Reviews (4)

Solomon Singer's Great Angel
This was a good book about a man who grew up in Indiana. He moved to New York. He hated his home in New York. But then he finds a place that reminds him of his old home in Indiana. I recommend this book for all people because it had a lot of interesting topics and good describing words.

An angel for Slomen Singer
Slomen Singer dreamed for things he could not have. During the 1900's he lived in a mens hotel in New York City,and longed for a fireplace, cat, and love. Slomen Singer had no time and the hotel would not alow a cat or fireplace. One day he goes to a diner named West Way Cafe and meets someone named Angel. I recemmend this book to people who long for something but can only get it only in dreams and wishes.

TRULY A CLASSIC
Solomon Singer lives in a men's shelter in Manhattan's Upper West Side. Very little is known about Solomon's background other than he is an Indiana native. This, however, proves to be a very effective tool in the telling of this story.

Lonely, longing for the natural joys of birds and countryside as he knew in Indiana and a friendly person to talk to, Solomon takes to going for walks during the day. A creative man, he dreams of being able to paint the dingy walls at the men's shelter purple; he years for freedom of decision making that he does not have at the shelter.

Luckily for Solomon, he finds the Westaway Cafe, a friendly and fun place. A man aptly named Angel works at the Westaway and the two become instant friends. Angel listens to Solomon and genuinely cares about him. The question is, is Angel really an angel. Yes, he is!

This is a heartwarming, very moving story that will find a permanent place in the hearts of all who read and hear it. One of these days it will become a classic.

heartwarming
this is a great book for all ages. I had to read it for aChildren's lit class and found it to be inspiring and full of hope.Something the world needs more of for sure. ... Read more

Book Description

"What a gorgeous painting," exclaimed the judge of Ms. Fair's first-grade art contest. "What a beautiful rabbit!"

For Emily, the words are a shock.

Her painting is of her dog, Thor. Not a rabbit.

But instead of thinking: What's wrong with this judge? Emily takes the words, and the judgment, to heart.

Just as she takes her art.

Not everyone, not Ms. Fair, or even Emily's best friend, Kelly, can see that.

At first. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A Must Have
This book is fabulous.My children love it. It offers lots of chances to discuss feeling and how we feel about ourselves. We love the illustrations. We love this book

beautiful pics & a life lesson
This was a wonderful book about not giving up on the things you enjoy because of what someone else thinks! Emily learns that one persons rock is the next mans diamond. What makes us different makes us special!
Our favorite book = Matthew A.B.C. - same author

Gorgeous Watercolor Picturebook about Feelings
EMILY'S ART is the story about Emily, a first-grade girl who loves to paint. There is a colorful aura of joy around Emily as she paints with her heart, and she radiates a soft, pink glow when she paints a watercolor picture of her friend, Kelly. When Emily's class participates in a school-wide art contest, Emily chooses to enter a picture of her dog, Thor, with great big ears, "Because Thor hears everything." When all the first-grade pictures are judged in the art contest, Emily is heart-broken to see her beloved picture of Thor passed over because the judge hates dogs. Fortunately, Emily's friend, Kelly, and her teacher, Ms. Fair, show Emily how much they care about her, and the story ends with a class party to celebrate all the beautiful pictures the children made.

What makes this picture book so very special is the way that every illustration of Emily shows how she feels in body posture, facial expression, and her human energy field. When Emily is happy, soft colors of light shine around her head and shoulders. When Emily is sad, her head droops forward and she becomes transparent as her aura disappears. Every picture of her aura is delightfully different -- my favorite is the one where she is showing her friend, Kelly, how to draw a dinosaur and lots of bright colors surround her head, back, and arm!

This is a gorgeous watercolor picture book that shows how feelings look in the human energy field. I give it my highest recommendation!

-- Cynthia Sue Larson

Peter Catalanotto's Art
Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, the talent illustrator's best work to date, with an outstanding story. Faced with an art competition, Emily learns how seeing the world through your own eyes is better than any prize. My pick for the Caldecott award!!! Get it while it's still in first printing! ... Read more

Book Description

Who is missing from Mrs. Tuttle's kindergarten class?

Will he fit in as well as the other 25? ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Perfect for the little Matthew in your life
This is a story about a teacher with 25 Matthews in her class. Some of our favorites are Matthew C. who has cowlicks(look for the words his cowlicks form throughout the book),Matthew H. appears to be headless (ever know a boy who pulls his shirt over his head), and Matthew K. is unusually fond of ketchup (He dresses like a ketchup bottle). Matthew Z. (dressed in zippers) transfers into her class at the end of the book. I puchased this book after reading a rave review in the chicago trib. I looked in every bookstore I could find before finding it cheeper at amazon. This is a wonderful book for any child preschool thru 1st grade. My 5 year old has it memorized! I sent it to school with him and the teacher just loved it, we are going to order an extra one to donate to his class.

Creative Alphabet Fun.....
"Mrs. Tuttle has 25 children in her class. They are all named Matthew. Principal Nozzet wonders how Mrs. Tuttle tells them apart. She finds it quite simple..." Starting with the letter A, meet each Matthew, and find out what's special about him. For example, Matthew A is extremely affectionate, Matthew B loves Band-Aids, Matthew C has cowlicks, and so on, letter by letter, through the alphabet. Peter Catalanotto's easy to read, spare text is complemented with clever, bold and bright illustrations, filled with eye-catching detail and humor. Matthew G has trouble with glue, and Mr Catalanotto shows him stuck to his chair and covered with school supplies. Matthew I is incognito, wearing a fedora and fake glasses, nose, and mustache. And Matthew R, my personal favorite, is freckled with a rhinoceros, and if kids look closely they'll see the outline of a freckle-made rhino, horn and all, on Matthew R's face. Perfect for youngsters 3-7, Matthew A.B.C. is a creative and imaginative learning tool that both engages and entertains. As classmate number 25, Matthew Y, yodels, Principal Nozzet brings a new student in to join the class. Can you guess his name? Here's a hint, he's covered in zippers!

Matthew A.B.C. for MY Matthew
i read this book on the recommendation from a friend, because I have an 18 month old named Matthew. This is the cutest book i have read in a long time. The author did a great job of writing the story, and Kudos to the artist for their portrayal of the spoken word. Even my 18 month old understands the difference between the Matthews and their coorelation with the alphabet. I would especially recommend this book to anyone who has a Matthew (no matter what the age). I am personally purchasing two more to donate to my children's school library. ... Read more

Book Description

You are a Bengal tiger cub,
one of three --Dacca, Rajpur, Raniganj --abandoned by your mother.

You are so cold and thin that someone with kind hands puts you on a heating pad and sits by you for hours, moistening your mouth with milk.

When you give a weak cry and look up, there is a human face almost crying too.

Your new mother is Helen Delaney Martini, who has already raised a lion cub in her New York apartment. Tigers in the bathtub will be no problem for her and her husband, Fred.

This remarkable book -- strikingly striped as tigers are, sympathetically spoken as any child could wish -- tells the story of Helen Martini, founder of the Bronx Zoo's animal nursery in 1944 and its first woman zookeeper. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Heartwarming and inspiring
Warmly written, based on fact, beautiful art, great for girls

Frostburg State Univ.'s Children's Literature Centre
This remarkable book tells the story of Helen Martini, founder of the Bronx Zoo's animal nursery in 1944 and its first woman zookeeper. Helen and her husband, Fred really wanted children. They lost their first child and Helen couldn't have any more. They began to fill their lives with pets. Fred found a job in the Bronx Zoo. He often took home some baby tigers and Helen cared for them just like she would care for a human baby. This lead to her setting up a nursery at the zoo to care for lots of baby animals. This story will be adored by both children and adults. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Colorful romp through a dog's inner life
This entertaining story is a delight for kids, adults, or anyone who is compelled to live with and (despite themselves) love a dalmatian. Sparsely worded and heavy on illustration, Dylan's Day Out -- appropriately -- leaves much to the imagination. The title dog's color scheme carries over into the book's other inhabitants -- penguins, skunks, nuns, dominos, soccer balls, and other checkered items abound. The clever interplay between color and black-and-white engages children's imaginations and adds an extra level of entertainment and interaction for readers. My son's long outgrown it, but I still love looking at this book.

creatively thought-provoking---for young children
The author's sparse use of words and cleverly thought-out illustrations allow children (and their parents) to become creative storytellers! ... Read more

Amazon.com

The Jewish holidays are called the "jewels in the crown" of the Jewish year. This jewel of a collection by respected author Gilda Berger is a celebration of Jewish traditions, including Bible stories, time lines, recipes, crafts, and commentaries on the holidays. Each chapter covers one Jewish holiday, with a retelling of a related story from the Bible, followed by sections called "What We Celebrate," "How We Celebrate," and "Crafts and Food." A time line in each chapter places the origins of that holiday in its historical context, and a map of the Middle East and a complete index are also included. Glowing paintings by Peter Catalanotto introduce and follow each Bible story. The crafts and recipes are written with careful, simple directions, illustrated with clear diagrams when appropriate. Children (with a little help from an adult) can make a homemade dreidel or menorah, stir up a batch of latkes or cheese blintzes, or create Purim puppets with the directions given here. The author's goal in writing this book was to create one source that could be used by families throughout the year at each Jewish holiday. A superb choice for Jewish families or anyone interested in learning more about these ancient traditions. (Age 4 to adult) --Marcie Bovetz ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Informative, entertaing teaching stories
I used this book to introduce my private-school, sixth grade students to some Jewish holidays. The stories are clear, entertaining, and accurate, explaining the history and religious reasons for each holiday without being educationally or spiritually overwhelming. They are written with love and care; even my non-Jewish students remembered and referred to the stories throughout the year. This book is a treasure!

An excellent book!
Good books on Jewish traditions and heritage are very hard, if not almost impossible, to find. This book is easy to read and understand - for adults and children alike.

Wonderful!
This has proven to be the perfect book to help our own (Catholic) children learn about the holidays our Jewish friends and neighbors celebrate throughout the year. Thank you, Gilda Berger and Peter Catalanotto! ... Read more

Reviews (3)

All I See
Imagine if yousaw a man`s painting but you were afraid of him.However the painting sucked you in to understand him more.
This tale is about a young boy named Charlie and he visited a lake and found Gregory painting,whistling,and drifting in his canoe with his cat.What Charlie saw was one of the man`s midnight blue painting and that made him like him even more.One morning Charlie was going to see another painting Gregory should have painted for him that day. When he got there, there was no painting on the canvas. Since there was no painting, he decided to make a painting for Gregory while Gregory was in his canoe. when Gregory got back and saw the picture, he stared at it long and hard. What will Gregory say?
I recomend this book to you because it's interesting and also the pictures are incredible. People who like creative art and fiction stories will fall in love with this tale.

One of my son's favorite books
When we first found this book at the library; the beautiful cover illustration first caught three-year-old Matthew's eye.Once home, it became his favorite book among the 20 or so that we had borrowed that week.I am not sure, nor can he verbally elaborate for me the draw of this book for him, but I will offer my own opinion.The tender, loving approach of the painter to the shy young boy, Charlie, is quite appealing.That the painter is male is all the more special as he becomes a wonderful role model for young boys bombarded by so many conflicting messages in the popular media.Matthew seemed to identify with the child in the story and began walking around with a pencil behind his ear, just the way Charlie and the painter do in the book.He also wanted to "get my paints, Mama" after reading the book.Lastly, the awakening of the affective and expressive side of this boy is a lovely process to observe and is elaborated beautifully by thewatercolor illustrations throughout.I am confident that these too led Matthew to love this sweet, gentle book.

Please stay...
"If we observe the behavior of an animal we can only describe it from the outside.In a book on zoology you can read that bees build their cells in a certain way, their queen behaves in such and such a way, and so on.The physical activity of the insect or animal is described, but if we presume that such behavior is meaningful for the bees, then we have projected something onto them.We can only say that this is the way they appear to behave, and so far, we have no means of seeing how the thing looks from the point of view of the animal.We do not know what kind of emotion the queen bee has when producing her eggs.We can assume a great deal, but we cannot scientifically observe it."One of the most fortunate and unfortunate experiences of this magical living of a human life is that in that this same phenomenon comes into play in our many and varied interactions with fellow members of our species.It may seem to us in the realm of the physical that this or that person is reacting to this or that stimulus in this or that manner, usually based on our own personal experience with that particular stimulus.We assume that the people around us, most particularly the people we love, are experiencing the situation we are experiencing in the same or a similar manner.Not so, Oh friends.I am continually taken aback by the astonishing fact that what I see is not what you see.Usually this shock comes to me with all the pleasantness of those cups of ice-cold water my father used to toss over the shower curtain on me in the middle of my lengthy morning ablutions during my teen-age years.Cynthia Rylant, thankfully, has a lighter touch.With her characteristic grace, she reveals the fortunate aspect of disparate perceptions existing withing the same sphere.(Ah la, You say tuh-may-ato, I say tuh-mah-to..) Reading this one always makes me feel like I'm sitting in a warm quiet spot of sun.A fine job all 'round. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Damp Camp is innovative, provocative, and a lot of fun.
This is the kind of book that kids love to imitate. I have seen school classes take off on its two word rhymes and make books of their own. The images are very natural to kids used to computer screens; it's the grown-ups who lag in their visual skills. While Damp Camp is definitely about summer camp, it is also about having fun with words and about connecting words with experience. Buy and try! ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (1)

This book is a celebration.
An extended American family celebrates a traditional 4th of July, in this lovely picture book.Starting the day with a children's parade, enjoying pizza and popcorn, buying tickets for a raffle, then enjoying carnival activities, face painting, balloons, and finally ending the day with a barbecue, and concert under the stars with fireworks finale, the family has a wonderful time celebrating Independence Day.The illustrations are a little hazy, very nostalgic and timeless, with colors that depict the warmth and fun of the day.Any child who has ever attended a city park 4th of July celebration will recognize the activities depicted here.The text is short and simple enough to be included in a patriotic themed storytime for preschoolers.This will be a great addition to a holiday collection for which not that many books for children have been written. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Superbly illustrated and great factual information...
This wonderful picture book is both beautiful and informative.It takes the reader to the homes of eight unforgettable children from around the world.A memorable book for children of any age. ... Read more

Book Description

An Alaskan boy and his mother walk through the slushy tundra. When an otter pup slides into the icy river, the boy's mother rushes in to rescue her. This selfless act prompts a chain reaction of rescues from other animals, including Raven, Mother Caribou, and Arctic Fox. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Super Alaskan Picture Book
I read this book to my second grade class during the Thanksgiving holiday. They loved it! The text flows wonderfully for a read aloud and the illustrations are simply stunning. Alaskan kids could relate easily to this story of the circle of life with a holiday theme. A definate must have for teachers in colder climates! ... Read more

Book Description

Sixteen calico kittens -- the number of colors in a crayon box.

Their mother, Sophie, knows one from another...but how do you think Mrs. Tuttle tells those kittens apart?

Peter Catalanotto's sequel to his Matthew A.B.C. and Daisy 1, 2, 3 invites long looking, counting, and laughing! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Mr. Mumble is a GREAT book for Kids of all ages!!
I thought that Mr. Mumble was a great book and it can be enjoyed by kids of all ages. It's not only a good book it is also a comedy. Who would have ever thought that Mr. Mumble would go the whole day not knowing that he had a bird down his throat. Also, i think it is so funny how when he goes do his shopping he asks for something and they always give him something that he didn't ask for like when he asks for bagels they give him a beegle. I would recommend this book to anyone.

Thank You
Lauren Smith

Both the story and the pictures are whimsical
This is a fun book! Don't forget to study the illustrations thoroughly. The scene in the doctor's office is worth the price of the book all by itself. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Favorite!
A favorite to check-out at the library and togive as a gift.This book is wonderfully illustrated and the text opens the door for a history lesson. I still get goose-bumps when I read it aloud to a child! ... Read more

Book Description

Dear Lake, When I think of you, I think of rocks hiding under the waves, like secrets. Remember me, you friend Rosie? Remember me? It's a morning for such questions, still dark beyond the frosty window. On the sill are some rocks from last summer at the lake. They're cold now. Rosie slips her favorite, shaped like a house, into her pocket for company at school. After breakfast, she and Mama must shovel the car out of the snow, then rustle up Becky, a neighbor, to help jump-start it. But in her mind, Rosie is not stamping her feet in the cold; she is floating dreamily in a silver boat. Her two worlds are memorably opposed in the paintings: warm-toned for summer wishes, cool for the bitter winter day. And the house-shaped stone? In the end, it is handed to just the right person. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

I liked Rosie's imagination.
I liked this book because Rosie doesn't get frustrated. Also, Rosie has a good imagination. She, in her mind sends a letter to her summer vacation spot, the lake. Thus the title, Letter to the Lake. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

One of my favorite books
I am in fifth grade. My library teacher read "The Painter" to us. It was confusing at first but the more we got into the book the more interesting it got. The pictures were wonderful and the story was super! It's about a little girl who wants to play with her father. He won't let her into his studio until she finally asks to paint with him. If you want to find out what happens next, you'll have to read Peter Catalanotto's, "The Painter." He came to our school and told us how he writes and illustrates his books. He was the best visiting author ever!

Teacher's Choice
An absolutely beautiful book! This picture book is a favorite with my kindergartners each year. The watercolored illustrations allow us to peek at the artist's life, "meet" his family, and share in the joy of art. We love to study the paintings and look for the subtleties which Catalanotto includes in his work, (students are excited to see a picture of the dalmatian from Dylan's Day Out on the studio wall). We talk about the daughter's disappointment when daddy can't play because he's painting, but we feel her happiness when he's dancing with her after lunch (the most breathtaking painting in the book). Young readers love the watercolor by the daughter at the end; my kindergartners are inspired to paint the same rainbow and birds for the rest of the school year! Every primary teacher should have this wonderful book as part of the classroom library. Curriculum connection: art, family, love, artists and painters, parents who work at home.

Simple short text, good for 3's and 4's/
For preschool teachers and parents who like books which address reality (and issues)this story subtly addresses the pro's and con's of a work-at-home parent. It also shows Mom working at he computer and Dad as an artist. Very nice. ... Read more