Childrens Days Books

I love My Even Day! It's so much fun.

It's a strange, one could say, odd day for a young boy who awakes to find that everything in his life is even. There were eight beds, six closets and Mom had two heads and she made four flapjacks and there were two shoes and a field trip lunch of soup and ten watermelons. Oh, my!

The field trip to the zoo becomes even zanier with kangaroos for zoo guides, elephants with four trunks, lions and... so much more. And there are hidden objects for the reader to find on the pages. The story is in rhyme and is a fast-paced read that is tons of fun for children and adults. And the illustrations are quirky and eye-catching with lots of action to keep readers mesmerized.

And there's more. The ending is a clue for the next book in the series. You'll have to read it to find out what it is. And when the reader is finished, turn the page for more fun facts for Creative Minds. It's all about even numbers.

Armchair Interviews says: My Even Day is a wild, wacky, fun-filled story for children from four to eight.

This delightful book continues where "One Odd Day" left off in this sequel written and illustrated by the same award-winning team. Our boy wakes up to discover that life is back on an "even" keel. Mom has two heads; he sees eight beds; he's served four flapjacks; he's got two left shoes; all this before he even gets to school! The class is off to the zoo for a field trip and must pair up with a buddy for the day. In their tight lyrical format, authors Doris and Dani keep the reader laughing with the outrageous text, illustrated to thigh-slapping humorous perfection by the very comical Karen Lee. The zoo trip is a definite page-turner for the reader - you can hardly wait to see what happens next! The boy is anxious to get home and go to sleep. What will happen to him the next day? The end of the book leads the reader right into what will be a terrific sequel to My Even Day!

My Even Day and One Odd Day (as a combo) were one of Learning Magazine's 2008 Teachers' Choice Awards for Children's Books winners.

One of my favorite things in this book was the penguins in the illustrations. Ms. Lee had me anxious to see what the pair of penguins would do next! I was delighted by the outcome!

As with all Sylvan Dell books, the end of this book has an educational section "For Creative Minds" that includes: "Even Numbers Have A Match"; "Zero: An Even Number?"; "Square Numbers: Odd or Even?"; "Creative Sparks (Pairs)"; and "Defenders Of The Truth: Math Riddles".

If you read My Odd Day and enjoyed it, you will also delight in this companion book, My Even Day. Authors Doris Fisher and Dani Sneed have continued showing math concepts in a wonderful, zany story. It's zany in an irresistible imaginative way guaranteed to catch the attention of the reader who will be drawn into counting the six wings on a trio of lions or the Scramblesaurus with ten eyes! What is a Scramblesaurus? Read the book to discover it and its number of features. Like in the first book, the writing is in rhyme that flows easily, and the even numbers are in bold type for beginning readers.

Illustrator Karen Lee nicely integrates all of the numeric concepts in fanciful paintings with movement, rhythm, and humor! The activities at the back challenge children to count, multiply, and solve riddles. Children from Kindergarten to Second Grade will take to this book, not only for math, but also for beginning reading skills and enjoyment above all. Highly recommended.

This is an awesome buy for any kid who is trying to learn simple mathematics. The story is incredibly entertaining and there are a ton of fun activities. You can't really mix fun, books and learning any better than this!

Jacquitta Johnson has made My First Day of School an easy and enjoyable read for younger and older children alike. Any child nervous about experiencing his or her first day at school will be set at ease by the young child's journey on his first day at school.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and my daughter Asia who has to read a book a day for 20-minutes took the book out of my hand when it arrived through the mail , read the book and said great! I can use this book on my reading log for the week, because this is something similar she also went through and other little girls. Now, if that doesn't tell you how good of a read this book is. I could have not said it any better.

I have waited for this moment for my wife to finish this book and for it to be completed and in our hands. It is a great book for children. I am so proud of her and I wish her nothing but the best.

I must say this book is a great read for the youngster in your life that is about to make a new venture. This book is a great way to boost them up for thier first day at school. Its also a great gift to give to your family and friends with little one's starting out also.

I got this book because I loved NINI HERE AND THERE so much. I absolutely love Anita Lobel's illustrations and if I could buy framed prints of the artwork in this book I would. This book is simple and sweet.

This book should become a classic. The illustrations areincredible and echo Van Gogh. I bought it for a child who will be three in November and who is used to imagining what is brought forth by picture. Another child in our family always selected it as the book to be "read" first. As happens with children, they had internalized the book before I had. One day I said as a joke something like "blue shoes on Tuesday" -the reply was "No! No! Red Shoes on Tuesday." Great fun.

As a semi-retired Elementary Librarian, I find very hard to stay out of the Childrens book Dept. of bookstores. This new one by Anita Lobel has all the earmarks of a classic! It is lovely in every way. A must for kids of all ages.

My 18 month old daughter loves this book and I read it to her every night. The book contains 3 small stories. One counts the days of the week with 7 pairs of shoes, the next the months and the final story counts 1-10 with seashore imagery. The three stories are tied together by a striped cat you can watch for on virtually every page. The drawings are beautiful, with lots to look for on each page.

Very cute and sweet book! Well written with lovely illustrations- the kids love it!

I will be short and to the point. This is a very cute story that would be a wonderful bedtime story or a fun way to practice numbers.

Those who enjoyed the popular "Where Is The Apple Pie?" will be delighted with the author/illustrator's latest - an entertaining counting book based on the repartee between Goat and Pig.

It seems that when Pig went to the meadow to gather a bouquet a sudden summer shower arose. Without an umbrella Pig headed for the shelter of the nearest tree where he was joined by one small, very fast mouse. Soon two porcupines joined them, and were followed by three buffaloes.

It was getting to be a pretty tight squeeze under that tree, and it was going to be tighter. Poor Pig was soon squeezed out and came home dripping wet.

Gorbachev's smiling animals bring out the sunshine on this rainy day.

- Gail Cooke

Goat, sitting on the porch of his home looks up to see a very wet and bedraggled pig approaching the house. "What happened to you friend pig? I can see you're wet. Let me guess. You went to the meadow to get some flowers and you were caught in the rain. Is that right?" And so begins Pig's fantastic tale of a sudden rainstorm, lots and lots of animals, and a very large old tree. As Pig tells it, he took cover under the tree to stay dry. Suddenly a fast little mouse joined him, then two porcupines, three water buffaloes, four leopards, five lions, six gorillas, seven crocodiles, eight hippopotamuses, nine rhinoceroses, and finally ten elephants..... Valeri Gorbachev's simple, witty text is entertaining, full of energy, and begs to be read aloud. But it's his charming, clever illustrations, culminating in a four page, fold-out spread of everyone together under the large spreading tree that really makes this picture book stand out and sparkle. Each pen and ink, watercolored page is filled with joyous characters, expressive, eye-catching detail and lots of humor. Perfect for youngsters 3-7, One Rainy Day is a unique and engaging counting book, complete with a funny, silly story line and a cute twist at the end, that shouldn't be missed. And how, you ask, did Pig get so very wet? "...I was in such a hurry to get home to tell you about what happened to me on this rainy day that I didn't miss a single puddle!"

One Tiny Baby was my 10 year old son's first book. Somewhere during those 10 years we'd lost it and just a faint memory of it remained. When our daughter came along two years ago, I desperately wanted it to be her first book also and the great quest to find it began. I found the book to be extremely cheap if ordered used but was worried about the condition I would receive it in, however, desperation won out and I ordered it anyway.
When the package came the whole family ripped into it like it was a great Christmas present. We were totally shocked to receive a "used" book in such great condition. It looked like a new book. We were all very pleased.
As I read it to my son for the first time in a long time, we all cried. It feels like a lost piece of our family has been returned. Thank you to everyone that made this possible. We'll treasure this book forever.

This book is a counting book, from one to ten.

It is a fun book with excellent illustrations that talks about the birth of Jesus, starting with one tiny baby. Other numbers are the possible sheep, puppies, spiders, and roosters in the stable. Angels and shepherds are also counted. Two pages are used for each number until the book ends. The last two pages are miniatures of the book. On one page each character is placed next to the others like it, so the sets build one side of a triangle, the other page lists the numbers again without the poetry that was in the book to make it easy to read.

There is actually nothing specifically about Christmas in the book. It is just about the nativity. But since my family has read it every year since it came out during the Christmas holidays, I think of it as a Christmas book.

This book is a counting book, from one to ten.

It is a fun book with excellent illustrations that talks about the birth of Jesus, starting with one tiny baby. Other numbers are the possible sheep, puppies, spiders, and roosters in the stable. Angels and shepherds are also counted. Two pages are used for each number until the book ends. The last two pages are miniatures of the book. On one page each character is placed next to the others like it, so the sets build one side of a triangle; the other page lists the numbers again without the poetry that was in the book to make it easy to read.

There is actually nothing specifically about Christmas in the book. It is just about the nativity. But since my family has read it every year since it came out during the Christmas holidays, I think of it as a Christmas book.

This book is a counting book, from one to ten.

It is a fun book with excellent illustrations that talks about the birth of Jesus, starting with one tiny baby. Other numbers are the possible sheep, puppies, spiders, and roosters in the stable. Angels and shepherds are also counted. Two pages are used for each number until the book ends. The last two pages are miniatures of the book. On one page each character is placed next to the others like it, so the sets build one side of a triangle; the other page lists the numbers again without the poetry that was in the book to make it easy to read.

There is actually nothing specifically about Christmas in the book. It is just about the nativity. But since my family has read it every year since it came out during the Christmas holidays, I think of it as a Christmas book.

I've given this book to three young relatives, and it's been a hit every time! They like it because the mom in the book takes a lesson from her son about the fun of playing in the rain, and they end up having a most precious, beautiful, bonding (and wet!) day. It's a feel-good book for both kids and parents. Gorgeous illustrations, too. It's time to buy one for myself!

Otto's Rainy Day is so much fun--the writing is clear and rhythmic, and the pictures are colorful and lively. My kids (7 & 4) love to splash and play in the rain, too, so they relate to Otto's desire to play outside, and they laugh at his indoor antics (especially when Otto attempts to bake a cake for his mom by himself, and chocolate splatters everywhere--"Oh nooo!" my kids holler). They even recognize the mother's laptop: "That's like you, Mom!" I highly recommend this book.

This book was a refreshing change of pace. The content was real with an excited, happy boy wanting to play and please his loving and busy mom. A typical mom with projects to complete - and typically crazy about her child. When mom corrects her son - it is what moms really say and do when trying to juggle home office and bored children. The solution is real too! Many moms and kids will relate to this "rainy day" situation. My son and I love this book. It is usually in his top 5 when reading to him. He is an "all boy" 3 year old!

Struggling with a 3 yr. old at home, I choked up the first time I read this book. I was reading it to my 3 yr. old and we related to it way too much, from the antics of otto, to his mom's reactions, to the beautiful ending, which is how every day should end for a mom and her 3 yr. old. :)

This year's Peanuts calendar is fantastic! Every morning, I can't wait to read the comic strip of the day. The theme is "we all need a philosophy", which provides for inspiring and funny strips. Recommended to all Peanuts fans!

I put this calendar on my desk and every morning i rush to tear off the page to see what these little angels have to say today. it's a wonderful way to start a work day. i also save the pages as part of my collection. any one will enjoy this.

This calendar has 365 strips - one on each day. Some are not reprinted in the regular reprint books meaning this may be the first time for a reprint! The Sunday strips include ALL panels. This is a must for any REAL Peanuts fan.

Fans of the Peanuts comic strip won't be disappointed here. Familiar images from the longrunning strip are utilized in this calendar. Nothing is new, but each panel brings a smile of recognition to my face.

Maybe Schulz' genius was that he would be funny, and make a subtle and appropriate point at the same time. And this comic never lost a sense of warmth.

Each strip is funny, and it reminds me of my childhood reading Peanuts in the newspaper. It surely makes a worthwhile purchase as a calendar. I don't mind one bit having my friends Linus, Charlie Brown, and the gang around.

ken 32

Funny, absurd, and heartbreaking moments abound in this memoir, which offers an incredibly dispassionate account of being raised, on the brink of poverty, by a freeloading father and codependent mother. In a surprising and original way, the extreme differences between his parents seem to operate like yin and yang forces that converge into the strangely sane wholeness of Dirk's own mindful and even compassionate perspective on his parents and his past.

Once you open this book, you won't be able to put it down until it's finished. There's never a dull moment. The story is heartbreaking and pretty funny at times & the author's writing style is sharp and smart.

Perishable has a lot in common with The Glass Castle, which is one of my favorite memoirs. Both stories make you wonder what in the hell the parents are thinking.

I'm very curious about what happens to the family after the book ends. I can't wait to read the author's next book.

The title of Dirk Jamison's slender memoir Perishable is a reference to the most striking oddity of the author's childhood, that his father--a man for whom the notion of responsibility was anathema--undertook to feed his family of five for a number of years by "trashing," taking recently discarded food prised from dumpsters home to the family dinner table. This was a lifestyle choice rather than necessity. Able-bodied but unwilling to waste his time on a paying job, the author's father saw eating trash as a means of gaining free time: "More trash means less work. Less work means more time." But his enthusiasm for jars of expired pickled eggs and the like was not shared by the rest of the family. The elder Jamison's bizarre take on life was coupled with a selfish abdication of parental responsibility. But his father's instability, if perhaps the worst of what the author endured growing up, was not the whole of it. Jamison's mother was the better parent of the two, but she brought her own problems to the familial mix. Now "slinking off to cry with slabs of chocolate," now refusing a knee operation because she was sure it implied temporary amputation of the affected limb, Jamison's mother, the author explains, was not so much crazy as stupid: "'Ma'am, are you insane?' is the question that nobody ever asks. But I can see that question in their eyes, and it's a misdiagnosis I'm always grateful for. Much preferable to the actual problem, which appears to be staggering stupidity." There were also the regular abuses of Jamison's Mengele-esque older sister and, in the author's adolescence, the in-retrospect-inappropriate attention of "Scoutmaster Gary," the Mormon overseer of a series of Church-sponsored activities in which Jamison took part. In short, the author's home life was unstable, and his father's mode of parenting arguably a form of abuse. Jamison and his siblings lacked dependable adult figures who were capable of making rational decisions on behalf of the family.

Jamison tells the story of his unusual childhood in spare, unflinching prose. Neither sentimental nor self-pitying, the author approaches his subject with something like journalistic dispassion. He is startlingly frank. This is most admirable not when he is detailing his family's failures but rather when he confesses to poor behavior of his own during the period. In the end Jamison's remarkable account of his peculiar upbringing is probably more universal in its scope than he intended. My guess is that a lot of readers will find much that's familiar in the book, their own imperfect familial relationships here writ more extreme. Thus Perishable isn't merely a good read. It may help you laugh at your own crazy relatives.

Debra Hamel -- author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in ancient Greece (Yale University Press, 2003)

All of us grew up in families that were more or less dysfunctional. But this one takes the cake. Well, it wasn't as bad as those families you see on the TV news where a child is actually killed, but boy was it bizarre. In fact it seems remarkable that Mr. Jamison grew up at all, let alone sane enough to put enough sentences together to write a book like this. Then when you find the humor and understanding that he brings to the book and you have to realize that almost regardless of what you do to them kids seem to shake it off and grow up.

The story is delightful (so long as you didn't have to live it). This is what happened to the true hippies who never became part of society. Or as viewed from the standpoint of the author realizing that everyone in your family is a lunatic. To summarize: Dad's dropped out, working sucks and he isn't going to do it any more; Mom is a Mormon whose main goal is to get her children into heaven; sis is trying to kill him. They are all nuts, but as it is described, they're nuts in a delightful way.

Highly amusing read.

The Mom's Choice Awards® honors excellence in family-friendly media, products and services. An esteemed panel of judges includes education, media and other experts as well as parents, children, librarians, performing artists, producers, medical and business professionals, authors, scientists and others. A sampling of the panel members includes: Dr. Twila C. Liggett, Ten-time Emmy-winner, professor and founder of Reading Rainbow; Julie Aigner-Clark, Creator of Baby Einstein and The Safe Side Project; Jodee Blanco, New York Times Best-Selling Author; LeAnn Thieman, Motivational speaker and coauthor of seven Chicken Soup For The Soul books; Tara Paterson, Certified Parent Coach, and founder of The Just For Mom Foundation(tm) and the Mom's Choice Awards®. Parents and educators look for the Mom's Choice Awards® seal in selecting quality materials and products for children and families. This book has been honored by this distinguished award.

Written by school psychologist Michelle Fattig, who herself lives a highly successful life even though she has ADHD and Asperger's Syndrome, A Prairie Day with Annie is novel for young readers featuring a pair of children, Michelle and John, who have Asperger's Syndrome and Attention Deficit Disorder. They apply their unique perspective and insight to combat crime and evil, and further world peace. Black-and-white illustrations and a large typeface gentle on the eyes distinguish this easy-to-read chapter book and its upbeat message life with ADD and Asperger's. A handful of black-and-white illustrations by Michelle's son Josh Fattig, who also has Asperger's Syndrome and ADD, round out this excellent novel for young readers ready to start on their first ever chapter books.

All of Michelle Fattig's books have given me a better insight into my son's experiences with ADD. I cried as I read the epilogue of "A Prairie Day with Annie" because it so accurately portrayed the emotions I felt as I watched my son after we put him on medication and switched schools. To finally have your child blossom in school and feel "smart" after years of struggling is truly a joyful experience for a parent. I strongly recommend this book, as well as Michelle's other "Annie" books.

A must read for teachers, family member's or children, who know or are struggling with Attention Deficit Disorder.
I am a mother of a child with high functioning Autism, Jordan faced alot of the same issues as Annie did in this book.
Also as I read this book (I have ADD) I found myself wishing that forty years ago when I was in school with similar problems, this book would have been available to everyone who interacted with me on a regular basis! It was quite a journey having this Attention Deficit back than nobody heard of this. I promise you after you read this book you will walk away with an understanding of how frustrating Add can be and some tools that can help you...Rhonda Brunett Author of From Autism to All-Star

The authors covered all aspects of startup from location and economics in your area to business plan examples. Showed implementation of their "flex-time" programming which is wonderful. I checked this book out of the library and two days later (after I finished it) I went out and bought it. It will be used over and over I am sure.

There are very, very few books on starting and operating a for-profit child care business (believe me, I have looked!). This one is a gem; very well written by a person who has been there. Her flexible time system is right-on, although I'm not sure I'd have the guts to implement it. Margins are thin in this business; this book should help you get all you can out of it.

Great book for beginners as well as those experienced in the world of childcare and preschool. Offers realistic information related to starting up a center. Especially strong in the areas of writing a business plan and attaining funding. I learned quite a bit from reading this book.

This is an excellent source book for anyone considering opening a child care center. It is comprehensive, well written and logically organised. The author covers every area of developing a center, from organisation of the space to conflict resolution to highlighting the ten most common mistakes in running a center. I would thoroughly recommend this book for anyone considering starting a business in child care.