Meta-Spoiler

I was so looking forward to sharing Charlotte's Web with my daughter.  But before we did, she read this book, which gave the ending away! 

Harrumph.

Of course, there are many reasons to read it besides the ending and we will do so anyway, but still...

Lunch at the Library

Today I met my husband for a brief date and we had lunch at the library, both figuratively and literally.  First we checked out the NYPL's exhibit about lunch in New York.  I loved it!  From pushcarts to a re-created (but sadly not operational) Automat, from delis to pretzels, from pizza to Chinese take-out, from the power lunch to school lunch, the exhibit was fascinating.  Somehow we missed the part about that quintessential New York lunch, the hot dog, but this review assures me it's there.  To top it all off, a different food truck will be serving lunch every weekday on the south side of the library through Labor Day.  I lucked out today with the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck. 

We also visited the famed Reading Room, which embarassingly I think I had never been to before.  It has an amazing view of the Empire State Building, among other charms, of course.  And I discovered that tours of the Schwartzman Building (aka the "main library") are given twice daily on weekdays and once a day on Saturdays. 

Do you plan to go to the lunch exhibit or tour the Schwartzman building?

Books for a Seventh Birthday

Usually, I have great ideas for birthday gifts for my older daughter.  By great I don't mean fancy or expensive - just things I'm 99% sure she'll love.  But this year, I was pretty stumped.  Her only request was for books, especially poetry books.  I wanted to give her at least one or two poetry books, one or two chapter books she could read to herself, a book or two that was meaningful to her and/or me, and at least one read-aloud.  As much as possible, they also had to be purchase-worthy, not just library-worthy.  After much agonizing, here's what I finally settled on.

From me and her dad:

Amelia and Eleanor Go For A Ride by Pam Munoz Ryan.  Two amazing feminist role models, a great story, beautiful illustrations by Brian Selznick.  The birthday girl loved it when we had it out from the library, so it should be a sure bet.

Emma Dilemma: Big Sister Poems by Kristine O'Connell George.  Another winner when we had it out from the library, it seemed appropriate for a big sister.  I'm just worried the little sis will be jealous.  It fills both the "meaningful" slot and the poetry slot!

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein.  This one is to fulfill the poetry request.  We already have A Light in the Attic.

Tumtum and Nutmeg: Adventures Beyond Nutmouse Hall by Emily Bearn.  For me to read to her.  I'm excited to try something different, since we've mostly been reading about kids her own age (Ramona, Betsy-Tacy, Little House, Fudge).  Animal protagonists (here, mice) will be a nice change, I hope.  The birthday girl was eager to read it but we decided it was more prudent to read The Long Winter first, since that one's a library book.  I'm kind of regretting that decision as The Long Winter may take as long to read as the winter actually lasted. 

"From" her sister:

The Elevator Family by Douglas Evans.  Not pictured as it is the birthday girl's backpack for reading during downtime at school.

Homer Price by Robert McCloskey.  Did you know he wrote chapter books?  I didn't.

Both recommended by our local independent bookstore staff (and yes, purchased there), the latter because of the birthday girl's love of Ramona.

"From" our babysitter:

Clementine by Sara Pennypacker.

The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary.  Another mouse book.  I'm thinking Stuart Little will be next.

 I chose both of these with the idea of "If she loves Ramona she'll love..." in mind, too.

And I'm expecting she'll receive The Random House Book of Poetry for Children this weekend at her party (hint, hint!).

So, how'd I do?

A Vintage Discovery

Oh, if only this discovery were mine!  A friend of mine found a complete set of red-bound books for children in the trash.  Yes, the trash.  They didn't even bother to recycle!


But lucky for her that they didn't, as what she has is a set of books called The Bookshelf for Boys and Girls.  Some quick Internet research turned up a site called Big Red Toy Box: The Vintage Toy Encyclopedia which has a nice entry on these books.  They contain stories, history, excerpts from classic novels (I am not a fan of excerpts but still...), folk tales, fairy tales, "stories form other lands," books on nature and science, art and music, instructions for making things and all sorts of ephemera.  Apparently the sets were reissued every decade or so starting in 1920.  They are utterly fascinating.  I didn't get nearly enough time to take a look at them but we borrowed Volume 5: Things to Make and Things to Do for my crafty almost-7-year-old.  I would especially love to get a look at Volume 10: The Manual for Child Development and see how thinking on that front has changed. 

I may have to purchase one or two for myself, since it is unlikely that someone else will be discarding a complete set right where I can find it!

I didn't read these books as a child, though.  Did you?

Library Loot #17

As you can see, these days we're reading lots of poetry and old favorites, catching up on classics we (I) missed, reading a few new books and reading lots of series.

For the kids: Now that my first grader's reading has really taken off, I had to subdivide these into categories. 

To read to both kids:

 

 

 

The one you can't see second from the top is The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch.  Notice three editions of the same book?  Expect to see a post on that sometime soon.

Not pictured: More by I.C. Springman, Days to Celebrate: A Full Year of Poetry, People, Holidays, History, Fascinating Facts and More by Lee Bennett Hopkin.

For the first-grader to read to herself:

The one on top that you can't see is Put Your Eyes Up Here: And Other School Poems by Kalli Dakos.

 And one that didn't make it into the photo since it was in use at the time:

Not pictured: More Junie B. Jones books than you can shake a stick at, Ruby Lu, Star of the Show by Lenore Look.

To read to the first grader (possibly):

For the first grader's research project (more on that soon):

For me:

Not pictured: Wonder by R.J. Palaccio and A Patent Lie by Paul Goldstein (a legal thriller involving patent law originally checked out by my patent lawyer husband and read by both of us.  I think I enjoyed it more!) and Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field.

What do you have checked out from the library?

Library Way

I am always discovering new (to me, at least) things in this city and today, while walking from the far east 30s to Times Square, I made a wonderful book-related discovery.  My zig-zag path serendipitously took me to Library Way.  Embedded into the sidewalk on 41st Street from Park Avenue to 5th Avenue, leading to (or from) the "main" library are sculpted bronze plaques illustrating accompanying quotes about literature, knowledge, information and reading.  I forgot to bring my camera, but the link above will take you to images of the plaques.  There are so many wonderful quotes and images it is hard to choose a favorite, but the poem by Bohumil Hrabal, a poet I had never heard of, might be mine.  Which is yours?

What serendipitous discoveries (book-related or otherwise) have you made in New York?

Library Round-Up #5

Brief reviews of some of the books from our recent library haul:

How Many Jelly Beans? by Andrea Menotti.  Despite the rave reviews this one is getting, it just doesn't do it for me.  I know it's a concept book but still... a little more plot, please.  Not to mention that I don't understand the choice to write out many of the numbers rather than represent them numerically.  1,000 and 100,000 are shown numerically, but why not 10 and 1,000,000?  Seeing all those zeros is another way of getting the message across, not to mention it helps children associate the quantity with its numerical representation. Also, my daughter - the older one! - tore the giant gatefold the first time she opened it... it's really  just too big for kids to manage without guidance.  It is nice, though, that because of this book my 4-year-old grasped the idea that "The smaller they are, the more that fit on a page."  The way the idea of division was portrayed was great, too, with the idea of 1,000 jelly beans in a year being shown as 2 or 3 per day on calendar pages. 

Neville by Norton Juster.  My 4-year-old really likes this book about a boy who moves to a new town and uses an ingenious - or, depending on your perspective, strange and perhaps counterproductive - technique to make new friends.  To give it away, he goes around calling for Neville, who is, of course, himself.  I just don't get it.  What's going to happen tomorrow when all his new friends find out who he really is?

Z is for Moose by Kelly Bingham.  In the tradition of A Call for a New Alphabet, a letter towards - or at - the end of the alphabet wants to be moved up and just won't take no for an answer! 

Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco.  Not a new book, I put this one on hold when I saw it... somewhere!  My kids love it and now want me to try the cake recipe at the end... which calls for a rather strange secret ingredient.  Do I dare?

BookSpeak! by Laura Purdie Salas.  A great concept, these poems about books are a bit uneven in execution.  I liked Hydrophobiac, about a book's worst fear, and the one about bookplates the best.

Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn by Heart edited by Mary Ann Hoberman.  I'm still on the hunt for the perfect poetry compilation or two to add to our collection and I don't think this one is it.  A nice enough collection but it didn't grab me.  I have the Random House Book of Poetry for Children on hold and I suspect it is going to be the winner.

Owen Foote, Second Grade Strongman by Stephanie Greene.  I requested this from the library because the author wrote the Posey books that my daughter loves.  I knew it was about a boy who is small for his age and wants to be stronger and bigger.  But even so I thought the idea of body image was handled without any subtlety.  To be fair, I stopped reading it to my daughter after chapter 2.  For a child with body image problems this might be a good choice, but for a child without one, it will only give him or her something new to worry about.

Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger. Beautiful but just not substantive enough to engage my girls.