Roxie Munro

One of my favorite new (to me!) authors is Roxie Munro. Her books are wonderful for whole page exploration. We've been looking at her maze books which draw you in with a series of tasks to complete on the page. I love sitting with my boys and having them talk their way through the maze which always opens up a discussion about the place. Roxie Munro uses real places like a marina, an art museum, hiking trails, roadways, a farm, a plant nursery and more) so the "mazes" feel more like the view from above of all the paths, trails, and roads that could really be there. And when you finish there are also a few things to simply find. So fun! So far my favorite is:

Using these books gave me the idea to collect all the little maps we come across in our daily adventures - like the aquarium map we just got during our visit or the grocery store map I picked up at Metropolitan Market awhile ago. Wouldn't it be a fun game to create our own tasks using maps from our own life?

The Toymaker

Check out this book: The Toymaker: Paper Toys That You Can Make Yourself. What fun! So many things to make and they're all so cute! The author,Marilyn Scott-Waters, also has a website where you can download for free many lovely things to make.

Usborne Books

I don't know about you, but I'm just beginning to discover some of the great books for kids published by Usborne. Beck got these two for his birthday and they have both already provided a lot of fun discussion and engaged reading sessions.

The First Encyclopedia of Our World is "internet linked" which means that for most of the articles Usborne maintains up-to-date links to bring the articles to life. So far we've custom built our own volcano and watched it erupt with simple explanations along the way - and - we've discovered the journey a river makes from high in the mountains all the way to the sea.And this is just the beginning!



And the other one is titled The Usborne Time Traveler. For each of the historical times you visit, you're introduced to a family and get to know their life and customs, their houses and pastimes, special feasts, battles - all kinds of interesting stuff! The text is simple enough for my 3 year old to enjoy when I read it aloud, but appropriate for a much older school-aged kid to read independently and enjoy. The pictures all so full of detail that both of my boys get completely absorbed just looking and asking questions and discussing it all. I love it too!