Slacking...and a great website

I have to admit that I've been slacking on this blog.  The kids and I still visit the library almost every week, lugging home a huge pile of books.  We read them like crazy and I have great visions of posting the reviews here, especially when the kids really fall in love with a book.  In fact, we currently have seven books just itching to be reviewed...

In the meantime, I wanted to share a great website I found.  It's called Jacketflap.com (click here).  It's a website that "is a comprehensive resource for information on the children's book industry".  I've found it to be a great resource to keep up-to-date on newly published children's books as well as not-so-newly published books.  You can search their database by title or even your child's age range.  The site also has it's own blog reader, so you have access to over 700 blogs...all about books!  Some are writers' blogs, agents' blogs, publishers' blogs, etc. all about the children's book industry.

Let me know if you check out the site & send me a friend request!

The Treasure Bath by Dan Andreasen

This is a wordless picture book that depicts the story of a young boy who discovers treasure "under the sea" in his bath.  The pictures start out showing the boy getting messy helping his Mom bake a cake.  Of course this leads to a reluctant bath time until the boy discovers a whole under the sea adventure, including a treasure map, sea creatures and eventually a treasure chest (full of soap!).

I was reluctant to bring home this book just because I'm not too hot on making up stories.  However, both my kids like this book a lot.  Colin loves the fish and loves the part where the octopus and other sea creatures are washing the little boy.  Jack loves to tell stories anyway, so this book gave him a chance to make up a great story to go along with the pictures.  I have to say that my favorite part is when the little boy is all dressed in his button up pajamas with his hair combed over just so.  I mean, what is cuter than a little boy in button up pajamas?

The book jacket indicates that the intended audience is ages 4-8.  I think that age range is a bit high, but this is definitely a good book for the pre-school crowd.

I can't say that I love it enough to buy it (here), but definitely check it out at the library.

Library Haul January 22nd

The haul is a little lighter than normal as you can see. That's my fault. I took Jack along with me to the library but my main purpose for going was to pick up a couple of cookbooks. Well, I spent so much time looking at cookbooks/craft books (and making sure Jack was happy & occupied) that we didn't leave a ton of time to find kids' books. Luckily, Jack was very efficient in his choices (i.e., the grab & run method) so we did end up with a few new books to read.