Toast.x2

Ballet Cat and Sparkle Pony need something to do. They discuss the various crafts and activities they could work on, games they could play but Ballet Cat is of a single mind. At every turn, she finds ways to wiggle out and bring focus back on Ballet. So ballet is what it will be! When Sparkle Pony appears down in the dumps, he tells her about his Secret Secret and his fear that she will no longer want to be friends if she learns it. The two realize what a special friendship they share as they work through this conundrum. Kids who like the Dinosaur vs. books will quickly gel with this kids book. Readers of the Mo Willems Pigeon books will also jive with this very quickly. At approx 30 pages, with lots of bright colors, it will hold their attention just long enough to put a smile on their faces. Kiddo Perspective: In our household, Ballet Cat sounds like a clone of Foofa on Yo Gabba Gabba, Sparkle Pony sounds like Eyore's cousin. It was a ton of fun to read and Bob Shea p...

Nippon 2357: A Utopian Ecological Tale This was not the easiest book to get behind and cheer. It was start and stop, start and stop. When it clicked however, holy shit did it click. Nippon 2357 follows Thomas Redburn. Tom is an American expatriate, Japanese citizen, married man, photographer, bicyclist drunkard who is riding in the pitch black of the Japanese countryside totally sloshed. After wrecking his bike in a ditch, he finds himself aboard a vessel manned by several bizarre individuals, each with a modgepodge name (example, Kropotikin Tsuda, aka Kro-chan). The craft is named Doug, and Doug is a Time Machine, Doug is flying through time space to 24th century Japan. Tom was historically found as ready to die, and minimally impacting on history, so they grabbed him and brought him to the future, an ambassador from the past. Drunken Redburn begins the long and confusing journey to sobriety and grief over his now dead and long buried family. Do we have your attention? Because we are ...

Star Trek: Book of Opposites (David Borgenicht) There are a hundred books about Opposites, allowing you and your child to learn hot from cold, mean from nice. You as an adult must be completely nuts if the Star Trek Book of Opposites doesn't make you glow with geek love. You don't even have to be a Trek fan in order to understand the glorious nature of this book. Kid Perspective: My eldest spawn comes running to the room when he hears Star Trek theme music. He was less accepting of this book until just recently. He used it as a plate, a bat, a foot stool, but didn't care to read it. He split the pages of the board book apart, patiently waited for a glue stick to dry as they were fixed, then tried to separate them again. Now, Opposites matter. His favorite words are "No" and "Gow-ay!!". What things are and how they relate to their opposite are important to him. One tribble is no longer the same as multiple tribble. An over heated Chekov is diffe...