If you have not yet been introduced to Stephen T. Johnson’s books for children, you are missing out on a fantastic, interactive, unparalleled reading experience. See that robot? You literally build it as you move through the story from removable parts of the book!

My Little Yellow Taxi features 16 interactive features! This includes: a gas nozzle to fill up the taxi with gas, an oil stick that moves, a removable air tire gauge with spinning tires, 3 removable snacks, a seatbelt and rearview mirror, windshield wipers that move, headlights that go on and off, a roof light that goes on and off duty, and a steering wheel, ignition switch and car key that all move and work.

I’m telling you, kids flip out when they see how much they are supposed to interact with these books.

Amazingly, the accompanying text is on par with the fantastic construction of these masterpieces. In My Little Pink Princess Purse, the fairy godmother offers this message: “My dearest Princess, with this key, you may open this vanity box. Inside you will find a magic mirror. Only a true princess who is filled with grace, humility, intelligence, self-confidence, and imagination will be able to see her reflection. Use it wisely! With love, your Fairy Godmother.”

This title includes ’6 lift-up tabs, an erasable writing slab, a removable quill pen, an elegant fan, rose-colored glasses, 4 scratch-and-sniff perfumes, 5 rings, a bracelet, a sapphire tiara, a key and handheld mirror.’

In addition to My Little Blue Robot, we read and play with My Little Red Fire Truck and My Little Red Toolbox on a regular basis around our house.

The wonderful thing about these titles is that you can score them at your local bookstore or online for less than $20! If you need a gift for a child that seemingly has everything, or to whom you would rather gift something a little more timeless and meaningful than another bright, plastic toy of the day… consider one of these books. They are really very special and I know from experience how excited children are when they open one of these.

There is no other place quite like a library.  Even if you don’t use your local library for yourself, I urge you to take advantage of what it can offer your children, for FREE!!

• Use your library’s website to search for books with your child’s name in them.
• Search for books about something your child is passionate about (animals, tools, space, tractors, fire engines, princesses, weather, geography- anything!).
• Type in the author and/or illustrator of a book you or your child already loves and see what other treasures they have for you.
• Investigate books about things going on in your child’s life: starting school, anticipating a new sibling, relatives visiting, holidays you celebrate, seasons changing, moving homes, learning to swim, ride a bike or even read!
• Put books on hold.  I am sure that if you add “picking up books on hold at the library” to your to-do list it will be one of the shortest errands you run.
• Don’t hide library books away.  Label a special shelf for them, have a basket that can be a special library book spot where your child can see their covers.  When we first bring them home, I line our library books up in front of our fireplace and my boys can’t wait to read through every one!
• Let a librarian help. They are wealth of knowledge, most of them love what they do and are eager to help you find books that are short, long, bright, fun, funny, for little kids, for big kids, for medium kids… just call or ask!!
• Let library books be the perfect platform to teach your children to both respect and revere books.  Neither of you will regret the lessons learned, the knowledge gained and the fun you had.

You know The Good Stuff Guide loves children’s books.   We just couldn’t pass up this opportunity to let you know about Bess the Book Bus!

Founder Jennifer Frances explains:

“Bess the Book Bus, Inc. is a mobile literacy outreach founded in 2004 in honor of my Nana, Bess O’Keefe. Bess, nicknamed Nana Bus, taught me the joy of reading. Every weekend we would walk into town where I was able to choose a new book. I could not wait to get home and have her read to me. Nana Bus opened a new world for me every time she opened a book and started to read.

As I got older, I realized what a difference that my Nana had made in my life by teaching me the importance of reading. I wanted to share my love for books and reading with as many people as possible in hopes that it could open new worlds for them as well. And now, through Bess the Book Bus, Inc., I am blessed with the opportunity to share the joy of reading with others.

Bess the Book Bus is dedicated to reading to children, promoting literacy, and getting books in to the homes of underprivileged children and families in the Tampa area. While our offices are located in South Tampa, the program itself is mobile. This year we have increased our services to include twenty-five Head Start programs, ten summer programs, The Spring, Metropolitan Ministries, Redland Christian Migrant Association, and an after school program. We also support three school libraries that do not have enough books to serve their population.”

Jennifer was awarded one year of gas by the CITGO Fueling Good program and embarked on a 2011 Success is in Sight Tour, allowing her to reach 20,000+ families in 44 states and give away more than 100,000 books!!

What an amazing accomplishment, Jennifer, kudos to you from The Good Stuff Guide!

Do you have any favorites for Halloween?

One of my favorite columns in Good Housekeeping each month is written by Gretchen Rubin.  I love her concrete advice for living well and maximizing happiness in your life and so it was with great anticipation that I read her book, The Happiness Project.

In a nutshell, Gretchen spent a year living out her custom designed happiness project to see if she could boost her happiness quotient.  She extensively researched happiness, set goals and resolutions for each month and set about to determine their cumulative effect on her daily and overall happiness.

In our family we focus a lot on our responsibility to choose to be happy.  I love all the suggestions Gretchen gives in this book for how a person can do just that- choose happiness!  Whether it’s cleaning out closets, eating well, exercising, sleeping more, nagging less, laughing more…there are specific actions a person can take (in the form of their own custom happiness project) that will absolutely increase happiness.   There are also truths we already know about ourselves that can be powerful tools for all of us if we use them to our advantage.  Reading this book helped me identify some of my own, in fact!

There is a very soothing quality to Gretchen’s writing and I found myself repeatedly smiling or nodding in agreement with her struggles and realizations.  I finished the book this summer and I still regularly repeat certain mantras of hers that really struck a chord with me: “Identify the problem.   Do good, feel good.  Most decisions don’t require extensive research.  What’s fun for other people may not be fun for you–and vice versa.”  There are more and she refers to these as ‘Secrets of Adulthood.’

I haven’t been this motivated by something I’ve read in a long time.  I found The Happiness Project to be an extremely satisfying and inspiring read and I hope you will get your copy soon!

Check out www.happiness-project.com for more information.

I heard friends discussing this book a few years ago when their oldest children started school.  I didn’t think about it again until we moved into a new neighborhood and found ourselves playing every night outside with kids of all ages and, inevitably, emotions would run high from time to time and feelings would get hurt in one child or another.

We would discuss feelings and intentions, reactions and choices, etc… but sometimes keeping such expansive topics simple is hard.  Like I do with most concepts that are complicated to explain sufficiently to a preschooler, I looked for a book to help explain the power we all have to both build other people up or break them down.

This book, Have You Filled a Bucket Today by Carol McCloud, is wonderful.

It starts by explaining that we all have an invisible bucket to hold our good thoughts and good feelings about ourselves.  When your bucket is full you feel happy and good and when you’re feeling very sad and lonely your bucket is empty.  People can fill each others buckets by showing love to someone, doing or saying something kind; generally being a loving, caring person that says and does nice things.  Conversely, dipping someone’s bucket happens by teasing, making fun and saying or doing mean things.

I’m paraphrasing the story here but you get the idea!  The response from children to the text and illustrations in this book are very real and genuine.  I honestly sensed relief from my boys that there was this clear framework to characterize the way people act.  We have literally mentioned our invisible buckets (sometimes they bring it up and sometimes I do!) every single day since we first read the book.

If your child has siblings, plays with other children, goes to daycare or school… I urge you to share this book, and the concept of bucket-filling, with them.   It is a parenting tool you’ll be glad you have, over and over again!

Make sure you check out the Bucket Fillers website to find more information, products and even lesson plans.  There is an entire Bucket Filling movement going on here, parents, get on board!

When I think of the good stuff in life, books make the short list without question.  I especially love the fun of picture books for children and I just can’t help but share when I discover a fun author that is new to me!

These books by Susan Middleton Elya are fantastic:

Oh No, Gotta Go!

You and your kids (or students!) will laugh while you learn with these books.  They are a great introduction for little ones to the concept of other languages.  The stories are not to be missed even if you already know Spanish!

These books are worth the investment (which is minimal!); when the time is right for your child, buy them!

And you can WIN a set for your adorable!

Giveaway

One lucky, lucky winner can win a  Now I’m Reading set of your choice simply by leaving a comment by Tuesday, August 9th.  I’ll choose the winner using Random.org and announce it on Wednesday.

Because I just LOVE comments, here’s how to gain extra entries (please leave them as separate entries):

1. Do you subscribe by email or RSS to The Good Stuff Guide? I love my subscribers, so you get an extra entry. Wahoo!

2. Email 5 of your friends about The Good Stuff Guide and tell them what a rockin’ website this is. We’d love to have them join us!

3. “Like” The Good Stuff Guide on Facebook and receive the latest news and your chance at additional giveaways. (I LIKE you too!)

4. “Share” any recent post from The Good Stuff Guide on your Facebook wall by clicking ‘Share’ under our Facebook posts with links to The Good Stuff Guide site.  This makes a visit to our site just a click away for all your Facebook friends – the more the merrier…

(Feel free to do them all – that’s a total of 5 entries!)

I want to share with you something else we’ve loved – and you can win your own copy!  Today, I have 2 copies to give away, so you have double the chance of winning.

This is not just any book – it’s all about math.  Surprise!

What do you think when you hear the words “primes, multiplication, factors and factor trees, factorials”?  Is it sheer panic, nervous hives??

(Perhaps that’s just me…)

But do not fear – Open this book and find a very innovative, visually clear presentation of multiplication and factor trees – I could even understand prime numbers in a new way.

And that’s saying something…

Every page illustrates a number down to its primes, with a corresponding monster illustration – part of the fun is finding the primes in the illustration.  Trust me, it’s captivating.

Giveaway

TWO lucky, lucky winner can win a copy each of You Can Count on Monsters simply by leaving a comment by Tuesday, July 19th.  I’ll choose the winner using Random.org and announce it on Wednesday.

Because I just LOVE comments, here’s how to gain extra entries (please leave them as separate entries):

1. Do you subscribe by email or RSS to The Good Stuff Guide? I love my subscribers, so you get an extra entry. Wahoo!

2. Email 5 of your friends about The Good Stuff Guide and tell them what a rockin’ website this is. We’d love to have them join us!

3. “Like” The Good Stuff Guide on Facebook and receive the latest news and your chance at additional giveaways. (I LIKE you too!)

4. “Share” any recent post from The Good Stuff Guide on your Facebook wall by clicking ‘Share’ under our Facebook posts with links to The Good Stuff Guide site.  This makes a visit to our site just a click away for all your Facebook friends – the more the merrier…

(Feel free to do them all – that’s a total of 5 entries!)

What are your new favorites for summer?