A DOG AND A BEAR

More than once, I have been reminded of another furry friend when our Yorkshire Terrier, Sebastian, stares up at me with his bright, black eyes. Took me forever to figure out exactly who he was reminding me of - that is, until last night...

We had just finished dinner and were still sitting at the kitchen table when Sebastian popped his little head up over the back of the couch (about ten feet away from us) to see what we were up to. And it came to me: he's Paddington Bear!!!!

So today I've decided to tell you about the fun Paddington Bear books by Michael Bond...

The series starts with A BEAR CALLED PADDINGTON, as the Brown family finds him in a London train station. He has a tag around his neck that says, "Please look after this Bear." They take him home and the adventures begin! Paddington - like Sebastian - is constantly getting into mischief. But he always makes friends along the way with his innocent and sweet personality.

Paddington Bear has charmed readers with his fun misadventures and love of marmalade since 1958. The original series consists of 11 chapter books for ages 4-7. (Many new shorter stories have been written as board books for little ones, but for the true charm of the stories, make sure you try the originals when your children are old enough to pay attention to chapter books.)

Go to http://www.paddingtonbear.com/, the Official Paddington Bear Website, for a list of all the books and some fun activities for kids.

THE VERY BUSY AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR!

I can't blog about the world of preschool/early elementary picture books without focusing on another author/illustrator of countless favorites: Eric Carle. His books are educational - full of science, counting, and lessons to be learned - while maintaining a sense of humor and wonder. His use of language and beautiful collage art for young children is unmatched, especially when you consider the number of books he's done! Many stimulate a child's sense of touch, sight, and sound with their unique design. His works were all favorites of our three children (and have spanned 4 decades!):

DREAM SNOW (toddlers and up will love the gimmicks in this holiday counting story.)

THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR (is full of holes, as the caterpillar eats his way through the book!)

FROM HEAD TO TOE (toddlers and preschoolers can answer the question, "can you do it?", by mimicking the animals' movements.)

THE VERY BUSY SPIDER (has a raised web to touch)

THE GROUCHY LADYBUG (kids will learn concepts of time, size, shape, and manners - as well as discover what aphids are!)

THE TINY SEED (kids learn about science and nature in the story of a seed).

THE MIXED-UP CHAMELEON (this chameleon not only changes color, but its shape and size as well!)

PAPA, PLEASE GET THE MOON FOR ME (children will be introduced to the monthly lunar cycle, in this sweet simple story with lavish illustrations.)

THE VERY LONELY FIREFLY (there's a surprise on the last page, as the firefly seeks companionsip)

THE VERY QUIET CRICKET (children love the special ending, when the cricket is no longer so quiet!)
THE VERY CLUMSY CLICK BEETLE (with a "click" and a message of "never give up".)

A HOUSE FOR HERMIT CRAB (a story about finding comfort in change.)

MISTER SEAHORSE (striking art and camouflage - and a tribute to fathers!)

PANCAKES, PANCAKES! (Jack is determined to go to great lengths to have pancakes for his breakfast.)

THE SECRET BIRTHDAY MESSAGE (your child will follow an adventure of using a coded message to find a birthday surprise at the end of the story.)

TEACHERS/MOMS:

Make art projects "Eric Carle Style -YOU CAN MAKE A COLLAGE: A VERY SIMPLE HOW TO BOOK by Klutz Press and Eric Carle.

or go to: www.eric-carle.com/EricCarleCollageMakingInstructionSheet.pdf

Please, Please, Please Don’t Go!

The Clevelanders crying it on billboards, in song, in letters, in petitions and more, whatever the format, the message from Cleveland fans is just the same: Dear LeBron James, please don't go. Please, please, please don't go.

From the hard-luck city on the shores of Lake Erie is very much trying to show its NBA superstar (LeBron James) that, with free agency threatening July 1, the best mark for him is right up the road from his hometown of Akron, Ohio, the town where he's played for seven seasons as a Cleveland Cavalier and gain two MVP awards.

And in the wake up of an inexplicable early departure from the playoffs a six-game series failure to the Boston Celtics the grass roots crusade has taken on not just a new pressure but the sense of a last chance. Without LeBron James, after all, the chances of Cleveland breaking its 46-year title less streak in major pro sports don't seem too good.

Austin Briggs of Cleveland Heights, 23-year-old and co-founder of the Web site pleasedontleave23.com said "He's a hometown guy. We definitely want to put that on his conscience.”

Yet before the playoffs, fans had assisted fund a banner near the home of the Cavs, showing James through his life with the words "Born Here. Raised Here. Plays Here. Stays Here."
However if Clevelanders think showing a little public pride will be enough to romance LeBron, they better think again.

Eclipsing Suns Hope to Shine Again in Phoenix

The Phoenix Suns were left damaged and baffled after losing their second successive game to the rolling Los Angeles Lakers in the best-of-seven Western Conference finals series on Wednesday.

Regardless of delivering more than 100 points in each of the first two encounters in Los Angeles, the Phoenix Suns have been powerless to cope with the versatility of their bigger opponents.

"We are just having a hard time," as Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry told to the reporters after his boys were beaten 124-112 at the Staples Center in game 2. "We can't slow them down, he added.

In Monday's series opening, Lakers All-Star guard Kobe Bryant mocked the Suns as he piled up 40 points in a sensational master class to help the NBA champions to a devastating 128-107 victory.

On Wednesday, Kobe Bryant become the catalyst, recording a playoff-high 13 assists as Spain’s pride forward Pau Gasol merged and drove his way through the Suns defense for a personal total of 29 points.

Gentry said “You do an enormous job on Kobe, and I thought we did it tonight, and then they go to Pau,". "As we double-team Pau and there's Lamar on the other side of the pocket. And we get it out of Lamar's hand; Jordan Farmar exists and makes shots.

TWO AUTHORS LIVING UNCONVENTIONAL LIVES AS ARTISTS AND HOMESTEADERS IN NEW ENGLAND

There are two very successful women author/illustrators whose endearing children's books were a result of their rather unconventional lifestyles as artists and homesteaders in New England in the mid 1900's. Unlike the glamorous Hollywood women of movies and television, these mothers lived a rural lifestyle of gardening, raising sheep, cooking, sewing, nurturing their children, and painting. The first is Virginia Lee Burton. The second is Tasha Tudor.

Virgina Lee Burton, after writing for her high school newspaper, winning a scholarship to the California School of Fine Arts and Design, and taking ballet class, ended up going to Boston Museum School of Fine Arts and enrolling in drawing classes. She married her teacher, George Demetrios, a sculptor, and moved to Folly Cove in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Besides her full life of country living, music, dance, and friends, Burton began writing and illustrating for children and said that most of her subject material came directly from things she had seen or experienced in her own life. She would sketch her book illustrations in her studio first and then write the text. Her son said, "As my mother wrote...she read portions to me, my brother, and a handful of other neighborhood children, to test it out...she knew she had the right text when all the kids were attentive until the end."

Tasha Tudor, on the other hand, drew her sketches first and then made up the stories to go with them. She also lived in New England. She resided first in a farmhouse in New Hampshire and later in Vermont, in a world of her own creation. Her drawings reflected her surroundings of a life that would have been lived in the mid 1800's: she spun and wove flax into cloth, sewed her own wardrobe of long dresses and skirts, cooked on a wood-burning stove, dipped her own candles, kept an orchard, flower and vegetable garden, geese and ducks, and milked her own goats.

Tudor, like Burton, attended Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. She wrote and illustrated close to 100 children's books, two of which received Caldecott Medals - MOTHER GOOSE, (1945) and 1 IS ONE (1957). Her pictures are old fashioned and enchanting, painted in soft colors, with lots of animals and children in country farm scenes.

Unlike Tudor's style, Burton's art is bright, detailed, and symmetrical. It often features large - female - machines (such as the steam shovel Mary Anne, the cable car Maybelle, and Katy the tractor) and humanized objects (like the Little House) which must survive industrial growth and challenges. Her book The Little House won a Caldecott Medal in 1942.

Besides working on her books, Virginia Lee also taught lessons in art and textile design to her neighbors. Out of this came the Folly Cove Designers, who went on to become a nationally known artistic community in the tradition of the Arts and Crafts Movement!

Tasha Tudor went on to illustrate Christmas and Valentine cards, as well as calendars. She brought to life with her pictures several stories by other famous authors...including, The Wind in the Willows, The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, and A Child's Garden of Verses. These books would not be the same without her enchanting illustrations!

For a detailed account of the life of Virginia Lee Burton, who died of cancer at the age of 60, look for the book A LIFE IN ART, by Barbara Elleman. For more information on Tasha Tudor, her books, and her legacy (she died at the age of 92), go to http://www.tashatudorandfamily.com/, or read THE PRIVATE WORLD OF TASHA TUDOR, by Tasha Tudor and Richard Brown .

Books by Virginia Lee Burton: CHOO, CHOO; MIKE MULLIGAN AND HIS STEAM SHOVEL; CALICO THE WONDER HORSE, OR THE SAGA OF STEWY STINKER; THE LITTLE HOUSE; KATY AND THE BIG SNOW; MAYBELLE THE CABLE CAR; and LIFE STORY.

Some books by Tasha Tudor: PUMPKIN MOONSHINE; 1 IS ONE; A IS FOR ANABELLE; THE DOLLS' CHRISTMAS; CORGIVILLE FAIR; AMY'S GOOSE; AROUND THE YEAR; BECKY'S BIRTHDAY; FIRST POEMS OF CHILDHOOD; FIRST PRAYERS; TASHA TUDOR'S FIVE SENSES; TAKE JOY! THE TASHA TUDOR CHRISTMAS BOOK.

Lakers Squash Suns In Game 1

Yet on a troubled knee, Kobe Bryant had NP giving the Los Angeles Lakers an early opening in the Western Conference showdown.

Bryant makes 40 points, Lamar Odom added 19 points and 19 boards, and the Lakers opened the series with merciless offensive competence in a 128-107 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Monday night.

Spain cager Pau Gasol made 21 points for the top-seeded Lakers, who won their seventh straight playoff game and shattered the Suns' six-game streak with a phenomenal second half highlighted by Bryant's 21-point third quarter.

The defending NBA champions bang the third-seeded Suns at their own uptempo game when necessary, gracefully running the court to set up baskets for Bryant in his sixth straight 30-point game. Kobe Bryant then rested his tender knee for most of the fourth quarter in the 11th 40-point game of his playoff career.

Moreover, Amare Stoudemire scored 23 points and Steve Nash contributes 13 points and 13 assists for the Suns, who hadn't lost since April 24. Robin Lopez started at center and makes 14 points in his playoff debut, but Phoenix Suns couldn't keep up with the champs in its first conference finals appearance since 2006.

PICTURE BOOK AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR HIGHLIGHT: DON AND AUDREY WOOD

As a follow up to my last post about read-alouds for preschoolers, there is one particular author/illustrator team that I'd like to devote a whole entry to. They have added immensely to the world of children's picture books with their use of wit, language, imagination, and art.

I'm referring to Don and Audrey Wood. This husband and wife team have penned and illustrated several beautiful and original children's books that your home library should not be without! Here are some favorite standouts:

THE LITTLE MOUSE, THE RED RIPE STRAWBERRY, AND THE BIG HUNGRY BEAR (ages 3-5)  A fun way to learn about anticipation. The child you're reading to will get very drawn into both the story and the bold, colorful artwork!

THE NAPPING HOUSE, ages 4-5 (the Woods' own home was the model for the house in their book!) The "napping" takes place at the beginning, as opposed to the end, of this delightful, rolicking story about a sleeping granny and all the characters who join in her nap. Wait until you read how it ends up!

HECKEDY PEG, ages 4-7 (lucious artwork and the authors' personal favorite collaboration) A mother must rescue her children (who are named for the days of the week) from a mean witch, by guessing what each child has been turned into. A beautifully illustrated, original folktale.

KING BIDGOOD'S IN THE BATHTUB, (ages 4-8)  Hilarious tale, in which members of the King's court - in Elizabethan costume - try to coax their sovereign to come out of the tub and rule his kingdom. (Several characters are modeled after the Woods and members of their family. Don Wood won a Caldecott Medal for his lavish illustrations in this book) .

Their son, Bruce Robert Wood, has also recently illustrated a series of "Alphabet" books, written by his mother, Audrey. Quite a talented family!