BFF - A New Blogging Group

Ahhhhh....I love to write and I love inspiration. I just came across a new blogging group tonight called BFF - Blogging for Fun. Stay tuned for more possible posts based on their topics each week, as well. :-D

F is for Froggy

Kids love the Froggy books by Jonathan London. They aren't necessarily my favorites, but I can put up with them.

Froggy has the usual prescribed adventures that are so common in children's series. He learns how to swim, how to ride a bike, plays with each parent in turn. The catch phrases in each book are his mother yelling "FROOOOOOOOOOOOOOGY!" and his "WHAAAAAAAT?" reply. He usually does something that causes him some embarrassment and looks "more red than green." The books all follow a formula, which allows for the repetition that kids like. His experiences are conceivably familiar to children.

I haven't read as many of the Froggy adventures in the last decade. My students are not bringing them in to share and they are not books that actively seek. I don't think I even own any of them.

Peruse a couple and see how you feel about them.

Expectations in Children's Literature

Sometimes I feel like a bit of a snob when it comes to children's literature. I have simple expectations from what I share with kids, but sometimes they seem too high when compared with the options currently available. I want a good story that is fun to read aloud. I want decent illustrations that don't look like they came from the Dollar Store. And darn it, I want the subject matter to be appropriate.

I remember when I was trying to do book reviews for people. One of the books I got was about a cow that had a farting problem. Really? Now, I come from a family where flatulence is funny, but we never expected it to be in literature. Gassy the Cow and Walter the Farting Dog just do not strike me as great reads.

I have Kindle on my Droid and I am a free ebook junkie. I peruse the Amazon Kindle store at least once a week. I finally came across a bunch of free children's ebooks to download. But I noticed that a lot of them are about burping and other stinky stuff.

Yes, it makes kids laugh. Yes, I chuckle when I see a lot of it. But I hate reading it to kids. They often have a hard time determining when the jokes are appropriate and where to draw the line. I don't think they provide any kind of teaching experience.

And I am not saying that all books need to be a teaching experience. Some of them should just be fun. But the moral values of society today seem to be deteriorating rapidly. I just think that children's books shouldn't be contributing to that decline.

GBE 2 Challenge

I don't know how frequently it will fit in, but there is a weekly blogging challenge that I joined. On Sundays, a topic is posted in the Group Blogging Experience group on Facebook. We are supposed to blog on that topic, if we can find a way to make it fit in. I realized that I was able to fit the first topic in all of my blogs, and yes, I am behind by a day. But that is okay. I am still going to do it, anyway. :-)

Z to A in May: Blogging Challenge with a Twist

What? Another challenge? But you never finished this one!

No, I didn't. My father had to have brain surgery and has been in the ICU for over 2 weeks now. My extra writing time has been sucked up by trips to the hospital, conversations with the doctors, and updating family and friends. I've also been dealing with things with my mother who has Alzheimer's.

April has been a long, difficult month. But I vow to finish the blog posts for the original challenge and THEN I will think about working on this one. If not, please be assured that I will continue to update with books I have read and enjoyed, as well as a few that I didn't.

Join the May challenge!

E is for Encyclopedia Brown

My sister and I are both logical people. We like to look at information and interpret it in our own educated ways. When we were kids, we enjoyed reading the Encyclopedia Brown series by Donald J. Sobel.

Now, my sister was more of an aficionado than I ever was. She devoured them the way that I was devouring other books. I now have the majority of the collection up in my attic library and I encourage parents to read them with their children.

Each book consists of mini "cases." Leroy Brown is known as "Encyclopedia" because he has a knack for trivia. His father is also the Chief of Police. He uses his knowledge to help his dad solve some big crimes, while simultaneously helping his peers with their mysteries. It's a little similar to Nancy Drew. The fun part with these books is that the reader is given the clues, then must deduce the truth on her own. Solutions are provided at the end of the book. It is fun to use your critical thinking skills and to test the skills of the kids in your life.

D is for dePaola

Tomie dePaola is another classic author of children's literature. I have used his books time and time again in the classroom, whether for simple story reading or for teaching a lesson. He is known for retelling favorite tales, such as in his Strega Nona series. His book Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs makes me cry every time I read it.

I also really like his books about the holidays. For Christmas and Easter, he is able to provide a balance with the religious aspects of each holiday. He also has written about other holidays.

I also admire dePaola for doing his own illustrations.

Some of the stories are too advanced for the young children that I teach. But most of them are appropriate for the elementary age. Check some of them out and see what you think.