Showing posts with label illustrator. Show all posts
Showing posts with label illustrator. Show all posts

1/12/14

Richard Scarry's Best Board Game EVER

The best Concept books ever are written and illustrated by Richard Scarry. His Busytown series is amazing for both knowledge and comprehension. The Busytown board game takes all of those concepts and puts them into one clever Eye Found It! game. While playing this game you’re working on numerical understanding, vocabulary and deductive reasoning skills (since part of the game is finding objects hidden within the board). The game Clue is much the same and offers the same benefit, but I doubt it would keep my 6 year old’s attention; nor did Candy Land for that matter. This game, on the other hand, kept her engaged for quite a bit.


The object of the game is to get your pieces to the end of the board before the pigs eat all the food at the picnic. You spin the spinner and can advance in one of two ways. You can move forward the numerical amount listed, or, if you land on the goldbug symbol, you can draw up a card. The card has an object that you must find in a timely fashion, allotted by a sand timer. Then you may advance the numerical value set forth by however many objects you are able to find within the board. If you spin a pig symbol, the pigs get to eat one of the food items at the picnic. Those are the rules, but The Boog and I always see room for improvement and almost always will end up playing a second time making the rules up as we go along. Sometimes the Hubby will get in on the Busytown madness and voila!, family time is created.


I have written about Richard Scarry quite extensively in the past (here) and I am quite a fan. Not too long ago I sold a Look and Learn Boxed set (here) to pay for The Boog’s summer camp program a couple years back. Although I miss it immensely, and hope it found a great home, I do have many of his titles that remain in print. They seem to have redesigned some of the images and changed a few characters, but The Boog is none the wiser. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing, but Richard Scarry remains one my favorite illustrators to date.

P.S
You will need a lot of floor space since this game is set up like a puzzle of sorts and is a bit on the loooooong side. :)

8/25/12

Helga's Dowry: A Troll Love Story

Helga's Dowry: A Troll Love Story
Story and Pictures by Tomie dePaola
1977

Hey Kiddos! My last Tomie dePaola post was Strega Nona, which is about a magic pasta pot and the mayhem that ensues when it falls into the wrong hands. I have several Tomie dePaola books but none more charming than Strega Nona, that is, until I added Helga's Dowry to my collection. Helga, in particular, has charmed it's way from mommy's bookshelf onto the Boog's. Admittedly, I will pretty much buy anything with his name attached to it, making Mr. dePaola one of my most fave illustrators. (Number one on my list being the late Maurice Sendak) I have gotten quite good at spotting them on my thrifting excursions. Although, after laying eyes on one of his illustrations you will pretty much agree that his work is quite unmistakable.  


Helga is the loveliest troll in three parishes but, after being orphaned as a troll child, she was also the poorest. This became a problem for her when handsome Lars asks for her hand in marriage, for it is troll law that Helga must posess a dowry. With moonstruck eyes, Lars tells Helga he will go ask old Rich Sven for some advice.



Sven's Advice? Why, marry his daughter Plain Inge. With 30 Cows, 3 Chests of Gold and a mountain pasture, Plain Inge would make him the richest troll in the land! (with the exception of the troll king of course)


Upon hearing this news, Helga decides to take maters into her own hands! She writes Lars a note asking him to wait for her and she decides to go make her own fortune to supply herself with a suitable dowry.
"SOME PEOPLE ARE ARE LAZY, SOME PEOPLE VAIN,
SOME PEOPLE ARE GREEDY;
IT'S ALL HELGA'S GAIN!"
She goes into the Land of People and bargains her way into a dowry of 35 Cows, in exchange for laundry, 4 Chests of Gold in exchange for everlasting beauty and, after clearing out the timber, a Pasture of her very own!





Upon learning that Lars was not going to wait for her and had intentions of marrying Plain Inge in her stead, she dismisses him.....

Only to receive a purposal from the Troll King himself, who is no need of riches and certainly in need of a hard working Troll wife!

What is really funny about this story, is that the Troll King has been interested in Helga all along! You can see him hiding within most of the illustrations watching Helga hard at work.



Also By:
Strega Nona

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5/8/12

A Look at the Works of Maurice Sendak

Maurice Sendak Dies today at age 83 but his work will live on in the hearts of many children. What better way to honor Maurice Sendak than to revisit some of our featured posts about the infamous writer and illustrator. Click on any of the pictures below to view past posts.....






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