Pumpkins!!

There are two types of people come fall....

Those who are thrilled over pumpkin everything and those who are rolling their eyes wondering why someone would ever ruin an Oreo or coffee with pumpkin spice.  Which are you?
Regardless of your take on pumpkin flavored and scented everything you can't deny that pumpkins are a staple decoration and food in the fall.  This isn't much of a surprise because it's the time of year when they come into harvest, and these orange fruits have some great stories and activities to go along with them.  I have complied a very small stack of pumpkin filled books for you to enjoy with your little ones of both fiction and non fiction.


The first book I have for you goes out to all of you that are in disgust over the pumpkin spice monopoly.
Too Many Pumpkins

written by Linda White
Illustrated by Megan Lloyd

When Rebecca Estelle was growing up her family could only afford pumpkins and that's what she ate each year.  She vowed that she'd never even look at a pumpkin again when she was older, and she didn't until one day.... and unforeseen event happens and her yard is full of pumpkins!  What is she to do with her unplanned pumpkin patch?
If you grew up on a low income or ever struggled you can relate to Rebecca and her distain of pumpkins. What I love is how Linda White turned this around into something good and beautiful at the end.  It's such a sweet story.
This is a wonderful book to have a conversation with your child about how you will use your pumpkins.  What would you do with a yard full of pumpkins?  What pumpkin food was made that you'd like to try?
The illustrations!  Oh I love cover, it's eye catching.  The look of shock on the lady's face and her cat while looking at a pumpkins all over just sets the tone for the book.  The colorful and animated illustrations continue throughout the book.  I love the facial expressions on Rebecca as each event unfolds.

 Now that we've read about having Too Many Pumpkins and what Rebecca did with her's let's explore how to grow a pumpkin and make a favorite tasty treat.
Grow a Pumpkin Pie!

written by Jane E. Gerver
Illustrated by Tammie Speer-Lyon

This cute book really is self describing in the title.  Jane goes over the steps for planting and growing a pumpkin, then to harvest it and turn it into a pie all while rhyming.  This simple level 1 reader from Scholastic helps those kids just learning to read on their own with short sentences and high frequency words.  This is a non fiction book that goes into how to plant and grow a pumpkin and then very simply it shares about fall and how to bake a pie.  I wish they actually did give the full recipe at the end of the book but more than likely everyone has their own family recipe.  Instead of a recipe at the end there are a few reflections aimed at young readers.  So you have a maze to do, match the pumpkins, sequence of events, and a rhyming activity that all match the words used in the book.  These activities are fun for the children and work to show comprehension and reinforce phonic skills.
This book would be a fun book to read in the spring before planting a garden and talk about what you want to grow and what steps need to be taken.  Then read it again this time of year for harvesting and making your treat.

Now that we know how pumpkins grow and what we can make with them...what about a story about a pumpkin that grew a little different than all the rest?
The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin

written by Joe Troiano
Illustrated by Susan Banta

While this story is clearly a work of fiction the lesson in it is so dear.  Spookley is a square pumpkin (clearly that's stated in the title) but he's the only one and he doesn't like that he can't roll around like the other and doesn't like feeling different.  This is something a lot of kids and people can relate to.  Of course we are all different because we aren't robots and if we were the world would be so boring, but this is not how you picture things when you are young and are trying to fit in with everyone.
While Spookley is feeling like the odd pumpkin out a storm comes in and tosses all the round pumpkins all over and a couple break a hole in the fence and are lost to the bay.  Spookley sees that he can stop the others from the same fate and saves the day.  When the farmer discovers the one square pumpkin he saves Spookley's seeds and the next year grows all odd shaped pumpkins.
Fun fact you can incorporate with this book, while round is the natural shape of pumpkins and many other fruits and veggies but there is a company who has successfully made square watermelon!  Check out how and why they did.

Another book that teaches about how differences are good is:
The Bumpy Little Pumpkin

written by Margery Cuyler
Illustrated by Will Hillenbrand

 The Bumpy Little Pumpkin is about a family of Big Mama, two big older sisters and a little girl named Nell.  They grow their own pumpkin patch and when it's time to pick their pumpkins to carve each older sister picks out a big pumpkin.  Only Nell finds a small little pumpkin that's bumpy that she likes.  The sisters tell her to pick a smooth one but Nell decides to keep her own and ends up with a cute Jack O'Lantern.
I find it neat how Margery included animals in this story.  There's a reindeer, a bear, hare, crow, Cardinal, and Sparrow who all help Nell in carving her pumpkin and felling better about the pumpkin she chose.  This book offers a couple great lessons you can expand upon.  If you have a little zoologist on your hands you can dive into each type of animal listed and learn more about them.  Study what type of birds you have in your back yard this time of year.  Also you can compare how each pumpkin is different and how it's okay to have one that is so odd looking because you can make something unique out of it.  There's also the obvious "now let's make our own Jack O' Lantern."


Speaking of Jack O'Lantern's where did that tradition come from?  Read this folklore book that started this tradition and be sure to check out the link above to see what History.com had to add to this legend.
The Story of the Jack O'Lantern

written by Katherine Tegen
Illustrated by Brandon Dorman

This bit of folklore that is retold comes from Ireland and is hundred's of years old.  There once was a mean old man named Jack who made a deal with a Devil and when it was his time to pay the Devil back he caught the coal thrown at him in a carved pumpkin and was cursed to wander the earth.  In short that is the story.
I hadn't heard this before so I found it interesting and of course Katherine Tegen goes much more in detail and has a fun animated story to read aloud.
The dark illustrations done by Brandon Dorman really capture the rotten spirit of Stingy Jack.  Even the daytime images are in non vibrant colors so there's a feel of foreboding and a different time period.  The illustrations I really love in the book are the ones at night.  I love how he captured the crisp fall night sky, with scattered clouds, and the shadows and how the moonlight reflects off the pumpkins.  The feeling of a late October night is perfect and beautiful to look at.
Fun fact learned in the author's note: the original jack-o-lanterns were carved out of potatoes, beets, and turnips.  Would you try your hand at carving something as small as a beet?

I love looking at carved pumpkins, and it's on my bucket list to go to a pumpkin house where there are hundreds of carved pumpkins to view.  I would love to do that!  Want to try to up your carving game?
Extreme Pumpkins 2:  Take Back Halloween and Freak Out a Few More Neighbors

by Tom Nardone

I'm going to highly recommend this book for those kids who are crafty and into Halloween.  I love Tom's added comments like his taste comparison of different pumpkins for cooking.  (Did you know there are different types of pumpkins?)  This book reads like a cook book with notes from your mom's funny best friend!  You are gives a list of items (ingredients) you will need and shown a picture of what you can potentially make, and then you are given some directions and set on your own to see what you can create.  Please use this book with adult supervision!
Need some carving tools?
One last book I want to leave you with is a nonfiction from National Geographic Kids all about...
Halloween

by Laura Marsh

As a general rule of thumb, you can't go wrong with National Geographic especially the ones aimed for children!  I have several of their books and we read them often.
I find that this book is a bit different than the NatGeo animal books we read in that it has many open ended questions throughout it.  These questions are great because it's engaging in conversation.  Another thing that is different in this book from most others is that it has jokes.  Yes, they are corny kids jokes that you use to read on go-gurts or Popsicle sticks, but they are still funny and kids love them!
After the first couple pages you get into the fun facts and more in depth information that you would expect to find like how pumpkins grow (did you know each pumpkin has about 500 seeds in it?!) and gives you some ideas on ways to decorate your house.  There's a page the mentions the traditions of Halloween and another one for The Day of the Dead.
Overall this book is great for young children because they love having the chance to talk and getting to respond to questions in a book.  After first grade I think they might be looking for more of a story or more information.  Compared to other National Geographic books I have this one didn't quite meet my expectations but it's still a fun and easy read for younger children.

Since I only touched the tip of the pumpkin pile of books if you are still looking for some other ones check out these two other blogs:

Pumpkin Books Perfect for Reading this Fall

10 Picture Books about Pumpkins

Hope you enjoy these books and if you have a favorite pumpkin themed book I didn't list please comment it below so I can check it out!!

Haunted Houses (in books for Kids)

Haunted House Books for children.

Halloween can be thrilling for all ages, it's fun to let your imagination free.  It's fun to dress up as something other worldly.  Haunted houses and attractions are all over this month and for a large variety of ages, because it's fun to have a little scare.  Now keep in mind that each child, and each person is different; I have a friend who's daughter has watched more horror movies than I have (yes I'm chicken and like my scary movies to be at the PG level.)  You know you're child(ren) best and can judge what their level of spooky fun is.

Inside a House That is Haunted


Written by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
Illustrated by Tedd Arnold
A Level 2 Reader from Scholastic

I have so much fun reading this, and it's one I don't mind reading again and again which is good because it's often asked for now by my youngest in Kindergarten.  While yes, this is a Halloween book that ends with Trick or Treat, we read it year round.

I love how this book is one that builds the story in steps and repeats each one.  This is repetition is wonderful for those beginner readers.  My daughter loves to read (repeat) each of the previous events and is so proud of herself for being able to do that.  This constant going over also teaches and ingrains how sequence of events work and lays a foundation for reading comprehension.

As I said earlier this is a FUN read aloud book because of so many noises and sound effects you can make as you read.  Alyssa captured a funny haunted house atmosphere made for young kids to enjoy.  The startled spider frightened the ghost who surprised the cat...and so on the story goes.  It's funny to see scary creatures being the ones who are getting the fright.  Depending on the kid(s) you are reading to you can down play or really be theatrical in your reading.  I get really into this book and have a deep voice for stomping feet and go up into a high loud shriek, and a nice pause and a loud BOO!  My daughter loves it and laughs and gets her all excited.  I've learned to not be as theatrical at bedtime because I'm going to have a every energized child on my hands.

Ted Arnold has done a wonderful job in doing cute cartoon illustrations for this story.  They are colorful, engaging and funny.  After having read this book a couple dozen times I finally noticed the foreshadowing in the illustrations.

  I love how the ending is empowering for children. I hope you and your pre-K to second graders get a hold of a copy of this book and read it over and over again!


The Haunted Mansion


Music by: Buddy Baker
Lyrics by Xavier Atencio
Illustrations by James Gilleard

As you can tell from the credits above this is a book that comes with a CD, the book is based off of a song from Disney's movie The Haunted Mansion and/or from the attraction at the Disney Parks.  I remember looking forward to all the Disney movies this time of year, this one, Casper, Halloweentown, and Hocus Pocus!  And I still enjoy them even as an adult.
Back to this book, I love the vocabulary Xavier used and think he was extremely creative to pack in so many unique words.  In researching this book I was trying to find the Lexile level and I couldn't find it in any database that measures that, but I did find that it's aimed for children ages 3-5 according to Disney.  I think many of the terms in the book are much more advanced, and that's a good thing because it's expanding vocabulary and making those little pathways in the brain fire up and absorb more.  Personally I'd think this book is for older children ages 6-10.  I want to share with you some of the wonderful words used.  A fun thing to do with these words is to use them for a Word of the Day (or week) and have the children use them in sentences or in a project.

quake,     materialize,     grim,   shrouded,     daft,   knell,  requiem,    etherealize

I will admit I had to look up knell and requiem, there were enough context clues to know it had to do with death bells but I hadn't heard those terms before.  For most kids I'd imagine that many of the words in the book are new and that makes them both fun and a learning opportunity. The rhyming and alliteration paired with the vocabulary make this a very unique children's book that is fun to read.

Buddy Baker has composed more than 200 scores for Disney so the music on the CD is one of brilliance.  If you are into decorating and getting into the full Halloween spirit or are planing a Halloween party this CD is a must.  It's spooky and dramatic.  The vocals singing the song are pure talent. I have a hard time not getting tongue tied while reading the book slow, but they sing it in such a fast and eerie way and make it seem smooth and easy.  When I tried to follow along in the book with the kids I had a hard time turning the pages fast enough.

A fun thing about reading the book is how the text was done to be fluid and ghostly feeling.  As you are turning the pages you are getting a tour thought the Haunted Mansion, a peek into each room and area of the famous attraction and movie.   James Gilleard put a lot of detail into each illustration.  I love how he used purples, pinks, and yellows that I wouldn't usually think of as dark hues, but they are muted and haunting looking, it's a colorfully dark book.  The ghost are far more advanced (realistic) than in Inside A House That Is Haunted which is a lot of fun for older children.

Be sure to grab either the CD with the Grim Grinning Ghost song, the DVD, book, or even better get all three having to do the the Haunted Mansion and have some spooky fun this weekend!


For older readers check out the Haunted Mansion chapter book series:

Have a hauntingly good time reading!

Hocus Pocus, It's Fall!

I can not think of a better book to start off the month of October with!   October, the month of leaves changing, pumpkins, a chilly nip to the air, and of course Halloween!  It's the month of scary movie marathons, books, decorations, hay rides, and haunted houses for kids and adults alike!  I have been put under a spell, and can't wait to share the magic of this book with you.  I have a feeling you will find it as wonderful as I do.

Hocus Pocus, It's Fall!


Written by Anne Sibley O'Brien
Illustrated by Susan Gal

Very first thing to grab my attention...the title.  Hocus Pocus! I love that movie, and rushed to pull this book off the shelf.  Then you see the adorable cover!  Yes, my heart had very high expectations for this book.  Anne and Susan did a phenomenal job in meeting my hearts expectations!  I adore this book!

This is a FUN book to read aloud.  It's impossible to not have fun, get excited and capture your audience's attention when you're using magic words like Abracadabra or burst out in laughter with phrases like Higgledy piggledy! This is one of the magical books that everyone who reads it is animated which brings the book to life and gets children's interested in reading and begging you to read it again.

Anne has done a great job in highlighting so many of the marvels of fall, from going back to school, to jack-o-lanterns, to migration, and silkweed plants.  The silkweed also called milkweed was new to me and I had to ask my husband and look up information about this plant to find out what O'Brien was talking about when she said "Spiky pods are brown and dried. Open sesame! Clouds inside."  As I've said before I love when I learn something new from books.  I love that she took something that is so overlooked that I didn't know what it was and put it in the book.

While this book is just a fun book to read it does offer many lessons that you can take and expand upon or do activities around.  Since I've mentioned fall leaves and hayrides in Fun Fall Books we can skip those activities and focus on some new ones that are brought up in this book.

Migration and Hibernation

In the illustration and text we see Geese flying south, squirrels collecting acorns, and chipmunks hibernating in their burrows. Depending on the age group you are with and how interested they are you can take this into a fun project and go into as much depth as you want.  Where do the Geese go?  Pull out a map and mark it with their migration.  Then find out what other birds or if there are other animals that migrate.  The monarch butterfly migrates, and so do some snakes. What animals travels the farthest?  This could be a very fun project for your class.  You can make a couple writing prompts about it as well like the one pictured here.  A great way to end a lesson on migration with a focus on geese is to watch the movie Fly Away Home.  It's an older movie but one of my favorites.
Now that we know what animals migrate, which animals hibernate?  How does that work?


Seeds
In Seeds of Fall I shared a couple books and talked about plants coming to harvest but O'Brien has shared a something new that you can focus a lot of time on: silkweed.  This one plant is vital to Monarch Butterflies and you can do a whole lesson on what it looks like, how people think of it as a week, and how to make a garden to attract these butterflies.

Pumpkins and Apples
If you take a trip to a pumpkin patch or orchard take a look at all the different shapes, sizes, and variety of the fruits and vegetables.  Make applesauce or a pie together.

Susan Gal has done a fantastic job in showing fall magic and capturing life, movement, and all that fall brings with it into her illustrations.  They are full of colors and texture.  This book is an expanded page good, so after the "magic" words you expand out a page to see the magic unfold and the scene change.  I love this concept and how she has taken each event that Anne mentions and finds the details to bring forth.  I love how Susan has included so many extraordinary elements to what could have just been and ordinary scene.  For example when Anne is telling about leaves changing color when you expand the page Susan didn't just paint a forest of autumn colors ablaze, she included hot-air balloons!  When you expand the migration page it's not just birds flying in the sky, you see cranberry farmers harvesting the fruit as the birds fly overhead.  These small details could be overlooked but they offer talking point.  I had my kids guessing about the cranberries, they thought they were just raking up leaves so it offered us an opportunity to go into how cranberries are grown.
Another thing I want to point out about these illustrations is how Susan Gal has combined so many different elements into her art.  You can clearly see that she used paint, and crayons, and as someone who is not an artist I'm not sure what other medias she used; but you can see that the art is complex.  All the elements and different textures make these images ones that you want to study and are beautiful to look at.

I hope you find this book as lovely as I have.  It may well be your favorite fall book yet!

If you are interested in the book or any of the movies I listed above here are some affiliate links to them directly.  By using these links I will get a credit at no additional cost to you and I thank you all for your support in either buying from my blog or just by reading it.

For my fellow Hocus Pocus fans check out this book and fun shirt: 

The Seeds of Fall

Welcome Fall!

While many people think of the trees and leaves as dying right now, is death the right word to use to describe what is happening?  It's actually not. (Check out what I learned about this in Full of Fall on my last blog post.) Sure the leaves themselves die, but the tree doesn't.  And there's more than just the lose of leaves that's going on this time of year.  Think of all the seeds we see this time of year and what is happening to them. I love when I pick up a children's book and learn something new and I have two books that focus on seeds to share with you today.

Because of an Acorn

Written by Lola M Schaefer and Adam Schaefer

Illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon

Along with leaves falling everywhere this time of year, there are acorns everywhere. I love listening to them fall down through the trees, and watching the chipmunks and squirrels scurry about gathering them.  I think that's one fall activity that is often overlooked so I love how this book brings this activity to mind.

Because of an Acorn is a fantastic, simple book about the circle of life.  I love that you can see and get a sense of the circle of life without it being too emotionally overwhelming for children.  I think the authors did a beautiful job of showing how each part of a forest ecosystem is connected.  That acorn grows into a tree, the tree houses all sorts of wildlife, and because of each one something else comes to live and grow.  Fran Preston-Gannon has done a wonderful job detailing each part that is  highlighted in the text and foreshadowing what will happen next.  The illustrations are full of color and dominate the pages.  I love how Fran has made sure to include so many other animals and parts of the forest that aren't in the text, you see a bear and cub they they aren't mentioned, but this shows so much more of the ecosystem and brings up more for conversation.

 The sequence of event is flawless! The lessons you can make off of this one simply written book are countless.  The dedication says, "For all the naturalists, young and old -L.M.S and A.S." and they are right, it's a book that as an adult I find beautiful but it's written on a level for children to understand.  Looking at this book as a teacher I can see lessons for preschoolers all the way up through biology class being tied into this book.

Lesson ideas from this book:

Study Acorns: Dissect one.

Who lives in a tree?  Who lives in the forest?

Circle of life.

What is an ecosystem?  Take it farther with notes from the afterword in Because of an Acorn and examine how that would effect the environment if one part of the system was changed (died off).

Do some Acorn Crafts for adults or kids (Thank you Pinterest!)

Some additional learning games for children:
Collect acorns or use some fake or wooden ones for counting, sorting, or markers for fall bingo

I know I have shared the Sneaky Snacky Squirrel game before, but our preschoolers really love this game and it goes so well with this book I have to share it again.  And check out the Acorn Soup game I found for children age 2:



A Seed Is Sleepy


Written by Dianna Hutts Aston
Illustrated by Sylvia Long

The very first thing to take me in with this book is the astounding detail in the illustrations!  Sylvia Long has done a fantastic job showing each seed, plant, the flowers, fruit, and leaves.  The colors are bold and brilliant and draw the reader in.

This book came highly recommended to me from a librarian who knows how much I love being outside and nature.  This is a book I get wrapped up in just studying it.  Each flower, and seed are labeled and the amount of information packed into this kids book really is amazing and makes it a book that any adult can pick up read and learn something new from.  We had lessons in science about the stages of seed growth in school, but I didn't learn the different parts of a seed.

Dianna has made a very diverse, non fictional book about seeds that's completely captivating.  I say diverse because there are (in my opinion) three different ways you can read it.  There is the main sentence "A seed is sleepy...A seed is..."  so if you have a group or a child with a shorter attention span you can just read it that way the build up to reading more in depth.  For my five year old daughter I read her the main sentence and the bold part that starts to explain what they mean by sleepy or thirsty.  Then there are longer paragraphs that go much farther in depth to talk about a certain seed which is really neat.

This is one book that isn't focused on fall.  It's a book you can read in the fall because many plants go to seed in the fall like the acorns falling or another way to look at it is that the seeds have grown and their fruit is ready or the seeds are ready to harvest.  This book would also be great to break out in the Spring  and read about seeds then and do your own grow kit.

No matter the season, I hope you take the time to look over both of these wonderful books and notice the small details in life.

Fun Fall Books

While I'm a warm weather person, I do love all that Autumn brings.  I love the fall foliage, pumpkin everything, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and I can still in the early half of the season enjoy all I love to do in the Summer as well.  The change of the seasons is magical.  Who, even as adults, doesn't enjoy looking at a landscape ablaze in colors?  For kids there are so many things to do and explore as the leaves fall and temperatures cool off, so to help you celebrate this season and have so much with activities to look forward to I've gathered a couple of fun Fall books.

Full Of Fall

by April Pully Sayre

This book is beautifully done. The vibrant cover photograph grabs your attention and pulls the reader right into the season.  I love April's use of alliteration throughout the book.  She is careful to not over do the alliteration but has rhymes mixed in and it's just a very simple yet eloquent way to say good-bye to summer and walk through fall foliage with children.  I love the vocabulary used!  This book while easy to keep the attention of very young kids I think it's a book that you can use for class with third graders still. It's a beautiful way to introduce talking about why leaves fall, why they change color and talk about what happens.  There's even a page that tells you about the parts of a leaf!  The book is educational but for all the lessons you can take from it, it's still a poetic and fun read.  This one is a must for the season for babies on up.

I love that April Pully Sayre has used photography instead of illustrations.  The images are vibrant, and as she says "Colors surge," though the entire book.  I love the crisp details!

At the end of the book there are two pages full of in depth information on why leaves are green, how they change colors, and a lot of science that is fascinating.  I learned more in those 2 pages then I did in school about this season.  For example did you know that while the leaves are changing color and dying they are actually still working for the tree?  They deconstruct chlorophyll and send back into the tree what nutrients the tree can reuse.

So while that book is more educational based but still simply fun to read my next two I'm sharing are books to help those who are just starting to read, Kindergartners, maybe some preschoolers who are doing sight words.

A Season of Sight Words "Fall"


Written by Shannon Penney
Illustrated by Lynne Avril

I did at one time 4 years ago have all 5 books, but now that my youngest is doing sight words in Kindergarten it seems that I'm missing 4 of them.  I'm tearing the house apart trying to find the others because she loves that she can read on her own to us now that she has a handful of sight words she knows.  Going on a Hayride is so far the only book in the set I can find and it's really great for those just starting to read.  This one focuses on the words "it," "yes," and "is."  These are very simple sentences of 3 to 5 words max, and that's throughout the set.  Each book in the set has it's own two main sight words that are in bold in the sentence and are repeated on each page so the child sees them, and reads them over and over to reinforce them in their memory.

The illustrations really brings the book together.  It is a picture book that you can see what is going on and that is key to helping children begin to use context clues in reading.

I think these are fun fall books because they have five favorite autumn activities: bonfires, hayrides, leaves, pumpkins, and football!  So for young children if you take one of these books to focus on each week you can talk all week about hayrides, have the child read the book each day and then on Friday (or if you're doing this at home) on the weekend go for a hayride and have your child tell you what they thought.  Have one week that's all pumpkin themed, and so on for each book.

Check out some of these sight word games you can add in as well:

Autumn Leaves Are Falling

Written by Maria Fleming
Illustrated by Melissa Sweet

This is another great beginning reader book.  It's a Level 1 aimed for preschool to first grade.  The sentences are simple, a step up from the Sight Word books but still very simple with a strong focus on those high frequency words.  You will see a lot of repetition still but with a bit more pages and words on each page.  As you can expect from the title the focus is on leaves falling and what you do with them.  You can start by asking your child what they think will happen in the book before you start reading.  It's great to have children predict what will happen, and start developing those hypothesis and context clues early on in reading so they will carry on as they grow.

A fun activity to do with this book would be to make your own leaf pile, have the kids help rake and jump in the leaves, then have them describe to you how they felt, and where were the leaves after jumping in.  As a child this was the highlight of the season was to see how big of a pile of leaves we could make.

My last book is just a funny picture book that is a blast to read aloud and I'm sure you can find so much to do with this from a preschool level up into intermediate school.

Fall Mixed Up

Written by Bob Raczka
Illustrated by Chad Cameron

This is a book that is sure to crack you up.  I dare you to try to read this with a straight face.  You won't be able to and the kid(s) you read to won't be able to keep from calling out that you're wrong about well everything mentioned in the book. It might take a minute...Are apples orange?  Wait a minute I know squirrels don't fly!  I love that Bob Raczka has taken all things having to do with Autumn and has twisted them around into a funny story that makes kids (and adults) think twice about what was just read and then picture this crazy alternative to how things really are.

Chad Cameron has done a great job on the illustrations in capturing fall as we know it and making this alternative world almost believable.  The illustrations are full of color and just as funny as the text.

There are so many fun activities you can do around Fall Mixed Up!  You can do the obvious and go through and point out all that is mixed up and tell what really happens for each.  Talk about what animals hibernate, and what other animals do instead?  Where does candy corn come from if it's not grown?  You can have your child(ren) do their own drawings of something crazy mixed up they think would be fun to see.

Ready for some more fall fun?  Check out some bucket list adventures you can do as a family:

80 ways to have Fall Family Fun

20 ideas for Toddlers this fall

Fall Bucket List 

I hope everyone gets out to enjoy the last couple summer days we have before Fall officially starts on Sunday! 

When I Grow Up

How many times over the years have you been asked that question?  It's format changes over the years the really it's the same question.  "What are your plans after graduation?" "All the kids are in school now what are you going to do with your day?"

I love asking my kids each year what they want to be when they grow up.  Why?  Because their answer changes almost each year.  Hey throughout my adult life my answers have changed several times as well, and that's okay!  It shows that you keep trying on new shoes until you find one that fits, and as you grow as a person you might outgrow that one shoe.  It's so much fun to look back on their responses over the years and your own as well.

One book that really brings this point of always growing and doing more than just one job is:
When I Grow Up


Written by Al Yankovic
Illustrated by Wes Hargis


I love the imagination in this book!
This little boy Billy is bursting at the seams to tell the class what he wants to be when he grows up.  He gets up and rattles off the best speech about becoming a world renowned chef!  Now that one passage is great but when the teacher calls the next kid, Billy quickly lets her know he's not even close to done.  He proceeds to list off several other creative jobs from gorilla masseuse to TV repairman to snail trainer.  As you can imagine not all the jobs on there are "real" jobs, and the teacher is getting tired of his list so she finally ask him to pick one.  His response to her is simply brilliant!   He tells how many jobs his great-grandfather had and still doesn't know what he wants to be, and then goes on to say that if he leaves his options open, he could do all of those crazy things and more.  On the very last page Billy pictures himself as a teacher.

There is so much to love in this book!  The story-line is fantastic and really makes you question why do we say you can only become one thing?  It lets you know not to put weight on your child when they say they want to become a famous football player, that can change several times, maybe they will become that but let them explore all that interest them.
Al Yankovic has an imagination that is up there with Dr. Seuss!  I love how creative and out of the ordinary the jobs were.  I love that he made the mundane sound fun.  The rich vocabulary in this makes it a book that several grade levels should be reading to enhance their English Language Arts class.  Look at this sentence which is a paragraph:

"Or else maybe I'll be the lathe operator who makes the hydraulic torque wrench calibrator which fine-tunes the wrench that's specifically made to retighten the nuts on the lateral blade that's directly beneath the main radial sockets inside cooling systems on X-14 rockets - and since this profession's as cool as can be, well, who would be better to do it than me?"

Wow!  Take a moment to look at all the vocab words that can be gone over:

• lathe
• hydraulic
• torque
• calibrator
• specifically 
• lateral
• radial
• sockets

This is just off of one page!  Those are some big words for a book that's aimed for 4-8 year olds!  Please go ask a 13 year old to tell you what a hydraulic is and to explain a cooling system.  Now looking at the parts of a sentence I'm sure my 7th grade grammar teacher would have loved to have us diagram this.  

If you are a teacher and asking your class "What do you want to be when you grow up?" I would suggest using this book one day that week and having an "crazy jobs" and encourage your children to think outside the box, what type of crazy job would they want?  When my family went to an amusement park this summer we had fun asking what job they thought was the best or they'd want to have if they worked there.  My oldest got really excited over maybe when she turns 16 she could get a summer job there.  She thought cooking the food would be the best.

Adults, this gives you a chance to talk about all the different jobs you've had since childhood.  Share them with your kids, share your dreams and goals.  If you're still figuring out what you want to be, that's perfectly fine!  There are many of us who are still figuring that out or want to be so many things.  Are you ever just one thing?  I know I'm not.  I'm a full time Mom, full time teacher to my one daughter who is doing cyber school now, and an aspiring writer.  I'm also suppose to be a part time substitute teacher but still trying to figure out how to fit that in and I'm not sure I can.

Go read this wonderful book.  Laugh, Think, Dream, and Talk!


Another book I love and recently bought is Girls A-Z


Written by Eve Bunting
Illustrated by Suzanne Bloom

As stated in the title, this book is only about girls.  It's a very powerful, early feminist book that shows how women can do whatever they can dream up.  I think it's a wonderful book for any daughter and that's why I bought it and put it in my collection for my girls.

With the question we've been asking this post, this book dives into not only "girl" jobs, but all jobs that girls can dream of.  Sure there's a ballerina (which this year is what my youngest wants to be) but there's also an engineer, and race car driver.  Our jobs are not segregated by sex, and we shouldn't tell our kids that just because they are a boy or girl that they can't do a job.  My oldest wants to be a tattoo artist (this is not listed in the book) but my point is that that use to be a male dominated field, there are many talented women tattoo artist today.  I think that would be amazing to see her to aspire to be the next Kat Von D.  Go check out this article about Ten extraordinary women in male dominated fields

As you can gather from the title it is one of the books that walk you through the alphabet.  What I love about this is how Eve Bunting found not only a unique girls name for each letter but a profession for each as well.  Personally I love that stay at home mom was included in the list of professions because this is often over looked, or dismissed when really it's a full time job that we don't get a break from.

Aside from all the jobs what really makes this book great (for me) are Suzanne Bloom's colorful illustrations.  I love how she didn't make the illustrations adults doing these jobs, but she drew these little girls doing the things they are interested in.  It's so cute and relateable for kids.  The dentist for the letter D, this little girl has her stuffed animal in a high chair with his mouth open and toothbrush in hand.  This is how children act out jobs they find interesting.  My tattoo artist, not only draws on paper but loves to use washable markers to give "real" tattoos!  I think the imagination and spirit of these girls are captured in Suzanne Bloom's illustrations.  They are contagious!  Each child looks like they are having so much fun and their personality shines through.  Look at the images and see if you can see your child in any of them.


The last book I have for you is aimed more at the preschool group but I love how this book was composed.
Think Big


Written by Liz Garton Scanlon
Illustrated by Vanessa Brantley Newton

While reading this you have to not only read the words but make sure you and your child study the pictures because unlike the other two books I shared with you this one doesn't outright say what the job is.  You see children painting, dancing, playing instruments, and sewing, and the only words that go with it are simple "Thick paint" "Spin, twirl".   It's not until the end that this story really comes together and you see what all these kids have been working on is a performance of what they want to be when they grow up.  It's really cute.  The art work is fun, colorful and entertaining.

I love how you can ask children what they are doing and have them describe what they see.  Then use this to have them tell you what they like to do and what they can do with that skill.  "I like to color, I can become an illustrator!"  Or after you finish the book go back and talk about what each skill they are showing can be applied to jobs.


For some fun at home, or in the classroom check out these kits and supplies to help your child pretend and imagine doing their dream job.