10 Great Books for October

I love this time of year. The cooler weather, changing colors, and great decorations are perfect. I've got some fall/Halloween books to tell you about. They aren't all blatantly Halloween books, but they're great for curling up to read with your little ones in this crisp autumn weather.

1. Pumpkin Day, Pumpkin Night

This book is a little bit nostalgic for me. My mom read it to us when she first got it. It was published when I was in Jr. High, so I wasn't even a little kid. I still liked it. The narrator is a little boy who talks about knowing when it's "pumpkin time" and how he chooses his perfect pumpkin. It's a sweet, simple story.

2. The Spider and the Fly

"Will you walk into my parlour?' said the Spider to the Fly." I love the poem by Mary Howitt, and Tony DiTerlizzi took that classic poem a step further by adding incredible black and white illustrations. It's an awesome combination and I love it.

3. Go Away, Big Green Monster!

This is a fun book for kids. The pages have cut outs and you watch the face of the monster appear as you read its description and then disappear. It has great colors and few words per page, so it's great for little attention spans.

4. Happy Halloween, Little Critter!

I always liked Mercer Mayer books when I was younger. This is a classic Little Critter story, just focused around a Halloween party. The illustrations are great and the story is fun.

5. The Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat

The Berenstain Bears are another childhood favorite. This is one of the first Halloween books I can remember reading. It finds a teaching opportunity in a trick or treating adventure.It's a bit long for tiny kids, but it has a great message for those old enough to sit still.

6. My Monster Mama Loves Me So

This is a silly, but sweet story about a little monster whose "Monster Mama" loves him. He tells all the ways his mama takes care of him. Kids can giggle about "lizard juice" or fang brushing, but still get the message that all kinds of moms love their little ones.

7.Monster Mash

I think just about everyone knows or has heard this song. This book adds fun illustrations to well-known lyrics. It's a fun book to read or sing together.

8.Skeleton Hiccups

This is the story of a skeleton with hiccups. He tries all kinds of things to make them go away. It's a new angle on the typically spooky skeleton and lots of fun.

9.Mouse's First Halloween

This is another good choice for truly tiny people. The book is full of bright pictures and sound effects as a little mouse experiences Halloween. Who doesn't love a good onomatopoeia? (The word itself is awesome.)

10.Heckedy Peg

This one may be a bit of a stretch for this book list, but it is one of my favorites. It's the story of a witch who turns seven children into food items and their mother who tricks the witch to get them back. It is clever and well-illustrated. Perfect for older kids.

What are your favorite books to read this season? I'm always looking for great new reads, so please leave a comment and share!

Box of Sunshine

Last week I wrote a post recommending some children's books, so I am not going to double do it this month. Instead, I'm going to do something that I will probably never do again and write a whole post that has nothing to do with books. The week before last my husband and I wanted to send a package to some loved ones to brighten their week a little. This idea I had seen on Pinterest came to mind. I loved how simple and cute it is. I am not a crafty or creative person and I like that it's so straight forward: even I can handle it. The basic idea is that you gather yellow things, put them in a box, and call it a box of sunshine. Win-win-win.  We had a lot of fun searching for yellow items to use. Our package turned out really cute. Shortly after we sent that off, I found out about the gift-giving class and decided to make a mini version.

I got a little box from the gift wrap section at Hobby Lobby for 69 cents, along with some yellow tissue paper. I filled the box with yellow treats, then printed out a little label, and used a couple glue dots to stick it to the box. I really like how it looks.

Here's what I put in my box:

• M&M's
• Toblerone
• Ferrero Rocher
• Burt's Bees Chapstick
• Country Time Lemonade packets
• Lemon drops (I bought a bag at Target for $1, then put them in a little Mason jar, tied a bow around it and stuck some cute scrap book paper to the lid.)

This is a fun gift for any reason, or no reason at all. If you want to step it up a notch you could add a gift card. The only company with a yellow giftcard I could think of off the top of my head is Subway, but you can wrap yellow scrapbook paper around any card to make it fit your theme. This gift can be as inexpensive as you want/need it to be and still be thoughtful. Anyone would love to receive this gift. I know I would.

Book Gifting

As Jonie informed you, I participated in the gift-giving presentation last weekend. I'm pretty sure my role was to show you that don't have to be crafty to give nice, inexpensive gifts. My gift ideas centered around books. I know, right? You're shocked. Anyway, I showed a couple examples of books packaged in cute ways, but to be honest, my mom was the brains behind the cute packaging. I'm going to show you the packaging ideas as well as recommend a few titles that, in my opinion, make excellent gifts.

Baby Shower:
Who doesn't love beautiful, well written children's books? (Even if you thought of someone just now, I bet that person is not an expectant mother. Just sayin'.) We wanted to take a book and make it look like the thoughtful gift it really is. The ideas we came up with were:
Wrap a fun, brightly colored receiving blanket around the book, then tie a ribbon around the blanket. Voila- instant cute gift.

For smaller books, tie a ribbon around a book or two and add a rattle or another small toy.

Here are a couple picture books that Alice and I highly recommend:

It's Time to Sleep, My Love by Eric Metaxas and Nancy Tillman
This is an A for sure.

I got this book at Kohl's last December, shortly after Alice was born. My mom got her the little panda, also from Kohl's, for Christmas. I love this book. I have read it to Alice almost every night since I bought it. The illustrations are beautiful and she loves to stare at/pat them- that habit led to me buying the board book version from Amazon to avoid ripped pages. I love the gentle rhythm of the story which seems to help calm Alice down for bed.

Sidenote: If you have never noticed the Kohl's Cares books up by the cash registers, go check it out. I am in no way affiliated with Kohl's and they will give me nothing for telling you this, but at only $5 each you cannot find cheaper hardcover children's books. (If you can, let me know where!) They also sell stuffed animals that go with each book, which also cost only $5. You could buy a book and a stuffed animal and tie them together or just throw them in a little gift bag and you have a very sweet little gift.

Dear Zoo: A Lift-the-Flap Book
We give it an A

This book is approved not only by Alice and me, but also both of Jonie's girls. They were at my house last week and we read this book over and over at their request. It's a very simple book that has been around for thirty years. The narrator says he wrote to the zoo to send him a pet and each page shows a different animal the zoo sends, which the author then sends back until finally the zoo sends the perfect pet. The girls love lifting the flaps themselves and if you make the animal noises it's extra fun.

Christmas:
The Mansion  by Henry Van Dyke
This is an A+

      This is one of my favorite stories to read at Christmastime. It's lesser known, but has the same didactic vibe as A Christmas Carol. The main character, John Weightman, is a wealthy man with an important lesson to learn. He is not as miserly as Ebenezer (he owns a wing of the hospital, a grammar school, etc.), but he believes in getting recognition for any good deed he does: "No pennies in beggars hats! Try to put your gifts where they can be identified." He has a dream one night that teaches him what is truly important in life, and it's a good reminder for us all. The version I linked here costs only $2.34, which is less than the cost of most greeting cards. Idea: use this book in place of a card. It will hold more meaning and stay with the recipient far longer than anything Hallmark comes up with.
If you want to read the book yourself, you can download it free for your kindle here or get a free download in many formats here, courtesy of Project Gutenberg.

The Spirit of Christmas by Nancy Tillman
I give it an A

The author of this book is also one of the authors of It's time to sleep, my love. This is similar to that book in that the illustrations are beautiful and the words are soothing. I love the message it shares. It talks about the spirit of Christmas helping the narrator figure out what is missing from Christmas. He suggests bells or food or songs, but the narrator says that's just not it. It turns out that "you" are what's missing. The last page says, "And so then, my darling, wherever you roam, may you always be safe... may you always come home. For as long as the world still spins and still hums, wherever you are, and no matter what comes, the best part of Christmas will always be... you beneath my Christmas tree." If you have kids living away from home or any loved one who is far from you this season, this would be a sweet way to remind them that they are important and loved. I think a sweet note tucked or written in the cover along with a cute ribbon and an ornament or some chocolate would be just right.

Any Occasion:
We took an inexpensive cookbook, wrapped it in a dishtowel, tied a ribbon around it, added a cookie cutter and I think it's perfect for birthdays, holidays or just because. One thing I like about wrapping books this way is that it looks great and you already know what it is without opening it. It takes away that awkward should-I-open-it-right-now? moment.

You can always find cookbooks on clearance racks, so this can be a very affordable gift. Also, in addition to picture books, Kohl's always has a $5 cookbook up by the register.

Make a bookmark to personalize and beautify your gift. We found this tutorial for making gorgeous bookmarks out of ribbon and a single earring. You can see our version in the picture below. The cameo is a pin, so we just pinned it to the ribbon. The flower was attached with a glue dot, which holds surprisingly well. I don't think they are very practical bookmarks for use, but for displaying books, they make a beautiful statement.

Our other bookmark idea I don't actually have an example of... We thought it would be nice to give someone a book you love and make a bookmark with a favorite quote from the book. That way they get a little preview of the greatness that awaits them and it makes the gift that much more personalized.

The other book-related idea I have for you is framing book pages or illustrations. The frame in the above photo is one that hangs in Alice's room. It's an illustration from Alice in Wonderland. I found the picture using a Google image search, sent it to Costco to be printed, and stuck it in a frame. Anything you frame becomes more special. You could find a print from a book that has significance to your recipient and for the cost of a frame (which, as Jonie said, can be easily found at a thrift store and painted) plus the cost of a photo print (I think mine was 39 cents...) you have a meaningful gift.


My final tip for book-giving:
 Find awesome, old books. You could find an old edition of a book you know the recipient loves, or share an old copy of a book you adore. An aged, hardcover book has so much more character than your average mass-market paperback. And it smells better too. Where do you find them? I've found great books on eBay and sometimes the used section on Amazon. Check out local thrift stores or yard sales, sometimes you can score vintage books for next to nothing. Also, if you're in Utah, you should check out Weller Book Works up in Salt Lake. They sell new and used books and I just love that place.

I Really Like Books

Hi! I'm Charli and I'm here to blog. Here's a little bit about me to start: I am married to a nerd (a really cute one) who loves all things technology. We have a tiny girl we named Alice who is always smiling. We live in a hundred year old house that we are always improving and making our home (in small and very inexpensive ways... lets be honest home improvement adds up!) I love chocolate, Dr. Pepper, and sweet things in general. I am not a writer or even a real blogger, but I do really like books. I was the kid in elementary school who got in trouble for reading during class. My teachers would confiscate my book and explain that while reading isn't bad there is a time and place... I always hated that lecture. These days I still do quite a bit of reading. I especially love to read to Alice. She is nine months old and she gets excited about reading her board books- she even knows how to turn the pages as I read. I love that.

She was only 5 months old here.

Anyway, enough about that adorable girl. I'm here to talk about books. I have devised a very technical rating system to use as I blog:

For this first post I thought I'd just give you an idea of how I would rate some well known classics. Let's start with my lowest rated.

My F Rating: The Odyssey by Homer

I won't bother summarizing the plot of this or any of the other books I review today, I think they are fairly well known. This was a tough read for me. I didn't enjoy it enough to want to wade through it.

My D Rating: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

I had to read this for a class in High School. It's just not my kind of book. I don't have a lot to say about books I don't like... They will not be my focus in these reviews.

My C Rating: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I like the story, I've seen the movies, and I enjoyed the book when I read it. I'm not a hard core Jane Austen fan and reading it once was enough for me.

My B Rating: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

This was another assigned reading in Highschool, except I liked this one. A lot. The plot is well known, but if you've never actually read it, you ought to.

My A Rating: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas

 
Far more people have seen the movie than read the book. I love the movie, but it is nowhere near as good as the book. It's over 1200 pages long, but it's worth the time. The story is woven together seamlessly. Dantes's revenge is much more intricate in the book than the movie would ever have had time to portray. I linked to my favorite translation of this book (I've read three). Do yourself a favor and read it!

In future posts, I will summarize plots for you and my reviews will be a bit longer. I just thought it would be good to go over the rating system for a start. I'm excited to continue sharing the books I love with you! I have linked to Amazon for a few reasons: 
1. I love Amazon. I buy a lot of things (including books) through them. Prime shipping is basically the best thing ever (I order and get it two days later. Love that.) 
2. When I hear about a new book, I like to use Amazon's "Look Inside" feature to get an idea of whether I would like to read it.
3. I just signed up for their affiliate program. What does that mean? Well, imagine I link a $10 book on here and you think "This book is great! I want it!" So you click on my link and order the book and then Amazon gives me a credit to use on their site. That's right, for your purchase I would receive 40 cents. You heard me. The step after this is that I feel incredibly grateful for whoever purchased that book and gave me my 4% credit. I then use my 40 cents toward buying books to review for you. Win-win-win.

If any of you have a book you would like me to review or any other suggestions for me, send me an email at ireallylikebooks@gmail.com