Why I Love Getting National Geographic Little Kids

I have learned that children LOVE animals. I don’t know if it’s because there are a ton of them in their first books or because many of their favorite characters are animals or because it is fun to imitate their noises, but I do know that a ton of my money goes straight to the zoo and the farm between May and October.

I personally am pretty neutral when it comes to animals. I never had a pet growing up (unless you count the Goldfish won at the Purim carnival that ultimately ended up down the toilet, or the tadpole my dad thought would be fun to watch grow into a frog. I have three brothers – I don’t even remember if it made it and if it did, I have no idea what we did with that frog…). When asked, I tell people my favorite animal is the Koala. It’s adorable and it was my first Beanie Baby (his name was Mel). It would make sense that my kids would be OBSESSED with animals since my husband hated the smell of horses as a kid and I am the first to admit I think the pet shop is equally exciting to visit as the Bronx Zoo. After getting a bunch of animal books from the library, my kids decided it was time to ask me about specific animals and things that relate to animals I cannot explain without Google (thank you YouTube for the video of ducklings hatching). My dad suggested we get a subscription to National Geographic Little Kids for my young explorers.

This has actually been an amazing investment for many reasons. First, my kids love getting mail and this is addressed to them. Second, I learn as much (or more) from this magazine as my kids. It is written in simple language that I understand so I can explain what is happening in the pictures (yes, I can proudly explain how a spider spins a web). Third, my son thinks the cards inside are precious collector’s items and we all learn really fun facts about animals I didn’t know had fun facts. (Example: Male elk shed their antlers and grow new ones every year – is that not fun?) Fourth, the information is broken up by games and exercises which makes reading the magazine an entertaining and interactive experience. While it features many animals (and the pictures are always amazing), it touches upon all aspects of science – nature, space, dinosaurs, technology, the human body and other things I was never interested in as a child but my kids really want to learn about. If you think science isn’t your subject it is time for you to subscribe to Nat Geo Kids so your kids can get obsessed with it and you can start learning with your children. Fun Fact: this is definitely a worthy investment.

You can check out their website here: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/

The Greatness of Disney Publishing

(My 2 year old daughter's homemade birthday cake)

Like many parents I know, my life revolves around many things Disney. The shows I watch, the toys I buy, the birthday cakes I’ve baked and lately, the books I am reading to my children all consist of Minnie, Miles, Sheriff Callie, Peso or Henry. Disney publishing knows how to give emerging readers books they WANT to read in their World of Reading Easy Readers and they give every young child the best bedtime stories in their 5-Minute Series.

World of Reading

Whether your child is in Pre-K and learning sight words or is in first grade and they read on their own, these books should be in everyone’s collection. The stories are all based on the television episodes which makes each story easy to understand and makes a child a more confident reader. Words like “griffin” in a Sofia the First story or “hologram” in a Miles From Tomorrowland book will not seem so foreign in context since many of the kids reading the stories have seen the episode (or you can show the child the episode after reading the story and watch those new words come to life). The World of Reading Books are broken down into 4 levels ranging from Pre-K to Third grade and includes the Lexile level for reference. Whether your young reader loves Sheriff Callie’s Wild West or Star Wars, there is definitely a World of Reading reader waiting for them!

 

5 Minute Series

When my children want to continue watching television after screen time is over, we often open 5-Minute Disney Junior Stories to keep the television characters alive. The book has 12 stories, all episodes of Doc McStuffins, Minnie and Sofia the First that my kids love to hear over and over again. My Minnie lover also owns 5 Minute Minnie Tales – 12 Minnie adventures filled with everyone’s favorite Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Characters. Have a Frozen fan? There’s a 5-minute book for her! Pixar, Princess or Marvel characters more your speed? There are 5-minute books for those enthusiasts too. These are great books to have in your Disney collection, and I guarantee there will be more than story shared at a sitting!

Get the most out of the last few weeks of summer vacation and log those summer reading hours with books your kids will actually enjoy sitting and reading over and over. Disney truly knows how to make every childhood experience magical!

Great New Board Books!

When you have more than one child, it can be hard to find the perfect book that will attract your complete audience. In my own home, I felt that it was a constant struggle to satisfy an 18 month old and a 3 year old at bedtime, as some books were too long and some books were “for babies”. While the older my children get this seems to become easier, I found a really good answer to this dilemma with the new book Hey Baby, Look! by Kate Shannon.

Hey Baby, Look! is an interactive board book sturdy enough for a curious 3 month old with questions and instructions to entertain a 3 year old. Each two-page spread is formatted the same; text on the left and four pictures on the right. Each line in the text correlates to at least one picture on the right. It is a game, it builds vocabulary and it promotes concentration and excitement when a child points to the correct answer on each page. It is simply and brightly illustrated and is sure to be a new staple in my Mother Goose Story Hour. It is definitely long, which is great for a toddler, but one can always stop and start again from any point if you find your child getting restless. It touches upon clothing, animals, food, things that go, the alphabet and other basic pictures children learn to recognize from the youngest age. If you are looking to expand your child’s library, this is definitely worth adding to your collection!

Some great new board books from Orca Publishing are coming your way soon! You don't want to miss these titles!

 

Up Hamster, Down Hamster – Kass Reich

If you haven’t read Kass Reich’s Hamsters Holding Hands it is time to do so (it is an adorable counting book). Reich brings to life typical opposites using adorable hamsters to illustrate each one. This book is sure to be a staple when teaching the concept of opposites to the youngest children. It is absolutely adorable and you will have no problem reading it over and over again.

So Many Babies – Lorna Crozier

I have never met a baby or toddler that did not love looking at pictures of animals. The only thing cuter than the animals are their babies – and here is a beautifully illustrated board book about baby animals in their natural habitats. While the book is great for babies, it is definitely a conversation starter at a toddler story time, as children who are 3 to 5 years old understand that different animals live in different places and they will have a blast identifying jungles, ponds, forests and mountains. The book ends with a human baby to perfectly sum up that everyone starts off as a baby and each of them are beautiful in their own way. This is definitely a great gift for any young animal lover!

 

A Carnival of Cats – Charles Ghigna

Everyone has a cat lover in their life and this is your next gift to that person. This circus of cats parading on each page is an adorable guessing game for the cat enthusiast. This book is also a great way to introduce differences in animals that are the same, a lesson most toddlers start to learn. While these are all cats, some are black and some are grey with different colored eyes and different shaped tails. So too, some children are tall and some are short, some have brown eyes and some have blue, but just as all the cats come together to put on a great show, so too children can all coexist and play together happily.

Corduroy Made Me Famous!

Anyone who knows me knows that I make my job look pretty awesome. I get advanced reader copies of books and meet really famous people so obviously everyone wishes they were a librarian for about 20 seconds after I post a cool picture or I publicize that I received a highly anticipated picture book before it hits the shelves. Back in December I received an adorable Corduroy and took him on adventures with me for a week. Shortly after I passed him around I wrote an article about the experience and it has been published in this month's Children and Libraries Journal! To quote their website, Children and Libraries(CAL) is the official, refereed journal of the Association for Library Service to Children. It primarily serves as a vehicle for continuing education for librarians working with children, and showcases current scholarly research and practice in library service to children and significant activities and initiatives of the Association.

 

Every time I read an article in this journal I always think about how successful the authors must be in their careers and how knowledgeable they must be to be able to write a piece worthy of being shared with all the librarians who receive the journal. I am honored to be a part of the author list for this esteemed journal and will now share with you my essay. I hope everyone just assumes I am as amazing in my career as I look in that bio picture on the page.

Also - a very special shout out to Penguin Publishing because without their Corduroy initiative I never would have had this experience. You guys are the best!

The Enduring Power of Corduroy

Highlights From The Book Expo

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE free stuff. Every year I look forward to the Book Expo at the Javitt’s Center like it is a giant celebration of me and the things I love most in the whole world – famous people and free books. (Yes, you do have to pay an admission fee but if you BEA right, you end up with way more than you paid for!)

Below is some of the awesome discoveries I made this year. While many of them are children’s books for the youngest set (since I do go there for work), I did find some other treasures adults are sure to love.

 Yes, My Accent Is Real – Kunal Nayyar

When a celebrity writes a book their signings are often a “ticketed event”, meaning if you aren’t one of the first 200 to show up, you aren’t getting a signed copy of the book. For really special famous people they often tell you that you cannot take a picture WITH the person only OF the person, and when a person is signing 200 autographs, unfortunately you cannot ask for the signature to be personalized. This was the case with Kunal Nayyar, author of Yes, My Accent is Real and is more famously known as the actor who plays Raj on The Big Bang Theory. When you know you only have 20-30 seconds with a famous person, what you choose to say in that moment is critical (if you can muster up the strength to say anything at all other than “Thanks!”). Since I am the most confident person I know, I took my picture of Kunal while he stopped and smiled for the person in front of me to take his picture and then I said “Just so you know, my husband always loved your character the best because when he was little he was scared to talk to girls, and he totally related to you the most”. (Super eloquent right?!) Then Mr. Nayyar said “Well he married a beautiful girl so he must be doing alright now!” And then I lost it (Not as much as the lady behind me) but I was on such a high from this moment that I probably had a goofy smile on my face for the next 3 days (who am I kidding? I am still smiling from this moment!) When this book of essays (maybe he feels too young to call it an autobiogrpahy?) comes out on September 8, find yourself a copy because you will seriously laugh out loud and you won’t put it down until you are finished with the whole thing.

 

The Marvels – Brian Selznick

Brian Selznick was on that “ticketed only” list I previously mentioned and if you have ever read The Invention of Hugo Cabret or Wonderstruck then you know just how amazing and talented Brian Selznick truly is. While I was extremely saddened that I wouldn’t meet him, the wonderful team at Scholastic had a really nice compensation package – you can pick up a regular copy of the book that isn’t autographed. I thought AWESOMMMMEEEE! Then another funny thing happened, just as I made a mental note to come back to the booth at 2 pm for my book, who other than Brian Selznick is hanging out in front of the really cool backdrop they made out of his new cover! Obviously I had to let him know that when I worked in the public library I made everyone and their mother (literally) read his books and that I also always pushed them on older reluctant readers since there were always more pictures than actual words. Sure enough, I got my photo with Brian Selznick and maybe when his next book comes out I will finally get his autograph. The Marvels tells a story in both pictures and words about two stories which seem unrelated and then magically combine. It goes on sale on September 15, but you better preorder it today!

Fuzzy Mud – Louis Sachar

I have always been a huge fan of Louis Sachar. I read all five of the Wayside School series books so many times in elementary school I can still repeat some of the text by heart. Obviously I loved Holes and Small Steps and I jumped at the chance to have my picture taken with one of my favorite authors of all time. Sometimes I like to play down how much I truly love an author in the moment to seem less star-struck so I had my book personalized to my husband who is obviously “also a HUGE fan of yours from when we were younger” but let’s be honest – this was really for me all along! Fuzzy Mud is a mystery-thriller about two middle schoolers who end up in the woods and discover mud that may create an ecological disaster. It is exciting and funny and all things Louis Sachar. Get excited!!

The Look Cookers – Jim Malloy

This book is for every child who has high anxiety about making new friends or meeting new people. Matthew, the protagonist in the story is a shy boy who believes he is a secret spy, on the lookout for the different kinds of people who are “out to get him”. He feels like they can read his mind when they make eye contact or blink or ask him questions. The book takes us through Matthew’s first day of school and just when you think he may crack, he shows the reader his way of proving he can get through the day on his own. This debut picture book is ideal for older readers (6+) who can get anxious about new surroundings.

Through The Town – Craig Shuttlewood

Let me introduce you to Little Bee Books – a brand new imprint of Bonnier Publishing Group. They publish really awesome books for children ages 0-5. I was lucky enough to be given a copy of Through the Town, a book about traveling all around the neighborhood with an opportunity for the young person to follow the trail. The “streets” on each page are grooved to put your finger in (or a small Hot Wheels car if you are my three year old) and you can practice fine motor skills while jumping over puddles or zig-zagging in the sky. This book has simple text and any child that loves to combine reading with activities is sure to keep this book open for hours.

I also want to give a shout-out to the School Zone Publishing Company. If you are unfamiliar with their products, they have amazing coloring and activity books as well as their own easy reader series called “Start to Read” that make excellent resources for children ages 2-6. They have apps as well and I highly recommend checking out schoolzone.com to see what they can offer your child!

Some other great books that I highly recommend include:

Red Bird: Friends Come in Different Sizes by Barney Saltzberg (who wrote Beautiful Oops) - This very brightly illustrated books reminds children that friends come in all shapes and sizes and we love people for who they are.

Look At Me Now! By Carol McDougall and Shanda LaRamee-Jones – This book is narrated by a toddler who is excited to share all the things he can now do by himself (or with a little help) with the world. If you have a toddler, they too will be proud that they can eat with a spoon, find their nose and walk up stairs along with all the other day to day activities highlighted in this book.

Bulldozer’s Big Day – Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann – it’s Bulldozer’s big day but to everyone else on the construction site it seems to be just a regular day at the office. Can you guess why Bulldozer is so excited? Two champion authors come together to write a great birthday tale – guaranteed to be loved by all children (but especially truck enthusiasts).

Click, Clack, Ho, Ho, Ho! – Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin – Duck is at it again! This time he wants to play Santa and poor old Farmer Brown just wants Christmas to be perfect... (no worries - it is the BEST Christmas!)