Children’s Book Related Crafts

March 17 – Absolutely Incredible Kid Day

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The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers Picture Book Review

About the Holiday

Every kid is incredible! This special day, established by Camp Fire USA in 1997, gives adults an opportunity to tell the kids in their life how much they mean to them. Whether you write your special young person a letter or just sit down and have a heart-to-heart talk, your words of encouragement and appreciation will make a difference.

The Incredible Book Eating Boy

By Oliver Jeffers

 

Henry is a little boy who loves books. He loves them for dinner, he loves them with French fries…Wait! What? Yup! Henry loves to eat books! This quirk all began by mistake when Henry isn’t paying attention. But his love of words grows until he’s eating a sentence then a page and finally a whole book!

Henry doesn’t have a favorite kind of book either. He’ll eat anything—even math books and dictionaries. And he’s eating them as if they’re going out of style! Henry discovers something amazing about his diet—with every book he devours, he gets smarter. He digests every bit of information, which comes in handy when helping his dad with the crossword puzzle or his teacher in school.

If a few books can make him smart, thinks Henry, then a lot of books can make him smarter—possibly the smartest person in the world! And so he tests his hypothesis. He eats every book he sees. But things begin to go wrong. He has nightmares; his stomach hurts; and in a frightening twist everything he knows gets jumbled up. Suddenly, Henry doesn’t feel so smart anymore.

After getting some advice, Henry gives up books cold turkey. He feels lost and out-of-sorts. Then he spies a half-eaten book on the floor of his room and picks it up. Instead of eating it, though, he opens it and begins to read. And that book tastes was sooo good! Henry discovers that he loves to read, and figures if he reads enough he may still become the smartest person on earth. Besides…broccoli is actually pretty tasty.

In this picture book about the love of reading, Oliver Jeffers has created a feast for the eyes as well as an extended pun. The story of Henry devouring book after book in the quest for brilliance is played out in typewriter text on a backdrop of various colors of notebook paper, book pages, graph paper, book bindings, maps, ledger pages, and more. Henry is as adorable as all of Jeffers’ kids, and the story is funny and as satisfying as your favorite meal. The page (and cover) cut at the end of the book leaves the reader happy that maybe, just maybe Henry didn’t give up his favorite snack entirely.

Philomel Books, Penguin Young Readers, 2006 | ISBN 978-0399247491

Absolutely Incredible Kid Day Activity

CPB - Bookend 1

 Absolutely Incredible You Bookend

 

Do you devour so many books that they’re falling off your shelves? Keep them neat with a bookend that’s as incredible as you are!

Supplies

  • Wooden initial of your first and/or last name, available at craft stores
  • Chalkboard paint in your favorite color
  • Paint brush
  • Chalk

CPB - Bookend 2

Directions

  1. Paint the wooden letter with the chalkboard paint
  2. Let dry
  3. With the chalk, write words that describe what makes you absolutely incredible!

March 16 – Freedom of Information Day

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Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America Picture Book Review

About the Holiday

Freedom of Information Day is observed today to honor James Madison, who was born March 16, 1751 in Port Conway, Virginia. Madison is widely regarded as the Father of the Constitution and was the 4th President of the United States. He was a leading proponent of openness in government. The Freedom of Information Act, which took effect on July 4 1967, was enacted to promote transparency in government, but the idea of openness and inclusion can pertain to all aspects of society and relationships.

Today we remember all those who work to provide free and honest information and portrayals of government as well as other conditions and situations around the world.

Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America

Written by Carole Boston Weatherford | Illustrated by Jamey Christoph

 

When the 15th child of the Parks family is born, he has neither a heartbeat nor a name. But the doctor is able to revive the nearly dead infant in an ice bath, and the appreciative mother gives her child his name—Gordon. Gordon Parks’ dramatic entry into the world may have given him the unique perspective he used in becoming a renowned photographer and the first black movie director in Hollywood.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-gordon-parks-how-the-photographer-captured-black-and-white-america-gordon-works

Image copyright Jamey Christoph, 2015, text copyright Carole Boston Weatherford, 2015. Courtesy of Albert Whitman & Company.

Gordon rides a horse across the wide open fields of Kansas to school, but once there his prospects narrow with a white teacher who tells her all-black class that their education will go to waste as they are destined to work as waiters and porters. When he is 14 Gordon’s mother dies, and Gordon moves to Minneapolis. He soon must make his own way, and he finds jobs as a busboy, a piano player, and the predicted waiter and porter.

At the age of 25 Gordon reads about the plight of migrant workers and, inspired, buys a camera. Gordon has discovered his natural talent—a unique eye on the world. After only a month he exhibits his photographs in a camera store and is soon engaged in fashion and portrait photography. His work takes him to Chicago, where he documents the struggling families living on the South Side and wins a job with the government in Washington DC. Encouraged by his boss to find a subject for his work, Gordon focuses his lens on the black families living in the back alleys and in the shadows of the Capitol’s great monuments.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-gordon-parks-how-the-photographer-captured-black-and-white-america-gordon-sees-a-camera

Image copyright Jamey Christoph, 2015, text copyright Carole Boston Weatherford 2015. Courtesy of Albert Whitman & Company.

Through his photographs Gordon vows to expose the racism blacks face in housing, shops, restaurants, and other institutions. Looking for a personal subject, Gordon talks to Ella Watson, a cleaning lady in his office building. Ella supports five children on only $1,000 a year and knows hardship. Gordon accompanies her and her grandchildren, taking pictures wherever they go and of whatever they are doing. They become the inspiration for his greatest work.

Over his lifetime Gordon Parks will break barriers in the publishing and entertainment industries, becoming the first black photographer for Vogue and Life magazines and the first black director in Hollywood. He writes novels and poetry and composes music. But the work that becomes his most famous is a photograph of Ella Watson standing in front of the American flag, with her broom in hand. Called “American Gothic,” this picture fulfills Park’s determination to expose segregation and the hopes of all people struggling under its inequality.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-gordon-parks-how-the-photographer-captured-black-and-white-america-gordon-in-washington

Image copyright Jamey Christoph, 2015, text copyright Carole Boston Weatherford, 2015. Courtesy of Albert Whitman & Company.

Carole Boston Weatherford’s portrayal of Gordon Parks’ life is as starkly revealing as her subject’s photographs. With her writer’s skills, however, she deftly contrasts the facts of his life and turns his story into a universal metaphor for freedom and the struggle to attain it: “When young Gordon crosses the prairie on horseback, nothing seems beyond reach. But his white teacher tells her all-black class, you’ll all wind up porters and waiters. What did she know?” Weatherford’s pacing also adds to the story’s power. Although Parks attained wide acclaim, this biography ends with one of his earlier photographs—a picture of Ella Watson, a cleaning lady, who inspired Parks and came to symbolize the hopes of her generation and beyond. This is not only Parks’ story, but the story of millions of others.

Jamey Christoph continues and strengthens the metaphorical force of this biography in his illustrations. Readers first see Gordon Parks as a much-loved, smiling infant. He goes to school and grows up, his expression changing, slightly but importantly. He acquires his camera, and the pages are filled with drawn representations of his black-and-white photographs. Alternating dark and light pages further emphasize Parks’ world. The darkroom contrasts with Parks’ new bright office and prospects; the shadowed back alleys of Washington DC contrast with the city’s gleaming white marble monuments. Later photographs are also depicted, and “American Gothic” is represented on two pages. Christoph provides readers with much to see and ponder.

Ages 5 – 8

Albert Whitman & Company, 2015 | ISBN 978-0807530177

Ages 5 – 8

Albert Whitman & Company, 2015 | ISBN 978-0807530177

Freedom of Information Day Activity

CPB - New Professionals Picture

News Professionals Clothespin Figures

Make one of these clothespin figures that honors the men and women who work to keep the world informed.

Supplies

Directions

  1. Draw a face and hair on the clothespin
  2. Cut out the clothes you want your journalist or photographer to wear
  3. Wrap the clothes around the clothespin. The slit in the clothespin should be on the side.
  4. Tape the clothes together
  5. Cut out the camera
  6. Tape one end of a short length of thread to the right top corner of the camera and the other end of the thread to the left corner. Now you can hang the camera around the figure’s neck.

Idea for displaying the figures

  • Attach a wire or string to the wall and pin the figure to it
  • Pin it to your bulletin board or on the rim of a desk organizer

 

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 9 – Learn What Your Name Means Day

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The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi Picture Book Review

About the Holiday

 

American onomotology enthusiast Jeffery Hill established Clelbrate Your Name Week in 1997. Each day of the first ful week of March is dedicated to self discovery and the fun of learning more about names and your name in particular. Today’s holiday encourages people to learn not only what your name means, but also to reach out to parents or other and discover why you were given the name you have. 

The Name Jar

By Yangsook Choi

 

Unhei has recently moved to the United States from Korea. Although Unhei is excited about the first day of school, on the bus ride she misses her former home and looks at the wooden name stamp her grandmother gave her. A boy sitting behind Unhei notices the unfamiliar object and asks about it. Then other kids notice Unhei. They ask what her name is, and when she answers, they mispronounce it, laughing and making jokes.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-the-name-jar-on-the-bus

Image copyright Yangsook Choi, courtesy of Random House

Unhei is embarrassed and glad that those kids head to a different classroom than hers. As Unhei enters her own room, her classmates smile and greet her—it is obvious that their teacher has prepared them for a new student, and they are excited.

Of course, they first question her about her name, and remembering the experience on the bus, Unhei is reluctant to answer. She quickly says that she hasn’t picked a name yet, but will tell them next week. At home, Unhei tells her mother that she wants an American name, a name that is easy to pronounce.

Her mother is dismayed; Unhei’s name was chosen by a master so that it would describe her uniqueness. But Unhei doesn’t want to be different, she just wants to fit in. Later while she and her mother are at a Korean grocery store, she introduces herself to the owner, who exclaims that her name is beautiful and means “grace” in English. 

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-the-name-jar-mom

Image copyright Yangsook Choi, courtesy of Random House

At home Unhei tries out American names in front of the mirror—Amanda, Laura, Susie—but they don’t feel or sound right. The next day at school Unhei finds a jar on her desk with pieces of paper in it. On each piece of paper is a name—suggestions from each of her classmates. Her new friends have chosen these names thoughtfully. Daisy is the nickname of one girl’s baby sister; Tamela is a smart and brave heroine from a story; and Wensdy is the day Unhei joined their class.

At the end of the school day, a classmate named Joey comes to her. He knows she actually does have a name, and Unhei, while not wanting to say it out loud, shows him the characters on her wooden stamp. Joey thinks it is beautiful and asks to keep the paper. Day by day the glass jar fills up with names. Unhei will have to choose soon.

One Saturday Unhei returns to the Korean grocery store. When Mr. Kim calls her by name, the one other customer turns around. It’s Joey! Carefully and slowly he says Unheis name until he gets it right. On Monday when Unhei enters the classroom, she discovers that the jar is missing. It’s all right, though, Unhei has chosen her name.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-the-name-jar-friend

Image copyright Yangsook Choi, courtesy of Random House

She walks to the chalkboard and writes her real name in English and Korean. She tells the class that her name means “grace.” Other kids reveal the meaning of their names, and they all practice saying Unhei’s name. That evening Joey comes to visit. He explains that he took the jar because he wanted Unhei to keep her original name. He suggests putting Korean nicknames into the jar for their classmates to pick—just as he already has. Mr. Kim helped him choose the prefect nickname: Chinku, which means “friend.”

Ages 3 – 8

Random House, Dragonfly Books,  New York, 2003 | ISBN  978-0440417996

Discover more about Yangsook Choi, her books, and her art on her website!

Yangsook Choi’s The Name Jar is as timely now as when it was first written. Through compelling and detailed storytelling, Choi explores the themes of identity, empathy, family, friendship, and more  with sometimes heartbreaking honesty. Unhei’s varied experiences at school, at home, and at the market provide an opportunity for adults and children to discuss and embrace the diversity of our multicultural world. Choi’s warm-toned illustrations reveal the conflicts that Unhei encounters and her growing confidence as she makes friends with Mr. Kim and Joey who accepts her as she is. 

Learn What Your Name Means Day Activity

CPB - Name Jars standing

Love Your Name Organizer Jar

 

Everyone needs a place to store their special stuff! Here’s a way to recycle a plastic jar and make a cool organizer jar with your or your friend’s name on it.

Supplies

  • A large plastic jar, such as a peanut butter jar or mayonnaise jar with the label removed
  • Acrylic multi-surface paint or markers
  • Chalkboard paint
  • Paint brush
  • Chalk

CPB - Name Jars on sides

Directions

  1. Paint a rectangle on the front of the jar with chalkboard paint
  2. Decorate the rest of the jar with paint, markers, or paper

 

March 8 – International Women’s Day

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Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors by Tanya Lee Stone and Marjorie Priceman picture book review

About the Holiday

When the United States celebrated International Women’s Day in 1911, it paved the way for more extensive recognition of the contributions of women. Women’s Day stretched to a week officially in 1981 when Republican Senator Orin Hatch of Utah and Democratic Representative Barbara Mikulski of Maryland co-sponsored a Joint Congressional Resolution that established Women’s History Week. Six years later Congress named March as Women’s History Month.

March is a great time to discover and learn about the women who have shaped our country in all fields of endeavor from the arts to education to the sciences and beyond. Today we celebrate a woman who changed the medical profession forever.

Who Says Women Can’t be Doctors? The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell

Written by Tanya Lee Stone | Illustrated by Marjorie Priceman

 

Once upon a time there were no women doctors. Women weren’t even allowed to be doctors. Sounds like a fairy tale, doesn’t it? Fortunately, this one-time fact has entered the realm of fiction—all thanks to Elizabeth Blackwell. Elizabeth was not like other girls of the 1830s. She loved to explore and take on challenges. She could lift her brother over her head, and to toughen herself up she slept on the hard wood floor. To get a better look at the world she climbed to the roof of her house and leaned waaaaay out with a spyglass. What did she see? Maybe she saw her future. But it wasn’t what she imagined at the time. Blood made her queasy, dissection was disgusting, and being sick just made her want to hide from all the fussing.

But a comment by a sick friend, puts a bee in her bonnet. Mary Donaldson tells Elizabeth that she would much rather have been examined by a woman than her male doctor. “You should be a doctor, Elizabeth,” Mary says.

What a crazy notion, right? Well… Elizabeth can’t stop thinking about it. She asks around. Some people think it’s a good idea, but impossible; others just think it’s impossible. They believe women aren’t strong enough or smart enough and they laugh at her. By this time, though, Elizabeth is determined.

She applies to 28 medical schools, and they all say, “No.” But one day a “Yes” arrives in the mail. Elizabeth packs her bags. The townspeople all come out to see this new medical student, but they aren’t outside to welcome Elizabeth; they just want to whisper and point and stare. Surely, Elizabeth thinks, the students will be happy to see her.

But she receives the same reception on the college campus. In fact, she learns, the only reason she was accepted is because the men voted to let her in as a joke! Elizabeth knows how to handle it. She studies hard and gives her opinions, and soon she wins the respect of her fellow students—even if the townspeople still don’t accept her.

On January 23, 1849 Elizabeth Blackwell graduates from medical school with the highest grades in the class. She has become the first woman doctor in America! Many people hope that she would be the last. But as we know…she was Not!

Tanya Lee Stone magnificently imbues this short biography of Elizabeth Blackwell with enough mystery, conflict, and history for even the youngest readers to understand the type of girl and woman Elizabeth was as well as the challenges she faced. The details of Blackwell’s life that Stone includes are deftly chosen, and make her instantly recognizable and relatable to children. One line in the text written in the present tense amid the historical past transforms this biography into a universal story for all generations. Blackwell may have started out as a reluctant dreamer, but once she dared to believe she accomplished more than she or anyone could have imagined. It is what we want for all our children.

Marjorie Priceman’s illustrations, swirling with words, angled on the page and floating in white space, are as topsy-turvy as the world Elizabeth Blackwell created. Blackwell’s boldness is echoed in the rich colors and strong lines of the gouache and India-ink paintings, and the emotions she stirred in others—from derision to horror to admiration—are cleverly and exceptionally drawn in a minimal style on the characters’ faces.

Ages 5 – 9

Christy Ottaviano Books, Henry Holt and Company | ISBN 978-0805090482

International Women’s Day Activity

CPB - Doctors Clothespins

Doctor Clothespin Figure

 

Make one of these clothespin figures that honors International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month as well as everything doctors do to help us stay healthy.

Supplies

CPB - Doctors Clothespins on box

Directions

  1. Draw a face and hair on the clothespin
  2. Cut out the outfit you want your doctor to wear (color pants on your clothespin if you choose the lab coat)
  3. Wrap the coat or scrubs around the clothespin. The slit in the clothespin should be on the side.
  4. Tape the clothes together
  5. Wrap the cap around the head and tape it.
  6. If you’d like to display your clothespin doctor on a wire, string, or the edge of a box or other container, cut along the dotted lines of the clothes template.

 

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