books: a review and some crafty fun

I haven't done a post about books in a while and I thought now would be a good time.

If you're familiar at all with recent children's books, you probably know the name Mo Willems (if you're not, take a look at his books next time you're at a library or bookstore... I love the Elephant and Piggie books and the Pigeon books, too). Before he started writing children's books, Willems was an award winning writer and animator for Sesame Street. His books are funny. Very funny. Although familiar with most of his books, I somehow had missed City Dog, Country Frog which he wrote with the talented illustrator Jon J Muth.




I was first attracted to the book because the dog on the cover looks a little bit like Charlie. The premise of a dog playing with a frog also reminded me of Charlie who loves to chase frogs whenever we're hiking near a pond.




But the book is wonderful on so many different levels. It's a story about the seasons. About friendship. About differences. About enjoying life. About loss and moving on. And yet, it's not an "issues" book. It's just a good story.




The watercolor illustrations are beautiful. The writing is beautiful. It's a wonderful book.

In a totally different vein, I recently had fun with the craft book Shrink, Shrank, Shrunk by Kathy Sheldon.





I'd gotten it as inspiration for the students in the jewelry class at the library and after the class I brought it home as inspiration for me. Last week I invited a friend over and we spent the night playing with Shrinky Dinks!




In addition to playing with some stamps, I also tried out printable Shrinky Dinks with some of the scannable images from the book. They turned out pretty well.




The projects in the book are super cute and actually playing with the Shrinky Dinks was so much fun. I have lots of ideas for possible future projects.

What about you? Have you read any good books lately?

Comments

  1. I love the Pigeon books by MW. I have had lots of fun reading them to my kids but I didn't know about the dog/frog one. It looks like a good one. I will have to check it out at the library. Thanks for sharing. Oh, and the shrinky dinks are very cute. xo

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  2. Dear Anne, I love children's books as well. Thank you for introducing me to 'City Dog and Country Frog'. Beautiful illustrations. It is great that you keep yourself so creative and inspired. Have a wonderful week.

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  3. My favourite area in bookstores is the section for childrens books. I am just a big admirer of people who make illustrations for childrens books. To be honest I have bought a few books with beautiful illustrations just for myself. I have never tried this shrinking plastic, but you inspired me to try. Your creations are supercute!

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  4. Wonderful books! I am sure I would enjoy both! I made some things with shrink plastic years ago. Yours have turned out wonderfully. I used mine as card embellishments but think the jewellery idea is great.

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  5. I love that Mo Willems book. I ran across it when I was shelving.

    And... Yay shrinky dinks!

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