For you old school Sesamephiles like myself - this new book Street Gang looks like must read material. It’s the behind the scenes and under the fur look at Sesame Street’s beginnings and evolution through the decades. You can read the review from the NYT here - or if you picked up last weeks People (featuring Matt Logelin) profiled the book as well.

And tune in to Scrubs this evening. I hear the Sesame Street Muppets are making a guest appearance on t to teach the folks at Sacred Heart a thing or two about compassion.

Alright, so it’s almost over, but I was busy, okay?

What with crashing markets (worried Cribsheeters can click here for Kara McGuire’s tips on budgeting in these perilous times), my own newspaper’s financial woes and what not, a girl can get distracted.

But back to Banned Books Week. This lovely idea of celebrating freedom of thought and speech has been observed since 1982 by the American Library Association and other groups. And since this is not Iran (or Alaska), the books are not actually banned, just, well, frequently challenged. Usually by well-meaning folks trying to protect children, so Cribsheeters will be interested to know that kids’ books have frequently made the list.

I was pleased to find that several of our bookshelf favorites are among those that have been challenged - “In the Night Kitchen” by Maurice Sendak, “Mommy Laid an Egg (Or Where Do Babies Come From?)” by Babette Cole and more than one book by the fabulous Shel Silverstein, whose serial killer mug on dustjackets is enough to warrant censure. Click here for a bunch of banned kids book reviews Strollerderby bloggers on Babble.com.

And here’s the list of books most frequently challenged in 2007.

What’s your favorite banned book, for kids or otherwise? And which ones would you stay away from?

There’s a feel and a mood in a small bookstore that you just don’t get at a Barnes & Noble.

That’s why I love popping into the Best of Times store in Red Wing. I especially like the fact that the bestsellers of the day are interspersed with older, surprise picks by the store owner. The girls wander around petting the life-sized stuffed dogs or pop into the kids’ house in back and I get to browse unhurriedly.

That’s where I recently found “Wuhu Diary: On Taking My Adopted Daughter Back to Her Hometown in China” by Emily Prager.

Published in 2002, it’s the story of a New York novelist’s two-month sojourn with her four-year-old, LuLu, in the southern Chinese city where Lulu was adopted. Four? Isn’t that too young, you ask? Prager explains that she wanted Lulu to see the country and the people through a child’s eyes, in a more pure way, if you will, instead of reacting to poverty and shabbiness.

It’s a lovely idea and the book is filled with evocative details - from the people who work at their hotel, to LuLu’s Chinese school with its unexpected roller-skating sessions and the public parks and lakes they stumble on during hot, humid afternoon walks.

The trip - traveling to literally find one’s self - is Prager’s gift to her daughter, and the book is a love letter to remember it by. By now, I’m sure LuLu is old enough to read and understand what she couldn’t then, including Prager’s internal battles over when to let go and when to hold on.

I haven’t adopted babies myself, but Prager’s themes will resonate with any mom: (more…)

Fellow blogger Jaime, of Greengirls  fame,  alerted Cribsheet to a new site called lookybook. I admit, I’m a tactile person when it comes to turning pages, but this site let’s you take board books and picture books for a test drive before buying. Pretty nifty.

I’m inspired, we need new material at our house. Go, Dog. Go! (although a classic) is getting kind of stale. Even when we’re driving around I hear a little voice from the backseat say “Stop dog stop! The light is red. Go, dog. Go! It’s green ahead” now each time we stop at a light. (Hey, who are you calling a dog? Backseat driver!)

Linky here to lookybook!

Canadian children’s book author Melanie Watt was at Wild Rumpus recently, reading from her Scaredy Squirrel series and drawing to the delight of her young audience, which included my Zoe. Here’s a Q&A with Cribsheet.

Where’d you get the idea for Scaredy Squirrel?
I wanted to write about a book about facing our fear of the unknown. A squirrel felt like a good character to embody this because they are fearful and alert creatures. I needed an animal with a special hidden talent that he could only discover by jumping into the unknown and so, a squirrel who is actually a flying squirrel was for me a great jump start to my story.

The nut tree is a nice metaphor for a home, shelter, food and safety, all of these factors and observing our society and how we are bombarded with warnings all around us, all inspired me to write Scaredy Squirrel.

Is there a little bit of Scaredy Squirrel in you?
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