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As promised, some last minute book gift ideas for the youngsters.

Two Baby to Preschool from Kane/Miller Books

Sophie’s Big Bed - Even though she’s been sleeping in a big girl bed for years, my daughter really enjoyed this book by Tina Burke. If you’re trying to transition your child from crib to bed, this is a wonderful book to read together. A Kane/Miller book.

The Spider and the Bee - Author Michele Shen wrote this simple parable to help explain “why parents sometimes live apart.” This is a gentle, quiet book, sized to fit little hands, and written to explain divorce in a way the very young will understand. From Kane/Miller.

For Ages Four to Eight

1001 Stories - I really enjoyed reading this book with Lucie, though it took most of the night to do so. So be forewarned! By Lila Prap, this Kane/Miller book starts out traditionally, but after that watch out! The reader is in charge when favorite fairy tales are put together in a way so you decide what what happens next. It’s really a never ending tale, so figure out how long you want to spend on it before getting into bed with your child to read. You may be there until YOU doze off. 

And What Comes After a Thousand? - By Anette Bley, this quiet, gentle, heartwarming book is meant to be share. It’s first about love and friendship between a granddaughter and her grandfather. And then it’s about loss and death. A good book for a child whose grandparent may be ill and dying or one who has passed away. Be warned that this very frank book will bring tears to your eyes. It did for me. A Kane/Miller book.

Bobbie Dazzler - From Australian author Margaret Wild comes a story about Bobbie, an energetic red-necked wallaby, who can hop and skip and bounce. But, she can’t do the splits. Bobbie Dazzler celebrates children’s small achievements and the value of friendship. Another wonderful Kane/Miller book.

Little Skink’s Tail - Written by Janet Halfmann and olustrated by Laurie Allen Klein, this story follows Little Skink will she hunts yummy ants for breakfast. Suddenly she’s attacked by a crow, and escapes by snapping off her tail! Little Skink is happy to be alive, but she misses her bright blue tail. She daydreams of having the tails of other animals in the forest and tries on tail after tail. Like all books from Sylvan Dell Publishing, the book comes with a “For Creative Minds” section with information on tail adaptations and communications and a mix-and-match tail activity. Check out the Sylvan Dell website for Teaching Activities, Learning Links, and a downloadable For Creative Minds (PDF).

The Mats - By Francisco Arcellana, this book is a discussion starter on the subject of death and those who are gone but not far from our hearts. In this tale, Marcelina’s father comes home from a trip to Manila with beautiful hand-made sleeping mats for each member of his large family, including the three daughters who died when they were very young. A Kane/Miller book.

New York: The Empire State - Planning a trip to New York this summer? Mother and daughter co-authors, Margery Facklam and Peggy Thomas, explore their home state region by region, offering historical accounts, natural history facts, and sightseeing suggestions. From Charlesbridge Publishing.

My Even Day - The Slyvan Dell Publishing followup to Doris Fisher’s One Odd Day, we follow a young boy through another strange day, but now everything is even, and his mom has two heads! Your kids will enjoy looking for all the hidden objects in the book’s art. And you’ll learn more “number fun” in the “For Creative Minds” section. Go to the Sylvan Dell website for the downloadable For Creative Minds (PDF), Teaching Activities, and Learning Links.

Selma By Jutta Bauer, this little book asks: What is happiness?  For Selma the sheep, the answer is easy. Happiness is eating grass, playing with her children, exercising, eating a little more grass, chatting with her neighbor, and a good night sleep. But what if Selma had more time? What if she won the lottery? Adults will enjoy this one - and learn a little, too. From the folks at Kane/Miller.

Don’t Forget the Big Kids (Ages Nine to 12)

Ox, House, Stick: The Story of Our Alphabet - By Don Robb and illustrated in bold collage style by Anne Smith, the book traces the origins of our alphabet from the proto-Sinaitic peoples, through the Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans. Also included is sidebar information on punctuation, writing materials, the technology of printing, and more. From Charlesbridge Publishing.

As promised, some last minute book gift ideas for preteens and teenagers. Enjoy!

Fashion

The Tokyo Look Book: Stylish To Spectacular, Goth To Gyaru, Sidewalk To Catwalk - This is a great book for fans of fashion and style. Crammed with full-color photographs of Tokyo’s trendy teens and twenty-somethings captured as they work and play, author Philomena Keet shows us the richly varied fashion scenes that thrive in Tokyo from the “gal” mecca of Shibuya, to the goths and cosplayers who hang out on Jingubashi bridge on Sundays. My only disappointment with this book is that it didn’t feature the thriving Japanese rockabilly and swing scenes. Those cool cats and kittens have the best vintage ’40s and ’50s clothes in the world.

Emotions - Friendship, Grief, Growing Up, and Other (Pre)Teen Angst (Fiction)

Anything But Ordinary - Valerie Hobbs’s YA novel captures a young couple’s search for independence and identity. Winifred and Bernie are two individualists in a romantic relationship with each other. So, they send off for the same college catalogs, promising never to separate.  But Bernie’s mother dies. He drops out of school and goes to work in a tire shop. Winifred’s at the University of California at Santa Barbara growing up. Both have gone through drastic changes. Can they rediscover their true selves and true love?

Fab Girls Guide to Friendship Hardship - This is the first book in a new series from the creators of Discovery Girls magazine featuring Carmen and Dallas Fabrulezziano (the Fab Girls), twins who appear throughout the books to help guide girls through those difficult middle school years.

Fair Has Nothing to Do With It - By Cynthia Cotten for ages nine to 12, this book dramatically shows grief from the viewpoint of a child. Far from being sentimental, the story shows the character as he swings from denial to anger to sorrow, and finally to acceptance. The easy, casual dialogue between the boy and his relative reinforces the idea that his grandfather will always be in the child’s memories. An excellent book for discussion.

How Ya Like Me Now - By Brendan Halpin, this YA (young adult) novel is about finding your place and looking out for your friends. Warning: this book deals with drug addiction (the mom’s).

History

Betsy Ross’s Star - One of the Blast to the Past books by Stacia Deutsch and Rhody Cohon for ages nine to 12. Learn the truth about the creation of the American flag and Betsy Ross.

Holidays

Christine Kringle - This fun Christmas book by Lynn Brittney explores the lives and working practices of the World’s Christmas Gift Bringers and how the daughter of Kriss Kringle of the USA and her friends save Christmas from extinction in England. For more about the book check out the Christine Kringle website.

More Fiction

Into the Ravine - For ages nine to 12, this novel by Richard Scrimger is about two 13-year-olds who take a day trip by themselves. On their way, the boys meet with a series of adventures that are funny at first glance but resonate deeply. They rescue a diabolical dog, confront a hydrophobic gang, and survive a waterfall. They are bombarded by bicycles, hoodwinked by hobos, and bewitched by bikinis. By accident, they crash a funeral, and, by design, they crash a pool party — with tragic results.

Rex Zero and the End of the World - For ages nine to 12, this novel by Tim Wynne-Jones explores the impact of doomsday and the apocalypse  on the imagination of one smart and funny twelve-year-old boy.

Congratulations to Tasha at the Life of the Riley’s blog. She won the holiday gift basket of children’s books. As a mother of two handsome young boys, I’m sure she’ll put them to good use.

Also, I want to thank everyone for entering and participating in my contest. I had over 70 entries, which makes it my most successful contest ever! I’m sure the publisher, Little, Brown and Company, will be thrilled.

They’ll be offering me more goodies to give away in the spring. So stay in touch!

If you’re stuck for last minute ideas, hit your local bookstore for some books, videos and CDs. Online retailers like Amazon can help get gifts quickly to out-of-state friends and relatives. (Thank goodness for overnight shipping.) And videos - easily available at your local supermarket or video store - are great holiday gifts for the whole family. You could even download some music at Amazon or iTunes and burn a CD or pre-load it on an MP3 player.

I have a lot of items to recommend, so I’m breaking it up into three posts. This one will cover the whole family, and Christmas and Hanukkah books. My next posts will cover great gift books for middle schoolers and teens. The final holiday gift post will be book recommendations for young children.

For the Whole Family

Books - The Poets’ Corner: The One-and-Only Poetry Book for the Whole Family - Compiled by John Lithgow, the wide variety of carefully selected poems in this book provides the perfect introduction to appeal to readers new to poetry, and for poetry lovers to experience beloved verses in a fresh, vivid way. The book comes with a bonus MP3 CD of revelatory poetry readings by John and the familiar voices of such notable performers such as Kathy Bates, Glenn Close, Gary Sinise, and Sam Waterston. You’ll enjoy reciting or listening to these poems with the entire family.

Cookbooks - Cooking is a great way to get the whole family together and involved in something fun. I’ve updated my right sidebar with some of the best family cookbooks out there. The Usborne Books items may be difficult to get through Amazon. Instead, order directly through the company’s website. Bon appetit!

Music - For The Kids Three is a MP3 music download available on Amazon.com. From Nettwerk Music Group it’s a unique collection of contemporary and original children’s songs performed by everyone from the Barenaked Ladies to Moby. Wow, kids music that won’t drive you crazy! A portion of the proceeds will benefit the VH1 Save the Music Foundation.

Video - One family-friendly movie to rent or buy is Arctic Tale. Rated G and set in the vast snow kingdom at the top of the world, Arctic Tale is a real life adventure from the people who brought you March Of The Penguins. Join narrator Queen Latifah as she follows two very different arctic creatures, Nanu, the polar bear cub and Seela, the walrus pup, through their struggles for survival.

For teens and adults there’s My So-Called Life - The Complete Series (with book). This short lived, realistic mid-nineties teen drama series starred Claire Danes. The show took a look at a 15-year-old girl and her trials and tribulations with being a teenager and dealing with friends, guys, parents and school.

Need some other movie ideas? Check out the following reviews on my blog, A Mama’s Rant:

• High School Musical 2
• Mr. Bean’s Holiday
• Meet the Robinsons
• The Jungle Book
• Disney Princess Enchanted Tales

Continue Reading »

I got this recipe from Tears’n'Tantrums and I had to share. I’ll be using this for the holiday bake sale at my children’s school. The nice thing about fudge is that it’s hard to screw up, though I’ve managed to do so with the pumpkin pie fudge I made at Thanksgiving. This recipe is much better - lots more detail about how long to boil it, etc.

The nice thing about fudge is that it keeps and travels well. And if you leave the nuts out of it, almost anyone can eat it.

Eggnog Fudge

Ingredients:

1. 1/8 cup butter, chilled
2. 3 cups sugar
3. 1 cup eggnog
4. 6 ounces white chocolate chips
5. 1 1/2 cup mini-marshmallows
6. 1 cup almonds, chopped (or other nut)
7. 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
8. 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Line a 9 x 9-inch cake pan with aluminum foil and set aside.
2. Spray the sides of a large saucepan with butter-flavor non-stick spray.
3. Add the eggnog and sugar, and bring to a rolling boil over medium to medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Boil for two full minutes.
4. Fold in the marshmallows, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Bring back to a rolling boil for another 6 minutes, stirring constantly.
5. The mixture will start to turn brown, which is normal, but if you see brown flakes in the mixture then turn down the heat a little.
6. Remove from heat and add the butter, chips, and nuts. Stir until thoroughly mixed or until the mixture starts to lose its glossy appearance. Pour into prepared pan.
7. Cool at room temperature. Remove from pan, remove foil, cut into 1-inch squares.

While you’re waiting for the fudge to cool, stop by my Win a Holiday Gift Basket of Children’s Books contest. You have until December 12 at midnight to enter!