Unwrapped

For the record.  Thank you, Santa and our generous relatives.

olivia%20helps%20with%20christmas.jpgOlivia Helps with Christmas by Ian Falconer (Atheneum, 2007).  Another one for the Christmas book basket.  Olivia is not always my favorite, but even I can't resist her when she gets tangled up in the lights.

First the Egg by Laura Seeger (Roaring Brook, 2007).  We loved Lemons Are Not Red (I think it was the first book Milly could "read" all by herself; with lots of expression).  This one is good, too.  You can page through both of them at LookyBook.com (with this caveat).

Hug Time by Patrick McDonnell (Little, Brown; 2007).  Very, very sweet.  Maybe even a little too sweet for me, but Milly likes it.

Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary by Beverly D'Onofrio; illustrated by Barbara McClintock (Schwartz and Wade, 2007).  Santa must have read this post.

Scholastic Children's Encyclopedia (2004).  We have a freecycled 1951 World Book Encyclopedia that sees a surprising amount of use from me and my second-grader.  I would love to upgrade to a new(er) set, but in the meantime Leo can learn to use this single-volume encyclopedia on his own.  So far: no entry for Armor, but some relevant information under Knight.

Eats, Shoots and Leaves:  Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference! by Lynne Truss; illustrated by Bonnie Timmons (Putnam Juvenile, 2006).  Insert clever sentence with comma variations here.

The Boy Who Drew Birds by Jacqueline Davies; illustrated by Melissa Sweet (Houghton Mifflin, 2004).  Look for an upcoming post about this lovely book, a story from the life of John James Audubon.

The Toothpaste Millionaire by Jean Merrill.  Instead of The Lemonade Wars (also by Jacqueline Davies; see above), which will have to wait until Leo is a little older.  He and his dad read 11 chapters of Toothpaste Millionaire last night; they really like it.

narnia%20sabuda.jpg The Chronicles of Narnia with pop-ups by Robert Sabuda (HarperCollins, 2007) and Winter's Tale.  With many thanks to my mother-in-law (who must have read this post).

I didn't receive any gift books this year (I'm not complaining; I got a great new camera), but a big stack of books to review did arrive in the mail for me on Christmas Eve....

Going to Philadelphia

Our family is going to Philadelphia this weekend:  Axel (my husband) is giving a talk at the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday, and the kids and I are tagging along.  Not to the conference, thankfully (sorry, Axel):  we'll be visiting the historic area.  Leo, my second-grader, likes colonial and revolutionary American history, so he's particularly excited about the trip.  He and I have been reading about the people who lived in Philadelphia (mostly about Benjamin Franklin) and the events that took place there during that period (the signing of the Declaration of Independence).  What he really wants to see, of course, is the Liberty Bell; that, and buy a replica of it (n.b, there are a lot of children's books about saving the Liberty Bell).  Favorite Philadelphia books will be in this space on Monday.