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Archive for February, 2011
Monday, February 28th, 2011
How did it all begin? Can you name the popular picture book based on its very first sentence? I bet you can! Let’s hear your guesses in the comments below.
1. Once upon a time in Spain there was a little bull…
2. The day Helen gave Martha dog her alphabet soup, something unusual happened.
3. Oh how Peter wished he could whistle!
4. On Christmas Eve, many years ago I lay quietly in my bed.
5. One evening, after thinking it over for some time, Harold decided to go for a walk in the moonlight.
6. Mr. Plumbean lived on a street where all the houses were the same.
7. In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf.
8. The Lupine Lady lives in a small house overlooking the sea.
9. In a warm and sultry forest far, far away, there once lived a mother fruit bat and her new baby.
10. Farmer Brown has a problem.
Tags: First lines, game, picture books, quiz, Trivia
Posted in Picture Book Puzzlers | 6 Comments »
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
Are you ready for this? To round out our month of fabulous giveaways, we are ending with our biggest giveaway yet!
 An Eric Carle Lithograph! This print featuring the beautiful spring-like illustration from Eric Carle’s Draw Me a Star is signed personally by Eric Carle and is part of a limited edition print run of 1000. This unframed lithograph values at $125 in our store, but we’re giving ONE away to a lucky blog reader. With all the colors of the rainbow, this print would perfect in any nursery, playroom, or library. Where would you put it?
To enter this giveaway leave a comment below before Noon EST Friday, Feb 25th and we’ll randomly pick one winner. Become a fan of The Carle Bookshop on Facebook and leave a comment there too and you can be entered in twice to improve your odds of winning! For this giveaway, we’re restricting it to US shipping addresses, only.
Good luck and I’ll see you back here tomorrow to announce the winner.
Comments now closed. Wow! What a great turnout for this giveaway! I really loved reading all your comments and wish we had even more to give away. Our random number generator chose one winner from all the comments below and from our Facebook page. Congratulations to Laura Harrison! We’ll be in touch with you about sending your prize.
We had so much fun doing the giveaways this month and will be back in March with another special giveaway to celebrate The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s birthday!
Tags: Eric Carle, Giveaway, lithograph
Posted in Giveaways | 263 Comments »
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
I may be alone is this, but to me, the feeling of finishing a good book is bittersweet. The reward is a wonderful ending, but there’s a sadness, too, that it’s all over. A perfect book-shaped void where the story you spent days or even weeks reading used to be. How to fill that void? Sometimes you can just pick up another book and get lost in something all over again. But sometimes that isn’t enough. You need that story to live on.
 Very Hungry Caterpillar tattoo. Photo by Kristin Angel. What fascinates me is the way people find ways to do just that – to pay homage to the those books that have made such an impact on their lives. Authors and artists may reference favorite books in their own books, die-hard fans might write their own fan fiction or create an online book trailer. I’ve seen people even go for more permanent homage, like getting a tattoo featuring a book character or quotation, naming a restaurant after a favorite or even your own child after a special character or book.
I hadn’t really  thought about this until this weekend when Norton Juster did an event at this store. Even days before the book signing, customers in anticipation were telling me their personal stories of how The Phantom Tollbooth had changed their life. Two (two!!) different customers had named their sons Milo after the main character in the book. Even Eric Carle was impacted enough to name his dog Tock, after the Tollbooth’s watchdog.
I get to hear a lot of these special stories working here. Stepping inside our bookstore, you see all the books like old friends sitting on the shelves that you remember from your childhood and you know that the booksellers here are kindred book-loving spirits. They tell me about the books that have changed their life. Alice in Wonderland, Harold and the Purple Crayon or Where the Wild Things Are. I love hearing how these books have impacted their childhood, their career choices, the way they saw things from then on.
I grew up with so many books that I don’t think I have just one that I can say has made an enormous impact. At least not yet. But what about you?
Tags: Eric Carle, favorite books, Norton Juster, Phantom Tollbooth, tattoos
Posted in Musings | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
Little White Rabbit by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow Books, 2011)
This big book with big pictures and small words, averaging less than a sentence a page, much like Henke’s Caldecott Award-winning Kitten’s First Full Moon, will appeal especially to young children. The story is an adventure away from home, but without Peter Rabbit’s naughtiness. This rabbit hops along with bouncy hope, exercising his imagination, which is not so much a vehicle for fantasy as compassion, which seems Kevin Henke’s sort of imagination, too. Little White Rabbit wonders what it would be like to be green, like grass, or tall, like trees, as still as a rock, or to flutter like butterflies, before he ends up safe at home, where, while his brothers and sisters sleep, he’s the bunny with the roving eye. The front cover is pink and the back is green under the book jacket, and green and pink dominate: from clover and rabbit-nose through grass and trees. We can almost smell spring.
Buy Little White Rabbit or read on for more Top of the Shelf book reviews.
Tags: adventure, bunny, green, Kevin Henkes, pink, rabbits, spring, white
Posted in Recommended Books, Top of the Shelf | 2 Comments »
Monday, February 21st, 2011
Happy President’s Day! I’ve compiled a list of a popular children’s book characters that each have the same first name (or nickname) as a US president. Can you name the book AND the president? (Some names will fit multiple presidents – just pick one!) Let us know your guesses in the comments below.
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Tags: characters, game, names, picture books, presidents, Trivia
Posted in Picture Book Puzzlers | 2 Comments »
Saturday, February 19th, 2011
Have you been following our Shop’s BookTalk series? One Sunday each month we invite a children’s author or illustrator to our store to talk with us about their books, their work and their childhoods. At 11:30 (before the rest of the Museum even opens) our own Andy Laties, playfully interviews the guest in front of the Shop and everyone is take a seat and join in. We’re recording these conversations, so hopefully soon they will be available here on our website for those of you too far away to attend. If you know Andy, you know that these are not your typical interviews. They’re fun and playful and always manage to unearth something about our guest that you’ve never heard before. Last month, he even got Mordicai Gerstein to sing!
 Tomorrow, we welcome Norton Juster as our next guest and it’s sure to be a blast. If you’re in the area, stop on by – it’s free! Norton will be signing his books after the interview, around 12:30 pm. Even if you can’t make it, we always offer the option to get a signed book. So place your order online today here and we’ll get your books autographed for you.
Coming up next month…Mo Willems on March 27th!
Tags: Andy Laties, Authors, BookTalk, Goodbye Window, Illustrators, interviews, Norton Juster, Phantom Tollbooth, The Hello
Posted in Carle Museum Events | No Comments »
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
 It’s Thursday again and today we have another super-cute giveaway from The Carle Bookshop. Get ready for spring. Rainy days are tons more fun with these adorable Eric Carle bubble child-sized umbrellas. Today we’re giving away one umbrella to TWO lucky readers.
They’re even good for sunny days, too!
All you need to do to enter this giveaway is leave a comment below before Noon EST Friday, Feb 18th and we’ll randomly pick TWO winners. Become a fan of The Carle Bookshop on Facebook and leave a comment there too and you can be entered in twice to improve your odds of winning! For this giveaway, we’re restricting it to US shipping addresses, only.
Good luck and I’ll see you back here tomorrow to announce the winner.
Comments closed. Our random number generator chose two winners from all the comments below and on our Facebook page. Congratulations to Pat and Ann! We’ll be in touch with you about sending your prizes.
Tags: Eric Carle, Giveaway, umbrella
Posted in Giveaways | 51 Comments »
Wednesday, February 16th, 2011
 Our newest exhibition, What a Circus! The Art of Etienne Delessert opened this week in our East Gallery. We’re celebrating this weekend with a gallery opening reception Saturday night and a personal gallery tour and book signing with Etienne on Sunday afternoon. Etienne is a Swiss-born artist who has illustrated over 80 books in a myriad of languages. This colorful and fantastical exhibition features work from many of his books for children, spanning over 30 years. Join us Saturday night for a Member’s reception to view the gallery, meet Etienne, and share some delicious Swiss wine, chocolates and cheese! Click here for more details about the reception.
 We welcome Etienne back to The Carle Sunday afternoon to give a personal tour of his gallery and to share the stories behind creating some of his most famous children’s books. Following the tour, Etienne will be signing books outside our Shop. Even if you can’t make the event, you can still get a signed book. Click here to browse our entire selection of Etienne’s books, posters, and postcards and make sure to pick up a copy of the beautiful exhibition catalog. We even have an extensive collection of Etienne’s French books that are unavailable in English at this time. Place your online order before Saturday, February 19th and we’ll ship you your books autographed after the event. Just make sure to put a notation in your Customer Notes section at checkout that you would like them autographed!
Hope to see you all this weekend!
Tags: Etienne Delessert, gallery opening
Posted in Carle Museum Events | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills (Schwartz and Wad Books/Random House)
Rocket is an ordinary dog who loves naps, sticks, and smelling the neighborhood, and sees no need for books. As the title suggests, the suspense of this charming book is gentle. Rocket learns to read the way many children do, over a course of time we see pass with the seasons. First he’s enticed by a story with an ending he longs to know: will a dog find his favorite bone? His bird friend and enthusiastic teacher guides him through sounding out letters, but must migrate before “The grass became crunchy. Soon Rocket’s classroom disappeared under the snow.” Rocket is by then fascinated, and practices letters by dashing around leaving tracks in the snow. He latches onto small words he likes, sounds out letters, repeats, and finds patterns. We get not only a reassuring story about reading, but one of friendship and seasons, and of course, a very cute spotted dog and yellow bird.
Purchase a copy of How Rocket Learned to Read or read more Top of the Shelf book recommendations.
Tags: birds, dogs, learning, picture books, reading, recommendations, reviews, Tad Hills, Top of the Shelf
Posted in Recommended Books, Top of the Shelf | 1 Comment »
Monday, February 14th, 2011
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Roses are red..and picture books are too! I’ve rounded up ten picture books with red covers, but am only letting you see a tiny bit. Can you identify each picture book based on the heart-shaped snippet of its cover? Let’s hear your guesses in the comments below!
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Tags: hearts, picture books, red
Posted in Picture Book Puzzlers | 7 Comments »
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