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In the spirit of celebrating moms KidLit TV produced a Mother’s Day special inspired by Josh Funk’s popular rhyming picture book, Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast. Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast are best friends who find out there is only one drop of syrup left in the refrigerator. Soon the friends embark on a hysterical and sometimes treacherous dash to get that one last drop. Of course they they both learn a valuable lesson — but the end is anything but typical.

StoryMakers host Rocco Staino and Josh Funk were joined by dad and travel blogger Jason Greene (One Good Dad). Together the trio cooked up a Mother’s Day breakfast fit for a queen … A queen who loves pancakes, French toast, strawberries and cream! If you’re still thinking about what to do for the special lady in your life — whether she be your partner, wife, or mom — we highly recommend watching this episode. If that’s not enough to keep you glued to the screen, two of Jason’s children make a special appearance.

What’s your idea of the perfect Mother’s Day? What’s your favorite breakfast dish? Let us know in the comment section below!

We’re giving away three (3) copies of Josh Funk’s picture book, Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast. The giveaway ends at 11:59 PM on May 18, 2016. Enter now!

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Download the free Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast activity kit.

ABOUT LADY PANCAKE & SIR FRENCH TOAST

Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast
Written by Josh Funk; illustrated by Brendan Kearney
Published by Sterling Publishing

A thoroughly delicious picture book about the funniest “food fight!” ever! Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast have a beautiful friendship—until they discover that there’s only one drop of maple syrup left. Off they go, racing past the Orange Juice Fountain, skiing through Sauerkraut Peak, and reeling down the linguini. But who will enjoy the sweet taste of victory? And could working together be better than tearing each other apart? The action-packed rhyme makes for an adrenaline-filled breakfast … even without a drop of coffee!

ABOUT JOSH FUNK

Via Josh Funk Books
Josh Funk writes silly stories and somehow tricks people into publishing them as picture books – such as the award-winning Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast (Sterling), as well as the forthcoming picture books Pirasaurs! (Scholastic 8/30/16), Dear Dragon (Viking/Penguin 9/6/16), It’s Not Jack and the Beanstalk (Two Lions, 2017), and more.

CONNECT WITH JOSH FUNK
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

ABOUT JASON GREENE

Via One Good Dad
From the time I was a child, my dream was to become an actor and a writer. After college, I set out along with my wife to chase that dream. We arrived in New York City and I was ready to “make it.” After a few years of auditioning and bit parts here and there, my wife gave me the news that I was about to take on the biggest role imaginable — the role of a daddy. After my son was born, I became a stay-at-home dad and now I’m a proud papa of 4 children. Being a stay-at-home dad has changed the way I think about myself and the world around me. And that has lead me to become a dad blogger and travel blogger.  My blog touches on parenting challenges and rewards, faith, travel, entertainment, sports, sponsorships and reviews, or whatever else is keeping me from getting that great night of sleep I so desperately need.

CONNECT WITH JASON GREENE
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

CONNECT WITH KidLit TV
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StoryMakers
Host: Rocco Staino | Executive Producer: Julie Gribble | Producer: Kassia Graham

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The post StoryMakers | Mother’s Day Special appeared first on KidLit.TV.

What do you like in a good sandwich? Cheese and pickle? Ham and cucumber? Peanut butter and strawberry jam? What about tomato and crayon with a dollop of mayonnaise?

This sandwich was originally created by the daughter of the author of the wonderfully funny Squishy McFluff stories, and was the spark of inspiration for Pip Jones’ newest book, Daddy’s Sandwich.

Daddy’s Sandwich, illustrated by Laura Hughes, is a very funny story about one little girl’s quest to create the perfect sandwich for her much loved Dad. She’s terribly thoughtful and includes everything he adores… with an end result that is not entirely edible. Just think about it: What does your Dad really love? Football? Begonias? Comedy DVDs? Perhaps you can now imagine why the sandwich which sparked the book included a crayon

Send me a photo of your crazy sandwich full of the things you / your child / your Dad really loves and you’ll be entered into a lovely competition which could see you winning a personally dedicated copy of Daddy’s Sandwich or even your own Melissa and Doug Sandwich Set.

Here’s the lowdown:

What are you waiting for? Get planning the sandwich which truly represents your / your kids’ interests and passions and send it in!

Sharing something beautiful which means a great deal to you can be an awkward, even embarrassing thing to do. It can feel like going out on a limb. You take the risk of appearing sentimental and perhaps even slightly loopy.

Quite why this should be the case, I don’t know. After all, in trying to offer a special moment or experience, all the giver wants is for you to feel something of the same joy, calm, delight and warmth. But it’s a vulnerable moment, full of potential for dreams to be trampled on.

As a parent I’ve sometimes found myself in the situation where, just for a moment , I want my kids to take me seriously , to meet me as a friend and to fall in love with what I’ve fallen in love with. Don’t get me wrong, of course I want them to have their own opinions and discover their own places and times of magic. But I also want to gift them moments of golden glow inside them, serve up nuggets of warmth that will stay with them always, through bad times and good when remembering times and places that are somehow beautiful.

It happens a lot with books of course – I’ll start books I loved as a child with bated breath: What will the kids make of them? Sometimes it happens with music, and also locations with views or spaces that take my breath away or inspire excitement or awe.

And so when I opened When Dad Showed Me the Universe written by Ulf Stark, illustrated by Eva Eriksson and translated by Julia Marshall I knew the story would speak to me.

A father decides that his child is old enough to be shown the universe, and takes him on a night-time walk through the town and out into an open space far from street lights where they can watch the stars together and marvel in the sparkle and space and silence. But what does the child make of all this?

The bright intensity of beauty is made bearable with bucket loads of dead pan humour. An extra pair of socks is needed because – it turns out – the universe is pretty cold (‘“Minus 263 degrees,” Dad said‘). The universe turns out to be fairly easy to find; with echoes of Neverland “the way there was straight ahead and then to the left.” And when they finally arrive at the destination picked out by Dad, “I had a feeling I’d been here before, that this was the place where people walked their dogs.”

Indeed, there is a final twist to the story which brings everyone back from interstellar dreams to everyday reality with quite a bump, brilliantly adding a layer of laughter to a moment of intimacy and affection; Father and child do get to create a special shared memory that will stay with them all their lives, but it may not be quite that which the Dad had anticipated!

Pitch-perfect words deserve exceptional illustrations, and Eva Eriksson’s soft and dreamy pencil work only enriches Stark’s text. Muted tones predominate, with the exception of an intense blue for the night time sky, giving those spreads extra impact. The story is told as a first person narrative – the child retelling the entire experience, and the illustrations also emphasise the child’s view of the world; (s)he is often looking in a different direction to his/her father, picking up on other things of interest, whether that’s the liquorice on sale in the shop or the abandoned trike in the park, I couldn’t help smiling broadly at the different facial expressions in father and child when first they gaze at the vastness of the stars above them.

[I think it is worth noting that although some may assume the child is a boy, the text does not assert this. Indeed, given the first person narrative, there’s no need for gendered pronouns when referring to the child, who could in fact be a girl. This possibility is one of the great things about this story and translation.]

When Dad Showed Me the Universe is a very clever, moving and extremely funny book about parental love. In fact, in sharing it with you here on the blog, I feel a little like the father in this beautiful book. I so want you too to gasp in delight, smile brightly and feel that sense of magic settling on you when you read this. I can’t give you starlight, but I can wholeheartedly recommend you find a copy of When Dad Showed Me the Universe without delay.

The hilarity in When Dad Showed Me the Universe has ensured that it is a book my kids have wanted to share multiple times. But already after the first reading they could see my thinking: Were they going to get to see the universe too?

First I prepared…

A perfect universe-gazing pack

This pack was left in the garden shed whilst I kept an eye on the weather forecast for a few days, looking out for a clear night. When one came along, I was all ready to go into slightly crazy mode and tell my kids that even though they had their pyjamas on, we were going into the garden in the dark.

I didn’t take many photos as the idea was to disconnect from all the buzz we normally have going on in our lives, and just to relax watching the stars twinkling.

We were super snug and spent about 40 minutes just gazing, sometimes chatting, sometimes just being quiet.

I’m no good at night-time photography (see above). What we saw wasn’t quite like this…

Photo: Scott Wylie on Fiickr Creative Commons

…but we did all feel a sense of awe and peace in a way that took me by surprise.

We didn’t listen to any music whilst we were outside, but here is a marvellously celestial playlist:

You might also like to take a look at this informative list of music (both classical and pop) inspired by astronomy, written by Andrew Franknoi.

Other activities which could go well with reading When Dad Showed Me the Universe include:

What’s your happiest memory from going somewhere special with a parent or a child?

Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher.

Can you imagine a world without colour, where all you see is black, white or the shades of grey in between? As a self-confessed colour junkie such a world would sap my energies and leave my life (perhaps ironically), somewhat blue.

Thus when two new books came to my attention both titled ‘The Colour Thief’ I was very intrigued; not only did they look like their subject matter would appeal to me, it was funny and surprising to see two books, from different authors/illustrators/publishers with the same title.

In The Colour Thief by Gabriel Alborozo an alien looks longingly across space to planet earth, full of colours and brightness. He believes such a beautiful place must be full of joy, and so sets off to bring some of that happiness back to his home planet.

With just a few magic words the alien is able to suck up first all the reds, then the blues and the greens and before long planet earth is looking very grey and sad. But what of the alien? Can he really be happy when he sees the glumness he has caused?

Alborozo’s story about kindness, desire and what makes us joyous and content is full of appeal. There are lots of themes which can be explored; from the beauty around us which we might take for granted (requiring an outsider to alert us to us), to whether or not we can be happy if we’ve caused others distress, this book could be used to open up lots of discussion.

Click to see larger image

Although the alien’s actions could be frightening, this is mitigated by his cute appearance, just one of the book’s charms. I also think kids will love the apparent omnipotence of the alien: He wants something, and at his command he gets it, just like that, and this identification with the alien makes the story more interesting and unusual. The artwork is fun and energetic, seemingly filled with rainbow coloured confetti. I can easily imagine a wonderful animation of this story.

The Colour Thief by Andrew Fusek Peters and Polly Peters, illustrated by Karin Littlewood is a very different sort of story. It draws on the authors’ own experience of parental depression, exploring from a child’s perspective what it can feel like to watch a parent withdraw as they suffer from this illness.

Father and son lead a comforting life “full of colour”, but when depression clouds the father’s mind he withdraws, and all the colours around the family seem to disappear. The child worries that he might somehow be the cause of this loss, but he is repeatedly reassured it is not his fault and gradually, with patience and love, colours start to seep back into the father’s life and he returns to his family.

Mental health is difficult to talk about when you’re 40, let alone when you are four, but this lyrical and moving book provides a thoughtful, gentle, and unsentimental way into introducing (and if desired, discussing) depression. If you were looking for “when a book might help” to reassure a child in a specific situation, I would wholeheartedly recommend this; it is honest, compassionate and soothing.

However, I definitely wouldn’t keep this book ONLY for those times when you find a child in a similar circumstances to those described in the book. It is far too lovely to be kept out of more general circulation. For a start, the language is very special; it’s perhaps no surprise when you discover that one of the author’s has more than 70 poetry books to his name. If you were looking for meaningful, tender use of figurative language, for example in a literacy lesson, this book provides some fabulous, examples.

Click to see larger image.

And then there are the illustrations. Karin Littlewood has long been one of my favourite illustrators for her use of colour, her graceful compositions, her quiet kindness in her images. And in The Colour Thief there are many examples of all these qualities. I particularly like her use of perspective first to embody the claustrophobia and fear one can feel with depression, with bare tree branches leaning in onto the page, or street lamps lowering overhead, and then finally the open, sky-facing view as parent and child reunite as they walk together again when colour returns.

Particularly inspired by the imagery in Alborozo’s The Colour Thief we made a trip to a DIY store to pick up a load of paint chips.

Wow. My kids went crazy in the paint section: Who knew paint chips could be just so much fun? They spent over an hour collecting to their hearts’ desire. A surprising, free and fun afternoon!

Once home we snipped up the paint chips to separate each colour. The colour names caused lots of merriment, and sparked lots of equally outlandish ideas for new colour names, such as Beetlejuice red, Patio grey, Spiderweb silver and Prawn Cocktail Pink.

We talked about shades and intensity of colours, and sorted our chips into three piles: Strong, bright colours, off-white colours, and middling colours. I then put a long strip of contact paper on the kitchen table, sticky side up, and the kids started making a mosaic with the chips, starting with the brightest colours in the middle, fading to the palest around the edge.

Apart for the soothing puzzle-like quality of this activity, the kids have loved using the end result as a computer keyboard, pressing the colours they want things to change to. I also think it makes for a rather lovely bit of art, now up in their bedroom.

Whilst making our colour mosaic we listened to:

Other activities which might go well with either version of ‘The Colour Thief’ include:

If you know someone suffering from depression these charities may be of help:

Disclosure: I received free review copies of both books reviewed today from their respective publishers.

Some other books I have since found with the same title but by different authors/illustrators/publishers include:

‘The Snowy Day’ by Ezra Jack Keats, and ‘The Snowy Day’ by Anna Milbourne and Elena Temporin

‘Bubble and Squeak’ by Louise Bonnett-Rampersaud and Susan Banta, and ‘Bubble and Squeak’ by James Mayhew and Clara Vulliamy

‘My Dad’ by Anthony Browne, ‘My Dad’ by Steve Smallman and Sean Julian, and ‘My Dad’ by Chae Strathie and Jacqueline East

My thanks to @josiecreates, @FBreslinDavda and @illustratedword for alerting me to some of these titles.

Are you looking for a great gift this summer for the golfer in your life? How about a gift that gives back?

Golf champion Phil Mickelson has joined forces with our friends at the financial firm KPMG to launch ‘Blue for Books,’ a nationwide campaign designed to put thousands of books into the hands of children in need through the sale of KPMG blue golf hats, just like the one that Phil wears on tour.

All proceeds from sales of the hat will go directly to providing new books to kids in need through First Book.

Visit Phil’s microsite to learn more about the hat and the program, and see a video featuring Phil on the links.

Book Dads is honored to be a part of Share A Story, Shape a Future. This is my first time to be participating and I couldn’t be happier to be one of the hosts for today’s theme: The Gift of Reading. For today’s post, I asked dads, bloggers and authors I know to answer the following question:

Write about the “gift” you received as a dad upon seeing your child read their first words? Or by seeing them just hold the book on their own for the very first time and leaf through the pages. Or by simply seeing them enjoying a book. Please feel free to write anything about the “gift” you received from your child’s exposure to reading.

Part 1 was posted earlier today. What follows is Part 2…

~ Alan Kercinik, Word Nerd & Dad Blogger from Chicago: @alankercinik / www.alwaysjacked.com
“Jack isn’t old enough to read, but is old enough to insist upon “Book! Book!” before he goes to bed. It is the best part of my day, coming home from work and bonding with him over a story or three. When we’re done, he takes his books to bed and pages through them, pointing at the things he knows and saying their names out loud. It’s an echo of my own childhood when I turn out the light and tell him to not stay up all night, reading.

When I get him in the morning, there he is, sitting up and paging through his books, and I smile and think that maybe he is already defying me. I would take this kind of disobedience every day.”

~ Read Aloud Dad, Child Literacy blogger at www.readalouddad.com / @readalouddad
“Incredible. Even though my 3-year 8-month old girl and boy do not know how to read yet, every day they “read” many more books than I manage to read! Guess why I’ve got this gift of a smile on my face every day?”

~ Why Is Daddy Crying, www.whyisdaddycrying / @whyisdaddycryin
“From chewing eight-page cardboard books, to sitting naked on the training potty eagerly trying to find “Waldo,” to listening to my many voices recount “Horton’s” heroic efforts to save t

Fatherhood – Philosophy for Everyone: The Dao of Daddy by Lon Nease (Editor), Michael W. Austin (Editor), Fritz Allhoff (Series Editor), Adrienne Burgess (Foreword)

Reviewed by: Dad of Divas

About the Editors:

Lon Nease is a Ph.D. student in the Philosophy department at the University of Cincinnati. He holds a M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Kentucky where he studied phenomenology and existentialism. Nease has published on post-Kantian ethical theory. Michael W. Austin is an associate professor of Philosophy at Eastern Kentucky University. His primary interests are ethics and philosophy of religion. His books include Running and Philosophy (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007), Conceptions of Parenthood (2007), Football and Philosophy: Going Deep (2008), and Wise Stewards (2009). Fritz Allhoff is the Series Editor of the Philosophy for Everyone series. He is an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Western Michigan University, as well as a Senior Research Fellow at The Australian National University’s Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics.  In addition to editing the Philosophy for Everyone series, Allhoff is also the volume editor or co-editor for several titles, including Wine & Philosophy (W