Subpar Parks

I've been doing a lot of jigsaw puzzles lately, on my doctor's orders. (Best prescription ever!) Along with proper rest, healthy eating, and exercise, puzzles help with the brain fog that is associated with cancer treatment. Jigsaw puzzles have many other benefits, including reducing stress, improving short-term memory, and preventing cognitive decline. And not just for cancer patients. Everyone, including children, can benefit cognitively, emotionally, and physically from regularly solving jigsaw puzzles. 

My friend Kathy recently sent me the Subpar Parks puzzle. If you're not familiar with Subpar Parks, you're definitely missing out. Artist Amber Share has illustrated the actual 1-star reviews tourists have left after visiting each of the National Parks. They are hilarious. 

Subpar Parks is also a book. (Affiliate links here and below.) In addition to the illustrated reviews of each park, it has information about the history and features of the National Parks.  

I've been to quite a few of our country's National Parks. I'm a fan. I give the concept of National Parks 5 stars. They are, without a doubt, America'a Best Idea. 

That said, I don't love them all equally. Each park has many 5-star qualities about it, but I definitely think some parks are better than others. I thoroughly enjoyed Gateway Arch, but I don't think anyone could argue that it is better than Yosemite, for example, even at its most crowded. Hot Springs was really neat, but I preferred Acadia. I wouldn't have loved it nearly so much in the winter. I had a fantastic time at Congaree, but an even better time at Badlands... even though it was 105° when we were there. 

Obviously, there are a lot of factors that can impact how much someone enjoys a visit. I can see how crowds, high prices, bad weather, a closed visitor center, aggressive insects, and other factors could completely ruin a park for someone, but I have a hard time seeing how anyone could then leave a 1-star review. I'm glad they did, though. Not only are they really funny, but presumably the authors will not be returning, and that's one fewer miserable person there the next time I visit a National Park.

Goodnight Moon Craft

Today's project is the third in my series based on crowd-sourced responses to ten questions. For this one, I asked my friends to name a popular children's book. Goodnight Moon (affiliate link here and below) was the top answer by far. 

In designing this craft, I wanted to make something that was interesting and recognizable from Goodnight Moon, yet not so challenging that the only children who could make it had already outgrown the book. There are a lot of ways to adapt this to make it easier or more challenging to match the abilities of the child(ren) making it. For example, adults can pre-punch the shapes if little hands aren't big or strong enough to punch. You can switch out the tape for paper (although kids LOVE playing with tape). You can skip the stripes on the yellow curtains, or draw them more as scribbles. 

 

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Goodnight Moon Craft

Materials:

• cardstock (green, blue, yellow, white)
• 2" circle punch
• small star punch
• craft glue
• red masking tape
• green fine-line marker
• ruler (optional)

Steps: 

Cut the blue cardstock to approximately 10" square. Punch out one white moon and as many white stars as you'd like. 

Glue the moon to the blue paper, slightly left of center. It should not be too close to the left edge where the curtain will go. Glue the stars randomly where you want. Again, anything too far to the left will be covered. 

Add four vertical strips of tape to the blue cardstock: one on the left side, one on the right side, and two evenly spaced between them. Tuck the edges of the tape behind the blue cardstock. 

Put glue on the back of the blue cardstock and center it on the green cardstock. Add a piece of tape across the top of the blue paper for the curtain rod. It should extend off the edges of the green cardstock. Tuck the edges of tape behind the paper. 

Cut a rectangle of yellow cardstock that is approximately 11" long. Cut a second piece of yellow that is shaped like a large wedge of pie. These two pieces will be the curtains. Place them on your craft to see if you like their size and adjust as necessary. Then draw narrow green lines on the curtains. It's easiest to use a fine-line pen and a ruler for the rectangle and to freehand the wedge. 

Glue the curtains in place. That's all there is to it!

Not only would this be a fun craft to do WITH kids, it would be great to do FOR kids. Pop this into a frame to hang in the nursery. Or create a smaller version to use as a card. There are lots of possibilities. 

Book Poetry and a Virtual Gallery Talk from The Carle

I have a lot of favorite children's authors and illustrators. If I were forced to pick my very favorite, it would probably be Eric Carle. I absolutely love the artwork in his classic books. 

  
A few years ago, I learned that about The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, located in Amherst, Massachusetts. I've been following them on social media ever since and look forward to when I can eventually visit in person. For Valentine's Day, The Carle posted this:

When you read the titles of these picture books from top to bottom, you get this poem:

When You Need Wings 

Consider Love 

Love Is... 

All Things Bright and Beautiful 

Love Is Powerful 

How To 

Love 

Like the Moon Loves the Sky 

Side by Side 

Shy 

What's Love? 

Maybe Something Beautiful 

What We’ll Build 

Today 

All Together Now

I love everything about this and have been wanting to make my own Book Poetry ever since. Unfortunately, I don't have enough picture books in the house to do this and I'm not going to go to the library (open for 1-hour appointments only) and touch a bunch of books that will then have to be put in quarantine. 

Anyway, back to The Carle. Because I stalk their calendar for special events I would attend and exhibitions I wouldn't miss if I didn't live 2978 miles away (according to Google Maps), I discovered that they are hosting virtual events that I can attend. In fact, I've registered for what sounds like an amazing (free!) event on April 22:

You can register here. I can't wait! I'm a big fan of Andrea Davis Pinkney (and her illustrator husband Brian Pinkney) and this is such an important and interesting topic. While I'm much rather view the exhibit in person, I am so grateful for museums holding virtual events like this one. 

Battle of the Books

Back in December, Trevor joined his middle school's Battle of the Books team. Every two weeks, all of the Battle of the Books participants received a new book, which they needed to read and study. On Battle days, Trevor's school (B. Gale Wilson) and the other 5 middle schools in the district competed against each other in dual meets. After each team had competed against all the others once, there would be a championship meet between the two top teams. The BGW team met twice a week after school to discuss the books in depth and brainstorm questions that might appear. They were well-prepared and worked really well as a team. So well, in fact, that they went into the Championship Battle undefeated.

The Championship Battle, scheduled for April 2, never happened.

Obviously, this is an extremely minor disappointment compared to all the other things canceled due to the pandemic. But I feel bad for those kids who worked so hard and were having so much fun. It was their last year of middle school, so there's no looking forward to next year's team. They hadn't taken their team photos for the yearbook yet, or even posed for a group photo before school was abruptly moved to distance learning. All I have are a few lousy snapshots from the meets.

Why am I bringing up the Battle of the Books now, months later? Because I recently finished reading what should have been the championship book (along with the other three books in the series). I loved it. I loved all of the Battle books. Even though Trevor and the BGW team didn't get to finish their season, they are all better for having read and studied some really great books.

I don't know who selected the Battle books, but they couldn't have made better choices. They're as enjoyable for adults as they are for teens. I loved each of the books enough to search out and read more by each author. Below are affiliate links for all of the books. I highly recommend you give them a read.

When I drafted this post, I mistakenly included one that I'd thought was a Battle book, but was actually from Trevor's book club. It was fantastic. 

Have you read anything great recently? Let me know in the comments. Happy reading! 

Money Bookmark - The Perfect Gift for Book Lovers

My nephew, Timothy, turned 19 on Tuesday, which means that I have another money gift to share. I used a $2 bill to make a bookmark, then hid money in the pages of a book. Ideally, this would have been a book that Timothy had specifically requested, but Timothy does not read for pleasure (sigh). Instead, I chose a 25 cent classic from the Friends of the Library sale that his little sister might enjoy. Affiliate links below.

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Money Gift for Book Lovers

Materials:

• money (Amazon has a markup; you can get uncirculated bills at face value at your bank) 
• white cardstock
• removable Glue Dots
• clear contact paper
• hole punch
• green embroidery floss
• book

Steps: 

Cut a 3 x 7" piece of cardstock. Attach a $2 bill to the cardstock using removable Glue Dots. It should be centered on three sides, with extra cardstock on one side. 

Cut a 4" x 16" piece of contact paper. Peel up half of the liner, then position the cardstock on it. Remove the rest of the liner, then smooth it over the over side of the bookmark. Trim off the excess contact paper. 

Punch a hole in the cardstock (don't punch through the actual money) and use the embroidery floss to make a tassel. 

Insert the bookmark into the book. 

Insert more money in random pages throughout the book. 

To get to the money, the recipient should peel back the contact paper, then gently lift the bill off the cardstock. Rub the Glue Dots to remove them and the money is ready to spend. 

Happy birthday, Timothy!