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5 Stars Soldier Bear Bibi Dumon Tak Laura Watkinson Philip Hopman Eerdmans Books for Young Readers .................... When a group of Polish soldiers stationed in Iran during World War II trade a penknife, a tin of beef, and some money for an orphaned bears cub, it’s the start of a very special friendship—and a remarkable [...]

Not that any of you lack for holiday craft ideas, I’m sure, but I was recently introduced to the wide and wonderful world of a product that somehow I missed entirely in my childhood.  In all my treasure troves of useless information, how is it that I’ve missed a product going by the name of Shrinky Dinks until now?  Observe then a great wrong righted.

My education comes at the hand of Alison Morris, former ShelfTalker blogger and bookseller.  Back in December of 2008 Alison wrote a post called Shrinky Dinks Advance Science, Adorn Trees.  The title refers in part to the research being done with Shrinky Dinks and stem cell research, but you’ll have to see the link in Alison’s post yourself to get the true gist of it.  In any case, Alison and her husband Gareth along with our friends Lori and Josh stopped over yesterday for a little good old-fashioned tree trimming.  While here, Ms. Morris managed to produce Shrinky Dinks AND colored pencils for our amusement.

If you are as clueless about this product as I was here’s what they consist of.

#1: You take the see-through plastic and place it over an image.

#2: You trace that image onto the plastic.

#3: You then fill it in with colored pencils.

#4: You cut out your image (remembering to punch a hole in the top).

#5: You throw the image into your stove for a minute or so, watch it shrink (if you’re lucky enough to have a stove you can look into), and then remove it and VOILA!  Your image is now brighter, smaller, and perfect for hanging on the tree or whatever object in your home can be bedecked.

Since the bulk of the gathered had some kind of connection to children’s literature my current crop of children’s books were nabbed for tracing ideas.  Here are the remarkable results:

#1: Napoleon from the cover of Hark, A Vagrant by Kate Beaton

As you can see the likeness is extraordinary.  The fact that his thin little sword didn’t break right off is remarkable in and of itself.  It did curl up a bit (Shrinky Dinks have a tendency to curl) but not so much that it wouldn’t strike fear in a fellow Shrinky Dink’s heart.

#2: Betty Bunny stuffing chocolate cake in her sock from Betty Bunny Loves Cake by Michael Kaplan, illustrated by Stephane Jorisch

Because the SDs have a tendency to shrink (no misnomer here) we