Penny Paperheart

"Sharing happiness one heart at a time" is the sweet message from the adorable Penny Paperheart.  Little Penny made her debut as a doodle on a greeting card for Hallmark, but is now a character in her own book Penny Paperheart that is followed by many "Hallmarkers" - apparently this is the term for people who shop frequently at Hallmark. Now you can find Penny merchandise, such as Penny Playsets, at all Hallmark stores as well as online that give a whole new feel to paper doll play.  Also on Hallmark's website are cute videos starring Penny and her friends as well as downloads that include coloring pages, finger puppets and paper hearts to share. Follow this link for some Penny Paperheart fun (the videos are about half way down the page)!

The book Penny Paperheart was left for Emmy a few months ago by the fairies who visit the little fairy houses that she makes around the house. Let me explain...Since we live in an apartment on the fifth floor, we don't have direct access to the outdoors, so collections of nature items can be found in Emmy's room.  These items are often made into little fairy houses that cannot be taken down until evidence of a fairy visit are found.  So, unbeknownst to her, I leave evidence of their existence. Sometimes I simply rearrange the little house, but other times I leave little trinkets hidden in her fairy houses.  Trinkets such as a pretty rock, a polished stone, an interesting seashell, a handwritten note or something a bit bigger like this book.  It brings me much joy that Emmy still believes in fairies and it is such a relief when the fairy house is put away and vacuuming can commence once more!

I must share the back story to Penny Paperheart, as stated at the end of the book, as it is one of friendship, collaboration and inspiration.

One day an artist named Terry Runyan drew a little doodle.  She gazed at the little gril she sketched and then began to noodle.  Isn't she cute?  Who could she be?  Terry continue to think, then showed her sketch to her talented friend whose name is Mary Fink. 

Mary thought Terry's charming sketch was oh so very sweet, so Mary designed the girl's paper town and when it was complete Terry and Mary thought to themselves, "It's time for her to be named" "Not just a name, she needs a story!" the two artists both exclaimed.

Andre du Broc is a writer friend.  Playing with words is his art.  When he saw their little sketch he squealed, "She's Penny Paperheart!" The three friends loved their paper girl and that love just grew and grew.  Penny Paperheart had a name but not a thing to do.

That's when their dear friend, Stacy Lamb, offered a bit of advice:  "She gives away her paper hearts - that's what makes Penny so nice!" And that's how four devoted friends all played a wonderful part in bringing to life a paper girl named Penny Paperheart.  

After our first reading of Penny Paperheart, Emmy went off and gathered art supplies and began making hearts with notes on them to share with family members, friends and the neighbors in our apartment building.  Emmy highly recommends this book to readers of all ages as she says, "Penny is so cute and when I read her story, I want to be kind to everyone."  We hope that you will have a chance to get to know Penny and spread kindness to those around you.  

Amazing Sunflowers

"Keep your face to the sunshine 

and you cannot see the shadow.  

It's what sunflowers do." 

Helen Keller

Emmy and I recently explored an amazing sunflower field at Colby Farm in Newbury, MA. This field is planted annually and tended to by the Colby family.  The sunflowers were absolutely gorgeous.  Emmy couldn't believe how tall the flowers were and how many of them were in the field. We estimated in the 1,000's.  There were so many honey bees busy at work collecting pollen to take back to their hives and beautiful butterflies resting on the sunny heads of the flowers. We spent a long time exploring this field taking in the beauty and relishing the quiet.

After our visit, I was inspired to show Emmy Vincent Van Gogh's paintings of sunflowers.  This allowed us to talk about Van Gogh's technique of using vibrant colors and swirling brush strokes (post-impressionism) as well as still life painting.  Emmy and I will be working on our own still life paintings of a vase of sunflowers and will share them at a later time.

Still Life: Vase With Twelve Sunflowers 1888

Emmy has always been interested in Van Gogh's paintings especially his most famous work The Starry Night (1889).  In a previous post, I talked about how we kept a picture frame in Emmy's bedroom that held a different postcard each week of a famous painting. She always wanted The Starry Night to be in the frame.  With our renewed interest in Van Gogh, we decided to check out a book about Van Gogh from our library.  I had learned of a series of books by Laurence Anholt (Anholt's Artists Books For Children) that focused on stories of real children who had actually met famous artists. There are nine books in the series and we would like to read them all, but we began with Van Gogh and the Sunflowers.  This story focuses on Van Gogh's time spent in Arles, France. A young boy named Camille befriends Van Gogh when he moves into the yellow house at the end of his street.  Camille brought sunflowers to his new friend and watched him paint.  Others in the town thought that Van Gogh was odd and that Vincent and his paintings didn't fit in with the town.  Emmy and I appreciated Camille's father's explanation,

"People often laugh at things that are different, 

but I've got a feeling that one day 

they will learn to love Vincent's paintings." 

Not only are Anholt's illustrations wonderful to look at, but the book also includes reproductions of works by Vincent Van Gogh.   For another recommendation of a book about art, check out this post.  

A wonderful book celebrating sunflowers is Eve Bunting's Sunflower House.  This story shares the lifecycle of the sunflower beginning with a boy planting sunflower seeds into a circle which creates a sunflower playhouse to the flowers wilting and the seeds dropping to the ground.  The story is told in rhyming verse and the illustrations, by Kathryn Hewitt (who also illustrated Bunting's book Flower Garden), are exquisite. Emmy's favorite part is when the boy and his friends sleep in the sunflower house.  She is determined that she will plant a similar house and have her friends over to sleep among the giant flowers.  

Whenever the topic of gardening with children comes up, I always suggest Sharon Lovejoy's books as resources. In her book, Sunflower Houses: A Book for Children and their Grown-Ups, the pages are filled with terrific suggestions of flowers to plant and projects to make and also with Lovejoy's beautiful drawings and whimsical poems. I remember making clover chains and firefly lanterns when I was a child.  I also remember picking dandelions for my mom. Emmy and I enjoy stringing dandelions together to make crowns to wear and bouquets to give.  Gardening is not something that is easy for us as we live in an apartment building in town, but I am determined to create an indoor garden with Emmy.  If you are interested in other books about gardening, check out the following posts:

The Child's Garden

In the Garden: Who's Been Here?

Bumpety Bump!

Here's a song that Emmy and I have been enjoying since our visit to the sunflower field...

Sunflower ~ written by Neil Diamond and recorded by Glen Campbell in 1977.  

For the Love of Rocks

Like many children, Emmy loves to collect items from nature -especially rocks.  Ever since she could walk, treasures from nature have come into our house.  Emmy has a nature tray in her bedroom where she keeps all of these treasures.  To this day, it is rare for her to come home without a rock, shell or acorn in her pocket (or in my purse).  Emmy also enjoys going to stores and museums that have polished rocks. A recent find, from the Harvard Museum of Natural History, is a piece of Chalcopyrite KAL-kah-PIE-rite (shown on the left in her hand above). It is also known as peacock pyrite because of its shiny iridescent qualities which is what drew her to this rock right away.  

Along with collecting rocks, Emmy and I love to read books about rocks.  Here are a few that we have added to our collection of rock books.  

In the photo essay style book, If You Find a Rock by Peggy Christian with photographs by Barbara Hirsh Lember, children are finding different kinds of rocks that aren't classified by mineral or structure, but rather by use:  skipping rocks, splashing rocks, climbing rocks, resting rocks.  

Maybe you find a soft white rock - 

a rock that feels dusty in your fingers.  

Then you have a chalk rock and you use it

 to make pictures on the pavement.  

Emmy's favorite classification from this book is a wishing rock. This is a rock with a line all the way around it.  Trace the line, whisper what you want and then throw it.  Here is an example of a wishing rock from our collection.  If You Find a Rock is the perfect beginning to a more formal classification of rocks.  I love that it focuses on observation and appreciation for rocks.  

Next up is a book by one of my favorite authors Byrd Baylor. Baylor lives and writes in an adobe house powered by solar energy in the Sonoran desert of Arizona (she refers to a technical glitch as one where her pen runs out of ink). She presents images of the Southwest through beautiful prose that illustrates vividly the value of simplicity, the natural world and the intense connection between the land and the people.  Baylor's book, Everybody Needs a Rock with illustrations by Peter Parnall, outlines ten rules for choosing the absolutely perfect rock for you. The specifications will make you smile... 

Rule Number 1 

If you can, go to a mountain made out of nothing 

but a hundred million small shiny beautiful roundish rocks. 

But if you can't, any place will do even an alley, even a sandy lake.  

Emmy's favorite rule:  Rule Number 6...The size must be perfect.  It has to feel easy in your hand when you close your fingers over it.  It has to feel jumpy in your pocket when you run.  Some people touch a rock a thousand times a day.  There aren't many things that feel as good as a rock if the rock is perfect.  

I'm going to be sure to reread this book with Emmy because I know that we can use Baylor's idea of ten rules to make lists for other nature items such as, ten ways for choosing a shell, a leaf, a horse chestnut or perhaps even a friend. 

Last is a book by Leo Lionni that is quite different from his signature color and collage work. On My Beach There are Many Pebbles provides us with a whimsical look at rocks.  Part realism and part fantasy...there are fishpebbles and goosepebbles and peoplepebbles and letterpebbles to admire and talk about.  Emmy and I get very excited any time we find a rock that looks like the shape of a heart.

On my beach there are many pebbles 

Most are ordinary pebbles but 

some are strange and wonderful.  

I want to mention two items that Emmy and I use when we are on the hunt for a special rock or something else found in nature.  

(1) We love this mesh bag that was given to Emmy as a birthday gift a few years ago.  It is perfect for holding lots of special items and keeps them from ending up in my purse!  

(2) We also love this little book, Dig Into Rocks, Minerals & Crystals, that we found at the shop in the Harvard Museum of Natural History.  It is simple in text with real photographs of a variety of rocks like the Chalcopyrite.  Emmy often refers to this book when she comes home with a new rock.  

One last thought before I end this post...using rocks to create art is one of Emmy's favorite things to do. She will often move rocks around to create a picture or stack them to create a sculpture.  Sorting them is another thing that she does naturally without any nudging from me.  I love that we can create art anywhere using items from nature!   

Happy Rock Collecting! 

Zoe Hall

As we approached the month of September here on the North Shore of Massachusetts, Emmy and I wondered if Autumn would ever arrive. The heat crept its way into the middle of September and then WHAM, Autumn was here. There really wasn't much of a transition...80 degree weather to 50 degree weather practically overnight! And the wind...BRRR (temperatures feel more like 40 degrees)! Now I know what New Englanders mean by a Nor'Easterner!

With Autumn upon us, it was time to bring out our collection of books on the subject. We've posted about our favorite Autumn

books from last year here, but we have plenty more to share! It seems like the books that Emmy is enjoying the most this time around are all written by Zoe Hall! First up is It's Pumpkin Time with illustrations by Shari Halpern. This book is a pleasant celebration of Halloween and an excellent lesson on the science of how pumpkins grow.

"All summer long, my brother and I get ready for our favorite holiday.

Can you guess what it is? Halloween! And can you guess what

we do to get ready? We plant a jack-o'-lantern patch?"

Ms. Hall's text is simple and informative and Ms. Halpern's illustrations are vibrant and engaging. They make a great team! A great bonus is the last page where you can find a diagram of how a pumpkin seed grows underground.

Emmy and I recently went to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkin. We brought along the book It's Pumpkin Time and read it before we set off into the pumpkin patch. Emmy was delighted to discover the vines that once held the pumpkins. She even tried to figure out which pumpkin stem went with which vine!

To prepare for carving our pumpkin into a jack-o'-lantern, Emmy

is using a washable black marker to draw different faces on

the pumpkin. With a damp cloth (or sponge), the marker wipes clean and the pumpkin is ready for a new look! We also keep a dry cloth near by. Another great way to practice a variety of faces for a jack-o'-lantern is to cut a pumpkin shape out of orange felt and then cut different eyes, noses, and mouths out of black felt. Voila - a Mr. Pumpkin Head!

Emmy has suggested that I add her favorite pumpkin finger play to this post so here it goes:

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.

The first one says, "Oh my it's getting late!"

The second one says, "There are witches in the air."

(OR "There is something in the air.")

The third one says, "But we don't care."

The fourth one says, "Let's run and run and run."

The fifth one says, "I'm ready for some fun."

Then whoosh went the wind and out went the lights

And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!

Second up is The Apple Pie Tree. Hall and Halpern team up again to create a wonderful tale that follows two sisters and an apple tree through the seasons.

"My sister and I have a tree that grows the best part of apple pie.

Can you guess what that is? Apples!

And every year, we watch our apple tree grow."

Also hidden among the tree's branches is a family of robins which shows the importance of the tree providing shelter for the birds. Emmy and I enjoy the last page where you will find a

diagram showing how bees help apples to grow and Zoe Hall's own recipe for making apple pie!

Apple picking season was early this year so we missed our opportunity to pick our own apples. However, Emmy enjoys going to the Farmer's Market and choosing an apple for a treat. Here she is biting through the skin of the apple and eating it whole - FINALLY!

Next up is Fall Leaves Fall! Once again Hall and Halpern create an autumn tale where two brothers anticipate their favorite season.

"All year long, my brother and I wait for our favorite

season to come. Can you guess what it is? FALL!

How do we know when fall is coming?

We watch the leaves."

The children watch the leaves, catch them, stomp them, kick them, collect them, compare them, rake them and jump into them!!! These activities as well as labeling the leaves and creating leaf pictures are all introduced and invites readers to do the same things! And of course the last page includes a diagram describing how leaves grow throughout the year.

Emmy and I recently went on a leaf collecting walk and talked about the

different types of leaves we found - mostly maple and oak. Emmy really wanted to find a Ginkgo leaf like in the book, but there are no Ginkgo trees in our neighborhood!

And finally, Surprise Garden. This Hall and Halpern story follows three children as they plant a garden...loosening the soil, poking seeds in one by one, watering the garden, and watching the small green shoots grow. Surprise!

"We're planting the seeds for a surprise garden.

Can you guess what we will grow?"

When it's harvest time, the children have a garden party to eat all their delicious produce. Following the pattern in all of Hall's and Halpern's books, the last page includes a helpful guide linking seeds to plants.

Speaking of harvest time...check out another one of our favorite Autumn books here and laugh along with Emmy to Big Anthony's antics in the book Strega Nona's Harvest by Tomie dePaola. Also check out this post if you are interested in gardening with your child. Included is the delightful book How Groundhog's Garden Grew which is a wonderful book for Thanksgiving.

Emmy and her classmates planted bulbs outside of their school last week.

We are looking forward to a spring surprise of daffodils and tulips!

Lastly, here is one of Emmy's beautiful pieces of Autumn art. So easy to make!!!! Emmy's favorite part...tearing the paper into small pieces.

Happy Autumn everyone!

Bridget's Beret

Bridget's Beret by Tom Lichtenheld is simply...remarkable. Let me introduce you to Bridget. Bridget is an artist following in the footsteps of the Great Artists. Her masterpieces are on permanent exhibit - on the front of the refrigerator - while other pieces are available for limited viewing - on the sidewalk.

Bridget's favorite place to draw is outdoors where she feels like she is right where she belongs. Bridget has many art supplies that she uses to create these masterpieces, but her most important art supply is her hat - a big, black beret which she carefully places on her head before she creates any kind of art adjusting it until it sits on her head just right. Emmy and I love saying these lines (referring to the hat)

"It had to have that certain je ne sais quoi. She had no idea what that meant,

but she knew all Great Artists needed it to make art."

Emmy and I now know that je ne sais quoi is a French phrase meaning I-don't-know-what...

that indescribable something which distinguishes one object from another which is similar on

the surface. What a fun phrase to say...je ne sais quoi!

Emmy has now taken over my black beret and uses it whenever she needs some inspiration for her art. ADORABLE!

Tom Lichtenheld's illustrations aren't new to me (Have you read Duck! Rabbit! - it is the funniest children's book ever based on a 19th century style optical illusion) nor are his books (Everything I Know About Pirates and What Are You So Grumpy About?), but I love that this book follows a typical plot. Well, let's let

Mr. Lichtenheld describe it..."Girl loves hat. Girl loses hat. Girl can't draw sans hat, TRAGEDY, DRAMA, HUMOR!"

To find out what really happened to Bridget's stray beret and see the original back-matter for the book drawn in a graphic novel approach click here and find the birds in the lower right hand corner! Lichtenheld opted for the "How to Start Your Art" spread as the back-matter which uses famous paintings to help kids find inspiration for their own art.

An interesting tidbit that I learned after researching Bridget's Beret is that all of Bridget's artwork in the book is based on children's artwork received by Lichtenheld and his inspiration for Bridget - Lichtenheld's niece Madeline.

If you're looking for a book to help inspire your own artwork or that of a child's in your life, definitely check out Bridget's Beret.

To read some older posts related to art click here and here and here.

The Valentine Bears

It's looking a lot like Valentine's Day in our house and Emmy is DELIGHTED! When I brought out the box of Valentine decorations, Emmy got right to work finding places to display all of the red and pink treasures. She found several heart boxes and baskets and when I explained that I fill them up with surprises and place them on the table on Valentine's morning, she took it upon herself to fill each one up with...well, I'm not sure because it's a secret, and hid them around the house! I guess I'll be getting three new heart boxes to fill this year!

Our favorite Valentine's book is The Valentine Bears by Eve Bunting with illustrations by Jan Brett. Such a sweet story that tells of two bears who wake up to celebrate Valentine's Day for the very first time. I cannot think of a better match for creating a children's book than Eve Bunting and Jan Brett both accomplished in the field of children's literature with hundreds of books published. Both Eve and Jan bring an undeniable sweetness to this Valentine's story. Emmy's favorite part of the book is when Mrs. Bear fills a bucket with cold water from the stream to splash on Mr. Bear in the hopes of waking him up for Valentine's Day. Surprise, surprise...Mr. Bear is awake and the cold water splashes on Mrs. Bear instead!

After reading this book, Emmy wanted to create her own large valentine heart just like the one Mrs. Bear made for Mr. Bear so we got out some materials and set to work.

Emmy has decided that this Valentine will be given to her friends in her classroom!

Jan Brett offers postcards to be sent via email and if you love The Valentine Bears as much as Emmy and I then you might want to send this one to a friend.

Happy Valentines Day from Emmy and me!

Celebrating Art

I've always loved the following quote by Pablo Picasso:

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an

artist once we grow up.

Being able to express oneself freely is the basis for a society where individual differences are admired and revered. Art allows a person to tell his or her own story. Instilling this ideal into our children will enable them to create a future where art is accessible to everyone no matter their wealth, skin color or education.

Look! Look! Look! is written by two people with a passion for art education. Nancy Elizabeth Wallace and Linda K. Friedlaender (curator for the Yale Center for British Art)

create a wonderful celebration of art seen through the eyes of three adorable mice. Upon discovering a postcard in the people's house, they decide to borrow the postcard "just to look at it, just for a little while." The mice look at the postcard (Portrait of a Woman

by Robert Peake) from "top to bottom, side to side and bottom to top." They see patterns,

colors, lines and shapes and then they create with paper, scissors, and markers. Emmy delights in the discoveries of the mice. She immediately wanted to create her own artwork after the very first reading. She used pattern blocks to create a number of objects and then decided to cut out her own shapes and lay them out on paper in a variety of ways.

Emmy has quite a collection of art materials. Making them accessible to her at all times was a challenge that I was determined to solve. This is one way to keep art materials within arm's

reach. Emmy and I purchased a small lazy susan and placed the jelly jars that we cleaned and saved on top. Then we filled the jars with drawing materials such as markers, crayons, pens, colored pencils and "regular" pencils (as Emmy calls them) as well as

scissors, glue and a handheld pencil sharpener. We keep this collection on the sofa table along with a box that holds different colors and sizes of paper. We also have a cabinet in the office that has a shelf dedicated to art materials like the feathers shown on Emmy's piece of art to the right. Emmy uses either her small table and chairs or the coffee table to create these fabulous pieces of art.

Finding art all around you is an important concept to teach

children. Here is a wonderful resource that I recently came across showing how to use objects in nature to create art. Land Art for Kids was created by Richard Shilling and Julia Brooklyn who are known as Land Artists. Land Art involves making art and sculptures using materials you find in nature such as leaves, pine cones, twigs, pebbles, rocks, sand, and shells. To see wonderful creations of Land Art, check out the website Land Art for Kids.

An earlier post, For the Love of Art, has additional books and resources for creating art that may be of further interest.

What art offers is space - a certain breathing room

for the spirit. ~ John Updike

Charley Harper

Anyone following familiar with Charley Harper? If not, then you are in for a real treat. I first came across his work last summer while browsing through a local boutique. I certainly wasn't there to look at books, in fact I was hoping to find a cute pair of shoes for Emmy, but instead I noticed an interesting book cover that stopped me in my tracks. I took the book, Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life, to a corner of the shop and sat admiring the illustrations for the better part of an hour. WHOA! I was so impressed with this Harper man and delighted that Todd Oldham had taken the time to honor this man's work in a beautiful coffee table book. As much as I wanted to take this book home with me, I had to leave it behind due to the price tag of $150.00 (one day this book will be mine). When I returned home, I researched Charley Harper and found out that he is a much admired artist in the world of modern art and design. He is called an American original and is beloved for his delightful, graphic, and often humorous illustrations of nature, animals (especially birds), and insects. His inspiration came from the woods behind his home where he would walk and sketch daily. Mr. Harper liked to say that when he painted a bird, he didn't count all the feathers in the wings -- he just counted the wings. In a style he called "minimal realism," Charley Harper captured the essence of his subjects with the fewest possible visual elements.

Here is a glimpse into the world of Charley Harper:




I was also pleased to find out that his artwork was available in a board book for children. SCORE! ABC's by Charley Harper was quickly added to Emmy's book collection. (I wonder when Emmy will realize that this is really her Mommy's collection!) Now I could admire his work every day while introducing a new artist to Emmy. As with all of our books, this one was out of circulation for awhile, but it found its way back in when we discovered a bird's nest outside of our balcony. The nest reminded Emmy of the book and we eagerly looked for the pages B is for bird and N is for nest - simply delightful.

Of course I am on a mission to collect all of Charley's work and maybe acquire his best known children's book The Golden Book of Biology published in 1961 - vintage and pricey, perhaps I'd better hope that it will be reissued one day!

A few more books by Charley Harper:

ABC's II Skinny Edition








123's








Birds and Words









Beguiled by the Wild