Crafty Chloe kicks off new series

Crafty Chloe by Kelly DiPucchio, illustrations by Heather Ross; published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, New York; 2012.

Note: This review is based on an uncorrected color proof provided for free by the publisher.  The book is due on shelves February 21, 2012.

Chloe isn’t good at sports or video games but she is very good at making things.  Just give her a pile of scraps or found materials and her imagination goes wild.  With her best friend’s birthday just around the corner, Chloe goes shopping for the perfect gift only to discover a classmate has selected the same doll.  How will Chloe find another “perfect” gift?  With a pad of paper and a pencil, Chloe doodles a few ideas and creates the perfect gift to make.  Her gift is not only a hit with her best friend, but Chloe also saves the day for her classmate.

DiPucchio’s story captures the creative spirit perfectly.  Ross’ pictures match the spirit of the story and illustrate the creative process (sketches, hard work, and even headstands).  Bright colors, a font that looks handwritten, and end pages featuring orange-handled scissors and macaroni necklaces all add to the story of Crafty Chloe.

Chloe was teased for making a gift.  Sounds typical for kids, right?  Making fun of the kid that does things differently is, unfortunately, the status quo.  I was thrilled to read about a character who is not only true-to-life but also responds like a typical kid would.  After being teased, Chloe decides to skip her best friend’s birthday party; but then she comes up with a homemade gift that is unique and perfectly purple, all things that her friend will appreciate.  As parents, we often tell our children that homemade gifts are the best, and DiPucchio’s character proves that.  I look forward to more installments of this series that fosters creativity.  At the time of this review, the Crafty Chloe website, which promises to provide instructions for creating the crafts in the book, was not available.  I hope it’s up soon.**  One of my pet peeves about education today is that the opportunities to be hands-on creative have all but disappeared.  A kid like Chloe, and the resources to learn to craft like her, is much needed to offer informal creative learning opportunities.

I have taken over the monthly drop-in craft at work (in a children’s library).  Chloe is my inspiration for creating easy but interesting projects.  I’d like to start an art club for tweens this autumn.  Although the Crafty Chloe series is intended for a much younger crowd (preschool to early elementary), I would not hesitate to introduce her to tweens and provide them with the link to the website.  Who doesn’t believe that adding googly eyes to anything makes it more interesting?  At a conference I attended, Denise Fleming suggested giving kids sticks, rocks and googly eyes, then encouraging them to take pictures of their creatures in different settings and write a story around those images.  Chloe would agree.

I’ve already passed my copy of Chloe around to librarian friends.  We’re all excited to have a creative hero to share with children, teachers and parents.  She has also inspired some programming ideas.  Since March is National Craft Month, it seems fitting to introduce Chloe and her creative bent with a series of crafts.

** NOTE: I checked the website over the weekend (today is March 5) and the website is live.  Chloe gives instructions for making her glow in the dark pajamas in the first installment of crafts to make at home.  The site is easy to navigate and will be attractive for kids to use.  Visit Crafty Chloe here: http://craftychloe.squarespace.com/.

Nick Jr. offers Hispanic Heritage Month trading cards

Hispanic Heritage Month Trading Cards, http://www.nickjr.com/printables/hispanic-heritage-heroes.jhtml, accessed September 15, 2011.

September 15-October 15, 2011 is recognized as Hispanic Heritage Month.  Nick Jr. is offering printable trading cards featuring Hispanic Heroes from a variety of fields: science, education, politics, arts, and sports.  The cards are brightly colored; feature the name, field and background of each hero; and have a picture printed on each.  Such features make the cards attractive to kids, much like baseball cards.  Below the image of the cards (where you can choose to print them) is a tab called “More Hispanic Heritage” with more printables (predominantly coloring pages).

I think these trading cards are a terrific resource for librarians.  Story times for this month should feature Hispanic authors or themes and a pack of trading cards could be passed out to participants.  If you’re looking for “repeat customers,” I recommend packaging the cards like baseball cards, only including four cards per week to encourage families to return for more books, crafts and activities.  Additionally, I would enlarge each card and post them around a display honoring Hispanic Heritage Month, along with appropriate books, movies and music.

Special Agent Oso has busy activities to help pre-Christmas

Special Agent Oso on Playhouse Disney; online presence at http://tv.disney.go.com/playhouse/specialagentoso/index.html.

I watched the Holiday Lights episode.  In it, Special Agent Oso helps three children in different parts of the world get ready to celebrate winter holidays.  In France, Oso helps Celeste set up the Advent wreath; in Israel, Noah needs help assembling the family menorah; and in the United States, Brendan gets Oso’s help setting up the kinara.  Discussing the holidays by celebrating the similarities is a wonderful way to introduce children to the traditions of different cultures.  ”Lights” are an important aspect of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and therefore provide the perfect introduction to the different winter holidays.

While the show was fairly entertaining, I think it was too long for the intended preschool audience.  At 50 minutes, this show should be broken down into 3 segments, perhaps dividing it up by each of the children Oso visits.  The way the show explored the different holidays was very interesting; I’m glad they chose a common theme to explore.  However, there wasn’t much interactive aspects for the children.  So, I went to the Playhouse Disney website and visited Special Agent Oso’s page.  Disney has done a wonderful job making the website accessible to the pre-K set–it’s strong on visuals.  Additionally, when kids mouse-over images, a voice tells them where a click on that icon will take them.  For non-readers, that’s an important tool for independent computer skills.

Now, for the pre-holiday help.  If you have a pre-K or early elementary aged child, right about now you’re running low on patience–and so are they–as Christmas is just out of reach.  I highly recommend the Special Agent Oso page (http://tv.disney.go.com/playhouse/specialagentoso/index.html) for online activities, games, video, printable coloring sheets and even ideas to work on together.  There are enough interesting things to do to keep the kids coming back throughout the day.

Dav Pilkey’s Extra Crunchy Website o’ Fun

Dav Pilkey’s Extra Crunchy Website o’ Fun, http://www.pilkey.com/, accessed August 5, 2010.

Stops Wetness! Fights Odor! Stays Crisp in Milk! Or so his splash page says.  Anyone familiar with Dav Pilkey understands that this site is going to be kooky, irreverent and loaded with kid-friendly humor.  Pilkey even includes this disclaimer on the splash page:

WARNING: This website contains scenes and material which may be considered too silly for grown-ups, small animals, and many varieties of houseplants. If you are a grown-up, a small animal, or a houseplant, we strongly urge you to seek the permission of a kid before browsing this site!

And, man, is this site loaded with great material.  Go ahead grown-ups, take a look.  Unless you are adamantly opposed to Captain Underpants for whatever reasons, you’ll be begging your kids to spend time online, at Pilkey’s place, ’cause there’s lots to see, do (and yes, even learn) here.

Pilkey’s humor isn’t lost in the translation from book to Web.  If you’re a grown-up, go on and click on his links for “Stuff for Boring Grown-ups” (conveniently located under “Junk” in “Junk, Stuff and Thingies”).  If you don’t laugh, then Dav’s right, this probably isn’t the site for you or your kids.

However, reluctant readers have been tricked into enjoying books thanks to the Captain Underpants series.  So, introduce them to the book list here; or the free videos, free music, free avatars, free games, and other fun free stuff; or let them read the cartoon about Dav’s journey from class clown with a branch office in the school hallway to well-loved children’s book author/illustrator; or visit the parent/teacher resources.

This site is a must-list for Web resources for children and educators (parents included) alike.  Librarians better print some of the activity sheets and pass ‘em around–with the Web address prominently displayed.  Anyone dealing with reluctant readers needs to use this page.

Looks to me like Dav Pilkey takes this humor thing seriously.  Seems like he’s hiding a diabolical plot to encourage reluctant readers too.  Curse him!

Mercy! Mercy Watson’s website has something for everyone…including stacks of buttered toast

Mercy Watson, http://www.mercywatson.com/#home, accessed July 27, 2010.

Kate DiCamillo’s unusual porcine heroine has quite a presence on the Web, thanks to Candlewick Press.  Children can explore Mercy’s neighborhood and play games.  Parents and teachers can find resources like word search puzzles and a letter of introduction by DiCamillo from their tab.  Navigation is a breeze thanks to an ever-present menu across the bottom of the page.  A large, clickable image of Mercy will always take surfers back to the “Welcome to Deckawoo Drive” page.

Children will enjoy the games.  Educators (parents and/or teachers) will use the resources available to them.  This site definitely needs to be included on a children’s library links page, a pathfinder of educational games for children, and resources for educators and families.