July 31st is National Parent's Day

July 31st is National Parents’ Day!

Too Much Kissing!: and Other Silly Dilly Songs about Parents
by Alan Katz and illustrated by David Catrow

This is a collection of poems set to well known songs that show how children “feel” about their parents. The songs are filled with children lamenting their parents use of the cell phone (They’re Always on the Cell), parent’s food choices for their children (Disgusting Things), how short stories are at bedtime (My Mother Just Rushes Through Bedtime), and how they kiss each other and their children too much (Too Much Kissing!). Each song is silly, clever, and certainly funny.


















How to Raise Mom & Dad: Instructions from Someone Who Figured it Out
by Josh Lerman and illustrated by Greg Clarke

A big sister decides one day that her little brother is old enough to help her with their parents. His sister has learned that their parents need a lot of help, and she does her best to give them a hand each day. The sister’s advice starts with when to help wake up their mom and dad so that they will be awake enough to start their day. Then she tells him that you have to help them get dressed, eat breakfast, pack lunches (especially to include things like cookies and pudding), ask for things you want while they are driving to school (such as a puppy), choose harder homework (so that you can get help from your parents to keep their brains going), and play with your parents (to make sure they get enough exercise).
She only has her parents best interest at heart, and she wants to make sure that her brother feels the same way.

What Do Parents Do? (When You’re Not Home)
by Jeanie Franz Ransom and illustrated by Cyd Moore

Did you ever wonder what your parents do when you go stay at a friend’s house or with your grandparents? One boy has a theory about his parents. When he and his sister go to spend the night with their grandparents, he knows that his parents are doing things like jumping on the bed, sledding down the stairs on pillows, watching lots of television, ruining their appetites with junk food, dress up the dog, play video games, and stay up really late reading comic books. In the pictures you see all of these activities taking place in his mind, while he does things at his grandparents’ house. Of course, by the time the boy and his sister come home, his parents have everything cleaned up. They even tell him that they did not do much while he was gone, but the boy knows better.


















I'm Just Like My Mom= Me Parezco Tanto a Mi Mamá. I’m Just Like My Dad= Me Parezco Tanto a Mi Papá
by Jorge Ramos and illustrated by Akemi Gutiérrez

This book is both in English and Spanish and has a surprise, as it is two books in one. You can read either story by flipping the book over. In “I’m Just Like My Mom,” a little girl compares herself to her mother. They both have long hair, green eyes, sneeze the same way, and write letters with drawings on them. When the little girl asks who she looks like, her mother tells her that she sees the whole family in her daughter’s face. In “I’m Just Like My Dad,” the little girl’s brother compares himself to their father. They both have long legs, pointy noses, like to get up early, play soccer, and read before bed. The little boy also asks his father who he looks like, and his father tells him that he can see the whole family on his face.

Some New Books for July

Red Green Blue: A First Book of Colors
by Alison Jay

This book describes different colors using the characters from different nursery rhymes. On a rainy day that is grey, a little boy sees the three blind mice running from the farmer’s wife. He travels on a sees the yellow teapot that is short and stout, Miss Muffet and the black spider, the little brown mouse that ran up the hickory clock, and many others. Will the day stay grey and rainy? What other rhymes and colors will the little boy find?

Girl vs. Superstar
by Robin Palmer

Lucy B. Parker has just started sixth grade, and things are not going as well as she had hoped. Two of her friends “friend-dumped” her right before school started, her “sort-of friend” Marissa is driving her crazy, and her mother has been acting really weird and happy. Lucy knows something is up, but she is not prepared for what she finds out. It turns out that her mother has been dating someone for the past six weeks, and now she wants to introduce Lucy to him and his daughter. Then her mother tells her who she is dating, Laurel Moses’s father (actress and singer), and Lucy does not take it well. Laurel Moses is the reason for the “hat incident” that has plagued Lucy, and she is not looking forward to meeting her “archenemy.” When she does meet Alan and Laurel, it does not seem that it is going to work out for Lucy, but her mother really wants Lucy and Laurel to get along. Then Lucy finds out that Laurel’s life is not nearly as glamorous as she thought, and that they might have more in common than Lucy ever dreamed possible. Can Lucy give up her feelings of hurt and anger towards Laurel? Will she and Laurel become friends?

Wanted: The Perfect Pet
by Fiona Robertson

Henry wanted to get a dog more than he wanted anything else in the world. He had twenty-seven frogs, but it was not the same. He wanted a dog he could teach tricks to, and a dog would be the perfect pet for a boy. He decided one day to advertise for a dog in the newspaper. Far away from Henry, there was a duck that had no name and no friends. He was very lonely. Then the duck found the ad in the paper, and decided to be the “dog” that Henry wanted. He came up with a great dog disguise and went to meet Henry. Unfortunately, the duck was not very good at doing dog things, such as fetch or learning new tricks. Then his disguise fell off. Will the boy decide that a duck is a better pet than a dog? Will the duck no longer feel lonely?

Hot Diggity Dog: The History of the Hot Dog
by Adrienne Sylver and illustrated by Elwood H. Smith

The nonfiction book covers the history of the hot dog, beginning with the sausage becoming a popular snack in the Roman Empire (by Gaius, the chef of the emperor). Warning: this book tells you what sausage might be made off, so careful reading or you may never eat sausage again! On every page there are also little fun facts about the hot dog, different people, places, and where other favorite foods are from. The hot dog on the bun was first started because a hot dog vendor needed a way to sell the hot sausage to people without them burning their hands. He asked his brother-in-law, a baker, for some ideas, and his brother-in-law created the bun we all know today. Then in the late eighteen hundreds, the hot dog began to be sold during baseball games, and it quickly became a tradition to watch baseball and eat hot dogs. Then in 1957, July became National Hot Dog Month. Finally, there is a discussion on what kinds of things you can put on hot dogs, and the record for the most hot dogs eaten. At the end of the story are some recipes that the author has learned from her family.

Activities for the Summer

Here are some activities to do during the Summer!

Boredom Blasters: Brain Bogglers, Awesome Activities, Cool Comics, Tasty Treats, and More…
by Helaine Becker and illustrated by Claudia Davila

As the title says, this book is full of activities to keep you busy. There are magic tricks, jokes, comic strips, games, puzzles, crafts, and weird but yummy recipes. Some of the games include kangaroo wrestling, sharks and fish, and gerbil jailbreak. Some of the recipes include “gross-out gummi worms,” “alien candy (Truffle UFOs, Asteridough),” and fortune cookies. The brain bogglers include optical tricks, calculator tricks, and codes to break. There are many different kinds of activities that will keep you very busy.

Everybody Wins!: 150 Non-Competitive Games for Kids
by Cynthia MacGregor

Each game has the game’s name, how to play it, what materials will be needed, and the ages that are appropriate for each game. The games need very few, if any, materials, and they are divided up by Quiet Games, Beanbag Games, Active Games, Adventures in the Arts, and other Miscellaneous Activities. There are many games, such as Beep!, that work on skills (like the alphabet and especially their imagination) while playing the game. There is even a game that tells you how to make a “fortune teller” out of paper, and there is a game called “Blob Tag” where everyone who is tagged has to hold on to some part (hand, shirt, etc) of the person who tagged, cannot let go, and has to tag other players, if they can.

Organic Crafts: 75 Earth-Friendly Art Activities
by Kimberley Monaghan

At the beginning of this craft book, there are recipes for making your own glue, paste, and a cornstarch paint (later on, there is a paint recipe for creating paint from fruits and vegetables), some safety tips, and the things you can keep in an “Earth art box.” The crafts include a family tree, nature journal, twig trivet, a nature portrait, rock sculptures, pebble puppets, messy mats, and many, many more. Most of the materials that are used to create this crafts are from nature, such as leaves, rocks, sand, etc, and you can learn about the environment around you as you create your crafts.

Drawing: The Only Drawing Book You’ll Ever Need to be the Artist You’ve Always Wanted to Be
by Kathryn Temple

The beginning part of the book is very important. It says, “Everyone can draw.” The author has some important “life rules to draw by.” Then there is a list of drawing pencils, which ones draw what kind specific lines, different kinds of paper and erasers. The author also discusses different methods of drawing, such as scribble art, drawing without looking, how simple shapes can become great pictures, and how to join many simple shapes together to form a big picture. There is also discussion on shading, proportion and scale, using grids, and perspective. There are many great tips about drawing, and the author really tries to break the drawing process down into easy to follow steps.

July is National Ice Cream Month

July is National Ice Cream Month!

The Big Scoop
by Dorian Cirrone and illustrated by Liza Woodruff

Lindy Blues in the neighborhood “nose for news”, but even she is stumped by the latest “scoop” she has received. It seems that Mr. Hoop’s Super Scoop keeps disappearing and then reappearing, and she got this scoop from two very reliable sources, Joshua and Amy Becker. Lindy also needs a good news story for the news the next evening, and so she agrees to look into it. Then when Lindy walks with Joshua and Amy to look for the missing ice cream shop, they actually find it where it was supposed to be (after a right by the blue flowers). Amy is shocked, because the ice cream shop was not there that morning when she went to find it. Then she starts her next story about flowers and their biological clocks. It seems that certain flowers only open at certain times of the day. Will Lindy be able to find out why Amy could not find the ice cream shop? Does the reason she could not find it have anything to do with Lindy’s other story about flowers?

Ice Cream: The Full Scoop
by Gail Gibbons

This nonfiction book discusses the history of ice cream and how it is made. No one is exactly sure when the first ice cream was created, but it is thought that the Chinese mixed snow, milk, and ice together to create a treat 3,000 years ago. Then Marco Polo brought recipes of flavored ices to Europe, and when cream was added to those ices, there was ice cream. Hundreds of years ago, it was hard to make ice cream, because you had to collect ice during the winter and keep it cold. Then in 1841, Nancy Johnson created the hand-cranked ice cream maker, which made it much easier to make ice cream. There is a diagram that shows how an ice cream maker works. Then you can learn how ice cream is made in the factory until it gets on to the shelves at the store. There is even the story about how ice cream was first put into a cone at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. At the end of the book, there is some more fun facts about ice cream.

Ice Cream Soup
by Frank Modell

Marvin and Milton both love parties, but their mothers have decided not to throw them birthday parties this year. The boys then decide to make their own birthday party. Marvin says that he will make the paper hats and bring Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey. Milton says that he will have all of the balloons. So both boys go home to start preparing for the party, and they write all of their invitations. The next day, the boys start to make the cake and ice cream. They start with the cake, but it does not turn out like they thought it would. The go to Mr. Hassenfus (the cake maker) for advice, but he does not help them. They have just as hard a time making ice cream, which soon becomes ice cream soup. They go to Mr. Cleaver for advice, but he does not help them. Will the boys be able to figure out a way to have cake and ice cream for their party?

The Banana Split from Outer Space
by Catherine Siracusa

Stanley’s Ice Cream Stand had 26 different flavors of ice cream, and it was always busy, because it was on the road to town. His banana split was everyone’s favorite, though. Soon, a new highway was built near his stand, but Stanley was not worried, because he thought people enjoyed his ice cream too much. Unfortunately, no one stops at his ice cream stand anymore. So he decides to build a big sign to draw attention to his stand. This does not bring in any customers, but soon, a flying saucer flies into the sign. He helps Zelmo from Mars out of the saucer, and Zelmo tells him that he came to Earth looking for new flavors of ice cream to take back to Mars. Stanley makes several banana splits for Zelmo, and then Zelmo teaches Stanley how to make a vengo glop with floog (a three-tiered banana split with jelly beans). Stanley tells Zelmo that no one comes to his stand anymore, and Zelmo helps him make a sign to get more attention. When that does not work, Zelmo offers to take Stanley back to Mars with him. Will Stanley go to Mars in order to keep making ice cream treats? Will he find a way to get people to come to his ice cream stand?