Picture Book Reviews

March 14 – National Pi Day

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Bedtime Math The Truth Comes Out Picture Book Review

About the Holiday

What would we do without pie, huh? The flaky crust, the delicious filling….What? Oh, how embarrassing! It’s Pi Day! Well, what would we do without pi, huh? All those circles would go unmeasured, the world just wouldn’t fit together quite right…

Pi Day recognizes the usefulness of the mathematical constant Pi, the first three numbers of which are 3.14. In 1988 Larry Shaw noticed the correlation to March 14 and organized the first Pi Day celebration at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, California. In 2009 The U.S. House of Representatives officially named March 14 as National Pi Day. The day is celebrated by schools and other organizations with math projects, pie-eating contests, and other fun events.

Bedtime Math: The Truth Comes Out

Written by Laura Overdeck | Illustrated by Jim Paillot

 

Bedtime has never been so numerical! Oh sure, kids might count the stars out their window or sheep leaping a fence, but how about flavors of astronaut ice cream or towns named for food? Wouldn’t it be fun to figure out how far a marshmallow shot from a rubber band will go? Or how to stop a charging rhino? Or whether a snake can lose its tongue? You bet it would! And that’s the genius behind the Bedtime Math series, which also includesBedtime Math: A Fun Excuse to Stay up Late and Bedtime Math: This Time It’s Personal.

Bedtime Math goes way beyond simply presenting math problems for kids to solve. Each problem begins with fascinating facts or trivia about topics kids care about, such as space, animals, food, themselves, and the world they live in. Adults will find as much to like about these revealing tidbits as kids.

Reluctant math students will respond to this series, as the presentation is light-hearted, humorous, and educational in the best way. They may not even realize they’re doing higher math as they try to solve these brain ticklers.

Each mind boggler comes with three difficulty levels—Wee Ones, Little Kids, and Big Kids—plus a bonus question that’s more advanced so that everyone can join in the fun. An extensive introduction gives tips and suggestions for using the book and answers any questions readers may have about the approach.

Of course, these cool calculations don’t have to wait for bedtime. They’re a smart way to fill those “I’m bored” moments or to just spend time together no matter when it is. Bedtime Math has expanded to include its own website and a nation-wide afterschool math club, Crazy 8s.

Author Laura Overdeck began using this technique to math learning with her own children and with a BA in astrophysics is well-qualified to take your child’s math skills to the stars and beyond!

Jim Paillot enhances each page with colorful exaggerated and humorous takes on the math teaser at hand, which increase kids’ interest in and even understanding of the concepts being “taught.”

Ages 3 – 8

Feiwell & Friends Publishers, 2015 | ISBN 978-1250047755

National Pi Day Activity

CPB - Pi Day Pie Match

 

Pi Day Pie Match

 

All this talk about math has made me hungry! You too? Well, just put these pies together and then you can enjoy a snack! Print the Pi Day Pie Match game here.

March 13 – National Earmuff Day

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Earmuffs for Everyone! by Meghan McCarthy Picture Book Review

About the Holiday

On March 13, 1877 Chester Greenwood—a 19-year-old inventor—received a patent for “improvements in ear-mufflers” and forever sealed his place in history—as well as making winter more comfortable for millions of freezing ears! Today we honor Chester and his invention that brought attention to Farmington, Maine and jobs for many people in the area. So if you live in an area where the cold winds are still blowing, wear your earmuffs in pride!

Earmuffs for Everyone! How Chester Greenwood Became Known as the Inventor of Earmuffs

By Meghan McCarthy

 

In the mid-1800s inventors were trying to solve the problem of winter’s chill effects on tender ears. William Ware designed an “ear, cheek, and chin muff” that one wore somewhat like a false beard. Ear protecting hats, ear “slippers,” high collars, and other designs followed. But it wasn’t until Chester Greenwood and his sensitive protruding ears came along that earmuffs became practical. While the exact steps Chester took in creating his earmuffs aren’t known, he eventually perfected his invention and received a government patent on March 13, 1877—when he was only 19 years old!

Chester was no one-invention wonder, though. Always on the lookout for clever ways to make money, he went on to improve other products. He applied his foresight to the tea kettle, rounding the edges of the bottom to reduce wear; constructed an interchangeable-tooth rake; and built a collapsible, if cumbersome, tent.

His inventions brought him a comfortable life—a beautiful house for his family in Maine, the first steam car in his town, and a bicycle shop on the bottom floor of his workshop—that he shared with others. His wife, also a progressive thinker, worked for women’s suffrage, and inspired her husband to hire women in his workshops.

After Chester passed away, some people, most notably Mickey Maguire, thought he deserved more acclaim—even a day dedicated as Chester Greenwood Day. Maguire was so excited about this that he became a kind of inventor himself—an inventor of tall tales. Over time he told some whoppers and they were printed, making it hard to separate fact from myth. But even without the made-up stories, it’s easy to say that Chester Greenwood had a very remarkable life

Earmuffs for Everyone goes beyond the story of Chester Greenwood to include other inventors, a discussion of the patent system (using products well-known to today’s kids), and how an inventor’s legacy grows. Meghan McCarthy writes with verve and humor, making the story of Greenwood’s invention as well as others’ creations inviting, accessible, and fun. Her illustrations of the first attempts at earmuffs and other1800s products are sure to delight kids and make them curious about the time period.

In her author’s note at the back of the book, McCarthy expands on the story of Chester Greenwood and the process of applying for and earning a patent.

Ages 4 – 8

Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books, 2015 | ISBN 978-1481406376 

National Earmuff Day Activity

CPB - Earmuff Maze.png

Here’s to Warm Ears! Maze

 

One muff on each side of the head—Genius! But it took inventors a lot of trial and error to make the perfect warming headgear. Use your own creative thinking on this Here’s to Warm Ears!earmuff-shaped maze. Solution included.

March 12 – National Plant a Flower Day

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MIss Maple's Seeds by Eliza Wheeler Picture Book Review

About the Holiday

It’s March—that funny month when some people are basking in 80-degree sunshine and others are still shoveling snow. But no mater where we live, we’re thinking about the same thing—Spring! Spring brings new green leaves, gentle rains, and little shoots that will grow to be trees, vegetable and fruit plants, and flowers. Whether you live somewhere warm and can already plant outside or somewhere that’s still a little chilly and requires indoor propagation, planting flower seeds is a perfect way to beautify your home and your life.

Miss Maple’s Seeds 

By Eliza Wheeler

 

Late in the summer, Miss Maple hurries to prepare for some very special guests. She has searched all summer for unplanted “orphan” seeds, and baskets full of them are winging their way to her home on the backs of bluebirds. Once they arrive she “learns each seed by heart.” There are poppy, wild rice, maple, water lily, pine, impatiens, apple raspberry, sunflower, acorn, pea, fern seeds, and as many more as make up our world.

As she lovingly tends to each one, she says, “Take care, my little ones, for the world is big and you are small.” Miss Maple takes them on field trips and shows them the world they will inhabit—the muddy soil along riverbanks, grassy fields, and thick forests. She cautions them about “weedy characters” who can show up even in a “bustling garden.”

At night Miss Maple snuggles each seed into a comfy bed and reads to them by the light of fireflies. During the winter Miss Maple entertains other guests—woodland creatures who gather in her maple tree home and share food, stories, and songs. With the spring come rains and new lessons on burrowing into the ground.

May ushers in another summer, and Miss Maple knows it’s time for her little ones to “find roots of their own.” She sends them out into the world, knowing that she has prepared them well for what they will become. Her seeds say goodbye and sail off to begin their futures, and Miss Maple is left alone. But soon another summer day comes, and Miss Maple sets off to gather more orphan seeds, because “the world is big and they are small.”

Eliza Wheeler’s Miss Maple’s Seeds is a triumph—as comforting as a warm blanket and as empowering as a master key. Wheeler’s beautiful language floats quietly and unhurried like the flight of a leaf on a gentle breeze. The metaphor of seeds and children is so sweetly made, and Miss Marple’s wish for her little charges can bring a tear to the eye of any caretaker.

Wheeler’s luminous artwork is breathtaking in its fully realized details of the wide world Miss Maple’s seeds and all of us inhabit. Each season is gorgeously rendered in soft blues, roses, browns, and yellows, and she imbues the little seeds with personality without making them anthropomorphic. The reader may wish they could be friends with these future beauties and Miss Maple as well.

Miss Maple’s Seeds would be a wonderful gift for high school graduates, teachers, and anyone who loves taking care of children.

Ages 3 – 7, all ages

Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Group | ISBN 978-0399257926

Plant a Flower Day Activity

CPB - Flower Pot

Decorated Flower Pot

 

Spring is almost here, and that means flowers will soon be blooming. If you want to beautify your home plant your favorite flower seeds in a pot you’ve decorated yourself!

Supplies

  • Terra cotta pot in any size
  • Acrylic multi-surface paint in various colors
  • Flower seeds
  • Soil

Directions

  1. Paint your terra cotta pot—be creative!
  2. Let paint dry
  3. Fill pot with soil
  4. Plant flower seeds

March 10 – National Pack Your Lunch Day

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Lunch Money and Other Poems About School by Carol Diggory Shields and Paul Meisel picture book review

About the Holiday

When you pack your own lunch, you can’t wait for the clock to strike lunchtime! Today is a day to celebrate the joy of a midday meal featuring your favorite foods and snacks. So if you usually just eat what the cafeteria offers, think outside the tray and create a lunch that’s delicious, nutritious, and even fun!

Lunch Money and Other Poems About School

Written by Carol Diggory Shields | Illustrated by Paul Meisel

 

Ask a kid what their favorite part of school is and they’re likely to say, “Lunch!” So it’s appropriate that this poetry collection about the fun and foibles of school contains several poems scrutinizing that special half hour out of the classroom. In “Decisions” a boy contemplates the school menu stuck to the refrigerator. Tacos, pizza, burger, nachos? Buy it! Beef stew, baked beans, tuna-cabbage crunch, mushroom-chicken bake? Bag it!

“Lunch Money” finds a boy asking first Dad, then Grandma, and finally Mom for cash. But who can he rely on? Only his own piggy bank. “Swap” is a rollicking round robin rhyme of traded sandwiches, swapped fruit, bought and sold drinks, bartered cookies, exchanged bagels, and great deals made. But does the result on the plate look oddly familiar?

Lunch isn’t the only subject in this delightful collection, though. In “Eight-Oh-Three” a boy “Legs pumping, heart thumping, / Running down the drive,” and late for the bus—“A moaning-growning, blinking-winking / Yellow dinosaur”—asks the ironic question: “How come I have to run so fast / To catch a bus so slow?”

“Code” is medical code for “cold” in a short poem about the linguistic acrobatics of a stuffy nose. “And the Answer Is…?” offers an impassioned debate between one student who likes to answer the teacher’s questions and another who just wants to hide under the table. And “Whew!” is a delight in which a student who isn’t prepared for the day finds a substitute standing at the front of the class. Other topics that make an appearance are the school mischief maker, the class pet, recess rules, homework, recess, and the inevitable school nightmare that follows you into adulthood.

Carol Diggory Shields understands school—the moments of camaraderie, embarrassment, mayhem, wishful thinking, and more—that make up each day. Her flowing, easy-to-read rhythms and humorous twists makes this poetry collection enchanting and an excellent addition to any home library.

Paul Meisel’s illustrations are populated with all kinds of kids you’d want to meet. With curly hair or straight, pony tails or bows, wearing stripes or polka dots, shorts or pants, each child is given his or her own personality as they romp through the scenario of their accompanying poem. Whether the kids are in a classroom or at home or on the playground, the details of their environment are richly drawn. The counters are lined with science projects, the clock moves so slowly a spider has spun a web on its hands, and the kindergarten play as well as the lunch room are humorously chaotic. There is so much to see on each page that kids will recognize, but experience anew.

Ages 4 – 8

Puffin Books, 1998 | ISBN 978-0140558906

National Pack Your Lunch Day Activity

CPB - Bento Box (2)

Decorated Sandwich or Snack Container

 

Who says your snack or sandwich container has to be boring? Take your lunch to school in a container you decorate yourself! It’s easy with a few colored markers and your imagination!

Supplies

  • Disposable plastic food containers with lids
  • Colorful markers

Directions

  1. Decorate sandwich or snack size containers with your favorite designs or characters

March 7 – National Cereal Day

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There's a Lion in My Cornflakes by Michelle Robinson and Jim Field picture book review

About the Holiday

Did you know that breakfast in a bowl actually began with an experiment that went wrong? Or just maybe it was right! John Harvey Kellogg and his brother Will Keith Kellogg were experimenting with boiled wheat in 1877 when they left some out overnight. In the morning the wheat was stale. The brothers decided to roll it out instead of throwing it away, and they found that each wheat berry created a flake. Boiled corn worked the same way, and from this process the Kellogg brothers invented Corn Flakes, the first dry cereal!

Today’s holiday celebrates all the varieties of your favorite cereal—whether it’s made of corn, wheat, bran, rice, or a mixture of flakes, fruit, and nuts. So pour yourself a big bowlful and enjoy!

There’s a Lion in My Cornflakes

Written by Michelle Robinson | Illustrated by Jim Field

 

Who could resist clipping cereal box coupons to receive a free lion? Nobody, that’s who! I mean, it would be so cool, right? A lion to take on walks, ride to school, and open tin cans—awesome! So a boy and his brother, Dan, take a year’s worth of their allowance, make “a million” trips to the grocery store, and start cutting.

But all those boxes of cereal squeeze out the other food on the pantry shelves, so Mom says the boys have to eat cornflakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner until it’s gone—and, oh yeah, they don’t get an allowance until then either. It’s all worth it, though, because they’re going to get a real live lion.

There’s just one hitch—every other kid in town has the same idea, and while the brothers wait for their lion to arrive, everyone else is out playing with their new pet. Finally, the delivery truck pulls up in front of the house, and out walks…a grizzly bear?! That’s not right, and it’s even delivered to the wrong house. Well, the bear’s not too crazy about the situation either, and shows it. The kids and the bear have to clean up the neighbor’s yard and apologize.

A letter of complaint to the cereal company brings resolution in the form of…a crocodile?! The crocodile spends all its time in the bathroom, and the grizzly bear is still causing havoc. Dad calls the cereal company and to make up their mistake they send…a gorilla?! The gorilla stomps on Dad’s car and rips the door off. Well Dad’s had enough!  The whole crew piles into the car so Dad can “give those cereal people a piece of my mind.”

The cereal people sure are sorry for the mix-up. They make amends by letting the family keep the grizzly bear, the crocodile, and the gorilla, AND the company gives them…a lifetime’s supply of cornflakes! But really, what good are all those boxes? The boys can’t walk them or ride them or even open cans with them.

You know what, though? Mom’s discovered the crocodile has some pretty sharp, can-opening chompers. The grizzly bear can walk forever and even wear a fanny pack. And the gorilla makes a very cool chauffeur. Why bother having a lion when everyone else has one?

Besides, what are the cereal people offering now—a free tiger?! Hmmm….

Michelle Robinson has taken the lure of free stuff to its ridiculous best. There’s a Lion in My Cornflakes serves up the benefits of individuality and drawbacks of consumerism in a silly, over-the-top scenario that will have kids laughing at every page and escalation of the brother’s problem.

Jim Field’s bold, vibrant illustrations are the perfect accompaniment to this boisterous tale. As the boxes of cornflakes and clipped coupons pile higher and higher and the free animals cause more mayhem, the boys’ expressions go from excited to nonplussed to shocked and finally  to acceptance as day after day brings new and unexpected results of their actions. Kids will love the funny details on every page that highlight the story.

Ages 3 – 7

Bloomsbury Children’s, 2015 | ISBN 978-0802738363

National Cereal Day Activity

CPB - Spoon Lion

Spoon Lion Puppet

 

Spoons are just the thing for eating cereal! But with this craft you can make a ROARingly cute lion puppet!

Supplies

  • Wooden mixing spoon
  • Yellow Fleece
  • Brown felt
  • Colorful Fleece or felt
  • Fabric glue
  • Light brown marker
  • Dark brown marker
  • Hot glue gun or super glue
  • Scissors

CPB - Spoon Lion with stuff

Directions

To make the lion’s face

  1. Draw a nose, mouth, and eyes on the front/bowl of the spoon

To make the mane

  1. Measure the rim of the spoon from one side of the handle to the other
  2. Cut a strip of yellow fleece as long as rim measurement and 4 inches wide
  3. Fold the piece of fleece in half long-ways
  4. Glue the open edges of the fleece together
  5. Along the folded side cut a fringe, leaving the loops intact

To make the ears

  1. Cut round ears from the brown felt

To make the bow

  1. Cut a 3-inch x 1 ½-inch piece of colorful fleece or felt
  2. Cut a long thin strip of fleece or felt
  3. Pinch the bow in the middle and tie with the longer piece of cloth. Trim as necessary

To make the tail

  1. Cut three thin 4-inch-long strips of yellow fleece
  2. With fabric glue, glue the tops of the strips together
  3. Braid the strips
  4. At the bottom, glue the strips together, leaving the ends free

To assemble the lion

  1. Glue the ears to the back of the spoon
  2. Glue the mane to the back of the spoon
  3. Glue the bow to the handle
  4. Fold the top of the tail and push it into the hole in the handle of the spoon