Review: Journal Buddies: A Girl's Journal for Sharing and Celebrating Magnificence

By Susie Cortright

Parenting during these "tween" years is more complicated than I had imagined. My daughter and I are still close, but her friends are starting to play an increasingly large role in her life. I want to help her understand the importance of creating friendships that nurture her, as well as helping her to see how much of her daily life can be improved simply by focusing on the positive. I'm constantly saying to my kids, "What you focus on expands," and "what you appreciate, appreciates." I'm convinced that this is one of the most important and rewarding lessons a young person can learn.

Jill Schoenberg has written a book for girls ages 8 to 14 that reinforces these ideas. In Journal Buddies: A Girl's Journal for Sharing and Celebrating Magnificence (there's a boy version, too) Schoenberg outlines a method of journaling that is all about focusing on the positive. It guides girls to identify the traits, qualities and talents that they like about themselves and others, because, as Schoenberg explains to her young readers in the book's introduction, when you practice looking for the positive things, it becomes easier to see the positive things.

To help kids comprehend journaling as something that isn't like homework and doesn't even necessarily involve writing, Schoenberg encourages self-expression not just through words but also through drawings, doodles, photos, collages, stickers... anything the child feels most comfortable using to express her ideas. To trigger the creative imagination, the author also includes 89 creative journaling ideas that spark some great insights, from "Research your hero (historical, musical, sports...) and find similarities between your hero and you" to "Imagine the world you wish you could live in right now and write about it or draw a picture of it."

Each of the book's thirty journal entries consists of:

-A "thought for the day"

- A place for the journal keeper and her journal buddy to write down what they like about each other (This journal buddy can be anyone: a parent, teacher, mentor, friend, or sibling, for example, and the journal buddy can change from day to day.)

- A word to focus on for the day (such as "magical," "joy," "possibilities")

- Blank pages for creative self expression

Following the thirty journal entries is a special section for reflection.

When I first picked up this book, I was concerned about the necessity of the Journal Buddy. As an introverted child, I used my journal to write about things that I wouldn't want to share with a buddy. But as I started working with it, I realize that the buddy concept is what sets this book apart. It takes creative journaling to a new level and helps kids recognize and appreciate the positive aspects of one another. The result is a book that the child will treasure as it contains lists of a child's positive traits, as identified by another person - as well as positive traits that the child has identified in her buddies.

In the book's introduction, Schoenberg writes: "If you choose to complete this journal, here's what I think will happen: You'll begin to feel stronger and braver day by day, and your kindness and creativity will expand too. You might even strengthen your character so much that the day will come when you will be able to be kind to anyone, anyplace, regardless of what they are doing. You may also become brave enough to openly share your magnificent self with anyone, anywhere, anytime!"

It's so nurturing when our daughters can build relationships built on kindness and building one another up, particularly at this age. The JournalBuddies.com website features free book excerpts for download, and you can purchase the books directly from the website. Both Journal Buddies titles are also available on amazon.com and bn.com.

Susie Cortright is the founder of Susies-Coupons.com and Momscape.com, a website devoted to helping moms celebrate life with children. Read more about Jill Schoenberg's book or enjoy amazon coupons or Barnes & Noble Coupons from Susie's websites.

Literary festival to celebrate The Wind in the Willows

THE anniversary of Wind in the Willows is going to be celebrated by Henley schools (England) as part of the Literary Festival on September 19th.

Four performances have been organised for the first day of the festival, meaning that around 400 school children will see the event.

Exactly 100 years ago the secretary of the Bank of England put the manuscript of a book into an envelope and sent it off to a firm of publishers. They were unimpressed, and sent it back. He tried again, submitting the book to several other firms. They too rejected it. It was not until October, 1908, and the unexpected intervention of President Roosevelt that Kenneth Grahame’s fifth book, The Wind In The Willows, was finally published.

Read more...

Review: Rose's Journal, The Story of a Girl in the Great Depression

By Suzanne Lieurance

This book lets kids travel back in time to the 1930s with a young girl named Rose who lives on a farm in Kansas during the Great Depression. The pink pages of Rose's journal take readers on a journey to see for themselves just what life was like from month to month on the farm. It also includes information about what was happening across the nation back then. Historical black and white photographs make this journal seem more real and help to give kids a glimpse of just how bleak life was for a girl like Rose.

Rose's Journal is an enjoyable way for young readers to learn about one of the most fascinating periods in American history - when Amelia Earhart made her solo flight from Hawaii to California, yet times were so tough for most Americans that they lived by this motto for making do with what little they had: "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."

The journal is printed on lines which look like notebook paper, as if each page were handwritten by Rose. It includes drawings of important things in Rose's life, like her puppy, the radio (which was a big part of everyone's life back then), and her family, etc. Kids and adults alike will find this to be an entertaining read that leaves them with a good idea of just difficult the Great Depression, dust storms, and droughts must have been for someone like young Rose.

Title: ROSE'S JOURNAL: THE STORY OF A GIRL IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION (A Young American Voices Book)

Author: Marissa Moss

Publisher: Silver Whistle Paperbacks; reprint edition, $7.00

Date: March 2003

ISBN: 0-15-204605-4

Ages: 9-12.

For more children's book reviews, as well as articles of interest to children's writers, visit the National Writing for Children Center at http://www.writingforchildrencenter.com/ and sign up for the mailing list to receive a free e-book for writers.

Suzanne Lieurance is a fulltime freelance writer, children's author, and writing coach. She is also the founder and director of the National Writing for Children Center. Visit her author's website at http://www.suzannelieurance.com

Review: The Monster on Top of the Bed

By Brenda Silver

Title: The Monster on Top of the Bed
Written by: Alan H. Jordan
Illustrated by: Manuela Pentangelo
Performed by: Virginia Castleman
Soft cover: 32 pages

Ages: 3-9 (Older children also like to use the book/CD and e-books with their younger siblings, and to help make e-books using the related My Monster on Top of the Bed e-book into which children's drawings may be uploaded.)

Publisher: LB Creative, LLC Press
ISBN: 978-0-9726318-0-8
Published: June 2008

Other Editions: Multi-media e-books in English, Spanish and Italian, audio-book with 98 tracks that read each page one-at-a-time.

In The Monster on Top of the Bed young Suzy learns that she never has to be afraid of monsters again after she befriends a "monster" who thinks of her as "the monster on top of the bed." This is a great children's book for children who love to read, and those who don't.

The author has created a captivating story. Manuela Pentangelo, the illustrator, has crafted ice-cream-parlor-delicious artwork. On the accompanying audio-book CD (available separately) the book is performed in English (2 versions), Italian and Spanish (2 versions.) As children listen to the different performances, they cannot help but develop an appreciation for the beauty of different languages. Just by listening, they pick up many Italian and Spanish words, and start to develop an appreciation of different cultures.

Like the Pixar movie, Monsters, Inc., this book allows children to discover the fact that a monster might be as afraid of them, but it does it in a very different, almost cerebral way. Also, as children read the story, they find a mantra that they can say to themselves to banish monsters, "You're welcome to stay, until I say 'nay,' then it's time to go, and you can't say no."

Children love to have magic enchantments, and this mantra can provide great comfort. Night-time fears (also known as bed time fears) is a very real problem with children. Telling a child that they don't have to be afraid of monsters doesn't usually work. It helps to give your child a flashlight that they can turn on to banish monsters at will. This book may be just the thing to enable your child to fall asleep without worry. The mantra itself may be sufficient to banish monsters without having to turn on that flashlight.

Brenda Silver has written many books and articles for internal publications of major companies. She is expanding to include freelance writing and ghost writing. Contact her at bsilver@advantapress.com

The Monster on Top of the Bed is one of many resources available from http://www.letsbecreative.org/ Once you register on the site (free) you may view the streaming video and even download an iPod version of The Monster on Top of the Bed for free.

Pre-order your copy of J.K. Rowling's "The Tales of Beedle the Bard"

The Standard Edition features all five fairy tales from the original The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a new introduction by J.K. Rowling, illustrations reproduced from the original handcrafted book, and commentary on each of the tales by Professor Albus Dumbledore.

Amazon is also thrilled to offer a luxuriously packaged Collector's Edition (available exclusively at Amazon) designed to evoke the spirit of the handcrafted original. It is housed in its own case (made to resemble a wizarding textbook found in the Hogwarts library). The Collector's Edition includes a reproduction of J.K. Rowling's handwritten introduction, as well as 10 additional illustrations not found in the Standard Edition. Opening the cover of the case reveals a velvet bag embroidered with J.K. Rowling's signature, in which sits the piece de resistance: your very own copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, complete with metal skull, corners, and clasp; replica gemstones; and emerald ribbon.

Review: The Candy Shop War

By Carma Dutra

The old saying "too much candy can be bad for your health" rings true in this fast paced, action packed story. Nate and his family are new in town which means a new school and new friends. Nate is not too happy about this but the three young friends he makes will soon become the type that last forever. One warm afternoon on the way home from school, the four young kids decide to try out the new candy shop. However, they are short on money and are in hopes the owner will give them a sample. Belinda White, owner of the Sweet Tooth Ice Cream Candy Shoppe, offers free candy if they will perform odd jobs around town. Not only is the candy free it's magical too!

What kid can resist magical rock candy to fly through the air and jaw breakers to become unbreakable? Throw in a little shift changing and talking animals and you have all the ingredients for a wild adventure. Soon Nate and his friends; Summer, Trevor and Pigeon discover the real cost of this addictive candy. Belinda White's true identity as an evil magician unfolds and Nate and his friends try to turn her own power against her. It takes all the wit and imagination the quartet can conjure up with a little help from Mr. Stott the ice cream truck driver who has some magical tricks of his own. The mystery deepens and doesn't stop until the last piece of candy has been eaten.

This magical fantasy story will make any 8 - 12 year old turn their imagination up a notch or two. New York Times bestselling Author Brandon Mull travels the country visiting schools, promoting literacy and sharing his message that "Imagination can take you places." Mull teaches lessons with all his stories by adding a reading guide at the end of each book. Questions like "Between Nate, Summer, Trevor, and Pigeon, who would you most want as a friend? Why?" and "What is the best approach for handling bullies?" are designed to stimulate the readers' deductive reasoning skills.

The Candy Shop War is published by Shadow Mountain.

Learn more about children's issues, writing tips and award winning book reviews by visiting Carma's Window at http://carmaswindow.blogspot.com/ - Download the free EBook, "Unite to Write," a compilation of thirteen top expert authors as read on Ezine article directory and "Free Tips on Freelance Writing."

History of Dick and Jane Readers

By Barbara Gardner

Do you remember sitting in your first grade classroom learning to read from one of the Dick and Jane books? We older folks on the planet can just about mark our ages based on which Dick and Jane edition we learned to read from. Learn to read with Sally, Dick, and Jane? Then you are probably a child of the fifties. Remember Mike, Pam and Penny? Then you most likely are a child of the sixties, when black children were introduced into the readers.

The series is called the Curriculum Foundation Series and was authored by Dr. William S. Gray and William H. Elson. The Curriculum Foundation Series evolved out of a set of elementary readers called the Elson Readers. A Dick and Jane collector will recognize some of the same stories in both sets of readers. All serious Dick and Jane collectors should strive to include the Elson Readers in their sets.

The first Dick and Jane book was a 1930 Pre-Reader, a wordless picture book. New titles were introduced in 1940, 1946, 1951, 1962, and lastly in 1965. The illustrators for Dick and Jane books changed, as well as the look of the books through the decades. Mew the kitten became Puff. Happy changed from a Terrier to Spot the Cocker Spaniel. Toys changed, as did clothing, and the cars Mother and Father drove.

The books are based on limited basic vocabulary and the plot of each story is delivered through profuse illustrations. Well-known Dick and Jane book illustrator Eleanor Campbell used photographs of children at play to create vivid colorful illustrations. Richard Childress had his two young daughters model for his Jane and Sally illustrations.

Besides the paper books with staples and cloth tape spines, there were also Dick and Jane hard cover books, workbooks, guide books, posters, puzzles, calendars, napkins, valentines, mugs and teacher manuals. There were picture books without words for pre-readers, and there were pre-primers (We Look and See, We Work and Play, We Come and Go), the Junior Primer (Guess Who), and the Primer (Fun with Dick and Jane). Dick and Jane also taught basic hygiene and health in Good Times with Our Friends.

Along with reading basics, each release of the Dick and Jane series taught values such as sharing, responsibility, health, safety and helping others. Exact copies of the books were published for Canadian schools. Catholic schools also adopted the curriculum and revised the books to include Catholic teachings in the stories. In about half of the Cathedral editions, Dick, Jane and Sally have been renamed John, Jean and Judy.

In the sixties, the perfect family life of Mother, Father, Dick and Jane in their white suburban world began to be questioned. In response, the publishers in 1965 expanded the neighborhood of Dick and Jane to include a black family. Despite this major change, controversy continued to grow. In 1970, Scott, Foresman and Company made the decision to stop publishing the Dick and Jane series.

Many schools ordered all remaining books be destroyed. Teachers, staff, and some students kept some of the discarded books, and these are the books collectors seek today. Dick and Jane pre-primers and primers can still be found, but are becoming scarcer. Teaching aids such as the flashcards, the paper doll cut-outs and Our Big Book (the large easel-supported book) are commanding high prices due to their scarcity.

Millions of children learned to read with the Dick and Jane textbooks. Sally, Dick, Jane, Spot and Puff are a part of our national culture. While there are no books or stories within the Dick and Jane books series titled See Spot Run, it is a sentence used in several early stories of the series. This nostalgic sentence, See Spot run, has even become a part of our cultural background with the release in 2001 of the movie by the same name.

Many of us want a Dick and Jane book because it is a part of our past. Others want their children to learn to read from them. Many baby-boomers remember them well, for they taught us to read, they kept our interest, and they helped us become life-long readers.

The author is webmaster of Book Brigade, where you can buy discount children's books online.