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Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site

Dear Reader,

This Blog is designed for the parents, grandparents and caregivers of young children.  Each post will highlight a great book that all children should hear, with tips to enrich beginning reading skills.  You will also find fun recipes that go along with each story.  Enjoy reading and cooking with the children in your life.

*Read to the children in your life every day.  You are giving them a gift that will last a lifetime!

Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site            By:  Sherri Duskey Rinker            Illustrated by:  Tom Lichtenheld

Ages:  Toddler through Kindergarten

 

This delightful book is about big machines at a construction site as they prepare to end their busy day.  Children will love hearing about all of these tough trucks.  The rhyming verse is very soothing and makes it a perfect read for bedtime.

 

 

 

 

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The Other Side

Dear Reader,

I am diverging from our normal book presentations to share this amazing book with you.  These are extraordinary times in our history and I felt a need to be a very small part of it.  Please include The Other Side on your must read list.

The Other Side            By:  Jacqueline Woodson               Illustrated by:  E. B. Lewis

Ages:  Birth through 100

I first read The Other Side right after it was first published in 2001.  I remembered crying the first time that I read it and I cried again when I revisited the story this week.  I cried because of how little progress has been made to tear down the fence that separates us.  On the 10th anniversary of the book, the author Jacqueline Woodson expresses the same feeling, but still speaks of hope that the fence will finally come down.  For the first time, I share that hope!  This is not a book just for children, it is a book for all of us.  As Clover and Annie sit on the fence, they imagine a fenceless world.  Let’s work together and make sure that this promise comes true for them and all of us!

This is the last page of this wonderful book:  “Someday somebody’s going to come along and knock this old fence down,”  Annie said.  And I nodded, “Yeah,”  I said.  “Someday.”

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The Red Racer

Dear Reader,

This Blog is designed for the parents, grandparents and caregivers of young children.  Each post will highlight a great book that all children should hear, with tips to enrich beginning reading skills.  You will also find fun recipes that go along with each story.  Enjoy reading and cooking with the children in your life.

*Read to the children in your life every day.  You are giving them a gift that will last a lifetime!

The Red Racer            By:  Audrey Wood

Ages:  Preschool through Second Grade

 

In this delightful story, Nona really wants the Deluxe Red Racer to replace her old bicycle.  Her parents feel that it is too expensive, so Nona begins to have wicked thoughts in order to get a new bike.  In the end, it all works out and Nona learns a valuable lesson.  This book has a great story and provides the opportunity for a lot of conversation.   It also shows the power of family and community.

 

 

 

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Tomorrow I’ll Be Kind

Dear Reader,

This Blog is designed for the parents, grandparents and caregivers of young children.  Each post will highlight a great book that all children should hear, with tips to enrich beginning reading skills.  You will also find fun recipes that go along with each story.  Enjoy reading and cooking with the children in your life.

*Read to the children in your life every day.  You are giving them a gift that will last a lifetime!

Tomorrow I’ll Be Kind             By:  Jessica Hische

Ages:  Toddler through First Grade

 

This book has beautiful pictures, but more importantly, it has a great message.  It is never too early to teach our children about the importance of kindness, patience, honesty, etc.  This book does it all at this very important time in our history.  This amazing book provides the opportunity to teach life long lessons.  Read, enjoy and reflect!

 

 

 

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Tops and Bottoms

Dear Reader,

This Blog is designed for the parents, grandparents and caregivers of young children.  Each post will highlight a great book that all children should hear, with tips to enrich beginning reading skills.  You will also find fun recipes that go along with each story.  Enjoy reading and cooking with the children in your life.

*Read to the children in your life every day.  You are giving them a gift that will last a lifetime!

Tops and Bottoms             Adapted and Illustrated by:  Janet Stevens

Ages:  Preschool through Second Grade

 

In this clever story, Hare and his family have fallen on hard times and the rich Bear is very lazy and always sleeping.  This is the tale of how Hare outsmarts Bear through negotiating the use of Bear’s garden.  Through hard work, Hare and his family plant the garden while Bear continues to sleep.  In the end, Bear learns that he needs to take charge of his own life and the Hare is finely able to buy his own land for a garden.  They lived happily ever after as neighbors and that in itself is an important message.  This is a Caldecott Honor book for its amazing illustrations.

 

 

 

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Ada Twist, Scientist

Dear Reader,

This Blog is designed for the parents, grandparents and caregivers of young children.  Each post will highlight a great book that all children should hear, with tips to enrich beginning reading skills.  You will also find fun recipes that go along with each story.  Enjoy reading and cooking with the children in your life.

*Read to the children in your life every day.  You are giving them a gift that will last a lifetime!

Ada Twist, Scientist            By:  Andrea Beaty           Illustrated by:  David Roberts

Ages:  Kindergarten through Third Grade

 

Ada Twist was born very curious and to her parents dismay, she never stopped asking why, what, how and when.  Her curiosity got her in trouble many times until her parents and teachers realized that Ada was going to be a scientist and that she needed their support.  Asking questions is what scientists do and good science changes the world.  This wonderful book explores Ada’s curiosity and sends the message that science offers a lot of  career opportunities.

 

 

 

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Families, Families, Families!

Dear Reader,

This Blog is designed for the parents, grandparents and caregivers of young children.  Each post will highlight a great book that all children should hear, with tips to enrich beginning reading skills.  You will also fine fun recipes that go along with each story.  Enjoy reading and cooking with the children in your life.

*Read to the children in your life every day. You are giving them a gift that will last a lifetime!

Families, Families, Families!            By:  Suzanne Lang and Max Lang

Ages:  Preschool through Second Grade

 

Some families consist of a mom, dad and children, some are a mom and a child, some are grandparents and children and so on.   Families come in many shapes and forms, but are families none the less.  This wonderful book explores many types of families.  The last page of the book says it all, “…if you love each other, then you are a family”.

 

 

 

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Cook-A-Doodle-Doo!

Dear Reader,

This Blog is designed for the parents, grandparents and caregivers of young children.  Each post will highlight a great book that all children should hear, with tips to enrich beginning reading skills.  You will also find fun recipes that go along with each story.  Enjoy reading and cooking with the children in your life.

*Read to the children in your life every day.  You are giving them a gift that will last a lifetime!

Cook-A-Doodle-Doo!            By:  Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel

Ages:  Kindergarten through Second Grade

In our story, the Big Brown Rooster decides to follow in his great grand-mothers foot steps, the Little Red Hen.  He finds her cookbook and the fun begins.  Instead of making bread, Big Brown Rooster selects strawberry short cake and gets help from the Turtle, Iguana and a Pig.  This book really brings reading and cooking together.  The side bars on the pages are extremely informative regarding the cooking process.  Children will enjoy seeing how this unlikely team made a wonderful strawberry short cake and what happened to it.  The authors include the recipe on the last page.

 

 

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Because I Had a Teacher

Dear Reader,

This Blog is designed for the parents, grandparents and caregivers of young children.  Each post will highlight a great book that all children should hear, with tips to enrich beginning reading skills.  You will also find fun recipes that go along with each story.  Enjoy reading and cooking with the children in your life.

*Read to the children in your life every day.  You are giving them a gift that will last a lifetime!

Because I Had a Teacher            By:  Kobi Yamada            Illustrated by:  Natalie Russell

Ages:  Preschool through Second Grade

 

This is Teacher Appreciation Week and it is our opinion that we shouldn’t have just one week to celebrate our teachers.  They need to be celebrated every day of the year.   As parents work with their children at home during the pandemic, we’re sure that they would now agree.  Because I Had a Teacher would be a perfect gift for any teacher that you know.  The last page of text says it all, “Because I had you, I learned to believe in me”.  Please reach out to a teacher and just say, “Thank you”.

 

 

 

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Llama Llama Red Pajama

Dear Reader,

This Blog is designed for the parents, grandparents and caregivers of young children.  Each post will highlight a great book that all children should hear, with tips to enrich beginning reading skills.  You will also find fun recipes that go along with each story.  Enjoy reading and cooking with the children in your life.

*Read to the children in your life every day.  You are giving them a gift that will last a lifetime!

Llama Llama Red Pajama              By:  Anna Dewdney

Ages:  Toddlers through Kindergarten

 

 

The Llama Llama series of books are a must read for young children.  Llama Llama Red Pajama deals with a common bedtime issue that many parents have when children do not go to sleep right away.  Baby Llama creates a lot of “Llama drama” before Mama Llama is able to console him.  This delightful book is done in rhyming verse and conveys a great lesson for young children.

 

 

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