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5 Camping Themed Books for Kids

1Jul | 2014

posted by Paula

You know summer is here when you start to see RVs, boats, and cars loaded down with camping supplies heading down the highway. Whether you’re camping close to home or planning a bigger trip further away, here are some books to help introduce your kids to camping before they actually get there. From cooking to activities to setting up the tent, these books are sure to cover everything your child needs to know.

Cooking On A Stick: Campfire Recipes for Kids by Linda White tells kids everything they need to know about cooking over a fire. From chili to popcorn, this book is filled with old favourites in recipes that even a novice can cook. White also introduces kids to the basics of building a fire and discusses campfire safety. Beautiful illustrations accompany the recipes. Paperback. Gibbs Smith, 2000.

Kids Camp!: Activities for the Backyard or Wilderness by Laurie Carlson is a great book full of ideas for things to do while camping. Young campers will learn more about their environment, including insects, animals, and plants, and have fun while doing so. There are even ideas for rainy days. And if you can’t make it camping this summer, many of these ideas could be done in your backyard. Paperback. Chicago Review Press, 1995.

Toasting Marshmallows: Camping Poems by Kristine O’Connell George is a beautiful book of poetry that captures the spirit of camping for children. George turns every little camping moment into something memorable with her spirited, evocative verse, accompanied by Kate Kiesler’s vivid paintings. This book will help get young campers excited about camping—or remember the little things they enjoyed about their camping trip. Hardcover. Clarion Books, 2001.

S is for S’mores: A Camping Alphabet by Helen Foster James takes readers on an alphabetical tour of everything camping-related. From national parks to famous conservationists, camping snacks to camping equipment, James has it all covered in this book. Informational sidebars accompany James’ poetry to give readers more information about each topic discussed. Hardcover. Cherry Lake Publishing, 2007.

When We Go Camping by Margriet Ruurs follows one family on their camping trip, teaching children about what happens while camping and offering information about wildlife that campers might encounter. Each story had a hidden animal and tracks curving onto the next page. Beautiful artwork accompanies the story. Paperback. Tundra Books, 2004.

Of course, children may also enjoy going camping with their favourite literary friends in books like:

· Scaredy Squirrel Goes Camping by Melanie Watt

· Curious George Goes Camping by H. A. Rey

· Olivia Goes Camping by Alex Harvey

· Fred and Ted Go Camping by Peter Eastman (aka Dr. Suess)

· Just Me and My Dad by Mercer Meyer

· Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping by Peggy Parish

Have you taken your children camping? What was their favourite camping memory?

This post contains affiliate links. If you want to buy any of the books mentioned above, click through to amazon.ca and you can buy directly. Any small profits from the affiliate link, then helps keep this blog going.

This is a guest post by contributor Bonnie Way. Bonnie Way went on her first overnight camping trip at age seven and has taken her daughters camping in a tent when they were each newborns. She’s looking forward to more camping trips this summer in a brand-new family-sized tent! When she’s not camping, she can be found blogging as The Koala Bear Writer.

Seven Books About Mom For Preschoolers – #Mother’sDay

10May | 2014

posted by Paula

By Thrifty Momma’s Tips Contributor Bonnie Way

7 Books about Moms for Preschoolers

Mother’s Day is the perfect time to sit down with some books and snuggle close with our little ones. Here are a few books about moms, perfect for toddlers and preschoolers, to celebrate everything that mom means on this special weekend. These books are guaranteed to delight your little reader—and to result in a few hugs and kisses!

Mommy Hugs by Karen Katz is a delightful board book about counting and hugging. Toddlers will delight in Katz’s bright, sweet illustrations, which focus on mother and baby together throughout their day. Hardcover. Margaret K. McElderry, 2006).

Me and My Mom by Alison Ritchie celebrates the special relationship between a mother and a child through the story of Little Bear and his mom. Little Bear is so impressed by everything his mom can do… including the one thing she does best of all. Hardcover or paperback. Good Books, 2009.

My Mommy and Me by Tina McNaughton captures the love between Little Mouse and her mommy. With beautiful, soft illustrations and an easy-to-read story, this book is a perfect story to snuggle with on Mother’s Day. Hardcover. Good Books, 2008.

Mommy Hugs by Anne Gutman is all about the different ways that animal mothers show their love for their babies. With adorable illustrations of elephants and polar bears and other animals, this book celebrates the affection between mothers and babies and is sure to result in lots of kisses and snuggles while reading. Hardcover. Chronicle Books, 2003.

Love You Forever by Robert Munsch is the classic children’s tale of a patient, loving mother who sings the same lullaby every night to her son, even when he flushes her watch down the toilet and plays rock songs in her living room. Available in Hardcover, Paperback, or ebook. Firefly Books, 1995.

In Just Me and My Mom (A Little Critter Book) by Mercer Mayer, Little Critter spends a special day in the city with his mom. There’s the usual Little Critter trouble along the way as he loses tickets, touches things he shouldn’t and misbehave, but his mom is always patient with him. Available in hardcover or paperback. Random House Books for Young Readers, 2001.

The Mommy Book by Todd Parr celebrates the differences between moms and helps kids understand that some moms work and some stay at home, some moms are tall and others are short, but all moms love their kids. This easy-to-read book has plenty of fun, colourful pictures. Hardcover. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2002.

Bonnie Way is a mom with three daughters (ages 6, 4 and1) who enjoy reading and snuggling. She might just have one or two of the books on this list memorized… When she’s not reading, she can be found blogging about motherhood at www.thekoalabearwriter.com.

Living Without The One You Cannot Live Without #Giveaway

29Apr | 2014

posted by Paula

Many of my regular readers over at thriftymommastips.com know this past year has been a hard one. Right before Mother’s Day one year ago my Mom passed away. The loss of a parent is much harder than I could have ever imagined. It is fraught with little emotional land mines you sometimes don’t see until you are crying or heartsick.

Recently a publishing contact sent me this book Living Without the One You Can’t Live With Out: Hope and Healing After Loss. I assumed the book would be self help, but it is a different creature entirely. Living Without the One You Can’t Live Without is a subtle, quiet, realistic book of poems by a lovely remarkable woman named Natasha Josefowitz. Josefowitz published this shortly after her husband of many years passed away. They were married 35 years. Josefowitz was born in Paris to Russian parents. She earned her Master’s degree at 40 and her PHD at 50. That alone is reason to support this author. What a brilliant career feat! She taught the first course in the US on women and management in 1976. She is remarkably accomplished, and much of that achievement came later in life. I liked her even before I picked the book up and began reading.

The poetry within Living Without the One You Can’t Live Without is sombre, and realistic and dripping with emotion. It takes you into the doctor’s offices and the recovery spaces at home, then it whisks you off to the funeral, the days and months after when survival is your operating mode. This is a lovely book, simple and true. The poems aren’t forced or rhyming. They are lyrical at times and not at others. They are mostly helpful for anyone who has experienced loss. The poems are sometimes hard to read in a psychological sense, but they speak clearly to the experience of grief. I really like this book and I am struggling to find the words to tell you why exactly, which is odd for me. But I want to say that there is comfort in common experience and this is the place where Living Without the One You Cannot Live Without excels and dwells. It will not take away grief or pain, and it will not preach how to grieve at you, instead Josefowitz’s words will help you feel less alone and there is much to be said for that.

I have a copy of this book to give to one of my readers. Follow the instructions below and PLEASE don’t forget to leave me an email address or something to help me track you down if you win. Good Luck! This is open to Canada and the US.

Entry -Form

The Little Red Stocking: Help Make Us Three #adoption

12Mar | 2014

posted by Paula

This review is by my daughter Payton Schuck, age 12.

The Little Red Stocking by Tina Dine is a lovely addition to anyone’s adoption library. The Little Red Stocking is about adoption and infertility. It features a man, woman and cat and their journey waiting to adopt a child. Their journey, I think, is similar to my parent’s story.

The couple in this story always wanted a baby but they couldn’t have one. The story is told in the third person. The parents in The Little Red Stocking love each other but feel like something, or someone is missing. Then one day while the wife is out shopping at a market she finds a little red velvet stocking. She thinks it is just what they needed. She shows it to her husband and together they write down little hopes and dreams for a baby. They put the slips of paper in the red stocking each day.

They hang the stocking on the fireplace mantle and together they start to feel a sense of hope. The stocking itself is kind of like a Christmas stocking and the notes inside are a little like a wish list. The husband writes: “Come to us little one and I will place your little hand in mine and I will never let you go.” The wife writes similar messages. After about one year of this, the husband finds it too painful and tells the wife to put the stocking away. One day the stocking gets lost. The man and woman are incredibly sad because the stocking now holds all the wishes of their family also. They want the stocking back. The phone rings and someone finally finds it. The couple meets the woman who found the stocking and she tells them she has read all the wishes inside.

The woman who found the stocking is pregnant. She tells them she wants to make their wishes come true.

I like the book because it is sweet and a bit of a tearjerker. This is a good book for any adoptee. It would be good to read on days when you are feeling like nobody wanted you because you’re birth parents gave you away. When you have the negative thoughts about not being wanted, Little Red Stocking can help because it shows how much adopted children are wanted. The couple in this book really hope with all their heart to make their family into three. Eventually their wish comes true.

The illustrations by Jaded Dragon Studios are cute. Little Red Stocking $14.95 in the US by Mascot Books, $16.95 in Canada. I give this book $$$$ out of $$$$$.

Note from me – Paula: This book deals well with the emotions of infertility and the devastating sadness and grief that accompanies the diagnosis. I like that Payton thinks it is a good resource for adoptees when feeling like they are unwanted. That feeling is a normal part of the adoption experience. I found the illustrations to be simple and I wasn’t crazy about them. I find the story requires a huge amount of suspension of disbelief. Adoption is rarely quite this tidy in the end. But the level of detail and emotion here is very compelling. I have never seen the infertility experience featured in a children’s book and it’s refreshing to read here.

My daughter is enjoying The Little Red Stocking and I welcome all the tools available to help explain and interpret her adoption experience. I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate review.

For me it’s $$$ out of $$$$$.

DK Canada #Valentine’sDay Book Love

27Jan | 2014

posted by Paula

How much do you love reading? If you are like our family, you love reading almost more than breathing some days. Books are fuel for the brain and I only recently realized how very many books this family owns when we started packing to get ready for our move. But there’s always room for more.

Right now, if you head over to DK Canada web site you can vote on which books are your favourites and potentially win a $250 batch of DK Canada books. That should keep you busy through the long, cold winter and then some.

Every February, DK Canada creates a boutique of their most popular books as selected by
readers. Throughout January ask invite DK lovers to submit their choices for
their favourite DK book of all-time, and we pick 20 of the top books and
offer them up at 30% off.

Each person who votes is entered into a draw for a $250 DK shopping spree
where they can choose whatever books they like from the website.

http://cn.dk.com/static/cs/cn/11/nf/features/ilovedkcontest/index.html

Voting is open until January 30th. I can’t wait to see what books you pick. In fact leave a comment here to tell me which of their books is your fave. Just because.

My Five Favourite Books for Babies #TMMGG2013

10Dec | 2013

posted by Paula

When my babies were still scarcely able to open their eyes I started reading to them. I have had a lifelong passion for books and reading and knew immediately that was one thing I wanted to instil in my children – a love of reading. In fact I read essays and articles about nurturing a love for books from even before the girls arrived. One of the pictures in my head that grew in my heart was that of me sitting and cuddling with my kids and reading to them. Those were precious moments, perfect for bonding.

There are a few sweet board books I have still kept from those early years. I will keep them forever because they stand the test of time and will ring true even for grandchildren years from now. I thought that you might appreciate a list of my favourite infant board books because it is the season of giving and gifting and books are always the perfect present.

My Five Favourite Books for Babies:

Goodnight Moon

The Very Hungry Caterpillar board book

Guess How Much I Love You

Runaway Bunny

Time for Bed

You can click on any one of the above links and purchase directly from Amazon. Time For Bed is a gorgeous little book of rhyme about animals going to sleep. I adore Mem Fox. Good Night Moon and The Runaway Bunny are both by Margaret Wise Brown and they are the first books my oldest daughter ever received. They are timeless and beautiful. I especially love The Runaway Bunny because it gently assures babies and toddlers that a mother’s love means you will never be lost. Eric Carle’s books are always magnificent and the drawings are truly unique. Guess How Much I Love You is just a sweet little, loving and gentle story. I have always believed babies take in so much more than we give them credit for and their brains are perfect little sponges. What better way to build a relationship than to read with them?

Polarity Bear Tours The Zoo Review

9Dec | 2013

posted by Paula

Polarity Bear Tours the Zoo: A Central Park Adventure is a whimsical little picture book for any child over the age of four who loves reading about animals. Polarity is a bear who seems a wee bit depressed, or bored with her home in a cage inside the Central Park Zoo. She enjoys the zoo but what good is that when she is caged and not able to explore? She arrived at the zoo when animals still lived in cages and not more natural habitats. These days, many zoos in North America have more spacious environments that more closely resemble life in the wild.

So one day, Polarity hatches a plan. She squeezes the bars of her cage apart, when she angrily sticks out her tongue at the world and the cage breaks, freeing her for the evening. She tours the zoo when nobody else is around. She rides the merry-go-round, dances around, swims with the sea lions and milks every ounce of fun out of her night.

The prose is lovely here and Polarity Bear Tours the Zoo: A Central Park Adventure is told in rhyme. The rhyme however is never forced. It flows in a manner that supports and builds the story. Lately we have seen too many children’s books with rhyme that impedes narrative because it is so obviously forced. Polarity Bear Tours the Zoo is fun conceptually and a read that demands a bit of skill on the part of the reader. Challenging words and place names add to the reading level and experience here. Although I believe some 4-year-old readers might be interested in hearing this book the skill level is more aptly set about the age 6-7 and up in my opinion.

Polarity was published in 2011 in the US. The setting is fun and the author Sue de Cuevas reads kids well. She is a specialist on the Bronte Sisters and used to teach at Harvard, but here she brings a smart little story to an audience of growing readers and she pens the narrative with a sophisticated touch. The illustrations here are dynamite. One of my favourite things to do when we review books here is to ask my daughter’s opinions on the story. Ainsley, 9, enjoyed the story and very much likes books about animals. But her one conistent comment was about the illustrations. “I loved the pictures.” We both had trouble choosing just one because there are so many brilliant pictures in this book. Illustrator Wendy Rasmussen elevates this book to art with her incredible pictures of Polarity dancing, swimming with sea lions (my favourite) and then collapsing in exhaustion at end of the night. Rasmussen has illustrated over 25 books, many of which were about animals. I cannot stress enough how magical and captivating her pictures are. These are frameable pages, magnificently rendered with emotion and life. Each picture captures Polarity experiences a larger than life adventure and emotion. Spectacular art.

Polarity Bear Tours the Zoo: A Central Park Adventure would be a great gift book for any animal loving children in your life. It costs $17.95 and is a hardcover picture book published by Polarity Bear Books. This book gets a $$$$ out of $$$$$. We received a copy for free in order to review this book. I was not paid to post this review. My opinion is my own.

Top Five Young Adult (13-17) Reads for 2013

5Dec | 2013

posted by Paula

My apologies. I have been absent for a couple of months here because I have been getting ready to move and renovating and haven’t had any time to read. But now as we approach the end of year 2013 I feel the need to get back to reading and to compile the usual year end lists of best reads. Why not start with Young Adults ages 13 and upto 17?

I plan to bring you a few more as the month progresses. I am gifted here often with some incredible reads from young adult authors and I love that I get to read some gorgeous writing here before my daughter does. Then, of course I share these with her because I am all kinds of awesome like that.

The Secret Ingredient was reviewed here in July.

The five Best young Adult books published in 2013:
1. The Moon and More
2. Just One Day
3. Fangirl
4. The Secret Ingredient
5.Allegiant These are recommended for ages 13 to 17. Do you have any others to add?

Disney’s Never Girls Collection 1 #giveaway

24Sep | 2013

posted by Paula

Take Disney and add some fairies, with a healthy dose of magic, imagination and some horse thrown in for good measure. Well, seriously. You don’t need much more than that to pull a grade school girl into a story.

I had never heard of this series until Random House Canada sent Disney’s The Never Girls From the Mist this week. But my girls were huge Rainbow Magic Fairies fans and read volumes of those fairy books, so I figured they might be intrigued by From the Mist. From the Mist is written by Kiki Thorpe. The series itself is intended for ages 6 to 10. There are four fairies, each one with a distinct personality. Kate is adventuresome. Mia is a girly girl, who loves dresses, flowers and pretty things. Lainey dreams of talking to animals and Gabby is Mia’s little sister, incidentally also the one who most believes in fairies.

While at a sleepover the girls discover a mysterious mist in Gabby’s room and set out to explore where it is coming from The mist brings mist horses and horses bring adventure. My youngest enjoys reading about horses and we are working through this one at night together. She still likes me reading to her at bedtime. This book is a wholesome great little before bed read. (Read – not scary or violent)

The fourth book was released today. For a short time you can win one of five prizes of the collection. Each book costs $6.99 Canadian and is a great little chapter book for imaginative girls.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tales From the Treehouse: The Ultimate Horse Treasury

13Jul | 2013

posted by Paula

My daughters are both horse girls. They have grown up riding in the summers at Sari Therapeutic Riding camp. My youngest girl Ainsley, with special needs, has been riding weekly at Sari from the time she was six years old. They love everything about riding and horses and horse trivia. Lucky for me, they both also love reading. So, when this book the Ultimate Horse Treasury arrived for review from DK Canada, I knew we would have a chance to all sit down together and read. I didn’t know the book would be this lovely, with so many magnificent pictures, and so much amazing trivia. As I stated in this vlog review, everyone can learn something about horses just by picking up this book.

DKCanada makes educational books that enhance your child’s education or leisure time. This summer they are encouraging children to read with their Summer Reading Adventure program. Buy 2 DK Canada readers and get the third one free. Stay tuned for our DK Canada readers reviews coming up featuring my other daughter, who reads at a younger level than Payton. She is tackling several awesome readers and staying current, while avoiding summer slide by practicing her reading with DK Canada.

The Ultimate Horse Treasury is by John Woodward, DK Canada, $19.99 US, $21.99 Canada. 160 pages.

This one gets a $$$$$ out of $$$$$ again. The DK Canada books are stunning quality and very educational.

We received a copy of the book for review purposes. This in no way impact our honest opinion.