March 23, 2009 at 8:48 pm (Nonfiction Monday, Reading & reviews)
One of the pleasures as my children grow up is that when we take car trips now sometimes my sons read to me. Since their choices are usually fact and photo-filled nonfiction books, I often have to grab them later to fill in some of the gaps, but it’s a wonderful treat for me and often stimulates a lot of discussion as we contemplate all the new facts we are learning.
DK’s See How It’s Made was one of the favourites this week and, while I lament the eldest’s resulting decreased enthusiasm for eating cheese (the cheese cow really is much dirtier looking than the ice cream cow!), the book is a definite winner. An overview of each item (such as cotton t-shirts, CDs, pointe shoes and sausages) is followed by a two-page spread with both an “At a glance” and expanded versions of the step-by-step process involved in making each item. The photography and explanations work well together and many hours can be spent absorbed with this super book.
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March 22, 2009 at 8:36 am (Links)
In a partnership between Nickolodeon and Mattel a new ‘tween’ Dora will emerge this fall targetted to girls 5 and up. From what I can tell no new show is planned, merely a whole line of commercial products especially a Dora Links doll that plugs into the computer where five-year-old girls can become enthusiastic online shoppers.
Video game characters help you remember the periodic table of elements over at I heart chaos. Clever idea. Given my limited knowledge of video games, I didn’t think it would help me at all. I was wrong. I will probably remember Curium (Cm) better than ever now that I can think of her and Cooking Mama together. Yes, Curium will forever be a female element for me now.
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March 21, 2009 at 3:19 pm (Reading & reviews)
Actually, the opposite of madness. A week off from work with gorgeous weather spent in state parks and an indoor waterpark with my boys and friends has me feeling very relaxed. But still loving the basketball…
Reading notes.
The Mysterious Benedict Society just really didn’t grab me. Love those orphan stories, but this one didn’t work well for me. Was it Constance? The revelation about her at the end aggravated me rather than clearing things up for me. Surely someone would have asked her age at some point. Good grief.
One Beetle Too Many by Kathryn Lasky. Another great Darwin book. Matthew Trueman’s illustrations really enhance the text.
I’ve just started Do-over by Christine Hurley Deriso. I search of circulation patterns revealed that this is a tremendously popular book in our library and somehow I had missed all the buzz. So far so good. After moving to a new school, Elsa’s dead mother grants her the ability to redo the last ten seconds. Obviously a tempting power to have, albeit fraught with potential pitfalls.
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