Tag Archives: children

Sunday Post: Surroundings…Hurricane Sandy…You Have to Gab Before You Can Roar

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Jake at Time after Time has a Sunday Post Challenge and every week he provides a theme…this week’s theme is SURROUNDINGS.

Photo courtesy of http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/21-pictures-of-children-in-the-wake-of-hurricane-s

Hurricane Sandy affected millions of people…many of them young children.

For some, their surroundings will be changed forever.

Newspaper headlines tell the sad tale.

No date set to reopen hospitals that evacuated during Hurricane Sandy – NY Daily News

http://www.thestreet.com/story/11751677/1/hurricane-sandy-in-pictures.html

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/10/28/nyregion/hurricane-sandy.html

One of the programs hit hardest was the Reach Out and Read program that operates at Bellevue Hospital.  Reach Out and Read is a nationwide literacy program that encourages doctors and pediatricians to interact with their young patients while they examine them.  Books are given to the kids…and parents are encouraged to read them with their children.

http://learningmatters.tv/blog/about-us/about-us-staff/watch-reach-out-and-read/10505/

According to John Merrow, special PBS NewsHour correspondent, “The Reach Out and Read program can be found in 5,000 medical centers across the country. It touches almost four million mostly low-income children, at a cost of $10 per child, per year. Bellevue’s program is one of the largest.”

But Bellevue Hospital was heavily impacted by Hurricane Sandy and thousands of picture books were destroyed.

Watching the news reports, I began to think about what I could do to help.  After all, this is Picture Book Month where people who are passionate about picture books are celebrating their importance.

So I contacted Claudia Aristy, director of the Bellevue Hospital Reach Out and Read program, and offered to send her two copies of Show Me How…she was excited and told me she interested in using it as part of the program with her counselors and families.

I also sent a small check and promised to earmark my book profits in the month of December to help buy new picture books for their program.

If you are moved by the plight of Bellevue’s Reach Out and Read program and want to help, you can visit their website and donate…even just enough to buy ONE book…if everyone did that, they would quickly fill their bookshelves again.

http://www.reachoutandread.org/

WE HAVE TO GAB (GIVE A BOOK)

BEFORE THEY CAN ROAR

(REACH OUT AND READ)

If you are an author or illustrator and would like to donate a copy of one of your books, I’m sure they would really appreciate that…when I spoke to Claudia, she advised me to send my books to her address as the clinic was still closed.  If I receive any book donations, I will pack them up and ship them out directly to her.  Perhaps we can get some publishers interested in joining this campaign!

Because these are the surroundings we want young children to have!

And, since this is Picture Book Month…here is some more Picture Book News!

The second episode of my new Google+/YouTube series: Show Me How: Picture Books and Crafts for Kids has been uploaded.  Believing in oneself is a challenge.  I read “The Little Red Caboose” and make a Geometric Shape Train picture.  I hope you will watch the video…and pass it along to anyone who has young children.

http://youtu.be/BFccffrlej4

Each week I hope to show parents how easy it is to participate with their kids…it takes only a few minutes to read the story…and a few minutes to do the craft activity…but the rewards are SO BIG.  Most of the stories and crafts I will use come from my book, Show Me How! Build Your Child’s Self-Esteem Through Reading, Crafting and Cooking.

There’s a new review of Show Me How on Barbara’s GradeOnederful blog: http://www.gradeonederful.com/2012/11/thank-yous-shout-out-give-away-and-tic.html

I’ll also be joining author and educator Susan Case in a Thanksgiving Week Google+ Hangout today, Monday, November 11 at 3pm EST, for our segment called “Acts of Random Kindness”.  I will be reading “Norman the Doorman”, the story about a very special mouse whose life was devoted to being kind to others.  Susan has a wonderful craft activity to share that will encourage children to embrace kindness and reaching out to help others.

And then on Tuesday, there will be more picture book reading and crafting when I share “The Day No One Played Together” by Donalisa Helsley and make a Story Book of Friends…as part of the Google+ Thanksgiving special: #turkeytalk

Want more information about Jake’s Sunday Post?

 http://jakesprinters.wordpress.com/

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PPBF: The Little Red Caboose…Building Self-Esteem in Children

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Today is Perfect Picture Book Friday where I link up with Susanna Leonard Hill’s fantastic group of picture book writers, illustrators, librarians and others who contribute a picture book review.  When you visit her website on Friday, in addition to finding lots of links to other wonderful picture book reviews, you will also find out the winners of the Halloweensie Contest!!!

Before we get to today’s picture book review (I’ll give you a hint…I’m back to the classic picture books), I want to reshare some links to wonderful events going on in the kidlit/picture book community.

  1. Picture Book Month: Visit the website of Dianne de Las Casas to join in the month-long celebration of PICTURE BOOKS!  Every day, a different picture book champion (author, illustrator, etc.) is guest posting…you won’t want to miss these….they will inspire you and help you remember just why you love to read and write picture books.
  2. Picture Books and Crafts for Kids: Please pass the word about this new YouTube series for parents and teachers and kids…every Sunday, I’ll be choosing a picture book to read aloud…and then I’ll do a simple related craft project.  Last week I spotlighted Yes We Can by Sam McBratney and this Sunday I will be reading The Little Red Caboose by Marian Potter and we will create a geometric-shape train picture.  Each segment will highlight a parenting problem such as setting up good bedtime routines or a children’s challenge like learning to be a good friend.
  3. I’m also teaming up with author and educator Susan Case to do a Thanksgiving Google+ Hangout/YouTube video on Monday afternoon as part of a week-long Thanksgiving celebration by parent bloggers.  Our segment, Acts of Random Kindness, will include a reading of Norman the Doorman by me and a super craft project done by Susan.
  4. PiBoIdMo:  Picture Book Idea Month is the brain-child of children’s author,Tara Lazar.  If you signed up, you are already immersed in the world of picture books…trying to come up with 30 fresh ideas for picture book manuscripts during this month.  But, even if you have not joined the challenge, please run over there…don’t walk… to read an AMAZING guest post EVERY DAY this month…these posts will instruct and educate you…as well as motivate you to write the picture book that every child will want to read over and over again.  For example, today’s post, by author Ame Dyckman, encourages us to revisit the picture books of our youth to recapture the magic we felt back then as each page turned and we eagerly anticipated the next one.

Ame’s advice conveniently leads into my Perfect Picture Book Friday pick for today.

The Little Red Caboose

Written by Marian Potter

Illustrated by Tibor Gerbely

Publisher: Golden Press (Western Publishing Company) 1953

Ages: 3 and up

Themes:

Building self-esteem, believing in yourself, courage, determination, friendship

Opening lines:

“The little red caboose always came last.”

Synopsis:

The little red caboose is attached to the end of a long train of oil cars, coal cars and flat cars.  The people who come to wave at the train are gone by the time the little red caboose passes by and the little red caboose wishes he was one of the other cars.  However, when the train almost slips down the mountain, the little red caboose saves the day!

Why do I like this book:

You recapture a ‘kinder gentler’ time as you turn the pages of this beautifully illustrated classic.  Kids love books about trains (this is the great-grandfather of the Thomas series).  The message of being disappointed in who you are and wishing you were someone else is one that children (and adults) will understand and relate to…and the joyous triumph of the little red caboose will encourage kids to believe in themselves.  I love books that help build self-esteem in children.

Related Activities:

GEOMETRIC TRAIN PICTURE (http://mamasmiles.com/geometric-shapes-train/)

You will need: One piece of light colored construction paper, several pieces of different colored construction paper, scissors, glue stick and crayons or markers.

  1. Use the light colored piece as the base.
  2. Cut small circles (wheels), squares  and rectangles and triangles (the different cars of the train).
  3. Help the child put the shapes together to form the train.
  4. Paste each piece in place.
  5. Let the child decorate the train…perhaps drawing the train number and the tracks.
  6. Hang up in a place of honor!

Another great website here with a page devoted to books about trains: http://www.readingtoknow.com/2011/06/train-picture-books.html

 

HOLIDAY GIFT IDEA

Young children don’t need fancy electronic gadgets…they only need a good picture book, a few simple inexpensive art supplies (like paper, crayons or markers, safety scissors and glue stick) and your positive participation.  If you are looking for a great resource that will give you 100 picture book summaries and easy matching craft and cooking activities, you can purchase a copy of Show Me How! Build Your Child’s Self-Esteem Through Reading, Crafting and Cooking.  At under $20, this book makes a PERFECT gift for any parent or teacher of children ages 2-8…as well as for daycare providers and grandparents.  No batteries required…powered by a child’s imagination!

This post is part of a series for parents and teachers called Perfect Picture Book Fridays hosted by Susanna Leonard Hill.  Click on her link and find lots of other picture book suggestions with summaries and activities.   This is an unbelievable resource for any parent, teacher or children’s librarian.

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Don’t Be Afraid…Go Ahead…Write Picture Books!

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Picture Books are…fun to read, a pleasure to look at, educational, wonderful to listen to.

Picture Books can: encourage a special bonding between parent and child, teach children about the world, help kids with the challenges they face.

I love to write and I love picture books…so I’ve taken the plunge and put myself out there several times in the past year, participating in a couple of writing contests.

If you’d like to read the EIGHT finalists’ entries (mine is among them 🙂 in Susanna Leonard Hill’s Halloweensie Contest, you can visit her blog and vote for the one you like best.  Maybe you will be inspired to enter the next contest!

If you need more encouragement, you can check out Tara Lazar’s PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) where you will find amazing posts every day this month that will give you golden nuggets of inspiration to get you started and keep you going.

And if you just like to read them to kids, you can visit Susanna’s Perfect Picture Book resource page where she adds dozens of picture book reviews (with activities) every Friday or hop over to Dianne de Las Casas Picture Book Month website where every day this month she is featuring guest posts on the importance and joy of picture books, or check out my book, Show Me How! Build Your Child’s Self-Esteem Through Reading, Crafting and Cooking, where you will find 100 classic picture book summaries with both a craft and a cooking activity for each…you can also follow my new weekly YouTube series, SHOW ME HOW: PICTURE BOOKS AND CRAFTS FOR KIDS.

By the way, Tuesday was Election Day in the U.S….I hope everyone voted…it is a precious right and we should cherish it!

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