Whether you have a stack of books lined up that you haven’t quite gotten around to, or you are looking for a great new book to curl up with, why not join me in making a Spring Reading List? Katrina of Callapidder Days has begun the Spring Reading Thing 2009 – simply make a list of the books you would like to read between now and June 20th, write a blog post containing your list and link up at this post. I’ve had fun this morning reading other people’s lists, and even found a new book to add to my own (thanks, Holly!). As the mountains of books are consumed, folks will begin posting reviews here.

Here Are My Spring Reads:

1. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver – This one has been sitting on my shelf for months, and now is a great time to start because it happens to be this month’s pick for Simple Mom’s online book club.

2. Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish

3. Housekeeping: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson

4. Murder in the Latin Quarter by Cara Black – Can I tell you how excited I am that a new Cara Black book is out? I am totally obsessed with this mystery series set in Paris and its hip heroine, Aimee Leduc.

5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – No, I have never read it!

6. Any Persephone Book – I would love to treat myself to one of these little forgotten classics.

Photo © Laura Gaskill

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Wintergirls hits bookstores tomorrow, and after reading this review, Jill at The Well-Read Child has me convinced that every teenager, teacher, parent of a teen, and therapist should read this book. Wintergirls, a young adult novel by Laurie Halse Anderson, is narrated by Lia, an anorexic teen whose ex-best friend Cassie was just found dead in a motel room. After Cassie’s death, Lia goes into a downward spiral, expertly hiding her relapse of anorexia from her family. Jill says of the novel,

There were times when I wanted to jump into the book and shake some sense into her and her father who seems to deal with conflict by ignoring what’s going on. Even her own mother who is a cardiologist cannot seem to help her daughter recover.

Frightening, intense, and haunting, but not preachy or fake, reading Wintergirls could potentially help convince troubled girls to seek help, and clue-in parents and teachers to warning signs that can be tragically easy to miss. Get it here.

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1. Eggs written by Marilyn Singer and illustrated by Emma Stevenson.

Eggs feels like a peek inside a very talented artist’s nature journal. This is an excellent resource for accurate information about eggs of all sorts – from ants, seahorses, and honeybees to penguins, snakes, frogs, fish, and more. Marilyn Singer explores how different species care for their eggs, how they grow inside the egg, and how the baby animals get out. But Emma Stevenson’s masterful illustrations are the icing on the cake. Stevenson’s artwork is highly realistic and scientifically accurate and at the same time manages to be evocative and sympathetic. This book is a real treasure.

2. Flip, Float, Fly!: Seeds on the Move written by JoAnn Early Macken and illustrated by Pam Paparone.

Flip, Float, Fly! is a delightful introduction to the world of seeds, perfect for young children. Dandelion seeds float away on the breeze like tiny parachutes, while maple seeds flip and spin “like shiny green helicopters”. Tumbleweed plants roll across the prairie, sprinkling seeds along their path, and coconuts float in the ocean, drifting along to distant islands. This would be a lovely companion book to a little seed exploration with your child: collect seeds on a nature walk, from the grocery store, and from the garden. How many seeds can you find that are featured in the book? The illustrations are lighthearted and colorful while still being accurate, and the text is sprinkled with fun words like Pop! Fling! Wiggle! and Jump! that just beg to be acted out by an enthusiastic child.

3. Maple Syrup Season written by Ann Purmell and illustrated by Jill Weber

Did you know that March is maple sugaring time? I admit I didn’t know that until I moved to the northeast. Maple Syrup Season tells the story of maple syrup all the way from tree to bottle to tummy. With charming, friendly illustrations, this is just the thing to read before a visit to a maple sugaring demonstration. But even if you don’t live anywhere near maple trees, this book can provide a nice connection to where that yummy maple syrup comes from. After reading this, you’ll be craving a stack of pancakes dripping with maple syrup or that classic Little House treat, maple syrup on snow.

4. The Boy Who Didn’t Believe in Spring written by Lucille Clifton and illustrated by Brinton Turkle.

Once upon a time there was a little boy named King Shabazz who didn’t believe in Spring. “No such thing!” he would whisper every time the teacher talked about Spring in school.

When I first read this book years ago, I could not stop laughing because it is so true. In school, no matter where you live, teachers usually talk about the seasons as if they were the same everywhere – which is ridiculous, because if you live in San Francisco you’ll never see snow, and if you live in a big city you will hardly be surrounded by the “crops coming up” that KingShabazz’s mother tells him is a sign of Spring. King Shabazz convinces his best friend Anthony Polito to go with him to look for Spring. The illustrations set just the right tone, depicting the bustling street scenes as the boys walk past a BBQ joint, and come to a busy intersection. They have never gone farther than this without their parents before, and it is a big moment for the two boys when they decide to cross the street and continue their hunt for Spring.

Soon after crossing the intersection the boys reach a vacant lot with a rusted out car in the center, overgrown with weeds. They hear a soft sound coming from the car, and they bravely creep towards it…on their path to the car, Tony stumbles and King exclaims “Man, I think you tripped on these crops!” There was a small patch of yellow flowers blooming right there in the lot – “They’re comin up,” Tony shouts. “Man, the crops are comin up!” The look on the boys’ faces is pure wonder when they peek inside the old car and find a beautiful nest filled with delicate little blue eggs. They had found Spring at last.

You can find all of my Book Basket picks in the Global Mama Shop. Happy Reading and Happy Spring!

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Let me preface this by saying that I will be returning my library-copy of Jenna Woginrich’s new book, Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life, two weeks late – and not because I haven’t finished reading it. The thing is, it’s packed with so many book recommendations to make note of and web resources to bookmark, that whoever has a hold on the book next will just have to wait. Made from Scratch is the story of Jenna’s transformation from a typical modern person (buying everything from stores) to a modern-day homesteader keeping honeybees, chickens, angora rabbits and a vegetable garden, as well as teaching her two dogs to pull her on a sled (!) over the frozen Idaho winter landscape, while still holding down her 9-5 job.

Jenna with Jazz and Annie, photo courtesy timesunion

Jenna’s book will not teach you everything you need to know about homesteading skills, but what she does so brilliantly is give just enough information to get you fired up. After reading her book (and now her blog, as well), I am dying to raise sheep, build raised vegetable beds, and learn how to play the fiddle! If you think that’s strange, read the book and then tell me you aren’t itching to keep chickens in your backyard, plant tomatoes on your fire escape, or sew your own skirt. Jenna (who now lives in Vermont) makes it clear that anyone can start a backyard homestead and have fun doing it:

When you start producing your own food, even the simplest plot of potatoes, your life regains some of the authenticity we’ve all forgotten about. When you sit back against a tree with a mandolin on your lap instead of lying on the couch with three hundred channels of instantly recordable distraction, you gain a little more from your downtime. You’ll find yourself more humbled, satisfied, and grateful to have found a balance that simplifies your life with the skills of the people who came before you.

That’s what I love so much about Made from Scratch: it’s not just about doing something because it’s green or eco-friendly (though it is), it’s about gaining real satisfaction and pleasure out of life.

Jenna transporting sheep in her station wagon, photo courtesy timesunion

“Point is, it feels good to get dirty, work hard, and slow down.”

Enough said.

You can pick up a copy of the book here, and be sure to check out Jenna’s action-packed blog, Cold Antler Farm, to see what she’s been up to lately.

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1. Lickety-Split, written by Robert Heidbreder and illustrated by Dusen Petricic

It’s a fact: kids love sound effects. That’s why I was so excited to discover Lickety-Split – it is chock full of fantastic sounds and dynamic illustrations. This is the kind of book that will keep the rapt attention even of the child who claims to hate books. It begs to be read with an enthusiastic voice and then read again, and again, and again.

2. Toilet Tales, written and illustrated by Andrea Wayne von Konigslow

Toilet Tales has us imagine what would happen if animals tried to use a toilet: A goat eats the toilet paper, a beaver builds a dam out of toothbrushes, and a chicken “would sit on it for three days waiting for something to hatch.” If humor is one of the best ways to get children to cooperate, this book should be in every parent’s potty training arsenal. What I want to know is, how is it that this book has been in print for over 20 years and I have only just heard about it?

3. Zoe Sophia’s Scrapbook: An Adventure in Venice, written by Claudia Mauner and Elisa Smalley, illustrated by Claudia Mauner

I first heard about this book from soultravelers3, a family traveling around the world – their daughter loved it, and they actually planned their itinerary in Venice around the places visited in the story (read their post here). The narrator is a precocious nine year old New Yorker who embarks on a journey to Venice, Italy, to visit her great aunt Dorothy Pomander. The illustrations in Zoe Sophia are rich and evocative, and the text zips along as Zoe Sophia and Dorothy explore Venice: a visit to the Accademia, shopping on the Rialto, an opera in La Fenice and hot chocolate at Caffè Florian. Zoe and Dorothy are both equally colorful, vivacious characters with a real zest for living, and that is what makes this such an enjoyable read: you can’t help but let a bit of their enthusiasm rub off on you. The publisher recommends this book for ages 6 and up, but I feel sure that 4 year olds will love it as a read aloud, too.

4. Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter, written by Cindy Neuschwander and illustrated by Wayne Geehan

If you haven’t read anything by Cindy Neuschwander, you should do it now: she is the master of writing captivating tales that also just happen to teach essential mathematical concepts. In Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter, a young girl named Per learns to play a game called “Inners and Edges” while visiting relatives. Per makes a connection between the game and a mysterious castle nearby on the island of Immeter – to unlock the castle’s secrets, she has to use the skills she learned in the game. We learn how to calculate the area and perimeter of a circle and a rectangle, and thanks to Neuschwander’s effortless weaving of mathematics into the storyline, we are excited every step of the way. A friend of mine used many of Neuschwander’s books as teaching tools in her math class with great success, and they would make a great addition to a home school curriculum. Recommended for ages 8 – 11, and precocious 6-7 year olds.

5. Boy Soup, written by Loris Lesynski and illustrated by Michael Martchenko

This is the story of a giant with a very, very bad cold. The giant looks for advice in an outdated home medicine book for giants, and comes across a recipe for “Boy Soup” which, it claims, is sure to cure his cold. Well, when the giant goes to scoop up a handful of boys, he accidentaly grabs Kate, too. This is lucky for the boys, because Kate comes up with a plan to fool the giant into thinking that the recipe is actually a soup made by boys, not made of boys. The poetic language in the book makes it a perfect read aloud choice, and the Giant’s lines just beg to be read in a thundering voice.

Happy Reading!

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There is just something about coloring books and a fresh pack of crayons that kids find irresistible. But aside from choosing which colors to use, they don’t leave much room for creativity…until now. There has been an explosion of creative coloring books in recent years that leave more of each page open to the child’s imagination. Susan Striker’s Anti-Coloring Book series was a pioneer in this new form of coloring book; the image above is a page from The First Anti-Coloring Book: Creative Activities for Ages 6 and Up. These open-ended coloring books are such a refreshing change from the typical Disney characters, don’t you think? Have a look at a few more:

First up we have Rosie and Flo: this coloring book series by Roz Streeten, including Rosie Flo’s Coloring Book, Rosie Flo’s Animals Coloring Book, Rosie Flo’s Garden Coloring Book (and three more) prompts kids to “Just add heads, legs, and arms” to the fancy dresses and hats on the pages. Let’s take a peek inside:

Did you notice the worms on the dress in the second picture? In Rosie Flo’s Animals, all of the outfits have hidden creatures

I also love the series of “really giant” coloring books by Taro Gomi (beloved author of the eternal classic Everyone Poops), including Scribbles, Doodles, Squiggles, and Doodle All Year. The illustrations are friendly and simple, and each page encourages the child to add something to the picture. Check out this page from Doodles:

And if those options are still too restrictive for you, what about a Bare Book? These come with blank pages inside and a color-able cover. The company also makes Bare Comic Books and Bare Board Games!

You can check out all of these (except the Bare Books – go to their website) in a new Coloring Books section in the Global Mama Shop.

Happy coloring!

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You can also create swaptree groups to pull together people who share your interests, such as “historical romance novels”, or to trade books with your church community, your child’s school, or people in your town. Click here to get started.

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In Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne’s new craft book, Pet Projects: The Animal Knits Bible, the talented pair tackles the weirdly wonderful world of crafting for pets. Equally brilliant as a coffee table book or practical guide, Muir and Osborne unveil such radical inventions as the Puppy Papoose and Tortoise Hibernation Tent. In an interview with the New York Times, Ms. Muir describes how her hamster model interacted with the lovingly hand-knit Hamster House, “He did exactly as I expected. He lived in it for a day, then he ate it. Then he bit me.” For the (slightly) less whimsical pet owner, there are a variety of cat cushions, dog coats, and ruffly collars to knit, as well as carrot curtains (for your rabbit hutch, of course!) and knitted pets. Let’s take a peek inside…

Hamster House and Anti-Firework Dog Balaclavas

Carrot Curtains and Cat Cushion

Puppy Papoose and Tortoise Hibernation Tent

Check out the Global Mama Shop to get your hands on a copy of the book. And if you would like the chance to win a little pet crochet set, try your hand at the caption contest going on right now at CraftStylish.

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Illustrations from The New Way Things Work

His best-known and loved work is probably The Way Things Work, which has been updated and renamed The New Way Things Work, in which he explains everything from the basic principles of physics to the workings of everyday machinery and new technology. He looks at the human body in The Way We Work, which includes very clear drawings and descriptions of the parts and systems of our bodies – if your child wants to know where poop comes from, this is the book for you!

Illustration from Mosque

Macaulay has also written and illustrated many books that take a close look at how we build things, including Castle, Cathedral, City, Underground, Pyramid, Building Big, Mill, Ship, and Mosque. Each of these books is a treasure. The illustrations alone provide hours of fascination, but the stories he weaves around these icons of human history are what bring the books to life. Why did people build things the way they did? What purposes did they serve? Macaulay throws himself into each subject, vividly imagining the daily lives of the people who built these structures and the people who used them.

Most of Macaulay’s books are geared toward older readers – fifth grade and up. However, I know for a fact that much younger children (preschool-age) will thoroughly enjoy the lavish illustrations and snippets of text read aloud by a parent, and grown ups will appreciate his knack for clear explanations and humor. For more information on David Macaulay, you can check out his website. I have also added all of my favorite David Macaulay books to the Global Mama Shop.

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“Tyrannosaurus at the Coffee Shop” by Schmetz Petz

*First Stop: The Library

Look for an assortment of factual books with great, clear pictures, a few silly picture books, and possibly a longer chapter book for reading aloud. I have put together a group of great dinosaur books to get you started in the Global Mama Shop, which you can browse by clicking here. When you get home with the books, be sure to keep a few good ones propped up in your child’s favorite art & play areas for inspiration.

*Make a DinoGarden

Set the stage for creative play by gathering up some props: fallen branches, leaves, vines trimmed from a climbing plant outside, and smooth stones can all become a “habitat” for toy dinosaurs to roam. If the items are small enough, you can gather them together on a tray; if they are larger, clear a space on a table or on the floor in a corner of your child’s room. Alternatively, if the weather is good in your neck of the woods, bring the dinosaur toys outside and let them tramp through the garden. This is meant to be an open-ended activity; just provide the space and materials and allow your child’s creativity to determine how it is used.

*Dino Footprints and Clay Play

In this photo, I had set out trays with toy dinosaurs, balls of clay, dishes of water, and a few handfuls of leaves and whatnot that I picked up in the yard. Each child approached the materials a little differently: some used the toy dinosaurs to stamp footprints in the clay, while others went to town spreading clay all over the dinosaurs. Yes, this is messy, and yes, kids love it. The four year olds in my class spent a good solid two hours working on their dinosaurs. And please don’t bother cleaning this up all by yourself: put the clay-covered toys in a dishpan of soapy water and give your child a scrubby brush to help clean them off. It may not sound like it to you, but this is just as much fun for kids as the original activity! You can pick up a nice big chunk of air-drying clay for under $10 at any craft or art supply store, and as long as you keep it damp in an air-tight container, it will last for a very long time.

*Dinosaur Inspiration Board

Clear off space on a bulletin board or a wall in your child’s room to devote to Dinosaur-Mania. You can tape up your child’s drawings and stories about dinosaurs, as well as pictures photocopied from library books and printed off the internet. As your child comes up with questions about dinosaurs, write them down and include them on the board as well. Also, be sure to take some photos of your child when she is playing or doing any of these dinosaur projects – then put the photos up on the wall, too. Kids love looking at pictures of themselves! Just make sure it is low enough that your child can see it easily.

*Make Volcanoes, Big and Small

To make volcanoes, all you really need is baking soda and vinegar. But if you want to make it a bit more exciting…

- For small volcanoes, take a film canister (if you don’t use film, just ask at the film counter in your local drugstore and they will be happy to give you some!) and squash some clay or play dough around it so it looks like a little mountain with an open top. Have your child help stick a few little bits of moss, grass, or leaves into the clay. Now put your little volcano on a tray with a deep rim (a casserole pan or baking sheet also works well). Add a few drops of red food coloring or liquid watercolor to a cup of vinegar to make it look like “hot lava”. Put some baking soda in a cup or bowl with a little spoon. Now you’re ready to go! Let your child alternately scoop baking soda and the colored vinegar into the hole in the “volcano” and watch it erupt. Repeat until bored or until you run out of baking soda and vinegar

- For a large volcano, follow the same steps as with a small volcano, but use a large jar or canister and lots more clay. For a big eruption, you may want to set this up outside on a nice day, so you can just hose everything off when it’s done. Making a large volcano can also be a fantastic project for a birthday party – just be sure to have a few other adults on hand to help the children wash up!

*Sandy Dinosaur Signs

The inspiration for this project comes from the lovely Jennifer of The Write Start, who gave a close-up look at how she makes sandpaper letters with her son to use as an alphabet learning tool (Jennifer’s sand letters are pictured at left). The basic technique involves using glue to write each letter, and then letting your child sprinkle the gluey letter with sand. When it is dry, you have a wonderfully textured alphabet.

For the dinosaur-obsessed, why not write out the name of their favorite dinosaur in glue? Provide a bowl of sand for sprinkling over the wet glue, and gently shake off the excess over a tray or garbage can. Once it’s dry, you can add it to the Dinosaur Inspiration board next to a picture of the dinosaur. If it is hung low enough on the wall, your child will enjoy tracing the sandy letters with her finger. And there is no need to stop at one!

In fact, you don’t need to limit yourself to dinosaur names at all. You can make signs to label the parts of a dinosaur, name other plants and creatures that lived at the same time, or get silly and make a sign for your child’s bedroom door that says something like “Office of Miss Lily: Dinosaur Expert”

*Dinosaur Footprints

Using a book illustration or an online template like this as a guide, draw several dinosaur footprints on poster board, cardboard, or large paper. Cut them out, and tape to the floor in your child’s room. Invite your child to stand inside the footprint and compare the size of his foot with the size of the dinosaur foot.

*Make Fossils

To make dinosaur “fossils”, fill a container (like a pie pan) with damp sand and press it so it’s smooth. You can use just about anything to make your fossils: cleaned chicken bones from dinner (a little gross, I know!), twigs (they will look like bones once they’ve been cast), toy dinosaurs to make fossilized footprints, seashells, or anything else you like.

Have your child press each item into the damp sand far enough to make a clear impression. Lift out the item carefully. Now mix up a batch of Plaster of Paris according to the package instructions. Pour the plaster carefully into each impression in the sand, and let dry somewhere safe.

*Make Dinosaur Eggs

Take a hunk of air-drying clay and have your child ball it up around a small toy dinosaur until it’s completely hidden. Make as many of these balls as you want, and set them somewhere to dry in the sun. When they are dry, you can paint the “eggs” if you like. Later on, you can use them in a dinosaur dig, or just let your child smash them open to get the dinosaurs out.

*Dinosaur Dig!

If you have a sandbox at home, that would be the obvious place for a dig. If not, no worries! You can also use a sand table, or several dishpans filled with sand. You could even do this in the sandbox of your local playground – but if that’s the case, prepare your child for the fact that other kids are going to want to try it, too!

If you have made “fossils” or “dinosaur eggs”, now is the time to bury them in the sand. If not, you can bury toy dinosaurs instead. Little things make a big difference in setting the mood: give your child plastic shovels, little paintbrushes, and trays or paper plates for collecting the specimens. If you have a magnifying glass, that wouldn’t hurt, either. Don’t forget to take pictures! You can put the photos up on the Dinosaur Inspiration Board or use them in a little homemade dinosaur book.

*Take a Field Trip

If your child loves dinosaurs, nothing beats seeing some truly gigantic dinosaur models in person. Natural History museums, and other Science Museums often have fabulous dinosaur exhibits. If you want to save money, do a little research online and find out if the museum has a “free day” (usually one day each month), and plan your trip accordingly.

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