SALAMANDER DANCE by David FitzSimmons Ohio Department of Natural Resources put out a Facebook post the other day saying this is the time that salamanders make their way to woodland pools to mate and lay their eggs. I had picked up a book a couple months ago about that very thing. Salamander Dance tracks the process of the life cycle of the salamander. If you are into salamanders (like I am) this is a great book to check out. Isaac, Callie, and I rounded up a few nets and went and checked out some pools close to us. It was full of cool things, and we did find a couple of salamanders in the water! My kind of day!

ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN by Donald J. Sobol Encyclopedia Brown has been around forever! I read him when I was in elementary school, and it was fun to reread with Callie. If your kids have not discovered him, it is worth a try. Each book is several mini mystery stories that Encyclopedia has to solve. After going through the story the last sentence will direct you to turn to a page in the back for the solution. Callie and I had fun trying to guess who-dun-it and why. Suggested for mid to upper elementary.

FIONA'S LACE by Patricia Polacco I think this was the first Patricia Polacco book I read. I was instantly hooked! Polacco writes from her own experiences and from family stories, and her stories are so amazing they almost seem impossible. The story begins in Ireland with Patricia's great-great-grandmother who has learned the art of making fine lace. The mill closes, and the family moves to Chicago. Not long after, the Great Chicago Fire breaks out. The family is split up in the mayhem. the end is....well, I'll just say wrapped in lace. It will not disappoint!

PANCAKES FOR BREAKFAST by Tomie DePaola PANCAKES, PANCAKES by Eric Carle In honor of recent syrup making I pulled out a couple of our favorite pancake picture books. Make a big stack of your favorite pancakes, butter them up well, pour a good stream of your favorite syrup (real or fake - no shaming here!), and serve them up to your kiddos with a fun story! Happy Reading and eating!

Callie has been doing a unit on Denmark, so that has prompted the reading of lots of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales this week! We have been enjoying illustrators Susan Jeffers, Jerry Pinkney, and Lisbeth Zwerger. The stories are endearing with life lessons to take to heart, and the illustrations are absolutely gorgeous!

JONAH. Illustrated by Keith Mitchel I used this book this morning in Bible time with Callie and Isaac. We have been talking about some of the Old Testament Prophets, and it was Jonah's turn. As a kid I had a hard time understanding why Jonah didn't just go. After all, he had God with him. The pictures in this book helped to make Jonah's situation become more real. Jonah is portrayed as a mouse, the Ninevites/Assyrians as cats. Suddenly, the picture of how daunting this mission was became real to me. (It still doesn't negate the fact that God was with him!) The Assyrians were ruthless. Kurt Mitchell does a great job illustrating alongside text straight from the NIV Bible.

BORN-AGAIN DIRT: FARMING TO THE GLORY OF GOD by Noah Sanders With spring definitely in the air my mind has been turning towards thoughts of gardening. During part of my devotional time I have been reading Noah Sanders' Born-Again Dirt: Farming to the Glory of God. Sanders is a small operation family farmer who sells his goods at local farmers markets, through CSAs, local restaurants, etc. Sanders explores the reasons why we garden and also the types of conditions for optimal gardening (think soil) based on observing God's creation.

THE VIOLIN CONSPIRACY by Brendan Slocumb Rayquan McMillian is a young African American man who loves playing the violin. His whole life everyone has been against the idea of him playing. The world refuses to accept an African American in a white person's world. His family thinks it's a waste of time, and he'll never go anywhere. Everyone that is except his grandmother. His grandmother remembers back to her grandfather, who was a slave, and his amazing gift of being able to play the violin for his master. In fact somewhere in her attic is his violin. She gifts the violin to Ray which turns out to be a Stradivarius worth $10 million dollars. Now his mom, aunts, and uncle want to sell it for the money, and the former master's family claims it was stolen from them. Then on top of that, he opens the case, and the violin is gone- stolen. This book is full of unexpected twists and turns that will keep you guessing to the end, and it's very clear the author knows violins and classical music. HOWEVER, HEADS UP- this book has a ton of language especially the f-bomb. Anytime a fight or even a victory happens it is heavily punctuated with the f-word. On top of that you know Ray and his girlfriend are having sex, but the book doesn't go into detail.

THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE by Robert Louis Stevenson Annie and I just finished reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Mr. Utterson is concerned. There is a madman on the loose harming an innocent child, killing a kind, old gentleman, and now it seems that he may be blackmailing Utterson's close friend, Dr. Jekyll. The problem is Jekyll won't tell him what's going on, but for some reason according to his will, if Jekyll disappears everything he owns is to go to Hyde. Hyde reeks of evil, and Utterson wants to get to the bottom of it.This book delves deeply into the good and evil in man. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was written in the late 1800s so vocabulary can be a bit of an issue. Use a dictionary if you get hung up, and if you feel like you're missing a deeper meaning don't hesitate to google a lit summary. Jump into classics! They can be very rewarding!

!!TOP PICKS!! REFUGE by Alan Gratz Oh my goodness - this book. I have read a stack of books this year already and this is at the top of it! Refugee tracks the journey of 3 different kids and their families in different time periods. Josef is a Jew from Germany in 1938. Isabel is from Cuba in 1994. Mahmoud is a Muslim from Syria in 2015. All three are fleeing with their families for their lives. It is gut wrenching. There is the leaving behind of all they have, persecution, separation of loved ones, and even death. It will take your breath away, and it will make you so very thankful to live where we do. On top of it, Alan Gratz somehow makes the stories connect. This is not an easy read, but it is so worth it! Heads up- The only heads up to give on this book is the persecution and that some people don't make it.

WHO TOOK THE FARMER'S HAT by Joan L Nodset. Pictures by Fritz Siebel Who Took the Farmer's Hat is a sweet little book about a farmer who is missing his hat. He checks with all the animals in his barnyard to see if anyone knows where it is. One animal has put it to good use!

In honor of the fact that more snow is coming! GOODBYE WINTER, HELLO SPRING by Kenard Pak Kenard Pak is a talented author/ illustrator. You will not be disappointed if you pick up one of his books. Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring follows the journey of a boy and his dog as he goes around his home saying "hello" to everything. The pictures start off black, white, icy blue, etc as the story shows wintery scenes. As days turn to spring, Pak introduces more vibrant colors depicting life. A good book to help us remember during this time as the weather goes back and forth that spring is coming! Side note- Pak is the illustrator on one of my other recommended books, Have You Heard the Nesting Bird.