A New Friend for Dragon -- Review & Giveaway Plus Dragon and Knight Craft Round-Up

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. I am working with The Children's Book Review to bring you this post.

With back to school there have been some great books coming out about differences. Let's face it when kids go back to school, they see people who are different from them in some way. It is important for kids to realizes that differences can be a good thing and that it is ok to be friends with people who are different. The book I'm sharing today is about just this. It is A New Friend for Dragon by Bianca Schulze and illustrated by Samara Hardy. 

Even Better Than Sprinkles: A Story About Best Friends

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

What is better than sprinkles and unicorns? A good friend of course!! Today I get to share a new picture book (released today) about best friends. It takes us through the good times and a bad time in a friendship. The book is Even Better Than Sprinkles: A Story About Best Friends by Linda Skeers and illustrated by Heather Fox. It is recommended for ages 4 to 8.

Making Summer Fun and Educational

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these products in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

We are in final exam week at our school. The stress levels are high everywhere. But it also means that school is almost done, and summer is almost here. Summer can be so much fun, but it can also be a time for kids to lose some of their learning. Today I am sharing some products to give you and your kids some fun activities as well as learning in fun ways! We will begin with some creative activity books. Today (May 30th) is National Creativity Day and these books are perfect to get your kids and you creating and having fun! The first  are two books by Alberto Lot. There is Crayon Racing which I reviewed a couple of years ago and Crayon Adventures. They are recommended for ages 4 to 8 or as the publisher states 4 to 104. I know my high school students have been having lots of fun with them!

Small Knight and the Angry Prince -- Picture Book Review

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Emotions can be hard. Whether you are dealing with your own or someone else's they can be difficult to navigate and often bad emotions can spread. Today I am sharing a book about one of the hardest ones to deal with--anger. It is called Small Knight and the Angry Prince by Manka Kasha. It is recommended for ages 3 to 6 and deals with some gender issues.

Let's Read About Black Characters & People -- Round-Up of Children's Books

The other day as I talked to Hazel about current events on our walk and was telling her my plans for Crafty Moms Share, she said, "Did you ever notice that when there is a black person in a book there is just one in a group of white friends?" Oh, yes, we still have the token black person in our society of books and television shows. She even commented how sometimes the group is made up of one person of different races like in The Start-Up Squad Series. I recently read an article about how white people need to do more than talk to our kids about racism. Where we live, who our neighbors are, books we read/provide our kids, who our friends are, the diversity of the school we send our kids to all play a part in how our kids grow up and understand race relations. Now I cannot change your neighborhood or their school but I hope I can change the books in your house and your library. I asked some fellow bloggers as well as authors that are part of the Multicultural Children's Book Day group for any books, activities, and reviews they had with black people as the main characters. Today I am going to share a round-up of books shared and some others I found (on Amazon). I will link reviews and activities whenever possible. It is important that all of our kids read books that have people like them but it is also important that our kids read books with people who do not look like them. This will build their understanding and help them to grow and learn about race and culture and hopefully not be racist when they grow up. I have the books separated into picture books, fairy tales, chapter books/novels, and non-fiction/biographies. There are some separation within some of these genres as well. 

Halloween, Dressing Up, Pretend Play, & Friend Picture Books

Disclsoure: I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

It is hard to believe it is already October. That means we need to think about Halloween. Now I have posted in the past how Halloween is not our favorite holiday and how Hazel hates October because of the gory and scary decorations in yards and stores. When Hazel was young we found some Halloween books she loved, but not too many. Today we are going to share two more Halloween books that are fun and two books that involve dressing up, being yourself and being kind and making friends. All of these books are for kids in the age range of 3 to 8. We will start with Skelly's Halloween by David Martin and illustrated by Lori Richmond. 

Who Was Series...

Disclosure: Penguin Kids sent me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. The links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

The reading specialist at Hazel's school recently told me she heard that at least 50% of what kids read should be nonfiction. Do your kids read nonfiction? Hazel actually loves biographies and historical books. One series that she loves is the Who Was Series. This series is for the middle grades or ages 8-12. Today we get to share two fun books from this series. These two characters are paired together in an episode on the Netflix Who Was? Series. We will be sharing Who Was Albert Einstein? and Who Was Joan of Arc? Hazel was very excited to read these books and she will be doing a Hazel's corner on Joan of Arc.

The Night Knights -- a new picture book for the kids who are scared at night

Disclosure: Abrams Books sent me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Do you have a child who is afraid of the dark or of going to bed? Does he or she think there might be monsters in his or her room? Hazel was this child. She often got afraid to be alone at night and was very afraid of the dark. She has grown out of it mostly, but there are still times when it comes back. However for the younger kids today I am sharing a wonderful new book to help. It is The Night Knights by Gideon Sterer and illustrated by Cory Godbey. 

Books for Younger Kids (Birth-Kindergarten)

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. 

Although Multicultural Children's Book Day is quickly approaching I thought I would share some books that are not part of the event. These picture books are great for younger kids, but we still enjoyed them!! The first book is the perfect book to bring to a baby shower. You know the ones that ask you to bring a book for the baby's library. It is Hand in Hand by Rosemary Wells.  

Holiday Gift Suggestions--Books for Kids to Create Their Own Play

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge from Storey Publishing. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

In honor of Black Friday I thought I would share some fun books for kids of different ages to create their own fun and play. The first is Teddy Bear Doctor  by Deanna F. Cook, and we have already reviewed this amazing book. This is our go to gift for Hazel's friends. We buy a copy of the book with a small stuffed animal and it is perfect! The age recommendation is ages 3-8. Some of the crafts in the book would be difficult for a 3-year-old, but it is perfect for the 5-8 range.

Sharing Saturday 15-39

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! It was another amazing week full of so much inspiration!!  Remember the features are just a sampling of the things shared so if you did not get a chance to check them all out, go back and be inspired! This week's features are October Educational Ideas, Bats and Spiders and a few of my favorites.

The Mighty Knights & Sapphire's Castle

Disclosure: Peter J. Clark sent me copies of these books in exchange fro my honest review and help promoting Sapphire's Castle Relaunch. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I am going to share with you two wonderful children's books by Peter J. Clark and illustrated by Kory Fluckinger. His first book is The Mighty Knights. 

The Mighty Knights is about two young boys who are brave knights. They sleep with their swords and are always ready. They awaken to a growling sound in the middle of the night and fight the dragon they find under the kitchen sink. Working together they are able to defeat the dragon and then the boys go back to sleep with their swords ready in case another unknown comes their way. It is a wonderful tale about courage in young children. It is well written and a fun book. The illustrations are fun.

Exploring Iran with Books & Music

Disclosure: Wisdom Tales Press gave me a copy of this product free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Take a moment to check out my post on the Middle East and enter the Middle Eastern and North African Heritage Month Giveaway over at Multicultural Kid Blogs! Global Learning for Kids has left Lebanon and headed to Iran. Now recently I turned on the radio in the car to check the traffic report and we caught a small snip of the news and they were quoting someone from Iran about how Americans will always be their enemy. Hazel only heard a few words, but it was enough for her to question me what was said and why. Unfortunately, this was her first introduction to Iran. Now we are going to spend time to explore Iran and focus on some of the positives this month, but I know we will not be able to overcome that statement in her mind. However she has been enjoying stories from Iran, well actually Persia which is now Iran.  


We were lucky enough to get two fun Persian stories from Wisdom Tales Press and both are prizes in the giveaway. These are books you will want to add to your multicultural library, so make sure to enter or go buy them!!

Sharing Saturday 15-2

Have you entered my current giveaway for a wooden watch?

 Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week! There were some amazing ideas as always!! And a very special thank you to everyone who visited the posts shared!! For features this week we have penguins & more and Valentine's Day and more.

Virtual Book Club for Kids: The Amazing Pig by Paul Galdone

It is time for the Virtual Book Club for Kids!! This month the featured author is Paul Galdone. Since so many of his books are classic tales, I considered doing Cinderella and counting it as my Fairy Tales in Different Cultures, but to be very honest, I couldn't think of a fun craft or activity to do that we haven't already done with some form of Cinderella. So we decided to feature The Amazing Pig.

Royal Clothespin Dolls

After making Hazel the peg doll fairies and animals, she wanted some princesses, princes, knights, king and queen to play with her castle playmat.  I decided to use clothespins since I had a bunch of them. We needed to glue buttons on the bottom so they could stand on the playmat. I decided to paint the males and I painted the tops of the females and added felt to be their skirts. I used wool roving for the females' hair. Some of which I even needle felted into place.

She has named each one. One is Princess Moonlight and there is Cinderella (in blue), and Princess Carrie. The men are named after her father, grandfather and first cousin. She is still deciding which are princes and guards.

Now she loves to make up stories about all her princesses. It keeps her busy for hours and then she puts on a show for us.

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures-Vasilissa and Baba Yaga

Today we will look at a Russian version of Cinderella. I found two picture books with basically the same story and we will look at both today, but first a bit about Russia. Somehow after a week of a deep freeze in New England, Russia seems like the right country to talk about. (I literally heard a radio host mention a town in Russia for having the record for lowest temperatures. She kept checking them because it made our temperatures seem so much better.)

Columbus Day--What does it mean to you?

This Monday is a holiday in much of the United States. The second Monday of October is the day which we celebrate Columbus Day. It is to mark the day in which Christopher Columbus "discovered" the Americas on October 12, 1492. Now this holiday is celebrated in many of the "New World" countries, however it also has much controversy around it. And I will admit I believe in the controversy more than the holiday. However it will be nice to have my husband home on Monday with us.

I thought talking about this day, its history and the controversy would be a great way to celebrate Multicultural Monday as well as Columbus Day. So this day is to mark when Italian Christopher Columbus guided three ships, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria to the "New World" backed by the Spanish monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. He of course was looking for China and did not know the Pacific Ocean existed. It is said he was the first European since the Vikings (who came in the 10th century) to come to the New World. And thus "discovered" the Americas in 1492. 

Columbus first landed in the Bahamas. Later that month he spotted Cuba and thought it was China and later he claimed Hispaniola which he believed might be Japan. He established the first Spanish colony there with 39 of his men. He returned to Spain  in 1493 triumphant bringing gold, spices and "Indians". He traveled across the Atlantic several more times in his life. By his third journey he realized he had not found a new route to Asia, but that he "discovered" a new land that was unknown to Europeans. (Source)

Columbus Day became a national holiday in 1937 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This was due to much lobbying by Knights of Columbus. The holiday was celebrated on October 12 until 1971 when it was moved to the second Monday in October to give people a three-day weekend. However Columbus Day had been celebrated in different parts of the United States. One source says it was first celebrated in New York City in 1792. (Source) I found another source that says it was first celebrated in San Francisco in 1869. The first state to celebrate it was Colorado in 1907. (Source)

Hazel's telescope we made from a cardboard roll from parchment paper, toilet paper roll, duct tape and yarn.

The controversy is that the settlement of Europeans lead to the death of many of the indigenous people in the Americas. There are some stories that say that Columbus and his men handed the native people blankets known to be carrying many deadly diseases like smallpox. As a result there are states, California, Nevada and Hawaii, that do not celebrate Columbus Day. Native American Day is celebrated in South Dakota and Indigenous People's Day is celebrated in Berkley, California. (Source) Opposition to Columbus Day began in the 19th century. Native Americans spoke the loudest about celebrating a day that lead to colonizing the Americas and thus killing so many of their people. Plus to celebrate a man who captured the native people and forced them into slavery is rather upsetting. There are also stories of his punishments being rather torturous when he was governor. (Source)

 

Hazel and Daddy's Ships including one drawn completely by Hazel.

 

However we look at the holiday, it is a day off. And Christopher Columbus landing in the Americas is part of my country's history. So if you are looking for some crafts to do with your children to teach them about the day, here are a few resources for you. All of the places we got the above projects are listed here.

• From Enchanted Learning: crafts, coloring pages, lessons, puzzles (including Native American crafts)
• Also from Enchanted Learning: Lessons on Christopher Columbus, the Explorer
• From Apple4the Teacher: Round up of many sources
• From Kaboose: Many activities, crafts and food
• From DLTK's Kids: Many activities, crafts, and everything you need to play the part of explorer
• From DLTK's Kids: Native American crafts
• From 123 Holiday: crafts
• From Kid Craft Zone: Games and Crafts
• From First School: Boat crafts
• From About.com: Crafts, games, activities including ocean crafts
• From Artist Helping Children: Many different crafts including Native American crafts.
• From A to Z Teacher Stuff: Activities, lessons, crafts (all with appropriate grade level)
• From All Kids Network: Boat craft for preschoolers with template
• From Bright Hub Education: Three Fun Activities to do with Preschoolers
• From Holly's Preschool Place: Lessons and Activities for Columbus Day for Preschoolers

Ok, that is enough to keep you busy! Happy Columbus Day or whatever you want to call it holiday!