small adventures journal

If you get one book this summer, let this be it.  Small Adventures Journal, a little field guide by Keiko Brodeur, is a big invitation to soak up the outdoors and a nudge to go out and explore, or to stop and sit for awhile and breathe in the summer.

It's full of freshly illustrated pages--checklists (for things like outdoor clothing), visual references (e.g., animal tracks, types of trees), pages to make lists (e.g., outdoor foods to pack for a picnic) and more.  I think what I like best are all the pages for observation (tasks ranging from photographing textures, sketching the horizon, drawing the stars and mapping your world to identifying cloud types).  The key themes are discover and document and this book does an excellent job of calling the reader to look outside and note down what they see, hear, feel and experience.  It's a book to take with you around your neighborhood, park, new city, short or long road trip, hike in the woods--basically anywhere.  Soon enough, the summer will dwindle down to its last hot day and this book will be packed to the gills with drawn and written memories.  It'll be an invaluable record of a summer well spent, in awe of the expansive world around you.

lately lily book of fun

No matter if you’re staying home this summer or have trips planned, your girl will have fun doodling, drawing and going places with Lately Lily, the traveling girl.  I gave Lately Lily Book of Fun to Avery as part of an end-of-the-school-year gift, and she was beyond excited!  It's gotten a lot of mileage already.  Avery loves all of the different pages and is enjoying learning new words in other languages, thanks to Lily!

carry home dollhouse

Welcome to the dollhouse of your dreams!  You've got four amiable roommates who all share one stylish wardrobe and go shopping together at the farmer's market every weekend, always coming home with ingredients to make a flaky fruit pie.  Or occasionally, a buttermilk chess pie.

Your new digs consist of patterns and prettiness everywhere you look, with adorable surprises under every flap.  You're dreaming...or are you?  This lovely plush dollhouse will have little ones happily immersed in its imaginary world.  It's a great tool for pretend play that's portable, carried from room to room in the house and toted out and about during mornings at the café with mom or on long road trips in the car.

What stories will your little one come up with about the girls who call this unbelievable dollhouse their home?  Here's the beginning of a story told by Avery.

Lulu and Her Teddy Bear  (She named the doll with pink hair "Lulu.")

"Lulu wanted to make a pie once.  And eat it with her teddy bear with some tea.  She had to get the ingredients that she needed to make a pie.  It was going to be a apple pie.  So she got the apples and then she had all the ingredients at home in the pantry that she buyed a long time ago.  She always wanted to make a apple pie..."

Anyone want to imagine what happened next?  Let's just say it was a happy ending.

Thank you to The Land of Nod for sending us the dollhouse for this post.

the skunk

The Skunk is a comical story written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell.  What would you do if a skunk showed up on your doorstep?  And kept following you around, step by step, turn by turn?  Why, you would run away from it in a mad dash around town, right?  Barnett presents us with an interesting quandary--what are this skunk's intentions, really?

McDonnell uses a sparse color palette reminiscent of vintage picture books, then cleverly expands the palette to signify a turn of events.  Both young and old will look at each other in wonder about the intriguing ending.  A good amount of discussion will undoubtedly ensue after reading this well-crafted tale.  One question--will the sequel to this book be written from the skunk's perspective? 

Thanks to Mac Barnett for sending us a copy of The Skunk.