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"It is a beautiful song. It has been a good day. Everyone, everyone, everyone, everyone has cake."

13 Words by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Maira Kalman. HarperCollins (October 2010); ISBN 9780061664656; 40 pages
Book Source: Review copy from publisher

Word Number 3: Cake. We've consumed a lot of birthday cake this past month. Both kids celebrated their birthdays as well as a couple of their grandparents. That equates to many, many cakes. Lemony Snicket's new picture book, 13 Words, weaves 13 unrelated words together. Cake (word #3) is one of the more usual words in the book, and my daughter's favorite of the entire list. The other 12 words (some normal, some not) are:

Bird • Despondent • Dog • Busy • Convertible • Goat • Hat • Haberdashery • Scarlet • Baby • Panache • Mezzo-Soprano

Now, I imagine you are wondering how all those words fit together in a story. Truth be told, this isn't at all an ordinary book. In fact, it is very odd. But, with Lemony Snicket as the author, one doesn't expect something ordinary! The story starts out with a despondent bird. The poor blue bird is sad, very sad, so a dog does his best to cheer her up, with the help of a convertible driving goat and song-spinning mezzo-soprano. After an eventful day involving hats and more, they all eat cake. The book ends with a quote by Albert Einstein, "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once."

Maira Kalman’s whimsical illustrations add to the quirkiness. The humor found in the pictures is just as strange and funny as the text, but the illustrations also convey a much deeper feeling of loneliness and sadness. Underneath a dark rain cloud, a despondent bird sits perched on top a can of mushy peas right next to a book by Kafka? Unusual, yes?

I found the book extremely intriguing. It is both simple and complex at the same time, and school-aged and adult readers will enjoy drawing their own conclusions about the story. My daughter loved learning a few new words and also liked that the book also used some "easy words" for beginning readers. And, of course, a big thumbs up for all the cake, especially the birthday cake with six candles!



Lately we've spent a lot of time exploring words. With a beginning reader in the house, our goal is to foster a love of language and of words. 13 Words provides a fun way to show how random words can connect together to form a story. It is indeed, like the publicity release indicates, "a launch pad for creative minds of all ages."

When I was searching for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day activities this weekend I stumbled onto the Scholastic's Mini-Books website. It's a nice resource for educators and parents. The website offers a ton of printables to help kids practice reading and writing skills. Most of the printables are available through subscription, however they do offer a few free printables.

Here's a nice one I found for young kids about Martin Luther King, Jr. -
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Dream - Mini Book

Nearly all the Folk and Fairy Tale Readers are available for free right now. As a bonus each one also has a free corresponding Lesson Plan & Worksheet.

Titles include:
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
The Gingerbread Man
The Little Red Hen
Stone Soup
The Princess and the Pea
The Three Little Pigs
The City Mouse and the Country Mouse
The Ugly Duckling
The Nightingale
The Tortoise and the Hare
The Elves and the Shoemaker
The Spider and the Beehive
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Cinderella

For a beginning math multiplication activity try this printable:
Making the Times Table Mini-Book

Plan ahead with this Earth Day Printable:
Every Day Is Earth Day

Need winter activities? This little winter themed printable is great for practicing handwriting as well as reading skills -
My Book of Winter Words: A Mini Book

Here's a simple and cute winter book about mittens:
The Mitten Book

Do you print out mini books for your kids? What online resources do you use?


On a related note ---
Giggles and Crayons is hosting a new link up called Writers World. Swing by to check out all the great ideas for little writers! I'm linking up this post.