I’ve never really taken to the Maisy books (or the TV show) but all of my children have enjoyed them, and this book is no exception.  “Come Fly with Maisy!” features Charley, Cyril, Maisy, Tallulah and the gang as they learn about various methods of transportation including trains, horses and rockets.

As with most Maisy books, “Come Fly with Maisy!” is interactive.  At the front of the book, each set of pages features a question and a group of answers from which to choose from – suitable for the toddler and young reader set.  At the end of the book, there are activities for older children (meaning early elementary age) such as connect the dots, counting games, mazes and “same and different.”

Again, Maisy isn’t my favorite but then I am not the target audience.  My son, Charlie, gives it a big thumbs up.

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Come Fly with Maisy!

Dress like an Ashley and win a $500 gift certificate to Limitedtoo.com.

To enter, download the entry form PDF on the web site and fill in your name, address, age, and favorite Ashleys character and mail your entry to us at Simon & Schuster Ashleys Sweepstakes, Attn: Kelly Stocks, 1230 Avenue of the Americas , New York, NY 10020.

The contest began on December 31, 2007. Entries must be postmarked by March 31, 2008 and received by April 10, 2008.

One entry per person. Entries are restricted to those between the ages of 9 and 17.

For more information, you can read all of the rules here.

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Dress Like an Ashley

Throughout the day, I’m going to try and post some trailers from movies (taken from books) that are romantic in some way.

First up, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. It’s not a classic romance – more about friendship than love – but has some lovely moments. I’m including it first as a nod to the sequel (you can find the trailer to the sequel here).

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Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

A movie based on the best selling children’s book series, The Spiderwick Chronicles, is set to hit movies theatres on February 14.

The fantasy fiction books are the brainchild of authors Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black. The series – about a family of children who move to the frightening Spiderwick Estate, was picked up by Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing in 2003.

In the film, the children, Simon, Jared and Mallory, discover a field guide to Faeries. They quickly learn that some of the faeries are good and some of the faeries are, well, not so good.

There have been five books published in the series:
The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Field Guide
The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Seeing Stone
The Spiderwick Chronicles: Lucinda’s Secret
The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Ironwood Tree
The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Wrath of Mulgarath

In 2005, the brand expanded with the release of Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You. A sequel series, Beyond the Spidwerwick Chronicles, has also been released.

The movie based on the series has quite a cast (as well as an impressive web site). The cast includes Andrew McCarthy, Mary Louise-Parker, Nick Nolte and Martin Short. Is it on your list of must sees?

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The Spiderwick Chronicles Movie In Theaters February 14

That was the goal, according to Harry Dawson, an English teacher at Seton Hall Prep, when he first read Troy CLE’s The Marvelous Effect.

The Marvelous Effect is the first installment in a fantasy book series by author Troy CLE (a/k/a Troy Tompkins). The book features a young African-American kid from East Orange, New Jersey, who finds himself in a whirlwind of fantasy adventure in his inner city neighborhood.

Troy grew up in a rough neighborhood in East Orange. He had trouble finding books with characters who were like him and his friends, so he created The Marvelous Effect. He wanted kids like him to be able to identify with the characters in the book.

The book combined elements of hip-hop, video gaming, anime and fantasy. The age of the character, combined with the fantasy themes led many to refer to book as a “black Harry Potter,” a term which Troy recently told me he has finally “been able to outlive.”

Simon & Schuster, which eventually bought the rights to the first book, has a deal with Troy to publish the second book in the “Marvelous World” series. It will also release “The Marvelous Effect” in paperback.

You can find out more about Troy and “The Marvelous Effect” throughout the week!

Technorati Tags:
children’s book, Harry Potter, Troy CLE

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Get Young Black People To Read More

But one of the interesting things about How The Grinch Stole Christmas is that the illustrations in the original version of the book were actually quite plain.  In fact, the illustrations inside the book only came in three colors.  Any guesses as to the three?

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What Color is the Grinch?

Lindgren was best known for her series of books about Pippi Longstocking; only the first three books were full length novels. The first, aptly titled Pippi Longstocking, was published in 1945. The first of a slew of movies about Pippi aired in 1949. Here’s the opening sequence of the English version:

To celebrate Astrid’s birthday, throughout the day, just for fun, I’ll be posting Pippi quotes and trivia. Keep checking by.

In the meantime, what was your favorite Pippi moment?

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Pippi’s Creator Would Have Turned 100

In the world of the story — Lyra’s world — there is a church that has acquired great political power, rather in the way that some religions in our world have done at various times, and still do (think of the Taliban in Afghanistan). My point is that religion is at its best — it does most good — when it is farthest away from political power, and that when it gets hold of the power to (for example) send armies to war or to condemn people to death, or to rule every aspect of our lives, it rapidly goes bad. Sometimes people think that if something is done in the name of faith or religion, it must be good. Unfortunately, that isn’t true; some things done in the name of religion are very bad. That was what I was trying to describe in my story.

I think the qualities that the books celebrate are those such as kindness, love, courage and courtesy too. And intellectual curiosity. All these good things. And the qualities that the books attack are cold-heartedness, tyranny, close-mindedness, cruelty, the things that we all agree are bad things.

You can read more about what Pullman had to say here.

What do you think?  Is it fair to criticize religion?  Is that the same as criticizing God (however you interpret God)?

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Does religion always equal good?

Earlier in the month, I indicated that I wanted to talk about traditions. Last night, I was reminded of the importance of traditions and routines in our household.

First, a disclaimer. I am a busy mom. I work, I volunteer, I blog and I have three children ages 5 and under – as well as a dog and a husband (I’ll let you guess which one is the most trouble). There’s a lot going on in my house. While we strive for some semblance of order, I will be the first to admit that bedtime at our house is often chaotic.

When we are able to follow our routine, it’s kind of a nice one. My youngest child, Charlie, usually sits with his dad and listens to a German picture book (my husband speaks German, but alas, my German is limited to the words in children’s books) while having his last milk of the day.

My oldest daughter, Katie, is learning to read on her own (hooray). Each night, she likes to read a book out loud. Her favorite book is currently Click, Clack, Moo.

This doesn’t make for a short bedtime routine. Sounding out words takes time. And every now and again, I’m thinking “hurry up!” in my mind because I know that I have a million things to do once the kids are finally asleep. But taking those few minutes to let Katie read the book herself is huge. I want her to be a reader. Reading opens your world to so many possibilities. So, I can’t take that away from her just because I need to answer some emails or return some calls for work.

And how do I know it’s worth it? After I leave the room, the light in my girls’ room stays on for a bit while they settle down for bed. My two girls share a room and almost every night, I can hear my 5 year old reading to my 3 year old. She is, I hope, passing along her love of books to her sister (who often falls asleep with her own book under her pillow).

What about your household? Any traditions or routines related to books? Tell us about them!

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Our bedtime tradition

I mentioned earlier in the month that I planned to focus on traditions for November… And what is more traditional than Mother Goose?

Mother Goose’s Little Treasures is a compilation of nursery rhymes by Iona Opie and beautifully illustrated by Rosemary Wells.  Each page is a snippet of charming rhymes accompanied by rich, wonderful watercolor drawings.  Even the fonts are endearing.

My favorite of the rhymes, just because it was fun to say, is “Intery, Mintery.”  Here it is:

Intery, mintery, cuttery, corn,

Apple seed and briar thorn,

Wire, briar, limber lock,

Five geese in a flock.

Sit and sing by a spring -

“o-u-t and in again.”

A lively cast of frogs, chickens, ducks and rabbits support the rhymes.  The colors and rhymes appeal to infants and toddlers alike.

At $17.99 for the hardback (from Candlewick Press), it’s not cheap.  But I suspect it could quickly become a child’s favorite and treasured for years to come.  How do you put a price on that?

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Mother Goose, Updated for 2007