Pierre the Penguin and his Neoprene Suit - Book review

One day, a penguin who had been happy and healthy for years, suddenly started losing his feathers. Instead of regrowing the way African Penguin's feathers usually regrow when they molt, his didn't, leaving him looking like the ugly duckling of the flock. 

Other penguins picked on him as he shivered and found himself unable to swim. 

But don't worry, this story has a very happy ending!

See, Pamela Schaller, biologist at the California Academy of Sciences, Pierre's home, found a way to help poor little Pierre.

She designed a teeny tiny wet suit for the little penguin.

The wet suit allowed Pierre to start swimming again and kept him nice and warm both on land and in the water. The other penguins stopped picking on him and life went back to normal, so much so that his real feathers started to grow again.

Today Pierre is living happily with his mate Honey at the brand new California Academy of Sciences, surrounded by the rest of his friends and family. And thanks to Jean Marzollo and Laura Regan, who were inspired by his plight and wrote a delightful children's book, aptly named Pierre the Penguin, kids around the world will be able to learn all about him and his teeny tiny wetsuit.

We got the book yesterday and C and Little L have already read it multiple times. Today C is even bringing it to school to show her friends and teachers. Pierre's story is a really inspiring tale about being different, about helping those in need, and really about enduring love. I think it will be in a favorite in our library for a long, long time!

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A fun kid's writing contest from an unexpected source

Twitter is a fantastic world where celebs and non-celebs mingle and chat, sometimes without even realizing who each might be.

Imagine my surprise when I clicked on a couple links and found myself face to face with none other than the infamous Mimi from The Drew Carey Show stripped of her garish makeup and sitting in a surprising setting - a cozy library corner.

On her new site, www.MrsP.com, she'll enchant you and your children with charming classic stories. Pull up a chair, browse through the stacks, and enjoy a lively tale or ten.

She's even got a great event for kids ages 4-13 that started yesterday - the “Be a Famous Writer Contest,” which runs until October 15. Kids can write on any topic, fiction or non-fiction, from 250 – 1000 words.

Two grand prize winners will see their stories brought to life through original illustrations and a lively reading done by Mrs. P (Kathy Kinney). Both stories will be put up on the Mrs. P site so that everyone can watch and enjoy!

One of Mrs. P's goals is to have kids become the creative force. There’s no charge for a child to use their imagination and no charge for the Mrs. P website, it’s FREE.

Top Ten Things I Brought Back from BlogHer

So this is about a week delayed, but only because I've had my face deep inside a tissue box since I got off the plane and also I haven't so much unpacked as left my suitcase sitting in the middle of the floor in our room. Which I'm sure my husband totally loves.

Even after taking the high-road and refusing to fight anyone for a swag bag of anything I still managed to leave BlogHer with way more stuff than I brought and a clean conscience to boot, so yay. And so, without further ado...

The Top Ten Things I Brought Back from BlogHer.

10. Two bottles of Sobe Life Water. Yes two. Which I stashed in my backpack and had to guzzle as I walked up to the x-ray machine at the airport. Because there was no way no how I was giving them up to security. Three minutes later I had to make an urgent dash to the ladies room. Friends might have laughed at me. Mmm. SoBe.

9. The new Bounce Dryer Bar which makes me happy every time I open my dryer and smell my clean laundry. Nothing like the scent of Bounce to take me to my happy place.

8. A Spiderman book for our LeapFrog Tag System. My 4yo might have preferred a more princessy or pink book, but I love my super heroes and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Plus after months of intense use we're still huge fans of the Tag System and we're delighted to have a new book to explore.

7. A tube of Suave Sleek Anti-Frizz Cream. I have no idea how I have ever lived without this product in the past. Mid-afternoon frizz attack? One dolop and my hair looks better than it did in the morning. Might have to buy a case of it.

6. Diana Orgain's new book Bundle of Trouble. Totally fun mommy mystery. Great fun read. I love discovering new authors. Especially ones that I apparently met.

5. A Pearl of Wisdom brooch from the Pearl of Wisdom campaign to prevent cervical cancer. It's pretty, it's classy, and even better it's raising awareness for a disease no one should succumb to. Pretty good combo.

4. Three treasures from Playskool: A bee, a butterfly, and an old family favorite, Mr. Potato Head. The spud went to join his already extensive family in the girls' room. He was welcomed with open arms by all. The bugs have also been shown lots of love since they were first introduced to the children. I love Playskool. No, let me rephrase that. I pink puffy heart Playskool. They make great toys that really stand up both to the test of time and little kids.

3. A cuddly fuzzy sweet Build A Bear teddy who the girls have declared is mommy's teddy. When I was recovering from BlogHer last week I kept waking up to find him tucked into my arms. He was quite snuggly. I didn't mind in the least. Plus his t-shirt reads "Bloggers are Bearrific!" What's not to love about a bear with such great taste?

2. A couple All detergent chocolate lollipops and some All detergent samples. I haven't tried the detergent yet, but the girls inhaled the chocolate leaving me all of three seconds to tell my long-suffering husband some juicy details about the weekend. Sadly I had to leave the All Laundry Fairy behind though.

1. An awesome Lands End Backpack. It's light and compact. It has pockets for everything. It has a laptop compartment. It comes in a ton of colors and looks rugged but sleek. I'm not going back to school any time soon, but you can bet you'll see this baby on my shoulders at Starbucks soon.

There was so much more, but this was definitely the cream of the crop. And yes I will now go finish unpacking. But first...

Bottom One Thing I Brought Back from BlogHer

1. A cold. A nasty, ugly, icky cold that has kept me down for at least a week now and is morphing into a nasty, ugly, icky sinus infection. If you see the person that was handing these out don't thank her for me.

Higher Higher & Happy Baby Sad Baby - Reviews of the Leslie Patricelli books

You all know how much we love books around here, so you won't be surprised to learn that we've found more books that we love. Until I received two Leslie Patricelli books I can't say I'd ever noticed her books on shelves before, now I'm resisting the urge to go out and buy the whole collection.

Baby Happy Baby Sad is a simple board book showing the roller-coaster of emotions that babies confront every day. Happy to have ice cream! Sad when you drop it! Sad when you slip! Happy again when mommy picks you up!

Little L is just learning to pick up on emotional cues and she loves to flip through the pages pointing out the sad babies. She always asks "Why cwayin?" Then we talk about why the baby is sad and what makes him happy again. Suggested price $6.99.

Higher! Higher! is just as simple, but with paper pages instead. Gorgeous pictures show the simple tale of a quasi-magical ride through the air on the upswing of a slide. C loves to pretend that she's the little girl flying so high, and Little L just gets a kick out of reading the story to herself and noticing all the little details on the page - the cat in the window of the skyscraper, the doggy at the window of the plane. Suggested price $15.99, but on "just released" sale at Amazon right now.

Baby Happy Baby Sad & Higher! Higher! pros:
- Gorgeous images that look like they've been painted on canvas before being turned into whimsical books.
- Sweet characters that any child could easily relate to.
- Very simple and effective story lines that babies and young children never tire of hearing over and over again.

Baby Happy Baby Sad & Higher! Higher! cons:
- Well, the only con here, and I'd like to point out that M is the only one with this issue, the stories are very repetitive and simple. He gets tired of repeating the same words over and over again. I disagree. I think the simplicity of the words is what makes these books so much fun!

Clearly C and Little L agree with me!

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LeapFrog Tag Reader Winner!

Congratulations to Dina grand winner of the LeapFrog Tag Reader and two books!

Dina, author of Just Another New Blog, requested Olivia and Madagascar 2, which she'll be getting along with her Tag Reader.

Thank you to everyone for all your entries and for participating in 1 Million Hours Reading Pledge! It's been an exiting month!

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LeapFrog Giveaway to Celebrate National Reading Month

I've mentioned it before, my children are both avid readers. We have books everywhere and we're always looking for new ones to join our standbys on the shelves. Since neither girl can read yet, they're at our mercy when it comes to enjoying a favorite read. At least they were until we got a LeapFrog Tag reading system!

We still cuddle in the evening to read our usual stack of books, but during the day the girls can "read" to themselves with their amazing Tag Reader.

I'm not going to do a full review of the Tag because I want to get to the exciting part of this post, not that the Tag isn't exciting, it is, really really exciting, but so is National Reading Month, and LeapFrog's 1 Million Reading Hours Pledge. But I do want to say that the Tag is hands down the coolest thing we've ever seen.

The Tag Reading System

It's shaped like a chunky pen and it reads to you. No joke. You touch the tip of the reader to any page of any Tag book and it will tell you what you're pointing at. It will read words, it will describe pictures, it will give the characters voices. It's like a 3D reading experience. Walter the Farting Dog and The Little Engine That Could have never been so alive before. As if that weren't enough each Tag book has games embedded in the pages, brilliant games disguised as pure fun that test reader comprehension and attention to detail.

National Reading Month and the 1 Million Reading Hours Pledge

In honor of National Reading Month, kicked off by the National Education Association's Read Across America event, LeapFrog is holding a huge event to help get everyone reading more. You can participate in the 1 Million Reading Hours Pledge and help LeapFrog reach their goal - children reading with their parents for 1 million hours during the month of March.

Tag Reader and Book Giveaway

To celebrate this exciting event LeapFrog is allowing me to give away one Tag reader and two Tag books to go with it (a $60 value). To help you win this awesome prize I'm going to give you a ton of different ways to enter:

1) Make a 1 Million Reading Hours Pledge and come back here to tell us how many hours you pledged to read with your child.
2) Check out the LeapFrog Tag books and come back and let me know which two books you have an eye on.
3) Tell us about your favorite book as a child, or about learning to read.
4) Tell us about a special reading moment you've shared with your child.
5) Subscribe to this blog's feed. Leave a comment telling me you subscribed.
6) Subscribe to my other blog's feed. Leave a comment telling me you subscribed.
7) Twitter, blog, or email 3 friends about this giveaway and come back to tell me what you did.
8) Come back at the end of the month and let us know if you met your reading pledge.

This giveaway will be open until March 31st at 10pm. Good luck and happy reading! This giveaway is officially closed! Thank you for stopping by, make sure to check out all my other great giveaways.

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