Make and Takes » Storytime

The Rascally Adventures of Calvin and Hobbes

Marie — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 08:05:55 +0000

We can’t get enough of Calvin and his crazy adventures. I used to read these books over and over again when I was a child and it’s so much fun to now share them with my son! He’ll be in his room reading and giggling for 2 days straight, going from cover to cover. I love it! Any Calvin and Hobbes fans out there?

What books are your kids into reading right now?

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Giveaway & Interview with Fablehaven Author Brandon Mull

Marie — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 08:32:24 +0000

This giveaway is now closed. Thanks to all who entered. Congrats to #11 Sarah E. #42 Janelle, #76 Anne. Have fun finding out what happens in this final book!!

Yes, it’s here! Can you believe it? The 5th and final book in the Fablehaven series is out today: Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison, and you have 3 chances to win it! I’ve written before about how much I love Fablehaven and am so excited to share the fun with all of you!

Happily, I was given the book to review, and can I just tell you, I am more than thrilled with how it came out! That Brandon Mull has quite the imagination! I almost don’t want to tell you any details, because it might ruin the surprise of all the fun adventures. But I can tell you what Brandon had to say about this 5th and final book, what he’s up to next, and how to get your kids writing their own fantasy books!

Here’s my interview with the Fablehaven author, Brandon Mull.

MT: When you write books in a series, do you know what’s going to happen for all five books from the beginning?
BM: I had a basic plan for the five Fablehaven books from the start. I knew a lot of the main problems and characters. I like to write with a plan. I daydream about my stories, sometimes for years, before I write them. Before I write, I want to see the story like a movie in my mind. As I dramatize each scene, I’ll make new discoveries. Sometimes the discoveries become important parts of the story; sometimes they start derailing the story and need to be weeded out. Part of why I like to have a plan is so I can create some elaborate set-ups and pay-offs. I love when something in book five can cast light on occurrences in book one. I love rewarding attentive readers with cool little twists and reveals.

MT: Do you have a favorite book in the series or a particular adventure that you love the most?
BM: I loved writing the fifth Fablehaven because it is the biggest roller coaster of a book that I’ve put together. It was fun to finally deliver the pay-offs and the climactic action that led to the end of the story. Fablehaven is about a system of secret wildlife parks for magical creatures hidden in our real world, and part of what I love is bringing to life the different magical creatures. I like making the centaurs like jerky, cocky jocks. I like making the satyrs funny and averse to responsibility. I like making the demons feel as ancient and unsettling as they’re supposed to be. Putting life into the story through the characters is fun. So is getting those characters into and out of difficult situations.

MT: There’s been a lot of heroes and villains. Do you have a favorite character from Fablehaven? Who is the most like you?
BM: Of the people, I’d most like to meet Patton Burgess. Of the creatures, it would be fun to meet raxtus the dragon or Newel and Doren the satyrs. I’m not exactly like Seth or Kendra, but their relationship is a lot like my relationship with my own siblings. We argued and teased each other, but we loved each other and took care of each other in emergencies. That relationship between Seth and Kendra is the heart of the story, together with their relationships with their friends and family.

MT: This the last and final book of the Fablehaven series. Are you going to be sad it’s over? I know I am!!
BM: It is strange not to have another adventure planned for these characters. I might write another book someday using some of these characters or magical preserves, but it would not be a book six to the series. My main feeling is contentment. I was worried about having the series end well, and once I felt like it did, I was very relieved.

MT: What is next for you? Another series or a picture book?
BM: My next major project will be a three-book series called the Beyonders. It will be for a similar audience to those who enjoy Fablehaven. In the Beyonders, we’ll follow a couple of teens who cross from our world into a strange, imperiled fantasy world. It is my most epic undertaking so far, and marks the first time I’ve created my own entire fantasy world. I’ve invented all my own races, creatures, kingdoms, history, and politics. I’ve been working on the story for over ten years, and it should come out in consecutive years, starting in the spring of 2011. I’m excited to share it.

Aside from that, I’m also planning a sequel to my novel The Candy Shop War, a sequel to my picture book Pingo, and a new picture book called Don’t Be Scared of Monsters: A Survival Guide for Kids.

MT: What tips and tricks can you give to parents to help encourage their children to write stories?
BM: Get them reading. When potential writers read good fiction, it helps awaken the urge to write. The heart of a story is interesting characters facing interesting problems. So try giving your kids writing prompts suggesting types of characters and/or problems. For example: tell me a story about a shy boy who learns he has to stop a dangerous super-villain. Maybe the boy has powers. Maybe he has to use his wits. The more kids read and practice writing, the better they’ll get.

MT: Thanks, Brandon. I can’t wait for Beyonders, how fun to get to make up your own entire world. I’m encouraging my own kids to think outside the box with reading and writing and I love your tip to ask my kids leading questions about different characters and problems and what they might do!

Now onto the giveaway fun…

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Giveaway Entries: For your chance to win one of 3 Fablehaven #5 books: Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison, leave a comment on this post by Thursday March 25th @ midnight, telling me which book in the series you’ve read! I’ll announce the winner chosen from random on Friday morning March 26th. Good Luck!

Extra Entries – enter a new comment for each extra entry telling what you did:
- Tweet this giveaway and follow @brandonmull
- Become a facebook fan of Fablehaven

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Giveaway: Storytelling with Cherish Bound

Marie — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 10:16:59 +0000

This giveaway is now closed. Thanks to all who entered. The 3 winners for the Back to School Giveaway from Cherish Bound are: #4 Lindsey, #65 Renee, and #16 Katy. Have fun with storytelling!

I had the opportunity to go to a mini storytelling festival sponsored by Cherish Bound a few weeks back. They’re getting us ready for the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival held yearly in Orem, Utah, coming up in the next few weeks. This Storytelling Festival is a 20 year tradition in which famous and fabulous storytellers come from all over the world to tell their tales. If you’re going to be in the Utah valley Sept 3-5, stop by to hear a tale or two!

To help celebrate the upcoming Festival, Cherish Bound wants us all to get in on the storytelling fun by giving away some storybooks to you. Their company specializes in helping you create a family storybook that will be cherished for years. You choose your style and create your story. You can use your own words or those from your kids, then add in pictures to complete the tale. Now you’ve got your own ‘cherished bound’ book!

The storybook I chose to make is a Family ABC Book. What I did for my story is I took pictures from our family photos and corresponded it with a letter from the alphabet: B is for Ball, C is for Cookies, Q is for Quilt, S is for Sledding. Now my kids can look at this book and see themselves in the pictures, reading it any time they want, seeing their story in the alphabet!

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Today, Cherish Bound is giving away 3 gift certificate packages for you to make your own story. There’s a $100, $75, and $50 gift certificate prize for 3 winners. I’ll randomly pick the first, second, and third places winners when it’s time to pick. And they’re also giving away a coupon for everyone else to enjoy and join in the storytelling fun. Send an email to cb{at} cherishbound.com and mention “Make and Takes” blog and they’ll give you a free activation code, wahoo!

Giveaway Entries: For your chance to win one of three Cherish Bound Gift Certificates, leave a comment on this post by Monday August 17th @ midnight. I’ll announce the winner chosen from random on Tuesday morning August 18th. Good luck and have fun telling stories.

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Book Time Fun for the Whole Family

Marie — Thu, 21 May 2009 10:21:38 +0000

Angee from Stories for Snuggling and Dresses and Messes is here as my guest today, sharing a fun reading activity for the whole family.

Color Zoo by Lois Ehlert is one of the most unique books I have ever seen!! The pages are shape cutouts that are stacked on top of each other to make a recognizable animal. As you turn the pages, a layer is removed, revealing yet another animal picture. The first page shows a tiger’s face using a circle, square, and triangle. When you turn the page, the circle is removed, thus revealing a mouse face made with a square and a triangle. When you turn another page, the square is removed, thus revealing a fox face made with the triangle. There are three sets of these throughout the book. The last page of each series shows all the shapes used. And, as you flip each page, the shape cutout that was just removed is there on the reverse side, along with the name of the shape! The pictures are bright, colorful, and simple.

So today, we’re making your own Color Zoo to celebrate this story!

Supplies for Color Zoo:

Scissors
Glue
Crayons
A variety of shape cutouts in different colors and sizes
Paper to glue animals on (I like white because it makes the colors POP!)

1. After reading the book, tell your children that you’re going to make your own Color Zoo as a family! How many different animals can your family create?

2. Put all the shapes in the middle of the table for your children to look at. Have your children think of an animal they want to make, and help them find different shapes to create that animal. Sometimes it helps to just start putting shapes together and see what it looks like!

3. When they’re satisfied with their animal, have them glue the shapes together on paper.

4. Add eyes, mouths, whiskers, tails, and the likes with crayons. It’d be fun to create a “home” for each animal with crayons, or even draw lines like the animal was in the zoo.

5. Display your family’s Color Zoo proudly in your home!! This would also be a fun activity to compile and bind into a book for your bookshelf. It will definitely be a favorite, I’m sure!

Thanks, Angee. This book looks like a great one to read with the kids. My kids will love putting together fun shapes. I love all Lois Ehlert’s books, we celebrated Planting a Rainbow last year.

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Katherine Center Interview and Giveaway

Marie — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 08:43:04 +0000

While at Mom 2.0, I had the pleasure of meeting the lovely Katherine Center. She was a panelist, talking about her experience writing her novels, The Bright Side of Disaster and Everyone is Beautiful. I was so intrigued by her latest book’s premise, Everyone is Beautiful, that I bought a copy and started reading right away!

Well, can I just tell you she was writing excerpts from my life? I mean she had me at “3 kids but only 2 arms”! Just last week, I cleaned throw-up from all over my son’s bathroom and I know how it feels to walk up 3 flights of stairs with a baby on one hip and a basket of laundry on the other! But there’s so much more to this book than the every day craziness of raising kids, so much more.

Here’s a quick video so you’ll see what I’m talking about, it’s all in the title:

Aside from being an amazing writer and author, Katherine is super crafty! Here’s a picture of a beautiful quilt she made for her daughter. Yep, this gal’s got lots-o-talent!

Katherine Center Interview: I’ve been able to ask Katherine a few questions about her 2 fabulous books and being a crafty Mama.

Marie: How much of your real life comes out in your books?
Katherine: A lot—in bits and pieces. Writing fiction is kind of like making a collage. You take things people in your life say and do and wear and think about, and you mix them all around into a totally new story. And then you make the other half up. But I like narrators who can talk about the things they struggle with and think about, so I give a lot of my own struggles and thoughts to them.
Marie: How are your two novels similar and/or different?
Katherine: They have the same sense of humor. And the same bittersweet quality. The voice is very similar. And they’re both about family life and love and the hilarity and heartbreak of getting through the day.
But they’re about two different women in different parts of the country with different lives. Both are moms—one with a newborn and one with a gaggle of three boys under four—and both, more importantly, are women: trying to figure out what matters to them and what makes a good life.
Marie: What’s been the craziest thing or experience to happen to you as a mom, in private or in public?
Katherine: How to choose? Every day there’s some crazy kid thing going on in my life. Whether its my just-potty-trained son gearing up to pee on the shoes of the ladies at carpool pick-up or my daughter watching the food arrive at a hamburger joint and shouting, “Mom! We’re living like kings!”
Every single day is busy and exhausting and delightful. And we just say yes to all of it—to this kid life we’re living, with our two little ones building a mud fort in the backyard in their underwear with chocolate all over their faces. It’s nothing like we thought it would be. And it’s the best thing there is.
Marie: How long have you been a crafter?
Katherine: I’ve always loved to do arts and crafts. In college, I used to make artist’s books—stamping and painting words onto crazy things like sheet metal and bedsheets. I’ve also done quite a bit of photography. I taught myself how to crochet one time. I love to make things out of paper, and I Iove to quilt and sew.
Marie: What’s your favorite type of craft?
Katherine: Quilting is probably what I’ve done the most of. I love old quilts from the 1930s and ‘40s. I love vintage fabrics and feed sacks. I love the feeling it gives me of being connected to the past.

Marie: Do you craft with your kids? Where do you find inspiration?
Katherine: I do kids crafts with my kids! They love my sewing machine and my fabrics. Though it is kind of tough for me, because once we get started, I just want to keep going. They lose interest long before I do. It’s almost harder to do it with kids when it’s something you really love! But I am definitely the go-to parent for art projects of all kinds.
Usually, I’ll see something beautiful and get inspired. I’ll think, “I could do that!” That’s how I started quilting. I saw a quilt in a magazine, and it was so breathtaking, and I thought, “That doesn’t look so hard!” Two years later, I had a finished, hand-sewn quilt. Boom!
Marie: What do you enjoy more, writing or crafting?
Katherine: I like them in different ways. I like to have things to do with my hands, and I’m very visual and I love to make beautiful things. So that works well for crafting. Short crafting projects can also offer instant gratification! But quilting is a little bit like novel-writing, too—in that it’s a very slow progression. You have to be very patient and wait for everything to come together, and it’s a thrill how each new step changes everything else. And of course both of those things are a lot like life.

Thanks, Katherine! And I think I see a new story developing… something about a quilting mother of 2 set in the 1930′s!

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Now you are all in for a treat as Katherine is giving away 3 signed copies of her latest book, Everyone is Beautiful. That’s 3 winners. This is the giveaway to go for with 3 chances to win this book that will have you laughing and nodding your head as you’ve had experiences all too familiar!

Giveaway Entries: For your chance to win one of 3 signed copies of Everyone Is Beautiful, leave a comment on this post by Monday March 16th @ midnight. I’ll announce the winner chosen from random on Tuesday morning March 17th. Good luck and happy reading!

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What’s Your Child’s “Knuffle Bunny”?

Marie — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 10:29:05 +0000

Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems, has recently become one of my favorite children’s books. My son checked it out a few months back from his school library and it’s been a family favorite ever since. It’s about a little girl, Trixie, who loves her bunny “Knuffle Bunny“, but loses it at the laundry mat. As she’s still a toddler and trying to say real words, she “babble flabbles” trying to tell her Dad her bunny is missing. My kids laugh and laugh at Trixie’s words, asking for this story to be read again and again! There’s also a sequel to the first called Knuffle Bunny Too where it get’s lost again!

Well, I can relate to Trixie’s Dad when trying to locate my kid’s stuffed animals, or “knuffle bunnies”. My son has been sleeping with this dog, Honey pictured above, every night since he was 2 (he’s now 6). So far, it’s not too ragged, but it’s getting there, as it used to bark.

I’m sure my kids aren’t the only ones with “Knuffle Bunnies”. What comforting items do your kids sleep with at night?

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Giving out Kisses for Valentines

Marie — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 08:44:35 +0000

I’m sharing a fun Book & Craft over at 5 Minutes for Books. We’re reading A Book of Kisses and sharing a yummy kissable treat! Come on over and see how we made these fun Valentine Kisses!

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Storytime: Is That You Winter?

Marie — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:19:05 +0000

I’m happily now contributing a children’s storybook & activity once a month over at 5 Minutes for Books (they’re a sister site of 5 Minutes for Mom). Today I’m sharing one of my favorite Winter books, Is That You Winter?, along with a snowy activity for the kids. Come on over and play in the snow!

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Holiday Picture Books for Kids

Marie — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:12:08 +0000

Today’s post is dedicated to storytime! These books are perfect for the upcoming Holidays! Here are some great links to websites that share their reviews on a few fun Holiday books. I also have to share this great site for really “looking” into a book called Lookybook. Just click on any book and look at almost every page. It’s the best!

Thanksgiving Holiday Stories

Check out Stories for Snuggling for some great reviews on fun books for kids. I just guest posted there and reviewed This First Thanksgiving Day. Come on over there to see what I love most about that book!
Another great children’s book site called, Small World Reads, reviews picture books too.
How to make your own Thankful book with kids, Making Books with Children.

Hanukkah Holiday Stories

Jewish Children’s Books has some great picture book reviews on celebrating Hanukkah.
I Have a Little Dreidel gets reviewed by Best Illustrated Children’s books.

Christmas Holiday Stories

The Children’s Book Review has loads of storybooks perfect for this time of year.
Great reviews on Christmas books for Moms by Moms.

Kwanzaa Holiday Stories

Seven Days of Kwanzaa is a great book to learn more about the holiday Kwanzaa.
About.com shares some reviews on Kwanzaa Children’s books.

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Makin’ a Splash with Bathtime Toys

Marie — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:23:26 +0000

My kids love this story, I Don’t Want to Have a Bath by Julie Sykes. We read it this week for storytime. Little tiger doesn’t want to take a bath. How can he be convinced he needs one?

To help my kids get in the tub, we made some Foam Bath Toys cut into all kinds of shapes. These are made with crafting foam sheets, available at Walmart or most crafting stores. You can trace the shape first or simply cut them out. If your child is okay to use scissors, let them make the shapes they want, even if they’re crazy.

They stick great onto the walls of the tub once wet, but DON’T leave them on the walls after their bath. Mine made a small stain on the wall and I had to scrub it out. It may have been because I used really cheap foam sheets from the Dollar store. The kids still loved these, so I think I’ll be doing the alphabet next.

Here’s more fun Bath Toys and Activities we’ve done in the past:

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