Tag Archives: off-topic

A-Z Questionnaire for Book Lovers

… oh it was irresistible!  I rarely to never do linky themes or blog trends running around online, but I saw this and I just. couldn’t. resist.  Because I love talking about books just slightly less than I love reading books, I changed up the questions enough to apply specifically to picture books.  I invite you to join in if you like with your own answers…

Author You’ve Read the Most Books From: Bill Peet just because he is so prolific.

Board Book Baby Loves Best?  It’s a tie between  Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks from A to Z and Peek-A Who?

Christmas Wouldn’t Be the Same Without: Oh so many!  But ultimately, if I only had one, it would have to be The Donkey’s Dream.

Doesn’t Impress You Like it does everyone else:  Almost all of the self-esteem picture books  (the ones that  weigh down the shelves at major retailers and get gifted by well-meaning relatives).  I have an especially annoyed opinion of Love You Forever by Robert Munsch.  I know… I’m so unAmerican for saying that.

Earliest Picture Book Memory? The first book I can remember my mama ever reading to me was Millions of Cats.  She was an incredibly busy, industrious woman slogging through a ton of housework and nine kids underfoot… but somehow she managed to clear the cobwebs of her exhaustion enough to read us kids stories on the couch and we loved those rare moments when she sat down…

Funniest Book You Can Think Of? Easily, it’s This Moose Belongs to Me where Jeffer’s witty, perfect humor shines through.  I wrote about it here.

Golden Book Favorite: The Saggy Baggy Elephant.  It’s not particularly superior to all the others.  And I do love Eloise Wilkins’ books, but this title wins for me out of pure nostalgic appreciation…

Hidden Gem Book: The Summerfolk because I want to be Doris Burn when I grow up.

Illustrations You Would Actually Frame to Display on Your Wall:  oh I don’t know… woodcuts? (Mary Azarian?), A mosaic artist?  I guess probably just A Boy, a Dog, and a Frog; they’d be just simple and lovely in small frames in a bathroom…

Just Finished Reading:  The Story About Ping… again (love).

Kids Love This But You Don’t: Garfield comic books.

Last Purchased Book: I had to check.  It was The Glorious ABC.

Most Worn Out Title in your Home: This varies frequently as the worn out ones eventually become unusable and get tossed into my “to-be-upcycled” graveyard.  The current book holding onto its last breath of life is The Princess in the Forest. I will be sad to attend that funeral and will certainly hope to buy it again.

Not Just for Kids:  If You’re Afraid of the Dark, Remember the Night Rainbow. It was a gift to me on my 15th birthday and I love it now even more than I did then.

Out-of-Print Book(s) You Severely Wish Were Not: Everything by Joan Gale Thomas please!

 Poetry Perfection: Lynley Dodd is my very favorite wordsmith wizard… so much fun!

 Quirky Book You Love: Just one?! King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub then. We all revisit this one often.

Reader Book Favorites: All things Syd Hoff, Arnold Lobel and P.D. Eastman

 Series You Wish You Owned All Of: Many, many different series or authors.  Currently, I wish I owned all of (or any of!) the Henry the Explorer books

 Thrift Store Bargain that Thrilled You: Finding almost all of the David Macauley building books in hardback, discarded from a library for 50 cents each.

 Unexpected Delight Pulled Randomly From the Library Shelf: Magpie Magic: A Tale of Colorful Mischief.

 Virtue Lesson Not to Miss: The Empty Pot, hands down my favorite non-preachy book on honesty.

 Wordless Book that Won Your Heart: A Small Miracle. It’s my boys’ favorite Christmas tale and deserves to be carefully poured over while sipping hot chocolate.

X is Tricky! One Alphabet Book that Does it Right: … because I judge ABC books by their treatment of the letter X.  Worst book I ever saw flat out skipped the letter… sheesh. The Handmade Alphabet wins for the most seamless letter X.

You Wish Your Kids Loved This as Much as You Do: The Monk Who Grew Prayer.  It’s tolerated around here, but never requested and immediately forgotten for the next book in the reading pile.  *sniff*

Zzz… Bedtime Story You Would Reach For First: Time for Bed, in hardback, with full-size pictures please.  It’s just rhythmic enough.  And it earns this distinction mostly because it’s the very first picture book I ever bought for my son.

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Tangent: My favorite new life-helps

2014 has brought some new items into my life that are excellent!  Because I don’t do Facebook or personal blogging right now, I’m bursting at the seems to tell the world about my great finds.  So, I’ll just hijack my book blog for a moment to showcase my newest, random life-helps:

 I’ve tried two other brands of waterproof mattress covers.  They are loud, unbreathing and don’t hold up well after multiple washings.  Wet-Stop mattress covers are actually comfortable, quiet, and extremely well suited to many washings!  Every kid bed in the house is now covered with one!

 A $7 can opener.  Revolutionary.  You never realize how well something is supposed to work until you have an item that does it well.  My old, rusty can opener required mega force and precision to function.  This 4-in-1 item is rocking my world.
 If you have nice camera gear, protect your investment!  I am in love with the Ape Case brand of cases!  We have a smaller holster for grab & go situations but the medium case in the picture is what we use for traveling and holding our extra lenses, external flash and various other items.  The bright yellow interior is so great for seeing what’s inside and the whole case is built tough!  Finally, something to withstand my rambunctious family!

 Okay, so a Celtic album is hardly a “life help” but I was delighted to listen to this particular collection of excellent music.  Of course, the title of The Brendan Voyage won me over immediately but I’m always a sucker for Irish sounds. (I have to say that this pairs nicely of course with the book: Saint Brendan and the Voyage Before Columbus and that March is pretty much the unofficial “Irish Appreciation Month” around here.)

 Don’t knock these wool nursing pads ’til you try ’em.  I took the leap after reading great reviews from some other mamas.  And they are huge (my husband said “What are these tortilla thingies?” when they came in the mail —which actually prevents the “bullseye” look on your chest with normal pads!). So these are expensive. But they are hands-down the best new-baby item I’ve purchased in years!  I would fast for a week if I had to just to afford these!  I bought two pairs and that’s all you need.  They are so soft, so comforting. The natural lanolin in the nursing pads helps ward off infections and the entire thing is designed to keep your breast warm (which actually helps avoid clogged ducts too)… so when it gets wet, it’s not the cold, clammy wet from disposable or cotton pads, but a warm wet.  I wash them with very hot water… no need to get a special wool cleanser… just hot water to rinse out dried up milk and then air dry in a warm place.  So, so great…

 Bovine gelatin. Seriously.  I have 90 year old-lady knee joints.  They have been aching for almost a year now.  It hurts to genuflect, to keep my knees bent for long, to bend over, to sit on the toilet.  I have avoided the doctor because I don’t like doctors and didn’t want to pay tons for co-pays and MRIs and yadda, yadda, yadda.  So my sister told me about this stuff because she had a similar knee pain and all HER doctor visits didn’t yield any good news except that “it’s reversible.” So here I am, 4 days after taking this stuff 2-3 times a day and the pain in my knees is significantly reduced so far!  It’s unbelievable to be able to kneel down in Mass without being in agony.  I don’t know how long this will last or if I can get totally pain free this way… after about a month, I’ll taper down my serving to one a day and see how that goes. Then maybe I’ll be able to stop completely.  All I know is that I’m grateful for a simple, natural and— comparatively speaking— cheap alternative to Big-Pharma.

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So there you are!  I feel better now that I’ve shared the good news.  🙂

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