Elizabeth Kennedy at About.com’s Children’s Books is recommending the Simply in Season Children’s Cookbook as “one of the most visually appealing cookbooks [she has] ever seen.”

Simply in Season Children’s Cookbook is an imaginative, active way to invite kids of all ages – especially 6 to 12 year olds – to get in touch with real food, to see where it comes from, to take responsibility for preparing it, and to have fun in the process.

With summer farmer’s markets in full swing, this is a great time to use such a cookbook. Another great resource is the Internet, of course, and one great website for summertime recipes comes from the National Watermelon Promotion Board. They have some great kid friendly and healthy, seasonal recipes. Here’s a small sample.

Watermelon Banana Split
A healthy twist to an old favorite – serves four

Ingredients:

1. 2 bananas
2. 1 medium watermelon
3. 1 cup fresh blueberries
4. 1 cup diced fresh pineapple
5. 1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
6. 1/4 cup caramel fruit dip
7. 1/4 cup honey roasted almonds

Instructions:

Peel bananas and cut in half lengthwise then cut each piece in half. For each serving, lay 2 banana pieces against sides of shallow dish. Using an ice cream scooper, place three watermelon “scoops” in between each banana in each dish. Remove seeds if necessary. Top each watermelon “scoop” with a different fruit topping. Drizzle caramel fruit dip over all. Sprinkle with almonds.

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RIF recently announced the launch of their RIF Multicultural Literacy Campaign. RIF believes that with a greater focus on the development of early childhood literacy in African-American, Hispanic, and Native American communities, more children can get off to a fast start academically and become lifelong readers.

"Parents have tremendous impact on how well their children develop language skills in the first five years of life," said Carol H. Rasco, president and CEO of RIF. "The RIF Multicultural Literacy Campaign reinforces this message and offers parents and caregivers new resources to help them get their children prepared for success with reading and in school."

With funding from Macy’s "Back to Books" program, RIF will donate more than 250 multicultural children’s book collections to kindergarten classrooms in low-income communities throughout the U.S. Each collection includes 50 hard-bound books with themes related to African-American, Asian, Hispanic, and Native American children.

The campaign includes the new RIF Leading to Reading website. This interactive site offers stories, nursery rhymes, and other activities for grown-ups to experience together with young children. I especially liked the activity calendar just for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. (RIF also has a montly family activity calendar for older children on their main website.)

The site is offered both in English and in Spanish. And while it’s still under construction, it’s another great resource for parents from the folks at RIF.

The topic for this week’s Denver Post haiku contest is FIREWORKS.

The deadline is midnight Thursday (Denver time). Send your one stanza (5-7-5) haiku to lifestyle@denverpost.com or go online at www.denverpost.com/haiku to enter. (You can also read everyone else’s entries there.)

The weekly winner will win a $25 gift certificate to the Tattered Cover bookstore.

GOOD LUCK!

For Father’s Day, we went to a Colorado Rockies baseball game. One of the things I enjoy about attending a live game is that you can hear the music the players pick when they come up at bat. (I assume that all ballparks play music for the home team players.)

I always wonder what song I would pick if I was one of the players. So inspired by baseball, here’s this week’s writing invitation.

JoeSportsFan.com gives The Best and Worst of Batting Music (warning: adult language). So have fun with a "worst of" list, too.

While you’re brainstorming, why not have a baseball themed snack?

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I’m reading Healing Night: The Science and Spirit of Sleeping, Dreaming, and Awakening. Author Rubin R. Naiman explains how the erosion of night (darkness) by artificial light is one of the things contributing to sleep disorders like insomnia. I’m one of those people who like a dimly lit room and am constantly turning off the lights my family turns on. Still there’s nothing like going camping or into the countryside away from the town lights, and observing stars, planets and meteor showers with your family.

Sometimes it’s impossible to leave the city. Instead, you may want to try sleeping on the roof like the little girl in At Night who needs the night sky to help her fall asleep. Written and illustrated by Jonathan Bean, the book will be released in late July/early August by children’s book publisher Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Two other wonderful books that deal with night come from Sylvan Dell Publishing. Influenced by Native American folktales, How The Moon Regained Her Shape deals with bullying, self-confidence, and understanding the phases of the moon. The "Creative Minds" section explains the phases of the moon and helps to answerquestions like "Why does the shape of the moon change? Moon crafts and games are also included.

Pieces Of Another World is the story of a father and child’s nighttime excursion to watch a meteor shower. The "For Creative Minds" section is loaded with information about meteors and meteor showers. While I loved the artwork in How The Moon Regained Her Shape, Pieces Of Another World struck a cord with me. I really loved how the father took his daughter on a surprise trip to share something as magical as a meteor shower. Not only is this a book about appreciating nature, but it’s about father-daughter bonding, too.

Pieces Of Another World comes with a recipe for Comet Cookies. It’s a little messy, but it sounds like a bit of delicious, educational fun.

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The topic for this week’s Denver Post haiku contest is road trips. The deadline is midnight Thursday (Denver time). Send your one stanza (5-7-5) haiku to lifestyle@denverpost.com or go online at www.denverpost.com/haiku to enter it or. The weekly winner will win a $25 gift certificate to the Tattered Cover bookstore.

(Thanks the Seattle Edible Book Festival blog for the photograph of Lauralee Smith’s Peep Haiku – it’s 5-7-5 – get it?)

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Last Fall a reader asked for book suggestions for a young relative who was being raised by an aunt and uncle. While there were a lot of books available about adopted children, there weren’t many books that related to parental loss and foster parenting. I had a few suggestions, but when I read Home Now by Lesley Beake (Charlesbridge children’s book publishers) I immediately thought about this reader and her request.

Devastated by the loss of her parents to AIDS, Sieta comes to accept her new home after meeting an orphaned baby elephant with memories like her own. While Home Now is specifically about the AIDS crisis in Africa (there is an endnote explaining the effects of AIDS on many African families) this book will help any child who’s been taken away from his or her parents due to drugs, neglect or illness, and placed with a relative or foster family.

Today’s writing invitation number one comes from Kane/Miller’s Could You? Would You? A book to tickle your imagination. Author Trudy White presents a book of questions to get kids laughing, thinking, talking, drawing, writing and exploring the world. (The planned book release date is September 30, 2007.)

Trudy’s illustrations are whimsical and her questions are clever. She asks questions like, "Where will people live in the future?" which have the potential to make children write, discuss, and draw for hours.

If you like doing writing prompts or just want to have a fun book for discussion, go over to Amazon.com and reserve your copy today.

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