Summer is Coming!

All of my spring traveling is now behind me and Emily and I are working diligently to finish up the school year. She just has one week left and a choir concert to participate in, and then we can focus on our summer activities which includes gardening and the farmers' market.

Emily has spent the past few months making bottle cap magnets to sell. We ordered 100 count packs of caps, packs of tiny magnets, glossy accent filler, and glue for the magnets. I also hopped over to Jo-Ann Fabrics to buy a one inch hole punch. We punch out small round pictures from almost anything: old cards, magazines, catalogues. Pretty  much anything that has super tiny pictures. Emily then pastes them into the caps with a minuscule amount of accent filler. When they are dry she applies a liberal amount of filler on top to seal the picture. And last but not least, she glues a small magnet on the back. They are just the cutest magnets ever and I'm sure they will sell well. She also has a few Perler Bead magnets to sell as well.

I just went to the store to stock up on supplies for the baking I do for farmers' market. Soon the smell of home-made granola, brownies, scotchies, and mini quick breads will permeate our  home. This year I am also going to add the candied pecans I took to  my author friends to my repertoire.

Bobby will soon be planting our Sun Sugar orange cherry tomatoes, sweet yellow onions, and some peppers. Hopefully the black raspberries I planted last fall will produce their first crop this year as well. All of this talk about farmers' market, garden plants, and planting makes me think about books on the same subjects, so here are a few of my favorites:

Holly Bloom's Garden

Apples To Oregon

Our Community Garden

Mortimer's First Garden

And although I have yet to read Jack's Garden, it looks like a book I definitely want to check out!

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. Also be sure to drop by and join the Literacy Musings Monday Blog Hop where you will find other great blogs, or my personal website, Fun With Aileen, where you will find more on reading, writing, and my very own early grade Fern Valley chapter book series and my Quack and Daisy picture book series. And finally, you can find me on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days. 

Children's Book Week and Diversity

Normally my children's book reviews show up every Monday, but in honor of children's book week, I thought I would squeeze in an extra review. Since the only book that I haven't yet read at my house is Henry & The Incredible Incorrigible, Inconveniently Intelligent Smart Human by Lynn Messina, a trip to the library was mandatory. But don't worry, the review for that title will be forthcoming in a few weeks.

While at the library browsing, I noticed a book with a great cover that immediately made me think of the book diversity conversations that have been going on in social media lately. So I scouted around a bit  more and found some other books that looked diverse and decided that's what I would post about today.

The book whose cover caught my eye, Our Community Garden, provoked a conversation between the children's librarian and I. She informed me that our town, Shelby, Ohio has it's very own community garden. I wasn't aware of this and as soon as it stops raining, I think I will go down and have a look see.

Meanwhile, I really enjoyed reading Our Community Garden which takes place in San Francisco. Several school aged children live next door to a community garden where they each plant something different. Tom`as grows tomatillos for his famous salsa, Cassandra grows carrots, Allison Chin grows asparagus beans, and Audrey grows skinny, purple, eggplant. When harvest time roles around, everyone makes a special dish out of the vegetables they grew and they all have a community feast.

Not only does this book show a diverse group of children, it also promotes community which seems to be lacking quite a bit in this day and age. I heartily recommend this book!

As I continued to wander the aisles looking for any books that might catch my eye, I saw two additional books by an author I had previously read. A while back, I read Everybody Bakes Bread, by Norah Dooley, which I enjoyed immensely. So when I saw Everybody  Brings Noodles and Everybody Cooks Rice, I knew they were must reads for my diversity post.

In Everybody Brings Noodles, Carrie helps arrange a neighborhood block party. Everyone is making something special to eat, and each dish turns out to be a noodle dish. This thrills Carrie to pieces since noodles are her favorite food and she has a blast trying noodles dishes from all around the world.

In Everybody Cooks Rice, Carrie's mother sends her off to fetch her brother for dinner. As  Carrie visits each neighbor where she thinks her brother might be, they are all cooking rice dishes from different countries around the world. Each family offers Carrie a small helping, and by the time she returns home,  she is too full to eat the rice dish her mother has made.

What I love about these books are the glimpses into a community of diverse families and the different ethnic recipes they are preparing. And a beautiful bonus to each book is the inclusion of recipes at the end. Not only do these books entice me with their interesting stories, but they appeal to the cook in me as well.  And speaking of rice, if you want to add a new recipe as well as new reads to your diet, here is a rice recipe that is a favorite at our house.

Yellow Chicken Curry (Indian)

1 pound skinless boneless chicken diced
1 TBS Red Curry Paste
2 TBS Sugar
1 TBS Yellow curry powder
1 can coconut milk
1 can cooked sliced carrots
1 can sliced white potatoes
2 cups instant brown rice cooked

In large skillet cook chicken and set aside. In now empty skillet add curry paste, sugar, curry powder, and coconut milk. Mix thoroughly and simmer on medium heat. Next, add carrots and potatoes which have been drained. Last, add chicken and stir well. Simmer for about ten minutes so the flavors can blend. Serve over prepared rice.

Well, that about wraps it up for today. Join me next week for another exciting episode on my normal Monday. And feel free to drop by my personal website, Fun With Aileen, any day of the week for even more on reading, writing, my very own early grade chapter book, Fern Valley, and my soon to be released sequel, Return To Fern Valley, coming summer of 2014! I'm also on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.

A Great Family Movie Promoting Reading

 

Often movies are adaptations of books, but rarely are they about books. So the movie, The Reading Room, starring James Earl Jones was a wonderful surprise to me. It is the story of a widower (Mr. Jones) who makes a promise to his dying wife that he will open a reading room in one of the downtown buildings he owns. She knew he would need something to fill the void when she was gone, and she believed that by sharing his extensive library and love of reading with others he would do just that.

Mr. Jones does indeed open a reading room; however, not all the neighborhood residents are happy with his presence there. He struggles to attract people to the room, he struggles with crime, and he struggles with those opposed to change even when that change is beneficial. The Reading Room is a movie that shows that although life is often difficult, something as basic as teaching a child to read can strengthen and rebuild an entire community.

I give this movie two thumbs up. Not only are the actors superb, but the message is as well. Reading is a key that opens many doors and offers everyone the opportunity to learn lessons of respect, loyalty, honesty, community, compassion, and most of all perseverance. These are things my late father taught me, things I hold dear, things that led to my motto "Kids Who Read Can Do Anything". So if you have yet to see this movie, I suggest you check it out. And after you have watched it, I bet you will be inspired to read another, and another, and another book.

Signing off for now with wishes for a bright and beautiful day!