Perfect Picture Book Friday: Angelina’s Christmas – Reaching Out to Help Others

Posted on December 12, 2014 by viviankirkfield

Happy Friday, everyone! It’s time for a Perfect Picture Book review and craft activity. If you head over to Susanna Leonard Hill’s blog today, you won’t find her usual picture book link up because the 4^th Annual Holiday Contest is underway…check out the scores of incredible original stories – you are in for a treat!

Today’s picture book is especially perfect for this time of year. And I’m really excited because the author, Katharine Holabird, is going to be my Will Write for Cookies guest tomorrow.

ANGELINA’S CHRISTMAS

Written by Katharine Holabird

Illustrated by Helen Craig

Publisher: American Girl (2002 – hardcover) Puffin (2008 – paperback)

Ages: 3-5+

Themes: Christmas, friendship, helping others

Opening Lines:

“Christmas was coming and everyone at Angelina’s school was working hard to prepare for the Christmas show. Angelina and the other children stayed after their lessons to rehearse and help decorate the hall.”

Synopsis:

From Amazon:

“When Angelina Ballerina sees the postman, old Mr. Bell, all alone at Christmastime, she decides to bring him some holiday cheer. Cousin Henry doesn’t want to help until he finds that there’s a real Santa Claus living in their town!” Continue reading →

Top ALA Picture Books Make Great Holiday Gifts for Kids

Posted on December 5, 2014 by viviankirkfield

The gift-giving holidays are almost here. The stores, online catalogs and media are all trying to get you to spend your money – but what does a young child really need or want?

If you want to know the truth – not much! Paper and crayons or markers, some clay or play dough, safety scissors, glue, picture books – and you, of course!

On Friday, I usually review a picture book, but this is a great time of year to check out some of the top picture books of 2014 (all are on the American Library Association’s Notable Books list)…you might want to pick up a couple to put under the tree. I reviewed two of them this year – if you click the links, you’ll also find the craft activity instructions that accompanied each post.

A Big Guy Took My Ball written and illustrated by Mo Willems

Ball written and illustrated by Mary Sullivan

Bully written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Count the Monkeys written by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Kevin Cornell

Exclamation Mark written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild written and illustrated by Peter Brown

Nino Wrestles the World written and illustrated by Yuyi Morales Continue reading →

Are You Taking Santa’s Advice? Time Management Tip #1

Posted on December 14, 2013 by viviankirkfield

It’s the end of the year. So much to do and so little time to do it.

In the oft-heard jingle, ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’, Santa is MAKING A LIST and CHECKING IT TWICE.

One of the most important time-management tools is a list. Every day. Of what you need to accomplish.

Without the list, you will probably waste a lot of TIME, trying to remember what needs to be done.

Without the list, you will surely get distracted by other tasks.

There are several types of lists you can use:

Daily to-do
Long-term projects
Yearly or life-time goals

On my daily to-do list, I put an asterisk next to the items that are MOST IMPORTANT and I try to do these first. I also have a small section of the daily to-do list that itemizes what I need at the store…this part of the list can carry over to the next day. I try to go shopping only once or twice a week. That saves time and money!

What’s on my to-do list today?

Finish reading the entries to Susanna Leonard’s Holiday Writing Contest (over 100 submissions (you can read my entry here) – don’t forget to come back on Monday for the link to VOTE for the winner!
Read Marcie Atkins post, We’re All In This Together (WAITT) – I’ve been participating in her blog feature this year and today’s post is a wrap-up of our 2013 accomplishments.
Send out Christmas cards and mail out a couple of copies of Show Me How…ON SALE for $24.99 on AMAZON.
Work on revising the manuscript I just got back from author and life coach Alayne Christian. I won a professional in-depth critique from her because of my participation in Sub Six and I know that with the suggestions she has made, this will be a powerful story to resubmit to a publishing house that was interested in it. I also gave it to both of my critique groups and will incorporate their feedback as well.
Straighten up the house – we had company yesterday – our son from Chicago had to be in Boston for business and come to spend the day – he got to play with his nephew, 5-year old Jeremy.