more aliki!

Hi Booktomato family!  How has your week gone?  My three year old just started a new preschool this week, and it is going to be a big change for us because he is goes every morning until lunch time.  It will take some getting used to for the both of us since he has stayed home with me full time until now.  He loves it so far, and he's having a lot of fun.  I am enjoying it too, even though I miss him a little bit.  I love having a couple of hours each day to myself.  I'm happiest when I have a space in my day for my own creativity.  

Let's talk some more about the wonderful author, Aliki!  The first one, Milk: From Cow to Carton, is one of my favorites.  We have a small milk packaging factory in our neighborhood, and we like to imagine that inside its walls, cows are walking around in aprons and hair nets with clip boards in their hooves overseeing the production.  The information in this book doesn't exactly match up with our imaginations but it is a fascinating story.  The book follows the journey of milk from the farm to the factories where it is screened for safety purposes and bottled up for grocery stores.  It also talks about different cultures around the world and different animals that produce milk.  This book has that great Aliki formula of beautiful pictures + engaging information + clear language and easy explanations to questions that little minds are wondering about.    

Here are a few more Aliki books that we really enjoy reading.  

My Five Senses (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1)

By Aliki

Buy on Amazon

William Shakespeare & the Globe (Trophy Picture Books)

By Aliki

Buy on Amazon

How a Book Is Made (Reading Rainbow Book)

By Aliki

Buy on Amazon

Mummies Made in Egypt (Reading Rainbow Books)

By Aliki

Buy on Amazon

mufaro's beautiful daughters by john steptoe

Hi there, Booktomato family!  Where we live, we are entering into the second to last weekend of summer!  This Sunday is the last Sunday that isn't a school night.  I feel bittersweet about it every year.  I am ready for the season to change from muggy Summer to crisp Autumn.  I am ready for pumpkin flavored everything and sweaters.  I am ready to see all of our school friends again.  I am not ready for my now-fourth-grader's homework to start streaming in.  I am not ready for a week that whizzes by so fast that we have to fight for family time.  In every season, turn, turn, ya know?  

Today's book pick is one I remember watching on a Reading Rainbow episode when I was little, and when I found it again at a book store, I remembered just how much I loved it!  

This marvelously illustrated book is based on the Cinderella story, and while it isn't a traditional African tale, the setting and characters are inspired by a trip the author took to Zimbabwe.  Mufaro is a happy and prosperous man with two beautiful daughters - Manyara, pretty on the outside, but selfish and impatient on the inside, and Nyasha, beautiful, kind, and loving on the inside and out.  

The Prince announces that he is looking for a wife.  When both girls decide to travel to the big city to try and become the Princess, Manyara's true colors serve her poorly while Nyasha is rewarded for her kindness.  This tale has a good amount of magic and unique twists that keep it from being a straight forward Cinderella story and make it more interesting.  

Storytime Conversations: 

• What picture in this book is your favorite?  I liked the picture of . . . 
• Why was Nyasha rewarded in the story?
• Why was Manyara punished in the story?
• How can we act more like Nyasha throughout the day?
• What fairy tale does this story remind you of?

love poems to childhood: honey i love and other love poems by eloise greenfield

Hi there everyone!  Today we have this richly illustrated, richly rhythmic collection of poems that serve as a sort of ode to childhood.  There are poems about jump rope, playgrounds, loving family relationships.  Along with the poems, the pictures by Diane and Leo Dillon are just glorious!  They really pair well with Greenfield's whole vision and mission of contributing positive and powerful portrayals of the African American community.  

Eloise Greenfield has written over over forty books of children's literature and poems, and all of them are filled with her love of language and her love of the strength of the family, specifically the African American family.  

Here is a bit of one of my favorite poems from the book. 

Rope Rhyme

Get set, ready now, jump right in.

Bounce and kick and giggle and spin.

Listen to the rope when it hits the ground.

Listen to that clappedy - slappedy sound.

Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by! 

a chair for my mother by vera b. williams

Hi there!  Hope you had a great long weekend.  My in-laws offered to take the kids to get breakfast and go to the park playground on Memorial Day.  I thought, Awesome!  I could use a little time alone to get stuff done. In true grandparent fashion, they returned my children cranky, utterly exhausted, and covered in Wendy's frosty. It's what grandparents do.  

Today's story has a grandparent (how's that for a transition?) and a single mom and her young daughter as well. It's a story that I have held in my heart since I was a kid watching Reading Rainbow.  I'm sure many of you had the same experience, and its status as a beloved book is well earned!  

A Chair for My Mother is the story of a single mom who works as a waitress in a diner.  Every night she comes home to the apartment she shares with her daughter and mother, and she rests her aching feet by sitting in the only chair they own - a hard backed kitchen chair.  

The reason they have no comfortable furniture is that everything they owned was destroyed when their previous apartment building burned down.  Now, the little family puts every extra penny they have into a big jar in hopes of using the money to buy the most perfect, most comfortable chair.  

The day finally comes when the jar is full, and they finally get their well-deserved comfy arm chair.  

Vera B. Williams has created a very prolific collection of picture books, and this is one of her best.  I love her watercolor illustrations and the way she subtly works in issues of dealing with tragedy, strength in community helpers, and what it means to not have money to spend on needs.  This book should be on every book shelf! 

Story time conversations: 

• When their apartment building burns down, all of their neighbors and friends come to their rescue, giving them furniture, clothes, and toys.  Is there any way we can become community helpers like in the story?
• They try out every kind of chair their is!  Which chair would you pick?
• It took them a long time to save up enough coins to buy their chair.  Have you ever saved up for something you really wanted?  What did that feel like? 

Have a great day! 

reading rainbow makes a comeback! a review of skybrary school

Butterfly in the sky!  My heart broke into a million pieces a few years ago when it was announced that Reading Rainbow was being taken off the air.  I wanted my kids to have the same wonderful experiences that I had while watching this beloved show.  Well, Lavar Burton and Reading Rainbow are back and better than ever!  I signed up for a trial membership with Reading Rainbow's new online service to be able to report back to you what I found.  

WHO: Lavar Burton and Reading Rainbow

WHAT:  Skybrary School, an online subscription service that provides teachers with access to hundreds of digital books and educational videos on any subject you could want.  

HOW:  When I signed up for a free trial of the service (which by the way - you can sign up for one too.  I'm not a teacher or school employee, and even though this is touted as a service for classroom teachers, it still allowed me to sign up as a parent.)  I was directed to a dashboard command center for the teacher to organize and record everything from a list of her students, what books each student read and how much time they spent reading them, a Reading Rainbow blog with literacy tips, a library tab with several hundred digital books, a tab to record and organize her reading curriculum.  So much!  

The digital books - as I scrolled through the books offered in the library, I saw many, many Caldecott and Newberry winners.  It was a really good selection.  Each book gives the option to have the book read aloud to the student, or the narration can be turned off so the student can read it for themselves.  

In addition to the library, there is also Skybrary.  It is like a magical world of floating islands with each island representing a different book genre.  When you click on an island, you get a list of books and a collection of Reading Rainbow videos that are related to the genre.  For example, I clicked on "Adventure", and I found a list of books and videos about travelling to far away places, pirates, and archaeology.  

WHERE: https://www.readingrainbow.com/school  The subscription is a bit pricey.  It is $179 for a yearly membership.  I do feel like teachers would really use this though, and I know that purchasing the amount of books available in their online library would be way over the cost of membership.  

VERDICT: Despite the price of membership being a bit high, I was impressed with the quality and quantity of great kids lit that Skybrary offers.  The graphics were fun and interactive.  I know my kids would be really engaged with the material offered here.  I might see if several parents in my child's class want to go in together on a membership for our teacher as an end of the year gift.  Go to the website and give it a free try today.  Signing up gives you an entire month of great books and videos for free!