  

Sesame Street Turns 40!!

Happy Birthday Sesame Street!  Believe it or not, this long-running TV show first aired on November 10, 1969.  It's amazing how much it has changed since it's first season... and how much it remains the same.  The set changed from a dirty street to the clean, sunny one we're all familiar with now once they learned that more than just inner-city kids were watching the show.  Oscar the Grouch is no longer orange as he was in the first season -- but he's worn the same eyebrows for 40 years now!  Blecchh!  I'm sure Oscar would love that!

Before I had kids, I never understood Elmo.  I couldn't stand him at all -- and neither did Kevin Clash when he first started puppeteering with Elmo.  What happened to Grover?  Cookie Monster?  Who is this furry red monster taking over the show?  And then... I started watching Sesame Street with my daughter Rowan when she was six months old or so.  Omigawd.  She LOVED Elmo.  She would smile and laugh and kick her feet!  I then began to love Elmo because my daughter did.  She gradually moved on.  Cookie Monster became her favorite, then Grover.  She still watches Sesame Street everyday.  Now my baby Molly is seven months old and in love with Elmo too.

Sesame Street is now broken into six mini-shows and various video clips.  Bert and Ernie are done in stop-action clay now, and Abby Cadabby goes to Flying Fairy School.  (Abby has yet to grow on me.)  Of course, there's still the big skit at the beginning.  They've got a gazillion celebrity guests and an archive of all of the characters -- with videos to go with!  Find out more at Sesame Street:  On Air.  Susan and Bob have been with the show since it's premiere, as has Caroll Spinney (Oscar and Big Bird).  Wow!!

And who can forget that Christmas special ("Christmas Eve on Sesame Street") from the late '70s that had the whole gang ice skating?  Then Oscar gets Big Bird all upset because he doesn't know how Santa gets down those skinny chimneys, and he freezes while sitting on the roof waiting for Santa to come so he can ask him!!

Did you know Mo Willems (Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus) wrote, illustrated and directed for Sesame Street in the '90s?  That Pixar's Bud Luckey created animated sketches like "Ladybug's Picnic" and "The Alligator King"?  Did you know the Pointer Sisters sang the "Pinball Number Count" song?  Keith Haring contributed to the show as well?  

I am a HUGE Sesame Street fan.  It's perfect that I have two children under five to give me a legitimate excuse to watch it.

Sesame Street Books:

• The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone and Michael Smollin --  Who didn't love this book as a kid?!
• Imagination Song by Joe Raposo --  The illustrations for this classic song are wonderful.  I used to play the song along with the book when I did storytime for toddlers/preschoolers.
• 1, 2, 3 by Elmo -- My daughter loved this counting board book
• Elmo's Big Lift and Look Book by Anna Ross and Joe Matthieu -- This lift-the-flap book covers counting, colors, shapes and more.  My daughter spent HOURS playing with this book every day as a toddler!
• Eat Your Colors (A Puzzle Book) by Sarah Albee and Joe Matthieu -- Help the Sesame Street gang build healthy meals, while learning what different color foods do for your body.
• Sesame Street Unpaved:  Scripts, Stories, Secrets and Songs by David Borgenicht -- This Young Adult book was written for the 30th anniversary of the show and has tons of interesting info in it!
  

Some of my favorite clips:

• Preschool Musical:  a spoof of High School Musical
• Rubber Duckie:  Ernie serenades in the bath tub!
• C is for Cookie
• Fuzzy and Blue:  Grover, Henry and Cookie Monster do their thing
• How about Grover and that blue man in the restaurant?!
  
• There are so many great clips!  Find your favorites here!
  

Official Sesame Street Websites:

• Sesame Street:  40 Years and Still Counting:  Vote for your favorites, watch vintage videos, read behind the scenes stories.
• Sesame Street -- from this site you can play games, download free podcasts, watch videos, get teacher/parent guides, print out pictures to color and more!
  

The Journey That Saved Curious George

The Journey That Saved Curious George:  The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H. A. Rey by Louise Borden and illustrated by Allan Drummond

We all know the story of Curious George:  the Man with the Yellow Hat found George in Africa and brought him home, thus beginning the monkey's adventures.  But did you know that George was originally called "Fifi", and there was a journey fraught with danger that the Reys undertook to save both the manuscript and their lives? 

Hans Augusto Reyersbach and Margarete Waldstein were both born Jews in Germany.  Hans moved to Brazil after World War One where he watched monkeys in the Amazon while wearing a broad hat (yellow hat, anyone?).  There he met Margarete and they married, living in an apartment with two pet marmosets -- very mischevious monkeys.  At this time the Reys changed their name to be something easier for the Brazilians to pronounce, and Margaret and H. A. Rey were born.

The Reys moved to Paris and began writing and illustrating books for children, and in 1939 began a new manuscript about a monkey named Fifi, who was very curious and always getting into trouble.  World War Two began, and being Jews in Europe, the Reys fled to save their lives.  They packed what they could onto their backs (including the Fifi manuscript) and started a journey on bikes south to Lisbon, Portugal, alternating biking and train rides.   From there they made it safely to America, and Curious George was published in 1941.

Much is to be learned from the primary sources in this book, including photographs, diary exerpts and passports.  My daughter particularly enjoyed following the Rey's journeys on the maps inside the covers of the books.  For Curious George lovers of all ages.

Learn More:

• Lesson plans from the publisher to go along with the book and a list of all Curious George books

• Did you know that the H. A. Rey also published two books on constellation identification?  He drew the constellations so they actually look like what they're supposed to resemble.  You'll never have problems identifying the constellations again!  The Stars:  A New Way to See Them and Find the Constellations can both be found in my store (link on left hand side).

• "Curious George" is now an animated tv-show on PBS that teaches math and science skills.  We LOVE it at our house!! 

• World War II for elementary students from the eMints National Center (University of Missouri College of Education).  Included is a link to:  Children of WWII, where you can find out what it was like for children to live during the war