During the International Women's Month of March, Anouk and I had a goal to read more books ABOUT women BY women. We have sampled some great ones but Rad American Women A-Z is definitely our favorite! Things to love about it: the wonderful pop art portraits. Each woman's achievements, though sometimes complicated and subtle, are presented in a way that's easy for children to digest. And also it covers some relatively untrodden ground -- Rad American Women introduced Anouk (and even me) to women we had never heard of before. The subjects weren't just Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart who achieved great things but who we all know of, but women who were less well-known, less glamorous, more easily marginalized. Women like the Grimke Sisters, Virginia Apgar, Dolores Huerta, and Jovita Idar.





















Rad American Women A-Z is most suitable in my opinion for kids from grades K-4. For upper grades, check out the authors' book for older readers, Rad Women Worldwide.

What are you reading lately?

 This Halloween, we took costume inspiration from some of our favorite kids' books.
A. surprised me by insisting that she did NOT want to be Elsa (the first time in three years! Yay!) Instead, she wanted to be a flamingo. Flora and the Flamingo is one of her favorite books -- she loves to sit and "read" it by herself when she's in a quiet mood.


So we cobbled together a flamingo costume in an explosion of pink. Pink chucks, pink tutu, pink leotard and tights in the exact right matching shade of fuchsia (thank you, Rit Dye). A feather boa and a felt mask that is quite possibly my greatest sewing triumph even including the quilts I have made. It's hard to get a flamingo beak to curve in just the right way. And I have the hot glue burns to prove it.



Anouk chose Harold and the Purple Crayon to inspire Augustus's costume. It's also one of our faves. This one was much easier to put together: a blue sleeper and a felt crayon. Et voila. By the way, I must also point out that this book caused Anouk to lobby hard for Harold as Gus's name while I was pregnant with him. But obviously we're not into old man names for little babies so we nixed it.

I didn't have the time/wherewithal to make a costume for myself, but if anybody asks, I'm going to tell them that I'm Nobody. From Goodnight Moon, get it?

What are your kids dressing as this Halloween? Have a great & spoooooky weekend, everybody!

Anouk has a lot going on lately -- new sibling on the way, new school schedule, new sports and friends and responsibilities -- so much so that she's become sometimes a little skittish about taking on new things. I can't -- I don't think I can -- I'm not sure I'll like that. So when we got the opportunity to review Ed Vere's new book, Max the Brave, I jumped at the chance, thinking it would be the perfect opener to talking about doing new things, even ones that seem a little daunting.


The fact that the main character is a cat didn't hurt (you know we're cat people over here). And the fact that the story reminded us of some of our old established favorites was good, too (there are hints of the classic The Monster at the End of This Book and of Jon Klassen's This is Not My Hat). But most of all, I enjoyed the fact that when Max the kitten first sets out to chase a mouse, he has no idea what he's doing, or even what a mouse looks like (leading to the story's hijinks). But he's determined to do it nonetheless.

And now, for the first time ever on the blog, here's A.'s review in her own words: "This book was good because it was silly. My favorite part was when [ED: spoiler alert!] the mouse played a trick on Max. The pictures of Max were cute and I want to read about him again tomorrow and the day after that."



Yay, little A.! Look for her to be eviscerating popular fiction in the New Yorker in 25 years or so.

To win a copy of Max the Brave for yourself, enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below! 5 copies will be given away (plus a snazzy red cape like Anne's) and you have until October 31st to enter. Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for a review. The thoughts and opinions in this post are my own. 

Mr. Tweed's Good Deeds: Mr. Tweed is like a less obnoxious Where's Waldo (I don't know why I find Waldo obnoxious but I guess I do?) I think because it starts out slowly (he finds one kite, then two fish, then three etc...) or the message that you should do your best to help people even if it inconveniences you. This book is actually kind of hard -- Anouk and I never found that last gift-wrapped present before our library due date.



Beautiful Birds by J. Roussen and E. Walker: Anouk is definitely too old for another alphabet book but this one is SO BEAUTIFUL.


Tell Me What to Dream About by Giselle Potter: Why don't you dream about eating teeny tiny waffles with teeny tiny animal breakfast guests? Or wearing clouds like sweaters? Delivers on the whimsy and more beautiful illustrations.



Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson: A Press Here knockoff in which you can make trees grow and blossom and change throughout the seasons. Anouk cannot resist this type of book (though J & I are kind of sick of them to tell the truth).


Cecil the Pet Glacier by Matthea Harvey: Maybe because I'm pregnant, but this one made me teary. A little girl is adopted by a pet glacier on a trip to Norway -- at first she wants to be rid of him but then she learns that true friends will always be there for each other. Nou thinks it's hilarious how they feed the glacier pebbles. :)


The Cloud Spinner by Michael Catchpool: A fairytale/morality tale about learning to live simply, and about wants versus needs. Love the message, and the art.



Red Knit Cap Girl to the Rescue by Naoko Stoop: This adorable heroine and her adorable friends go on a journey to return a polar bear cub to its home. One in a series of three so far.

Lately Anouk has been really interested in family relationships, how we are connected to all of the people in our family. "What is a cousin?" she'll say, or else, "Tell me again how I'm related to Aunt Bonne/Aunt Judy/Uncle Mike?" And so we set off untangling the thread of our family in a way that an almost-four-year-old can understand.

We got My Family Tree and Me at just the right time because it does a lot of this explaining in a really simple way. I love the author's whimsical drawings of both sides of his family (one European, one Japanese) and showing how they came together in him. One side of the book shows the members of his father's family -- and then, when you start from the back and move toward the middle, the book shows the story of his mother's family. The middle is a family portrait, with every member clearly labeled.
 

Anouk loves this book so much that it makes me wish I had the drawing skills to put together one for our own German/Dutch/English/Irish/Lebanese clan! Although honestly, I'm not sure that the page would be big enough to fit so many people...

Note: I was sent a review copy of this book by the publisher. The opinions in this post are all mine.