Author of Month: Eric Carle

Spring seems to finally be coming to the Midwest.  How can you talk about spring without reading at least one Eric Carle book? Especially if you have a child under eight.

Eric Carle has many wonderful books and a great author web page.   His web page includes a list of his books, a link to his biography, and downloads.  His downloads include how to make his tissue paper illustrations and his Caterpillar Express Newsletter where he answers many questions.  Great information.  I have also created a Pinterest Board with various activities I have found around the web. We have quite a collection of his books here.

We tried our own version of making Eric Carle's tissue paper collages.  First we cut a butterfly shape out of tissue paper.  We then glued it down with watered down glue using a paint brush, and used tissue paper shapes to embellish our butterfly.   We found it helpful to paint glue around the edges of a shape to keep the tissue paper down.  Here are our results.

The tissue paper cut-outs.

Gluing tissue paper embellishements.

The final results!

Enjoy Eric this month.  This is the last month of authors for this year.  I am thinking about starring different authors next year. 

~Becky

Cozy Classics

I receive emails from my local library that tells about new books the library has purchased.  One of the emails I received featured a version of Emma by Cozy Classics.  Cozy Classics are board books for kids with 12 words that summarize classic stories like Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and Oliver Twist.

Here is a short video that tells about the books. 

 

The books have needle-felted illustrations.  The books are made by twin brothers Jack and Holman Wang.   It is hard to believe they can boil down lengthy works of literature into twelve words.  I hope you check them out. 

~ Becky

Living Life Undauted by Christine Caine

From bestselling author Christine Caine, Living Life Undaunted provides a daily format for people who desire to reflect deeply on key stories, thoughts, and principles from her bestselling book Undaunted and other inspirational writings.
Here are 365 thought-provoking devotions culled from the spiritually challenging words of acclaimed speaker and advocate Christine Caine. Including an introduction by the author, these short selections offer daily wisdom, inspiration, and companionship. The daily readings that encourage readers to do what God calls them to do are compiled from Undaunted and other inspirational writings from Christine Caine.

Living Life Undaunted by Christine Caine is a daily devotional for age teen and up.   The devotions start with a bible verse that is followed by a story that connects to it.  Some of the stories are personal ones from Caine’s life and some are reflections on the verse.  This would be a nice gift for a graduate or anyone who enjoys daily devotions. 

I love books with daily readings.  In my life with seven kids, I am always looking for ways that I can read and grow, and daily readings allow me to do that.  Living Life Undaunted is a great way to start my day and focus on what is important to me.  The book is divided up into four parts: Broken, Loved, Empowered, and Commissioned, one for each quarter.  Each month also has a theme such as Healing is a Process or Following in Love.  Caine has written a variety of stories and connections to draw you in each day.   I would highly recommend Living Life Undaunted.