SNOWY READS

SNOWY READS

Greetings from snowy Ohio! There is an excited girl around my house this morning! When I asked her on a scale of 1-10 how excited she is about the snow, her reply was an "8." She's still hoping for that out the window on her sled experience!

After my last post of "snowy selections" I realized that I had neglected to include a couple of "oldies but goodies" from my older daughters' younger years. One is a pick that I love and one that my kids read over and over (and theirs is a math adventure!)

My pick is a book called Cocoa Ice by Diana Appelbaum. The first half of this book is the "cocoa" part. Set in Santa Domingo a young girl shares the experience of her family harvesting and roasting cocoa beans to make chocolate. When the process is finished the beans are loaded onto a schooner. Part of the payment for the beans is a real treat - ice!

The second half of the book is set in Maine where the schooner comes from. A young girl introduces us to her family and the process of harvesting/cutting ice out of the rivers during the winter months. Once it begins to warm up and the remaining ice in the rivers breaks apart, the schooner takes its load of ice to the warmer islands to trade.

ALONGSIDE ACTIVITIES- There is a lot you can do with this book!

-FInd Santa Domingo and Maine on a map. Note the distance between them. What body of water would the schooner have sailed on to reach their destination?

-Google pictures of Maine in winter and tropical Santa Domingo. What does each of their winters and summer look like?

-Serve up some hot chocolate with ice cream in it. My favorite way to drink hot chocolate is with a little scoop of peppermint ice cream in it! I buy extra at Christmas time to have in the freezer! You can substitute mint chocolate chip, a cherry variety or strawberry variety, or another favorite!

Lemonade in Winter is the cute story about 2 kids and their lemonade stand in the middle of winter. The fun of this book is the kids' experience of selling a few cups, having to discount their cups when there aren't a lot of sales, and then figuring if they have earned enough to buy a treat. This is a great book to launch a discussion about all kinds of basic business topics. (Is winter a good time to have a lemonade stand? Why or why not? Would a hot tea or hot chocolate stand be a better option in winter?)