Your headquarters for over 600 quality infant, toddler, and preschool books!

June 2013
Children's Book News You Can Use
The Thrill of Summer
In This Issue
Author Spotlight
Upcoming Events
Quick Links
Summer Reading Suggestions

Seven Little Mice
Go To The Beach
Art by Holly Hobbie
Gem
copyright Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Join Our Mailing List
Helpful Hint


James Steyer, founder of Common Sense Media, in Work & Family writes: 

For each hour of TV young kids watch, they have a 10 percent higher chance of attention problems at age 7, including restlessness, trouble concentrating, and impulsive behavior. 


Visual images may over stimulate and rewire preschoolers' developing brains.  Learning to read and write takes time and patience.   Kids who are used to the fast pace and instant gratification of screen media may easily get bored.

September 2012:
ExchangeEveryDay 9/25/12  workandfamilylife.com


Taking books beyond story time and extending their use into classroom
Remember to look for the books with the Fruit from the Vine icon throughout our catalog.
Sole Source Provider
Greetings!
 

Each season has its charms and then it has the parts that you can do without, just like anyone you might know.

 

Summer has warm nights, perfect for taking a walk and inspecting the skies for bats in your neighborhood, and then there are mosquitoes.  It has cloudless days where the blue sky stretches on forever but then those are the days that are hot enough to turn the pavement into a griddle.

  

Appreciating a season is much like appreciating a friend: the positive must be accentuated.

 

The observation of subtle changes in nature as the season progresses deepens your interest and curiosity. Observing anything takes time. Compare eating your dinner in seven minutes in front of the sink to sitting down at the table and savoring each bite. You have to take small bites of summer to appreciate it. 

 

If you don't know that the local park is the perfect place to watch lightning bugs then you won't appreciate the show they put on each night.

 

If you haven't been informed that a variety of moths dance under your porch light then you can't inspect and marvel at their spots, speckles and lovely shades of beige.

 

Summer's beauty is in her capricious nature, sometimes she swelters and in the next moment she storms. She can be fleetingly delicious, so get out there and appreciate her before she opens the door to autumn.

 

Amy E. Vandament

Manager 

Author Spotlight
William Steig

was gifted in the art of capturing a whole personality. His characters are solidly built from their illustrated form to their words and actions. In his books, dentist mice are brave enough to take on patients such as hungry foxes; young girls brave epic snowstorms to deliver fancy dresses for their sick mothers; donkey parents hold out hope for their missing son and parents of cranky children make pizzas of them. The worlds these characters inhabit are orderly and structured: donkey mothers and fathers are dressed in housecoats and suits complete with ties, storefronts are neat and tidy and everyone has a job or is on their way to work. It is an admirable set-up, these tidy constructions of life, but what is even more admirable is the magic that is worked into these worlds.

 

Steig was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1907. He graduated from high school when he was fifteen, attended two years at the City College in New York, three years at the National Academy of Design and five days at Yale. During the thirties when his father was out of work, William supported the family by selling his cartoons. He was labeled as the "King of Cartoons" creating over 1,600 cartoons and 117 covers for the New Yorker magazine during his life.

 

The New York Times said of the title Small Fry that was published in 1944: ''What they prove to the parents and elders is that 8-year-olds do not change from one generation to another, that the world of childhood is compounded of miniature terrors and glorious daydreams, and that Mr. Steig -- not to put too fine a point upon it -- is wonderful.''

 

Steig began writing children's books in his early sixties. His third picture book won the Caldecott Medal in 1970. In all he wrote over thirty books for children.

 

Upcoming Events 
NAEYC hosts the National Institute for Early Childhood Professional Development Conference

Isbabel
Conference Dates: 
Sunday, June 9th-Tuesday, June 11th
 
Conference location:
Hilton San Francisco, Union Square 
333 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco, CA
Booth #302 - Exhibit Hall 

Presentation:  Isabel Baker
"Read aloud great books:  Nothing could be more developmentally appropriate!"  
Monday, June 10th       
8:00 - 10:00 a.m. 
Continental Ballroom, Hilton San Francisco Union Square 
We have put together two great summer book packages for your reading pleasure.   The hardcover book package includes wordless books with beautiful summery illustrations, as well as other great summer song and story books.  Don't forget to check out Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, by William Steig, our featured author.   Our paperback selection includes a variety of chapter books that provide many hours of enjoyment.  Nothing settles the little ones down at nap or bedtime quicker than reading to them.   A chapter or two per day will have them looking forward to hearing more tomorrow!
Sincerely,

Robin Peterson