How do you say no to that?

BigBrother brought out his journal, his crayon and pencil bag and sat down at the table while I busied myself with post-dinner and general evening clean up chores. LittleBrother saw what was going on and ran to get his notebook and writing utensils. They sat together, writing in their separate spaces and chattering at loud volumes.

I took a load of laundry downstairs. I laid out clothes for tomorrow. I finished the dishes. No one bothered me or pulled on my pant leg or whined or argued or even got out of a chair. I turned around to find them still at the table, crayons and pencils all over the all ready cluttered table. But instead of writing in two separate notebooks, they were writing in one.

“I know, I’ll write BOOM! here, next to the man.” Then he sounded out the word, helping himself as he went along. “Oo. The oo sound comes from two o’s. Boom!”

“Yeah! Now we need to draw a big circle thingy over here!” LittleBrother pointed and BigBrother obliged.

I stood in silence, taking in the moment before reaching for my camera.

“We’re drawing our own comic book, Mommy. Like George and Harold in Captain Underpants!”

“That’s fantastic.”

They continued on for much longer than I expected, even after we had an explosion of pencil shavings right after I finished cleaning up the floor. They were entranced with their story, with their drawings, with helping each other.

As we got ready for bed, they continued to talk about their masterpiece, the book that they were going to write.

“I can be the illustrator. And the writer. I can be both, right Mommy?”

I told him that he could; that he could be anything he wanted to be.

“I’ll let LittleBrother be both too, of course.”

Of course.

We finished our evening activities reading another chapter of Captain Underpants together. It’s the second book with the talking toilets. Yum yum, eat ‘em up and all that jazz. Toilet, poop and fart jokes are apparently going to be a part of my life for a long time to come, and quite possibly I’m raising my own little George and Harold. Which, if you think about it, is better than raising Harold and Kumar, right?

So thank you, George, Harold, Mr. Krupp, Captain Underpants, the Turbo Toilet 2000 and the Robo-Plunger for the hour that my boys spent creating and laughing and BOOM!-ing and dreaming of writing their own book. Don’t tell me that nothing good ever came out of toilet humor.

Because this? This is good.

Firebears – The Rescue Team

The absolute best part about this book is the rhyming scheme. When reading to younger readers, rhyming helps keep interest. Of course, my boys are always interested in firefighter books, but the rhyme helps me stay interested as well.

The book follows the firebears through the typical work day of non-bear-firefighters. It talks about their day at the station — chores and their bunk room. Then they rush off to a false alarm. Then, of course, there’s a real fire. But they put it out. And then, in true fire fashion form, there’s another fire, because that’s how it happens. The firebears then rescue a mom and baby. And, once again, the fire is out. Hooray!

My favorite line is near the end of the book, which also holds a line from the dedication at the beginning, no doubt on purpose.

Weary bears
Smile and wave,
Humble heroes, bold and brave.

Love it.

I also love the illustrations in this book. The old school fire truck, the smiling bears, the general colors used. I am really glad this book is a part of our fire library.

This completes my three-book review for Fire Prevention Week. Come back tomorrow when I will start the giveaway for this book, Firefighter Ted and Miss Mingo and the Fire Drill. The giveaway will last all month long, but you will be able to have multiple entries!

Miss Mingo and the Fire Drill

Unlike the mostly-for-fun Firefighter Ted, Miss Mingo has a lot of fire safety information packed into a book that is equally as funny as the one I reviewed yesterday. In fact, this book provides the added bonus of offering up bits of animal related facts on each page. Did you know that when a hognose snake is threatened, it inflates its body to resemble a cobra? Me either!

The story revolves around Miss Mingo’s wild (animal) class. They start out talking about fire, causing a few of the animals to get excited and/or scared. Then a big firefighter bear shows up causing a pig to go running. I particularly liked this part, because it taught the animals (and the kids reading) not to be afraid of firefighters in all of their gear. The firefighter chief bear takes off his fire gear to show the students that he’s just a normal bear. It’s quite normal for children to be afraid of firefighters when they’re dressed head to toe in their gear. Teaching them that there’s nothing to be afraid of is important!

Then they learn to stop, drop and roll. And how to line up for a fire drill. I also liked this part because it talked about leaving everything in the classroom, lining up quietly, and planning a route to get out of the school. Everyone makes it out safely, of course, and the book has a happy ending.

While there are lots of books about fire safety, this one is perfect for the animal lover. Not only are the animals funny and interesting, but their factoids had me researching various animals on Google after our first read through. I had no idea that koalas were stinky. BigBrother keeps asking questions about the various animals discussed in the book. I really like the idea of combining two ideas — animal facts and fire safety information — so that kids have fun while learning. Kudos to author Jamie Harper.

Tomorrow I will be reviewing another fun fire book. Be sure to come back on Friday for a giveaway of all three books — this one, Firefighter Ted and the one I’m reviewing tomorrow. Don’t forget that this is Fire Prevention Week. Talk to your kids about having a fire drill in your own home. It’s never too early to talk about an escape route in the event of a fire.

Firefighters Coloring Book doesn’t have an imaginative title; it is what it is. It happens to be a Dover Coloring Book which I actually remember from anatomy class in high school. The Firefighters Coloring Book is a typical coloring book with black and white pages that leave room for even wide, toddler based crayons to add life and color to the page.

This coloring book follows firefighter Mike through his day. He arrives at the fire station. He changes into his fire gear. He tests and cleans equipment and fire engines. He does some drills. He goes out on inspections. He eats some lunch. And then he rushes off to put out a fire. He then fights the fire and even rescues a baby. Mike is a hero.

I love coloring books that tell one story as you continue through the book. Some of our licensed character coloring books jump all around and you’re never sure what you’re favorite big red dog will be doing on the next page. I like organization and cohesive flow. My kids might not care about such things but, really, I do. As such, coloring with them in books like this one doesn’t usually resolve in a full on body twitch from me. Usually. Have you colored with a two and a four year old? Save us all if I color the shoes the wrong color. I digress.

(Yes, I colored that page. What of it?)

The two page spreads for various scenes, including the wide fire truck, are my favorite parts of this coloring book. I like how it allows for a bigger presentation of the big red (or whatever color you want to color it but, really, fire trucks are red) truck. I think giving kids more room to create and color and imagine is always a positive thing.

Other Dover Coloring Books with a fire theme include the Firehouse Coloring Book and the History of Fire Engines . The latter looks a little more complicated than my preschoolers’ fingers can handle so we’ll hold off on it for awhile.

I’ll be sure to bring you more firefighter coloring book (and printables) reviews in the near future!

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[Have you entered my $100 giveaway yet? Why not?]
[Disclosure: Links are through the Amazon Associates program.]

I can’t make these things up.

Yes, really. If you asked him what he wanted to be, his reply was that he wanted to be a fire truck. Not a firefighter. A fire truck. Shortly thereafter he picked the human profession of paleontologist. My brother is kind of weird unique. All the same, it has been a long running family joke for years. Even my cousin who wanted to be an elephant doesn’t get teased as much as my brother for his grown up wishes.

We received Fire Truck by Peter Sis as a gift before BigBrother was born. It’s a cute little board book that warms my heart for various reasons.

The book features a little boy named Matt (which just so happens to be my brother’s name). He loves fire trucks. He thinks of them first thing in the morning. They’re the last thing he thinks of on his way to dream land. He loves fire trucks. As you might guess from the story that lead into this review, he wakes up one morning and he is a fire truck.

The board book then launches into a double pull-out page of what Matt the Fire Truck has on him (1 ladder, 10 boots). It’s a great little counting lesson as well as a lesson as to what fire trucks have on them other than firefighters. The only bad thing about this particular pull-out page is that it is easy to tear off the one side. Even my children who are particularly great with everything from paper pages to pop-up books have managed to tear the page off (accidentally) twice. Glue on the “hinge” makes it workable again.

Matt the Fire Truck then zooms around his house putting out fires in book shelves and rescuing stuffed animals. Until he smells pancakes (which are BigBrother’s favorite, by the way). A review on Amazon claimed that the book ended too abruptly. I feel it speaks to the attention span of younger children. “I’m a fire truck, I’m a fire truck, I’m a… ooh, pancakes.”

I love reading this book with my boys. It is one board book that we have decided to keep despite the fact that they’re both into longer books with paper pages now. I can imagine reading this to my grandchildren someday and telling them about how Great Uncle Matt wanted to be a fire truck. I also can’t wait to buy the book for my brother and sister-in-law when they begin to add to their family.

I learned today that the book is also available in a hardcover. I may purchase it so that we can retire (and save) our much loved board book.

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[Disclosure: Links are through Amazon Associates.]

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!

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.]

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!]