We love the competition of the Olympic Games, but we might love the backstories even more! Just in time for the upcoming Games, Rebel Girls is releasing a new book of short stories featuring 25 phenomenal women in sports. It’s part of the award-winning Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls series and includes Simone Biles, Megan Rapinoe, Chloe Kim and many more!
Rebel Girls Champions: 25 Tales of Unstoppable Athletes is available to pre-order now on Amazon. The short stories are perfect for the young readers in your life and feature colorful, full-page portraits created by female artists worldwide. It will be updated with new stories right after the Games and officially go on sale September 7.
You’ll find a mix of stories on past champions like Lisa Leslie and Michelle Kwan, as well as brand new stories on exceptional female athletes competing in this year’s Olympics. At 64 pages long, your bedtime stories just got a gold-medal touch. Pre-order the collection now for $8.99 on Amazon.
Who’s happier to ditch real school for summer fun, you or your minis? We’ve curated a list of tactile learning activities to keep the kiddos off screens and out of the summer slide. Read on for 15 creative learning ideas that’ll give those golden afternoons a little brain boost.
Story Cubes are a creative way to practice putting together stories, and your sidekicks won’t know that they’re learning. Roll the dice and use the results in a tall tale. These are a great way to pass the time on car trips. For the smallest fry, use three dice. For older scribes, use all nine and split the words up between the beginning, middle, and end of their stories.
Penpals! The kids can practice their fine motor skills while sending a little sunshine to a friend or relative. Or you can take the love up a notch and write to seniors in care homes. Contact your local senior residence, or check out one of these programs.
What’s better than learning to read with cookies? Nothing. Use this alphabet cookie cutter set to bake words in the ultimate tactile reading game. Spelling has never been more delicious.
How many words can your wordsmiths make with the sentence ‘Learning from home is fun?’ Take Anna Whiteley's idea a step further and create summer-themed sentences such as ‘Hot days are perfect for popsicles,’ and ‘Our family loves the beach.’
Get the crew reading and moving with one of our indoor/outdoor-friendly scavenger hunts. Early readers can use the pictures to puzzle out the words and avoid the summer slide. Veteran readers can solidify their spelling skills.
Activities to Promote Numeracy
Count the Beans
Teresa Douglas
Teaching math concepts is a snap when you use tactile learning aides like beans or grains of rice. Your minis will intuitively understand division if you swap the beans for candies and tell them to split the candies fairly.
Make Patterns
Teresa Douglas
Collect rocks, sticks, and other treasures from outside to make creative patterns. Your crew can learn to make patterns that repeat, grow, or spiral. The Artful Parent has beautiful photos for inspiration.
Take a math detective walk. Give your budding Sherlock a notepad and pencil and get outside. How many birds can your little spot? Pick different themes for each walk, or spend the week focused on just one.
Keep those measurement skills burning all summer long with the cookbook How Many Ways Can You Cut a Pie? If your crew prefers cookies, this three-ingredient oatmeal cookie is quick, easy, and healthy enough for breakfast!
Turn an ordinary deck of cards into a creative learning experience. We Are Teachers serves up math-tastic ideas for reviewing addition, subtraction and fraction concepts in spades.
Who’s bigger, your mini or a dolphin? Could you have a tiger over for tea? Would either fit in a chair? Whip out Wasecabiomes Animals of the world Measuring Tape and help your budding biologist find out!
Explore Science
Melissa Heckscher
Make some bouncy balls with ingredients you can find at the grocery store. The fine folks at The STEM Laboratory walk you through the activity and even explain the science behind it. Hint: You’ll never look at spaghetti the same way again.
Get Some Sun
Teresa Douglas
Practice the first step of the scientific method by measuring the amount of sunlight in a garden. This activity is a great excuse to get the kids outside. Every hour the littles mark whether the plants are in the shade, partial sun, or full sun. Give your scientist a clipboard for added pizzazz.
Engineer a Little Fun
Teresa Douglas
Introduce your engineer-in-training to Snap circuits, a tactile way to learn about electricity and closed circuits. As a bonus, your engineer will also learn to follow plans and problem solve.
Your little scientists will love learning about DNA through the magic of strawberries. Each strawberry cell has eight copies of DNA, which means you can see them without a microscope in this fun experiment. Slide over to Little Bins for Little Hands to see how it’s done.
Baby George made her inaugural appearance on Mother’s Day! She’s the first child of Orange is the New Black writer Lauren Morelli and actress Samira Wiley, who currently stars in The Handmaid’s Tale.
The two-mom couple kept their pregnancy and birth under wraps and chose the holiday to make their baby announcement in a sweet Instagram post.
“Welcome to the world, babygirl. We love you and we thank you for giving us the best 1st Mother’s Day two ladies could ask for,” Wiley penned, noting that George was born Apr. 11.
Morelli shared the same photo on her feed with a caption that all new parents can relate to: “4 weeks ago today, our daughter came into the world and changed everything. We are so happy, so grateful and so tired.”
The couple has been married since 2017 and met in 2012 on the set of Orange Is the New Black, where Wiley played Poussey Washington. Morelli proposed to Wiley four years later and they tied the knot in the same location—Palm Springs, California. You couldn’t write a better script for this little family!
—Sarah Shebek
Featured image credit: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com
Among the lessons of the pandemic is that family matters—more than perhaps we ever realized. To be sure, over the past year many of us found creative ways to stay connected with family in other cities or countries, hosting holiday Zoom sessions and virtual family reunions, posting smart-phone videos of graduations, and other rites-of-passage to our preferred social media platforms. But flat-screen interactions by their very nature lack a third dimension, meaning depth—depth of feeling, of understanding, of intimacy. The months of enforced separations and make-do virtual encounters have heightened our appreciation for the value of face-to-face interactions and the comfort of human touch.
Prolonged separations of the pandemic have been especially hard on grandparents, whether they live in the same neighborhood as their grandchildren, or an ocean away. Between the enforced travel restrictions and their own increased vulnerability, many, perhaps most, grandparents have had to step away from familiar, sometimes frequent, and always cherished, interactions with grandchildren. With vaccines in arms and restrictions lifting, grandparents everywhere are reuniting with their families, returning to the warm embrace and open affection of their grandchildren.
While the second Sunday in May is Mother’s Day, we thought it was a fitting month, and an opportune time, to also honor grandmothers—and the interdependence of generations—in our May book choices. The selected stories feature traditional and non-traditional grandmas (storytellers, protectors, and confidantes) and the children who love them—in beautifully written prose that all will enjoy.
Grades Kindergarten to Second
Have Fun, Molly Lou Melon written by Patty Lovell, illustrated by David Catrow
Young Molly Lou is reminded by her grandmother that when she was little, she made her toys and fun out of nothing. The fun came from her mind and the simple things around her like cardboard boxes and nature. Molly Lou experiences this same fun and when a new girl, Gertie, moves in next door. Molly shares the fun and Gertie is amazed. The main theme of the book is written on the back: “The Best Thing to Play with Is a Huge Imagination.” A good message about the value of being resourceful, versus heading straight to technology. The beautiful pictures work well to present a cute and simple lesson on the value of good old-fashioned play, just like Grandma used to do. Enjoy the entire series of Molly Lou Melonbooks.
Grades 3-4
Strega Nona written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola
This timeless Caldecott winner is written and illustrated by the legendary Tomie dePaola. Nona is translated into grandmother, and that is what this woman is to one entire town. She helps single young women find husbands, cures warts, and provides fellow villagers with ongoing support. She comes across goofy Big Anthony, who she offers a job as well as a place to stay with her. Strega Nona trusts him, but of course, he fails, and she is there to protect him and teach him an important lesson at the end. This funny, meaningful and exciting tale shows the importance of respecting one’s elders, and the value of a village matriarch. There are many sequels to this tale worth reading as well.
Grades 5-8
When the Sea Turned to Silver written by Grace Lin
This breathtaking, full-color illustrated fantasy inspired by Chinese folklore was a National Book Award Finalist and is a companion to the Newbery Honor winner Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. The main story follows Pinmei—her grandmother is a storyteller, and people from near and far come to listen to her seemingly endless tales. But one day, the Emperor imprisons her. Legends are interspersed throughout, here retold by Amah, to her stonecutter cellmate, and also by Pinmei, to those she meets on her journey to rescue her Amah. This beautiful tribute to storytelling, the power of folklore, and how, through stories, we can find truth and inspiration.
Chirp written by Kate Messner
When Mia moves to Vermont the summer after seventh grade, she’s recovering from the broken arm she got falling off a balance beam. And packed away in the moving boxes under her clothes and gymnastics trophies is a secret she’d rather forget. Mia’s change in scenery brings day camp, new friends, and time with her beloved grandmother. But Gram is convinced someone is trying to destroy her cricket farm. Is it sabotage or is Gram’s thinking impaired from the stroke she suffered months ago? Mia and her friends set out to investigate, but can they uncover the truth in time to save Gram’s farm? And will that discovery empower Mia to confront the secret she’s been hiding—and find the courage she never knew she had? In a compelling story rich with friendship, science, and summer fun, a girl finds her voice while navigating the joys and challenges of growing up.
Keira Pride is the Head Librarian at Stratford School, the leading independent private school founded with a vision of creating a unique, multi-dimensional, educational foundation for children. As Stratford's Head Librarian, she manages the library services department across campuses throughout Northern and Southern California.
Llama Llama Day is May 1—and Penguin Young Readers wants to help your young reader celebrate. The beloved book series is back with new titles, including the cute character’s first push-and-pull tabbed book.
Llama Llama Seasons of Fun is an all-new adventure for your kiddo. Not only is this kid lit pick a chance for your child to enjoy one of their fave literary characters all over again, it’s also awesomely interactive.
Photo: Penguin Random House
The push-and-pull tabs of Llama Llama Seasons of Fun ($12.99) give your busy kid a way to get hands-on and interact with the book as you read the tall tale with them. This new Anna Dewdney book debuts Jun 29 but if your kiddo can’t wait until June, Llama Llama Meets the Babysitter launches May 4 and Llama Llama Loves His Mama is available right now!
Along with the new books, celebrate Llama Llama Day with a few fun-filled family activities. Little Gym will host Llama Llama playdates at 175 locations throughout the country, starting May 1. You can book a 30-minute private playdate that’s filled with Llama Llamap-themed games and more.
As if three new books and private playdates aren’t enough, there’s still more fun to be had for Llama Llama Day. Share pics of your littles and their favorite Llama Llama books and enter the Fan Photo Contest (starting May 1). Follow the Penguin Kids Instagram page for more info and to see pics.
What would happen if Leslie Knope ran for class president? You came to know, love, and laugh with Amy Poehler’s comedic character as the perky Pawnee bureaucrat on Parks and Rec. Now Knope is back and running for class pres!
Parks and Recreation: Leslie for Class President!is a family-friendly look at a younger Knope and a few of her hilariously memorable Parks and Rec pals. Written by Robb Pearlman, illustrated by Melanie Demmer and published by Little, Brown Young Readers, this picture book is a can’t-miss for fans of the show and their kiddos.
Photo: Little, Brown Young Readers
Based on characters from the seven-season-long show, this comic look into a little Knope’s world follows Leslie as she campaigns for Pawnee Elementary class president. Not only will you get a kick out of the comic characters and their younger selves, but your child will also enjoy the tall tales of Knope, Ben, Ann and more!
Find Parks and Recreation: Leslie for Class President! at Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, Ebooks.com, and Kobo for $9.99 starting Jun. 29, 2021.
Disney recently announced the upcoming release of a brand-new short from Pixar Animation. Based on Tina Fey’s sarcastically witty soul 22 from the 2020 animated hit flick Soul, the short explores the meaning of life and more!
The prequel to Soul, titled 22 vs. Earth, tells the tale of soul 22 and her attempt at a rebellion in The Great Before. Instead of entering Earth, 22 has other things in mind—namely staying exactly where she is.
photo courtesy of Disney/Pixar
Not only does 22 refuse to go to Earth, she teams up with five other new souls to rebel against the rules. 22 vs. Earth director and 21-year Pixar veteran, Kevin Nolting, said in a press release, “While making ‘Soul,’ we talked about the why of a new soul not wanting to live on Earth, but it didn’t ultimately belong in that movie.”
Nolting added, “22 vs. Earth was a chance to explore some of the unanswered questions we had about why 22 was so cynical. As a fairly cynical person myself, it felt like perfect material.”
22 vs. Earth will stream on Disney+ starting Apr. 30!
Arnold Schwarzenegger is back—and he’s coming to the small screen in an all-new animated series. Not only does this superhero-themed adventure star Schwarzenegger, it’s the brainchild of none other than Stan Lee.
Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten is one of the last creations from the icon. Now your littles can get to know Lee and his completely creative form of genius in a totally new way.
With 26 half hour episodes, there’s plenty of animated awesomeness for your kiddos to enjoy. This children’s series tells the tale of Captain Fantastic, a superhero-turned-kindergarten teacher. With laughs, action and even a lesson or two, this soon-to-be fave series has everything your kiddos want in a new show and so much more.
Find Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten on Kartoon Channel!, a free streaming platform for kids, starting Friday, Apr. 23.
Raffi is back with a brand-new children’s book! The beloved musician is known for his kiddo lit pick Everything Grows—and now he’s adding another storybook board book to the series.
Rise and Shine is Raffi’s newest board book and it drops in stores and online starting May 4 with a suggested retail price of $7.99.
photo: Penguin Random House
The new children’s title is based on Raffi’s song of the same name and will feature illustrations from artist Sydney Hanson. Rise and Shine tells the tale of animals waking up in the forest and starting off on their adventurous days. Your tot can follow the forest animals and learn more about the ways to greet the new morning.
This perfect pick for kiddos ages zero to three is more than a book to read. Your littles can sing along with the story, adding a magical musical element to Rise and Shine!
You can preorder the book now for $7.99 on Amazon.
Now, the Rebel Girls have teamed up with global learning platform Kahoot! for a very special series of online, educational games designed to teach and empower children everywhere. Read on to get the scoop.
Using digital games on the Kahoot! platform, Rebel Girls will shine a light on Women’s history like never before. Each gaming experience will be curated and released in honor of Black History Month and Women’s History Month. Games will be dedicated to learning more about phenomenal Black women, with quizzes like “Extraordinary Women Throughout Black History” and lessons like “Build a Business Like Madam CJ Walker,” allowing kids to learn in an immersive way.
“Too often, children’s books and education do not adequately recognize or celebrate women’s accomplishments,” said Rebel Girls Head of Digital Content, Lilly Workneh. “Rebel Girls is filling the gap and excited to partner with Kahoot! to bring these stories to life in delightful and fun ways through our new slate of online games.”
Other games will highlight Rebel Girls’ four key categories: leaders, champions, creators, and inventors. Kids can learn a diverse range of women and will be tested on history and the legends who shaped it.
“Empowering learners to reach their full potential is our purpose at Kahoot!, so teaming up with Rebel Girls to empower and inspire children is an amazing fit,” said Craig Narveson, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Kahoot!. “I’m a huge fan of Rebel Girls, and have seen the positive impact of their books with my own 7-year-old daughter. I couldn’t be more excited to join forces with Rebel Girls to bring stories of extraordinary women to life in a new and interactive way for children around the world.”
