Is This a Planet? || Planets for Kids || Kids Astronomy




Sewing a Friendship

Sewing a Friendship by Natalie Tinti is a wonderful story about friendship and how each person’s differences are not a hindrance to build a lasting one. It’s a warm story about five girls finding each other’s company in midst of needs.

Humorous Portrayal of Bad Values – A Review of the Adventures of Captain Underpants, by Dav Pilkey

George Beard and Harold Hutchins, the main characters of The Adventures of Captain Underpants, are pranksters of the first order. In this installment of Pilkey’s Captain Underpants series, George and Harold pull an outrageous set of pranks at their elementary school football game.

Gripping Story, Haunting Illustrations – A Review of the Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick

Hugo Cabret is an orphan boy who secretly maintains the clocks at a Paris railway station. His father–once an horologist–died in a fire while repairing an automaton, a highly complex machine designed to look and to write like a human being. Hugo has salvaged the remains of the automaton, now hidden in Hugo’s room in the walls of the train station, and he steals mechanical parts in his attempt to finish his father’s project of restoring it. Hugo is convinced that, once restored, the automaton will convey a message to him from his deceased father.

The Virtue of Mercy, Stunningly Illustrated – The Lion and the Mouse, by Jerry Pinkney

Pinkney’s 2010 Caldecott Medal winner, The Lion & the Mouse, is a retelling–or, rather a re-showing–of Aesop’s traditional fable by the same name. As the story is traditionally told, a mouse is caught by a lion and pleads for her life by arguing that one day the lion might need her help.

Children’s Books – Nobunny Does it Better

What’s the best first book for children? Only the bunny knows for sure.

Dr. King’s Historic Speech – I Have a Dream – Forward by Coretta Scott King

The idea behind this book is simple: publish the text of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech–delivered in the 1963 March on Washington–accompanied by the illustrative art of fifteen artists whose work has featured in books that have received the Coretta Scott King Award or Honor. The result is a moving and beautiful remembrance of this historic moment in the American story, a worthy tribute to the visionary Dr. King who delivered the speech, and a powerful call to renew the work of forgiveness, justice, and love that Dr. King pushed forward so forcefully in his day.

Accessible Style, Stirring Beauty and Power – Martin’s Big Words, by Doreen Rappaport

This compelling book will appeal to children in several ways. First, the moral themes of justice, equality, and love on which the book focuses connect with the process of moral formation occurring in 6- to-8-year-olds. Children at this age are developing instincts about right and wrong, and good and bad, and Martin’s Big Words will engage children in this part of their experience.

A Simple Tribute to Delightful Activity – Clap Hands by Helen Oxenbury

Clap Hands has tremendous subjective appeal for children in the infant-to-2-years age range. One reason for this appeal is the themes the book engages. Young children relate happily to the familiar activities of clapping, dancing, eating, making noise (music!), waving, and looking to mom and dad for affirmation; these are highlights in a toddler’s everyday experience. Indeed, the book often functioned for our children as a call to joyful imitation of the activities.

“Two Kinds of Magic” by Claire L Dixon – A Reader Review

As children, we are taught the value of things from an early age. From the items we own to our status in society, we have a lot to pick up on in a short time. Perhaps one of the most important lessons we learn is the power of having true friends both in the beginning and near our ends.

Multicultural Leadership, Artful Collage – Author Spotlight on Ezra Jack Keats

In this article I will highlight the work of one of my favorite children’s authors, Ezra Jack Keats. In particular, I will focus on a six-book series by Keats that features a single character-a boy named Peter-and that includes two of Keats’s most celebrated books, The Snowy Day and Whistle for Willie. All six of these books are appropriate for children in the “3 to 5 years” age category.

Building Strong Character With Christian Kid’s Stories

Words are so powerful, so look for Christian kids stories that are filled with positive, encouraging words that will help to build self worth and empower children to make positive choices. If you choose the right Christian kid’s stories they can be helpful in alleviating fears that your child has or help prepare them for changes that are coming, such as learning to use the potty, going to school or moving to a new home.

How to Choose a Children’s Book, Part 4 – Attractive Illustrations

This is the fourth in a series of articles on how to choose a children’s book. Last time, I talked about how to choose books with themes that will appeal to children. In this post I will discuss the place of a book’s illustrations in making it appealing to a child, and I will try to give some guidance on what to look for in children’s book illustrations. However, I should say up front that there is a lot of room for difference of opinion over what makes for attractive book illustrations, so take my guidance as applying only “for the most part”; there will be many exceptions to it, due to a certain amount of subjectivity inherent in any aesthetic judgments.

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