Owly and Wormy Bright Lights and Starry Nights

Andy Runton's 2nd Owly & Wormy picture book, Bright Lights and Starry Nights!, is available for pre-order on Amazon for $9.61-- publication date 11/12!  Price can change at any time but once you order you're guaranteed the lowest price between your order time and the end of the release date.  If you love Owly as much as we do, have a kid that likes happy picture books, or just love cute and friendly owls, then hurry and pre-order Bright Lights and Starry Nights!

  
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• Andy Runton's Owly graphic novels are wonderful for kids of all ages!
• See how adorable Owly & Wormy are in an Owly animated short!

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National Geographic Kids

We didn't own a National Geographic Kids book until I won a twitter giveaway for a National Geographic Kids Almanac. My daughter carried that almanac around for quite a while and she still likes looking through it.  Now we have a mini National Geographic Kids library and get the magazine too!  We like the beautiful and close-up photographs and the interesting facts about the world around us.

Let your kids get some cool summer knowledge by checking out National Geographic Kids books from your library, following NatGeoKIDS on twitter or spending computer time on the National Geographic Kids website!

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Free Owly Comics Downloads

Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) is in May when artists like Andy Runton, author of Owly graphic novels, have free comic booklets at comic book stores.  This year I planned to have my kids and husband head to the comic book store down the street so we could add more Owly goodness to our collection!  Unfortunately we all forgot since we were preoccupied with a newborn.  Thank goodness Andy is kind enough to share free PDF downloads of Owly FCBD fun!  You can also order FCBD Owly booklets from past years for cheap + shipping (US Media Mail $4.95) from Top Shelf (scroll all the way down)!

Not sure what graphic novels are and if they're right for your kids?  Read Using Graphic Novels with Children and Teens on Scholastic's website.  It says "graphic novels have emerged as a growing segment of book publishing, and have become accepted by librarians and educators as mainstream literature for children and young adults—literature that powerfully motivates kids to read."

Celebrate Book Lovers Day!

Today is Book Lovers Day!  

Here's how my kids and I are celebrating:

Reading digital books ▬ Readeo's free Book of the Month and Greg Foley's Bear books on We Give Books

Having a readathon ▬  our favorite children's books on Goodreads

 Crafting bookmarks ▬ Monster Page Corner Bookmarks from Tally's Treasury

Buying a children's book ▬ Socks for Supper on half.com

The Hiccupotamus and Chuckling Ducklings

My kids and I love and highly recommend the books The Hiccupotamus and Chuckling Ducklings by author/illustrator Aaron Zenz.

The Hiccupotamus is colorful, fun, and just plain silly!  We like the crazy rhymes (Have you ever said criss-crosserous or strawcerous?) and laugh every time!

The illustrations in Chuckling Ducklings couldn't be any more adorable!  It's an educational book about the names of baby animals.  See some of the artwork from Chuckling Ducklings on Bookie Woogie.

Owly and Wormy Wordless Picture Book

Andy Runton, author of Owly graphic novels, has made his first Owly full-color picture book!!  Owly & Wormy: Friends All Aflutter will be released in March but is available for pre-order at many places, including Amazon!!  "Owly and Wormy want butterflies! But when they come home from Mrs. Raccoon's nursery with a milkweed plant that's supposed to attract some fluttering friends, what they get instead are chubby, green bugs!"--from Top Shelf

I am sooo excited about this book because my kids and I love reading Owly!  I'm even more excited that Owly & Wormy: Friends All Aflutter is a great price right now on Amazon!

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Bookworm Beginnings-- Friendship

I like reading books about friendship with my kids because it's an important topic to be talked about before a child starts school and continues to be a huge part of life.  Each of these picture books has a lesson on friendship.  I'm a little lazy to write a brief description for each book so if you want to read a synopsis click on the title and it will take you to Goodreads.  Happy Reading!

Don't Worry Bear by Greg Foley

 Toot & Puddle: You Are My Sunshine by Holly Hobbie

 Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle

A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker

*Linked to Annie's Feed Me Books Friday on Little Sprouts Books!

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Three Little Pigs Guest Post on Silly Eagle Books

My friend Vanessa at Silly Eagle Books has allowed me to be her guest today (my first guest post)!  ☺ I'm sharing some Three Little Pigs books, a craft my daughter and I made long ago, and some fun three pigs links!  See my interview about Vanessa from January.  I enjoy everything about Silly Eagle Books including these great posts: ABCs with food, big list of birthday books, huge list of books to sing, knock-knock valentines, bottle cap animals. If you read with your kids Silly Eagle Books is a fantastic blog!

Owly Animated Short and Free Comic Book Day

-Image from wallpaper download on spriteanimation.com-

I raved about the graphic novel series Owly by Andy Runton last September.  Last night we read Owly • A Time to Be Brave again (we own this book but have read other Owly volumes from our library) requested by my 3¾ yr. old.  He didn't want me to stop after a few pages so we read it all the way through in 45 minutes.

I visited AndyRunton.com after getting Owly happy and discovered I had missed a really cute thing last year.  In late July '09 Owly's first animated short was debuted!  Any kid will love watching it!  It's so adorable and really short (1½ min.)!  After I watched the short I downloaded a free Owly desktop wallpaper like the image pictured above.  Too cute! 

Free Comic Book Day is the first Saturday in May!  There may be a chance you could get a free Owly and Friends Comic at a participating store near you!

Bookworm Beginnings-- Penguins

I checked out a large stack of penguin books in January.  I think penguins are adorable and a must read for winter!  We had fun reading all of them and choosing our favorites.

Augustine by Mélanie Watt

-Image from amazon.ca- 

This book has bold colors and kid-like drawings.  Little Augustine doesn't want to move away to the North Pole far from all her friends and family in the South Pole.  She is very artistic and expresses herself through art.  Every 2 page spread looks like this:

 

I really hope that Augustine can be found on your library shelves!!  I will be adding it to our bookshelf!

Second Pick-

Turtle's Penguin Day by Valeri Gorbachev

   -Image from amazon.com-

This was my son's favorite and we read it 3 times in a row one night!  We loved Turtle's imagination.  His dad read him a penguin bedtime story and the next day he was all about penguins!  He 'dressed' like one for school and the whole class joined in on the fun!  Silly and superb!  It even has extra penguin facts at the end of the book!

The rest of our picks can be found on past posts with the penguin label!  Happy penguin waddling!

                                                   

** Last year we read Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers.
We loved the sweet story and simple drawings.  It's right up there with our top pick!  Silly Eagle Books has a great post about this book and two fun snow/ice activities to go along with it! 

-Image from penguin.com-

Owly by Andy Runton

•This cute Owly Read poster was found on Suite 101•

I was introduced to Owly by a book display at my library this summer.  Owly is a comic/graphic novel that is absolutely adorable!!  Andy Runton does a wonderful job of drawing super cute characters and telling a story without words!  You have to "read" the characters expressions and thought/dialogue bubbles that contain pictures.  It's actually a challenge for the brain!  Owly graphic novels are for kids of all ages (and adults too ☺).  My daughter is 6 and we've "read" Owly • A Time to be Brave together.

On AndyRunton.com there are so many fun things to find.  On the Goodies page there are Owly Desktop Pictures and Owly Button Desktop Icons!!  On the Owly As... page there are sketches of Owly as a Pirate Captain, Astronaut, Superman, Oscar the Grouch, a Red Sox Fan and tons more!

There's an Owly review on Kidliterate, an Interview with Andy Runton on Riverside Reads and on Suite 101 they have an interesting article called Teach Owly Graphic Novels to Reluctant Readers.  Buy an Owly book from Top Shelf or Amazon or see if your library has them!