Books about Body Safety

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month.  I realize that this isn't something we want to think about, we don't like to talk about it, and for many pretend that it doesn't happen or "It won't happen to us."  No one thinks it will happen to them, or their kids.  This is a terrifying topic.  I know this, it's one of my biggest fears.  I love my 2 girls and do everything I can to protect them, and part of protecting them is giving them knowledge and teaching them about protecting themselves and with that, that they can come tell me ANYTHING.   Body Safety is a very important subject that we NEED to talk about and teach.  This is going to give your kids the knowledge that no one should touch them in their No Touch Zone that they can say NO to any type of contact they don't want.  I will talk more about this throughout this post, but first let me give you as caregivers some information.

Sexual Assault      Abuse    Domestic Violence 

These are all terms we have heard before.  Chances are that each person who is reads this knows at the very least one person who has suffered from one of these.  If by chance you are shaking your head saying "No, I don't know anyone who has," then they just haven't opened up to you about it.  Rape and sexual assault are the of the most under reported crimes.  The victim blames themselves, the media and others blame them, and they are scared.  Even with how under reported it is the stats we do have based on reported cases are still high:
Every 98 seconds a person experiences sexual assault, every 8 minutes that victim is a child!
Only 12% of child sexual abuse is ever reported to the authorities
1 in 4 girls, 1 in 6 boys will be sexually assaulted before they turn 18, more than 34% of the people who sexually abuse a child are family members of that child!  Most of the time the child knows the person who abuses them, they are family, friends of the family, and people the child sees often and trust.


Before I go into each of the children's books I have picked out about body safety, I want to share with you a book that I feel is a MUST for EVERY parent.  I shared this book in my other blog about overcoming a bad past.   This book is such an important informational book for parents.  The No Touch Zone is more thought out than just what your bathing suit covers and makes a lot of sense.  Also Norman E. Friedman goes into how to teach it and why the No Touch Zone rather than just "Private Parts." Inoculating Your Child Against Sexual Abuse is a two part book and in the blog post I go full detail about the book and what is talked about.  This is a tool for all people around kids to help them spot people who are out to harm children, and to help prevent such awful things from happening to the children you love.

I know a few schools have been reading My Body Belongs to Me from My Head to My Toes for their body safety lesson.  

This book was written by a group of people from The International Center for Assault Prevention.  There is a letter to adults that starts the book off, read this to yourself before reading the book aloud to your child(ren).

My Body Belongs to Me is an empowering tool for children.  This book talks about how it's the one thing that is all theirs, this is important for a child to know.  The book then goes into touching.  They talk about being close with friends and family cuddling on grandma's lap, holding a baby, and how our bodies touch when playing.  Good touch.  The empowering part and it's the line I'm going to take right from the book "I alone decide if and by whom I'd like to be touched."  Then the book goes into other touches that the child might not like, tickling too much, sloppy kisses from someone, the dog jumping on you, being held too tight, and time when they just don't want anyone to touch them in any way. The book never goes into "bad touch" or private areas.  This is a book that is very important to be read, and should be read and taught early in life.  We as adults project our own knowledge into what we interpret.  We know about child abuse, we project negative thoughts into the images and what we read.  We need to remember this so that we can keep our own emotions out of reading this to our children.  
I again am going to use an example from the book: "If I'm asked to touch somebody, but I don't want to, I just don't do it.  I say 'No, I don't want to...."  Dagmar Geisler has done a great job with the illustrations and in this one the little girl is walking away from a guy that has his arms outstretched.  In my adult mind, from my past and from media, and TV I have turned that into a stranger or family member who is inviting the girl over for inappropriate touching.  No where in the book did it say that, or portray that.  That is what I projected.  Now I needed to take a step back and let out my own emotions (this is hard) and re examine the text and even the illustrations.  Now looking at it, maybe the girl got into a fight with her dad and he yelled at her, and is asking for a hug; maybe it's an Uncle asking for a hug good bye.  Think about the different times that your own children didn't want to give a hug, to give a kiss, to be touched at all.  This is normal.  This book is letting children know that it is their body and that they can say "No" to any touch they don't want.  This is something we need to work on as adults as well, if a child doesn't want to give a family member or friend a hug that is OK, don't make them feel bad for hurting grandma's feeling, don't mention grandma's feelings at all.  Instead let grandma know that you love her but are teaching about body safety and the right to say "No" that this is an extremely important tool and life skill the child will need.

Dagmar Geisler has done a great job with the illustrations in My Body Belongs to Me from My Head to My Toes. They are colorful, engaging, and tell a story.  Now I think Geisler has done a very unique job at making the illustrations in the book have several meanings.  As I said above we project what we know into what we see and hear.  The unwanted tickling picture infuriates me.  I want to reach in and punch the creepy guy in the face and tell him to keep his hands off little girls.  But, can you think of a time when someone tickled you when you didn't want to be?  Maybe trying to cheer up a sad kid, or make them laugh?    The image of the lady giving big sloppy kisses, this one makes me laugh because it reminds me of how old ladies like to pinch cheeks and kids hate it.  Guess what that's an unwanted touch that they can say NO to.  Maybe the lip gloss she is wearing is all sticky, maybe she has bad breath, yup I don't want that kiss either.  The illustrations tell their own story, but they also tell a story that we put into them.  

I love that this book is easy to read, can be read to small kids.  They say it's for ages 3-6.  Start early with this lesson, read it to a 18 month old, teach them that they don't have to give hugs, maybe a high five is better. 

Now they need to go into some things you have to do, some touches that happen for safety....Mom grabs the child's arm to pull her out of the street.  This is a touch that might hurt, that the child might be mad at mom for not getting her way, but yet is for the child's safety.  Another fun quick story that happened to me after I read this book to my daughter this week....
"Shower time" I announced after dinner.  It was a beautiful day out, we walked, we played on the play ground and the kids were dirty.
"No I don't want to." My 5 year old said.
"You're dirty, you need to shower before bed."
"Nope, it's my body!"
Damn, I mean "I'm really happy you understand this lesson, it is your body." Crap...now how do I handle this? "You played hard today, and you rolled in the grass, remember?  Well you're all covered in dirt....and you stink!  You don't want your bed to be all dirty right?  And you don't want to be smelly at school so you need to wash up."


I said No! A kid-to-kid guide to keeping private parts private by Zack and Kimberly King

This is a very "heavy" book.  I use the word heavy, meaning it's not a light easy to read book.  It is not a book that is meant to be read all at once to children.  Don't let this scare you off, this book is IMPORTANT, you just have to take more time to read it.  There is a "How Best To Use This Book" note that also states that this isn't meant to be read all at once.  This book is a tool to open your child to have conversations with you and address "what if..." situations.    I know as a parent we don't want to think about or talk about the "what if..." these possibilities that our children won't always be safe, but this is something that we need to do to raise them to be aware, knowledgeable, and to keep them safe.  These tools are key for prevention.

Zack and Kimberly King co-wrote this book.  They are a mother and son team who take personal experiences (which they share in the afterword) and turn them into lessons to help other kids.  Zack was 5 when he had a bad experience, from being taught body safety he knew what to do.  I find this kid to be so brave and such an inspiration! 

I love that a child helped to write this book because it sounds like another child talking to your own.  There are many points where they ask open ended questions and have you stop reading to talk about what you just read.  It is so important to sure you stop and talk about these questions and make sure your child understands.

This book covers SO much information! 
What are "private parts"
Red and Green flags
Safe and Unsafe
What to do in various situations
Who can you talk to?
Feelings
Treats, Bribes and Threats
Internet (they talk about what to do if someone shows you on a device porn - although they don't use the word porn)
Sleepovers
And Resources (I will have all of them at the bottom of this blog for you)
Oh and I can't forget this important part, they also talk about how if something does happen how it is not the child's fault.

Now let me touch a little more on a couple of these topics that they go over in the book:

Who can you talk to: Make sure you as a person around children let them know that they can tell you ANYTHING.  In our house we tell the kids they can always talk to us and that there are no secrets.  Also remember yourself as a child, there are times that you felt like you couldn't talk to your parents, but you could open up to other people, let your child know who else is in their life that they can talk to.  Another statistic that is sad, terrifying, and true is 80% of the perpetrators in a child sex abuse case were found to be the parent!  This was true for me and my story, along with many others.  In that case who does the child turn to?  Parents are there to protect their child from predators!  We need to make sure that if a child does tell us about abuse how we respond matters.  We have to believe that child, this is not something they make up, and they need help.  For more info on how to respond when anyone tells you about abuse they are going through or have gone through check out this.

Treats, Bribes and Threats.  Zack and Kimberly go in and tell the difference between a treat you get as a reward, and a bribe.  Now, many of us have used bribes to get kids to behave in the store, to clean their room you may be telling yourself.  I have said that before. "I'm not above bribing them!" But really we are giving them a reward for doing the right thing.  The book tells how a bribe is when someone gives you something but you have to do something that is wrong first.  And they talk about threats and how you should always tell those trusted people about threats even if they scare you or tell you that they will hurt someone else that a trusted adult needs to know so that they can help.

The Internet, this is everywhere now a days, and yet it's not something we talk about when we talk about body safety.  The book talks about what kids should do if someone shows them naked people on a device, to say No, put up a red flag, and tell a trusted adult.   

This book is written in a way that is easy for kids to understand.  Sue Rama does a great job in illustrating the book.  There are colorful images that will help your child stay focused, and put a visualization with each situation they might encounter they can think this cookie is a treat "green flag" that man at the park with candy is a "red flag".  Unlike in My Body Belongs to Me  from my Head to my Toes that I mention earlier, the illustrations don't have the same room for projection, instead each image that Sue Rama does seems safe but she uses facial expression, thought bubbles with red or green flags, and body language to show safe or unsafe situations.  For example the image that is on the page about the computer it shows two kids at a desk with a computer, one laughing, the other with his hands over his eyes.  The illustrations aren't full page they are just there as a visual aid that isn't uncomfortable. 

I Said No! is such a well put together book that will help you talk about body safety and talk to your children about what to do if they don't feel safe.  I hope you take the time to read this book and go over it step by step with your children.


The last book I want to share with you is also titled My Body Belongs to Me but is written by Jill Starishevsky.  This is another great book that you can read cover to cover in one sitting with 3 to 8 year old children.  In doing a quick search I found was even on Oprah with a story that brought me to tears.  This book is easy to read and has rhymes in it.  It talks about your body, how you have private spots, and then tells about how this little boy was touched there, told not to tell anyone but told his parents right away.  Jill Starishevsky has done a very good job at telling about being molested without getting into details, she keeps the story very simple and easy for kids to understand.  I again love how she goes on to tell if the child feels that they can't tell their parents they could tell a teacher.  The main message in this story is to get children to seek help, to tell someone that if they are being touched, or hurt.  I think it's important to again know that in reading this to children especially in a group setting, that you the reader needs to be prepared for a child to come forward and open up about their situation.  This is something we hope isn't happening, but the reality is that it is.  In your classroom, in your child's school, in your church, in your community there is a child that is being hurt, there is a child that needs to hear this book, this message so that that child can get help!  Be ready and know how to respond if a child opens up to you.  I need to now stress how these crimes don't happen elsewhere.  "Not in my gated community.  Not in my church; we dress modestly and teach how sexuality is a crime.  Not in my private school.  Not in the country."  Everyone says these things, everyone thinks they are protected. Reality is that any child regardless of age, gender, race, religion, finical upbringing, or location can be a victim of abuse.  

Angela Padron illustrated My Body Belongs to Me and did a great job telling the story through facial and body language emotions.  The full color illustrated pages will keep the child's attention and show that the emotions they might feel are okay.  

I love that both Jill and Angela end this story on a positive note with the child smiling.  I think it's important that children know that there is happiness even after bad experiences.  


Now I know I shared a lot of info between the books so I want to again list all the books for you using Amazon links to make it easy for you if you are interested in getting any of them now.  I did see other books listed on there but these are the ones I've read.  I've used all 4 of them with my own children.





Couple tips:  Name all the parts of the body to children, teach them that they have to ask your permission before going anywhere with anyone, teach them no touch zone.
Also about the no touch zone if you haven't already check out my blog post

"A book that is a MUST for EVERY Parent!" it goes into more detail about the book Inoculating Your Child Against Sexual Abuse.

Last thing I want to leave you with are this important websites for more information, and resources along with phone numbers.  These links are ones that I've gotten from the books, along with from friends of mine who help children and adults who come forward.  Please share these resources, and books with your friends and family.  Talk about body safety.  If you need to talk to someone, if you are still having a hard time about your past or are in an abusive relationship please know that there is help for you!  

Childhelp:  1-800-4-A-CHILD   www.childhelp.org

Darkness to Light: 1-866-FOR-LIGHT     www.darkness2light.org

Jacob Wetterling Resource Center  1-800-325-HOPE  www.jwrc.org   

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children 1-800-THE-LOST www.missingkids.com

RAINN:  1-800-656-HOPE  www.rainn.org

Stop It Now:  1-888-PREVENT   www.stopitnow.org

Stop the Silence: Stop Child Sexual Abuse    www.stopcsa.org

mybodybelongstome.com

International Center for Assault Prevention (ICAP)  1-800-253-3189  www.internationalcap.org

www.childwelfare.gov

www.nsvrc.org

www.stopabuse.com

www.isaidno.info

Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape 

My Cousin MoMo

The 2018 Pennsylvania One Book, Every Young Child is My Cousin Momo by Zachariah OHora


So what is Pennsylvania One Book?  Direct quote taken off the back cover of my book is a program that "encourages adults to read daily to the young children in their lives and to engage children in conversations and experiences around the story and illustrations."

I love this.  Each year they pick a new book and many of the preschools, and libraries have the book, do story times, meet the author, and have special activities.  The whole point is to bring about more reading to children, get them excited and relating to books.  I know Pennsylvania isn't the only state to do this so check your state to see if they have a "One Book"  if you want more information about this program,  and about the author check out their site www.paonebook.org

Zachariah OHora has gotten the PA One Book before, in 2012 with his book Stop Snoring, Bernard!.  He clearly is a great story teller for small kids. My Cousin MoMo originally came out in 2015 and from talking to librarians it was already a well liked book and everyone was excited to talk about MoMo.

The story is about MoMo who comes for a visit, he's a bit shy at first and has his own way of doing things.  His cousins make him feel weird for being different and feeling like they don't want him there.  Then when they realized how they hurt MoMo's feelings they try things his way and they all have a great time.

Photo take by my 5yr old

The book is super easy to read, each page only has one or two short sentences.  It's easy to keep the attention of younger kids.  Wednesday I got to go into my daughter's Head Start and read this book to two groups of preschoolers.  Now I love curling up and reading to my daughter but it was so much fun reading to a large group of 3-5 year olds.  I had them "help" me read by filling in the blanks, predicting what would happen, and telling me the emotions they saw.  I started off asking them if they liked the book to put their hands on their head.  Then I'd say "My Cousin ...." they all yelled "MoMo." It was adorable.  One little boy even told me the author!  It was so much fun reading to the class.


The illustrations are also my Mr OHora and are colorful, large, and engaging.  They tell just as much of the story as the text does.

Part of the PA One Book program is to engage in conversation and activities about and around the book.  My Cousin MoMo offers so much to talk about as you're reading the book, emotions, where do they live, what did they find while playing hide and seek, have you ever felt like MoMo did, and so on.  But the learning and lessons don't end once the book is finish.  We watched videos about flying squirrels.  Part of my daughter's homework was to make a squirrel out of a paper bag and use whatever we wanted to make it unique.  My older daughter thought that was fun so we made a family night out of this with each of them making their own squirrel and I had my older daughter make up a story to go with hers that we talked about over diner.  It was a neat being in the school and seeing how different each squirrel was.  You can go out and play hide and seek MoMo style (which being a fan of hiking and photography I love MoMo's way!)  You can talk about cousins, how is a cousin related to you? Family tree.  How many cousins do you have, and where are they from?  The best part of these activites? They don't require anything you don't have already.  You can make up your how superhero too!  MoMo was Muffin Man.  What does Muffin Man do? Have kids tell a story about Muffin Man.

While at the school I also joined in a game with the kids. The game taught them to take turns, collect different color acorns and try to be the first to fill their log.  It was cute and would make a cute additional game to go with this book if you're interested you can find it here:

The Bottom Line: 

The Story: Was simple, engaging, and had depth.

The Illustrations:  Colorful, and aided the text.

The Lesson: Be Kind to one another, try new things, and it's okay to be different

In the comments tell me something you and your kids tried after reading My 

Cousin MoMo.

On a side note, my daughter dressed up as a superhero and I had to share.  She is Aqua Girl, with the power to make rain for grass to grow, and shoot rainbows from her eyes.   

Library Books about Library Books!

It's no surprise we love our library so with National Library Week I had to share some great books that are about libraries, and library books.

As avid readers and parents of young children who we want to raise to be well read, we know how important our libraries are.  They offer us a wealth of knowledge, resources, and tons of books!  Even if the library you go do doesn't have the book you want chances are the librarian there can get the book to you by seeing if they can borrow the book you want from another library!

My library is one of my favorite places to go.  The people who work there have become my friends, they are friendly and extremely helpful.  There are always all sorts of programs going on, from story times, to book clubs, and art classes and various groups meeting.  I could go on for the whole post talking about all the things the library offers and all the ways the library rocks, but the biggest thing is how much money it saves me.  Let's face it, it would cost a fortune to buy every book that my children and I have read!  Without the library our literacy would be much lower.  We on average check out between 10-20 children's books per week and about 2 books for myself each month. I love to own books, I will buy favorite books on Amazon, I love to hit the book store, and I devour book sales I bring home more books to keep than I should, but in my defense, I will read them ALL one day!  If I do some math tho and say we read 50 children's books each month and figure the cost of each is between $5-$15 typically (for easy math I'm going to say $10 each book) That's $500 just on the cost of books I read to the kids.  No family can afford that.  Library cards are FREE! And you can take home $100 worth of books each week, read them, and return them, get and get new ones to enjoy.

I am going to share with you only some of the books that share the reasons we love libraries and talk about books in libraries, there are many more books that I could list for you.


1. Library Lilyby Gillian Shields
                    Illustrated by Francesca Chessa
                     copyright 2011

This little girl and her best friend are two kids after my own heart!  Lily at first is only interested in books, and reads all the time.  A fellow bookworm! Her mother forces her to put down her book and play at the park where she meets another girl who doesn't like to read *gasp!* Soon the two girls make friends, Lily shares her love of reading and her new friend shares her love of actually doing things.

My kids and I could relate to the two friends so well.  I am always reading, I have a book with me wherever I go.  While reading about adventures is a wonderful way to experience things and places you might never actually do, as people we need to interact with other people and go on our own adventures.  We try to find books ourselves that relate to things that we want to do or are going to do, then after reading about it we go out and do it.  It's a great way to get kids interested in reading and relate it to their own world.  Example: We want to have a garden, we will be getting books about gardening and reading and learning about how to garden, then put what we learn to work.

How does this book support the library?  Aside from the title of course.  Lily spends much of her time at the library.  The first page of the book tells about the library, and why Lily loves going there.  A child who loves to read as much as Lily needs that library card so they can read all the books.  Then when her new friend is finally interested in books they get her a library card as well.

The book was fun and fast paced.

Francesca Chessa filled the book with cute colorful illustrations that keeps the attention of children.

2. The Library by Sarah Stewart
              Illustrated by David Small
               copyright 1995


How could I not share a cute story that is the dream of most bibliophiles? I know I dream of having my own huge library in my house, in my mind it has always looked like the one from Beauty and the Beast, I have had to come to reality and lower my standards some, but this book The Library has given me a new idea!

Sarah Stewart has written a wonderfully cute story about a little girl who is the definition of bibliophile although she doesn't use that term.  Like Lily above, Elizabeth Brown has no other interest it seems other than reading.  This is the only down side of the book is that it doesn't make for a well rounded person whereas Lily does go out and do things.  Elizabeth doesn't play, or date, and even shopping trips and household chores are done haphazardly!  I made the comment to my daughter, audiobooks would have been a huge help to Elizabeth Brown!

The story is told in rhyme, and is easy, fun, and funny to read.  David Small did a great job bringing the comic side to the story with his colorful illustrations and cute doodles next to the text.  The wonderful art will keep the child's attention and adds a great depth to the story.  The book is one that any child will enjoy from older toddlers and up.

Sarah Stewart dedicated to the memory of the real Mary Elizabeth Brown who was a librarian.  I did a couple searches trying to find more info on her.  This book is a work of fiction, but I was hoping to find that it was based on a true story.  I did not find that anything to confirm this which made me a little sad.  It would have been nice to have planed a road trip to the house of someone who did give their house and book collection to the town.  The good news here is that there are other books that are based on true stories about libraries. Which brings me to my next book....

3. Dewey: There's a Cat in the Library! by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter
                                             Illustrated by: Steve James
                                                   copyright: 2009

This is a non fiction book, that is written like fiction.  It's based on the adult non fiction book Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by the same authors.  Dewey is on my to be read list! Since I have not read the adult book and can't tell you how that is, let me tell you about this adorable children's book.

What is it with cats and books?  In the illustrations from The Library, along with many other books along the same lines there are cats.  It seems that there is an uncanny link between books and cats.  Maybe it's that cats love to curl up with us and are content to be lazy and let us read with their company.

Dewey is was left in the book drop of the library in Spencer, Iowa.  The librarian cleans him up and he is named Dewey Readmore Books and he is given a new home at the library.  The children find him and enjoy his company, along with other patrons.  The story is told about his journey around the library and how he learns how he can make a difference there.

Vicki Myron and Bret Witter have done a great job making this an easy to read, cute story for children.  Steve James I believe used watercolors to do the illustrations because it has a dreamy feel to the images.  I love the colors and how they capture a child's attention.  Dewey is an adorable cat and you just melt into his adorable kitten face and laugh at his playful antics that are illustrated.

The first time I read it I felt let down by the ending.  There's this little girl that Dewey tries to cheer up and his usual antics don't work and then finally he makes her laugh and she gives him a big hug and he say "This is it...I'm a REAL library cat"  I wanted more at the end.  Like many good stories you're never ready to come to the end.  I was expecting the ending to be more along the line of him being a reading support animal that she is struggling to read and then reads to him and becomes more confident.  After I let this go and read the story again I realized that Dewey was there to make the patrons happy, and that's just what he did.

If you have a reluctant reader, or a child who is struggling I highly recommend looking into reading support animals like Tail Waggin' Tutors

4. But Excuse Me That is My Book (Charlie and Lola) by Lauren Child
                                               copyright: 2006

Most children can relate to having a favorite book.  As a parent you own this beloved book and have read it over and over and over, to the point that you don't even need to have the book with you and you can recite it word for word.  I feel you!  This beloved book does change as children grow, for us it's an every couple month thing.  If this is your child you they will relate to But Excuse Me That is My Book! 

This little girl, Lola, has her favorite book, it's the book she check out from the library all the time.  But one day she goes to the library and someone else is checking out her book!  Oh no!  As the story goes on Lola's sister tries to show her other books at the library and she does end up finding another book that she loves.

This is what libraries and librarians are for.  If you have a favorite book, they will help you find other similar books, either by the same author or on the same topic.  Our children's librarians are amazing!  They are always willing to share the knowledge they have.  For example if you like But Excuse Me That is My Book you should check out A Library Book for Bear by Bonny Becker because Bear has the same problem as Lola, he has a favorite book, and a favorite subject, so why should he go to the library, and then he finds the perfect new book!

Both of these books are fun to read and have such different but similar charters that have great read aloud personalities.
Lola "I want that book now, now , NOW!"
Bear, "A trip to the library is completely unnecessary, I have all the books I need."



5. Curious George Visits the Library by Margret Rey
                                             Illustrated by: Martha Weston
                                                 copyright: 2003

I've told you before how I love books that are also children's TV shows.  Curious George is one of the TV shows that I still at the age of 30 get caught up in.  The little monkey is super cute and his curious adventures are always entertaining.  It comes as no surprise then that we have read our way through the Curious George books that the library has and Curious George Visits the Library is my favorite out of all of them!

Curious George is so relatable to children, what child during story time has found it hard to wait for a certain book to be read?  Or gotten stir crazy sitting still?  Story times and special programs are always enjoyable at the library, and they do keep kids attention span in mind with songs and activities between books, yet still some little ones might find their attention drawn elsewhere.

The part where George starts pulling book after book off the shelves reminds me of most trips we take to our own library "Oh look there's a book about a horse! and one about the beach! Oh and of course we need a Piggie and Elephant book!"  We often leave with our bag filled.


The illustrations are classic.  Even being published in the 2000's Martha Weston has stayed true to what we expect to see in all Curious George books.  Colorful, fun, attention grabbing drawings that help tell the story and add laughter in George's antics.

The books have been around for more than 75 years!  That is a very long life span of a single character.  It's an impressive legacy to have for anyone.  Want to know more about the history of Curious George? Check out Curious about George it's a surprising and insightful article about Han Augusto (H.A.) Rey and his wife Margret, and how they created this monkey that is still capturing the hearts of children today.


These books I've shared with you are only a starting point.  There are over 100 children's books listed on Goodreads for Picture Books About the Library.  Also you might like to check out these other blogs for more:
11 Memorable Children's books about Libraries and Librarians
Favorite Stories about Libraries and Librarians
Don't worry adults there are plenty of books that are for us as well!  Check out these links:
Book Riot's 100 must read books about libraries and bookstores
BookBub's 11 Books that will make you Love the library even more

If you are someone who likes to keep track of what you're reading or make a to-be-read list check out some of these awesome book journals for adults:

Be sure to visit your library during National Library Week, and let the people working there know how much it means to have such a valuable resource in your community and how great they are doing!

Easter Books for Children

Easter is this weekend!  If you're children are like mine you've probably been reading Easter books, coloring eggs, doing crafts with plastic eggs, preparing Easter baskets, and going to local egg hunts.  Busy, busy! I wanted to share some of the books we love, and a couple craft ideas.

My childhood Easter book:  The Story of the Easter Bunnyby Katie Campbell
Published 1993 by Unicorn Publishing House

This was a book I got for Easter when I was in pre-school.  Somehow it has been very well taken care of and I now read it each year to my own children.   I love this book.  It does start off with a lot of words and might not keep young children's attention like shorter books, but it does have a nice pose to it to be read aloud.

Katie Campbell tell a story of the Easter bunny who use to be very small, as he grew he was picked on and went through struggles, until one day a child found him very weak and nursed him.  When he was better he wanted to thank the child so he made a basket, and painted eggs and left them for her, and he returned to his home where the other bunnies picked on him and he was a beautiful grown bunny.  The Story of the Easter Bunny is like and Easter version of The Ugly Duckling.
While the story is sad, the bunny runs away from home and has a hard time, it does end sweet with him growing into a beautiful bunny that gives gifts.

My favorite part of the book are the beautiful full page illustrations done by Mary Hildebrandt.  The illustrations are full of color and completely pull children into the story.  I love how the text isn't superimposed over the illustrations.  These attention grabbing illustrations are full of emotion, and tell the story all on their own, which with early readers is so important that they can look at the image and tell the story on their own before knowing how to read.  The emotions in the art also help children identify how the bunny is feeling, and can teach empathy.  "Look at the bunny here.  How do you think he feels?  How would you feel?  What could make him feel better?  What do you think of this?"

Craft Idea:  Aside from painting eggs with your kids have them paint kindness rocks and hide them to brighten someone's day.

I love painting rocks with my children, you can add words of inspiration or a message of kindness to them as well for others to find.

If you're having trouble coming up with some egg stuffing ideas you can add rocks to plastic eggs as well painting some for your children to keep or leave them unpainted for your little artist to paint.

I know for years The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter use to be a popular books for Easter, it's what many of us grew up reading and hearing around this time of year.  The story of Peter Rabbit tho isn't about Easter, or eggs.  The book is great for any time of the year.  We all know this book, Peter is a naughty rabbit who goes into Mr. McGregor's garden after his mama told him not to, and he find himself in some danger of the farmer, and the cat, and getting lost.  He of course gets home safe and his mom takes care of him, and puts him to bed while his siblings have a nice supper.

Grace Maccarone has taken The Tale of Peter Rabbit and continued it into an Easter story in her book Peter Rabbit's Happy Easter.
Published 2006 by Scholastic

I love how this book picks up right where the Tale of Peter Rabbit leaves off, it starts with Peter waking up the next morning feeling bad for not listening to his mama.  This makes the book both able to be read on it's own or part of a story time where it can follow the original story Beatrix Potter wrote.

The story is fun and engaging, while the writing is simple to keep the attention of young readers.  The story is super cute with how the eggs were collected, an accident paints them, then how they were hidden.  I love that this story comes out and says "you should not take what isn't yours."  This lesson is very important for children.

The illustrations in this more recent story stay very close to those we grew up with in the original story.  This is because David McPhail did the illustrations for both books.  They are colorful, and detailed and tell the story.  They engage the children and keep their attention.  I love that in the second book there is more humor in the illustrations and made the children (my children) laugh and talk about what was happening.



Craft Idea:  To go along with using eggs collected from chicken, save your egg shells (wash them out) and fill them with paint and use the eggs to paint with.  A couple years ago I tried it out with my children.  The Easter bunny left paint and canvas for each girl and I saved egg shells and they had fun throwing the eggs full of paint at the canvas.



My youngest has always love Lift-the-Flap books and she has come across two books that she loves and we have read over and over:

Dora's Rainbow Egg Hunt
I love books that have children's favorite TV show character's in them.  I think they draw young children to them and make them want to read their book.  Dora has long been a favorite in our house.
Dora's Rainbow Egg Hunt goes through the colors of the rainbow (leaving out indigo) as they collect Easter Eggs of each color. As with all Dora books children get an introduction to Spanish.  Each flap they lift has something of the color under it "A yellow snake. Una culebra amarilla." The child keeps lifting flaps until they find the hidden egg "The blue egg. El huevo azul." The sturdy board book pages are great for wear and tear, and this book is shorter than most of the Dora stories we have read which is nice for children who have short attention spans.  The only down side to this book besides not including all seven color of the rainbow is that many of the flaps are tiny so the text on those tiny flaps is even smaller!

Craft Idea: To go off the colors they children learn with Dora take plastic eggs and have the child name the color and help you glue them together and make a Easter Egg door wreath.

If you don't have plastic eggs or want to do something different you can also cut out egg shapes and have the child color them in and glue them together to form a wreath.


The Easter Bunny left us what is my favorite lift-the-flap Easter book two or three years ago:
  Peter Cottontail's Easter Surprise
Written by: Joseph R. Ritchie
Illustrated by: Lydia Halverson
Published by CandyCane Press copywrite 2006

This is another sturdy board book and unlike Dora the flaps you lift up are large and thicker.  These differences has made the book I found at a thrift store last the past two or three years with much use and still is in great shape.

In this Easter Surprise book we are finding what Peter has left for each animal, so it's a different take than the other books I've listed here. 

As we meet each animal, we are told about them and get to guess what is in their egg.  The short pose is easy to read and rhymes. I love that there are new words introduced.  Instead of keeping the wording super simple like many board books do there are more colorful words to increase vocabulary.  "Happy Jack is on the prowl," not just hunting.  Each page reads like a fun adventure poem.  I've read this book at least 7 times this past week and it's still fun to read out loud.  I also want to mention how creative the gifts are that are inside the eggs.  Coconut covered cheese balls for the mouse.

Lydia Halverson has done a great job with the illustrations, so the child's attention stays on the page and helps them follow along with the story.  The little image of Peter Cottontail looking out of the text box to spy on the animal finding his gift is a cute touch.  Colorful and engaging. This book is one your little one will love for years to come.


I hope you all have a very HAPPY EASTER!