Daniel Salmieri

September 5 – National Cheese Pizza Day

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About the Holiday

Pizza is one of those foods that just puts a smile on your face. It’s associated with parties, good times with friends, and relaxing weekends. It’s also one of the few foods that is so varied that you can have it made your way with your own favorite ingredients. Of course, today we celebrate that favorite of kids, the star of many a birthday party, and the perfect base to any pizza—the cheese pizza. Even this “basic” pizza can have pizzazz, though, if you fancy it up with multiple types of cheese and some delectable herbs and spices! So celebrate today by calling up your fav pizza place or making a pie of your own.

Secret Pizza Party

Written by Adam Rubin | Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri

 

Raccoon, plastered against the Pizza Shop window, drools over cheesy slices others are eating inside. He so wants a piece and would even be happy with the leftovers in the back alley trash. But when he tries to paw one out of the can, he gets swept away with a broom. Maybe  if he knew how to ask politely things would be different.

Raccoon loves pizza so much that he thinks it should hang in art museums and that people should eat it in the bathtub. “Of course the best part about pizza is the gooey cheesiness, salty pepperoni-ness, sweet tomato-ness, and crispity, crunchity crust. Yum!” Maybe a pizza party will cheer Raccoon up—a secret pizza party. Why should it be secret? Because secret is special— like an intricate secret handshake only you and one other person know, or a secret stair case that leads…who knows where, but somewhere amazing!

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-secret-pizza-party-good-pizza-party-for-raccoon

Image copyright Daniel Salmieri, text copyright Adam Rubin, courtesy of Penguin Random House.

Besides, you know what a regular raccoon pizza party would be like—there would be brooms and horrified faces and panicked shouts of “Get that raccoon off the table!!!” But here’s how a secret pizza party would sound: “Get that raccoon another slice of pizza, he’s the guest of honor.”

So the first order of business for this secret pizza party is…ordering! Before the call is placed, though, you’ve got to think: if you call and order the pizza, you’ll have to give your address. And if you give your address, the pizza guy will know where you live. And if the pizza guy knows where you live he “might recognize you from the posters and chase you off with a broom.” So what are you to do? A disguise will do the trick. “Okay now, play it cool. You’re just an honest pizza-buying citizen who left his wallet in the car,” and as soon as the pizza is in your hands you make a run for it back to your tree.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-secret-pizza-party-disguised-at-pizza-shop

Image copyright Daniel Salmieri, text copyright Adam Rubin, courtesy of Penguin Random House.

Ok, phew, great job! Now you can enjoy…but not too loud or with too much light. You don’t want anyone to see. Wait a minute! What’s that right outside your home? Another secret pizza party where everyone is wearing masks?

Perfect! Ok, you’ve infiltrated the party…you’re reaching for a slice of pizza…and no one suspects a thing. NO! NO! NO! You’re rolling in the pizza on top of the table!! You blew your cover. Grab as many pieces as you can and run because here they come with the brooms…!

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-secret-pizza-party-party-outside-raccoon's-tree

Image copyright Daniel Salmieri, text copyright Adam Rubin, courtesy of Penguin Random House.

Adam Rubin’s madcap read-a-loud about a pizza-obsessed raccoon and his quest for a broom-free night of pizza indulging will have kids laughing from Raccoon’s first wistful look to his final triumphant dash. Rubin’s conspiratorial tone makes readers active participants in Raccoon’s covert operation to secure a pizza without a sweeping disaster, ramping up their level of involvement and enjoyment. The text—from the secret handshakes to the broom-bots to words such as “bonk,” “booyah,” “crispity crunchity,” and “happy screams”—is silly, kid-friendliness at its best and is as enticing as the aroma of hot-out-of-the-oven pizza.

Daniel Salmieri’s noodle-armed, broom-wielding humans and animated, fanatical raccoon amplify the humor that infuses every scene in Rubin’s tale. A slice of pizza hanging between two masterpieces in a museum or being devoured in a bubble bath, an intertwining handshake, a ridiculous disguise, and two types of raccoon-sniffing broom-bots are just a few of the images that make Secret Pizza Party a kid’s dream come true. In addition there are plenty of sly details, such as a pizza-shaped lampshade, projectile brooms, and Raccoon’s fairy-tale imagination. My favorite laugh-out-loud moment shows Raccoon blending into the secret pizza party outside his tree house by simply holding up a twig as a handle to his natural “mask.”

Full of pizza, playfulness, and a persevering raccoon, Secret Pizza Party is a book that kids will want to hear again and again. It would make a delicious addition to home and classroom bookshelves.

Ages 3 – 9

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2013 | ISBN 978-0803739475

Find out more about books by Adam Rubin on his website!

Daniel Salmieri has a gallery of his work and books on his website for you to see!

 National Cheese Pizza Day Activity

CPB - Pizza Day Toppings

Create Your Pizza Game

 

Play this fun game to build your pizza ingredient by ingredient before the others! For 2 – 8 players.

Supplies

Directions

Object of the Game: to fill a pizza slice with 5 delicious ingredients

  1. Print a Pizza Crust Game Board and Ingredients Cards
  2. Each player picks a slice on the board to fill
  3. Roll the dice to choose who goes first. Play
  4. The first player rolls the dice and places an ingredient on their slice according to the numbers below
  5. Play passes to the right
  6. The player who fills their slice with all 5 ingredients first, wins

Alternative for older kids: Print a game board for each player. The first player to complete the whole pizza is the winner

Each number on the playing die corresponds to one ingredient or other instruction, as noted below:

1: add sauce (red x)

2: add cheese

3: add green peppers (green squares)

4: add garlic (white half moons)

5: add pepperoni

6: remove one ingredient and pass the playing die to the next player

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-secret-pizza-party-cover

You can find Secret Pizza Party at these booksellers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million | IndieBound

Picture Book Review

 

November 26 – It’s National Family Week

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About the Holiday

This week we celebrate families. Yes, those people you may just have seen at the Thanksgiving dinner table—those people that you love even as you sometimes wonder if you’re really related. National Family Week was established in 1968 by Sam Wiley, a former teacher and administrator from Indianapolis, Indiana. In 1970 Wiley partnered with the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities. The aim of the Alliance and this designated holiday is to “build community connections and honor those who strengthen families.” Today, tell your family members how much they mean to you and plan some fun activities that include all!

Meet the Dullards

Written by Sara Pennypacker | Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri

 

Gray—that’s what the Dullards are. Gray and happily extra boring. Their life is going on in its monotonous way until one day when Mr. and Mrs. Dullard happen upon a most disturbing sight. Their three children are reading—and not only that, they are reading books about befriending lions, juggling, and walking a tightrope. The elder Dullards do what any self-respecting dullard would do. They retrieve the books and hand their children blank pieces of paper to read instead.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-meet-the-dullards-watching-plain-paper

Image copyright Daniel Salmieri, text copyright Sara Pennypacker. Courtesy of danielsalmieri.com

The children are definitely becoming a problem. They want to go to school and have been playing outside. It’s not our fault, bemoan the parents; it must be the town, where last fall some leaves actually turned color and there’s that unruly snail in the driveway. In fact the whole atmosphere is like a circus! There’s only one thing to do. The Dullards pack up their house and Blanda, Borely, and Little Dud and move away.

Immediately upon moving into their new home, they are bombarded by the neighbor lady bringing exclamation marks and chunky applesauce cake into their perfectly dull new home. The kids are sent to watch the (unplugged) TV, but instead their eyes are drawn to the window. While unpacking Mr. and Mrs. Dullard discover a sight so shocking that Mrs. Dullard faints into the arms of her distressed husband. It’s yellow flowered wallpaper. (An exclamation mark would be appropriate here, but you know…)

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-meet-the-dullards-wall-paper

Image copyright Daniel Salmieri, courtesy of harpercollins.com

On the way to the paint store the family stops to get ice-cream cones, and with 90,000 flavors to choose from they pick vanilla. Plain cone or sugar cone? No cone, of course. At the paint store Mr. Dullard suggests medium gray, but Mrs. Dullard deems it too risky. Its similarity to highways could make the kids think of travel. Beige? Mrs. Dullard counters. Too much like clay, says Mr. Dullard which can be used to create stuff. They come to a compromise and go home to—you’ve got it—watch the paint dry.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-meet-the-dullards-getting-ice-cream

Image copyright Daniel Salmieri, text copyright Sara Pennypacker. Courtesy of harpercollins.com

While their parents are mesmerized the kids sneak away and out the window that so enthralled them before. The sight of Blanda, Borely, and Little Dud juggling, teaching a dog tricks, and somersaulting on the clothesline, ushers in another move—back to where they came from just in time for the kids to join the circus.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-meet-the-dullards-watching-paint-dry

Image copyright Daniel Salmieri, courtesy of harpercollins.com

With dry wit and laugh-out-loud dialogue Sara Pennypacker delivers a spot-on family story. While seen through the eyes of Mr. and Mrs. Dullard, this funny tale is all about the kids. What kids don’t think their parents are dull and conventional? And can parents really understand what’s going on in those little minds? Both children and adults will love the Dullards, and after reading you may be inspired to go out for vanilla chocolate ice-cream (ok, you can still hold the cone!).

Daniel Salmieri’s Dullards are comic genius! With their oval bodies and gray attire they blend with their oatmeal-hued walls to perfect effect. Identical square houses give way to identical triangular houses as the Dullards move to avoid catastrophic enthusiasm. The kids’ facial expressions as they adhere to booorring rules are priceless, as are the parents’ reactions to the slightest excitement. Details such as a yellow snail in the driveway, the elder Dullards’ looks of horror when discovering the bright wallpaper, the signs on the ice-cream kiosk, and the name of the moving van provide humorous jokes on each page.

Ages 4 – 8

Balzer + Bray, Harper Collins, 2015 | ISBN 978-0062198563

Visit Sara Pennypacker‘s virtual studio to learn more about her, her books, and her thoughts on writing and literacy.

View a portfolio of Daniel Salmieri‘s artwork for picture books and other illustrations on his website!

National Family Week Activity

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-paint-strip-craft

Paint Strip Inspiration

 

Do you like to laugh? Do you like to watch paint dry? It is kind of cool how it changes color a bit as it dries….Oh, sorry! Where was I? Oh yeah—this craft. Paint sample strips make brilliant backdrops to your thoughts about love, life, laughter, family—anything! You can mix and match your favorite colors and arrange them any way you like to decorate your wall. Frame them for a more put-together look!

Supplies

  • 4 -5 paint strips from a hardware store OR You could also make your own color stips with poster board and craft paint
  • Poster board
  • Craft paint
  • Paint brush
  • Markers or adhesive letters
  • Scissors
  • Mounting squares
  • Frame (optional)

Directions

  1. Choose an inspirational or funny quotation or make up your own phrase
  2. Decide how you would like the words displayed on the paint strips
  3. Count how many paint strips you will need
  4. If you are using paint strips from a paint or hardware store, choose the number of color strips that you need and write the letters and/or words of your phrase into the individual squares. You can print one letter per square or multiple letters or even whole words. Mix styles of print to give it your own unique look.
  5. If you are making your own paint strip, cut poster board into strips 9 inches long by 2 inches wide, or to desired size
  6. Paint squares of color to fill the strip, leaving a 1/8-inch-wide stripe between colors
  7. Think of a phrase that expresses your thoughts on life and laughter OR use a favorite quotation
  8. Print the words on the squares of color OR use adhesive letters. You can print one letter per square or multiple letters or even whole words. Mix styles of print to give it your own unique look.
  9. Mount or frame your paint strip phrase

October 18 – It’s Squirrel Awareness Month

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celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-those-darn-squirrels-fly-south-cover-image

About the Holiday

Squirrels elicit emotions on both sides of the spectrum. On one hand you can’t help but say “Awww!” when you see their tiny little paws and crafty antics. On the other hand their voracious appetites at bird feeders and penchant for darting into traffic is more likely to make you say “Arrgghhh!” This month is set aside, however, for enjoying the squirrels in your yard, park, or city. And really, don’t they make life just a little more fun?

Those Darn Squirrels Fly South

Written by Adam Rubin | Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri

 

Everyone knows Mr. Fookwire is a grump whose grumpiness knows no bounds. “He scolded fireflies for being too bright…yelled at clouds for being too fluffy…and pinched his nose with a clothespin” so he doesn’t have to smell the lilacs. Despite these annoyances, though, he had a wonderful summer painting pictures of the birds in his yard even though “those darn squirrels” had set up an easel of their own nearby.

But now fall was here and that meant that all of Mr. Fookwire’s beloved birds would soon be flying south leaving him with only the squirrels for company. While the squirrels usually spent the winter months “playing ping pong, building ships in bottles, and knitting, this winter they had decided to follow the birds to warmer climes. With their expert knowledge in aerodynamic engineering, the squirrels had “built gyro-copters from pinecones…gliders from leaves…and even a zeppelin from an old shopping bag.”

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-those-darn-squirrels-fly-south-squirrels-build-flying-macihines

Image copyright Daniel Salmieri, text copyright Adam Rubin. Courtesy of hmhbookscom

When the day came for the birds to take wing, Mr. Fookwire sadly waved goodbye. Just as he was about to return to the house, he heard a strange rustling, then a whir, and finally a buzz. It was the squirrels soaring away in their homemade aircraft. “‘Great googley-moogley’” Mr. Fookwire exclaimed.

The squirrels followed the birds for days until they landed on a beach. To celebrate the end of their journey and the welcome warmth, the squirrels held a fiesta, complete with mangoes, the marimba, and the merengue. Winter was wonderful here where there were new foods to eat and new birds to discover. One with a long neck, rings around its eyes, and red and blue feathers even looked a little familiar and left the squirrels feeling homesick. They decided to make a long-distance phone call, and chattered away to Mr. Fookwire.

Although he wouldn’t admit it, Mr. Fookwire was happy to receive the call. He decided to pack up his easels, paints, brushes, and cottage cheese with pepper and hit the road in his beautiful vintage car. Driving 12 miles an hour, Mr. Fookwire at last reached the beach, where the squirrels swarmed him in a big hug. “Maybe it was the nice weather. Maybe it was the beautiful scenery, Maybe it was the squirrels dancing in his pants. But for the first time in a very long time, the old man laughed.”

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-those-darn-squirrels-fly-south-squirrels-fly-south

Image copyright Daniel Salmieri, text copyright Adam Rubin. Courtesy of hmhbookscom

Mr. Fookwire was delighted with the local birds and immediately began to paint them. “‘The birds here are even more amazing than the birds back home!’ he exclaimed. ‘Harrumph!’ muttered the floogle bird.” The hot sun took its toll on Mr. Fookwire, however, and he collapsed right into the middle of his painting. The squirrels dragged him into the shade and revived him. Maybe spending the winter at home was better. Mr. Fookwire decided to head back, and the squirrels accompanied him. They didn’t want to miss “the annual snow-fort building competition.”

They all jumped into the car and sped off. Really! After all, Mr. Fookwire was in no condition to drive.

Adam Rubin’s Those Darn Squirrels Fly South contains all the charm and squirrely shenanigans that make the other two books in the series such a hit with kids (and adults). Rubin’s snappy descriptions, silly scenarios, and loveably cantankerous protagonist make for a hilarious story time read that will delight his fans and captivate new readers.

Daniel Salmieri knows how to make kids giggle and laugh out loud with colorful illustrations that perfectly depict Mr. Fookwire’s world—both at home and away. Mr. Fookwire’s noodly arms, giraffe-long neck, and carrot-shaped nose coalesce into a character that is at once funny and endearing. Getting more beak time in this third outing, the familiar birds are joined by a crew of even more brilliant and exotic beach mates. The squirrels are up to their usual contraption-making tricks as they build flying machines from soda bottles, flashlights, baseball caps, and more around-the-house items. The squirrels know how to live wherever they are, and Salmieri’s depictions of them holding a fiesta, hugging Mr. Fookwire, and roaring down the highway is absurdity for the younger set at its best.

Ages 4 – 7

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012 | ISBN 978-0544555457

You can find out more about Adam Rubin, his books, and his dry sense of humor on his website!

View a gallery of illustration work and more books by Daniel Salmieri on his website!

Go nuts watching this Those Darn Squirrels Fly South book trailer!

Squirrel Awareness Month Activity

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-squirrel-dot-to-dot

Celebrate Squirrels! Dot-to-Dot

 

Enjoy following the dots to finish this printable Celebrate Squirrels! activity sheet and then color it in!

Picture Book Review

October 6 – It’s National Pizza Month

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About the Holiday

Pizza is one of those foods that just puts a smile on your face. It’s associated with parties, good times with friends, and relaxing weekends. It’s also one of the few foods that is so varied that you can have it made your way with your own favorite ingredients – while your table mates can too. The mix of ingredients also makes pizza a great metaphor for life or a microcosm of society. However you look at pizza, this month indulge in all your favs!

Secret Pizza Party

Written by Adam Rubin | Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri

 

Raccoon, plastered against the Pizza Shop window, drools over cheesy slices others are eating inside. He so wants a piece and would even be happy with the leftovers in the back alley trash. But when he tries to paw one out of the can, he gets swept away with a broom. Maybe  if he knew how to ask politely things would be different.

Raccoon loves pizza so much that he thinks it should hang in art museums and that people should eat it in the bathtub. “Of course the best part about pizza is the gooey cheesiness, salty pepperoni-ness, sweet tomato-ness, and crispity, crunchity crust. Yum!” Maybe a pizza party will cheer Raccoon up – a secret pizza party. Why should it be secret? Because secret is special— like an intricate secret handshake only you and one other person know, or a secret stair case that leads…who knows where, but somewhere amazing!

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-secret-pizza-party-good-pizza-party-for-raccoon

Image copyright Daniel Salmieri, text copyright Adam Rubin, courtesy of Penguin Random House

Besides, you know what a regular raccoon pizza party would be like—there would be brooms and horrified faces and panicked shouts of “Get that raccoon off the table!!!” But here’s how a secret pizza party would sound: “Get that raccoon another slice of pizza, he’s the guest of honor.”

So the first order of business for this secret pizza party is…ordering! Before the call is placed, though, you’ve got to think: if you call and order the pizza, you’ll have to give your address. And if you give your address, the pizza guy will know where you live. And if the pizza guy knows where you live he “might recognize you from the posters and chase you off with a broom.” So what are you to do? A disguise will do the trick. “Okay now, play it cool. You’re just an honest pizza-buying citizen who left his wallet in the car,” and as soon as the pizza is in your hands you make a run for it back to your tree.

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-secret-pizza-party-disguised-at-pizza-shop

Image copyright Daniel Salmieri, text copyright Adam Rubin, courtesy of Penguin Random House

Ok, phew, great job! Now you can enjoy…but not too loud or with too much light. You don’t want anyone to see. Wait a minute! What’s that right outside your home? Another secret pizza party where everyone is wearing masks?

Perfect! Ok, you’ve infiltrated the party…you’re reaching for a slice of pizza…and no one suspects a thing. NO! NO! NO! You’re rolling in the pizza on top of the table!! You blew your cover. Grab as many pieces as you can and run because here they come with the brooms…!

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-secret-pizza-party-party-outside-raccoon's-tree

Image copyright Daniel Salmieri, text copyright Adam Rubin, courtesy of Penguin Random House

Adam Rubin’s madcap read-a-loud about a pizza-obsessed raccoon and his quest for a broom-free night of pizza indulging will have kids laughing from Raccoon’s first wistful look to his final triumphant dash. Rubin’s conspiratorial tone makes readers active participants in Raccoon’s covert operation to secure a pizza without a sweeping disaster, ramping up their level of involvement and enjoyment. The text—from the secret handshakes to the broom-bots to words such as “bonk,” “booyah,” “crispity crunchity,” and “happy screams”—is silly, kid-friendliness at its best and is as enticing as the aroma of hot-out-of-the-oven pizza.

Daniel Salmieri’s noodle-armed, broom-wielding humans and animated, fanatical raccoon amplify the humor that infuses every scene in Rubin’s tale. A slice of pizza hanging between two masterpieces in a museum or being devoured in a bubble bath, an intertwining handshake, a ridiculous disguise, and two types of raccoon-sniffing broom-bots are just a few of the images that make Secret Pizza Party a kid’s dream come true. In addition there are plenty of sly details, such as a pizza-shaped lampshade, projectile brooms, and Raccoon’s fairy-tale imagination. My favorite laugh-out-loud moment shows Raccoon blending into the secret pizza party outside his tree house by simply holding up a twig to his natural “mask.”

Full of pizza, playfulness, and a persevering raccoon, Secret Pizza Party is a book that kids will want to hear again and again.

Ages 3 – 9

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2013 | ISBN 978-0803739475

Find out more about books by Adam Rubin on his website!

Daniel Salmieri has a gallery of his work and books on his website for you to see!

 Pizza Month Activity

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-pizza-toppings-word-search

What’s Your Favorite Topping? Word Search

 

Pizza is so delicious, but everyone has their favorite kind. Find the names of 18 different ingredients in this printable What’s Your Favorite Topping? Word Search Puzzle. Here’s the Solution!

 

April 29 – It’s National Humor Month

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About the Holiday

The whole month can’t go by without celebrating one of the most fantastic things about life—humor! Whether you’re laughing at a funny joke, your favorite comedian or comic strip, a silly mistake, or even yourself, a chuckle is good for you! Today, take time to relax and enjoy the absurd—and give a few hearty “Ha! Ha! Ha’s!” along the way.

Meet the Dullards

Written by Sara Pennypacker | Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri

 

Gray—that’s what the Dullards are. Gray and happily extra boring. Their life is going on in its monotonous way until one day when Mr. and Mrs. Dullard happen upon a most disturbing sight. Their three children are reading—and not only that, they are reading books about befriending lions, juggling, and walking a tightrope. The elder Dullards do what any self-respecting dullard would do. They retrieve the books and hand their children blank pieces of paper to read instead.

The children are definitely becoming a problem. They want to go to school and have been playing outside. It’s not our fault bemoan the parents; it must be the town where last fall some leaves actually turned color and there’s that unruly snail in the driveway. In fact the whole atmosphere is like a circus! There’s only one thing to do. The Dullards pack up their house and Blanda, Borely, and Little Dud and move away.

Immediately upon moving into their new home, they are bombarded by the neighbor lady bringing exclamation marks and chunky applesauce cake into their perfectly dull new home. The kids are sent to watch the (unplugged) TV, but instead their eyes are drawn to the window. While unpacking Mr. and Mrs. Dullard discover a sight so shocking that Mrs. Dullard faints into the arms of her distressed husband. It’s yellow flowered wallpaper. (An exclamation mark would be appropriate here, but you know…)

On the way to the paint store the family stops to get ice-cream cones, and with 90,000 flavors to choose from they pick vanilla. Plain cone or sugar cone? No cone, of course. At the paint store Mr. Dullard suggests medium gray, but Mrs. Dullard deems it too risky. Its similarity to highways could make the kids think of travel. Beige? Mrs. Dullard counters. Too much like clay, says Mr. Dullard which can be used to create stuff. They come to a compromise and go home to—you’ve got it—watch the paint dry.

While their parents are mesmerized the kids sneak away and out the window that so enthralled them before. The sight of Blanda, Borely, and Little Dud juggling, teaching a dog tricks, and somersaulting on the clothesline, ushers in another move—back to where they came from just in time for the kids to join the circus.

With dry wit and laugh-out-loud dialogue Sara Pennypacker delivers a spot-on family story. While seen through the eyes of Mr. and Mrs. Dullard, this funny tale is all about the kids. What kids don’t think their parents are dull and conventional? And can parents really understand what’s going on in those little minds? Both children and adults will love the Dullards, and after reading you may be inspired to go out for vanilla chocolate ice-cream (ok, you can still hold the cone!)

Daniel Salmieri’s Dullards are comic genius! With their oval bodies and gray attire they blend with their oatmeal-hued walls to perfect effect. Identical square houses give way to identical triangular houses as the Dullards move to avoid catastrophic enthusiasm. The kids’ facial expressions as they adhere to boooring rules are priceless as are the parents’ reactions to the slightest excitement. Details such as a yellow snail in the driveway, the elder Dullards’ looks of horror when discovering the bright wallpaper, the signs on the ice-cream kiosk, and the name of the moving van make provide humorous jokes on each page.

Ages 4 – 8

Balzar + Bray, Harper Collins, 2015 | ISBN 978-0062198563

National Humor Month Activity

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-paint-strip-craft

Paint Strip Inspiration

 

Do you like to laugh? Do you like to watch paint dry? It is kind of cool how it changes color a bit as it dries….Oh, sorry! Where was I? Oh yeah—this craft. Paint sample strips make brilliant backdrops to your thoughts about love, life, laughter—anything! You can mix and match your favorite colors and arrange them any way you like to decorate your wall. Frame them for a more put-together look!

Supplies

  • 4 -5 paint strips from a hardware store OR You could also make your own color stips with poster board and craft paint
  • Poster board
  • Craft paint
  • Paint brush
  • Markers or adhesive letters
  • Scissors
  • Mounting squares
  • Frame (optional)

Directions

  1. If you are making your own paint strip, cut poster board into strips 9 inches long by 2 inches wide, or to desired size
  2. Paint squares of color to fill the strip, leaving a 1/8-inch-wide stripe between colors
  3. Think of a phrase that expresses your thoughts on life and laughter OR use a favorite quote
  4. Print the words on the squares of color OR use adhesive letters. You can print one letter per square or multiple letters or even whole words. Mix styles of print to give it your own unique look.
  5. Mount or frame your paint strip phrase