Stanley and Katrina's Blog, page 18

Word of the Week: Katrina believes that the CELESTIAL bodies in the sky line up to look like her.

Word of the Week for Jan. 27, 2014

We have a special treat this week! Our inaugural Word of the Week video with guests. Scroll down to view the video.

You may listen to the live official WOW announcement broadcast each Monday at 7:20AM on WEEU 830AM from "The voice of Berks County and Beyond." 
Links to broadcasts may be found on the Muhlenberg School District website. Click here to go there.
Katrina is using the Words of the Week from the Muhlenberg School District with their permission. They have a wonderful Word of the Week program.

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Are you ready for the free printables? Visit Kid Lit Printables to find these free printables:


CELESTIAL printableWord of the Week Instruction CubeWord of the Week Blank Page to Fill Out
== W.O.W. Video Featuring The D.I.R.T. Kids ==This week we are introducing a new feature where guests will help me introduce the Word of the Week. This week the D.I.R.T. Kids have the honor of participating in our inaugural video. If the video does not appear below, click here to view it on YouTube.



Now tell us, how will you use the word CELESTIAL this week? Have you seen it used anywhere? Is your school using these words? What fun activities do you have for the word? I want to know and so do my friends - please share your creations and let us know if you are using our printables - that makes us happy!  
If you and/or your family completes an activity, we would love to see a picture of it, or hear all about it. You may do this in the comments below; on our Facebook page; on Twitter (use the hashtag #kidlitwow); pinterest; Google+ - truly, anywhere you want to tell the world with gusto!


“Word of the Week with free printables.” (Click to Tweet) 

As always, thank you for reading and sharing,
Katrina von Cat the Master of Wisdom and Knowledge ( & Stanley, too!)
=============================Follow Stanley and Katrina on Twitter  * Join Stanley and Katrina on Facebook 
Click here to find out how you may purchase our fun book now!
Check out our current offers/giveaways.
Learn how you may Skype with our author.

January 27th is Multicultural Children's Book Day. We have a book review to get you excited!

  We are thrilled and honored to be one of the bloggers participating in the first ever Multicultural Children’s Book Day: Celebrating Diversity in Children's Literature. This paw-some day is the brainchild of co-creatorsMia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom, and Valarie Budayr from Jump Into a Book/Audrey Press.
These two paw-riffic children's reading advocates present this much needed event as a way to draw attention and raise awareness about diversity in children’s literature.
Mission: Despite census data that shows 37% of the US population consists of people of color, only 10% of children’s books published have diversity content. Using the Multicultural Children’s Book Day, Mia and Valarie are on a mission to change all of that. Their mission is to not only raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these types of books into classrooms and libraries. Another goal of this exciting event is create a compilation of books and favorite reads that will provide not only a new reading list for the winter, but also a way to expose brilliant books to families, teachers, and libraries.
Thank You Sponsors...The wonderful sponsors for this event are Wisdom Tales Press, Lee & Low Books, Chronicle Books, and Susan Daniel Fayad: Author of  My Grandfather’s Masbaha.

Wisdom Tales Press is giving away a full set of all of their books currently available, in honor of Multicultural Children's Book Day. Enter now!
What is really exciting is that we can fit this book into the  We are using it as our "book with someone's name in the title." Yippee!
ALSO, the timing allows us to add the review to Kid Lit Blog Hop #31.  We love it when things work out so nicely. :) 
Now for the review from Neighbor Girl & Cool Mom...


The first thing I want to do is thank Chronicle Books for sponsoring this fantastic event and for sending us review copies of Josephine. Next I want to thank Patricia Hruby Powell for telling Josephine's story in such an accessible way. Finally, thank you to Christian Robinson. Mr. Robinson your artwork is fun from start to finish. By the way, we loved your recent Google Doodle! ~Cool Mom


Title: JosephineAuthor: Patricia Hruby PowellIllustrator: Christian RobinsonYear Published: 2014Publisher: Chronicle BooksPages: 104
Age Level: 9+ (my recommendation) Note: Amazon says 7-10 but I think this book is great for kids and adults much older than 10! Summary (Amazon): In exuberant verse and stirring pictures, Patricia Hruby Powell and Christian Robinson create an extraordinary portrait of the passionate performer and civil rights advocate Josephine Baker, the woman who worked her way fro the slums of St. Louis to the grandest stages in the world. Meticulously researched by both author and artist, Josephine's powerful story of struggle and triumph is an inspiration and a spectacle, just like the legend herself.Book Trailer

Neighbor Girl's Feedback Josephine was more of a grown up book than I was expecting. It was overwhelming with how much information is in the book. I enjoyed the illustrations and how she was a spy. 








Mom's Feedback
This book is BEAUTIFUL. It is a HUGE picture book (104 pages!) with fun and tremendously colorful illustrations. There wasn't a page I turned that was anything other than beautiful - even the pages without illustrations. 
The book could easily be heavy for young kids (depending on the child), as it encompasses Josephine's entire life from living in the slums and having to be Santa to her siblings, to her death. It encompasses her journeys around the world as a dancer and a spy; how she dealt with segregation throughout her life and fought through it; and her "rainbow tribe" of twelve adopted children from different counties. Josephine not only adopted children from other countries but raised them in their own religions! 

I found the book riveting. It is profoundly sad that I had never heard of Josephine Baker until reading this book. It shows exactly why Multicultural Children's Book Day is so very important. 
Patricia Hruby Powell tells the story well, and her level of research shines through the verse which is artfully displayed using different fonts. There are breaks in lines that seem almost wrong - but work here. 

Neighbor Girl enjoyed the book very much. Her review may be brief, but it is more than we get for most books. 

I am still a homeschooling mother at heart, I guess. If I had this book while homeschooling, I could do studies off of it for a couple of weeks easily. There are so many fantastic topics covered in this book that I would want to have lessons around. I'm sure I missed some but take a look at my quick list:
    ~Poetry    ~Music (Ragtime, Trombones, Tuba, Fiddle)
    ~Dancing (Charleston)
    ~Geography: Saint Louis, MO; Mississippi River; New Orleans; Philadelphia, NYC, Paris, France, Germany, Russia, Egypt, Sweden, South America)
    ~Vaudeville
    ~What it would be life to have six people live in a shack
    ~Segregation (The largest theme of the book - how segregated America was while France had no such thing.)
    ~Traveling by train 
    ~Traveling by ship
    ~What it means to "steal the show." 
    ~Leopard (Exotic Pets)
    ~War
    ~The Red Cross
    ~Spies
    ~World War 2
    ~Adoption 


The illustrations complement the verse beautifully. I snapped these pictures of a few pages that impressed me. As you see on the left hand side,  there is an illustration of the ship Josephine travels on from America to France. America's segregation is clear even on the ship, but the next page (the bottom left picture), she is in France where people seem to be colorblind. I love the dullness of the color to represent that. Fantastic. 


The picture on the top right is of Josephine dancing. I took a look at a video of her dancing and wow, is this captured perfectly. She was a great dancer but also a complete ham who loved to steal the show.  Yes, she even crossed her eyes at times. :) 

The bottom right pictures are of free printables available at the publisher's website. We printed them out and tested them. They don't take much time, but it is always nice  to have activities to go along with a book. 
This is easily a five star book. While I would love to keep our copy of Josephine,  it will do more good for others at our local library. They will be receiving the two copies that we were given from Chronicle Books. 
Disclosure: We received a copy of Josephine from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.. We received no monetary or in-kind compensation for our honest review. This post does NOT contain affiliate links. 
Check out all of the bloggers participating in Multicultural Children's Book Day:2GirlsLostInaBook · 365 Days of Motherhood · A Bilingual Baby · A Simple Life, Really? · Africa to America · After School Smarty Pants · All Done Monkey · Andi’s Kids Books · Anita Brown Bag  · Austin Gilkeson · Barbara Ann Mojica ·  Books My Kids Read · Bottom Shelf Books · Cats Eat Dogs · Chasing The Donkey · Children's Book-a-Day Almanac · Children's Books Heal · Church o Books · CitizenBeta · Crafty Moms Share · Discovering The World Through My Son's Eyes · Early Words · Flowering Minds · Franticmommy · Gathering Books · GEO Librarian · Gladys Barbieri · Going in Circles · Growing Book by Book · iGame Mom · I’m Not The Nanny · InCulture Parent · Itsy Bitsy Mom ·Just Children’s Books- Kid World Citizen · Kristi’s Book Nook · Mama Lady Books · Mama Smiles · Mission Read · Mother Daughter Book Reviews · Mrs AOk · MrsTeeLoveLifeLaughter · Ms. Yingling Reads · Multicultural Kids Blog · One Sweet World · Open Wide The World · P is for Preschooler · Rapenzel Dreams · School4Boys · Sharon the Librarian · Spanish Playground · Sprout's Bookshelf · Squishable Baby · Stanley and Katrina · Teach Mama · The Art of Home Education · The Brain Lair · The Educators' Spin On It · The Family-Ship Experience · The Yellow Door Paperie · This Kid Reviews Books  · Trishap’s Books · Unconventional Librarian · Vicki Arnold · We3Three · World for Learning · Wrapped in Foil 


Thank you for reading and sharing,

Katrina von Cat the Master of Wisdom and Knowledge (and Stanley)


**********************************Follow Stanley and Katrina on Twitter  * Join Stanley and Katrina on Facebook 
Click here to find out how you may purchase our fun book now!
Check out our current offers/giveaways.
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We want you to be part of our Word of the Week posts!

Interested? 

We hope so! We are looking for kids and families to introduce our upcoming words of the week. Our first video introduction will be this Friday and introduced by the D.I.R.T. Kids. However, we need about 15 more guests to introduce the words via video through the end of the year. We'll send you what we need you to say (the word, part of speech and definition) for the week you are assigned. You'll then send us a video of your family introducing themselves and then introducing the word of the week. Yes, introduce your blog*, too!  We greatly encourage creativity but simplicity works, as well!

By the way, this isn't limited to families. Teachers and students are welcome to participate.

If you are interested, click here to sign up. 

We look forward to including you/your child(ren)/your family/your students in our fun Word of the Week posts.




Thank you for reading and sharing,

Katrina von Cat the Master of Wisdom and Knowledge (and Stanley)


*Only family friendly blogs, please.  


**********************************Follow Stanley and Katrina on Twitter  * Join Stanley and Katrina on Facebook 
Click here to find out how you may purchase our fun book now!
Check out our current offers/giveaways.
Learn how you may Skype with our author.

Author Diane Cantrell's $100 Book Blast Hosted by Mother Daughter Book Reviews

About the Books
Title: Riley's Lost Tooth 
Author: Diane Cantrell Illustrator: Heather Castles Publication Date: February 16, 2010 Publisher: Brown Books Publishing Group Number of pages: 24 Recommended age: 4+ Summary: Oh no! One of Sunday's very favorite humans, Riley, has lost her tooth! But where did it go? How did she lose it? Why does no one besides Sunday seem to care? It isn't long before the tooth fairy steps in and tries to teach the pups all about growing up. Join Sunday and her two puppy-pals, Precious and Mr. Lee, as they try to hunt down . . . Riley s lost tooth! Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Author WebsiteBook Trailer for Riley's Lost Tooth  

Title: Good-bye Baby Max Author: Diane Cantrell Illustrator: Heather Castles Publication Date: February, 2008 Publisher: Bridgeway Books Number of pages: 32 Recommended age: 4+ Summary: Mrs. B's class excitedly awaits the birth of three baby chicks. When Max is unable to crack open his shell, the children's loving teacher assists them in expressing their feelings of loss and planning a special good-bye.   
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Author Website 
The BuzzRiley's Lost Tooth: "The book is well written and the illustrations are beautiful. The book will definitely appeal to all children (including children at heart like this reviewer) and their parents / grandparents / elder siblings and other care givers. The book is strongly recommended as a good gift that is educational and also entertaining." ~ 5 Star Review, S.V. Swamy, AmazonGood-bye Baby Max: "This book is amazing! I have given it as several gifts to my friends with children. It is very well written and the illustrations are fun and colorful. This book it a great tool to help parents and teachers talk to children about loss of a pet and a loved one in general. I would highly recommend this book to everyone!" ~ 5 Star Review, Dawn N., AmazonGood-bye Baby Max: "This colorful, hardcover children’s title Good-bye, Baby Max (Bridgeway Books, Texas, 2007) by Diane Cantrell & Heather Castles is special in its purpose of teaching an invaluable lesson: that of properly saying the final farewell to a loved one who is no more ... Diane Cantrell has created a very purposeful book for children-one that is at once a story, a poem, and a healthy course of helping children get over grief. The book’s illustrations by Heather Castles are very appealing to a child’s imagination. There is a good deal here in Good-bye, Baby Max to learn for children ages 4 to 8 years and the 32-pages book is a must read for all kids of this age category." ~ Ernest Dempsey, Book CornerGood-bye Baby Max: "I bought this book to help my nieces and nephews deal with the loss of a beloved pet. The storyline and illustrations were used as a springboard to discuss their own loss. I highly recommend this book to anyone that has young children and is looking for a way to help them cope with a loss in their lives." ~ 5 Star Review, Jeanne B., AmazonGood-bye Baby Max: "[Good-bye, Baby Max] is a tender story about death, a tough topic for young children. Kindergarteners eagerly await spring and the hatching of the class' three chick eggs. But one chick, Max, dies. What ensues is a gentle exploration of grief and its many expressions -- from tears to songs to artwork. At the end, the surviving chicks' peeps encourage the children to embrace the living without forgetting the dead." ~ Michele Siuda Jacques, Detroit Free Press 
About the Author: Diane Cantrell
Diane Cantrell began her career in education teaching Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Transitional First Grade. She also worked as a counselor providing assistance to parenting teens in a local school district. As a Licensed Professional Counselor, Diane has provided therapy for adults, families, and children in agencies and private practice settings. As part of her private practice, she offers parent training to her clients and to parents in local schools. Diane is presently writing and publishing children’s books as well as provides counseling services to adults and children in her private practice, Life Designs Counseling. Diane’s time at Fort Sam Houston I.S.D. provided inspiration for Good-bye, Baby Max. The book, which is based on a true story, describes how Ms. B helps her kindergarten class cope with the loss of a classroom pet. At the time Diane wrote the book she was working with many children who were experiencing a great deal of loss in their lives. Her hope in writing Good-bye, Baby Max was that the story would help parents, children, and other caring professionals begin talking about losses rather than responding to their losses from a state of fear. Her second book, Riley’s Lost Tooth, was written for her granddaughter, Riley as a Valentine’s Day present. Mr. Lee, and Sunday are main characters in the book as is Precious, who died before the book was written. When Diane is not involved in writing or listening to people’s stories, she enjoys being with her husband, Rich, and their two dogs, Sunday and Mr. Lee. Diane and Rich live in San Antonio, Texas.
Website | Twitter 
* $100 Book Blast Giveaway *Prize: $100 Amazon Gift card or PayPal cash (winner's choice) Contest runs: January 20th to February 19th, 11:59 pm, 2014 Open: Internationally How to enter: Please enter using the Rafflecopter widget below. Terms and Conditions: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. A winner will be randomly drawn through the Rafflecopter widget and will be contacted by email within 48 hours after the giveaway ends. The winner will then have 72 hours to respond. If the winner does not respond within 72 hours, a new draw will take place for a new winner. Odds of winning will vary depending on the number of eligible entries received. This contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook. This giveaway is sponsored by the author, Diane Cantrell and is hosted and managed by Renee from Mother Daughter Book Reviews. If you have any additional questions - feel free to send and email to Renee(at)MotherDaughterBookReviews(dot)com. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Martin Luther King Day Resources

Are you celebrating the US Holiday, Martin Luther King Day?
Neighbor Girl was explaining to Stanley and I that she has off from school, tomorrow, and her school requests that they do a service project in honor of Martin Luther King. She will be getting together with the D.I.R.T. Kids to plan and begin rehearsing for their late spring performance.
I didn't really understand what she was talking about and what this Martin Luther King human guy had to do with it, so I did some online research. I found a couple of posts that helped me understand why this man got his own holiday. Martin Luther King's legacy is aspiring. Do you like how I got those Words of the Week in there? I am a #smartcat!

Anyway, Neighbor Girl told me to look at Brain Pop, first. She highly recommends this resource and uses it often. Guess what? Brain Pop has a free video and activities about Martin Luther King Jr. Cool Mom said that I have to tell you that they have a subscription to BrainPop, but get nothing if you click the link or purchase your own subscription - it is just one of their favorite resources.

Note: If you are mobile, the Brain Pop link may take you to the app page. It is a free app to view the "featured movie of the day" maybe on 1/20 it will be Martin Luther King? Otherwise, check it out on a computer. 

I also happened upon Squishy Lady's recent post, "Demystifying Martin Luther King Jr - Simply for Young Children." This is paw-riffic. Take a look.  Mia of Pragmatic Mom has shared some great book resources in the past for Martin Luther King Day. Click here to view them all.

Now, something that Cool Mom is excited about is her & Neighbor Girl's upcoming book review of JOSEPHINE by Patricia Hruby Powell and illustrated by Christian Robinson. This book was sent to Neighbor Girl courtesy of Chronicle Books as part of  Multicultural Children's Book Day: Celebrating Diversity in Children's Literature. Cool Mom told me that this Josephine human was the ONLY woman to speak alongside of Dr. Martin Luther King on August 28, 1963. Talk about amazing. Wait until you read our review of this book - expected out later this week! For now, check out these fine resources above; hop over to learn more about Multicultural Children's Book Day;  and let us know how you are celebrating Martin Luther King Day. 
I think that maybe I'll try to do a service to my owners and help myself to my dinner this evening.  "#Parents And #Teachers: Martin Luther King resources @StanleyNKatrina like "
As always, thanks for reading and sharing,
Katrina von Cat the Master of Wisdom and Knowledge (and Stanley)

Disclosure: We received a copy of JOSEPHINE from the publisher. We received no monetary or in-kind compensation for posting this list. This post does NOT contain affiliate links - our paws don't have time to do all of that linky stuff. We are authors anyway. This blog is about what we like. :) 
 

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Check out our current offers/giveaways.
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WOW: Katrina wishes to leave an amazing LEGACY from her work with The Wise Cat Council.

You may listen to the live official WOW announcement broadcast each Monday at 7:20AM on WEEU 830AM from "The voice of Berks County and Beyond." Click here to view a picture of Sarah, who will be reciting the word, "legacy," on Monday. Links to broadcasts may be found on the Muhlenberg School District website. Click here to go there.
Katrina is using the Words of the Week from the Muhlenberg School District with their permission. They have a wonderful Word of the Week program.

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Are you ready for the free printables? Visit Kid Lit Printables to find these free printables:


LEGACY mini book printableWord of the Week Instruction CubeWord of the Week Blank Page to Fill Out Now tell us, how will you use the word LEGACY this week? Have you seen it used anywhere? Is your school using these words? What fun activities do you have for the word? I want to know and so do my friends - please share your creations and let us know if you are using our printables - that makes us happy!  
If you and/or your family completes an activity, we would love to see a picture of it, or hear all about it. You may do this in the comments below; on our Facebook page; on Twitter (use the hashtag #kidlitwow); pinterest; Google+ - truly, anywhere you want to tell the world with gusto!

“Word of the Week with free printables.” (Click to Tweet) 

As always, thank you for reading and sharing,
Katrina von Cat the Master of Wisdom and Knowledge ( & Stanley, too!)
=============================Follow Stanley and Katrina on Twitter  * Join Stanley and Katrina on Facebook 
Click here to find out how you may purchase our fun book now!
Check out our current offers/giveaways.
Learn how you may Skype with our author.

It is word of the week time: EQUIDISTANT

You may listen to the live official WOW announcement broadcast each Monday at 7:20AM on WEEU 830AM from "The voice of Berks County and Beyond." Links to broadcasts may be found on the Muhlenberg School District website. Click here to go there.
Click here to view a picture of Enami, who will be reciting the word, "equidistant," on Monday.
Katrina is using the Words of the Week from the Muhlenberg School District with their permission. They have a wonderful Word of the Week program.

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Are you ready for the free printables? Visit Kid Lit Printables to find these free printables:


EQUIDISTANT mini book printableWord of the Week Instruction CubeWord of the Week Blank Page to Fill Out Now tell us, how will you use the word equidistant this week? Have you seen it used anywhere? Is your school using these words? What fun activities do you have for the word? I want to know and so do my friends - please share your creations and let us know if you are using our printables - that makes us happy!

If you and/or your family completes an activity, we would love to see a picture of it, or hear all about it. You may do this in the comments below; on our Facebook page; on Twitter (use the hashtag #kidlitwow); pinterest; Google+ - truly, anywhere you want to tell the world with gusto!



“Word of the Week with free printables.” (Click to Tweet) 
Oh, oh, oh, we have a giveaway of our book over on Traveling Cats, this week. Click here to view the gorgeous cat photos on this blog and enter the giveaway now.


As always, thank you for reading and sharing,
Katrina von Cat the Master of Wisdom and Knowledge ( & Stanley, too!)
=============================Follow Stanley and Katrina on Twitter  * Join Stanley and Katrina on Facebook 
Click here to find out how you may purchase our fun book now!
Check out our current offers/giveaways.
Learn how you may Skype with our author.

Squee! Neighbor Girl Was interviewed by Erik of This Kid Reviews Books

Squee
An exclamation. def. used to express great delight or excitement
(source: OxfordDictionaries.com)
We were surprised to find this word in the Oxford Dictionary. The Urban Dictionary definition explains it really well, too.




   If you are new to our site, welcome. If you are a regular, welcome back and THANK YOU for your support. To read Erik's interview of Neighbor Girl (Yes, the secret is officially out now, but we won't be changing names on the blog.) click here to go there. 
  If you haven't already, we highly recommend following Erik's spectacular blog. He has provided Neighbor Girl with many great book recommendations since she began following his blog and he's been a fantastic supporter of our book. You may recognize him from a few of our earlier posts, such as this one, this one or this one. :)  
   For new fans, click here to view how you may purchase our book.
   We have free downloadable activity printables for our book available here.
  Katrina shares a Word of the Week every Monday, during the school year, with free printables. 
Thanks so much for stopping by.  We really appreciate it!

Thank you for reading and sharing,

Katrina von Cat the Master of Wisdom and Knowledge (and Stanley)


**********************************Follow Stanley and Katrina on Twitter  * Join Stanley and Katrina on Facebook 
Click here to find out how you may purchase our fun book now!
Check out our current offers/giveaways.
Learn how you may Skype with our author.

What has Neighbor Girl Been Reading? Kid Lit Blog Hop Time

What? It is Kid Lit Blog Hop Day? Really? Cool Mom! Did you know this? We can't let a Kid Lit Blog Hop go by and not have a post! 

What!?! You don't have a post? Seriously? But it is the Kid Lit Blog Hop! Really, woman, what are you thinking? 
I should do it? But I am Katrina von Cat the Master of Wisdom & Knowledge, I do not put together the Kid Lit Blog Hop posts, I handle the Words of the Week.
I know it is my blog and you are just helping me, but it is the Kid Lit Blog Hop! 
Oh, fine....
Stanley! Where are you?
Neighbor Girl! I need you, too.
==== About an Hour Later ==== 
   Thank you, reader for giving me a moment to get this blog post together. Thankfully, our human pal, Neighbor Girl, said she would be willing to share with you what she read over the holiday break. If you know a tween girl (or boy) who enjoys reading humorous adventure books, this might be a great list for him/her. 
   Along with humor and fun girl stuff, Neighbor Girl also enjoys a good Almanac, as you can see. Stanley and I attempted to say a few things about each book, below (Neighbor Girl has that stuff called schoolwork to do). Oh, and yes, this post is part of the wonderful 30th Kid Lit Blog Hop and the very first in 2014! 



Percy Jackson & The Olympians, The DemiGod Files by Rick Riordan
We know Neighbor Girl borrowed this from the library in 2013. She enjoyed it so much that she requested it for Christmas. She is a huge fan of all things Percy Jackson (& Rick Riordan).
Status: Finished Reading. A great book for a Percy Jackson fan.The Serpent’s Shadow by Rick Riordan
This wasn’t a new book for Neighbor Girl. It has actually been on her shelf for a while and we were surprised to learn that it was the first time she read the book. This is the third book in Rick Riordan’s Kane Chronicles series.
Status: Finished Reading. A great book.American Girl Magazine
This one is always read cover-to-cover when it arrives (ours arrived late due to the change in our address). The subscription was purchased by Neighbor Girl herself.
Status: Finished Reading. When is the next one coming in? Actually, It did come in and she read that, too!LOOM Magic! by John McCann and Becky Thomas
She received this just before the holidays and used a pattern to make gifts for her friends.
Status: Browsed through and used a couple of patterns. Fun for rainbow loomers.



Don’t Let the Pigeon Finish This Activity Book! by Mo Willems
Neighbor Girl’s family are huge fans of Pigeon, and this book is super fun for all ages. It was on Neighbor Girl’s Christmas list.
Status: Read through the book but there are activities to keep her busy in quiet times for months. The Hero’s Guide to Storming the Castle by Christopher Healy
This was a surprise gift over the holidays. We think she read it in about two days off and on. She really enjoys this series and will tell us the silly things the princes have done as she is reading the book.
Status: Finished Reading and loved it!The Templeton Twins Make a Scene by Ellis Weiner
This was another surprise gift over the holidays and was enjoyed as much as the book right above. From what we can gather by her comments it has a ton of silliness and she thinks the Narrator is a complete riot.
Status: Finished Reading and loved it!National Geographic Kids Almanac 2014
This was a top request on her Christmas list. Stanley and I think she owns all of the Almanacs from 2006 through 2014 - or close to that. She loves the National Geographic Kids Almanac and read this one within a couple of hours cover to cover.
Status: Finished Reading and loved it!
So there we are. Our first submission to the Kid Lit Blog Hop for 2014, no thanks to Cool Mom. How did we do? If you like this post, please share it with your friends. We even made it easy for our friends on twitter - just press the button below!


"See what @StanleyNKatrina's tween friend, Neighbor Girl, is reading:" 
Oh, and if you haven't visited with us for a while, our book was placed on two "Best of" lists for 2013, by the wonderful bloggers, Squishable Baby and Create with Joy. They made our paws dance and Stanley's tail wag!

As always, thanks for reading and sharing,
Katrina von Cat the Master of Wisdom and Knowledge (and Stanley)

Disclosure: We received no monetary or in-kind compensation for posting this list. This post does NOT contain affiliate links - our paws don't have time to do all of that linky stuff. We are authors anyway. This blog is about what we like. :) 


**********************************Follow Stanley and Katrina on Twitter  * Join Stanley and Katrina on Facebook 
Click here to find out how you may purchase our fun book now!
Check out our current offers/giveaways.
Learn how you may Skype with our author.

This is how Squishy Lady Surprised us

...she announced her 2013 Best of Books, Homeschooling list and put our book on her list!

 Holy Meow! Our book is now on two "Best of" lists for 2013 by two fantastic human bloggers. I am typing this post with GUSTO! My paws are dancing, and I can barely control them. Stanley's tail is wagging like crazy and he is even dancing around the house. We will celebrate with extra treats. Where is our owner? Owner, we need treats!

 Anyway, Squishable Baby's list is of books that she reviewed on her blog in 2013 that also enhanced her homeschooling. Be sure to check out all of the great books and the details on each one! If you haven't read our book yet, what are you waiting for?

 Did you know that if you purchase the print copy of our book on Amazon, you get the kindle copy for free? It is true! Oh, and no, you don't need a Kindle to view the Kindle book - Neighbor Girl reads hers on an iPad and it works great. All you need is the Kindle app.

 Don't forget that we also have a free printable activity book of activities to go along with our book!

 Squishable Baby was the very first blogger to reach out to us and ask to review our book. Since that time, she has provided us with a DELUGE of support for our book. Support that these pets appreciate immensely. 

Squishable Baby does it all. She makes super comfy and environmentally friendly clothing for the wee ones and she blogs like crazy. Blogging about homeschooling, giveaways, book reviews, motherhood, crafts and the list goes on. Please stop on over at Squishable Baby's website. Read all of her book recommendations, follow her blog and be sure to tell her how brilliant she is for placing our book on her list. :) 


"Want to know how @SquishableBaby surprised @StanleyNKatrina? " Click to Tweet!

Thank you for reading and sharing,



Katrina von Cat the Master of Wisdom & Knowledge 

(and Stanley)
 

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