Hello Again & Book Haul

I finally went to the library that is closest to our new house (almost a year later - ha!).  I've been putting it off because I thought it was too much of a drive & it's hard to mix a library trip with a grocery store trip.

Well, I should have gone a long time ago because it really is a nice library!  They even have a cafe that serves ice cream sourced from a local shop - how can you beat that?  They have a large children's section and it seems like they have a lot of events and story times for children.  I will have to keep that in mind this summer when I have all of the kids home with me and we're looking for something to do to escape the heat.

I'm really glad I was able to scope it out without the kids today.  It gave me a chance to walk around and check it out without any distractions.

Without further ado, here's what I came home with:

I actually got three books for me as well.  I've been mostly reading books on my Kindle, but the free books available have been getting kind of tired for me so I was happy to reserve some books at the library and have them waiting for me on the shelf with my name on them.  :-)  Oh, I check out The Sewing Bible several times a year - I love this resource!  I really should buy it one of these days...

For the kids, I brought home:

• Hello Baby! by Lizzy Rockwell
• Rick Is Sick by David McPhail (for Jack to read)
• Jack and Rick by David McPhail (also for Jack to read - can't believe I'm writing that)
• Carolinda Clatter!  by Mordicai Gerstein - this one came with a CD
• Ogres!  Ogres Ogres! by Nicholas Heller
• Danny and the Dinosaur (DVD)

More about the blue bag next post!


 

Fall Book Series: When Autumn Comes

You may recognize this book from my Book Haul post from Saturday.  With the light rain and cooler weather tonight, I thought it would be great time to bring this book out.

I had some stiff competition from a certain toy catalogue that showed up in our mailbox today.

 Finally, after some convincing, we got down to business.

When Autumn Comes by Robert Maass is a book that uses real photos and simple words to show the beauty that is Autumn (yes, I'm biased - it's my favorite season).  It shows people painting fences, fixing roofs, putting up storm windows (ha! a totally foreign concept for us), beautiful red & yellow leaf piles prime for jumping and much more.

What I love about this book:  I can't say it enough, but I love the photographs.  The book was originally published 21 years ago, but the photos actually don't look too dated.  (Side note:  when I looked at the copyright date I thought, "oh, that wasn't too long ago".  Umm, yeah, it's been 21 years.  I'm old.)  I love that the book progresses in photos and words from the very tail end of summer to the first frost of winter.  The many fun colors for little ones and great conversation starting photos for the older kids makes this a great book for all ages.


What Jack loves about this book:  Jack can't help but love autumn because of my enthusiasm.  His favorite page, however, is one showing the first snowfall of winter.  It shows a family walking out on a snow covered dock to the river.  He said, "Mama, why are they walking out into the ocean?!?".  We had to stay on the page for a while.


What Colin loves about this book:  Colin absolutely loves the page with the "pumpkin people".  I don't know if it's the phrase or the photo that cracked him up more, but he wouldn't stop laughing.  If you go to Amazon, this is one of the pages they show you in the preview.

I paid a whole 25 cents for this book, but you can buy it at Barnes & Noble on-line for $8.09 (plus, it looks like some sellers are charging only $1.99) or from Amazon for $8.99, but it also qualifies for their 4-for-3 promotion.  Honestly, I don't think I could bring myself to pay that much though.  I would definitely try my local library first.