Inspiring Bookworms

Perfect Pigs : An Introduction to Manners by Marc Brown & Stephen Krensky (Ages 4-8) I'm not sure about you, but I really feel that during my short tenure as a mom, that teaching manners to children has to be one of the toughest challenges thus far. The practice of 'please' and 'thank you' is not necessarily easy, however, it is the easiest to teach. Ensuring our children practice this specific behavior correctly is a common lesson that is able to be taught each day and eventually, it sets in with little or no "What do you say?" prompting. I must confess. This book jumped out at me while at the library. One, it had the word Pig and Manners in the title - two words you don't see together often. You see, my beloved daughter is a very messy eater and sometimes, I think she does it on purpose. Well, ok, all of the time and I try my best not to tell her what I am thinking... that she is eating like a pig and I don't approve, my frustration do...

The Honey Makers by Gail Gibbons (ages 4-8) Did you know that bees and pollinators are responsible for every third bite of food? Yeah, me either. Nor did I realize how fascinating and orderly a bee colony could be! The Honey Makers is an informative book with wonderful illustrations. Busy bees work hard to produce the honey that we and an occasional Pooh Bear love to eat. And each have their own assigned job assigned for each stage of their life. When I say informative, I mean INFORMATIVE . This book is chock full of information. For example: Are you aware of the Bee Dances? How about Beemilk or Royal Jelly? Forager bees can visit up to 10,000 flowers a day, but all of the nectar collected throughout her entire lifetime will only produce one teaspoon of honey! I look at bees in a whole new light after reading up on them more. They are not something to be feared, but respected and shown gratitude.

I Spy a Freight Train by Lucy Micklethwait (ages 4-8) While at the library my son spotted this gem and asked if we could bring home. He loves trains, so of course I said yes. We have a large freight train station in town, so it is rare that we not see a train. It's fun to see his excitement when he sees a train, but it hard to also watch him panic as the train keeps going and disappears. I called this a little gem because I didn't realize that the book about more than just freight trains. We got to spy on airplanes, row boats, horses, sleighs, a baby carriage and many more. Not to mention the other 'made up' things we spied while making a game of it. It was fun. Even more so, my children haven't heard the term baby carriage or sleigh, so that was fun to see what they thought was it. Here's another excerpt of the book. Oh, and while I am not much of an art know it all, in the back of the book are the credits for all of the pictures used. You will find the likes...