Letters We Live By

Here's a short synopsis of Ready Player One, with NO spoilers (you're welcome). Along with that, is a short, very basic review of the movie. I'm no pro, but I do love books and movies! Ready Player One is set in a dystopian not-too-distant future. Life in 2044 is not awesome. Society has collapsed into war, the environment has been ruined, the economy has tanked, people are starving, but there is is one shining beacon amidst all the chaos and poverty: the Oasis. The Oasis, created by technological genius, James Halliday, is the ultimate virtual reality video game. Players are immersed in a completely different world, even attending virtual school there and buying virtual real estate and businesses. Meet our hero, Wade Watts. Or, as he's known in the Oasis, Parzival. He's a high school senior from Chicago, who is also a die-hard Gunter.  Now, let's back things up five years. James Halliday has just died, and upon his death a video is released to

I really appreciate how Cinderella has been getting a lot more love lately. In recent years she has been bashed for being so dependent on everyone else to get herself out of her bad situation. Recently, however, I read an article praising her for making the best out of a terribly abusive situation, and I love that perspective. Cinderella had very few resources or choices, and she definitely was mistreated, but she was always positive and made the best out her circumstances. We can definitely learn from her! Find Cinderella's glass slipper here on Rebubble!  Cinderella's Glass Slipper

And a very merry unbirthday to you! Find it here on Redbubble!  Alice's Teapot

If your little one wants to be a chef, or just plain loves to cook, this book list is for you! Right now my 3 year old, E, is very into cooking! She loves saying "I can help!" She'll do anything you let her do, from helping to hold a mixer, to measuring and pouring an ingredient into a bowl. These are great opportunities to teach her about the world and people around her, as well as how to actually cook. But if your kid is anything like mine, she would much rather read about it than have me "lecture" her. I won't pretend that I've actually read any of these books, but if I were going to buy books about cooking or being a chef, these would be them! Cooking Class: 57 Fun Recipes Kids Will Love to Make (and Eat!) This book is recommended for ages 6-12. It has recipes for a variety of skill levels: some require simple cooking, such as boiling, but many of the recipes need no cooking at all. There are many simple recipes that I think

I feel like the reintroduction of Belle's sisters adds something to the telling of Beauty and the Beast. Much better to deal with jealous sisters than a psychopathic potential lover. Find it here on Redbubble!  Beauty and the Beast

Let me preface this by saying that I am a HUGE Brandon Sanderson fan! I don't think I've met a single one of his books that I haven't liked. If you're looking for a fantasy author who keeps things clean, Sanderson is your guy! I can rest easy knowing that if my kids ever pick up a Sanderson book, they'll never run across anything explicit. This series is called The Stormlight Archive, and the style of this series is called epic fantasy. It is meant to be high fantasy, and so the books are long, and the series is longer! The point of view jumps from character to character, and there are lots of characters. One thing you need to know about Sanderson's writing in this series is that each book begins with introductory chapters before jumping in with the main character. So, if you're confused with the first chapter or three, hang on, things will settle down. He also has short "interludes" between parts of the book, with characters you probably ha

This is Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid! This tale is a bit more sad than the Disney version, as most stories are, but still very beautiful! Find it here on Redbubble!  The Little Mermaid

This book is one that both my three year old AND my one year old love! E likes it because she gets to laugh at the silly sheep and say "Kerplunk!" and "Splat!" along with the book. C loves it mainly because of the holes in the pages and how she can grab them and turn the pages and look through. Plus, she loves sheep and says "Baa!" throughout the book. Not only do my kids love this book, but I love it too! The verses in the book are so catchy, and it's just plain fun to read out loud. The book has five silly sheep who get covered in different colors of paint in a variety of silly ways, The kids get to learn colors, and the pictures depict a variety of farm chores, so you can talk about those too if you want. Great board book! Definitely one of our most-read books!

First, my husband and I are huge fans of audiobooks, so most of the books we read are in that format these days. This is one of the most recent ones. The title pretty much explains the book: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business . If there are any bad habits in your life you'd like to break, from fingernail biting to eating unhealthily, this book is the book for you.  I didn't really have anything in mind when I read it. My husband started it before I did and said it was interesting, so I joined in. Now that I've read it, I can think of several bad habits I can get rid of, and I can also think of a few good habits I'd like to start. This book explains how even though you might have failed at starting a new habit in the past, such as exercising ( ahem ), tweaking a few behaviors can help you succeed in the future. And that's one of the nice things about the book: what you're changing is your  behavior , not just your  at

Did you know that before the movie Mask of Zorro, with Antonio Banderas, came a Zorro radio show, and before THAT came a novel, called The Mark of Zorro?! I've only read a little bit of it, but what I have read is every bit as dashing and... swashbuckling?... as you could possibly want. Definitely on my To Read list! Find it here on Redbubble!   Zorro

E's favorite book this week is The Snow Beast , by Chris Judge. We have read this book at least 7 times since we checked it out at the library four days ago!  It has a simple story with simple illustrations, and the jokes are perfect for a three year old. The Beast wakes up one morning to find that not only are all of his tools gone, but all the villagers' tools are gone too. When they blame the mysterious Snow Beast, the Beast goes on a quest to find him and get their tools back.

Thanks to my awesome English teacher my senior year of high school, Mr Sharrett, Hamlet is my favorite Shakespeare play. He taught it to us from the perspective that Hamlet was a "rockstar," that he was brilliant, and that he was not, in fact, crazy. Reading all of Hamlet's clever insults from the perspective that he was just pretending to be crazy in order to throw everyone off his trail, makes them that much more clever and funny to me.

We checked out Strega Nona's Harvest from the library! We already have a couple books by Tomie dePaola, and we love the illustrations and simple stories. Strega Nona is a classic, and this book in the series is not disappointing! In Italian, Strega Nona roughly translates to Grandma Witch. Not the dark magic kind of witch, but more like an herbalist with home remedies. The book is laced with lots of Italian vocabulary, exposing littles to a new language. Just a quick pronunciation guide for reading this book: Italian is similar to Spanish in that all vowels are uniform. A=ah, E=eh, I=ee, O=oh, U=oo, and none of them are ever silent. The only tricky consonant is C. The letter C followed by A O or U makes a K sound. Followed by I or E, it makes a CH sound. So, the word CARCIOFO (which means asparagus) is pronounced kar-chee-OH-foh. And if you see a CH in a word, it makes a hard K sound, like in zucchini (even if there's more than one C!).  This book even teach

I love this one! Currently, E wants to be Tinker Bell for Halloween, but we'll see how long that lasts! Peter Pan is one of the books that I'm looking forward to reading with the kiddos, but they're definitely way too young for chapter books right now. Soon though! Find it here on Redbubble!  Tinker Bell

This is a great little book for exposing youngsters to new cultures,and it's part of a series where lots of different Disney characters visit places around the world. Mickey and Donald learn that there's something interesting to do everywhere you go, and that even if it's not what you expected, you can make any vacation a fun and memorable one. I like the idea of teaching my kids that different is good, and that there's value in every culture and point of view even if it's different from their own. This story starts out with Mickey ad Donald going on vacation to England, but Donald doesn't realize that this in not a tropical island. Donald is disappointed and grumpy, even though Mickey's friend, Sir Reginald, tries to tell him that there are lots on interesting things to do in England. However, a ghostly nighttime visitor convinces Donald and Mickey that islands don't have to have hot sandy beaches to be fun!

Last night for bedtime story, E read Peter Rabbit for the first time! Her favorite part was when Peter jumped into the watering can and got all wet. Silly Peter! Beatrix Potter is a classic author, and I'm so excited to start introducing her fun stories and cute illustrations to my kids. E, who is 3 right now, is the perfect age to start these. She has just the right attention span, plus the ability to start understanding some of the simple morals (like "listen to your mother!" 😂). My site on Redbubble has Beatrix Potter's original illustrations, available on many different products! Beatrix Potter and more!

One of the fun things about making these word clouds is that I get to see the frequency of each word in the book. The program takes out the generic words like "and" and "the" and other common words like that. What we're left with are the unique and descriptive words and names that make up this particular book. It's surprising what's left sometimes! Some of them I tweak a little to make certain words or names more prominent, but in cases like this, no tweaking in necessary to get the real feel of the poem. Here it is on Redbubble!   The Raven

A fun little image, with the text from a version of Snow White that I magically can't find anymore! This one is one of my favorites! I like how the story frequently calls her "Little Snow." Here it is on Redbubble!   Snow White's Apple