There are lots of great new children’s books out there and sometimes it can be overwhelming to decide what to read next. Fortunately Amazon just released the annual Best Books of the Year So Far list, featuring books published between January and June. The result? 20 diverse selections that will make bedtime story time and summer downtime that much better.
Top selection Eyes That Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho has more than 1,000 five stars reviews on Amazon. It features the story of a young Asian girl who learns to love and accept her eyes in a celebration of diversity. Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston is described as “Artemis Fowl meets Men in Black” and it’s a middle school fantasy series featuring a black heroine, Amari Peters. And Dog Man: Mothering Heights is the latest in a series from Captain Underpants creator Dav Pilkey, a laugh-out-loud read following the adventures of Dog Man and Petey.
The full list of the Best Children’s Books of the Year, So Far:
Amazon Book Editors determine the “best of” lists, reading thousands of pages to unite readers of all ages and tastes, as well as highlight diverse authors. You’ll recognize some of the picks as bestsellers, but many might be new to you. You can find the rest of the lists, including the best books for young adults and teens, online. Don’t forget to check out our own list of best books in 2021!
Your candy bar might look a little different over the next two months and you might want to stock up! CRUNCH, Butterfinger and Baby Ruth have released limited-edition bars with art supporting the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and a percentage of proceeds will go straight to CMN Hospitals.
The colorful artwork is designed by CMNH child ambassadors and there’s a different design for each brand. Ciarlo has Spina Bfida and designed the T-rex on crutches for CRUNCH. Audrey had surgery to correct scoliosis and created the serene scene for Butterfinger. Logan has muscular dystrophy and his art features an astronaut in space. All children were treated at CMN Hospitals and their art is inspired by memorable or imaginative moments in their lives.
“We’re very excited to partner with this great non-profit organization and invite our customers to join us in our journey to support all the futures made possible by Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals,” said Mark Wakefield, Senior Vice President Marketing, Ferrero Mainstream Chocolate & Nutella. “Just like Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, CRUNCH, Butterfinger and Baby Ruth aim to create moments that bring people together every day.”
To learn more about the campaign, you can visit a new online site with more info on the kids, their stories and their artwork. Butterfinger is also collaborating with Extra Life, a program affiliated with CMNH that is tied to the gaming community. On June 3, the two companies will host a fundraising stream for gamers to play Final Fantasy XIV.
Summer just got a little more magical! Disney recently announced that the Disneyland Hotel, Disneyland Resort’s original hotel, will reopen on July 2 with limited capacity. Better yet, you can make your room reservations now!
The resort made good use of the closure, updating the upholstery and fabrics throughout the guest rooms, lobbies and meeting rooms. You’ll find a new fireworks pattern in the carpet and graphic elements featuring different park landmarks in the hallways. And there’s plenty of old favorites to choose from: waterslides, spa whirlpools, a pool bar and multiple delicious restaurants.
Best of all, the Disneyland Hotel is located only steps from the park and Disney California Adventure Park. You’ll want to make your theme park reservations online in advance for anyone ages three and up in your family. You can use your hotel confirmation number to see the latest availability for the parks, but you must make a separate reservation to each park you want to visit. Face coverings are required for all guests ages two and older throughout the resort.
The Fantasy Tower is the first part of the resort to reopen and it includes a variety of standard and deluxe rooms to choose from. Look for hidden Mickeys throughout the building, as well as Disney themed decorations in every room. Make dreams come true and book your stay today!
Once upon a time, I lived in la-la land. I had magical dreams of a unicorn baby. A baby that slept through the night and never cried. A toddler that was a well-behaved angel. I dreamt of how easy it would be for a baby to nestle into my existing life as a career-driven woman. My dreams were just that, dreams.
The fairytale life I had envisioned quickly turned into a nightmare. My baby had colic, so not only did he not sleep through the night for months, but he cried all day and night, for months. I felt so alone. I felt betrayed by all my mom friends. No one told me how hard motherhood would be. Everyone let me believe that every moment was filled with glitter and rainbows.
My days were filled with darkness. There was no glitter. Unless you count my glistening tears. Every day, I counted down the hours until my husband came home from work. My favorite noise was hearing his key in the door. As much as I couldn’t wait for him to get home every day, I also resented him. I resented the fact that he got to go to work every days. For nine hours a day, he got to escape a crying, screaming, pooping baby. He got to be around adults and have more meaningful conversations than I was having. Although I don’t think goo goo ga ga qualifies as meaningful or a conversation.
I missed working my regular 7-8 hour days. I missed being creative. I missed setting and achieving big, audacious goals. I tried to work whenever the baby was sleeping (which was hardly ever). But I just couldn’t focus. My art wasn’t flowing. I was exhausted, had mommy brain and was always watching the clock. Counting down the minutes until the baby woke up from his nap.
And then, the villain of my fairytale appeared out of the shadows. Guilt. Relentless Guilt with his sharp claws digging into my heart. Guilt made me feel like a bad mother and wife. Guilt made me feel disgusting for wanting to spend more time working than with my baby. Guilt made me feel shameful for not loving and enjoying every moment I had with my newborn. Guilt made me feel like a horrible human being.
I started to spiral. Looking back now, I know I had a postpartum. But I didn’t realize it then. I just thought this is what motherhood is. None of the moms I knew talked about this stuff. And I felt ashamed that I was having these feelings. I put on a make-believe bright and happy face for the world. I was only posting the picture-perfect moments on social media. I was telling people that being a mom was so fun and fulfilling. But behind all the make-believe, I was having mental breakdowns and dreaming of running away.
I loved my baby, but I didn’t feel like myself. I missed my old life. I have always been a high achiever, setting out to be the best in everything I do. My career and art were such a huge part of who I was. I felt like I was losing all the parts of myself that I admired and loved. I didn’t feel like I was the best mom, wife or artist. I felt like an absolute failure.
Being a children’s book author and illustrator, I set out to inspire children and children inspire me. But motherhood left me uninspired. It was only when I confronted my guilt, that the darkness started to lift. I realized that in order for me to be a good mom and be the person I was meant to be, I had to work. My job sparked a twinkle in my eyes and lit purpose in my heart. It wasn’t motherhood that made me feel uninspired. It was too much guilt and too little of what sparked a light in me.
Just because I was now a mom, didn’t mean I was any less of an artist, a goal-oriented high achiever, a complete fantasy nerd, a big goofball and most importantly, my own person. All those things helped me be a better mom and being a mom helped me be a better person.
Holly Hatam is the illustrator of the #1 New York Times bestselling Dear Girl and Dear Boy, as well as Unicorns Are Real, Made by Maxine, and Jack (Not Jackie). She loves hugging trees, drinking tea, sniffing books, music, animations and most importantly, unicorns. She invites you to be transported into her magical world by visiting hollyhatam.com.
I never thought that I would drop my young daughter into a giant pool when she didn’t even know how to swim. Yet here we are.
Motherhood can be such a head trip because you are often forced to make really hard decisions and there are no real directions. I think we can all agree that children need to learn how to swim. There’s really no argument there, right? In order to raise a healthy family, our children must be safe around water.
While we may agree with that part of the equation, what happens when our children hate it? Do we just throw them into the water? In my case, yes.
Several years ago, when we put our oldest in swim lessons, we thought this was going to be an easy process. She could not wait to start! Each day after school she would ask about swim class. We prepped with everything in her favorite color—green! Green suits, green goggles, and green flip flops! She was giddy with anticipation!
The day finally arrived.
Up until the point of actually getting into the water, the first day was great! Our teacher motioned to us that it was time to get in. Standing at the edge of the pool, I felt my child start to freeze. Understand, I was eight months pregnant with our second child, so wrestling a toddler on the edge of a pool was not something was I prepared for, or could gracefully manage. “Mommy, I don’t want to go,” she said as she tried to become one with my legs.
Her grip grew tighter and I could see her start to swell with tears. She began doing circles around me—hiding behind my swollen belly.
I look down at her precious swim teacher, who was about college-age, and asked what I should do. She shrugged her shoulders. But my eyes were pleading with the teacher to give me some direction, some answer as to how to make this work. Fantasy negotiations do not work with my child. Telling her that Minnie Mouse is in the pool will not work. Ever. She knows way better than that.
At some point during my stress, sweating, and balancing my very pregnant body on the edge of the pool I cracked my own internal whip. “Melanie! Get your sh*t together! She has to get in the water! Quit relying on the swim teacher to solve your parenting dilemma!”
In order for her to ever learn to swim, she has to get in the water. I did what I never thought I would or could do! I stood there, at the edge of the pool and dropped my crying child into the pool, into the hands of a stranger.
Oh, dear God, what have I done?
As parents, my husband and I balance each other out quite well. If it were up to him, he would have certainly taken her out of the pool area after ten minutes. Sometimes his way is better, sometimes it’s mine. But in this instance, we followed my lead.
Her lesson began and we could see her face was still a bit red and blotchy. I watched my husband as he paced the deck. All of his belongings next to me—wallet, phone, keys—all in the event he had to jump in and rescue her.
What seemed like four hours later, her lesson was done. Having her back on dry land was a relief to all of us. We hugged and celebrated how well she did. I asked her if she had fun and she answered with a resounding, “Yes!”
Really? I thought she looked totally miserable! On the way home, I asked her if she wanted to go back and she said that she didn’t. However, not going back wasn’t an option, so I rephrased my question into a statement. “Well, we are going back.” We were at a stoplight and I watched her in my rear-view mirror. She turned her head, thinking, then looked at me. “Mom, I can go back. I think I will be fine.”
The next lesson arrived and I wasn’t sure what it would be like so I did my best to hide my worry. We sat on the bleachers together enjoying a few goldfish before being summoned into the deep. At the time we saw the call from our teacher, our daughter happily took off her flip-flops and said, “See, Mommy, I’m not scared anymore!”
Overwhelmed with pride I helped her step right into the water and sit happily on the water bench. Throughout the lesson, she would look back at us for reassurance. My husband gave several thumbs-up and I smiled and waved. As she floated with her teacher across the pool, 25 yards away from us I said to my husband, “Well, she was right. She said she would be fine and she is.”
So even at three, our kids sometimes know more than we sometimes ever realize. I’m amazed and proud—of all of us! When I think about what life hands us as parents, it becomes clearer to me every day that it’s not always parents teaching children. Sometimes it’s all of us learning and growing together.
Now if we can just get her to put her face in the water.
Melanie Forstall is a full-time mother, full-time wife, full-time teacher, and never-enough-time blogger at Melanie Forstall: Stories of Life, Love, and Mothering. She holds a doctorate in education and yet those many years of schooling have proved to be utterly useless when it comes to actual mothering.
I had wanted a daughter since literally, like, I was the age of 10. There were things inside of me that were inherently broken. Even then.
As I aged there was an ever-present fantasy script in my head that (one day) watching my husband with his daughter would somehow magically heal the broken parts inside of me. And, in all fairness it may have. But, that’s not how my story went.
When I was pregnant and learned I was having a girl—the irony was not lost on the fact that as a fatherless daughter I was (finally) having a daughter— a daughter who would also, in essence, be fatherless.
I was pretty mad at God and the Universe for a really long time. It was a dirty dirty trick I thought.
I spent most of my life feeling as if there was a missing piece. As if something was inherently wrong with me because my father didn’t want me. Side note: my mom was amazing. This has nothing to do with her.
This internal dialogue was the basis for most of my life choices. How I viewed myself. How I viewed my worth. This brokenness, unknowingly to me, dictated most of my life and my self-value. It showed up most clearly in who I dated. Who I ultimately married.
It wasn’t until my dad passed away, two months after my daughter was born and 7-months after my husband had left, that I started to realize the truth. I sat in a hospital room every day for a week watching my dad die. In those days I realized for the first time, ever, that my worth was not based on my father’s inability to be a parent. My worth was not based on his inability to be in my life. None of his demons and actions and choices had anything to do with me. Not a single one. They all had to do with him. I was just a casualty of his personal war.
It was somewhere during that time that it all made sense. I was sent a fatherless daughter to in fact heal me. At the most perfect time.
My daughter is amazing. She’s as beautiful as she is bright. Zero of her worth is defined by the fact that her father is not in her life. None. My daughter did nothing to cause someone who should love her not to.
A father. A father is someone who shows up because that is the nature of their job description. My daughter had nothing to do with her father abandoning that role. And, through watching her and walking through this with her, I realized neither did I.
The script in my mind, for most of my life, was that by watching my daughter with my husband, I was going to heal vicariously through them and their love. By watching her and her father have tea parties and play house and falling asleep together, and see them love each other so much, that it was going to fix the broken pieces inside of me. That’s not reality. And, none of that happened.
But, my daughter did in fact heal me. She stopped the cycle just by being alive.
JACQUELINE WAXMAN, M.Ed living in New Jersey with her kids. I’m a social worker by profession and Mom by choice. I chauffeur children to their preferred destinations, feed-bathe-and-clothe my little people when we are not playing outside. Passions include writing, photography and advocacy.
Get ready to cook with your kiddos! In celebration of Disney’s new action-adventure fantasy flick Raya and the Last Dragon, Raddish Kids has a free downloadable cooking kit that features fun-filled family-friendly recipes.
Raya and the Last Dragon hits theaters and the small screen (via Disney+ with Premiere Access) Mar. 5. Even though your kids can’t watch the movie just yet, they can whip up a magical meal based on this soon-to-be blockbuster.
Raddish founder Samantha Barnes, said in a press release, “We’re thrilled to create these recipes in celebration of Raya and the Last Dragon, introducing families to the flavors of the Southeast Asian cuisine that inspired the setting for the film.” Barnes added, “Families are in for a treat, making and enjoying a meal together before joining Raya on her spectacular adventure.”
The free kit includes illustrated recipes for Shrimp Noodles, Pork Lettuce Cups and Mango Sticky Rice along with Table Talk conversation cards. Your kiddos can also cook alongside a Raddish instructor with the brand’s pre-recorded virtual video. The video also features a special appearance from a Disney chef!
To learn more about this culinary experience and download your free Disney/Raddish Maya and the Last Dragon kids’ cooking kit, visit Raddish’s website here.
You know her from Parks & Recreation and that alluring deadpan, but Aubrey Plaza has been busy during the pandemic. Not only is she starring and producing Michael Levine’s Black Bear, she also been penning a new picture book for kids. True to Plaza’s reputation for beating to her own drum, this one is a holiday book, with a twist. Read on to learn more.
Coming in Oct. 2021 and available now for pre-order, The Christmas Witchis authored by Aubrey Plaza and Daniel Murphy with gorgeous fantasy-filled illustrations by Julia Iredale.
“Gather ‘round the fire to hear a Christmas legend that has never been told before…until now. Each year a mysterious figure sweeps into town, leaving behind strange gifts in the night. No, not Santa Claus, but his sister…”
The story introduces readers to Santa’s long lost, misunderstood sister, Kristtōrn, who just happens to have been raised alone by a witch of the woods. Kristtōrn embarks on a journey to find her twin, but is met with fear of her powers. And Kristtōrn has a temper. It leads to a confrontation that leaves the fate of Christmas itself in balance.
“I couldn’t be more excited to be publishing The Legend of the Christmas Witch with Viking this fall,” says Plaza.“This is a story that Dan and I have been working on for some time now and we can’t wait to introduce a character as fierce, independent, and headstrong as Kristtörn to readers this holiday season.”
We can’t wait to see all of those lavish illustrations and read the tale in its entirety by a cozy fireplace of our own. And according to Viking, it’s a two-book deal but no word on what the next book will be. We’ll wait as patiently as we can.
Pre-order it here, $18.99 hardcover. Geared toward ages 5-8, but we know you’ll enjoy it any age.
2022 just got more magical with Disney’s fresh sneak peak at one of its newest cruise ships. The Disney Wish will set sail the summer of 2022 and now you can grab a look at some never-before-seen images of just what the cruise liner has in store.
The Disney Parks Blog released a digital clip of the Grand Hall and a mesmerizing Cinderella character statue at the base of the grand staircase. “A dream is a wish your heart makes,” and this is the Disney Wish, after all.
Disney states that the Grand Hall is inspired by the fairytale Cinderella castle, which makes the statue the perfect accessory.
The Disney Wish is the first of three new ships being added to the Disney Cruise Line fleet over the next three years. Larger than the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy, the new ships will have 1,250 state rooms, weight 144,000 gross tons and be powered by liquefied natural gas.
Check back with the Disney Cruise Line website for continued updates about the Disney Wish.
New Year’s looking a little different this year? As we all settle into a subdued evening of ringing in 2021, Disney wants to make the night as special as possible.
Continuing the #DisneyMagicMoments tradition that has gotten us through 2020, you can tune into a virtual viewing of “Fantasy in the Sky” fireworks beginning tonight, Dec. 31 at 11:48 p.m., EST.
photo: Joshua Suddock/Disneyland
This pre-recorded showing comes to use from from Walt Disney World Resort in 2017. Viewers will get spectacular views of the festive fireworks above Cinderella Castle, with music from the likes of Pinocchio,Peter Pan and famous themes from various Disney attractions.
You can check out the show starting tonight at 11:48 p.m., EST on the Disney Parks Blog.
