Giving Thanks

It is Thanksgiving Week. A time for giving Thanks! I have a lot to be thankful for, but right now I’d like to give a BIG THANKS to a couple of good blogging buddies.

Every now and then I receive awards for various things. I have been honored for my volunteer work, which I am honored to do. I have received certificates of appreciation from various facilities where I have visited to help patients and spread JOY. I have won some ribbons and some certificates for my grace in the Rally Obedience ring. And I have received a few awards from the blogging community.

I recently was blessed with The Lovely Blog Award from TWO of my blogging friends. I think this award is kind of a pat on the back. It’s nice to think that folks appreciate my attempts at beautification here in BlogLand.

Cricketmuse is a LOVELY blog devoted to books and reading and writing and sometimes other interesting musings. It’s a nice place to visit. I suggest that you do that. Visit. She would be happy to meet you. You can get to her home by clicking HERE.

The RoomMom is another LOVELY blog full of fun and helpful stuff for teachers and parents of students. She is a teacher and a parent and she is crazy busy doing all kinds of things!! Whew! You can learn a lot in her homeroom!! You can visit her HERE.

Now this award comes with some rules. I have kind of a hard time with rules. But I’ll see what I can do. I’m supposed to tell you seven things about myself. Seven impossible things before breakfast, I suppose!

Well —
1. I LOVE tennis balls!!!!!

2. I was once a guide dog puppy in training.
3. I like to roll around in smelly stuff. The Mom Person does not like this.
4. I LOVE TENNIS BALLS!

5. I once ate a whole chocolate cake. The Mom Person did not like this either.

6. I can read!
7. I am ONE LUCKY DOG! With the BEST job in the world!

Now I’m supposed to pass this award along to TEN other folks. And this is where I run into problems. I don’t know how to CHOSE! So if you are reading this right now, KNOW that you are a LOVELY Blogger! And I LOVE visiting your blogs. And if you would like to tell me a few things about yourself in the comment part below, or if you might want to do your very own post about some personal trivia, that would be so FANTASTICALLY LOVELY!

Thank you again Ms Cricketmuse and Ms RoomMom!
I wish you all a LOVELY Day!!
Your friend
Rhythm

 

 

The Perfect Thanksgiving

It seems to be Thanksgiving time. I understand that this is a holiday set aside for eating lots of turkey and pies and thinking about all the things that a person should be thankful for. I’m hearing all about turkeys and Pilgrims and Native Americans and turkeys and feasts and family time and turkeys. The kids at school are making headbands with feathers, and turkeys with their hands, and turkeys with their feet, and eating turkey for lunch. The Mom Person is going through the recipe drawer and talking on the phone a lot about who’s bringing what. And I’m walking around drooling and no one seems to notice!

Well, today isn’t Thanksgiving. Although I am thankful, because it is Perfect Picture Book Friday over at Susanna Hill’s House. And I get to share in this event! I don’t know if she’s having turkey or not. I hope so! Just in case, I am bringing turkey – for the Perfect Thanksgiving!! The Perfect Thanksgiving
by Eileen Spinelli
illustrated by JoAnn Adinolfi
published by Henry Holt and Co. in 2003

Themes – Thanksgiving! Family!

Suitable for young and old alike! All the family!

It begins –
Abigail Archer’s family
is perfect in every way.
Never is this more obvious
than on Thanksgiving Day.

This is a hilarious look at Thanksgiving through the eyes of one little girl. It’s told in perfectly wondrous rhyme with perfectly fabulous illustrations. And features a perfectly silly hand-print turkey and a perfectly artsy turkey.

The narrator compares her friend Abigail’s family holiday with her own family’s get together. At Abigail’s house everything is PERFECT. The table settings, the turkey cooked to perfection, the well dressed, well behaved, polite family holding hands around the PERFECT table – all PERFECT! At the narrator’s house, we see PERFECT chaos! Burnt turkey and wailing smoke alarms, crying kids, gravy and milk being spilled, belching and chomping and slurping everywhere. (It all sounds very much like my house!)

The narrator feels that Abigail has the PERFECT mother! Abigail’s mother wears an organdy dress with pearls and fancy shoes. She has fancy whirls on her homemade pie and her Jello mold doesn’t quiver. The narrator’s Mom wears jeans and fuzzy slippers. (Looks eerily like my Mom Person!) She serves store bought pie with no whipped topping and her Jello mold quivers!!

There is more, and more, and more about how different the two families are – But it turns out that the families have one very important element that is common to both — the LOVE that radiates from both!! And that’s something to be Thankful for!!

This book goes PERFECTLY with all the Thanksgiving activities that have been going on at school the last couple of weeks. Making turkeys and talking about Pilgrims and Native Americans and the Land that we all live in. And it offers a PERFECT opportunity to talk about our families traditions and how different they might be and how much alike!

I hope you have a PERFECT Thanksgiving celebration with your PERFECT family and are wrapped in the LOVE that I’m sure will be there.

Here is my pawprint Turkey –

And one of the many Turkey songs I have been hearing over, and over, and over —

And now you might want to visit Ms Hill’s blog and see if she’s serving some turkey over there! I’m sure that she will have some other fine Perfect Picture Books for you to check out!

I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving!
From MY PERFECT family to yours!!
Your friends
Walker, Electra, and St. Rhythm!

A Bit of Magic

My Mom Person has a boy who as a little boy was fascinated with a magician and escape artist named Harry Houdini. This little Houdini wannabe was often to be found tied up somewhere trying to escape his bonds. Once he was even discovered in the swimming pool with some chains! Crazy boy!! Luckily the Mom Person was well aware of his propensity for getting himself in a fix and kept a sharp eye on him!

Well, we recently discovered a GREAT book by Mr Brian Selznick about the GREAT Houdini. The Mom Person happens to be crazy about Mr Selznick so she scooped it right up and brought it home for a good read. And a good read it is!! That Mr Selznick is magic! Now, here’s some more serendipitous magic — The very next day, we received in the mail a movie to watch. The movie was Hugo! This is a movie based on another of Mr Selznick’s books – The Invention of Hugo Cabret! The week turned into a celebration of Mr Brian Selznick!

And I’m here to share the celebration with you!! You might notice that I locked Electra in THE CAGE to see how clever she might be. My Mom Person was pleased to find that she is no Houdini.

and ABRACADABRA!!!!!!
The Houdini Box
by Brian Selznick
published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers in 1991

A CURIOUS STORY
OF MAGIC
AND
ESCAPOLOGY
as performed by
Harry Houdini and a
little boy named Victor,
with special appearances
by Victor’s Mother, Aunt
Harriet, and the lovely
Mrs. Houdini.

The story begins with a bit of history about Mr Houdini, a magician extraordinaire who was famous for his daring escapes from all sorts of unbelievable situations. Then we meet Victor, who is ten years old and wants to be a magician, too. He tries to escape from locked trunks and walk through walls and perform magic tricks just like his hero. With no success. Then! One day he has a chance encounter with the GREAT MAN and Mr Houdini promises to write him a letter.

After a long, impatient wait, a letter arrives for Victor and he is asked to come to Mr Houdini’s house. He goes there on Halloween night only to find that Mr Houdini has died just that day!!! But Mrs Houdini gives Victor a box. A small, locked box. Does this box hold all of Mr Houdini’s secrets? Will Victor now be able to become the magician he longs to be? Ahhhhh – you’ll have to read the book to find out!

At the end of the book there is a lot of back story material about Mr Houdini and about Mr Selznick’s journey in writing this book. He even includes instructions for a magic trick you can learn yourself!! And a list of resources for further reading.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a very similar book. It’s another tale about magic – and clocks and automatons and the history of the movie industry. It was published in 2007 and won the Caldecott Medal Award in 2008. It is a very BIG book. 526 pages! But many of the pages are double spread illustrations that compel you forward much like a flip book or a movie. There are nearly 300 pages of pictures! In 2011 Martin Scorsese made a movie adapted from Mr Selznick’s book. The movie is HUGO. It won 5 Academy Awards and lots of other awards. It was the book on the big screen! Absolutely incredible!! See the movie! Read the book! It will all make you want to go out and watch some silent movies!

Mr Selznick illustrated another Caldecott Honor book – The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins. Another incredible historical fiction book written by Barbara Kerley.

Mr Selznick writes about magic – Mr Houdini was a magician and illusionist, Georges Melies, from the Hugo Cabret book, was a magician of the cinema – creating dreams. Mr Selznick himself creates magic with pen and paper.

I will leave you with an interview with Mr Selznick discussing a musical play of The Houdini Box and also talking about the movie Hugo – enjoy!

Now go forth and find some magic in your life!
Your library friend
Rhythm

Queen on Wednesday

Today is Wednesday. The middle of the week day. My very own special day. The day that I get to be Queen for the day and spread my JOY and magic. Wednesdays have always been set aside just for me. And maybe Walker, too, I guess. But mostly Wednesdays are all about me. On Wednesdays we go to visit our hospitals or detention centers or schools. Wednesdays are dog days.

I don’t usually do posts on Wednesdays – because I’m usually out doing my magic show, but we recently came across a most fabulous book that needed to be shared on this day!

Queen on Wednesday
by Gabi Swiatkowska
published by Farrar Straus Giroux in 2014

It begins –
On Wednesday, Thelma was bored.

Thelma is bored and decides that she will become a queen. On Thursday she makes the royal announcement. On Friday she chooses her royal pets. And then being a queen becomes quite complicated. She must find a suitable castle, someone to train all the pets, a maid to clean up after everyone, a cook to feed everyone. Whew!!!! Being a queen brings on a royal headache!!!! So on Tuesday she flings away her crown and stomps off. And on Wednesday — she’s bored again!!!!

This book is a royal romp! Ms Swiatkowska is one of my most favorite illustrators. But this is her first book all to herself. Now I want MORE!! I have talked about this talented young lady before. She illustrated Infinity and Me for Kate Hosford – Review HERE.  Also – Hannah’s Bookmobile Christmas – Review Here. Also – The Golden Rule – Review Here. Yes, I really like this lady’s work!!

 A great interview with Ms Swiatkowska can be found HERE.

And here’s the REAL Queen with her grandchildren and her castle and lots of royal pets. It’s hard work being a Queen!

I hope you have a royally entertaining Wednesday!
Your friend the Queen of Wednesday
Rhythm

Hats! Hats! Hats!

Hats are a big deal around my house. I’m not sure why. But they happen to be all over the house and often times on my head. And Walker’s. And Electra’s. It’s all old hat to me. But Electra is new to this hat wearing fetish of the Mom Person and I have to admit that she is a pretty good sport about it.

Well the hats all came out recently because of a book. I guess books are usually the cause of hats coming out. You can look at most any of my posts and see what I mean. But this particular book is all about hats. And love. And friends. And creativity.

Happy Birthday
Madame Chapeau
by Andrea Beaty
with pictures by David Roberts
published by Abrams Books for Young Readers in 2014

It begins –
In a three-story house with a shop down below
lived the world’s finest hatmaker, Madame Chapeau.

Madame Chapeau is a very sad, lonely lady. She makes incredibly fancy hats for incredibly fancy people, then she dines all alone. Across from her on her table are lots of pictures of a gentleman who I suppose was once her beau. A Beau for Madame Chapeau! But he seems to no longer be around. So the lady is sad.

But every year on her birthday, she dresses up and puts on a special heart shaped hat and goes out to dine at a fancy restaurant. On this particular birthday event, a passing crow flies off with her hat! Her VERY SPECIAL hat! Made especially for her! As she chases after the crow, lots of gentlemen offer her their hats! But their hats are made just for them – not for her! Indeed, each man’s head is shaped exactly like his hat! Funny!!!

As she dines alone without her special hat, she is soooooo sad! But wait! There comes a little girl who has been following Madame Chapeau all through the book, and the little girl has a special birthday present for the hatmaker. The little girl has knitted a hat especially for Madame Chapeau! The best present ever!!!! The best hat ever!!!! So they become best friends and live happily ever after!

The creator of Madame Chapeau, Ms Beaty, was at the recent Texas Book Festival. The Mom Person got to hear her read the book and talk about it. Ms Beaty and the illustrator, Mr Roberts, are especially good friends. Ms Beaty wrote this story just for Mr Roberts because he once was a milliner! (That’s a fancy word for a hatmaker!) So they worked together on the book and there are lots of little special things in the illustrations that nobody knows about. Little secrets between the two of them. All of the hats in the book are real hats that were made by famous milliners. Some of them are from hats that Mr Roberts designed and made himself.

This is a really lovely book. The story is jaunty and poetic. Ms Beaty is quite a fantastic rhymer! And Mr Roberts’s illustrations and hats are quite divine!

This book has been reviewed and talked about quite a lot since it came out. You might want to see what these fine folks have to say about it —-

Julie Rowan-Zoch – https://julierowanzoch.wordpress.com/2014/10/10/ppbf-happy-birthday-madame-chapeau/

Danielle at This Picture Book Life — http://thispicturebooklife.com/happy-birthday-madame-chapeau-hats/

Zoe at Playing by the Book — http://www.playingbythebook.net/2014/10/30/hat-week-happy-birthday-madame-chapeau-and-david-roberts-previous-life-as-a-milliner/

All of these ladies have provided a plethora of fun activities to go with this book – check them out!!!

And you might want to try some Hat Juggling!

So, Happy Hat Day to you all!
your library friend Rhythm, and my friends
Electra and Walker

 

Where Does Your Dog Go at Night?!

Tomorrow, Thursday, November 6, 2014 is the 20th anniversary of the publication of Nina Laden’s first book – The Night I Followed the Dog. I did a post about this book some time ago and am reblogging it here to commemorate those 20 years! If you happen to be in the Seattle, Washington area you might go join the celebration! You can find out more about it HERE — https://www.facebook.com/events/858388854205368/?ref=22
Now go Follow Your Dog and have a good day!!!

Reading With Rhythm

I’ve got a FUN book for you today!!! We came across this book at the library the other day. It would be a pretty good read aloud, but you really need to read it with your eyes. It’s called The Night I Followed The Dog by Nina Laden.

Ms Laden is new to me, but I want to find some more of her books! This one was published by Chronicle Books in 1994. It begins – “I have a dog. Nothing exotic or special, just an ordinary dog.” The dog can play games and do tricks, but he’s boring. Then one morning, the boy makes a startling discovery. He sees a limousine park in front of his house, and his dog gets out! Wearing a tuxedo!

So the next night the boy decides to follow the dog and see what’s up. He follows the limo into the city where…

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Sam and Dave Dig a Hole

The year has moved on to the month of November. And November happens to be Picture Book Month! An event created by Ms Dianne de Las Casas to celebrate the genius of the Picture Book. I think that really EVERY month is Picture Book Month, but November has been set aside to show especial appreciation for this type of reading material. There is a website attached to this most sacred of months – you can visit it HERE – and find out more about why Picture Books are sooooooo important!!

To start off my celebration of the Picture Book, I present a very special book written and illustrated by two incredibly special young men!

Sam & Dave Dig a Hole
by Mac Barnett
illustrated by Jon Klassen
published by Candlewick Press in 2014

There has been lots and lots of talk about this book – even before it came out. It MUST be a Perfect Picture Book! It has generated sooooo much attention and soooo much conversation! And it is a PERFECT blend of text, illustration, and design! All very simple, but oh so PERFECT!

It begins –
On Monday Sam and Dave dug a hole.

The story is about two boys who decide to dig a hole. A universal subject! Everyone likes to dig holes!! I, myself, have been known to dig a hole or two.

I never found anything too spectacular – just some pretty yummy roots. But Sam and Dave are on a quest to find “something spectacular.” They won’t stop until they do! And OH! they come ever so close!! But not quite! My readers were right along for the dig! Moaning and groaning with each page turn. With each shovelful of dirt. Sam and Dave have a helper – a little dog – who seems to be much smarter than the boys. The dog tries very hard to indicate where they need to dig. But Sam and Dave do not pay him any attention.

Those silly boys! They dig for a very long time – deeper and deeper. Until they are too tired to dig any more and they fall asleep. The little dog keeps digging though – going after something spectacular and ends up with a real hole that tumbles them all through time and space until they land – right back where they started on the soft dirt next to the little tree. But is it really where they started? That’s the big question.

Oh! the discussion!!! In the classroom with my readers – “What just happened?!” “Why is everything different?” Where’s the hole?” “Are they on the other side of the world?”

On The Horn Book website HERE.

On Publisher’s Weekly HERE.

On 100 Scope Notes HERE.

Mr Barnett was in Texas recently at our Texas Book Festival in Austin. He read this book and talked about it. He even had the crowd sing Happy Birthday to the book!!! He noted all the differences at the end of the book – the tree, the weathervane, the flower, the cat. He asked the questions. But he gave no answers. Just leaves you hanging! With MUCH to ponder.

Mr. Shu at Watch, Connect, Read had Mr Barnett and Mr Klassen come visit his school library! Can you imagine that?! What a fantastic day that would be! You can see all the fun they had and watch a book trailer at his website HERE.

The Horn Book has a great interview by Mac Barnett with Jon Klassen.

And here’s a great TED talk –

So! Happy Picture Book Month to you!
May you always find something spectacular when you go digging!
Your library friend
Rhythm