Now there’s a set of homework help books from Reader’s Digest just for parents. There are 3 different books available to give parents  a little memory nudge when they’re trying to help their children with homework.

The three books help you cover the bases. The titles include: I Used To Know That, Stuff You Forgot From School by Caroline Taggart, My Grammar and I … Or should That Be Me? How to Speak, by Caroline Taggart and J. A. Wines, and Write It Right, and i Before e Except After c Old-School Ways to Remember Stuff by Judy Parkinson.

I had the chance to check out these three school refreshers over the last few days, and it’s brought back tons of memories, and aha moments. If you struggle with grammar, or just can’t remember some of the formulas from Algebra class these books are a great refresher.

Do you remember these?

In Einstein’s Theories of Relativity, E = MC2 what does C stand for again?
C is the velocity of light

What are the seven wonders of the world?
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, The Lighthouse of Alexandria, The Colossus of Rhodes, The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, The Status of Zeus at Olympia, The Great Pyramid of Giza (of the seven, only the Great Pyramid is still in existence)

What is onomatopoeia?
A word or phrase that sounds (a bit) like the sounds it is meant to convey: buzz, purr, or Tennyson’s the murmuring of innumerable bees.

My favorite book of the set is i before e (except after c), Old School Ways to Remember Stuff. I love coming up with ways to remember and learn things, little sayings or jingles. I’ve been trying to teach my son this method of learning, but he’s skeptical. Maybe this will help.

Check out these handy little reference guides for yourself. You can find all three titles at the Reader’s Digest bookstore.

Image (c) L Gerlach

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If you’re a Harry Potter fan or business person, you might enjoy giving this book a read.  It focuses on the marketing and branding of Harry Potter and how a children’s fantasy book took the world by storm.  It also discusses the possibility of another book or brand following in the Harry Potter footsteps.

You can read an interview that Mary Emma Allen from b5media’s HomeBizNotes blog conducted with me to learn more about my book and enter to win a copy of Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon. 

The book is available in bookstores and online through sites such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders and more.

Image: Susan Gunelius/Palgrave Macmillan

Technorati Tags: susan gunelius,harry potter,harry potter brand,harry potter marketing,harry potter business,harry potter book,harry potter the story of a global business phenomenon,palgrave macmillan

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His teacher gives them time every day to sit down with a book and read. She also challenges them to go beyond the reading level they think they can understand. He has really started to love books and thatmakes me one happy momma.

This book is the sequel to Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH . For the most part, everyone on Amazon gives this book a raving review. I told my son I get the book when he’s done.

Here’s a description of the book below the cut. 

Grade 4-7 This sequel to Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (Atheneum, 1971), written by O’Brien’s daughter, continues the NIMH saga with a focus on the second rodent generation: Timothy, Mrs. Frisby’s son, and Racso, son of the rebel rat Jenner. On his way to classes at Thorn Valley, Timothy saves Racso’s life but is himself severely injured. Both reach the Utopian colony only to discover that the valley and surrounding farms are to be turned into a tourist lake and campgrounds. Insecure and arrogant when he first arrives, Racso learns more than just how to read. In fact it is he who suggests a plan to save the colonysabotaging the dam site computer. Although the rats’ plans fail, the dam opening is postponed by a heroic act of Racso’s father. While the continuation of the NIMH story is most welcome, Conly’s novel lacks the light touch of O’Brien’s work, as well as the richness of character development and description. Timothy, for example, is too perfect a mouse to be very interesting, and the leader Nicodemus is often a tedious moralizer. Racso, on the other hand, is most appealing when he gets into trouble. Mrs. Frisby, Jeremy and Mr. Ages are unfortunately peripheral characters in this story. Conly sets the stage for the next sequel, for one reporter appears to believe that the computer was sabotaged by intelligent rats. Perhaps in the next installment, Racso’s joie de vivre will rub off on the other rodents of Thorn Valley.Yvonne A. Frey, Peoria Public Lib . , Ill.

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Kelly over at One Book Two Book, was browsing at Amazon looking at the reviews of this book and you have to go read what she found. This book has sparked a lot of controversy. Are you curious yet? I know I was.

Head on over and read her post: Rainbow Fish Makes a Comeback at Our House. The comments blew me away!

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You can pick up a copy or read an excerpt from Dadditude at Phil Lerman’s website, dadditude.com Thanks Phil!

Hi there! I’m Phil Lerman, author of a new book called “Dadditude.” I was delighted to be do a guest post here at Play Library (heck, when you’re a stay-at-home dad, you’re delighted for any excuse to relate to adults, in any form. I find myself lately at business meetings going, “My, what a pretty tie! Did your mommy buy you that?”)

The Play Library folks were asking me what, exactly, is Dadditude. I’m sure I know this one! I did write a book about it and all. Problem is, I just put Max to bed, and my brain is a little fried. Max is at that age where linear thought has been replaced by a surreal melange of random nerve firings (“that age,” of course, being 1 through 18). When he was two, Max did not speak. Not even da-da. The doctors thought he might be somewhere on the autism spectrum, perhaps headed for the mild form of autism known as Aspergers Syndrome. Turns out, he must have just had a touch of 24-hour autism, because he suddenly started speaking. And now, of course, never shuts up. (He moved from da-da to Dada so quickly even Salvador Dali would be impressed).

So while I am trying to get Max to perform various duties which seem fairly simple – eat cereal, brush teeth, put on jammies – Max is delivering an oration on topics veering from Why Blue Is Better Than Red to Why I Need You To Buy Me Three Watches; and all the while he is also performing various duties of his own, such as putting the telephone in the freezer, writing his name in Sharpie on daddy’s report that’s due tomorrow, and – our current favorite – screaming “blooga blooga!” and running repeatedly into the wall.

Getting him into pajamas is like trying to put a tuxedo on Daffy Duck.

Now you have to understand that before I became a stay-at-home dad, I saw myself as a Person of Import. I produced the television program America’s Most Wanted, and put many bad guys behind bars, and brought missing children home to their mothers, and commanded roving bands of producers, who did my bidding with grace and aplomb. All of which engendered in me a belief — shared by many fathers in the workplace — in order; a belief that we can control the universe around us.

Read the rest below the cut.

A five-year-old takes that belief and shoves macaroni and cheese up its nose.

It is in making that transition from work to home, from the love of order to the embracing of chaos, that I think Dadditude lies. Because dads are always trying to move things forward, and we miss the lesson that their children are trying to teach us. Children live in this moment, and of this moment. And it is this lesson – the simple lesson of learning to Be Here Now, to stop teaching and fixing and organizing, and just be In This Moment – it is this lesson we have to learn again, and again, and again.

Max’s five-and-a-half birthday was last week, and I did the typical dad thing; we went to a movie, and to Chuck E. Cheese, and to Toys R Us. A great day, I thought. What a great dad am I! And we came home, and I started cooking dinner.

And he started to cry.

“You didn’t play with me all day!” he wailed. I began to protest – but suddenly, I understood.

I turned off the fire on the stove, and got down on the rug, and picked up a small blue Hot Wheels Chevy, and mindlessly, aimlessly, rolled it around in a vague circle. “I am Shmar the Car,” I announced. “Who will ride with me?”

Max stopped crying. “I will,” he said, picking up a tiny blue race car. “You are not faster than me. No one is faster than me.”

“Accepted,” said the Chevy. “I will follow you.”

Dadditude, I think , comes in learning that we don’t always have to lead our children. That sometimes we can follow them. And that if we listen, very carefully, they will take us where we need to go.

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This book is geared towards kids 8 to 12. Here’s a description of the book from Amazon:

Fans of Superfudge and Fudge-a-Mania will welcome the return of seventh-grader Peter Hatcher and his five-year-old brother, Fudge, who in this comical caper meet distant cousins from Hawaii. The two families unexpectedly encounter one another in Washington, D.C., where the New York City Hatchers have gone so that Fudge, who has developed an obsession with money, can visit the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The Howie Hatcher clan proves an eccentric lot. Twins Fauna and Flora, unironicially nicknamed the Natural Beauties, would be in Peter’s grade if they weren’t home-schooled; apt to break into corny songs at any moment, they perform together as the Heavenly Hatchers. Their younger brother, who shares Fudge’s real name (Farley Drexel), acts like a dog, growling and licking people. And their father won’t stop calling Peter’s dad “Tubby.” Narrator Peter grits his teeth when the Honolulu Hatchers invite themselves to Manhattan to stay in his family’s cramped apartment, where nestled in their sleeping bags on the living room floor they “slept flat on their backs, like a row of hot dogs in their rolls. All that was missing was the mustard and the relish.” The boy is further appalled when the twins show up at his school and convene an assembly so that they can sing. Peter’s wry reactions to the sometimes outsize goings-on, Fudge’s inimitable antics and the characters’ rousing repartee contribute to the sprightly clip of this cheerful read.

We buy our kids books for Christmas every year and usually it’s a boxed set of some sort. I think that this year I will buy the Pure Fudge : Fudge boxed set, which has Double Fudge, Super Fudge and Fudge-a-Mania. I know this is a set of books that can be handed over to her 8 year old brother and then the 3 year old when he’s ready.

Seeing my daughter enjoy a book so much reminded me when I made time for reading. I’m starting my New Year’s resolutions early and have promised I will read an actual book. I’m shooting for one every 2 months.

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Very cute book. Too bad real bugs don’t seem nearly as cute and appealing as the little critters illustrated here!

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I’d never read one of Base’s books, and when I mentioned to one of the other moms how much I liked The Water Hole and commented on how amazing the illustrations are, she started raving about Base’s book, Animalia. I’m not sure how I missed experiencing this author’s work until now, but I’m looking forward to checking out a few more and delving into all of the beautiful illustrations with my kids. I have a feeling there will be a lot of growling tiger noises, snorting rhino sounds, and much more!

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Apparently, Spudville is not, I repeat, NOT in Ohio. I don’t think you can walk a block without hitting a yard sale in Ohio during the spring/summer/fall months! But the story told by Modarressi of Mr. Flotsam’s wares, and of their new owners’ experiences with them, is enchanting and endearing. The idea of a neighborhood coming together to share their problems and enjoy their resolutions together is a story I hope to tell my own children many, many times!

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So, when the librarian pulled out The 108th Sheep by Ayano Imai at storytime yesterday, I could immediately empathize with the struggle of the main character, Emma, and her struggle to find that one thing that would bring her slumber.

The story is well told and delicately illustrated. So many children’s books are illustrated with bright, vibrant, bold, loud colors, which kids love. I enjoy this one, though, particularly for the simplicity of the illustrations that seem like lovely and elaborate pencil drawings. The style of the pictures conveys the tranquility of bedtime that I’m usually trying to maintain with the kids (on those rare occasions when I actually go through the bedtime rituals!).

I’m so glad that we were introduced to this book, and can’t wait to add it to our collection.

What are your favorite bedtime books?

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