We get really excited about Halloween at our house. Pre-kids, my husband and I used to have a huge costume kegger each year, but now that we’re parents we decorate our house, go trick-or-treating, and attempt to get our oldest into the Halloween spirit without scaring her too much. So when Penguin Random House Canada…
Before this year, my daughter attended daycare twice a week to give me some time to myself, but starting this past September, she’s begun attending a full-day preschool, which feels awfully similar to Kindergarten (for both her and myself!). It was this shift in her life that made the reading of these ‘back to school’…
As I write and post this, I am 39 weeks pregnant with a baby boy: a younger brother to my 3-year-old daughter. I’m well past my ‘nesting’ phase of cooking frozen meals and making sure our diaper stash is stocked- my feet are swollen to hell, so the best thing for me to do at…
Now that I’m an ‘urban mom’, I’m constantly on the look-out for child-friendly spaces in downtown Calgary. Recently, I discovered a wonderful place called The Children’s Reading Place, which is a beautiful little home found in the neighborhood of Inglewood, full of books and magical little reading spaces. This house in maintained by the not-for-profit…
This past week I spoke about books that deal with the subject of family. I realize this is a pretty broad topic and can encompass most everything that has ever been written, but I used it as an excuse to talk about my favourite picture book ever: A Family is a Family is a Family,…
Like most book nerds, I have a special fondness for stories that take place in libraries. Maybe it’s because libraries house my favourite things, or maybe its because libraries are where I have some of my fondest memories of being with my mother, or maybe it’s just that libraries are where I feel safest outside…
Bear’s Winter Party by Deborah Hodge, and illustrated by Lisa Cinar is a beautiful picture book. It features gorgeous watercolor pictures that depict Canadian forest creatures that all kids will be familiar with: deer, beaver, fox, hare and squirrels just to name a few. Never have I seen our chilly winter so bright and cheerful! I…
With a mother like me, my daughter is basically forced into reading books. All the time. Lucky for me, she seems to be an eager reader, and she’s even more delighted to be a test case when it comes to kids books that are sent to me for review. “I would have loved to have…
The good folks at Penguin Random House Canada heard that I had a kid, so they sent me a picture book to enjoy with my daughter. They didn’t ask for a review in return, but I feel as if it’s the least I can do, so here it goes, a review of a kid’s book:…
Although this book is illustrated, it is in fact meant for adults. Perhaps the expletive in the title makes it obvious enough, but it thought I’d mention it, just in case. You may already be familiar with the similarly named Go the F**k to Sleep book, which as you probably guessed is also meant for…
