An Expedition on Your Bookshelf (and giveaway)

by Deb on July 18, 2010

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{ 28 comments }

PlanningQueen July 18, 2010 at 10:54 pm

What a super carnival this month! We read a lot of non fiction at our house. I think there is such value in mixing it up so kids get to understand that you can read about all sorts of things. I love the Steve Parish books. We regularly buy them for presents for birthdays.

Thanks for all the work you put into getting the carnival going Deb!

Deb July 19, 2010 at 9:10 pm: You’re welcome! It is a great carnival this month, I’m finding a new idea to try at every blog.

Zoe @ Playing by the book July 19, 2010 at 3:43 am

Hi Deb,

I so much wanted to be part of this month’s carnival but couldn’t make the deadline… aargh! Anyway, here’s my post that I would have submitted:

http://www.playingbythebook.net/2010/07/18/fishing-for-words/

I’m really looking forward to reading all the submissions that did make it in time once the children are in bed!
Zoe @ Playing by the book´s latest amazing offering ..Fishing for words

Staci @ teaching money to kids July 19, 2010 at 5:12 am

I agree with the real pictures idea. And to add to the complaint, there may be good books with picures, but rarely do they have a storyline. They tend to be dictionary style or informational. Wouldn’t it be amazing if they could combine the two.
And we are totally into bugs around here. So we would definitely pick that one if we won.

Deb July 19, 2010 at 9:12 pm: Yes! I was actually trying to find a fiction book that had photos and couldn’t. It’s obviously much harder to get nature to do what you want than draw it yourself. I remember a book when I was a kid with a little mouse driving toy cars and climbing on blocks but I haven’t seen anything like it now.

Monique July 19, 2010 at 5:20 am

Lovely post thank you!! I agree about the reality thing too – my boys love nature books as much as they love picture storybooks. I would love to enter your giveaway too – I subscribe by email and I just clicked the like button on the post… “Can you Find Me” looks a wonderful book for our household! Thank you 🙂 And ditto for planning queen – thank you so much for all your work for this carnival!
Monique´s latest amazing offering ..The Value of Storytelling

Deb Chitwood July 19, 2010 at 10:07 am

From another children’s book lover – great post! My children always responded to photographs in books when they were little. As much as they loved books in general, the books with photographs were often their favorites, especially when they were infants and toddlers.
Deb Chitwood´s latest amazing offering ..Outstanding Blogger Award

Deb July 21, 2010 at 10:06 pm: Photos always win. We’ve found a lot of designed ‘baby books’ lose out, unless they have something cool like flaps to lift.

Petra Mayer July 19, 2010 at 11:22 am

Hi, the books are such a wonderful idea! My children have always responded to books with photos, but I agree with Staci in that they are mostly informative/dictionary type. I’d love to enter the competition and the children would just love the “Find Me” book to add to their growing library. Thanks. 🙂

amandab July 19, 2010 at 11:39 am

I think most of the board books we had for Princess as a baby were all photo books rather than drawn books, but I would say that these are the exception in our collection.

That said, I, like a couple of my sisters, am a scrapbooker, so we have a couple of photo albums created just for Princess with text, and there are nights when these are the books she wants to read in bed. I should, and always intended to make more of these. About time I got started. Personalizing animal stories with photos from trips to the zoo make them a little bit more special, I think. 🙂
amandab´s latest amazing offering ..A Fool and His Honey by Charlaine Harris

Deb July 21, 2010 at 10:07 pm: I have so many photos I designed for books but never got around to. Lucky for modern computers, we often sit together and click through the photos on the screen.

Marnee July 19, 2010 at 12:51 pm

Love the post and totally agree! In saying that some of our favourites are Steve Parish as well as the Priddy book first 100 series…they are gorgeous and I also love the real photographs.
Being a Steve Parish fan that would be my choice but either would be great 🙂 thanks for the chance

Sarah @ Baby Bilingual July 19, 2010 at 2:07 pm

I love the easy reader nonfiction books published by DK Readers–their illustrations are all photographs, whether they’re books about microbiology or Star Wars characters. The kids I work with at the library respond well to them, probably because they don’t feel as if the books are talking down to them, the way so many other nonfiction easy readers do.

Thanks for hosting this carnival (and for including me!)–it’s wonderful to read all these other writers’ ideas for promoting literacy.

Deb July 21, 2010 at 10:09 pm: I love DK books! With so many teachers in the extended family, we have lots 😀

Catherine July 19, 2010 at 3:47 pm

I would like it if non-fiction books had better pictures – sometimes children’s craft books have such nice pictures it would be great if some other kids non-fiction were the same. I think especially books for the youngest children.
Catherine´s latest amazing offering ..phonics- parents and learning to read

Deb July 21, 2010 at 10:14 pm: So many books seem to have a photo plonked in the middle of a blank page. When I was writing this post I looked through our bookshelf and could only find a couple that had realistic photos that showed scenes. And yet there are so many photos easily searchable now, sure you have to pay for them but it can’t be that much harder than having an illustrator!

Julie July 19, 2010 at 7:22 pm

Love those Steve Parish books. We have the “parents and babies” one. Such gorgeous photos. You are right – there should be more photo-based books, particularly for older children.

Marita July 19, 2010 at 8:33 pm

We have a huge collection of Steve Parish books, I purchased the board books for Heidi when she was little, I think it was the ‘touch and feel’ books with the photos that first got her really into books. Then my sister in law shocked me by carting a bunch of Steve Parish books off to get rid of and I happily snapped them all off her. My girls just love seeing the real animals and wildlife.
Marita´s latest amazing offering ..School Snack Sunday – Jelly Slice

Cassie thompson July 19, 2010 at 8:41 pm

Love your blog.
Massive reader here too. We have been eyeing them off. Particularly love that the pictures are real photos rather than drawings.
Cassie thompson´s latest amazing offering ..Personal Calling cards

Meghan July 20, 2010 at 9:50 am

Hi,
Great blog. I love seeing my daughters have the love of reading that I do.
I have subscribed to your blog and love the can you find me? book.

SMMARTideas July 20, 2010 at 3:27 pm

You are so great to include me and host this blog carnival. It’s fun to read everyone’s ideas. “Can you Find ME?” for sure!
SMMARTideas@hotmail.com
Thanks!

SenseiMattKlein July 20, 2010 at 8:58 pm

This post got me to thinking. I am so glad I discovered books at a young age. It made education a lot easier, knowing how to read and write. I see so many young people now that don’t know how to write–they only know how to text. I would much rather read than watch TV.
SenseiMattKlein´s latest amazing offering ..10 Lessons Learned from the Karate Kid Movie

Miss Carly July 22, 2010 at 11:07 am

I am a huge fan of ensuring that there is some reality in the books that I read. I manage to find some extremely well illustrated yet real books. My current favourite is ‘The Magic Rabbit’. Gorgeous. And I may have a little too much fun reading..

I liked and I am happy for any book! 🙂
Miss Carly´s latest amazing offering ..Why We Home Educate

Colleen - Sunrise Learning Lab July 22, 2010 at 9:44 pm

All three of the books look great! Steve Parish’s books are neat…
We are lucky to have two of his books, as Grandad and Grandmom brought them back for from their trip to Australia.
Can You Find Me? by Paul Zborowski looks awesome though, as now, Big Bro is 6 and Little Bro is 4 so they would probably love this book! Great giveaway!
We love reading nonfiction here. The boys just love learning about all kinds of animals, so we tend to get lots of nonfiction books about animals.
We also have a series of books called I Wonder Why.
these books are great, as they answer questions for children about all kinds of topics, such as: I Wonder Why the Wind Blows, I Wonder Why Kangaroos Have Pouches, etc.
I found them at a nice consignment store for children…what a find!
Looking forward to next month’s carnival…hope to participate.
🙂 Colleen
Colleen – Sunrise Learning Lab´s latest amazing offering ..Scavenger HuntWanna Play

Christie - Childhood 101 July 22, 2010 at 10:14 pm

I love the illustrations in books too and always hit up the non fiction kids section to find some variation. I do feel that slowly more books are being published with great photos in them as well, which is such a good thing. We really enjoy the Steve Parish books but don’t have either of the titles you are giving away. Fingers crossed 🙂
Christie – Childhood 101´s latest amazing offering ..The ABC of Child Care- Z is for

Chris (@tessasdad) July 25, 2010 at 12:35 pm

This is my first visit here – very cool blog carnival!

I “liked” your post at the top and would love to win the 2 baby books. 🙂
Chris (@tessasdad)´s latest amazing offering ..Fatherhood Friday- My week in review

Lora1967 July 25, 2010 at 12:46 pm