Love of Reading

One of the best children's book review sites around is Just One More Book.  Last year Mark and Andrea put out a call for folks to send in illustrations for a Love of Reading Gallery.  Isaac, Grace, and Lily wanted in on the fun and worked up these illustrations for the gallery.



Love For Reading
by Gracie at age 7

Made with cut paper (snazzy cut paper!)



Critters Reading
by Lily at age 5

A bird, a snake, and a sitting duck



Just One More Book
by Isaac at age 9

Mmmmm... Gators love books...


I thought I'd also take a moment to mention that my love for Just One More Book directly lead to the creation of Bookie Woogie.  They have a feature where anyone can call into their hotline and leave a message telling about your favorite book.  I thought the kids would really enjoy doing this, but since it's a real-time recorded call, I figured we'd have to practice lots first.  I remembered back to a Christmas letter years earlier that I had put together with the family in an interview format, and was bemoaning the fact that it couldn't work that way... record it all and type up the best bits afterward.  Then I thought, hey we could do that.  And that would actually be fun!  We could do it on a regular basis!  Start our own blog!  And thus... Bookie Woogie was born.  And that is how most things work with me... simple ideas snowball into huge, complex endeavors.  What could have been a quick one-time phone call is now instead an ongoing weekly lengthy production!

Thanks Just One More Book for your fantastic podcast and also for the inspiration!  And we'll get around to leaving that phone message someday...

(For a taste of Just One More Book, you might want to check out the review of this book written by some guy.)

Take a pick

When Isaac was 9, he made this game for us:

The large image is a detail of which animal?  The giraffe, the pigeon, or the rhino?  Take a guess and then scroll down to see if you are right!



Did you pick one? Find the correct answer below...

5

4

3

2

1


It's the pigeon wearing a mask!

For the Birds

Author/Illustrator Mo Willems often puts fan art on his great blog (now see here). Kids send him their ideas for new pigeon books... he even turned it into a big event with his last book's release. A couple years ago the Z-Kids were inspired to think up their own "Pigeon" titles. Here's some of the fun ideas they came up with:


The Pigeon Finds a Sabertooth Mouse
Gracie at age 6



Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Tank
Isaac at age 8



The Pigeon Finds Some Friends
Lily at age 4



Another one by Gracie:
The Pigeon Finds a Rocket
(Dad loves the beak on the pigeon rocket! And the curtains in the window...)