My Prayers - Whitman Tell-a-Tale

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love these cute pics from Whitman Tell-a-Tale's "My Prayers" - especially the Sunday outfits and the beautiful little white church.  I still remember when my older daughter was 3 and she prayed - "God, please help me not to be scared of the vacuum cleaner".  Hahaha!  Another funny story is when we were attending a church that met in a movie theatre - every time we drove by a theatre she would say - "Look, there's church!" At that age she didn't know that building was usually for movies, or what a typical classic church building looked like!

Linking to Cozy Book Hop

My Book About Me- Dr. Seuss/Roy McKie

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love this book!!  I had forgotten that I had it when I was young.  I wish I still had it!  Then I saw it was being re-published and available on Amazon and I ordered it last year for my daughter when she was in Senior Kindergarten.  She has worked on it a little here and there so some of the pages are filled in and some are not- i.e. the types of pages where you have to count all the forks in the house - not done yet!!  'My Book About Me' is written by Dr. Seuss and illustrated by Roy McKie - I love these fun illustrations.  Such a great do-it-yourself book for every kid to have.

Linking to Kid Lit Blog Hop

Some Seuss for Your Sunday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My 50th blog post!! Some more Dr. Seuss library books to go through with you today.  McElligott's Pool is a lesser-known Seuss book about all the unique and unheard of fish that might lurk below in the neighbour's pond- it's fun to look at all the illustrations of all of these ideas from Seuss's imagination.  On Beyond Zebra explores the letters that might exist after Z - much more fanciful and flamboyant letters than our plain and prosaic ABC's.  In Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose, the main character allows more and more creatures to perch on his horns- what starts as Thidwick performing a simple kindness begins to become a situation where his fellow creatures are taking advantage of him- until he finally sheds his old horns and begins to grow new ones.

Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories includes, besides the title story, The Big Brag and Gertrude McFuzz.    Yertle the Turtle, published in 1958, had the word 'burp' in it, which had never been in a children's book before.  The publishers were concerned about whether they could put it in the book or not- scandalous!!  Pictured is a page from the Gertrude McFuzz story - she is a bird who tries to keep up with the Joneses, or rather, with the other birds, by trying to be the most fastidious and fancy bird of them all - to her own ridiculous downfall.

If I Ran the Circus is another fun imaginary tale about what kinds of fabulous sights there would be at the Circus McGurkus, with the aid of the neighbourly Sneelock.  In Scrambled Eggs Super the main character is collecting eggs from the most far-out and fantastical birds that you have never heard of.  And it's just so fun, when reading this one, to say 'Scrambled Eggs super-dee-dooper-dee-booper!  And last, we have Bartholemew and the Oobleck.  It's not as creepy as The 500 Hats of Bartholemew Cubbins- it's a little more light-hearted, with the mysterious substance of oobleck taking over the kingdom, thanks to the king's stubborn pride.

Linking to The Children's Bookshelf

Retro TV and Toys for The Very Young- Monchichi

I was so excited last year to see that Monchichi are back!  I was at Chapters and I immediately bought one to give to my baby daughter for Christmas.  Then at Easter I saw one at Shopper's Drug Mart and nabbed that one.  And now just the other day I bought a mini-Christmas ornament one, at Chapters again. (see photo below.) I remember I had a mini-Monchichi when I was a kid.  These Japanese stuffed toy monkeys were first released in 1974.  Check out this clip from YouTube of Monchichis, produced by Hanna-Barbera, and also this Monchichis commercial.  I love the 80's!!!

A Seuss-tastic Saturday

 

 

 

 

First up is "Please Try to Remember the First of Octember".  I read this one aloud to the kids at my daughter's Dr. Seuss birthday party since it was in October/"Octember" - they seemed to like it.  Sometimes this book is published under the name Dr. Seuss, and sometimes under his pseudonym, Theo LeSieg.  The story imagines all the wonderful things that would happen and all the wonderful things that you would get on this miraculous day - if such a day existed.

I really like Gerald McBoing Boing- it first appeared on a children's record and then became a book and a cartoon.  Gerald can only speak in sound effects and is a social outcast until NBC Radio discovers him.  Gerald McBoing Boing was a tv series back in 1956-57 as well as in 2005-07.  Check out the old and new clips that I've included here.

I don't know if The Sleep Book actually made my kids sleepy, but it was fun to read.  Every couple of pages there is a new strange and silly creature to read about. Do you have a go-to book that you read to your kids often at night?  I love Dr. Seuss's rhymes and nonsense words that trip off the tongue.  Did you know that 'And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street' was rejected by many publishers before it was finally published in 1937?  It is about a boy who imagines a wild and creative story to tell his father about his walk home.

Linking to The Children's Bookshelf and Cozy Book Hop

A Sampler of Seuss

 

So far I've always blogged about vintage books that I own, but since I took out about a bazillion Dr. Seuss books from the library to decorate for Keira's birthday party, I figured I would show them to you.  Dr. Seuss has written A LOT of books so it will take a few posts to show them all to you!  I probably won't do them all in a row- we'll do a few and then take a break and get back to the rest later on or something.

First we have The 500 Hats of Bartholemew Cubbins.  I did not actually read this book to my daughter - I knew she would be scared and probably have a nightmare!  The magicians and the executioner in this book are too creepy for our taste!  In the story, Bartholemew is not able to remove his hat in the presence of the king because every time he does, a new and more ornate one appears on his head!

Then we have Daisy-Head Mayzie - the last children's book written by Dr. Seuss, although it was not published until after his death, and The Butter Battle Book.  This is an anti-war book - while I appreciate the moral of the story, I don't really find this book to be that captivating like many of Seuss' other works are.

And last we have The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories. This book includes the stories The Bippolo Seed, The Rabbit, the Bear, and the Zinniga-Zanniga, Tadd and Todd, Steak for Supper, The Strange Shirt Spot, The Great Henry McBride, and pictured here, Gustav the Goldfish. These stories were published in magazines in the 1950's but never in book form.  'Gustav' was later written into the book "A Fish out of Water" by Helen Palmer Geisel, Dr. Seuss' wife.   I really want to find that book somewhere, it is so cute.
More on Seuss next time!


Linking to Cozy Book Hop

Turning 6 with Dr. Seuss

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some pictures here of my daughter's 6th birthday party with a Dr. Seuss theme.  Not sure how well you can see her dress  but I ordered it from Etsy - it has Cat in the Hat fabric on it.  I bought the Dr. Seuss book 'Happy Birthday to You' and had her party guests sign it.  We played the Cat in the Hat "I Can Do That" game and made Cat in the Hat hats.  In lieu of actual loot bags, I bought Dr. Seuss books from the used book store and tied them to balloons to give as favours.  It was a fun time!  I took out ALL the Dr. Seuss books from the library to add to the ones we own to use as part of the party decor. I also had a Dr. Seuss teacher bulletin board set to use to decorate.  I will have some upcoming posts about Dr. Seuss books.  Quite a few people that came to the party said they hadn't known that Dr. Seuss actually wrote so many books.  I think that most people are more familiar with the Early Reader ones but don't always know about books such as Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose, for example.