Hey friend! I’m back for the year,
with a few new graphics that will hopefully make navigating this a lot easier.
Let’s get right into it, shall we?
Daniel And The Nutcracker
by Alexandra Cassel with Angela C. Santomero and Jason Fruchter
Daniel tries something hard and succeeds!
If you need me, I will be stuck in the timeloop
of reading this one to my youngest
OVER and OVER and OVER again.
I don’t really mind.
She loves that Daniel is curious and excited about the nutcracker,
and that he is willing to step in when his friend is too sick to play the title part.
I know a lot of people on the internet (looking at you, Instagram accounts that recommend kids only read classics!) think books featuring cartoon or tv show characters are junk, and I wholeheartedly disagree.
This is a cute story.
Is it a literary masterpiece? No.
But does that matter?
My kid loves it.
So I will keep reading it.
Check this one out for a quick intro to a classic ballet and an encouraging story
about trying hard things.
Snow by Cynthia Rylant and Lauren Stringer
A gorgeous cozy book about out favorite winter precipitation
This is one of our winter books; we just put away our Christmas ones and rotated the winter ones in. And as I’m writing this, we are getting SNOW, which is rather unusual for us in Northern Virginia.
I love the illustrations and the text in this book;
combined they invoke the exact magic that comes with snow.
It’s quiet and wondrous and playful and endearing.
Check this one out for a sweet story perfect for winter!
What Happened To You by James Catchpole and Karen George
A boy just wants to play, but everyone else can’t get past one part of his identity…
My oldest was intrigued by this one
and truly did want to know what happened
to Joe, the main character in the book
who we can see only has one leg.
Throughout the story we see Joe getting fed up.
He wants to play, he doesn’t want to give his life history!
We had another discussion about this;
it’s totally fine to notice how everyone is unique and different from everyone else.
And even though we may be curious, we should never ask a stranger
what happened to them.
They likely get the question a lot,
and they also want to exist in the world as their complete self,
not as a walking educational resource or only as one part of their identity.
This story does not hit you over the head with a message either, so don’t worry.
We see that Joe is an imaginative kid
and guess what?
To have fun and play with him
no one needs to know what happened to him,
just who he is and how far his imagination stretches.
Check this one out for some good disability rep, a fun playground day with a diverse group of kids, and also great back matter to assist parents in having conversations with their kids about disabilities.
goodbye, things by Fumio Sasaki
I hosted a Community Share (people bring stuff, people take stuff) on a whim (it was one week from idea to event!) and we ended up bringing almost 1500 things to donate. Yes, 1500 things.
I have wanted to clear things out of our house and out of our girls’ room in particular for a long time, and let me tell you with less there’s less time to clean up, less stress, and more time to be together as a family and to do other things we value more than putting every little thing back in its place.
I didn’t think it would make that much of a difference, but I feel it every day in the way that we all truly got a bunch of time back.
I will likely do a YouTube video soon on book recs for decluttering, but wanted to share this one with you now:
I listened to it as I was decluttering and it was like having a friend there cheering you on. It’s filled with practical advice about how to get rid of things, but also dives into the reasons why we have so much and ideas about how we can stop that.
I particularly liked these ideas:
We get used to new things shortly after we buy them,
so the dopamine wears off and then what are left with?
Things shouldn’t convey our self worth
Bookshelves are for books we read, not showcases of who we are and what we’ve read
Start with the things that are clearly junk
Take photos of items you got rid of
Digitize journals
Organizing is not minimizing
Our Homes aren’t museums
Find your own minimalism
and experiences resist comparison.
If you’re like what do you mean by all that, Kathy Ellen? I’ll go a bit deeper into them in a video eventually, but for now, know that if you are looking to declutter check this book out as a good soundtrack to have on in the background.
Bonus? You may get some ideas that allow you to get rid of
even more than you were intending.
Basil and Oregano by Melissa Capriglione
I LOVE graphic novels.
I also love the name Basil.
All through my twenties I seriously considered naming a kid Basil.
Alas, we have no Basil in our family, but we do have one kid with an herb name and one kid with a tree/bush name.
AND I love anything that relates itself to Bake Off.
So it’s no surprise that I loved this book about a magical boarding school where students compete for best of term using their magic to create wonderful recipes. All of the characters are absolutely lovely and charming; I especially love the found family in the main group of friends. Oh did I also mention these magical bakers get familiars, so there are adorable animals too? As well as lots of incidental diversity, friend and family expectations and problems, and more.
DO NOT read this one on an empty stomach; the food they make looks scrumptious!
Check this one out if you are in need of a warm hug of a book with great friendships and a sweet little romance.
I am BEYOND excited to announce that I am on the Loudoun County Library Board Of Trustees! What a perfect spot for me (and not only because they provide food at their meetings!)
I shared some thoughts at public comment of one of their meetings over the summer, and thought it would be a perfect place for me to serve the community. But I live in the Algonkian District, and you can see above that trustee’s term isn’t up until 2025. I thought, oh well, I’ll try then, no problem.
But THEN one of my friends pointed out that our amazing Chair-At-Large, Phyllis Randall, posted on social media asking people to submit themselves for nomination for positions on committees and boards because she had some spots open to appoint people to. And one of those was the library board!
I applied in November, and at the start of the year got a call from Phyllis; she loved my application, knowledge, and experience, and wanted to know how I felt about book banning. She loved my answer and I was nominated at the next meeting, and confirmed!
My first library meeting is tomorrow and I am so excited to do my part to help the library and to meet my fellow trustees!
Let’s chat in the comments!
You can say whatever you want or answer one of more of these questions:
1. What’s something you appreciate about your library?
2. What book have you read over and OVER again to a kid in your life?
3. What do you like about the book you’re currently reading?
See you in the comments and
happy reading until next week,
Kathy Ellen
See what I’m reading in real time on The Storygraph,
check out my book thoughts on TikTok,
and books and intentional living on YouTube!
1. I love that our libraries have reading challenges and prizes for kids AND adults. Right now they have a winter reading challenge that is JUST for adults!
2. My oldest used to love this book where you have to find 5 of this thing and 4 of this thing down to one on every page; she wanted it read so much that I eventually hid it for a bit because I was sick of it!
3. One book I'm currently reading involves a general bookstore turning into a romance only bookstore! Of course they're doing it to try and stay in business; but it's also interesting to see the changes they make and sections they have.
We love The Rabbit Listened. I especially try to read it on days where maybe I wasn't the best Rabbit for Lilian. So we can talk about it.