October 11, 2009 at 10:20 am (Storytimes)
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October 5, 2009 at 12:22 pm (Nonfiction Monday)
Love this adorable embroidery book!

The latest crafting trend seems to be embroidery and Embroidery for Little Miss Crafty: Projects and Patterns to Create and Embellish fits the bill perfectly for children (and adults) wanting to get started. Simple patterns, great photos and diagrams, clear instructions for both stitches and projects! A real strength is the easy-to-trace templates and instructions for transferring the patterns to fabric. The patterns and projects are quite trendy, but in the best possible way. The content is solid while the book’s design will attract readers. Helen Dardik’s written a winner for a needlecraft that’s making a comeback. The publisher, Walter Foster, totes this as the first in a series, but provides no indication of what we can look forward to next.
In addition, check out Dardik’s website, One Lucky Helen, and blog, orange you lucky! are fun spots for all sorts of inspiration.
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September 30, 2009 at 8:33 pm (Links, Reading & reviews)
Educating Alice brought Kidsmomo to my attention today. Book news, reviews and podcasts by x and x as well as kid book reviews, but the highlight of this sight is the weekly installments of Mystery Book Theater. Clever videos about a book related to the weekly theme with the answer revealed during their weekly podcast. Great site! Keep up the good work!
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September 24, 2009 at 7:32 am (Programming, Programs)
Mister Anderson’s Company’s Puppet Tales June newsletter has a great compilation of Where the Wild Things printables, felt crown patterns, font downloads and, of course, puppets you can purchase. Of course, my recent felt purchases are screaming out at me to make a felt crown. Time to call the repair shop and see if my sewing machine is ready for action yet!
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September 16, 2009 at 9:32 pm (Programming, Storytimes)
About ten years ago, I scored two boxes of felt scraps at a yard sale. I’ve rarely needed to purchase any felt in all that time. Of course, I knew it had been dwindling, but couldn’t believe it when I no longer had enough red felt to make a penguin (for Susan Dailey’s Pippa’s Penguins). It was fun to splurge on a stack of new felt! I’ll be making a lot more than penguins this fall.

Today’s storytime was an impromptu affair, featuring all new books. I’ll definitely be using The Odd Egg by Emily Gravatt and Ed and Rebecca Emberley’s Chicken Little. There’s a fun little promotional video over at Amazon for Chicken Little.
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September 7, 2009 at 7:26 am (Nonfiction Monday, Reading & reviews)


Sometimes an author just needs to come up with a good topic and as the saying goes, they have me at hello. Before Columbus: Early Voyages to the Americas by Don Wulffson is one of those books. I love maps, travel and people who are willing to abandon what they know for the chance at greater things. Explorers, especially ones from really long ago, fit the bill perfectly. Some of the voyages Wulffson describes, such as the Viking expeditions, are now fairly familiar, but others were completely new to me. I had never heard of the Irish Celi Dei, China’s Hoei-Shin or Wales’ Prince Madoc before. Wulffson does a really nice job explaining the circumstances around and the evidence of each voyage. The book works well as a whole, but individual sections would also work well with a variety of history units.
For me personally an excellent measure of a good children’s nonfiction title is whether or not I follow it up with a more in-depth adult title on the same topic. Currently I’m deep into 1421 by Gavin Menzies to learn more about Zheng He’s incredible expedition.
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September 6, 2009 at 11:16 pm (Fun stuff)
It’s pretty amazing how much you can fit in those flat rate boxes! There are a lot of goodies and more fabric inside an enormous piece of rose-coloured fabric. I hope it finds a happy home. Once again, kudos to Art LaFlamme for inspiring so many to contribute Iraqi Bundles of Love. I know it’s important to stay within the parameters set by charitable organizations for what to include in shipments, but after a super fun storytime earlier today with The Rhyming Dust Bunnies and Duck and Rabbit it was super hard not to slip some books in as well! I do hope those books get recognized during awards season.
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September 3, 2009 at 10:14 am (Fun stuff, Programming)
Children’s librarians are notorious packrats, right? Let’s send some of our yarn and fabric stashes and supplies to Iraq to help women there create items of beauty and need for their families and neighbours. U.S. soldiers will distribute the bundles to women and sewing co-ops in Iraq. Head over to the Iraqi Bundles of Love blog for the details about how to assemble and send the bundles. The deadline to send things is September 8 (due to when these soldiers leave Iraq) so don’t delay!
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September 2, 2009 at 8:50 pm (Fun stuff)
A fun game found several places on the web, but brought to my attention via educating alice.
Describe yourself: The Book Whisperer
How do you feel? Dying to Meet You
Describe where you currently live: Halfway to Heaven
If you could go anywhere, where would you go? The Lost Island of Tamarind
Your favorite form of transport: Starclimber
Your best friend is . . . ? Sovay
You and your friends are . . .? Heroes of the Valley
What’s the weather like? The Cruelest Month
Favourite time of day? When You Reach Me
What is life to you? Wicked
Your fear? Climbing the Stairs
What is the best advice you have to give? Three Cups of Tea
Thought for the Day? Design like You Give a Damn
How I would like to die: Six Months in Sudan
My soul’s present condition? Seven Miles to Freedom
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August 31, 2009 at 6:13 am (Nonfiction Monday, Reading & reviews)


Sylvie Bednar has put together a fabulous book of flags. Flags of the World uses vibrant colours and white space to show off the flags to full effect. They appear in three different sizes, but all are clearly visible and most are full or quarter-page. One of my favourite aspects of the book is that as many small countries like Kiribati and Bhutan get full page spreads as world powers such as the United States.
Within continents, flags with similiar patterns and colours are grouped together.These groupings help readers learn about interconnections between countries and cultures such as the pan-Slavic grouping. In some ways it is an uneven presentation as not all flags are accompanied with information about the country and symbols of the flag, but the information that is presented is clear, concise and sure to grab the attention of geography lovers. An excellent resource for teachers, libraries and a feast for geography buffs!
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