Tag Archives: Children’s literature

Wednesday Words of Wisdom – Henry & Tink A Remarkable Romance

20 Wednesday Mar 2013

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A while ago I was looking through the paper and came across a book review that caught my eye. The book Henry & Tink, written by Cathy Conheim and B.J. Gallagher, is a children’s story about a friendship between a dog and a cat.  But it isn’t the friendship that’s unique.  It’s the animals themselves.  The sweet dog (Tink) was born with only two legs and the kind cat (Henry) lost one of his legs and now only has three.

Henry & Tink is a delightful book written for children, but everyone will enjoy the story.  The book is simply written telling who Tink is and how she was found by her owners.  Once Tink is adopted her new owners meet Henry’s owners and they decide the two animals must meet.  The story is about how the two animals come to enjoy each other’s company and become friends.

What makes the book wonderful is the lovely illustrations and the message that being different isn’t good or bad.  Each animal is aware they are different, but know they are capable of loving the same as anyone else.  Love has no boundaries, even if someone is missing a limb or two.

I recommend this book for preschool aged children and beyond.  My husband and I both enjoyed reading this book to Little Boy, but caught the teenagers reading it too.  Animal lovers will enjoy this book as much as the children.  Love has no boundaries between animals and humans either.

I would like to dedicate today’s blog to my two beautiful sisters.  They are two of the best pet parents I know.  My oldest sister is a devoted, caring cat owner and my middle sister is a loving, compassionate owner of two adorable dachshund dogs.  You can understand now why this book caught my eye and has a special place in my heart.

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Happy Reading!

Wednesday Words of Wisdom – The Littlest Matryoshka

08 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by in Early Years, Wednesday Words of Wisdom

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Cover of "The Littlest Matryoshka"

Cover of The Littlest Matryoshka

I love how there is a children’s book, for just about everything.  Today’s Wednesday Words of Wisdom selection proves it.

A while ago, my little son and I paid a visit to a dear friend.  On our visit, my friend showed us around her new home.  Upstairs in the guest bedroom, there were several sets of Russian nesting dolls, known as Matryoshkas.  My little son was fascinated with them.  He was allowed to look at and play with them, as my friend and I talked.

After the upstairs house tour, my friend asked my little son if her would like to keep one of the Russian Doll sets for himself.  He said yes and was thrilled.  The dolls have been one of his favorite things ever since.

A while ago, when my little son and I were visiting the bookstore, he noticed a book.  It was called, The Littlest Martryoshka.  We were both very excited and read it right in the store.  We bought the book and both love it.

The Littlest Martryoshka, written by Corinne Demas Bliss,  is a delightful story which details the creation of a set of Matroyshka dolls.  The dolls were created in a tiny Russian village by a wood-carver. The Russian wood-carver, Nikolai, refers to the dolls as sisters.  The dolls are lined up in a store for display, unfortunately one day Nina ( the smallest doll) is knocked from the shelf and is swept out of the store into the snow.

From there, the remaining dolls are sold at discount to a girl.  The story follows little Nina as she is plowed away by a truck, found and discarded by a squirrel, falls into a river, is carried away by a bird and finally tumbles down a rain pipe…conveniently at the home of her sisters new owner where they are all happily reunited.

This is a very sweet story.  It focuses on how the relationship between the sisters and how they cope with the loss of the littlest one.  I love how the ending is a happy one, in which all the sisters are reunited.

The illustrations, by Kathryn Brown are beautiful.  They are full of bright details, especially when it comes to the Matryoshka dolls clothing.  The simple text and illustrations make it a nice read.  A wonderful brief history of the Russian dolls is provided in the back section of the book.

I recommend this book for young children, as well as anyone who loves Martryoshka dolls.  I hope this will be something you and the children in your life will enjoy too.

Happy reading!
 

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Wednesday Words of Wisdom – Old Pig

02 Wednesday Nov 2011

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Cover of "Old Pig (Picture Puffin)"

Cover of Old Pig (Picture Puffin)

“That’s not enough to feed a sparrow, let alone a big old pig like you,” says Granddaughter.

Last week, working at my little son’s preschool, we celebrated Halloween.  It was a simple party.  There were no treats or candy, just some fun activities for the three-year olds.  Parents were asked to spend the morning with us, to help celebrate.

One of the things I noticed was, most of the volunteers were grandparents.  It turns out, at my son’s preschool, a large proportion of grandparents care for the children during the day, while parents work.  Since the children spend most of the day with grandma or grandpa, it explains why they were the ones to volunteer.

The book I have chosen for today celebrates the love between child and grandparent. Old Pig, by Margaret Wild and pictures by Ron Brooks, is a sweet story about a grandmother pig and her granddaughter pig.  There are no parents mentioned in this book.  The two pigs live alone.

Old Pig is a children’s book. The story begins showing how the grandmother and granddaughter work together, to care for each other.  Everything they do is a team effort.  The grandmother has taught the young pig to work hard and take care of herself.  Taking care of herself, is a skill the young pig soon needs to know.

Grandmother pig is getting old.  The book shows grandmother aging and how she is no longer able to be helpful.  Grandmother realizes her time with her granddaughter is ending and she is dying.  This is a story of loss and death.  The grandmother pig does die.  What makes this a wonderful book is how her death is dealt with.

Grandmother loves her little granddaughter very much, so much that she takes time to prepare her for life.  She explains how to handle the finances and encourages the granddaughter to enjoy life.  The book does have sad moments, especially when the granddaughter realizes grandmother is dying.  But the way the story is told is kind.  Death is shown for what it is…a part of life.

The grandmother pig deals with her dying in a way that gives the granddaughter courage.  I love the illustrations by Ron Brooks.  They seem to be done with watercolors.  He captures the emotions of the two pigs so well.  You can clearly see the love, as well as the sadness of the granddaughter’s eyes.

One of the great things about children’s books, is how they bring up difficult issues for young children.  Losing a grandparent is a very likely situation for a young child. This book shows how losing someone so dear, does not mean you lose their love.

I recommend this book for anyone with children or grandchildren in their lives.

Talk to you soon my friends.  Happy reading.

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Wednesday Words of Wisdom – Library Lion

12 Wednesday Oct 2011

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Cover of "Library Lion"

Cover of Library Lion

Today’s Wednesday Words of Wisdom choice is a children’s book.  A wonderful children’s book about the public library.  It seemed a perfect choice to celebrate my new writing office, in the library.

As a child, I was not a big fan of the library.  I was not much of a reader then.   Now, I am a big reader and so are my children.  We travel to the public library every two weeks to pick up new books.  I have done this since with my oldest son was an infant.

My husband and I have read hundreds of children’s books to our kids.  I think it may be more in the thousands.  Reading to the boys is something we both enjoy doing.  Today’s book choice, Library Lion by Michele Knudsen, was found by my husband.

A while ago my husband and little son found the book at the bookstore.  They both came home from the store telling me, “You are going to love this book.”  They were right.  I do love it.  And it turns out a lot of people do.  My good friend, who is a librarian, told me she has read Library Lion at her library for years.

The story is about…you guessed it…a lion in the library.  Miss Merriweather is the librarian.  She is a very rule oriented person.  In her library rules must be followed, so everyone can enjoy themselves.  When the lion shows up unexpectedly, Miss Merriweather and the other patrons are confused about how to handle it.

Miss Merriweather explains to the lion, he can stay the library, if he can follow the rules.  It turns out the lion is good at following rules and is helpful in the library.  The story continues with the lion breaking a rule, but in an emergency.  The lion is told to leave.

This book is a delight to read aloud.  Each of the characters are well-developed and interesting.  The illustrations by Kevin Hawkes, are beautiful.  The lion is adorable as we see him helping children with books, dusting with his tail and sleeping with the children during story time.

The story explains how rules are ment to be followed, but in an emergency it is okay to go against them.  Library Lion a wonderful tale of friendship and overcoming a misunderstanding.  Very young children, as well as school age kids will enjoy this book.  And so will anyone who loves the library or lions.

I hope this fabulous book will find its place somewhere in your home library.

Happy reading.

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