Charlie Hits It Big

I went to B & N the other day and immediately headed for the Children's section. I was drawn in by the darling cover for, "Charlie Hits it Big". Illustrations always pull me in and these are good. Charlie is a guinea pig who wants to be famous. He heads to Hollywood and finds a successful, fast paced life. This story has a heartfelt ending and is a charming, witty and beautifully illustrated book. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but, I am really into whimsy.

Mardell E. Alberico
Author, Perry the Pack Rat Series

Perry the Pack Rat by Mardell Alberico, Good books grow great kids.

Perry the Pack Rat is an adorable character created by Mardell Alberico. I had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Alberico this evening at a local Christmas Preview where we were both signing books at the downtown independent bookstore in our area, Lyon Books.



The Perry the Pack Rat stories are stories for kids that teach kids how to do things they might not know exactly how to do without a little help. The book I read was called Perry the Pack Rat Learns to Share. It was a great book about giving things to those less fortunate than ourselves. You can check out Mrs. Alberico's books at http://www.wordsofwhimsy.net/.



Mrs. Alberico illustrates her own books and she is self-published. I encourage anyone who loves children to get check out the wordsofwhimsy website.



Bonnie Worthington

Author, Engine Ed's Colorful Train train stories for children

A Turkey For Thanksgiving, Eve Bunting, Thanksgiving Traditions, Thanksgiving Feasts

This book by Eve Bunting is adorable. Even if your aren't an animal rights activist or a vegan, you are sure to love this adorable story about a moose family and their friends. Mrs. Moose decides she wants to "have a turkey for Thanksgiving" so Mr. Moose goes out to get one for her.

In the end, everyone learns, she meant to have one at her table instead of "on her table." A very cute Thanksgiving story

Bonnie Worthington
Author, Engine Ed's Colorful Train

Stellaluna, Janell Cannon, Fruit Bats

This cute little story of friendship and family is quite enchanting. Janell Cannon has a gift for writing about animals that aren’t thought of as cute and cuddly and making them likable. Stellaluna is like that. Stellaluna is the story of a fruit bat that is separated from her mother by accident and adopted by a family of birds. Stellaluna befriends the birds. The bird family teaches Stellaluna new things and Stellaluna teaches the baby birds new things. One night after a long day of playing with the birds, Stellaluna stays out late and is reunited with her mother. I love happy endings.

Bonnie Worthington
Author, Engine Ed’s Colorful Train

The Swing by Robert Lewis Stevenson

This poem is one of the sweetest poems I've read. It is by Robert Lewis Stevenson, who is one of the great poets of all time. He has a way of bringing very simple things to life like a buried treasure just found. It is short, so I will reproduce it here.

How do you like to go up in a swing
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
ever a child could do.

Up in the air and over the wall
till I can see so wide
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
over the county side.

Till I look down on the garden green
down on the roof so brown
Up in the air I go flying again.
Up in the air and down,

--Robert Lewis Stevenson

This is such a sweet poem about a child's ride on a swing.

Bravo Mr. Stevenson

Bonnie Worthington
Author, Engine Ed's Colorful Train

Raccoons and Ripe Corn, by Tim Arnosky

This book struck me as a little odd. I guess it seemed odd to me because it was the story about some raccoons that went into a cornfield and feasted on a farmers corn. The raccoons managed to destroy a good portion of the farmers crop, stuffed themselves and left. It seemed like a story about vandalism, and that was all there was to the story. There wasn't really a conclusion to the story. We never got to meet the farmer or find out how he felt about or what he did about the invasion. We never found out what happened to the raccoons after their big raid on the corn field. Did they get a stomach ache? Did they go eat dessert? The reader is pretty much just left hanging. I wondered what the point was to the story. Has anyone else read this book?

Bonnie Worthington
Author, Engine Ed's Colorful Train