Non-Fiction Monday: Boy Were We Wrong About the Dinosaurs

Boy Were We Wrong About the Dinosaurs by Kathleen V. Kudlinski describes the earliest known explanations of dinosaur fossils  – they were the bones of magical dragons.  Then Kudlinski explains how some more recent ideas about dinosaurs now sound almost as unlikely.  The final section explains how many things we still don’t know and how [...]

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Our Study of Ocean Life

Both my girls have been fascinated by sea creatures of various types for quite some time.  Last spring, we started exploring books about the beach and creatures that live in tide pools and near shore in the early spring as we began to fervently look forward to our trip to the beach at the end [...]

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August Carnival of Children’s Literature

Welcome to the August Carnival of Children’s Literature.  Back-to-School season is in full swing  So as you savor your fresh school supplies, send you children back to school, greet new students, get ready to help library patrons with research, or breathe a sigh of relief that you don’t have to participate in the mad scramble [...]

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Picture Book Finds

One of my favorite things about visiting the library is browsing.  M, C, and I have all found books we’ve come to treasure after pulling them off the library shelves, intrigued by a title, the color of the spine, the size of the book, or some other clue that we might like the story inside.  [...]

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Library Trip #2

Last week, I rushed quickly to the library by myself one evening right before they closed.  I wanted to pick up the books I had on hold so I didn’t have to go the next day.  As it turned out, C and I met some friends the next morning and they needed to go to [...]

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Eggplant Basil Stir-fry

A few weeks ago, we got basil, eggplant, and a beautiful puple bell pepper in our CSA box.  I’d been reading The Best 30 Minute Recipe from Cook’s Illustrated, and I realized I had the perfect ingredients to use their Create Your Own Stir-fry method with the Spicy Thai Basil Sauce.  It came out so [...]

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Non-Fiction Monday: Down, Down, Down

My girls continue to be fascinated by sea creatures of all types.  On our last library run, we picked up Down, Down, Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea by Steve Jenkins.  The book has a great balance of illustrations and interesting information.  With each page you learn about creatures at a different [...]

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Library Trip #1

We had a great library trip last week.  We headed downtown to the main library rather than the branch in our neighborhood. On the way we stopped at a favorite coffeeshop to fortify ourselves with muffins and cookies and, for me, iced coffee.  The girls even say quietly for some time with their notebooks and [...]

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Non-Fiction Monday: Rain Forests

We picked up Rain Forests by Nancy Smiler Levinson at the library last week.  This Level 2 Holiday House Reader describes both tropical and temperate rainforests.  The book contains beatiful drawings representing animals and plants from several diverse rain-forested countries.  We recognized many animals, but also learned about some new ones. Both girls found the [...]

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Blueberry Blackberry Pie

Using the crust recipe I learned at my pie class, I made a blackberry and blueberry pie last week with berries from the farmer’s market.  It was by far the best crust I’ve ever made. Blackberry/Blueberry Pie Crust 2 cups flour 1/2 tsp salt pinch of baking powder 10T cold butter, cut in cubes 8T [...]

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