Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone! Looking forward to a great year!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays! If you're traveling, please be safe and if you're not, then stay warm and enjoy being with friends and family.

Each Kindness

Each Kindness

By: Jacqueline Woodson

Illustrated by: E. B. Lewis

2013-2014 MD Black-Eyed Susan Nominee

In Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson, kindness is compared to a ripple in the water's surface when a stone is thrown plunked into the water. The ripple gets bigger and bigger as it spreads throughout the world. When Maya comes to school, the girls were mean to her. They wouldn't talk to her and made fun of her second-hand clothes. They wouldn't even smile at her when she tried to smile at them. Then one day, Maya was gone. When everyone got to drop a stone into a bowl of water to see how their kindness spreads, one girl could not think of anything she had done. She felt bad for how she treated Maya, but now it was too late to say sorry. 

Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson is a great story for World Kindness Day (13 November) and to teach children that the kindness they show to everyone around them, just gets bigger and brighter!!

Letters From Santa

We all know it's tradition for kids to sit down and write Santa a wishful letter, asking for a long of list of toys for Christmas morning. But what about a letter from Santa?

Macaroni Kid Annapolis, partnering with Pottery at South River Colony, is offering you the opportunity to send your child a letter from the man in the big red suit. Fill out a few tidbits about your child, and you are set. It's really fast, really easy and totally free!

Register your child using this link.
https://tinyurl.com/y74jx225

Remember, Santa wants to help you keep the kids off the naughty list, so let him send them a letter and make your life a little easier this holiday season. We would like to reach as many families as possible this year. Please register one letter per family.

(Notes: Letters will be mailed in early- to mid-December. Santa's letter will be postmarked from Maryland. Be on the lookout if you have some smarty pants readers in your home!)

Dia de los Muertos!

Ghosts

By Raina Telgemeier

Does the author's name look familiar? You bet it does! Raina Telgemeier is also the author of Smile, Sisters and Drama! Ghosts is her stand-alone graphic novel and is also a MD Black-Eyed Susan nominees for graphic novels grades 4-6. Ghosts tells of Cat's move to Northern California with her family. Her sister, Maya, has Cystic Fibrosis and up north is better for her health than in Southern California. Something seems very different about their new city of Bahia de la Luna. Everyone seems preoccupied with ghosts and when Dia de los Muertos comes around on the 1st of November, the ghosts come out to play and Cat learns that there is nothing to be afraid of. Throughout the book there is an undertone of breathing issues. It seems that the ghosts are very much like Cat's sister, whereas it is hard for her to breathe. The ghosts have their own issues with air and need to borrow a small bit of breath from the living to talk. Maya also mentions to Cat that her life may be cut short and she doesn't want Cat to be afraid of her if she comes to her as a ghost. 

This is a great book for children if they are struggling with a death of loved one or facing an uncertain future of their own. Raina Telgemeier paints a beautiful picture of ghosts as people who have passed, but still love us and want to spend time with us. If you have never read a graphic novel, then this is a good one to down with and read. Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier is a really good and moving story!

Apples To Oregon

Apples To Oregon:

Being the (Slightly) True Narrative of How a Brave Pioneer Father Brought Apples, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Grapes and Cherries (And Children) Across the Plain

By: Deborah Hopkinson and Nancy Carpenter

Apples to Oregon is a TALL tale about how Delicious and her family moved a rolling nursery from Iowa to Oregon. Through rivers and up mountains, through a hailstorm and unforgiving, drying heat of the sun, the family marched onward with the sole purpose of keeping the little plants healthy enough to be transplanted into Oregon soil. They made it! Just in time for the gold rush, but they had already found their fortune.

Don't forget to read the Author's Note in the back. Apples To Oregon, although a tall tale, was based on a real family. A pioneer named Henderson Luelling, his wife Elizabeth and his eight children left Salem, Iowa in 1847 with 700 plants and young fruit trees. The family did make it to Oregon and settled in Milwaukie which is about 6 miles away from Portland. The Luelling-Meek Nursery has been called the 'mother of Oregon nurseries'. 

I'm Gonna Like Me

I'm Gonna Like Me: Letting Off a Little Self-Esteem

By Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell

Jamie Lee Curtis? THE Jamie Curtis? LOL Yes, Jamie Lee Curtis is now an amazing co-author of children's picture books with her partner Laura Cornell. In I'm Gonna Like Me, children go through their day and although they do some things really well or some things really bad or make mistakes or succeed or look different - they still like who they are. When kids like themselves they feel safe and secure. This is a good book to share with younger kids to foster that spirit of good self-esteem.

Jamie Lee Curtis has also co-written with Laura Cornell:

When I Was Little

Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born

Today I Feel Silly

Where Do Balloons Go?