Today has been Dr. Seuss’ birthday! We’re big fans. I always have been, always will be and I hope to raise two little boys who have an appreciation for him as well. We’re on track with that as I can’t count the number of times I have read The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, The Lorax (our most recent addition) or the other numerous books on our Shelf O’Seuss. I thought we’d do something a little special today since it was his birthday.

BigBrother was my inspiration for today’s plans since he brought home a very cute craft from preschool yesterday.

That’s right. I made Green Eggs and Ham. Not the kind featured in the book but scrambled eggs with bits of ham, which the Seussville website told me how to do in case I couldn’t figure out how to add green food coloring to liquid egg and cook it up. I also took it a step further and added some green food coloring when I was cooking up the ham.

When I first added the egg, it looked…. interesting.

But soon it started to scramble up and look kind of like eggs with ham. Somewhat.

When I put it on the table, the boys looked at it a bit skeptically. I mean, I can’t blame them all that much. It just looks… weird.

But LittleBrother eventually said, “I’ll pretend it’s broccoli!” He likes broccoli so that’s a good thing.

And despite his texture issues, scrambled eggs are an acceptable food with BigBrother, no matter their color, and he ate it just as slowly as he eats any meal that I make.

FireDad chose to wait until after I started the process to tell me a horror story from his youth. Apparently his sister and a friend made green pancakes one morning. FireDad ate said pancakes and, later that day due to an unrelated illness, he got sick and threw up. He forever blamed the green pancakes. I would like to report, however, that he has not yet hurled.

I take that as a sign of success.

Tasted fine to me!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

We hit the library at the beginning of the month to grab some new books. I hit the library’s online catalog before our trip to request a few Christmas books. I found a few Christmas books with a firefighter theme and, of course, I requested those to be sent to our library. We’re loving them right now. I thought I’d take a couple of days and review them for you.

First up is A Small Christmas by Wong Herbert Yee (2004). If you’re familiar at all with Fireman Small and his various books, you might want to pick up this one.

Fireman Small is a small firefighter in a small fire house in a small town. He’s always rescuing something, helping someone or trying to sleep only to hear the alarm of another call. A Small Christmas is only different in the fact that the saving he is doing in this book has nothing to do with fire and everything to do with saving Christmas! At the beginning of the book, he’s busy helping the mayor pick a tree, driving it back on the top of his fire truck. The boys liked this illustration because it looks just like their Christmas sweaters. (I wonder if that’s where the designer of their sweaters got the idea?)

As the book goes on (32 pages, 4-6 lines of reading every other page), Fireman Small’s firehouse is visited by Santa and his reindeer. But Santa has already flown all over the world, delivering presents to all the good boys and girls. And he falls asleep in Fireman Small’s bed! To save Christmas, Fireman Small has to deliver the presents in the snow… on his fire truck, of course!

The boys think this book is rather funny. Why would Santa Claus be tired? Why did he get in the bed? Why wouldn’t the reindeer move? What would happen if the fire truck couldn’t go through the snow? Lots of questions were posed as we read through the book a second, third and fourth time. We’ve read it a lot this month, having been placed on the “favorites” rotation of Christmas books we have in our own library along with the others we got from the library.

I think this book would be a welcome Christmas addition to the library of any child who loves fire trucks. If you’re looking for a gift for a child in the age 4-8 range, or even a bit younger or older as LittleBrother (2) loves it as well, this might be a great book for you to pick up.

A Small Christmas is currently $6.95 at Amazon (12/15).

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[Disclaimer: The book is from the library. The links are Amazon Associates links.]

Preparing for camp last month, I made a quick run to our local library and borrowed a slew of books. I always look at the firefighter books to either borrow a favorite or to find a new potential favorite. On this particular trip I found a book that I knew my readers needed to know about and so I checked it out. And it’s been a favorite ever since.

My Mom Is a Firefighter doesn’t really represent our family. Written by Lois G. Grambling and illustrated by Jane Manning, the book takes a look at a young boy whose mom works at the fire local fire station. There aren’t many books of this kind. Knowing that gender roles and breaking stereotypes are important to me, to FireDad and to our family, I thought it might be a good book for us to read and discuss. I was right! (Obviously.)

I automatically fell in love with the book because, well, I judge books by their covers. The illustration on the cover and the ones on the following pages are colorful, interesting and true to form. I love the firefighters’ shirts when Billy, the child, talks about his “firehouse uncles.” BigBrother immediately noticed that they were “just like Daddy’s.” Also, when the family is eating supper together, there are peas on the plate! I’m all for subconscious vegetable coercion.

The story is complemented by the illustrations. We follow Billy as he visits his Mom at the firehouse one morning on the way to school. Hoping for pancakes, he finds them cleaning the fire trucks, having been on a fire in the middle of the night. Later in the day, his Mom visits the school to talk about what firefighters do. I was pleased that she mentioned fighting fires and mopping the floor and taking turns cooking dinner. Many times, even adults don’t understand that firefighters do more than fight fires. Trucks have to be checked. Classes need to be taught. Elderly citizens need help installing smoke detectors. The list goes on.

A favorite page of BigBrother’s was the description of fighting the fire. He spent quite a bit of time investigating the illustration, talking about the smoke and stopping, dropping and rolling (not blogging, mind you). We talked about fire masks and hoses. And the ladder. And the axe. And breaking the windows (!). And why the firefighters search the burned building afterward. And if they’re tired or not. Really, it was just a case of 20 Questions after that page.

The book ends with Billy declaring that he’s going to be a firefighter as well. Just like Mom. (Something we’re familiar with hearing in this house… except just like Daddy. I don’t run into burning buildings. I just write about such things.) BigBrother related to that page as well, asking if he could try on FireDad’s gear. When we told him no, he went and got his own turnout gear and played firefighter for awhile.

The point of this review, of course, is to let you know that a book like this exists. Most firefighter books feature only male firefighters or, even the ones that have females, they aren’t the focus of the story. In fact, some historical books that we own push my feminist buttons. That’s why I was so excited when I found this book. While I am not the firefighter in this family, it is important to me that my sons know and understand that women (mommies!) can be firefighters, too. BigBrother’s response was, “Mommy, you work on your com-pay-ter.” I do. But some mommies fight fires.

If you are a female firefighter or know of a family where the Mommy rushes out the door when the pager goes off, My Mom Is a Firefighter would be a great addition to the library of that child. Otherwise, it’s a great book in itself that opens the door for potential discussion that Moms can be anything they want to be as well… just like we teach our kids. BigBrother has also requested that we purchase this book for our library now. I feel pleased enough with this book to oblige.

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[No compensation was received for this review. I borrowed it from the library. Hooray for libraries!]