Family

Family Fun Nights: 140 Activities the Whole Family Will Enjoy
by Lisa Bany-Winters

This nonfiction book is full of fun ideas for activities that the whole family can take part in. The activities are broken down into sections which include Talent Night, Circus Night, Poetry Slam Night, Movie Star Night, Giggle Night, Sticky Icky Night, Splash Night, Opposite Night, Animal Night, and many, many more. Each section contains at least three activities. Some of the activities include a parade, rhyme time, movie title charades, trick time, paper towel art, backyard in a bottle, face masks, masquerades, gypsy dance, life stories, around the house trivia, and take the tail off the donkey. Some of the activities are crafts, games, experiments, and many other fun things to do.






















Turtle in Paradise
by Jennifer L. Holm

In 1935 Turtle’s mother gets a new job as a housekeeper, but the lady who hires her does not like children and does not want Turtle to live there with them. There is not much of a choice, so Turtle has to go live with her aunt in Key West, Florida while her mother is working. Her mother’s new boyfriend, Archie, has told Turtle that someday they are going to live on “easy street,” but Turtle is not convinced. Turtle is also not a big fan of other children, as they have never been that nice to her, and her aunt has three boys, which does not improve her mood. Turtle learns that her cousins earn some candy by taking care of “bad babies” so that their families can have a little peace. They also have a diaper rash crème that works really well. For this reason, the boys are nicknamed “The Diaper Gang.” Turtle is not impressed by this at all. She spends her days hanging out with the “gang” as they take care of the babies. The boys learn, though, that Turtle is pretty clever when she figures out how to get a free ice cream one night. Turtle finds that she really misses her mother. Turtle also finds out that everyone on the island has a nickname, so she does not feel so bad about hers. When she goes out to find sponges with Slow Poke, Turtle learns the tale of Black Caesar’s treasure. The next day she gets to meet her grandmother, who is not very nice, but she and Turtle come to an understanding. Soon Turtle seems to be fitting into Key West. Will she get to stay there or will she end up living in a new place with her mother? Will Turtle and her cousins find Black Caesar’s treasure? Will Archie be able to give them a life on “easy street?”






















The Name Quilt
by Phyllis Root and pictures by Margot Apple

Whenever Sadie went to stay with her grandmother over the summer, her grandmother would tuck her in at night with the name quilt. The quilt was made of all kinds of little pieces of fabric and had many names on it. For a bedtime story, Sadie would ask her grandmother to tell her about one of the names on the quilt. The pieces of the quilt are fabric from the clothes that the people were wearing when the events of the story happened. Sadie felt close to all of those people whose names she could see on the quilt. Then one day after washing the sheets and quilts and hanging them out to dry, Sadie and her grandmother go fishing. They take a nap, too. When they wake up a bad storm has blown in, and her grandmother tells her get down, because there is a tornado. When they get back to the house after the storm, the quilt is gone. Sadie is very depressed, but her grandmother is just happy that they are both okay. That night, grandmother asks whose story Sadie would like to hear. Sadie did not believe that her grandmother would remember the stories without the quilt, but her grandmother tells her that she does not need the quilt to remember the stories. Sadie remembers names from the blankets, and her grandmother tells her the stories. Will Sadie’s grandmother remember all of the stories of the family members whose names were on the quilt? Can Sadie and her grandmother make another quilt to help them remember the stories?

Say Daddy!
by Michael Shoulders and illustrated by Teri Weidner

At the hospital a mama bear reads a book to her newborn baby bear about life and its wonder. Mama makes sure to say “Say Mommy” to the baby, because she wants “Mommy” to be the baby’s first word. Daddy reads a book to the baby about dreams and wishes. He tells the baby, “Say Daddy,” because he wants “Daddy” to be the baby’s first word. All of the members of the baby’s family: brother, Aunt Grace, Uncle Roy, and Grandma read books about friendship and kindness, adventure, laughter, and families. When they are all finished reading their books, they encourage the baby to say their names as the first word. At the family reunion, the family gives presents to the little bear baby, and the baby speaks for the first time. What is the present that inspires this first word? What do you think the first word is?

Winter

Snow Friends
by M. Christina Butler and illustrated by Tina Macnaughton

Little Bear cannot wait to go out and have fun in the snow. He does have fun playing in the snow, but he wishes that he could have a friend to play with. Then he decides to make a snowman to be his friend. While Little Bear is rolling the snowball to make the body of the snowman, Otter comes up to find out what he is doing. Then Otter asks if he can help. While making the snowball bigger, the two animals hear a voice coming from under the snowball. When they roll the snowball away, Rabbit pops his head out of a hole and asks to also join in. The three friends work on the head of the snowman, and Rabbit draws a smile on the snowman’s face. Then all three of the animals go home to find something to add to the snowman. What will each animal bring to put on the snowman? Will the animals become each others’ friends? Do the animals think that the snowman should also have a friend?

Time to Sleep
by Denise Fleming

Winter time is here, and bear knows that it is time for many of the animals to go to sleep. First bear tells snail that it is time to sleep. Snail sees that frost has been on the ground and agrees with bear. Snail must tell skunk about winter before he can go to sleep. Skunk also sees signs of winter coming and knows that it is time to sleep, but first he must tell Turtle. Each animal tells the next that winter is coming. Turtle tells Woodchuck, and Woodchuck tells Ladybug. Who will Ladybug spread the new to? Will that animal know yet that winter has come? Will that animal be happy with the news?

The Winter Solstice
by Ellen Jackson and illustrated by Jan Davey Ellis

Hundreds of years ago people believed that ghosts, witches, and trolls wandered around the Earth, and a very dangerous time for this was the winter solstice (or the first day of winter). The day of the winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, and many people believed that the sun may not come back after this night. This was a time when people believed that they had to join together and have ritual and ceremonies to bring back the sun and keep away the bad spirits. Some places, like Stonehenge, were built to mark when the sun would “disappear” and come back. The Romans traded places with their servants, gave each other presents and candles, and brought evergreens into their homes at the time of winter solstice. In the far north, when the first light was spotted after many days of darkness, the people would have a feast of Yuletide where they would burn a Yule log. In northern Europe, people had big bonfires and would place fruit and candles on the empty trees to remind them that spring and summer would come again. Other traditions discussed were those in Peru, Arizona, New Mexico, and the United States. Then the author discusses why the days become shorter in the winter. Finally, the author talks about the traditions that people have now and how they compare to the traditions discussed earlier in the book. There is a solstice story at the end of the book from a Cherokee tale.

The Night the Whole Class Slept Over
by Stella Pevsner

Dan is moving with his family again. This time they are moving to his mother’s home town, and they are going to stay with his grandparents. Dan is tired of moving around. His parents believe that if they keep moving around, one day they will find the perfect place to live, but they do not seem to have found it yet. Dan’s mother tells her parents that they intend to move into a cabin in the middle of nowhere, but her parents are concerned about Dan and his sister Martha. How will they go to school? Dan decides to ask his grandmother to sign him up for school in their town. He hopes that he can convince his parents to let him stay with his grandparents, who he considers much more normal than his parents are. On his first day of school, Dan meets a new friend named Felix. Luckily for Dan, his parents are not having a lot of luck finding the cabin that they were dreaming of. Dan is also enjoying spending time with his grandparents. When he goes over to Felix’s house, he finds out that Felix spends a lot of time alone since his parents work a lot. His parents also had to work during Thanksgiving, so they did not have a family dinner. Dan feels a little sorry for his new friend. On the day of the first snowfall, the children get out early and go play in the snow, but after helping the unpopular girl in class, B.J., Dan ends up on the sidelines feeling like an outsider. The girls, including Amanda, talk him into helping with their “snowwoman,” and he has a good time helping them. Amanda even asks him to help her come up with a design for the snow sculpture for the class for Snowfest, and Dan really does not want to move anymore. His mother, though, seems determined to move. Will Dan’s mother really make them move when no one else really seems to want to? Will Dan be able to keep the new friends that he has made? Will Dan get to enjoy all of the fun of the Snowfest including the sleepover in the library with his class?

Food

What the World Eats
by Faith D’ Aluisio and photographs by Peter Menzel

This nonfiction book is about 25 families in 21 countries and 525 meals that they eat. Each little chapter is about one family and tells you the country that they live in. Each family also has a photograph with a week’s worth of the groceries that they eat and of the area they live in. The author also included a few American families to see how their diets differed from one another. Each chapter lists the different groceries for the family and how much it would cost to buy them in their country and in U.S. dollars. There is also a little story about the families and information about the country and city that they live in. Throughout the book there are also pages of other facts, such as the price of a Big Mac and which countries have a McDonalds. It is interesting to see what is in common with most of the families that live in cities. Can you find a drink that they all seem to enjoy?

Just Grace and the Snack Attack
by Charise Mericle Harper

One of the students in Grace’s class makes fun of the food another student is eating, and so Miss Lois, their teacher, decides to teach the students about different kinds of food that people from other countries eat instead of the insides of a frog lessons that she was going to teach. This makes Grace very excited, as she was not looking forward to learning about the insides of a frog. The students are to write about different snacks that they eat and anything that they find out about foods that people eat in other countries. The next Monday, the class will get to have a snack party where the students will bring unusual or different snacks. Miss Lois even makes a list of snacks that cannot be brought to the party. Grace likes a lot of different foods from all over the world such as sushi (Japan), bulgogi (Korea), moo shoo (China), pad thai (Thailand), and paneer butter masala (India), and her mother decides that they will go to eat a new food at a restaurant that had not been to before. Then Grace goes to visit her friend Augustine Dupre who lives in their building. Augustine is a flight attendant who goes to France a lot, and she gives Grace a “zine.” A “zine” is little comic made from a piece of paper folded into eight pages. Grace loves her present and cannot wait to create her own “zine.” Grace decides that she wants to do her report on different kinds of potato chips from around the world, after Augustine gives her a bag of French chicken-flavored potato chips. While doing research for her report, Grace finds out that there are beef jerky flavored chips in South Africa, ketchup flavored chips in Canada, ham and mustard flavored chips in England, and seaweed and salt flavored chips in Japan. Grace is upset, though, that her dad helped her friend Mimi with her report, but he does not seem even a little interested in helping Grace with hers. This makes Grace feel like a bad friend for feeling jealous of Mimi. Then Mimi walks to school without her, and Grace becomes mad. Will Mimi figure out how upset Grace is and help her feel better? Will the report on potato chips turn out well, even if Grace does not get any help? What interesting foods will the other students bring on Monday? Will Grace’s dad surprise her with any help that she is not suspecting?

Mary Clare Likes to Share
by Joy Hulme and illustrated by Lizzy Rockwell

Whenever Mary Clare eats something, she likes to share it with others. Whenever she climbs a tree with Lee, she picks a pear and shares it with him by cutting it into two pieces. At school, she splits a muffin into three pieces to share it with her two friends. When three of her friends come to visit, she cuts a cookie into four pieces so that everyone can have a bite. As the book goes on, she breaks a pie, orange, watermelon, pizza, with each food getting cut into more pieces (five, six, seven, and eight). What event will have Mary Clare sharing ten whole pieces with her friends and family? Will she be able to share it evenly with everyone?

The Sandwich Swap
by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdulliah with Kelly DiPuchhio and illustrated by Tricia Tusa

Salma and Lily are best friends at school, and they have a lot of fun drawing, swinging, jumping, and eating together. At lunch, Lily eats a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day, and Salma eats a hummus and pita sandwich every day. Both Lily and Salma feel sorry for one another that they have to eat the “weird and yucky” sandwiches every day, but they never say this out loud to one another. Then one day, Lily tells Salma that her sandwich looks yucky. Salma’s feelings are hurt, and she tells Lily that her sandwich looks and smells yucky, too. Both of the girls are mad and do not do anything together that day. The next day, the girls do not sit next to each other at lunch. The other students hear about what happened and take sides. Then the students start calling each other names, until someone yells “Food fight!” After the food fight, Lily and Salma feel ashamed at what happened. Will the girls be able to talk to each other about their feelings? Will they decide to try something new and find out what the other one likes about their sandwich? Will Lily and Salma be able to help the other students try new things, too?

December is National Read a New Book Month

Here Are Some New Books

for December to Try Out!

Calvin Can’t Fly: The Story of a Bookworm Birdie
by Jennifer Berne and illustrated by Keith Bendis

Calvin is a starling with three brothers, four sisters, and sixty-seven thousand four hundred and thirty-two cousins, so he has a very big family. While his brothers, sisters, and cousins all discover things like worms, grass, dirt, and water, Calvin is different, and he finds books. He teaches himself how to read, and he goes to the library instead of learning how to fly with his brothers, sisters, and cousins. He learns about all kinds of interesting things through books. His brothers, sisters, and cousins made fun of Calvin, because he was different. So he went to the library, the only place where he could be happy. When fall came, though, it was time to leave and fly south. Calvin knows he cannot fly, so he thinks that the other birds will leave without him. Will the other starlings take Calvin with them when they fly south? Will Calvin be able to help his family with something that he learned while reading all of those books?

Children’s Book of Music: An Introduction to the World’s Most Amazing Music and Its Creators
DK Publishing

This nonfiction book is filled with facts about all kinds of music. There is also a CD that has extracts of music that correspond to different pages in the book. The music covered in the book is early music, classical music, and modern music. In these chapters there is information about different instruments, people, and the kind of music that they played. In the early music section some instruments include the lyre, didgeridoo, and the sitar. In the classical music section some instruments include the organ, violin, and the French horn. This section also discusses famous composers and operas. In the modern music section some instruments include the drum kit and the electric guitar. This section discusses recorded sound and artists that have had their songs recorded. At the end of the book there is a glossary and an index of musicians.

Curtain Up!: A Book for Young Performers
by Dirk McLean and illustrated by France Brassard

Amaya loves to sing, dance, and act, and now she is auditioning for a role in a musical. When it is her turn to audtion, Amaya stands alone in front of director and stage manager, and she does so well, they ask her to come back for a second and third audition. Soon Amaya learns that she is going to have the lead child in the musical. On her first day of rehearsal, Amaya and the other members of the cast play a game to learn each others’ names, and then the read through the lines of the play together. The actors get to see a miniature of the set and get measured for their costumes. The director shows them where to stand on their positions on the stage, and the choreographer shows them all the dance moves. Amaya and the other children work really hard learning their lines and their moves to get ready for their performance in a couple of months. During the preview performance, Amaya becomes nervous and forgets her line, but the stage manager whispers it to her, and Amaya makes it through the rest of the performance. Will Amaya be ready for opening night? Will the musical be a success?

Aldwyns Academy
by Nathan Meyer

Dorian is more interested in following in his father’s footsteps and becoming a warrior. His mother, a powerful seer, decides to send him to Aldwyns Academy for wizards, instead. Dorian does not wish to attend the academy, but his mother insists. On their way to the academy, Dorian and his mother are attacked by dire wolves. His mother attacks the wolves with her wand while Dorian throws hot coals on the wolves with his dagger, but the wolves still keep coming. Then they receive help from Archmage Lowder and Professor Blackburn of the academy. Another student, Helene Miridori, is to be Dorian’s tutor in the academy, but she does not want to be. She also has a secret that someone has figured out, and she is worried. She also knows that ghosts have come to the academy, and even the more powerful wizards cannot drive them away. Dorian meets Maverick, a shopkeeper, who tells him of the dangers that have come to the academy lately, and Maverick also gives Dorian a little present and tells him not to tell anyone about it. Dorian decides to prove to the professors and to Helene that he can be a great wizard. He manages to get into trouble his first day, though, and he is not confident that he will be successful at the academy. Helene finds that her familiar was stolen, and she has to find him and get him back. Dorian and his roommate Caleb notice her sneaking off to meet the kidnapper. Both boys noticed that she was not afraid of the ghosts she had seen, and since they are suspicious, they decide to follow her. Dorian runs into a ghost who tells him that someone is after Helene, who is really an elf princess. The ghost tells him that he must save Helene or the person after her will destroy everyone in the academy. Will Dorian and his friend Caleb be able to help Helene? Will they find out what is causing all of the problems at Aldwyns Academy? Will Dorian be able to prove that he belongs at the academy?