Fabulous Fridays Homeschool Book Club: November Titles

Calling all homeschoolers in Grades K through 6! The Fabulous Fridays Homeschool Book Club will be getting together on Friday, November 7, at 2:00 p.m. to talk about books and to do some fun book-related activities! Our titles for November are...

Early Reader Roundup (Grades K - 2): Mouse Soup, by Arnold Lobel










Reading Rocks! (Grades 3 - 6): Holes, by Louis Sachar










If you'd like a copy of our November titles, please stop by Children's Services to pick one up today!

Don't Tell the Children: Homeschoolers' Best-Kept Secret

The article "Don't Tell the Children: Homeschoolers' Best-Kept Secret", which appears in the September/October 2008 issue of The Horn Book Magazine is a celebration of books and reading. The author, Sherry Early, shares how books are used (and loved) by her homeschooling family.

This issue is full of Stories Out of School including "Splinters" by Megan McDonald (the author of the Judy Moody books), "An Art School?" by David Wiesner (two time winner of the Caldecott Medal), and "Fortification" by Shannon Hale (winner of a Newbery Honor) to name just a few.

If you enjoy reading about books, visit our Parent Teacher collection where you will find a year's worth of The Horn Book Magazine to check out.

Art Out of the Box: Art Cars II

On Friday afternoon, the Art Out of the Box kids met to talk about Printmaking, but since it was such a beautiful day we took a few minutes to finish up the Art Car portion of our program out on Library Plaza. To see more photos of the cars & the kids at work, click here. To see the miniature cars that the kids painted in September, click here. If you would like to see the car that the kids painted in 2007, click here.

Check back in a few days to see the photos from the Printmaking portion of Friday's program.

Marion Vannett Ridgway Award

Have you heard of the Marion Vannett Ridgway Award? I just learned about this award which is given to the author or illustrator of an outstanding debut picture book. Two of my favorite new author/illustrators won in 2008! Check out the entire list of winners since 1993, you are sure to find a few picture books that you love on the list.

2008 Winners:
First Prize: Tae-Eun Yoo author and illustrator of The Little Red Fish
Honor award: Kevin Sherry author and illustrator of I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean

Cool Stuff Exploded: Get Inside Modern Technology

What is better than cool stuff? Cool stuff exploded, of course! Cool Stuff Exploded: Get inside modern technology by Chris Woodford is overflowing with amazing 3-D computer generated images of, well, cool stuff! Included is an animated CD-ROM featuring some of the images.

Have you ever wondered what is inside of your microwave? Check out pages 110 & 111. What about a watch? The watch on pages 144 to 149 is made of 140 tiny pieces!

Don't miss this book!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Comics Contest

If you've enjoyed the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books by Jeff Kinney, you'll love this contest! It is a Do-it-yourself comics contest for kids ages 6 to 16. The prizes are AWESOME, including a visit from Jeff Kinney, a framed "Wimpify Your Family" original comic by Jeff Kinney, and more.

Entries are now being accepted. The contest closes on January 31st 2009. Click here for all the contest details. Good luck!

A Child's Book Review: Tails

Robert, 3, reviewed Tails by Matthew Van Fleet.

We like the foxes wagging their tails. We like the fluffy tales. We like the shiny tail; it's so pretty. We like the alligator and the eggs hatching. We like all of the book.

Submit your child's book review to me via email and you may see it in a future "A Child's Book Review" blog post.