1 comments about Straight from the Heart: A Make-Your-Own Valentine Card Kit (Pretty Simple Stuff).

1. The kit supplied several sheets of patterned paper that could be used to make Valentines. It also offered stickers, as well as guidelines for creative Valentine's Cards. I was very pleased with it, and I thought that the price was just right.

No comments about Dad's Night Before Christmas (Night Before Christmas (Gibbs)).

1 comments about Only My Mom and Me.

1. As a single mom, the title of this book caught my eye. It has become part of a nightly routine for me and my 3 year old. The illustrations are just beautiful and lend themselves to lots of further discussion and conversation. This is such a sweet and lovely book. My daughter loves to say "...only my mom and me" :)

3 comments about The Magic Dreidels: A Hanukkah Story.

1. Eric Kimmel has done it again! The author of the now-classic "Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins" adds another feather to his multi-plumed hat with this delightful adaptation of the old folktale "The Table, the Donkey, and the Stick." Marvelous for storytelling--the jewel-like illustrations are worth the price of admission--, this lovely tale is pure delight for children of all backgrounds and traditions



2. All of Jacob's family is getting ready for Hanukkah. But Jacob is not. When his family asks him to go and get some water from the well, he brought his dreidel and he lost it. He forgot to get the water. He got magic dreidels but he was tricked and somebody else ended up with them. But then he got a magic dreidel and the person who stole them gave them back because the magic dreidel had bad stuff in it. Then when he got the magic dreidels, they spun gelt and latkes. The family had to share with other families. It is a good book.



3. Jacob refused to help prepare for Hanukkah, preferring instead to play with his new brass dreidel. He was sent for water and by accident, droped his dreidel into the well. Like the boy in Freya Littledale's Peter and the North Wind, another rendition of "The Tablecloth, the Donkey, and the Stick," Jacob met a magician, in this case a mischievous goblin who lived in the well and gave him a magic dreidel that spun out potato latkes.

   Like Peter, Jacob also met a jealous old thief--here, the archetypal Fruma Sarah--who tricked him into giving her the dreidel. When he got home and told his mother the wonderful tale, his dreidel naturally no longer spun magic. Jacob returned to the well three times, each time receiving magic gifts from the friendly goblin. How he finally dealt with Fruma Sarah I cannot tell. But readers large and small will finish this book as joyfully as all the characters in it, including Fruma Sarah.

   The illustrations, including a goat and various other floating creatures and objects, spin magic evocative of Chagall's eastern European blue. Alyssa A. Lappen

No comments about Memorial Day (True Books).

2 comments about Count On Clifford (cuenta Con Cliff Ord) (Clifford).

1. This book not only teaches to count, but to add as well. I love the Clifford series and my 3-yr old does too. We own these books in Spanish and it's a great series to have.



2. My daughter loves these books and I love having versions in both Spanish and English. We have about 30 Clifford books and I never tire of reading them over and over.

No comments about Wild Thornberrys Holiday Joke Book (Wild Thornberrys Digest Humor).

No comments about Cinco de Mayo: Yesterday and Today.

1 comments about Puerto Rico (Festivals of the World).

1. "Puerto Rico," by Erin Foley, is part of the "Festivals of the World" book series. Geared towards younger readers, the book is richly illustrated with many full-color photographs. Foley includes an overview of Puerto Rico and its people. Other topics covered include patron saints' festivals, the Calle San Sebastian festival, Three Kings Day, the Puerto Rican Day parade in New York City, salsa music, traditional dance, musical instruments, and more.

   The book includes a map, glossary, and index. Also included are a recipe for besitos de coco (a kind of sweet) and instructions on making a vejigante mask (a traditional festival mask). The visual appeal of this book is outstanding, and the information in it is, on the whole, well presented.

1 comments about Halloween Day (Trophy Picture Books).

1. It's Halloween day and what a magical day it is for the students. It's that one day a year where they dress up in costume and go to school. It's the magic of figuring out who is who under that costume and seeing that child's current passion at this stage in their lives!
   
   The book starts out with a little girl adjusting her black cat ears in her hair and thinks to herself how excited she is about wearing her halloween costume to school. What will her classmates have choosen to wear on this day? On the next page it shows her class lining up for their costume parade around the school and how some of us look beautiful and scary, but how everyone looks great. The book goes on to show how certain children in her class went about picking out their costume and even shows their teacher Mrs. Madoff spying her costume she will wear.. but you really have to look!
   
   I remember the excitement of going to school dressed up in my mostly home made & purchased halloween costume. How we all loved to parade around the school showing each other our costumes and best of all the party that ended the day! I love that the author choose to have children of different nationalities in the class, so that your child might identify with one of them.... hey mom that looks like me or I love dressing up as......, what a wonderful book to share with your child.