Friday, April 4, 2008

Garbage, Friday Book Review - Gardening Part 2, The Big Read, and Sweet Husbands

Before I start my regularly scheduled book review. I will review a few of our favorite garbage books in out of respect for a local blogger who's had quite the time with her garbage as of late. Warning, her blog entry is for adults only.

Garbage Collectors by Paulette Bourgeois
The boys like this story about garbage collectors (one of them is a woman) and how they help a woman retrieve her glasses before they get compacted. It is pretty informative about where the garbage goes after it leaves the can. I like for the kids to be aware of people who collect the garbage and that it doesn't magically disappear.

Garbage Can Cat by Joan Austin Geier
This book is from my childhood. I had a lot of books, but most of them are probably lost in the abyss of my parent's garage and I'm not sure how it came to be that this one is actually in my possession because it wasn't a particular favorite of mine. It is cute and the boys enjoy it about a cat who prefers to be free living among the garbage cans than in an apartment. I guess it is more about the cat than garbage, but we really don't have a lot of books about garbage around the house unless you want to count our recycling books. Hmm...

Which reminds me that I have already blogged about how you can recycle your used vibrator
(go down to the end of the post) just so we can come full circle again.

Now without further ado...

Friday Book Review (gardenin
g part 2):

Children's Books:

To bridge from garbage to the topic at hand, I'll say you should check out Garden's from Garbage.

Zinnia: How the Corn Was Saved by Patricia Hruby Powell
This is a Navajo story about how the crops failed and a boy is sent on a quest to find out how to save their crops. I like how the story is written in English and Navajo and the illustrations are great. The author lives in our fair town so that is an added bonus. We also enjoy her Frog Brings Rain book.

In the Garden (First Discovery Look and Learn Books)
We have several in this series and we like the lift the flap style (but not the lots of flaps in some books, it is just like a page which is longer and turned over). The kids love reading about the different flora and fauna found in a garden. The pictures are very realistic.

Good Morning, Garden by Barbara Brenner
Simple, but engaging book. We follow a child as she says hello to everything living in the garden (plants and animals).

Wildflower ABC by Diana Pomeroy
An alphabet book with potato prints of wildflowers. Fun for the kids to learn the names of the flowers, beautiful pictures, and more information about the wildflowers at the end.

Apples Here! by Will Hubbell
I bought this book at a local bookstore on campus while I was waiting for Rob to find something years ago and I noticed this on sale because it had been returned. The story follows the cycle of an apple from bud to blossom, to being eaten.

Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden by George Levenson
Follow the cycle of a pumpkin seed in this great book with wonderful pictures. This seems more like a fall book for me, but it is one of my favorite gardening books for kids. Both boys really enjoy this one and Dema in particular is very excited about growing pumpkins this year.

Pick, Pull, Snap! by Lola Schaefer
Another great book showing how things grow with pretty illustrations.

Speaking of books...

Locally, the town is abuzz with the The Big Read so Rob and are going to read Tolstoy to each other every night after Dema goes to bed. I really like Tolstoy and am enjoying learning more about him on local radio programs and other Big Read events.

Speaking of sweet husbands...

I was delighted to find a Billy Collins book at my door today, The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems, because my dear husband actually reads my blog. Awww! He is very sweet and thoughtful.

2 comments:

Loretta said...

We have Apples Here, too, and Kieran loves it. And every time we get to the page with the kids climbing in the apple tree he points to them and says "Parker a big boy doesn't fall out of the tree" lol! I'm always amazed by the things that he remembers!
I'm definitely going to check out some of the other books in this post for Kieran. He is really into learning about how things grow--his favorite book right now is Eric Carle's 'The Tiny Seed.' I think we read it at least ten times every day.

VeganLinda said...

Loretta,

How funny! Kieran is wonderful! I do like Eric Carle too, but I don't think we have The Tiny Seed...I'll check it out.