Monday, May 21, 2012

Board Books A to Z - G!

G - my 17-month-old son's favorite letter right now! I'm so proud of him, he knows so many letters! (I know it's totally WAY ahead of schedule, right?!) Well, he is very smart either way! Today he was showing my husband a picture of a baby eating a grape. He has had grapes before but I've always cut them up into smaller pieces. But he still knew what it was and he still knew he wanted one! You can tell because he points. He pointed to the grape. Hubby said, "Yes, that's a grape!" then the baby pointed toward the kitchen. Apparently, it was time for grapes! Wow, what a smartie!

Ok enough gushing, on to the books.
Of course we have "Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown, pictures by Clement Hurd. If you haven't heard of this book, then crawl out from the rock you've been living under and read it! It's a classic! Next is "Gill" which is part of the Finding Nemo series of books we have.
Next is Gossie & Gertie by Olivier Dunrea. Oh such a cute book this one is. We read this one over and over on a daily basis. And lastly is "Guess How Much I Love You" by Sam McBratney, illustrated by Anita Jeram. Another classic, but this book is hard for me to read aloud, because it's hard to say Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare. Those names are a mouthful. In my opinion, the names should be, oh, how about Charlie and Todd. Ha, just the first two names that popped into my head.

Normally I would participate in Teaser Tuesday over at Should be Reading, but I haven't even got to the teaser I posted on the 8th. So, I'll sit it out this week. I really will finish that book!

Speaking of reading a LOT, I'm going to attempt to read through the Bible in 90 (or 99) days with this group of ladies.  I can't wait to try it out! Be sure to check it out if you're interested!

Enjoy your day and your latest book!

Board Books A to Z - F!

Good Monday morning everyone! Time to look at the board books we have that start with F!
"Finding Nemo," a Look and Find for toddlers! My sister bought this book for us and it's so cute! It's a big book with lots of pictures and the baby loves it!
We have two board book copies of "The Foot Book, Dr. Seuss' Wacky Book of Opposites." My son loves this book so it's nice to have one upstairs and downstairs. Next is "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed." This is a fun book to read aloud.
We even have two copies of the little Elmo book about "Food!" We found one of these at Goodwill, and he loved it so much that when we found the whole set of four books at Costco we grabbed them. $8 for four board books isn't too bad. Then lastly, we have "Fish Out of Water - Glub, Glub Blub!" a little Chicken Little book. Found three of this series at a Goodwill and they've been fun to have.

Updated to say that I found some of the Look and Find books for toddlers at Barnes & Noble for about $8 each, so I was curious to see what other themes are available.  I found the following:
Revised my search for toddler specific books and found Elmo and Friends First Look and Find.
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse First Look and Find.
Thomas and Friends First Look and Find.
Cars First Look and Find.
Disney/Pixar Friends and Heroes First Look and Find.
Disney Princesses First Look and Find.
Abby Cadabby Fairy Tale Fun First Look and Find.
Handy Manny First Look and Find.
Shrek Look and Find.
Baby Einstein Let's Look! First Look and Find.
Hide & Seek Near & Far First Look and Find.
Toy Story First Look and Find.
Blue's Clues I Spot! First Look and Find.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer First Look and Find.

And I could go on and on. There are Rio books, Tigger & Pooh, Disney Bunnies, SpiderMan, DC Super Friends, My Little Pony, Backyardigans, Dora the Explorer, Dinosaur Train, Kai-lan, Spongebob and the list goes on. Don't you just love book series?!

Enjoy your day and your latest book!

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Goodwill Haul

Thanks to my friend Liz at the Blue Eyed Owl, I had some 20% off coupons at Goodwill. So sis and I went again today. The one that just opened by her house is awesome, we love it. Such great finds there. Here's what I got!
A cute board book for the baby: "God Made You Special!" written by Eric Metaxas. Such a cute book in perfect condition that introduces all of the Veggie Tales characters. The only thing I am bummed about is that the book doesn't introduce Junior Asparagus, one of my favorite characters.
Found some great Little Golden Books. First, "Walt Disney's Mickey and the Beanstalk" adapted by Dina Anastasio, illustrated by Sharon Ross. The book is in great condition even though it's from 1988 (making me feel a little old!)
These Little Golden Books are in awesome condition. First, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" adapted by Rick Bunsen, illustrated by Arkadia. This book is based off of the popular movies, very cute. Next, is "The Good Humor Man" by Kathleen N. Daly, pictures by Tibor Gergely. What a GREAT find! I'd never seen this book before, and I'm glad I found it!
Finally, we found this great toy organizer by Step 2 for just $11.98 with my 20% discount. There is a little tiny crack in the top shelf, but it's just what we needed for the living room. Just looked it up on Amazon, and this thing retails for $100! I'm kinda proud of myself right now! ha! Here's the Amazon pic.
Linking up with The Penny Worthy ProjectThrift Score ThursdaysHigh on Thrifting Thursdays,  Thrifty TreasuresThrifty Things FridayThrift'n on a Thursday, and Thrifty Love.


Enjoy your day and your latest book!

Board Books A to Z - E

Time to keep our little series going with board books, today we're looking at our board books that start with the letter E.
"Eency Weency Spider" by Margaret Wang, illustrated by Claudia Rueda, and designed by Treesha Runnells (what's the difference again between the illustrator and the designer?). I bought the smaller book from a bargain book bin at a grocery store a while back. While the concept was cute, the story kinda didn't make a lot of sense. Then finally I found the larger book at Savers not long ago, and now I understand. Apparently they skipped some lines for the smaller book. So the bigger book is our favorite now. There's a button at the top right corner where it's supposed to play music, but that feature is gone, and it says on the book that the battery is not replaceable. Boo!
Next is "Eight Silly Monkeys" illustrated by Steven Haskamp. This is a cute little book that almost got ruined recently with a toddler pouring milk onto it. Yes, it's my toddler, and no, we aren't over that phase. Sigh! And then lastly, "Elmer's Friends" by David McKee. It's a cute little book about a patchwork elephant named Elmer who visits all his different friends.

I have featured three books today with little die-cut animals, the concept is really cute. A quick search at Amazon.com shows there are many more of these books:

"Ten Little Ladybugs" by Melanie Gerth, illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith.

"Ten Rubber Duckies - A Wacky Counting Adventure" by Dawn Bentley and illustrated by Heather Cahoon.
"Good Night, Sweet Butterflies - A Color Dreamland" by Dawn Bentley, illustrated by Heather Cahoon, Melanie Gerth as draft writer.
"Buzz-Buzz, Busy Bees - An Animal Sounds Book" also by Dawn Bentley, illustrated by Heather Cahoon, Melanie Gerth as draft writer.
"Five Little Piggies - Count Down from Five to One!" illustrated by Steve Haskamp.
"Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?" by Margaret Wang, illustrated by Christine Schneider.
"Ten Wishing Stars - A Countdown to Bedtime Book" by Treesha Runnells and illustrated by Sarah Dillard.

"Ten Wriggly Wiggly Caterpillars" by Debbie Tarbett.
"Ten Tiny Tadpoles" by Debbie Tarbett.
And last, but not least, "Ten Friendly Fish" by Debbie Tarbett.

These would be some great finds at your local thrift store. What die-cut books do you have and love?

Linking up with Read Aloud Thursdays at Hope is the Word.

Enjoy your day and your latest book!

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Teaser Tuesday

It's time again for Teaser Tuesday from Should be Reading.  I'm still reading "Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden, and so I wanted to give a teaser later in the book that would tease me too! So here it is:
When I was locked in, I wanted to be out. Now life had changed so much that, finding myself locked out, I wanted to be inside again. And yet I was a grown woman-free, if I wished, to stroll out of Gion at that very moment and never come back.
Ohhh - can't wait to see what that's all about!  Enjoy your day and your latest book!

Monday, May 7, 2012

Goodwill Half Price Day - Cinco de Mayo

It's always a great day when it's half-price day at Goodwill! We got a few bargains, a couple pairs of shorts for the hubs, a movie (Total Recall), a good sized Little Tykes dump truck and a huge bag of Mega Blocks for the baby, and of course, books! I won't bore you with the other stuff, but here are the books we got:
First, a couple of Baby Einstein board books. "Sweet Dreams, Mimi" by Julie Aigner-Clark, illustrations by Nadeem Zaidi. A cute little book where the mother monkey shares pictures with baby Mimi so she'll have sweet dreams. Next is "See and Spy Colors," concept by Julie Aigner-Clark and illustrations also by Nadeem Zaidi.
Hardover books: "Little Girls Bible Storybook for Mothers & Daughters" by Carolyn Larsen, illustrated by Caron Turk. My daughter had this book, and it was cute, so I bought it for my neice, who just turned 5. Next is a nice hardcover version of "Kenny & The Dragon" by Tony DiTerlizzi (the author of "The Spiderwick Chronicles). This book had such a great cover and was in such great condition, and $.75 for a chapter book is a deal.
Now to the Little Golden Books. First, "Words" by Selma Lola Chambers and illustrated by Louis Cary. This book is from 1974 and is in pretty good shape. Next, "Heidi" adapted from the original story by Johanna Spyri, pictures by Corinne Malvern. This book is in perfect shape from 1982.
Next is "Grandma and Grandpa Smith" by Edith Kunhardt, illustrated by Terri Super, from 1985. 
I also found a few Bible stories in LGB form. "Noah's Ark" by Barbara Shook Hazen, pictures by Tibor Gergely is from 1969. This book has a price tag from B. Dalton"The Story of Jonah" adapted from The Book of Jonah by Pamela Broughton, illustrated by Roberta Collier. This was printed in 1986 and it's interesting because the back cover was bound upside-down onto the book. I've never seen one like that, have you?
Next is "David and Goliath" by Barbara Shook Hazen and illustrated by Robert J. Lee. Can anybody recognize that price tag up top? It looks familiar but can't place it.
I also found some Christmas books. "The Animals' Christmas Eve" by Gale Wiersum, illustrated by Jim Robison is from 1977. And finally, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" by Barbara Shook Hazen, adapted from the story by Robert L. May, illustrated by Richard Scarry. Cool! Who knew he did other books besides his own!


Enjoy your day and your latest book!

Friday, May 4, 2012

Book Beginnings & Friday 56

Today I'm taking part in Book Beginning Fridays over at Rose City Reader, and The Friday 56 at Freda's Voice.


Here's my book beginning:


Suppose that you and I were sitting in a quiet room overlooking a garden, chatting and sipping at our cups of green tea while we talked about something that had happened a long while ago, and I said to you, "That afternoon when I met so-and-so...was the very best afternoon of my life, and also the very worst afternoon." I expect you might put down your teacup and say, "Well, now, which was it? Was it the best or the worst? Because it can't possibly have been both!"


And here's my Friday 56:


After this I learned why Pumpkin had been so worried about being the last student. Because now the girl with the disheveled hair, who'd been rushing to the school as we'd left for breakfast, came to the front of the room and bowed.


Both texts are from my current book, "Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden. This book has proven to be not necessarily difficult to read, but hard to read in the sense that there are lots of words squished onto the pages. I would say it's not an easy read, but so far very good. I've been reading for a week and I'm only on page 100. Now this week has been a bit tough for reading and I haven't had a lot of time, so that's part of it. But usually I can read a book in a week. This one will be taking me longer.


And now, enjoy your latest book, and May the 4th be with you! 

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Nothing about books...

Nope, this post has nothing whatsoever to do with books today. Sister and I went to Goodwill again just to look around. (We had some 20% off coupons, thanks to Blue Eyed Owl!) This particular store's book section was small and uninspiring. So, sis and I moved on to other things like clothes, furniture, purses, and finally we found shoes...I happened across a pair of Chinese Laundry wedges, and then it was like a tornado of shoes hit the floor in front of us and the stroller, and we ended up both walking away with two pairs of shoes (oh, and sis got a shirt of two also, but no pics of that). The Chinese Laundry wedges were marked at $6.99, but they were a blue tag which was half price that day. So I got them for $3.50. Then sis found a pair of Montego Bay Club wedges which were sooo cute with a buckle on the front and stripes on the wedge...my current must have. I kinda stole those from her, they were so comfortable, and I ended up wearing them the rest of the day. Here they are:
Are they not as cute as can be? Wow and comfy too (did I already say that? sorry!) Here are the rest of the shoes we bought yesterday.
The ones on the far right are Guess patent brown wedges, I found these on Ebay for $45 starting bid, we bought them for $6. The middle pair are the Chinese Laundry pair, and sister got a cute pair of flip-flops from a JC Penney brand. All in all, a GREAT thrift find!

Here's a better pic of the Guess shoe from the Ebay auction:
Linking up with The Penny Worthy ProjectThrift Score ThursdaysHigh on Thrifting Thursdays, and Thrifty Treasures. 

Enjoy your day and your latest book!

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Last Thrift of April and Teaser Tuesday

Good morning!  I have a few thrifting finds for you that we picked up yesterday, I'm kind of excited about them.
First I got a nice hardcover copy of "One Morning in Maine" by Robert McCloskey printed in 1980. Who doesn't love a good Robert McCloskey book? The cover shows a little wear, but the inside pages are perfect. Score! Next, I found "The Random House Book of Poetry for Children - A Treasury of 572 Poems for Today's Child." Fitting for the last day of Poetry Month, eh?! This hardcover was printed in 1983 and is in great condition. The poems were selected by Jack Prelutsky and illustrations are by Arnold Lobel (most known for his Frog and Toad series of books). Can't wait to dive into this book.
Next I found a great paperback version of "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" by Judi Barrett and drawn by Ron Barrett. I love this version because it's before the movie, which I wasn't crazy about. Next are a couple of nice Little Golden Books, "Tawny Scrawny Lion" by Kathryn Jackson with pictures by Gustaf Tenggren. This copy is from 1980 and looks like it has never been read. Then I found a copy of "The Monster at the End of this Book starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover" by Jon Stone, illustrated by Michael Smollin. It also is in great condition, printed in 1999.

And now it's time for Teaser Tuesday, hosted by Should be Reading. Here's my teaser from "Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden:

     "Keep in mind that an apprentice on the point of having her mizuage is like a meal served on the table. No man will wish to eat it, if he hears a suggestion that some other man has taken a bite."
     I couldn't quite look her in the eye after she said this. I knew perfectly well she was talking about the Baron.

Linking up with The Penny Worthy ProjectThrift Score ThursdaysHigh on Thrifting Thursdays, and Thrifty Treasures.

Enjoy your day and your latest book!