A Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na

A Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na

A very short picture book perfect for bedtime for the under 4 crowd.  With less that 20 words on each page and soothing, beautiful illustrations ("created by combining handmade painterly textures with digitally generated layers, which were then compiled in Adobe Photoshop"), A Book of Sleep talks about how various animals sleep (standing up, alone, etc.) while the owl stays awake and watches them all.  Would make an excellent gift for a young child.  (I haven't asked my six-year-old about it yet, but I know that the text is probably too simple for her to read it more than once.)

A Sizzlin' Summer Book Giveaway

From Chelle over at The Prairie Library --- a fabulous giveaway --
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Sapphique by Catherine Fisher - review coming soon
Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart - review coming soon
This is Me From Now On by Barbara Dee

 Head on over and register to win!

More Life-Size Zoo by Teruyuki Komiya & Creature abc by Andrew Zuckerman

I discovered these books when they appeared on my Amazon recommendations.


More Life-Size Zoo: An All-New Actual-Size Encyclopedia  by Teruyuki Komiya
ISBN: 978-1-934734-19-3

 Awesome life-size photographs of animals -- so with smaller animals (bats, baby gibbon) you see the whole animal but with larger ones (hippo, lion) you have fold-out pages to even see a recognizable amount.  Sidebars on each page give additional information about each animal and the end papers have statistics about each animal -- length, weight, habitat. Very, very fun.  A great gift book for 4-8 year-old children.

Creature abc by Andrew Zuckerman
ISBN: 9780811869782

Again, gorgeous pictures.  Upper and lowercase letters (Bb) on one spread with a picture of an animal that starts with that word. On the next two pages, another picture of the same animal along with the name of that animal (bear).  Very simple but lovely.  Perfect to hold the attention of even very young children.

Teaser Tuesdays -- Finding Magic for Crow

The rules come from MizB of Should Be Reading.

• Grab your current read
  
• Open to a random page
  
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
  
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
  
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Don't you feel it?  I just know we'll find your magic today!

~p. 103, Magic in the Alley by Mary Calhoun

My daughter and I were gifted this book by a fellow participant in the 48 hour reading challenge.  Thanks, Wendy!

Le Central and Mah Jongg with the in-laws for their anniversary!

The Simple Woman's Daybook--June 27, 2010

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...I hear water dripping down from the upstairs neighbor's balcony after he watered his plants.

I am thinking...that I have no idea where this scratch on my arm came from.

I am thankful for...my mother-in-law who is doing the breakfast dishes.

From the kitchen...7 grain hot cereal, maple syrup, and toast.

I am creating...more regular blog posts.

I am reading...A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.

I am hoping...to find a great place to eat for my in-laws anniversary.

Around the house...crazy clean floors that my husband created in honor of his parents' visit.

One of my favorite things...cool weather with beautiful sunsets after it rains.

A few plans for the rest of the week:  taking one of our foster cats to the vet to investigate his goopy eye, physical therapy, lots of game-playing with the in-laws, and maybe a fincy fancy manicure, pedicure, and haircut with my mother-in-law!

Here is picture for thought I am sharing... experimenting with nature shots on my new camera.