MotherReader

That’s a Lot of Snow

It’s hard to think about blogging when you’re in the middle of a historic snow event. Snowpocalypse! Or as some might say, Snowpocalypse II: Electric Boogaloo. We had two feet in Northern Virginia and spent a lot of the weekend digging out. Schools and the government are closed today, I’m betting on school closed tomorrow, and then another storm comes in on Tuesday afternoon! Craziness.

For those who scoff at our snow totals, you have to understand that the DC Metro area is simply not equipped to handle this amount of snow. While we have no lack of clueless drivers to block the roads, what we don’t have is a good number of snow plows. In fact, in Virginia the residential neighborhoods are contracted out to guys with trucks and a plow stuck on. Not a bad solution for our general six-inch snowfalls, but useless against twenty-four inches of untouched snow, as we noticed yesterday on our own street.

Also let me express annoyance with our general area, in that the official snow totals for Washington, DC, are measured at Reagan National Airport. First of all, the airport is not in the District. It’s in Arlington, across the Potomac. Second, being on the river reduces the snow that accumulates there, so we always get a lower number than practically anywhere else. This area is already often accused of overreacting, and could at least use better supporting statistics than the 17.8 inches recorded at National Airport.

Today we’re hoping for some melting on the streets and our poor fir trees, which look rather bendy. Our white cat is avoiding us now, because she can’t help going outside — in case it’s gotten better out there — which means that we can’t help putting her in the snow, because it’s funny. (Oh c’mon, you’d do it too.) And while I avoided tackling clutter to shovel snow, I now at least need do some laundry and clear a path through the tossed-off snow clothes.

Labels: Snowpocalypse

Booklights, Cybils, and Jeremy Draws a Monster

We are closing in on the final winners for the Cybils. So exciting! For my category, Fiction Picture Books, I first posted at Booklights with the three titles I thought most likely to win a Caldecott. And I was right on two of them. Yes! Today at Booklights I’m sharing three more titles from the finalist list — one serious, one silly, and one downright dangerous. The seventh title I actually wrote about in December as a book that I was giving my three-year-old niece. I’m sharing that review here today as an appetizer to my other Cybils reviews. Plus because I love the book.

Jeremy Draws a Monster, by Peter McCarty, is one of my favorites of 2009, though it seems to have slipped under the radar for many. I didn’t think the amazing message contained within was too subtle, but maybe it did escape many readers who looked at the surface and saw a simple, light story. It’s a shame, because people missed one of the better combinations of art, story, and message that I’ve ever seen. In the simply written and illustrated book, Jeremy stays in his room, never goes out, and draws pictures. And one day, with his special crayon, he draws a monster. The monster is demanding and Jeremy has to keep working to satisfy it. He’s relieved when it goes out for the day. But can things end that easily? No. Only when Jeremy takes an active role in getting rid of his monster does he find a chance to be happy. Young kids will enjoy the story — especially as you read in the cranky monster’s voice — but can also absorb the deeper meaning within. Hopefully the adult readers will too. In my own family, after all enjoying this book, we’ve taken to saying, “You draw your own monster.” And we now see that you can’t feed it or ignore it, but you have to tackle it. An amazing message wrapped in a charming book with engaging illustrations. Not to be missed.

I think this book resonated with me so strongly because I have people close to me who create their own monster of loneliness or fear, and don’t realize that they can’t give in to it or ignore it and expect it to go away. It’s a lesson that I wish we could all absorb when we are young and open, because it’s so much harder to change when you’re older and rigid. This weekend we have another snowstorm heading our way, and I’m going to try very hard to tackle my monster — clutter! I’ve certainly fed it, and ignored it, but I need to do something about it. What monster will you take on this month?

Links to material on Amazon.com contained within this post may be affiliate links for the Amazon Associates program, for which this site may receive a referral fee.

Labels: Booklights, Cybils, Picture Books

ABC Storytime: L is for...

Whenever I come to the letter L, I have to face that strange ladybug rhyme. I mean, “Your house is on fire”? What is that all about? So instead, I’m substituting the Sesame Street song, which pokes fun of the rhyme with its line “They talked about the high price of furniture and rugs and fire insurance for ladybugs.”

The Letter L

Book: Leonardo the Terrible Monster, by Mo Willems

Book: Ladybug Girl, by David Soman, or The Grouchy Ladybug, by Eric Carle

Song: “Ladybug’s Picnic”

Watch and learn the Sesame Street song.

Book: Lost and Found, by Oliver Jeffers, or Russell and the Lost Treasure, by Rob Scotton

Rhyme: “Little Bo Peep”

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep
And can’t tell where to find them.
Leave them alone,
And they’ll come home,
Wagging their tails behind them.

Book: One Little Lamb, by Elaine Greenstein

Song: “Mary Had a Little Lamb”

Mary had a little lamb,
little lamb, little lamb.
Mary had a little lamb
whose fleece was white as snow.

Book: Lizzy’s Do’s and Don’ts, by Jessica Harper, or Library Lion, by Michelle Knudsen (better for older preschoolers and up)

Links to material on Amazon.com contained within this post may be affiliate links for the Amazon Associates program, for which this site may receive a referral fee.

Labels: ABC Storytime

LOST Returns

Oh yeah, I’m ready. Are you?

Final Season Of “Lost” Promises To Make Fans More Annoying Than Ever

Links to material on Amazon.com contained within this post may be affiliate links for the Amazon Associates program, for which this site may receive a referral fee.

Labels: Videos

Comment Challenge 2010: Prizes

While I was heading down into Virginia Beach’s first significant snowstorm in twenty years, I left you time to sign in as having finished the Comment Challenge. Last night, I wrote down all the people who wrote on the finish line post here or with Lee Wind, adding a few people who had commented on an earlier post. I numbered the folks who made the 100 Commenter Club, and used Random.org to generate three numbers from that group. After all that, the winner of the prize packages are:

Abby of Abby (the) Librarian

Kathy of Inside of a Dog

Sarah of In Need of Chocolate

Please write me at MotherReader AT gmail DOT com with your address and the prize package you’d most appreciate. An extra prize package was donated from Reading Is Fundamental and I’ve decided to award it to one of the two top commenters: Kelly Polark, who logged in 214 comments! The other big commenter was Kathy Martin, with 223 comments, and who had been randomly selected to win a prize package. Congratulations to all!

I also drew random numbers from the entire group of seventy participants to select winners of prizes just for playing. I’ve tried to make a good match for each, and so...

Hannah of A Quiet Spot wins a signed copy of Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion sent by the author, Loree Griffin Burns. A great book for homeschool education and projects.

Camille of Book Moot wins a lovely journal donated by Natalie from Fadeaway Dream to keep track of special days.

Heather of StorySleuths can start a discussion on older literature vs. new when she receives Heaven to Betsy / Betsy in Spite of Herself, donated by Wendy of Six Boxes of Books.

Marge of Tiny Tips for Library Fun can get some ideas for storytime projects with What Can You Do with an Old Red Shoe? plus an example of my own recycled magazine jewelry.

Winners, please write me at MotherReader AT gmail DOT com with your address so I can get your prizes send your way.

Thanks again to everyone for being part of Comment Challenge 2010. We hope to see you next January, but we also hope that the commenting bug stays with you for the rest of the year. Read. Blog. Comment.

Links to material on Amazon.com contained within this post may be affiliate links for the Amazon Associates program, for which this site may receive a referral fee.

Labels: Comment Challenge, Prizes

Comment Challenge 2010: Finish Line

After twenty-one days of commenting, my trusty Post-It note is full. There are hash marks to track my daily comments. There is a series of numbers to one side that represent the blogs from the Comment Challenge Sign-In that I didn’t comment at yet, but intend to go back to. There are circled numbers at the top representing blogs that I need to add to my blog reader or investigate further. There are two days without any comments at all. There are eighteen days with a total of 125 comments marked. There is space for one day — today — left to be added. The hash marks won’t matter, but I’ll do them anyway.

In fact, I’ll continue to keep a Post-It note here on the right side of my laptop and mark my comments, because I found that the reminder helped. It made me push through the inertia of reading passively, to connecting actively. It forced me to drop my insecurities about not writing a comment that reflected breathtaking intelligence and wit, and to focus on leaving simple evidence that I Was Here. It reminded me that my obligation isn’t to foster community only within the confines of my blog, but to go out into that community. Because while my readers are the energy that fuels my blog, I am in turn the energy that feeds another blog — and so it continues.

Our challenge had a set time frame, and today is the day to submit your final tally and/or your experiences with the challenge. If you reached the 100 Comment Mark, be sure to say so, so that you can be entered to win one of our prize packages. If you didn’t make that goal, still sign in to say how you did and how it helped you. Everyone who participated in Comment Challenge 2010 and who signs in here or with Lee will be entered to win door prizes. The winners will be announced on Monday.

But I hope that for most of you, this will just represent the beginning. While having a challenge is fun, the intention is to help form a new habit. Once you start commenting, you find that it is easier than it seemed to be. You start reading blogs with half a thought forming in your mind, one that becomes a full sentence that you can add to the conversation. Because that’s what blog posts are: conversations waiting to happen.

Let me share my gratitude to my friend Lee Wind because his energy, enthusiasm, and commitment fueled this venture. Without him, I would have spent January in a winter malaise, waking only to enter my picture vote and harsh on the name iPad. Lee, you rock.

For today and tomorrow: Sign in below. For always:

Read. Blog. Comment.

Labels: Comment Challenge

Comment Challenge 2010: Push to the Finish

We are closing in on the finish line for Comment Challenge 2010, but there is still time to get in your one hundred comments. To help you make that last push, Lee Wind and I have pulled together our prize packages, which will be awarded to three folks selected at random from the 100 Commenter Club.

The Cybils YA Package
A selection of three of the Cybils Young Adult Fiction finalists

The Electronic Package
The e-book The Zen of Blogging and a $15 Amazon credit

The All Ages Package
A selection of signed books for preschool, early chapter, middle-grade, and young adult.

There will also be prizes awarded at random from everyone who signs in at the finish line post with their totals (or estimated totals) from the Comment Challenge. So even if you didn’t make it to a hundred comments, join us at the party on Thursday and talk about how you did. You may even win a prize — a handmade blank journal to track your thoughts, a MotherReader handmade recycled paper necklace, a YA ARC, or maybe something I don’t even know about yet.

Read, Blog, Comment. You can do it!

Labels: Comment Challenge

ABC Storytime: J & K are for...

I’m combining the letters J and K because I don’t appear to have ever done a storytime for J and I’m waaaaaaay behind schedule in putting these up. I get distracted by other things and forget about these posts. Is there hope for me? Anyway, here are...

The Letters J and K

Book: This is the House that Jack Built, by Simms Taback

Rhyme: “Jack and the Candlestick”

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack jump over the candlestick.

Book: One, Two, Three... Jump! by Penelope Lively

Book: I Love You, Blue Kangaroo, by Emma Chichester Clark

Fingerplay: “The Brown Kangaroo”

The brown kangaroo is very funny
She leaps and runs and hops like a bunny
(two fingers up and hop)
And on her stomach is a pocket so wide
(place other hand on tummy)
Her baby can jump in and go for a ride
(first hand jumps into “pocket”)

Book: Katie Loves the Kittens, by John Himmelman

Fingerplay: “Five Little Kittens”

Five little kittens standing in a row
(hold up five fingers)
They nod their heads to the children so
(bend fingers)
They run to the left, they run to the right
(run fingers to the left and then to the right)
They stand up and stretch in the bright sunlight
(stretch fingers out tall)
Along comes a dog who’s in for some fun
(hold up one finger from opposite hand)
MEOW! See those little kittens run!
(let fingers run)

Alternate Books: A Kiss Like This, by Catherine Anholt; Jumpy Jack and Googily, by Meg Rosoff, and Knuffle Bunny, by Mo Willems.

Links to material on Amazon.com contained within this post may be affiliate links for the Amazon Associates program, for which this site may receive a referral fee.

Labels: ABC Storytime