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Tuesday Tales – Chanukah Book Edition

Posted on November 16, 2010 11:09 am by TheAngelForever

Even before I had kids, I liked to collect picture books about the Jewish holidays. I would use them in the classroom and knew that one day I would have them for my children. For years my collection of books was rather sparse. Thankfully, these days more and more authors are creating, and publishers are printing books about holidays like Chanukah, Passover, Sukkot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and beyond.

The selection of Chanukah books is much, much smaller than those available for Christmas this time of year. Still, there are so many more Chanukah books compared to when I was a child. While quickly searching around the book case in NHL and JSL’s room, I found the following Chanukah books. These include board books, along with soft and hard cover books that we have received and/or purchased in the past.

Board books:

Eight Nights of Chanukah Lights – Dian Curtis Regan
Where Is Baby’s Dreidel – Karen Katz
Hanukkah Lights – Ben Lakner
Rainbow Candles – A Hanukkah Counting Book – Myra Shostak

Hard and Soft cover books:

Chanukah Lights Everywhere – Melissa Iwai
Happy Hanukkah, Biscuit! – Alyssa Satin Capucilli
Mrs. Greenberg’s Messy Hanukkah – Linda Glaser
D is For Dreidel – A Hanukkah Alphabet Book – Tanya Lee Stone
It’s a Miracle – A Hanukkah Storybook – Stephanie Spinner

Of course, we also have some new books that will be added to our collection at the start of Chanukah when we light our candles on December 1. Hanukkah Haiku by Harriet Ziefert came from the PJ Library. I bought Eight Wild Nights – A Family Hanukkah Tale by Brian P. Cleary and Hoppy Hanukkah! by Linda Glaser from a Scholastic Book Club flyer sent home from school.

I know we have many others, but I wanted to share some of our Chanukah book collection with everyone. Whether you are Jewish or not, it is a great idea to expose your children to other traditions.

So what have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your Tuesday Tales and/or leave a comment below. Include something you read on your own, with a child or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books.

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Tuesday Tales – Ten on the Sled

Posted on November 9, 2010 4:43 pm by TheAngelForever

The other day, I pulled out a book to read to the boys during dinner. Yes, I did a read aloud as we ate our meal together. It was the perfect time. I had my audience sitting with me at the table. NHL (7), JSL (3), and TechyDad were all listening as I cracked open the new book called Ten on the Sled by Kim Norman. Please humor me later and tell me that other people do read aloud stories at dinner as well (or maybe this is just a teacher thing)!

About Ten on the Sled:

Author Kim Norman (Crocodaddy) and illustrator Liza Woodruff have whipped up a rollicking, jolly, snow-filled adventure!

In the land of the midnight sun, all the animals are having fun speeding down the hill on Caribou’s sled. But as they go faster and faster, Seal, Hare, Walrus, and the others all fall off…until just Caribou’s left, only and lonely. Now, a reindeer likes flying-but never alone, so…

one through ten, all leap on again!

An ideal picture book for reading-and singing along with-over and over.

Ten on the Sled – Written by Kim Norman – Illustrated by Liza Woodruff – Sterling Children’s Books – On sale October 2010 – ISBN 978-1-4027-7076-0 – $14.95 – Ages 3 and up

If you are interested in purchasing the book, the widget below is a link to my Amazon Store where I receive a small percentage for the sale.

What we thought:

My boys love animals. Ten on the Sled served as a great artic animal introduction for JSL, and a review for NHL. We were watching the story of the ten which included the caribou, seal, hare, sheep, walrus, fox, squirrel, wolf, moose, and polar bear. The boys all sat there listening to the repeating rhythmic nature of the words on each page. The kids really enjoyed making predictions about what may happen next. As the story kept going, they were able to see the pattern forming and guessing which animal would end up going off the sled in a new manner.

NHL enjoyed the book so much that he asked to take it to the couch to read again after dinner. I sat down with him and he read the story pointing out the animals and telling me what he knew about these creatures.

As I was glancing at the pictures, I was mesmerized with the details on the animals and the fun and colorful accessories that each was wearing. It isn’t every day that you see a moose wearing rainbow leg warmers, or a squirrel with a winter pirate hat on his head. Liza Woodruff captures the essence of the animal group with her illustrations and bring you onto the sled for the ride.

TechyDad noticed another item as we were reading along. He saw something in the corner of a few pages. It looks like a snowball that was slowly getting larger. Sure enough, it was a recurring item that shows what happened to each of the animals as they fell off the sled. Check it out when you read the book. Hint – it has something to do with the snowman that is seen on one of the first pages of the story.

I would definitely recommend this book for families to read together. It would make the perfect book to read when snowed inside this winter and drinking some hot chocolate while keeping warm.

Disclosure: I received this book complimentary of Sterling Publishing in order to facilitate this review. No other compensation was given. The opinions expressed in the review are my own. One widget within the review is for my Amazon Affiliate where I will receive a percentage of money for the sale of the books should you opt to buy the book mentioned.

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Tuesday Tales – Phineas and Ferb Edition

Posted on November 2, 2010 2:28 pm by TheAngelForever

Election Day is here. I know that I am quite ready to be done with the annoying robo-calls and nasty political commercials. It is bad when you have to tell your kids not to pay attention to them since they are on non-stop. Thanks to Election Day, NHL did not have school. Schools around here are polling places, so the kids have the day off and there are typically parent-teacher conferences.

This morning, I met with NHL’s teacher. While chatting briefly, I told her that NHL is hesitant to read chapter books. Since I am a certified reading teacher, I know that he is perfectly capable of reading them. The problem is he is comfortable with picture books and their instant start/finish gratification. There is nothing wrong with this. As I wrote before, I love picture books. Still, as a second grader NHL needs to break out of his shell. To help with this we have purchased some familiar characters that are featured in chapter book format. In addition to this, there are still some simple drawings within the story to ease the transition to more traditional chapter book format.

Today, NHL used one of his birthday giftcards to purchase a new Nintendo DS game. Here he is resting on the couch with the instruction manual. Please note the shirt that just happens to be on him:

When we bought the game, I told him that tonight we would begin one of the Phineas and Ferb chapter books. I think TechyDad is looking forward to reading them with him, since they love watching Phineas and Ferb together. Do you have any chapter book recomendations? There are so many series out there, but not all are appropriate for second graders, no less for boys. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

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Tuesday Tales – Books of the Hebrew School Kind

Posted on October 26, 2010 1:19 pm by TheAngelForever

My memories of Hebrew School as a child are cloudy at best since I try to forget it. I will be the first to admit that I did not like going. When I was a child, I went Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday. Now, Hebrew School typically begins in kindergarten once a week for children. Then, when they are in second grade, it goes to twice a week. We have been very lucky. NHL loved Hebrew School the last two years as a kindergartener and first grader. This year, the addition of Wednesday had been a big change. Still, he looks forward to going and learning. Just the other day, he mentioned out of the blue that he wanted to be a Mench. I nearly choked on my dinner. This was not a word I expected to come from my seven-year old son.

So, why am I bringing this up for Tuesday Tales?

Good question. I guess this has to do with how far books for Hebrew School have come. The new books are more realistic, interweave Judaic customs and views of every day life. The books are child friendly, packed with great information, and do not intimidate children while learning about our religion and how to read/write/speak Hebrew.

Check out NHL’s books that are being used. I have to admit, I am jealous and would love to get my hands on a few of them to really read.

Now, I can completely understand where the Mench term was coming from. I was also excited to see the amazing collection of Jewish Holiday/Heritage books that NHL’s teacher has. Many of the books we have and others I have never seen. I am sure he will be especially intrigued by The Cat in the Hat and a few other familiar books all written in Hebrew.

To all of the text-book companies out there, thank you! As a teacher and parent, I applaud you for stepping up to the plate. By making books to use in the classroom that are more engaging, you are not only helping teacher, but also reaching more students.

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Tuesday Tales – Fall Holiday Books

Posted on October 19, 2010 7:38 pm by TheAngelForever

It is no secret that we have a lot of books in our house. The truth is that we hardly buy the boys toys. A lot of the time, TechyDad and I buy NHL and JSL books for a holiday gift. This includes Halloween and Thanksgiving in the Fall.

On my frist outing while both boys were in school, I actually purchased a few books for the boys. Shhh….don’t tell them, but these are the new ones they will get on Halloween in lieu of candy and "stuff" that do not need.

Of course, when the Scholastic Book order form came home with JSL, I was also tempted and bought two other books for the Fall. These are the two books that the boys have already received.

I ordered these because I love books that are parodies of sorts to well known songs. The familiar sing-song repetiton with new words is great for kids of all ages (and adults too). JSL just started speech therapy and loves to sing. I am hoping that these will encourage him to work on articulation with a fun twist. We have several of the "There was an Old Lady…" books. We have a Halloween one, a winter one, and now the fall themed one. I love the drawings and how well you can sing along to the original favorite tune. NHL and JSL have read both of these books several times. I have also heard NHL going around the house spontaneously singing the songs. OK, OK….I admit it, I was also caught doing the same thing.

I love being able to capture the holidays using new and exciting books with my children. Do you use books when celebrating the holidays with your children? If you do, please share any titles that you love, especially if they are for the autumn season. My friend, Debra (A Frugal Friend), recently wrote a post with her Favorite Fall Children’s Books. Please be sure to look at her fabulous list, and check out all of the suggestions in her comments as well. I have already gotten a few of them for my boys to read.

Disclosure: All of the books pictured were purchased with my own hard earned moolah.