Category Archives: Good Reads

The upside of having a bored 10 year old home from school

Posted on by Mika
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Yesterday, the schools were closed due to the snow.

My bored 10 year old decided to do some baking. (Yus!)

Chocolate Chips Muffins

Apple Crumble

Thank you Edmonds Junior Cookbook for her inspiration! (We added rolled oats to the apple crumble recipe, and swapped out the blueberries and added chocolate chips to the muffin recipe.)

I love the illustrations in this recipe book. It helped my daughter do the majority of the baking by herself.

I remember collecting illustrated recipes similar to these ones from magazines when I was her age.

The recipes are written and illustrated by Mary Pat Fergus, and she has illustrated other recipe books as well (although, a lot of them were published years ago.)

By the way, this isn’t a paid review…although it sure does sound like one! hehehe


A Good Read – Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children About Their Art

Posted on by Mika
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What if your child had the opportunity to listen to Eric Carle (Writer & Illustrator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar) talk about his journey in becoming an illustrator and writer?

What was life like for Quentin Blake (Illustrator for Roald Dahl’s books, also a writer), and when did he start drawing?

What is Maurice Sendak like? (Writer & Illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are) Did he always have such original and interesting ideas? Where does he get his inspiration from?

“Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children About Their Art” gives you that peek into the artist’s world. Included in this book are special letters written by the illustrators to the “Young Artist”. Priceless!

There are fold-out pages, that reveal photos of the illustrators when they were young, and in some cases, artwork from when they were children. They also include a full-page portrait by the illustrator. (I think that was one of my favourite parts! I loved the thought that must have gone into each drawing.)

Although this book is aimed at children, I must admit, I really loved reading it as well.

Here are the list of illustrators included in this book:

Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art (Author), Mitsumasa Anno (Author, Illustrator), Nancy Ekholm Burkert (Illustrator), Quentin Blake (Illustrator), Ashley Bryan (Illustrator), Tomie dePaola (Illustrator), Jane Dyer (Illustrator), Mordecai Gerstein (Illustrator), Robert Ingpen (Illustrator), Leo Lionni (Illustrator), Petra Mathers (Illustrator), Wendell Minor (Illustrator), Barry Moser (Illustrator), Jerry Pinkney (Illustrator), Alice Provensen (Illustrator), Maurice Sendak (Illustrator), Robert Sabuda (Illustrator), Matthew Reinhart (Illustrator), Gennady Spirin (Illustrator), Chris Van Allsburg (Illustrator), Rosemary Wells (Illustrator), Paul O. Zelinsky (Illustrator), Eric Carle (Introduction)

 

“Good Reads” are reviews about books that I have come across (usually at the library) that I have fallen in love with, and have to share with someone!  I’m always on the look out for special picture books, chapter books to read to my kids, craft books or books with a great message!

Good Reads – Viv Schwarz Picture Books

Posted on by Mika
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The books, “There are cats in this book” and “There are no cats in this book” are adorable. It feels as though the 3 cats in the book are talking to you, and are involving you in their story. The artwork is lovely, and the pages are presented in quite a unique way, which makes it an interesting read.

See for yourself! Here are a couple of YouTube clips of Viv Schwarz reading her books. Enjoy!!

A Good Read – Press Here by Hervé Tullet

Posted on by Mika
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Imagine pressing a yellow dot on a page of a book and being able to create another dot. What if you could clap to make the circles bigger?

Follow the prompts of the book “Press Here” by Hervé Tullet, and let your imagination take you to a place where you have the power to blow or shake the pictures around the book.

The kids had fun with this book, and couldn’t wait to share it with each other. Great for all ages.

The librarian said it was a real hit with the pre-school children who had it read to them at story time.

 

A Good Read – Wink: The ninja who wanted to be noticed By J.C. Phillips

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This wonderful book that we borrowed this week, is about Wink, who has just started ninja school.

There he is taught how to be stealth-like and silent, but he always seems to get into trouble with Master Zutsu (like the time he turned up dressed up in a bright colourful ninja suit  when they were supposed to be practicing how to “disappear into the landscape”.)

Finally, he finds the perfect way to express himself, that is true to himself and his love of being a ninja.

I love the message in the book. I love the artwork. I also love how it is set in Japan (with my mother being Japanese…I’m a bit biased!)

A Good Read – Codes: How to Make Them and Break Them (Murderous Maths)

Posted on by Mika
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Codes: How to Make Them and Break Them (Murderous Maths)

Some of my favourite books that I bought from the Scholastic Book Club were the Spy Books. You know the books which tell you to put talcum powder on your head to disguise yourself as an old person….or would teach you how to brush for finger prints. I also really liked how it would teach you to write codes.

So when I saw Codes: How to Make Them and Break Them (Murderous Maths) at the library, I knew that it would be a hit with the kids.

It is a pretty funny read to start with, plus it gets right into teaching you some complicated code.

I’ve been reading a couple of pages a day to my 6, 8 and 10 year old before bedtime. I must warn you….they will most likely return to their rooms, and instead of going to bed, will hide under their blankets and write code!