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• During Las Posadas, children dress as Mary and Joseph and go from house to house asking to be let in.
• Leave out your shoes to get presents from the Three Wise Men.
• Calabar Carnival, in Nigeria, is Africa's biggest street party. Get ready for parades, masquerades, and dancing.
• An old Greek custom, recently revived, is to decorate real and model ships with lights at Christmastime.
• In Holland, leave out your clogs for Saint Nicholas. Don't forget a carrot for his horse!
• A Nutcracker doll is a traditional German gift.
• The first Christmas card was sent in the U.K. in 1843.
• In Russia, Father Frost brings children presents, accompanied by the Snow Maiden.
• In Iraq, Christian families light a bonfire and recite passages from the Bible.
• In India, banana trees are decorated for Christmas.
• The Chinese give gifts of apples on Christmas Eve.
• In Samoa, people feast on December 24, then go to church, dressed in white, on Christmas Day.

Perhaps because so much skin was exposed to the drying sun, Egyptians used liberal amounts of oil on their bodies, made from animal fat, olive oil, and other plants. Hair could be conditioned with a paste made from gazelle dung and hippopotamus fat. At dinner parties slaves placed cones of perfumed animal fat on guests' heads. Over the course of the evening, the fragrant grease melted and ran down the hair and neck, scenting and conditioning the hair and bathing the wearer in fragrant grease. Scent cones were not just for the wealthy. Musicians, dancers, servants, and children all wore them as well. (17)

p. 15 Build it! Build a tournament area for your jousting knights!

p. 16-7 Play it! Find out about the stories of King Arthur's knights. What amazing adventures will your knights have? Do your knights argue, or are they friends? Is there a wizard in your knight world? Who is your most evil knight?

p. 29 Build it! Build a hospital for the Order of St. John to work in.

p. 37 Build it! Your astronauts need a space base. Design a space station. Here are some of the important partss. Solar panels. Living quarters. Docking station. Viewing window. Laboratory. Radiator.

p. 19 Play it! Take your astronauts to the Moon and help them explore. What will they find?

p. 26 Play it! Take your rover and astronauts to Mars! It's a whole new world of adventure. What will they find on the Red Planet? Will they be safe?

• You decide who you are.
• The only way to change is to change.
• Accept where you are, then go from there.
• Being who you are inspires others to do the same.
• Ask yourself questions.
• Tell yourself what you most need to hear.

At home, I scribble tiny poems
all over the walls of my room.
Inside those miniature verses,
I feel safe, as if I am a turtle,
and the words
are my shell.

I find it hard to believe
that I am surviving
a whole summer
without a library
for finding
the familiar
old magic
of books.
But storytelling seems
like magic too--a new form
that is also
ancient
at the same time.
Will I ever be brave enough
to tell old-new tales
in my own way?

When I climb a tree, I take a book with me.
When I walk from school, I carry
my own poems, inside my mind,
where no one else
can reach the words
that are entirely
completely
forever
mine.

It must have been fun being a little letter in those days, with different people taking you and shaping you to their own language--straightening you here, curving you there, as they saw fit. Even writing you in all directions, right to left, left to right, not to mention downward and upward. A page must have felt like a trampoline. (25)

You never heard of the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar? Child, where've you been? I got to have a word with you. Why, back in the day, you'd have whole families sitting around listening while one of them performed "When Malindy Sings" or "Little Brown Baby" or "A Negro Love Song" (which folks most always call "Jump Back, Honey").
Within a page or two, I was just fascinated with the book, with the story, with the narrator, and just HAD to keep reading. I wasn't expecting to find a book about a poet compelling, honestly. But this is a well-crafted narrative.

• Super-Tasty Sweet Potato Bacon Biscuits (p. 23)
• Surprise! Confetti Pasta Salad (p. 60)
• Impossibly Easy Mini Chicken Pot Pies (p. 98)
• Cheese-Stuffed Meatballs and Spaghetti (p. 112)
• Bottom of the Cereal Box Cookies (p. 140)

This is how to thread a needle:
Cut a piece of thread as long as your arm.
Then poke the end of the thread through the "eye" of the needle.
It will go through more easily if you wet it on the tip of your tongue and then squeeze it. Now try to hit the eye.
Pull the thread through until the ends are even and make a knot.
This is how to make a knot:
Wet your finger a little on the tip of your tongue.
Wrap the thread around your finger once.
Roll it off with your thumb.
Pull it tight.
The knot should be small and neat.
If it isn't, don't worry.
You can hide it so no one will see it, and the next time you do it, it will look much better.