Alpha Books and More

Alphabet books have been on my mind. Never thought that would happen but I have two little monkeys to blame/thank for that. It is amazing me to me that such a simple subject like the ABCs can produce such variety in medium and presentation...some visually appealing, others creative and amusing, and those that should never have been published because they are too drab and boring. Here are some of our favorite alphabet books:

Found Alphabet
Takes ordinary bits and pieces and turns them into extraordinary alphabet creations....great inspiration for creating from found objects. Several polish artists worked hard to create this little gem of a book. I was very happy to find it at Tuesday Morning last week for $3.99...scooped up a couple for gifts because this is a book anyone would love.

Ellsworth's Extraordinary Electric Ears and Other Amazing Alphabet Ancedotes
One fabulous little scene after another with witty text...right up Noah's alley with his love of models, collage, and "I spy". Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Be forewarned this book is very catchy and you may wander around for weeks with it stuck in your head. Catchy, cute, and colorful makes for a good alphabet book. This is Camille's favorite alphabet book!



Pigs from A to Z
This clever book is filled with beautifully detailed illustrations of seven pigs hard at work to build a tree house. And to add to the fun there are hidden letters on each page. We checked this out from the library several times because Noah (and me, too!) couldn't get enough of it.








And our favorite alphabet songs...Here Come the ABCs by They Might Be Giants. The Price family gave us this cd when Noah was two and it is still a big hit around here. So what are your favorite alphabet books?

And one other book related item. I recently learned about Bookmooch from my on-line book club. I am primarily a library person, but when it comes to book club books I like to be able to make notes in the margins so I always end up buying my books.This sounds like an easy and inexpensive way to get/give books. Hope to try it out soon.

Collage Cards

We needed to come up with a quick gift for my aunt's birthday tomorrow so we decided to make her a set of collage cards. We have been reading a lot of Eric Carle and Lois Ehlert books lately so that was part of the inspiration (plus I happened to have a bunch of blank cards ready to be decorated!). A pair of scissors, a Pottery Barn Kids catalogue, glue sticks, blank cards with envelopes + a little creativity = an easy and colorful gift. I did most of the cards with some help from Noah, but my favorite one was the butterfly which he did all by himself.

Hurricane Thoughts

I had forgotten how exhausting these darn hurricanes can be...typhoons (even the super typhoons) in Okinawa were so much more relaxing. We would stock up on videos, junk food, and hunker down in our little concrete house to enjoy a day or two of serious down time while the 100 plus winds roared through the little island. We never boarded up or taped windows. Never lost electricity. And the day after the storm we would emerge to find sunny, breezy weather and a few downed branches. But hurricanes in Louisiana are a different.

Thanks to the modern technology we have many days of advance notice which prompts all of the prep work. The boarding up of windows, the clearing out of freezers, doing all of the laundry, stocking up on water and food, or in our case packing the car to leave town. And during the storm the challenge is trying to keep cabin fever at bay because the electricity usually goes out pretty early. But the hardest part of hurricanes seems to be after the storm. Living without electricity is not fun. The heat, the stickiness, the bugs...I don't know how people, especially women survived before air conditioning. Seriously, the thought of adding any additional layers to the bare minimum of t-shirts and shorts....how in the world could you wear panty hose or all of those petticoats without air conditioning?! I think air conditioning is part of the reason people now live longer than our ancestors. With air conditioning there must be fewer homicides and suicides, right? Has there ever been a study on that correlation?

In addition to the exhaustion, I had forgotten the sounds of hurricanes. Not just the sound of the wind and rain, but the post-hurricane sounds or lack of sound. During the first night after the storm I was struck by how quiet the world suddenly was...no cars on the road, no low level buzz of appliances, no tv, no phones and so dark. The day after brought the sound of generators throughout the neighborhood, rescue vehicles, helicopters (lots of helicopters both civilian and military), and people emerging from their homes to survey the damage. The third day became much noisier as we awoke to the sound of chain saws, utility trucks, and traffic.

Anyway, happy to report we survived Gustav and very happy to report we finally had electricity back last night. I feel so sorry for those in other areas still waiting for that modern miracle. Lots of clean up to be done in our yard, but feeling like we got very lucky with this storm. Could have been so much worse. Just hoping we don't get anymore during this hurricane season. And I had a good laugh when I saw the signs our neighbors put up on their house before evacuating (see above).