Hi everyone. My name is Nancy, and I don’t know anything about football.

Hey, I’m not completely inept at sports… I can follow basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, and some others pretty well! Just not, you know, the most popular sport in America. I’ve asked friends to explain it to me, but it just doesn’t never gets through. Since this Sunday is THE BIG GAME, I thought I’d tackle this problem the old-fashioned book-nerd way. By reading about it. (And yes, I realize that making a football pun was very old-fashioned and book-nerdy.)

Check out my new reading list — I might not be able to finish them all by Sunday, but at least I’ll be prepared for next year!

Football Genius by Tim Green (former Atlanta Falcons linebacker)
After watching a couple plays, Troy White knows the outcome of every football game — not just a guess, but an accurate prediction of each play. He wants to help his favorite team, the Atlanta Falcons (of course), but that might come at a price…

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Kickoff! by Tiki Barber (former New York Giant) and Ronde Barber (Tampa Bay Buccaneer)
Junior high is a few days off, and that doesn’t just mean new books and backpacks… For Tiki and Ronde, it means finally playing for the Hidden Valley Eagles, their junior high! Even though Tiki and Ronde are both giant buccaneers now, they were once young students like you.

Getting a little overloaded by puns? Okay…

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The Great Quarterback Switch by Matt Christopher
Twin brothers Michael and Tom Curtis both love football — but sadly, Michael has to watch from the sidelines in a wheelchair. Their neighbor Ollie claims that if they concentrate hard enough — especially because they have a special bond as twins — they can communicate telephatically with each other. So how does that play out on the field?

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Special Mention: Kick the Football, Charlie Brown! by Charles M. Schultz and Judy Katschke
This book might be a breeze of a read for many Kidsmomo-ers, but I just can’t resist mentioning poor Charlie Brown. Why, Lucy, WHHHHHHHY?!

What are your favorite football-related books? Let me know in the comments so I can add it to my to-read list!

—Nancy

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Even though she’s lived in the USA most of her life, sometimes Nancy still gets “football” confused with what Americans call “soccer”… even though she played soccer* growing up. No, it doesn’t make any sense.

*Go Stingrays 1991!

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As any faithful Kidsmomo visitor knows, I love food. Actually, I don’t just love food — I LOVE food. Like, this is what my face looks like when I think of food, eat food, prepare food, or talk about food:

So you won’t be surprised to hear that I really enjoyed the book Pie by Sarah Weeks. It’s about Alice, who loves to spend her days at her Aunt Polly’s pie shop, which is award-winning and renowned around the country. But when Polly passes away, she leaves her secret pie crust recipe to her cat — and she leaves the cat to Alice.

Alice is consumed with grief over her aunt’s death, but it soon becomes clear that someone else in town has more devious thoughts on the brain — somebody’s out to find the pie crust recipe, at any cost!

As you can see, although food is a big part of Pie, there’s much more to the story. I really liked Alice, as well as Charlie, who becomes Alice’s detective partner as they try to get to the bottom of things. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that every chapter starts with a different pie recipe! Maybe a Kidsmomo bake-off rematch is in the cards!

If you’ve worked up an appetite for Pie, you can read the first chapter online! And if you’ve already read the book, leave a comment with your thoughts! Did you find the book as sweet and delicious as I did?

— Karen

Karen’s favorite kind of pie, hands down, is banana cream. Although a few years ago she discovered banoffee pie, which is also delightful. Yes, Karen likes banana desserts.

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Photo from Flickr user OakleyOriginals

I’ll admit it: when I’m not glued to a computer, I’m glued to my iPhone. I use it to message my friends, listen to music, read books, and now… play with the free app for the Warriors series by Erin Hunter!

When you start up the app, you get this fun animation of two cats fighting. I know it’s supposed to be serious and dark and all that, but they way they go, “MREOW!!!” every time cracks me up.

Cats: MREOW! ... Nancy: Heehee!!! ... Cats: Take us seriously!

I was pleasantly surprised that the app had so many features, especially since it’s free. Here is the main menu:

Main Menu of Warriors App

Within many of the sections, there’s even more to delve into! For instance, there are five sub-sections in the “Cats and Clans” section: The Cats, Warrior Clans, Warrior Code, Maps, and Glossary. This will come in handy if I meet a Warriors fan who demands recitation of the code. (Hey, it’s bound to happen, considering the literary circles I run in.)

This may sound a little boring, but I especially liked reading about the different cats. For example:

Does anyone else think that Onestar looks a little chubby here?

One bummer is that there isn’t nearly as much information about the cats as you get in the books. There is some exclusive trivia, but not for all the characters. What can I say? I WANT MORE WARRIOR CAT INFO!

Another gripe I had about this section was that the pictures of the cats weren’t very big. Okay, I might be revealing myself as a future Crazy Cat Lady, but I want to see more pictures of cats — even if they are vicious fighting felines!

On the plus side, check out how the app includes all the details of the maps from the books:

More info on camps and clans appear when tapped.

One of my favorite sections is the Timeline:

The beginning of one of the three timelines.

How cool is that? I can just slide my finger and see the progression of events in the series. I like that before I accessed this from the main menu, it said “Spoiler Alert” — thanks for the warning! (I totally ignored it).

There’s also a Trivia Game (I’m too embarrassed to reveal my pathetic score) and even a video from author Erin Hunter!

I’m a little curious how this app will update if a new Warriors book comes out, but for now, I’m pretty happy with it. If you’re a Warriors fan and happen to have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, it’ll be much less painful than carrying around 30+ books.

I would love to see this kind of app made for The Baby-sitters Club, The Mysterious Benedict Society, and other awesome series. How about you?

— Nancy

Unfortunately, Nancy can’t actually be a REAL Crazy Cat Lady in the future, because she’s allergic to cats. She’ll just have to stick to cat pictures on her walls. That’s… not crazy… right? Ha… ha…

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As you guys know, I’m a very impatient person. So even though it seems kind of backwards, I’m willing to go the extra mile in order to save time. If I want to see a TV show, I record it so I can fast-forward through the commercials. If I want to know what the President said in a speech, I’ll go online afterwards and skim the text transcript. If I know where I’m going to eat dinner, I’ll look at the restaurant’s website beforehand so that I’m already familiar with the menu when I get there. Like I said, I’m VERY impatient.

But in the last few weeks, I’ve watched three big-deal spectacles in real-time — which just goes to show you how super important they were. And the three events were: the Golden Globe Awards, the playoff game between the 49ers and the Giants, and the announcement of the American Library Association Youth Media Awards (ALAymas)!

What? You don’t know that last one? Well, I bet you’ve heard of the Newbery Medal, which is one of the ALAymas. Every January, it’s given to “the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children” in the previous year. Past winners include completely-awesome-major-big-deal books like The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo, Holes by Louis Sachar, The Giver by Lois Lowry, and Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis.

And earlier this week, a new winner joined the ranks of this prestigious group:

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

As you may recall from our book trailer for Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, Nancy and I have been fans of Jack Gantos for a while now. So we extend a hearty congratulations to the man of the hour! But we also have to give ourselves a disapproving shake of the head and a look of pure disdain because, well, we haven’t read this book yet!

But we definitely plan to read Dead End in Norvelt ASAP — not just because it won the Newbery, but also because it sounds totally awesome! Here’s part of the official description:

Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is a novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is “grounded for life” by his feuding parents, and whose nose spews bad blood at every little shock he gets. But plenty of excitement (and shocks) are coming Jack’s way once his mom loans him out to help a fiesty old neighbor with a most unusual chore — typewriting obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his utopian town. As one obituary leads to another, Jack is launced on a strange adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, twisted promises, a homemade airplane, Girl Scout cookies, a man on a trike, a dancing plague, voices from the past, Hells Angels … and possibly murder.

Cookies and murder in one book?! Obviously, WE ARE IN!

And we’ll also be adding the 2012 Newbery Honor Books to our To Be Read list:

• Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai
• Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin

So, if you’ll excuse us, we need to go out and obtain some books, like, right now. But if you have already read any of these big winners, leave a comment and us know!

— Karen

Karen used to get lots of nosebleeds when she was a kid. She did NOT enjoy putting tissue up her nose to stop the blood. But to be honest, she kinda liked the feeling of pulling it out once the bleeding had stopped. That’s not gross, right?

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Remember when we used to have themes for our podcasts? Well, this time we accidentally created a themed podcast — by reading each other’s minds! Or maybe it was just coincidence… Either way, we’ve got superheroes all over the place! Take a listen to meet Captain Amazing, Captain Nobody, a few animal crime-fighters, and — completely unrelated — a sweet mother of potatoes!

Listen now:
  (5:54)

Download the MP3 (5.4 MB)

• Dictionary people, are you paying attention?
  
• Karen’s book review: Sidekicks by Dan Santat
• Nancy’s book review: Captain Nobody by Dean Pitchford
• A review from YOU: Never Mind by Avi
• A new exclamation marks record!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And don’t forget: write in with a book review below. We’ll feature a kid review in our next podcast!

— Karen and Nancy

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January is almost over, so you have probably already acquired a calendar for 2012. Perhaps it’s a celebrity-themed calendar. Perhaps it’s an adorable kitten or puppy calendar — maybe you went rogue and have an adorable duck calendar! But just in case you’re a procrastinator (like yours truly) and have not yet obtained a calendar, I offer you: The-Awesome-Book-Characters-from-Your-Favorite-Kids-Books-Themed-Calendar-for-2012! (The title is still a work progress…) Each book character represents a month this year:

Click on the thumbnail to see each month larger:

Although I’d love to have a meal with Mr. Fox’s gang, I think my favorite month in this calendar is July. That might be because I wouldn’t mind going to the beach with Percy Jackson. Hey, don’t judge — I’m not so great at swimming and Percy would be the perfect lifeguard.

How about you? Leave a comment below and let us know what month embodies your favorite book character!

— Nancy

Nancy is SO over January. She demands that February get here ASAP.

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A few months ago, we made beautiful (if we do say so ourselves) sandscapes based on The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The crafty instructions came to us from our friends at The New Victory Theater in New York, which puts on AWESOME shows for the whole family. Recently, they staged another show based on a children’s book: Miss Ophelia, based on Ophelia’s Shadow Theatre by Michael Ende. And this time we invited them to share their own craft gallery! Here’s the scoop from Mara Richards over at the New Vic…

Earlier this month, we had the pleasure of introducing Miss Ophelia to our New York audiences. The magical story of a sweet old lady and her shadowy sidekicks was brought to life through lively storytelling and puppetry — and you and your family can make a tabletop puppetry set like the one in the show!

You can re-create a street in your neighborhood or create one from your imaginations. The set is easy to make and can be made with household items. The New Victory Education Department made one of our neighborhood on 42nd Street. Take a look the photos of our creation and follow the instructions below to make your own tabletop set!

Before beginning: You and your family should collect different sized cardboard boxes like the ones that cereal, instant oatmeal, or toothpaste come in. You’ll also need paper to cover the boxes (we used brown paper), scissors, markers, and either masking tape or glue. You’ll also need a table or other large area to lay out your set.

To create the buildings for your neighborhood, begin by covering each of the boxes with the paper. We wrapped ours like you would a gift. If you want your tabletop set to be similar to the one used in Miss Ophelia, you’ll want to use the same color of paper for all of the boxes. You can either glue the paper into place or use masking tape (which is easier to use but less durable).

After covering the boxes, you can either use different colors of construction paper to cut out and paste things like windows and lettering on signs OR you can use markers to draw those details in. If you want your set to be like the one in the show, you should use black markers to draw in the details.

When you’ve finished decorating the boxes, create the street for your neighborhood by placing a large sheet of paper (or several small sheets) on a table or other flat area. Be sure to draw in the details of the street like the center lines and lane dividers.

Finally, arrange the buildings you made on either side of the street, and voila!

After making your tabletop set, you can draw and cut out two-dimensional puppet characters like the ones used in Miss Ophelia to play with on the set. Cardboard or thick cardstock work best for these puppets. Then you and your family can use your puppets to make up a story. Have fun and share your stories with us in the comments!

— Mara, Kidsmomo Guest Blogger

Mara Richards is the Education Manager for Curriculum and Resources at The New Victory Theater. Mara oversees educator resources and creates the School Tool resource guides. She holds a BFA in Drama (NYU), an MA in Performance Studies (NYU), and an MS in Educational Theatre (CCNY) and is a certified Theatre teacher with Initial Certification in Theatre for grades Pre K-12. Before returning to grad school in 2008 for Educational Theatre, Mara worked in arts fundraising for 8 years.

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and it was definitely lovely to have a vacation from work. It seems like there’s a pattern to how I spend the holiday: in this post I wrote on MLK Day 2010 I mentioned eating lots of desserts, and this year I made two desserts! (Pecan bars and chocolate + nut + marshmallow clusters, in case you were wondering.)

But obviously, MLK Day is not just an excuse to take a break and stuff your face with sugar. So I also spent some time thinking about the man we honor and looking at photos taken during the civil rights movement.

When you look at those pictures, it’s truly amazing to think that they were taken in the 1950s and 60s. That wasn’t so long ago, and yet our country was SO backwards! Check out this picture of students getting food dumped on them as they staged a sit-in to protest segregated eating areas, or this photo of a “colored-only” water fountain.

It can be hard to look at these kinds of images, but it’s really important to remember what MLK fought for. And if you want to know more, there are plenty of books about that time in our not-so-distant history. Here are book trailers from around the interwebs for just a few of them:

The Watsons Go to Birmingham — 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
[This is an awesome video, but... WARNING: spoiler alert!]

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams Garcia

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

Have you read any of these books, or any others about the civil rights movement? Leave a comment and let me know!

— Karen

This MLK Day, Karen discovered a new quote from King that she absolutely loves: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”

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What better way to ring in the New Year than to scrutinize the latest and final book cover of Rick Riordan’s Kane Chronicles series, for The Serpent’s Shadow? Check out the beautiful, newly released cover by illustrator John Rocco:

(Click to see the cover larger, so you can study each pixel individually!)

Based on previous posts, you know the drill. I’ll put out my guesses about the final installment, and you should leave YOUR thoughts on the cover in the comments below!

First, an official description of the book from the Kane Chronicles website:

He’s b-a-a-ack! Despite their best efforts, Carter and Sade Kane can’t seem to keep Apophis, the chaos snake, down. Now Apophis is threatening to plunge the world into eternal darkness, and the Kanes are faced with the impossible task of having to destroy him once and for all. Unfortunately, the magicians of the House of Life are on the brink of civil war, the gods are divided, and the young initiates of Brooklyn House stand almost alone against the forces of chaos.

Whoa. That is quite a lot to digest from one paragraph! Let me collect my thoughts…

• First, I just love the color scheme of the whole series: It goes from dark rust red, to bright purple, to brilliant blue. It reminds me of different types of flames.
• Apparently Rick Riordan himself claims that this is his favorite cover yet.
• Carter stands on the left, ready to use the Crook and Flail of Ra, the weapon he used after he lost his khopesh.
• So then that’s probably Sadie standing on the ledge, but I can’t really make out if she’s doing anything — is she ready to jump in or holding on for dear life?
• What is this body of water Carter and Sadie are standing in front of? Does it look like to anyone else that the rocks and boulders are creating a path across the water?
• A spiky serpent shadow (presumably the super duper evil Aphosis, God of Chaos) looms ominously in the distance.
• Floating above and around the obelisk (is it the Washington Monument in D.C., or a different one?) are white birds, which look comforting to me for some reason. Perhaps some combat avatars? They don’t look like Carter’s falcon form…
• I can’t make out any of the symbols on the obelisk, so I’m guessing they’re intentionally drawn to be vague.
• Hey, what’s that shape above the obelisk? Let me take a closer — OMG IT’S A REALLY CREEPY GIANT EYE STARING RIGHT AT ME. Okay, it’s probably staring at Carter and Sadie. But still, really creepy.

So, Kidsmomo readers, what do you think of the newest (and sadly, last*) cover for The Kane Chronicles? I can’t wait to follow Carter and Sadie’s adventures once more on May 1, when The Serpent’s Shadow comes out!

Meanwhile, you can keep busy until then by reading a preview of The Serpent’s Shadow from the official website, maybe a couple (hundred) times…

— Nancy

As you can tell, Nancy is not a fan of creepy giant eyes.

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*Unless Rick Riordan writes another book/series with Kane Chronicles characters. He IS a writing machine, after all!

Yesterday I was looking at stuff online and came across a poster that was all about reminding people to recycle. The poster said: “Don’t be trashy.” I said: “HA HA HA HA!”

As you can tell, I LOVE puns! Don’t you love puns? They really make life punderful.

One of my favorite punny books is Un Lun Dun by China Miéville. Unfortunately, it’s not nearly as well-known as the pun-packed classic The Phantom Tollbooth, so I’m here to spread the word. Get it? Spread the word! Just consider me a pun prophet, if you will…

Un Lun Dun is a fantasy adventure about two London schoolgirls who find their way to an alternate version of the city that lies underground (UnLondon — get it?). This subterranean world is populated with ghosts, trash that’s come to life, a talking book that announces prophecies, and a colorful cast of characters — some friendlier than others, and some less friendly than they might seem. Can two girls from regular London save this fantastical world from an evil pollution being called the Smog? Obviously, I’m not going to tell you; you’ll just have to read the book to find out!

And you REALLY REALLY REALLY should read this book. Not only is the story completely gripping, but as I mentioned, it’s also full of PUNS! Broken umbrellas as known as unbrellas. Black windows (ferocious windows with eight legs) guard Webminster Abbey. And, of course, there are ninja trash cans known as binjas. Of course.

So if you love wordplay as much as I do (if that’s even possible), or if you just want an exciting read, then it’s time for a journey to Un Lun Dun!

— Karen

Like all New Yorkers, Karen spends a good amount of time beneath the city — riding the subway. But luckily, she hasn’t spotted any trash moving around. Unfortunately, there’s already plenty of movement from the rats…

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