[LisaCA]

I bought a few books for dd last month and wanted to share the titles since I think they're great books.

Many Ways: How families practice their beliefs and religions by Shelley Rotner and Sheila Kelly.-This book is great one for kids ages 1-6. It has great pictures of kids doing all sorts of things associated with their religion. the goal is just to show that we all do the same things:special holidays with special food for example, and ends with "All their great teachers have taught the same lesson: Love and care for one another and for our beautiful earth.". On each page there are many pictures with kids which dd find exciting. It shows the integral role kids play in religious practice around the world. Religions included are Buddism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism. It's a hardcover with pages that can tear.

Ellington was not a street by Ntozake Shange and illustrated by Kadir Nelson. - The illustrations are just stunning in this book and the poetry is great. Shange's poem Mood Indigo is about her memory of old Harlem and the folks who gathered at her father's house. Nice because it gives you the chance to talk about segregation with older kids, and also illustrates some of the biggies in African American and African History: Paul Robeson, WEB DuBois, Dizzy Gillespie, The Clovers, Duke Ellington, Ray Barretto, Sonny Til, Honey Bear Akins and Kwame Nkrumah. As she says, these were a few of the men "who changed the world". Hardcover with pages that can tear. Dd is 16 months and she loves it, I think it's good for kids up to age 7 or so. Did I mention that I'm in love with the illustrations? The young girl on the cover looks like dd too .

I'm alway on the lookout for good books to give to kids and to buy for us, so I'd love to hear other books that folks might recommend.

[Nevada Jen]

The book "Good Night, Sleep Tight" is pretty good for the 2-5 age range. The set I had came with the bears from the book. It is about a grandma bear babysitting her grand daughter or son bear. It is about all the things she does to try to get little bear to sleep. In the end she follows the ritual that the little bear's mom uses. WHen little bear tells grandma that she says, "I know. That's how I used to put your mommy to bed." It is a good book about family continuity and love for little kids that is not genetic based.

Jen