I love fairy tales! Just something about being able to escape into another world and talk of magic, love and adventure and of course it's a bit nostalgic, some of the first books read to me were fairy tales.  I am always on the look out for new fairy tales, or retold versions of fairy tales and I loved Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters - another Cinderalla story. Mufaro's two daughters, Manyara and...

I read this book in a whirlwind created by multiple other books I was/am reading at the same time. It was out on the counter one day and my oldest passed by, glanced down and did a double take. "Mom, what's this book about?" he wanted to know. "Is it about soldiers?" I could tell that he was getting impressed with dear old mom and her interest in historical fiction. We had a nice little...

I actually won a give away for Howie I can Read Series over at Tara Lazar - Writing for Kids While Raising Them. I am very excited because it's from Aaron Zenz author/illustrator and the genius dad behind Bookie Woogie. Where he and his children read and review books together and then create some awesome art to go with each book. Holly and I are huge fans of his and we have talked about Bookie...

Today, Valentine's Day is the day the Cybils winners are announced. I was very excited because I had read several of the finalists for graphic novel middle grade, non-fiction picture books, and picture book categories. So without further delay here they are. Easy Readers I Love My New Toy written by Mo Willems Hyperion Fantasy and Science Fiction Middle Readers The Graveyard Book written by Neil...

   I really liked this first book in the New York Times Bestselling Uglies series. Tally Youngblood is waiting in Ugly Town for her sixteenth birthday so that she can finally turn pretty and join her friends. Having a late birthday really stinks in Ugly Town. It pretty much means you're forgotten by all of your older friends who would barely be able to stand the sight of your ugly face, so...

I got this book in the mail last week and my daughter was very excited to help me open the package. I mean really who doesn't like to open up something in the mail and it was a book! We sat down immediately to read it and then the baby woke up and of course she needed to be fed, which meant I couldn't read the book right away with her. So I left my five year old on the couch with the book and...

–winner of the Caldecott Medal "Long before multicultural characters and themes were fashionable, Ezra Jack Keats crossed social boundaries by being the first American picture-book maker to give the black child a central place in children’s literature." I thought this book would be a perfect February Review because of Black History month and, hopefully, we are not sick of snow quite yet. Do you...

Double Scoop - For this month we reviewed Owen by Kevin Henkes. We love this book for many reasons- perhaps mostly because we are blanket lovers just like Owen. This is a great picture book for all those who have children with a special blanket and those who don't fall into that category will get a kick out of Owen anyway. Cari's Pick of the Month: Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the...

So it's our mom's birthday so we thought we send out a shout out over the internet for her (don't worry mom we won't tell them how young you are). Since she really likes autobiographies we reviewed an autobiography each in her honor. She even asked us about doing autobiographies on our blog, which both of us predicted she would and to keep things consistent it won't be hard to guess what part of...

Beverly Cleary provided me with one of my favorite childhood friends- Ramona Quimby. I still remember the thrill of discovering the escapades of dear old Ramona. If she could survive life and school, so could I. I've had my fair share of Ramona moments. So, I feel very close to Beverly Cleary, having spent much of my childhood in the world she created. I loved finding out that she grew up in...

I loved Hatchet as a kid and when I saw this autobiography I had to read it. I wanted to know what was behind the stories. After reading this the man is lucky to be alive. Born in the 1939, he is not slowing down to say the least as of right now he is currently training for the Iditarod in Alaska.   I saw death coming at me, snorting and thundering. I think I may have thought of phantoms, wood...

On the day of the inaugoration I made my daughter watch it on TV. She wasn't happy about it . . . the whole thing about missing cartoons to a pre-schooler is you know . . .  the end of the world, but I really wanted to see it. I think most people can agree, even if you don't like the man, that history was made that day. I wanted to watch it and I wanted her to watch it. She knew a little about...

Cari is not a big fan of New Year's Resolutions. The idea is great, but she gets tired of hearing all the hype about goal setting, losing weight, buying exercise equipment and gym memberships. Especially since most people give-up somewhere in February or before. So we decided, rather than choose specific goals, we would choose a theme for this year - balance and of course we do it the last week...

We saw this at the library and I knew we had to get it. You see my daughter is afraid of the dark. So now you're thinking what does being afraid of the dark have to do with skunks? Well my daughter saw an episode of Curious George about skunks and she learned that they are nocturnal and not only that they can make you stink when they spray. So in classic pre-school logic this translates into...

Okay so the Newbery and Caldecott are probably the two most recognizable, but there are some other awards also including the Printz Award, Coretta Scott King Award and Geisel Award (Dr. Suess) and those are the one's I listed. To see a more complete list click the ALA link here. Honestly, I have not read a single one, is that a bad thing? At least I have a great list of books to choose from. I...

My daughter has been asking to read about bees. She is fascinated with bugs and insects (when she can get over her fear of them). She knows that bees are important to flowers and especially for fruits and vegetables and that bees don't really want to sting you. On one of our frequent trips to the library we picked out a few books on bees. I chose one and she chose one. This is the one she chose...

 Do you have a child who worries? Obsessively? Compulsively? Meet Wemberly, the queen of worriers. She’s got some great things to worry about- things at the playground that were, “Too rusty. Too loose. Too high.” . . . I thought this would be a good book for my little worry-wart. It ended up that it was just what the doctor ordered for all of us. It turns out that, while there are always things...