Yard Sale Smiles

On a beautiful Saturday morning when my daughter (it always seems to be about my daughter, doesn't it?) was really little (1? 2?), I was shopping at garage sales searching for good finds. I wanted that stoked-on-caffeine find.  An absolute treasure.  And I found it!  AND...it wasn't someone else's junk that was now becoming mine--it was actually a box of brand new books. I cannot remember how the woman got the books, but I bought them all.  A few of them became those books that got read over and over again.

A Well Loved Book

Giselle Potter's,  The Year I Didn't Go to School, was one of them.  The cover is gone now and some pages are ripped. It was well loved and I easily found it on our bookshelf.

I've been thinking about this book because (1) I'm hanging out in our guest room that has a lot of our picture books and (2) this is becoming the year we didn't go-to-school-IN-the-building.  Giselle's book is the story of when she was seven and she and her family packed up to go to Italy and perform as "The Mystic Paper Beasts."  It's a great book to talk about travel, art, theatre and family.

If you have any interest in art or where artists work, check out this link that gives you a peek into Giselle's studio and home.  I'm inspired to bring more art into my work space.

Speaking of hanging up art, I received THE.BEST.MAIL.EVER yesterday from one of my fifth graders. Task for today? Find a frame and hang.it.up. Looks like me, doesn't it?! 😍 I love this so much.

Art Supplies

And while we are on the topic of art, studios and supplies, another shout out to my friend, Elisha and his pencils, brushes, and paper (and his adorable co-workers).  Of course, most of us won't have any of those fancy tools at home so colored pencils (like Chase used!), Dixon Ticonderogas, Sharpies, chalk or even coffee will do! As far as paper goes, we all have that laying around the house.  But big paper? Have you thought about rolling out some wrapping paper and making a mural on the back side?  Try it!

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Day 12: Pencil, paint, paper! #operationstorytime #homeschool #teachersofinstagram #teachersresources #watercolor

A post shared by Elisha Cooper (@elisha__cooper) on Apr 4, 2020 at 12:53pm PDT

Lauren Castillo

Thinking of garage sales, reminded me of the beautiful, sad (it's hard to get rid of your stuff) but hopeful book, Yard Sale by Eve Bunting and illustrated by Lauren Castillo.  Maybe this is a good time for us to cull our stuff for a future garage sale. (Remember my Marie Kondo comments from a previous post?). Get the littles involved--What are they ready to get rid of? Add some prices. Make it a math lesson. 

The first time I met Lauren Castillo was at ALA in San Francisco.  We were both at a pre-conference ALSC event.  I was just looking around in my seat and spotted her name tag.  I screamed, REALLY startled and scared her and we have been friends since. Yeah, that could have gone the other way lol.  Anyway, I love her Caldecott honor, Nana in the City because, you know, I love the city. 

This blogpost has some good ideas of activities you can do with the book. I love all the ideas.  Design a city using shapes, make your own cape (the nana makes a red cape for the boy so he feels safe in the city), or bake pretzels.

These leaping pictures with Lauren at the Princeton Book Festival make me crave sunny days (thankfully, we have another one today), hugs and not being physically distant.

Finally, Lauren was a guest on Emily Arrow's show a couple of weeks ago to talk about Nana in the City.  Two fabulous talented women together. Does it get much better than that? Lauren has a new book, Our Friend Hedgehog, coming out next month. She gives a little preview of it in the video! Stay tuned for a book birthday celebration! 🎂 AND--she said she is working on another book, Nana in the Country. YAAASSSS!

xoxo