Nature

June 17 – Flip-Flop Day

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About the Holiday

Nothing says “casual” like a pair of flip-flops! These open-toe, open-back, open-side (you can hardly call them shoes!) shoes have been trending since 4000 BC with no limits in sight! Flip-Flop Day was initiated by Tropical Smoothie Café. Customers wearing flip-flops receive a free smoothie and the Café also uses the day to raise money for Camp Sunshine, which offers respite and support to children with life-threatening illnesses and their families. Today if the weather’s warm slip on a pair of flip-flops and head out for a casual day at the beach or on the town!

At the Beach

Written by Anne Rockwell | Illustrated by Harlow Rockwell

 

A little girl with a yellow pail and red swimsuit and her mom who’s carrying a tote and umbrella head out for a day at the beach. They find a spot to lay their striped and polka-dot towels and plant their blue-striped umbrella. Waiting in the tote is their lunch—two foil-wrapped sandwiches, two peaches, and a thermos of lemonade.

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After the little girl is covered in nice-smelling sunscreen, she follows a line of sandpipers, adding her footprints to theirs in the wet sand. For her bucket she finds different types of seaweed and a variety of shells. She joins a group of kids playing among the dunes. “I build a castle with my shovel and pail. The boy next to me digs a channel where his boat can float,” the little girl says. The girl ventures out into the shallow water where “a little crab tweaks my toe” and “little silver fishes swim past me.”

The girl likes to “walk past the lifeguard station to the big brown rocks” to look for barnacles, snails, and muscles. She and her mom then swim in the waves near a drifting seagull. Back on land, the girl lies on her towel and lets the sunshine dry her off “until it is time for lunch.”

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Like the best laid-back days, Anne Rockwell’s classic At the Beach takes a tranquil, unhurried look at a mother-and-child seaside outing. For young children the straightforward, but lyrical text will evoke happy memories of their own beach experiences; for children who don’t live by the ocean the story will pique their interest in the shoreline environment.  This book, anchored in universal details yet inviting imagination, will soon become a favorite.

Harlow Rockwell’s sweet drawings of the little girl enjoying all a busy beach has to offer will captive young children. Scenes of a diverse group of children playing in the sand, a stalwart sea gull afloat on the current, a parade of scurrying sandpipers, and even the up- close look at scavenger hunt finds and the always welcome lunch engage all of a child’s senses. The clean lines and soft colors of the sand, sea, and sky contribute to a book as lovely as a sun-drenched beach.

Beach Day Scavenger Hunt Idea: At the Beach would be a wonderful take-along on any beach outing. Take a stroll along the shore and see if you and your child can find the shells, seaweed, sea creatures, and other seaside sights in the book.

Ages Birth – 8

Aladdin reissue edition, Simon & Schuster, 2016 | ISBN 978-1481411349

Flip-Flop Day Activity

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Flip-Flop Plant Holder

 

Flip-flops don’t only have to be for your feet! With this easy craft you can make a sandal-ightful way to hang succulents and other light plants on walls or even windows!

Supplies

  • Child’s flip-flops with elastic heel straps
  • Buttons or charms
  • Small plastic, terra cotta, or ceramic solid-bottom pot
  • Small plant
  • Dirt
  • Hot glue gun
  • Heavy duty mounting strips
  • Small shovel or spoon

Directions

  1. Place the flip-flop toe down on your work surface. With the hot glue gun, attach the buttons to the plastic toe straps of the flip-flops.
  2. Add dirt to the pot
  3. Add plant to the pot
  4. Slip the pot into the elastic strap and gently push down so it is also supported by the plastic toe straps
  5. To hang, use appropriate weight mountable strips.
  6. To make an interesting and attractive arrangement, use various sizes of flip-flops

June 16 – Dump the Pump Day

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About the Holiday

There’s no better time than early summer to consider “dumping the pump” and traveling by foot, bicycle, scooter, skates, skateboard…there are so many options! Leaving the car at home saves on gas costs, is better for the environment, and leads to a great exercise workout. Today, grab your walking or tennis shoes and with a friend or alone, take an example from the subject of today’s book and enjoy the pleasure of traversing the outside world!

Good Trick, Walking Stick!

Written by Sheri Mabry Bestor | Illustrated by Jonny Lambert

 

The walking stick is one insect that knows a thing or two about tricks. Even before it’s born wile plays a part in its survival. A mother walking stick drops her eggs where they will be buried by autumn leaves—and found by ants that think they are delicious seeds to eat. Why would a mother purposefully do this?! She knows that the ants will take the eggs to their colony, where they will eat only the tops leaving the baby walking sticks undisturbed. The ants will then drag the remains of the “seeds” to their garbage dump area, where they will spend a warm winter safe from predators until spring.

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In the spring a baby hatches. It look like a tiny twig—a twig that can walk! The baby searches for food and munch, munch, munches the leaves it finds. As it becomes bigger it molts, shedding its old skin and growing a new one. The walking stick looks just like the branches that it lives on. It is perfectly camouflaged! “Good trick, walking stick!”

But a bird with keen eyesight swoops down and in an instant grabs the walking stick in its beak. Quickly, the walking stick squirts out a bad-smelling juice. The bird spits it out, but has gained a snack while the walking stick has lost a leg! It’s okay, though; the walking stick will just grow a new one! “Good trick, walking stick!”

The walking stick finds a tree with others of her kind hidden in its branches. The leaves make delicious meals. During the day the walking stick can change color to blend in with the sunlit bark of the tree and stay cooler. At night the walking stick becomes darker to hide in the shadows and stay warm. “Good trick, walking stick!”

When a squirrel brushes past, looking for a meal, the walking stick “pulls in her legs and drops to the forest floor, just like a stick falling off a larger branch. The stick insect is safe.” All day the insect lies on the ground, not moving, pretending to be just another cutting. At nightfall the walking stick climbs back into the tree. The squirrels and birds are resting now, so the stick insects “Munch munch. Crunch. Munch.”

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With the onset of fall stick insects begin looking for mates. The females “spritz their perfume into the cooling air.” Males find them. Even if a walking stick does not have a mate, she can still produce eggs which will all develop into females. The eggs settle into the fallen leaves, ready to begin their unique life. “Good trick, walking stick!”

Stick insects are some of the most unusual creatures in the world. Measuring from an inch or two to 21 inches (53 centimeters), they can be found in forests, parks, even your own backyard! Sheri Mabry Bestor’s story of a year in a walking stick’s life is filled with action, suspense, and the clever ploys stick insects use to survive. Bestor’s enthusiastic, conversational tone and evocative language will engage kids over a wide range of ages. Each page also contains fascinating scientific sidebars that expand on the events in the story.

Jonny Lambert’s collage-style illustrations are a perfect match for the text. The mottled hues and textures of nature are beautifully represented in the vibrantly colored two-page spreads. The scientific details of the stick insect’s life are clearly and organically depicted, making it easy for kids to understand and enjoy the concepts: on one page ants carry away eggs with missing tops while on the next baby walking sticks emerge from the same images. Illustrations of the stick insect’s camouflage are particularly effective, and the cyclical quality of the story and the insect’s life are well portrayed.

For teachers and for kids who love the natural world and are curious about its unique creatures, Good Trick, Walking Stick is a wonderful addition to their school or personal library.

Ages 5 – 9

Sleeping Bear Press, 2016 | ISBN 978-1585369430

Dump the Pump Day Activity

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Take a Stroll Puzzle

 

You can see so many amazing things when you take a walk! But can you spot the 15 differences between the two pictures in this printable Take a Stroll puzzle?

June 12 – National Rivers Month

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About the Holiday

Rivers are beautiful, provide recreation, and are crucial to our water supply. Did you know that in the United States 65% of our drinking water comes from rivers and streams? This month environmentalists and others promote awareness of the importance of keeping the nation’s rivers pollution free to protect the fish and animals that call them home and increase enjoyment for all. To help the cause, join a volunteer river clean-up crew, help monitor water quality, or learn more about your local river system. Whether you like to fish, swim, boat, or just laze on the bank, June is the perfect month to get out on a river! You might even see some otters—the subject of today’s book!

Otters Love to Play

Written by Jonathan London | Illustrated by Meilo So

 

It’s spring and two otters have moved into an abandoned beaver lodge to start a family. In a soft nest of moss, leaves, and grass the mother otter gives birth to three pups. The pups first open their eyes to the world when they are five weeks old. At two months old they’re ready to come out of the den to play. Playtime is fun, but for the baby otters it’s also work. Running, twisting, wrestling, and matches of tug-of-war teach valuable hunting skills and solidify family bonds.

As spring turns to summer, the pups’ thick waterproof coats grow in, and it’s time for swimming lessons to begin. There are no floaties here! The mother otter simply grabs her charges by the scruff of the neck and drops them into the river. Their mother shows them how to dive and glide and come to the surface as they follow her single file. “Within days, the otter pups gracefully spin and flip and swish like underwater acrobats.” Again and again “they scramble up a mud slide and SLIIIIIIIIIIIDE back down to the water—Ka-Spash!”

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By the end of the summer the pups know how to catch small fish and how to nudge out frogs, crayfish, turtles, and snakes from their hiding places among the rocks. Autumn brings more opportunities for fun as the nearly full-grown pups tumble in the fallen leaves. Even winter’s blasts don’t deter the otters. With their thick fur they roll in the snow and catch fish in the icy river water.

But an ominous shadow appears on the fresh snow as the pups belly-slide down a snowbank. Something is waiting and watching…. So too is mother otter. Screaming and hunching she “slides across the snow and with a terrible GRRRROWL…scares the fox away!” Throughout the winter the otters snuggle in their den, and when the rainy spring makes muddy river banks, the otters come out and speed down the slippery slide “because otters love to play!”

You can’t help but love otters. Watching them dive, swim, and frolic just puts a smile on your face. And what’s more these sleek river creatures are fascinating animals! Jonathon London has written a story that captures the spirit and exuberance of one otter family while incorporating intriguing facts about their dens, birth statistics, purposeful play, hunting techniques, protective fur, predators, and defenses—did you know that otters can slide on snow at speeds up to 18 miles (29 kilometers) per hour?! London’s lyrical journey through the first year of an otter’s life makes captivating reading for young children just navigating the world themselves.

Meilo So’s enchanting otter family will delight readers. Images of the pups somersaulting, sliding, splashing, and swimming charmingly depict the sleek, supple movements of these frisky animals. Their smooth coats, rendered in soft browns with white and black accented texture, and their mischievous, ever-present smiles are realistically portrayed, inviting kids to reach out and pet them. So’s river scenes are beautiful—the pale blue water reflects deep gold and green trees, pink and yellow wildflowers and delicate green grasses flutter along the river bank, and the depths of the underwater world swirl with muted sage greens and blues as the otter pups frolic among gray- and olive-hued fish. Autumn comes with fiery orange and purple leaves, and winter falls shivery white as the russet fox is chased away.

Otters Love to Play would be a lovely gift for any child and a welcome addition to any classroom or school library.

Ages 4 – 8

Candlewick Press, 2016 | ISBN 978-0763669133

Visit Jonathan London’s website for more books by this prolific author.

View more books and art by Meilo So.

National Rivers Month Activity

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Otter Coloring Page

 

You “otter” love this coloring page, with its cute river creature who has just caught dinner! You can color it with pencils, crayons, or markers or consider making a collage with bits of paper, cloth, or leaves and sticks. Give the otter a den to snuggle in and a river for frolicking! Here’s your Otter Coloring Page!

May 13 – Fintastic Friday: Giving Sharks, Skates, and Rays a Voice

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About the Holiday

Fintastic Friday was established by Whale Times to bring awareness to and promote advocacy about conservation efforts to save some of the ocean’s most magnificent creatures. Whale Times, Inc. was created in 1995 to provide kids with easy access to marine science information. Their mission is to create a connections between the ocean, ocean research, researchers, and students through formal and informal educational programs. Respected by educators, marine scientists, and other scientific organizations, Whale Times inspires students to consider careers in marine science and work toward solutions for protecting our ocean environments. Whale Times invites kids all over the world to get involved to save sharks through three activities:

  • Zone It! Help make the entire ocean a shark conservation zone by making others aware of the dangers to shark populations and printing out the special poster found at whaletimes.org.
  • Thank Them in a Big Way! Through letters or personal conversations, thank the scientists and conservationists working to protect sharks
  • Sharks in the Park Rally! Consider holding a shark rally or party to make others aware of shark and ocean related conservation issues

Discovering Sharks

Written by Donna Parham | Illustrated by Julius T Csotonyi

 

When you pick up Discovering Sharks, you’ll immediately know you’re reading a unique book. The cover, with the texture and heft of shark skin, features a great white, teeth bared, eye glinting, bearing down on you, the reader! But don’t be afraid—open this book to pages filled with incredible illustrations and information on one of the most fascinating species to swim the seas. Here are just a few:

Carcharocles Megalodon: living during the Miocene and Pliocene Periods, this mammoth shark grew to 50 feet in length and had serrated teeth, some of which were 7 inches tall! These sharks dwarfed the whales, sea turtles, other sea creatures that made up its meals. Even land animals that were unfortunate enough to swim into it’s path were gobbled up.

Cladoselache: This smaller shark grew to a length of 4 to 6 feet and lived during the Devonian Period. It’s a good thing dentists weren’t around back then because this shark would have been their worst nightmare! With a mouth at the tip of its snout and ragged, jagged teeth, this shark was great at grabbing food, but not so good at chewing it.

Whorl-Tooth Shark: With a tooth shaped like the blade of a circular saw growing vertically from the shark’s lower jaw, the Whorl-tooth is perhaps one of the oddest sea creatures to ever live. No amount of orthodontia could ever fix those teeth!

A section on Fearsome Sharks comes next. While you may think that all sharks look scary, very few actually pose danger to people. If you see any of these, however, you better get out of the way!

Tiger Shark: Sporting dark vertical stripes along its back and sides, this 20-foot long monster doesn’t talk trash—he eats it! Scarfing up ocean waste such as “plastic bags, barrels, cans, and pieces of coal,” they are not adverse to snacking on “chickens, pigs, donkeys, and monkeys that fall off boats or go for a swim.” It actually seems there is nothing these sharks won’t eat!

The Great Hammerhead: With its distinctive hammer-shaped snout, this shark hunts prey in a most unusual fashion. Along its wide head are tiny sensors that pick up the small electrical pulses emitted by every kind of creature—even you! Once the shark senses the electrical field, it’s probably too late!

Blacktip Shark: If this whole shark gig doesn’t work out, this unusual giant may find a place in a ballet troupe. While feeding, this quick swimmer “sometimes…leaps free of the water and spins in the air—once, twice, or three times—before falling back into the sea.” Quite a performance!

A chapter on Endangered Sharks are up next. Nearly one-third of shark species are considered endangered or threatened due to environmental and human causes. Sharks are captured for food, for their tough skin, and for the oils and vitamins in their liver. In some places shark fin soup is a delicacy, served for special occasions. Huge trawlers also catch sharks in their fishing nets and on lines. This “bycatching” is a major reason behind the decline of shark populations. Here are two of the species on that list:

Daggernose Shark: With its flat, razor-sharp nose this sleek, 5-foot-long beauty cuts through the shallow waters off the Northern South African coast. It is currently on the Critically Endangered list, which means it will likely become extinct in your lifetime.

Whitespotted Izak: Tiny by the standards of fiercer sharks, this Izak is only 12 inches long. Its name comes from the white spots on its body whose only purpose seem to be breaking up its brown spots. Now on the Endangered list, this striking species has nearly vanished.

Deepwater Sharks may be some of the most unusual sharks of all. Sporting eye-popping adaptations to their forbidding environments, these sharks are like nothing you’ve ever seen before! Here are a couple:

Bahamas Sawshark: Carrying its own double-edged saw in front of it, this shark found in the waters near Cuba, Florida, and the Bahamas strikes with stunning force.

Viper Dogfish: You might wonder where this shark’s fins went! The stubby body on this shark makes it look more like a torpedo than a shark. Only recently discovered in 1990, the Dogfish swims the depths off the coasts of Japan and Hawaii

The last section is reserved for “Superlatives”—sharks that demonstrate unique qualities: most warm-blooded, biggest, most likely to get stepped on, most unusual feeding method, most mysterious, and more.

This is just a small sampling of the absorbing facts and species found in Discovering Sharks. Donna Parham offers statistics, scientific data, and trivia about each shark in a conversational, riveting way that will keep kids glued to this book and wanting to return again and again.

The incredible work of natural history illustrator Julius T Csotonyi will take your breath away anew with each page. The vivid colors and textures of the sharks reefs, sea plants, and other fish are so intricately mastered that you will feel as if you’re snorkeling in the depths as well. Lit with the sun, the clear ocean waters show off the beautiful markings of each species, and the murky sea bottom holds unfathomable mystery.

Shark lovers, dinosaur aficionados, monster mavens, and more creature enthusiasts will want Discovering Sharks in their library.

Ages 5 and up

Cider Mill Press, 2016 | ISBN 978-1604336047

Gardening for Wildlife Activity

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Guess the Garden Differences

 

No two gardens are exactly alike. Can you find the differences in the two pictures of kids having fun in their gardens? Print out the Guess the Garden Differences puzzle and have fun!

May 10 – Mother Ocean Day

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About the Holiday

The brain child of the South Florida Kayak Fishing Club and enacted in 2013, Mother Ocean Day promotes awareness of the beauty and wonder of the world’s oceans. Teeming with rare and surprising creatures and plants, the ocean remains one of Earth’s most amazing mysteries. Today, take time to enjoy all the ocean has to offer—go to the beach and walk, snorkel, swim, or fish—or if you’re more of a landlubber read a book about our Mother Ocean.

At the Sea Floor Café: Odd Ocean Critter Poems

Written by Leslie Bulion | Illustrated by Leslie Evans

 

With a jaunty exhortation to “Dive In!” Leslie Bulion invites readers to “…visit a habitat shallow and deep. / and boiling hot, where acids seep, / and frigid and pressured and mountainy-steep, / Come explore the sea! Seventeen species of “odd critters, enormous and tiny…hunters and foragers, hiders and peekers” are described in clever, informative verse.

The Coconut Octopus is a wily creature: “This octopus walks backwards on two arms, / And wraps the other six around its top. / It ambles free of predatory harms, / And thus avoids becoming shark-chewed slop.” The symbiotic relationship between the Leopard Sea Cucumber and the Emperor Shrimp is told in alternating lines of blue and red.

“I inch along.”

“We hitch a ride. / We tour the seafloor country side.”

“I’m ship,”

“We’re crew. / We swab the decks / By eating scummy algae specks.”

I’m camouflaged / in leopard spots.

While not the swiftest / Of the yachts, / A top-notch spot to meet a mate.”

When threatened I eviscerate.

To spew my guts / Is quite a chore, / And it takes weeks / To grow some more. / But I keep predators away.

We live to crew / Another day.

The unexplained habit of the convict fish, which “eats” its young every night just to spit them out again, is described in “Fish Food,” and readers can dig their teeth into another meal-related relationship between the reef shark and the cleaner wrasse in “Healthy Eating.” In “Dental Health” readers learn that narwhal’s tusks are much more than defense mechanisms. Instead, each tooth “contains ten million nerves to sense / environmental evidence.” And what’s more—“…when we see them crossing spars / and jousting underneath the stars, / one’s tusk above and one’s beneath, / it’s not a fight; their brushing teeth.”

“Crabby Camouflage” has never been so elaborate or decorative as that concocted by the jeweled anemone crab, and “Dolphin Fashion” reveals an ingenious way to protect a tender snout: “A bottlenose counseled her daughter: / Put this sponge on your beak underwater. / You can scare out more fish, / Poke sharp stones as you wish, / And your skin’ll stay smooth like it oughter.”

Snapping shrimp, epaulette sharks, the violet snail, sea spiders, krill, the broody squid, sipohonophores, erenna, larvaceans, osedax, and the remotely operated vehicles that give us a view of the ocean floor are also celebrated in this fun poetry collection.

Each poem is followed by scientific information about the subject of the verse.

Leslie Bulion piques readers’ interest in these fascinating ocean creatures with her smart, witty rhymes that reveal little-known facts.

Leslie Evans, with her printmaker’s eye, illustrates the deep blue pages with stylized depictions of the fish and animals that populate the sea, allowing readers to visualize the quirks and adaptations written about.

Ages 6 and up

Peachtree Publishers, 2011 | ISBN 978-1561455652

Gardening for Wildlife Month Activity

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Spoon Flowers

The rounded scoop and long “stem” of plastic ice-cream spoons make a perfect base for pretty wildflowers. You can use the printable petal template or make petals of your own design to fill your vase with color

Supplies

  • Printable Petal Template
  • 3 – 4 plastic ice-cream spoons, these are available in different colors at party supply stores or you can paint them the color you’d like
  • Multi-purpose paint in colors of your choice, if you are painting the spoons
  • Heavy craft paper in your favorite flower colors
  • Green ribbon
  • Ribbon, hairbands, weaving loom bands, or colored wire
  • Glue gun or strong glue
  • Paintbrush 
  • Scissors
  • Beans, sand, pebbles, or glass or plastic beads to fill the vase

Directions

  1. Print or trace the petals onto colored paper. The number of petals you need for each flower will depend on the size of the spoon
  2. Cut out the petals
  3. With the glue gun or strong glue, attach the petals to the spoon, gluing the end of the petals around the inside edge of the spoon, Let dry
  4. Wrap the handle of the spoon with the green ribbon and glue in place
  5. Fill the vase ¾ full with beans, sand, pebbles, or beads
  6. Decorate the rim of the bottle with the ribbon, bands, or wire
  7. Push the flower stems into the vase and arrange

May 9 – It’s Get Caught Reading Month

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About the Holiday

Supported by the Association of American Publishers (AAP), Get Caught Reading Month promotes literacy and reminds people of all ages how much fun reading is. Begun in 1999 by former Congresswoman Pat Schroeder, President and CEO of AAP, the initiative brings together publishing industry executives, authors, illustrators, teachers, librarians, politicians, celebrities, and readers to spread the word about the joys of books. To join the celebration, take a picture of yourself or a friend reading, hold a book drive, challenge yourself to a reading goal, and/or read to someone else.

The Whisper

By Pamela Zagarenski

 

A little girl loves stories and the magical realms they can take her to. One day while waiting for school to be dismissed, she spies a book on a shelf. Her teacher allows her to take it home with her, and the little girl happily runs off with it when the clock strikes 3:00. On the way home, she doesn’t notice that all the letters are escaping from the book or that a wily fox is catching them in a net.

At home she secludes herself in her room, excited to read the mysterious book. She turns the pages, awed by the beautiful pictures. But by the time she has finished, she has tears in her eyes. “Where were the words? Where were the stories?” The girl flips through the book again, but this time she hears a small whisper: “Dear little girl, don’t be disappointed. You can imagine the words. You can imagine the stories.”

The whisper seems so knowing that the girl does at it suggests. She turns to the first page where a blue bear followed by a beekeeper walks under a honeycomb sun toward a brown bear. The girl stares at the picture and thinks of a title: Blue Bear’s Visit. Her story begins: “Blue Bear arrived on the first day of spring. He promised…”

Warming to the idea of creating stories, the girl examines the second picture. She notices the same white rabbit that was in the first picture. In the foreground a “magnificent ox” is listening to a man whispering into its large, soft ear. The Secret, the little girl titles this story, which starts: “Mr. Ox, you must please promise not to tell anyone, but we need your help. Last week…”

With the third picture the words tumble out more easily, forming sentences that give life to the massive white elephant, regal lion, and that rabbit again who are traveling the sea in a long, open boat. The Quest, she calls it. In Tigers Prayer, preparations are being made: tea is brewing, a clown with a pointed hat plays his accordion, a windhorse jumps through hoops, and the rabbit rides a golden ring as a lion hears what Tiger has to say. A Birthday Party comes next, and it seems Pan has planned a very secret party. An owl perches in the crook of a tree asking for the password with a “Hoo, Who?” which is answered quickly because the vanilla cake with raspberry filling and vanilla cream frosting holding 6 candles must be delivered.

The Magical Cloak sees the little girl’s imagination truly take flight as she decides the man in the “elaborate coat” is a wizard or magician whose bubbles come to life once released from the blower. Enormous whales now fill the harbor. They are beautiful, but something must be done….Next, hurry to meet the owl! He is picking up passengers at midnight. But what does the golden key in his beak open? Only the story The Golden Key locked in the little girl’s mind will tell.

Hours go by as the little girl creates tales for each picture in the book. As the night grows late, she sleeps, carried into slumber on dreams woven from the pictures and stories she imagined. When she wakes up, the girl wishes to spend more time with her new friends, but it’s time for school so she gathers up the book and hurries away.

On the path to school she meets a fox who is carrying a bag. “Excuse me, little girl,” says the fox. “I believe I have the words to your book.” The fox then explains how he caught the words as they spilled from the pages the day before. The fox gives her his parcel, but asks for a favor. The girl is happy to oblige and lets the fox stand on her shoulders to reach a bunch of grapes dangling from a nearby vine.

The girl rushes into school and apologizes for being late. She relates the story of the fox and the words and the magical night she has spent making up tales for the pictures in the book. “I have so many stories to tell you,” says the girl to her teacher. “‘I can’t want to hear,’” the teacher replies with a smile.”

Opening a book by Pamela Zagarenski is to fall into an alternate realm of such beauty and imagination that you forget the real world exists.  Her paintings are composed of rich, regal hues swirling with images and designs that overlap and float to create the kind of experience only the deepest, most complex dreams allow. The characters and details follow page to page uniting the pictures and, subtly, the stories the little girl discovers in them: The teapot, once introduced, waits under a tree on the next page and rides the waves of the whale-filled sea in the next. The bees and the rabbit are constant companions on each spread, and the animals will fill the reader with awe.

The little girl’s imagined stories are tantalizing with just the right mix of the mysterious and the tangible to entice readers to add more. The frame of the Aesop Fable The Fox and the Grapes is inspired and could lead to a conversation about how “life is what you make it.”

The Whisper is a book readers will want to linger over and dip into again and again, and would be especially fun on those days when there’s “nothing” to do. It makes a beautiful gift for any occasion.

Ages 4 – 9 (this book would also appeal to adults)

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015 | ISBN 978-0544416864

Gardening for Wildlife Month Activity

In addition to Get Caught Reading Month, May is Gardening for Wildlife Month. It’s the perfect time to celebrate the joys and colors of spring and enjoy the many plants, flowers, and wildlife nature provides. Whether your garden is small or large, just being planted or already blooming, you can be mindful to make yours wildlife friendly to help and protect the environment.

This week’s crafts and activities will revolve around gardens and plants of all types. I hope you enjoy them!

celebrate-picture-books-picture-book-review-vase

Painted Bottle Vase

Do you often pick up a smoothie or other drink at the grocery store and then just throw away the glass or plastic bottle? Those containers, with their elegant shapes, make beautiful vases with just a little paint!

Supplies

  • Plastic or glass bottle
  • Multi-surface craft paint in your favorite color
  • Paint brush
  • Wax paper

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Directions

  1. Wash and thoroughly dry your bottle.
  2. Pour 3 to 5 tablespoons of craft paint into the bottle
  3. Invert the bottle on the wax paper
  4. Let the paint drip down the sides of the bottle, this may take several hours to overnight
  5. When the paint reaches half-way down the sides of the bottle, you can “help it along” with the paintbrush, filling in any empty spaces
  6. Let the bottle sit, inverted, until the paint dries. This can take one to several days, depending on the atmosphere.
  7. When the paint is dry, use the vase for artificial flowers.

Join me tomorrow to see how to make flowers to go in your vase!

Picture Book Review

May 1 – Mother Goose Day / Children’s Book Week

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About the Holiday

Incredibly, the term “Mother Goose” goes back to the 1650s to describe rhymes such as Baa Baa Black Sheep, Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, Jack and Jill Went up a Hill, and The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe. Fairy tales such as Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood also came under Mother Goose’s wing. While all of the rhymes are not as familiar to today’s children, many are still popular and their influence can be seen in current books, movies, and TV shows. Mother Goose Day was established in 1987 to highlight these stories and keep them alive for today’s kids. To celebrate, read some Mother Goose tales—either as originally written or in fractured form.

This first week of May also celebrates Children’s Book Week, which was established in 1919 to promote literacy awareness and the joy of reading. As the longest-running national literacy movement in the country, Children’s Book Week holds, sponsors, and encourages events in schools, libraries, bookstores, homes, and wherever young readers and books connect!

Mother Bruce

By Ryan T. Higgins

 

It’s a good thing Bruce lives by himself. He’s a grumpy grizzly who likes nothing. If it’s sunny he’s grumpy. If it’s raining he’s grumpy. And don’t even get started on how he feels about cute fuzzy animals. There is one thing he likes, though, and that’s eggs! Yummy eggs prepared many ways from recipes Bruce finds on the Internet.

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Copyright Ryan T. Higgins, 2015, courtesy of Disney-Hyperion.

One day a most mouth-watering recipe pops up on the screen—hard-boiled goose eggs drizzled with honey-salmon sauce. Bruce heads out with his own personal shopping cart to collect the ingredients. He ingeniously catches some salmon and raids a local beehive (this carnivore’s a locavore, you see). Next he pays a visit to Mrs. Goose. He takes her eggs after determining that they are free-range organic.

At home Bruce puts the eggs in his special pot and starts a fire in the stove. But the fire fizzles, forcing Bruce to make a visit to the wood shed. When he comes back, his lovely breakfast has hatched! And what’s worse, the little goslings think Bruce is their mother! Bruce stares into those sweet eyes gazing back at him and decides…to have buttered goslings on toast. But those little peepers just won’t cooperate, and for some reason Bruce has lost his appetite.

He gathers up the goslings in his shopping cart and wheels them back to their nest only to find that their mother has already flown south for the winter. Bruce leaves them in the nest anyway and heads for home. But it’s too late—the baby geese have already imprinted on Bruce, and they tag along happily after him. Bruce is stern with them. He roars. He tries to hide out in a tree. But it’s no use; he’s stuck with them.

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Copyright Ryan T. Higgins, 2015, courtesy of Disney-Hyperion.

Bruce rises to the challenge, though. He gives up his space in the pool, teaches them how to paint, feeds them, and transports them in a specially-made baby carrier. As spring turns to summer and then fall, Bruce watches his geese grow from “annoying baby geese” to “stubborn teenage geese” to “boring adult geese.”

Finally, one day Bruce spies other goose families flying south and knows his time has come! He can get rid of those geese and take a long, well-deserved nap. Bruce explains migration to his geese, but they don’t quite get it, coming to him dressed in winter coats and hats. Hmmm…some creativity is needed. Bruce tries slinging them northward and sending them flying in remote-controlled planes, but the geese just hug him tighter.

Resigned to his fate, Bruce packs his bag and four smaller ones for his charges and boards a bus for Miami. “Now every winter Bruce and his geese head south together.” They wear floral shirts, and as his “kids” play in the sand, Bruce “dreams of new recipes—recipes that don’t hatch.”

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Copyright Ryan T. Higgins, 2015, courtesy of Disney-Hyperion.

Ryan T. Higgins’ Mother Bruce is an endearing story of dislike at first sight. Of course no one—not even a grumpy, loner bear like Bruce—can resist the sweet, loving faces of youngsters forever. Fortunately for readers, Bruce holds out longer than most, his transition providing giggle-inducing scenarios on every page.

Higgins’ illustrations are loaded with visual jokes, cultural references kids will love, and four of the cutest clueless geese around. Depictions of Bruce masterfully mix his gruff, bothered exterior with the big softie that lies underneath. Bruce’s solutions to his plight are clever and funny. There may be no better Mother Goose than Bruce!

Ages 4 – 8

Disney-Hyperion, 2015 | ISBN 978-1484730881

Mother Goose Day Activity

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Mother Goose Coloring Page

 

Mother Goose Rhymes are fun to learn and share! Here’s a picture of Mother Goose and her goose for you to color!

Mother Goose Coloring Page

Picture Book Review