Children's Book Week - Mo Willems

I've come to the end of my week of Children's Book Week giveaways. A week is much too short. I like too many books. I will have to do this again next year. Sharing something I love, makes me so happy.

The final author for this week is Mo Willems. His name exudes cool. His books are pretty rad too. If you haven't read them - you need to drop everything and go get his books stat!

We first got a hold of his book when we read Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! The Pigeon rocks. He also tweets. He definitely, in between yawns, does not want to go to sleeeeeeeeep.

After that we discovered Cat the Cat Who is That? so great for young ones to listen to rhythm, rhyme and see the humor drawn on each page.


Did I mention Mo Willems is an author, illustrator, hilarious smarty pants extraordinaire? He is. I wish I knew him. I wish I knew all the authors I've featured this week. Although I think I might scare them off. Do you think I promised to keep the touching to a minimum they'd be less afraid? (heh)

Our current Mo Willems favorites are the Knuffle Bunny series. In fact, I had bought a bunny for my girls when they were babies. That bunny was stuffed in the stuffed animal box, but now, travels thoughout our home, dubbed... Knuffle Bunny.


You've got to visit his website. It's supposed to be geared towards kids, but dangit - I think it's geared for me too. I love the fun, quirky illustrations and the natural humor he has.


His books should become part of the new parent package. Next to Goodnight Moon - you have to have one of his titles. In fact, every new parent should have each of the books I've mentioned this week. They are fabulous, even if I do say so myself. In my opinion, books last longer than toys, clothes, food... books rule.


For this giveaway you'll receive a copy of Knuffle Bunny Free.

Five entries to try your luck:
1. Leave a comment
2. Tweet then leave a comment that you tweeted: Children's Book Week @QueenScarlett is hosting a giveaway at http://aloneontop.blogspot.com
3. Facebook via link or status and leave a comment
4. Follow my blog via google connect and leave a comment
5. Blog about your favorite book, linking back here and leave a comment with your link. 


Giveaway will close on Tuesday, May 10 at midnight PST.



Cheers!


ps. I am not being paid, or asked to giveaway these specific titles. I just sincerely love them.

Children's Book Week - LeUyen Pham

I found Big Sister, Little Sister in the most random of places, two-to-three years ago. We were just browsing in Pottery Barn Kids, and since I didn't find anything I really wanted, or needed within our gift certificate budget. So I happened to drift over to the books. (We also found Elise Broach's When Dinosaurs Came With Everything - such an adorable book - if your kid loves dinos... you have to get this book) I have a weakness for buying books.


There aren't a lot of books that show kids that look like my girls. It's hard to find books that feature diverse kids in regular picture books. So when I came across Big Sister, Little Sister by LeUyen Pham, I hit the jack pot.

Not only does this feature girls that look like mine. They are sisters! My daughters love this book. The relationship between these sisters is sweet, real and utterly familiar. LeUyen wrote this about herself and her sister. It's like a love note between sisters. LeUyen is an illustrator, an artist, a creative genius.


If I could pick someone to illustrate my picture books, it would be her. When you visit her website you'll find how whimsical her art is. It's almost like falling into another world, straining to keep your eyes open because there's so much you want to see and take in.


Even if your kids don't look like the girls on the cover - this story is a fantastic read on a simple, sisterly relationship; the ups and the downs, and the ultimate connection embedded between women.


Reading this book just makes us all so happy.

For this giveaway you'll receive a copy of Big Sister, Little Sister or Wherever You Are by Nancy Tillman. Please note which book you'd like to receive in the comments.

Five entries to try your luck:
1. Leave a comment
2. Tweet then leave a comment that you tweeted: Children's Book Week @QueenScarlett is hosting a giveaway at http://aloneontop.blogspot.com
3. Facebook via link or status and leave a comment
4. Follow my blog via google connect and leave a comment
5. Blog about your favorite book, linking back here and leave a comment with your link. 


Giveaway will close on Monday, May 9 at midnight PST.



Cheers!


ps. I am not being paid, or asked to giveaway these specific titles. I just sincerely love them.

Children's Book Week - William Lach, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Janell Cannon

I received Can You Hear It? from my friend Carrie for my girls' birthdays. I write that I received it, because I felt like it was also a gift for me.

This book comes with a CD filled with classical music that accompany the beautiful masterpieces in this book. My daughters loved this book when they were young. They still enjoy it. I may not be artistically inclined, no matter how much I wish it, but I appreciate the work. This book is a pleasure to enjoy with my daughters.


I often wish San Francisco wasn't such a drive away from my home, so I could take my daughters to frequent the rich collection of museums and cultural exhibits there. This book is a bit like the take home version of a museum, but one where they can boogie woogie and get wild while seeing and hearing great works of art.

The other gift I'm offering is a set of three books written and illustrated by Janell Cannon. Stellaluna was the first book my girls and I discovered written by Cannon. I received it from a book exchange, many years ago, from my friend Dawn. Stellaluna is about the misadventures of a young fruit bat who ends up in a bird's nest. 


Hilarity ensues as he tries to identify as a bird, and then his bird siblings identify as bats. Mother bird has it up to here with the kids. The story is sweet, funny and accidentally, educational. The illustrations are simply lovely to look at. My girls have loved this story, and I have enjoyed reading it to them.


For this giveaway you'll receive a copy of Can You Hear It? or Janell Cannon's The Adventures of Stellaluna, Verdi & Crickwing. Please note which book you'd like to receive in the comments.

Five entries to try your luck:
1. Leave a comment
2. Tweet then leave a comment that you tweeted: Children's Book Week @QueenScarlett is hosting a giveaway at http://aloneontop.blogspot.com
3. Facebook via link or status and leave a comment
4. Follow my blog via google connect and leave a comment
5. Blog about your favorite book, linking back here and leave a comment with your link. 


Giveaway will close on Sunday, May 8 at midnight PST.



Cheers!


ps. I am not being paid, or asked to giveaway these specific titles. I just sincerely love them.

Children's Book Week - Carmen Agra Deedy

I had the pleasure, the joy, of listening to Carmen Agra Deedy hold an audience spell bound as she read her story, Martina the Beautiful Cockroach at a children's picture book conference about four years ago.

Carmen weaves magic when she tells a story. Her books are fascinating, clever and fun - but to hear her in person is another experience altogether.

 

Carmen Agra Deedy and me in June 2007

At the conference her Martina the Beautiful Cockroach had not hit the shelves yet, so I went ahead and purchased The Secret of Old Zeb and Agatha's Feather Bed. They are all filled with imagination, and I love the puns.


When Martina the Beautiful Cockroach was released, I quickly ordered it (I also love gifting it) and couldn't wait to read it to my girls. I even incorporated a very amateur, very paltry imitation of Carmen when I read it to my girls. That book is one any woman who has dated can relate to, and laugh. The book also teaches kids the importance of seeing what is right before your eyes, and simply being yourself. I couldn't help but wish I had a Cuban grandmother too.


Not only is the writing clever, fun, and so rhythmic to read - the illustrations are elegant and mesmerizing. I love how the artist, Michael Austin, keeps a certain little mouse in many of the illustrations, for he was there, all along.


My husband even listed it as one of his favorite books one Christmas - he thoroughly enjoys reading this book to our girls.


For this giveaway you'll receive a copy of Martina the Beautiful Cockroach, or On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman. Please note which book you'd like to receive in the comments.

Five entries to try your luck:
1. Leave a comment
2. Tweet then leave a comment that you tweeted: Children's Book Week @QueenScarlett is hosting a giveaway at http://aloneontop.blogspot.com
3. Facebook via link or status and leave a comment
4. Follow my blog via google connect and leave a comment
5. Blog about your favorite book, linking back here and leave a comment with your link. 


Giveaway will close on Saturday, May 7 at midnight PST.



Cheers!


ps. I am not being paid, or asked to giveaway these specific titles. I just sincerely love them.

Speaker for the Dead

I just started reading Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead.

The book begins with an introduction by Card. In the second paragraph of his 14-page intro I found something I have always felt, but have never been able to articulate so well. I feel chagrined as I have not even cracked open a Card book until recently when I could not put down Ender's Game. Although, I think at this age, I am more able to enjoy, ponder and unravel my own thoughts more clearly thanks to his storytelling.

This is what I found:

How did Speaker for the Dead come to be? As with all my stories, this one began with more than one idea. The concept of a "speaker of the dead" arose from my experiences with death and funerals. I have written of this at greater length elsewhere; suffice it to say that I grew dissatisfied with the way that we use our funerals to revise the life of the dead, to give the dead a story so different from their actual life that, in effect we kill them all over again. No, that is too strong. Let me just say that we erase them, we edit them, we make them into a person much easier to live with than the person who actually lived.

I rejected that idea. I though that a more appropriate funeral would be to say, honestly, what that person was and what that person did. But to me, "honesty" doesn't' simply mean saying all the unpleasant things instead of saying only the nice ones. It doesn't even consist of averaging them out. No, to understand who a person really was, what his or her life really meant, the speaker for the dead would have to explain their self-story--what they meant to do, what they actually did, what they regretted, what they rejoiced in. That's the story that we never know, the story that we never can know--and yet, at the time of death, it's the only story truly worth telling.

That's how I feel about funerals. About all the glossy, nipping/tucking of words and personality that happens at funerals. I don't want that at all. I try my best to live a genuine life. I want to be someone with which there is no guessing. Someone who you know exactly where she stands. One where no matter who I am with, I am the same person. I grew up watching adults act one way in front of certain people, and then another way in front of others. I saw adults who would excite our hope by saying they'd invite us over to their pool - and feel crushed and betrayed when we discovered that's only "polite conversation". There's nothing polite about insincerity. Nothing.

So I hope, that at my funeral, my girls, and whomever is around, will do this for me. Perhaps I should take the time to write one myself one day. I want a true accounting of my actions, both good and bad. I want people to know where my intentions lay and how I succeeded in those, and how I misstepped, so that hopefully, the next generation can learn from my life in some small measure.

I am so grateful for authors who take some nagging thought that has been bothering me for years, and speak it for me. Perhaps, when I pass, my story will be one worth telling.