This is a book full of magic that encourages little ones to enjoy their imagination. Evelyn sees lights streaking across the sky and becomes determined to find out what they are when she realizes she is the only one who can see them. When the mystery of the lights becomes real she discovers not only how to use her imagination but how to achieve her goals. Evelyn is a character to look up to, not only to remember to use our imaginations but to also always find a way to achieve our goals. The beautiful illustrations really bring out the story in this children’s book. A must read for any family, library and classroom.
Favorite Local Bookstores
As I mentioned before I shop a lot at thrift bookstores on eBay for gently used children’s books to add to my library for work. I recently found this website indiebound.org that allows you to search a book and see what local bookstores carry it. I think it is pretty awesome. I love a good local bookstore. One of my favorite things to do is go to Princeton and shop in their local and thrift bookstores. I love stores that are not chains and not big brand. I remember the last time I went, I forget the name of the store, but I think it was affiliated with the university, and I just got completely lost in it looking at their books for sale. My best friend was with me and we both had the best time. Pretty sure it was part of the Princeton University store, but it had so many books that were not what you would typically find. Then you have all those stores on the main street. There are a few with books sitting outside the store with great deals. These are my favorite stores to go to. I do love Barnes and Noble, I grew up going there and to Borders, but my heart really is in Princeton with those secondhand book and thrift bookstores. I could spend hours there just browsing and then spend not that much money buy a whole bunch of books. That really is the best part, the deals you get in second hand and thrift bookstores. Better though, is knowing you are supporting a local business. In these crazy times I think supporting our local businesses is more important than ever. What are some of your favorite places to shop second and thrift bookstores? What are the names of your favorite bookstores to shop in and why?
Some of My Favorite Children’s Books
When I worked in daycares, I came across many books that I really loved and would use regularly. Some of my favorites are Chicka Boom Boom. It is a great book to help little ones learn their ABC’s through song. Since most of my clients are under 3 and sometimes have difficulty with focus it is not always a favorite. But when I worked in daycares all my littles ones in the toddler room loved it. I have definitely found that the use of songs can be beneficial for littles on under three. I try to make the book as fun as possible for my little ones by encouraging them to make the boom boom sound. Half of my clients really love it.
Another favorite I actually found through a client, they read it in a session, is called Black Cat, White Cat by Claire Garralon. I mostly wanted it because I have two cats and one is black and one is mostly white. I am a bit of a sucker for anything that matches my two cats. But this book has become one of all of my client’s favorites. It is simple and easy to understand, plus its about cats. The little ones get so excited when they see the cats and begin to point and make the cat sound. It is a really great way to introduce animals and animal sounds. We also count the cats and work on our colors too. This book took me by total surprise, however, has been one of the best additions to my library. Cannot recommend it enough.
Another favorite is the Brown Bear, Brown Bear series by Eric Carle. Honestly, I have found pretty much any book by him is amazing. This is a staple in my library because you can do so much with it. From working on identify animals, to animal sounds to colors the sky is the limit. My clients will even memorize the order of the book. The great thing too is there are so many others in the series that have different animals in them such as Panda Bear Panda Bear or Polar Bear Polar bear. Bet you guys did not know about those😉 I found them one looking for more books by Eric Carle. He is just a master of creating these easy to understand books, full of color that lead to many different ways of learning. The very hungry caterpillar is also a favorite and staple in my library. I have even found new books by him that clients own that I had no idea existed like The Tiny Seed. And as I go to google to jog my memory of other favorite Eric Carle books there is also from head to toe, which helps work on body parts in a fun way with animals. There is also the grouchy ladybug which is super fun and I need to go buy again. Many times, you can find these books for a few bucks on eBay, that is where I got mine. There are a ton of different thrift bookstores that you can buy them from in great shape. Let us support our local bookstores during this crazy time. You can check out indiebound.org to search for these books at great prices that will support your local bookstore.
What are some of your favorite children’s books you would recommend?
Diversity
I purposely wrote my story the way I did for a reason. I purposely wrote it with characters that are different ethnicities really to show there is diversity when it comes to Autism Spectrum Disorder. I decided to do a little marketing of my own and look up some different children’s book pages on Instagram. I was excited to see some pages promoting diversity. Then I followed one and really looked at their pictures and books they were promoting. It was remarkably interesting to me to see their definition of diversity really had to do with ethnicity. It was a little saddening to see that it was so limited to just ethnicity. For me diversity is overly broad and is more than just a person’s ethnicity. To me diversity encompasses your sexuality too and that includes non-binary in the LGBTQ+ community and those with special needs. For me it was a little sad to see that there were no books with special needs children as the main character being promoted. I even reached out to the person running this page however they did not respond which I thought was a little telling of their character and attitude. If that is the kind of page they want to run, great, it at least promotes diversity in ethnicity. But I really hope that one day the number of pages that have a true diverse range of books they promote out numbers the number of pages that only promote one kind of diversity. What does diversity mean to you?
Collaboration
I finally received my copy of my book and was able to post it to my social media. The response was amazing and completely humbling. The best part about the response was the families that reached out that had little ones with an Autism Spectrum Diagnosis wanting to collaborate. It made realize writing this book has given me a platform to network and collaborate with some amazing people. Bringing awareness to the good that is Autism Spectrum Disorder has been something that I have worked on since I started in this field. Now having my book be able to make my reach go even further has made this even more special to me. I am so excited to collaborate with these families and bring even more awareness to topics that have to do with Autism Spectrum Disorder through my writing and hopefully book events. I am open to even more collaboration with anyone who would like to that is just passionate about bringing awareness to the world about Autism Spectrum Disorder. Any ideas for collaboration, any ideas for future topics is most welcome. Please feel free to email me any time and I really am excited to continue to bring to families how amazing a little one with Autism Spectrum Disorder can be.