showeredwithgrace

Wonderful little book about a hummingbird by Keith Baker ~  Little Green.  Vibrantly colorful cut paper collage illustrations.

Another surprise hit, Sky Dancer by Jack Bushnell.  Rose Red was entranced by it.  The illustrations were lovely. 

Our Nest by Reeve Lindberg.  Always one of my favorites ~ because it is beautiful . . .  grateful . . . nurturing.

" . . . the earth makes a nest for the ocean,

And holds the wet world of the sea,

 Where the fish and the whales

And the wind-driven sails

Are all rocked by the waves, wild and free. . . "

I love it when writers make me laugh.  I can't help it but I laugh out loud everytime I read this book by Beatrix Potter which we are reading a lot lately (just to give me a chuckle) ~ The Tale of the Pie and the Patty Pan.  The characters are so droll ~ please tell me it's not just me.

Ooooh ~ I loved this book.  Owl Moon by Jane Yolen.

 

Rose Red has been quite delighted with her 'Frances' books lately.  She shared this one with her buddy Romeo while we were all watching the Superbowl on Sunday.

 

This one will make you cry.  I loved it.  Nana Upstairs & Nana Downstairs by Tomie dePaola.

This book is worth a read.  Lifting out the importance of trees to all creatures and the Earth as a home we share with all creation.  'Once There Was a Tree' by Natalia Romanova.

We were back to our Botanical Garden.  Our subject of interest this time was trees.

 

In particular, the Cottonwood tree.  Found only by the water here in our desert.  The kids enjoyed laying on a blanket and listening to the wind blowing through the Cottonwood trees.  They also had an opportunity to touch pots of dry soil and moist soil to discover the difference. 

We spied some of our native trees showing a bit of autumn gold as well.  This tree below is a Mesquite tree.  Our Palo Verde trees and our Ocotillo were also sporting gold.

The children were sent on a quest to match leaves they were given to leaves of trees in the Garden.

Snack was of course an edible tree!

We made leaf rubbings . . .

Log rings . . .

And fun leaf-glitter trees with paint, eyedroppers, straws, and crushed leaves.

We also saw an adorable puppet show and had many 'tree' books to look through in our book nook.

This book was great! I'll be looking to pick up a copy at the library and will definitely be on the search for more Claire Llewellyn books.

And in conclusion, I'll leave you with this picture of one of the beautiful glass art sculptures now in place in our Botanical Garden.

We love this book by Frank Asch.  Linger over the words on every page ~ reading slowly, thoughtfully.  The beauty of mutual respect and relationship come alive in this book.

We just love these  books by Denise Fleming.  The illustrations are wonderful.

" Ms. Fleming creates the illustrations for her books by pouring colored cotton pulp through hand-cut stencils.  The result is a series of images set in handmade paper."

We are looking forward to discovering her other books!

"Fine plums, yellow, blue,

apples bright, full-grown,

juicy pears, all green and grey,

currants glowing red and clear.

Summer has flown

and autumn's here."

~ from Christopher's Harvest Time by Elsa Beskow

For whimsical fun ~ we loved that his name was 'September' !

Rose Red has been very excited about following the calendar this year and asks every day if it is still September.  She will be so excited tomorrow to discover it is finally October!  She has memorized our September poem and tomorrow we will begin October's poem. 

October

In October

I'll be host

to witches, goblins

and a ghost.

I'll serve them

chicken soup

on toast.

Whoopy once

whoopy twice

whoopy chicken soup

with rice.

~ from Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak

I always enjoy Demi books.  This one, The Empty Pot ,  about the value of integrity is wonderful!

Look what we found at the library!  'A Busy Year' by Leo Lionni.  I had never seen this picture book before.  It is a wonderful little book about the months throughout a year.

"A Busy Year by Leo Lionni spends a year with mice and a tree, teaching young children about the seasons and caring" ~ Epinions

I really enjoyed this book, 'The Runaway Rice Cake' by Ying Chang Compestine!  It has lovely illustrations and is a beautiful portrayal of generosity and compassion.  Definitely a good one to pull out for the Chinese New Year.

I think we all remember this book!  Rose Red and I have taken to reciting September's poem each day we look at our calendar.

September

In September

for a while

I will ride

a crocodile

down the

chicken soupy Nile.

Paddle once

paddle twice

paddle chicken soup

with rice.

~ Maurice Sendak (Chicken Soup with Rice:  A Book of Months)

Nina posted about Picture books and was interested in discovering more picture books about a mother's love.  I thought I'd post here a couple of my children's and my favorite 'mommy love' picture books.

Rose Red and I love 'I Love My Mommy' by Sebastien Braun.  This one is definitely directed toward the smaller child (but really any really good picture book can be ageless!)

River is 16 now, but when he was little he wanted this one read to him nightly.  Rose Red is enjoying it now too.  'If You Were My Bunny' by Kate McMullan ~ this is one that you sing short lullabies throughout.

Two that were a couple of my favorites . . .

'I Love You the Purplest' by Barbara Joosse ~ Good for the slightly older child.

and of course 'Love You Forever' by Rober Munsch ~ always good (singing too).

These were the ones laying around our home, but I think I'll dig around a bit and see what else I unearth. 

We love these books by Elisa Kleven.  The stories are charming and the collage style art is a delight - so much beautiful detail and activity!  'Sun Bread' reads joyfully and exuberantly and  'The Apple Doll' is wonderful and  inspiring.  Rose Red and I both want to make our own apple dolls now!  Be sure to check them out.

This book was the surprise hit of our last library basket.  It is a very touching, sensitive book about being different and the beauty of kindness.  I wasn't sure Rose Red would take to the slow, reflective way it is written.  I thought perhaps it was a little more for an older child but she loved it.  She requests it over and over.  A beautiful book by Eve Bunting.

Today's nature walk brought home baskets of pods - Mesquite tree pods !

We've been reading how The Little Red Hen gathered wheat and ground it into flour to make bread . . .

so the kids toasted and ground up Mesquite seeds into a sweet and nutty flour and made cookies!

And they were yummy!

When it came time to clean up our godson Romeo was not so inclined and kept announcing that he was the Dog (from the Little Red Hen) !  All the kids attended the Little Red Hen puppet show together so they had great fun with this.  A good day.

Rose Red asks for this book by Megan Montague Cash to be read to her over and over again.  She is quite absorbed with it.  Today she deduced that our current season is Summer. 

A favorite of mine this week . . .

Retold and illustrated by Amy Lowry Poole.

"Hans Christen Andersen's recurrent themes of disdain for the pretentious and the presence of the noble within the simple shine through"

This is our first Sara Anderson picture book.  Rose Red has attached herself to it.  We look forward to checking out her other books as well.

We always enjoy Bill Martin Jr. picture books.  On our last trip to the library I stumbled across two I hadn't read before.  Both are simple and poetic ~ lovely to read aloud.

"Listen to the rain, the whisper of the rain, the slow soft sprinkle,, the drip drop tinkle . . ." ~ Listen to the Rain by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault

  "I love our earth . . . for wet forest that drip, and dry winds that drift . . ." ~ I Love Our Earth by Bill Martin Jr. and Michael Sampson

We'll be using this sweet little book of prayers to help us learn our days of the week this year.  I always love Cynthia Rylant picture books.

"Monday make me good and kind to all creatures that I find.  Help me love God's whole creation.  Make my life a celebration . . . "  ~  from Give Me Grace by Cynthia Rylant