Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos by Lucy Knisley
Reviewed by: Susie Rivera, Reference Specialist
Genre: Graphic Novel Memoir
Suggested Age Adults
What is This Book About? Lucy Knisley candidly talks about her own pregnancy journey, starting with infertility issues and miscarriage. Her pregnancy experience was far from magical as she suffered from horrible morning sickness, and almost died from eclampsia. The graphic novel also highlights some of the history and science of reproductive health.
My Review: Parts of this graphic novel memoir are heartbreaking and some parts are hilarious. I could identify with this author as I recently had my second baby last spring. Knisley captures the good and the bad of being pregnant and giving birth. You can have a birth plan and expectations for what it will be like at home with a newborn, but in reality, all of that can go out the window in a flash, and all you can do adapt. I also enjoyed the illustrations as well as the information/statistics she uses to educate the reader. I definitely want to check out her other graphic novels after reading this one.
Rating: 5/5
Three Words That Describe This Book: Realistic, informative, funny
Give this a try if you like: Relish: My Life in the Kitchen, Gender Queer, Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations
Falling in love with Nigel Bevelstoke, Viscount Turner, as a child because of his kindness to her, Miranda Cheever is reunited with him years later, finding a lonely and harsh man, devastated by loss. But Miranda can see beyond the bitterness to the man she has loved for years–a love that she has recorded in her secret diary.
When Lady Delilah Chambers finds herself stranded at a country inn on a rain-swept evening, she’s forced to fend off a group of ruffians with the help of a handsome gentleman. Irresistibly drawn to each other, Leela and the stranger spend one reckless night in each other’s arms and then go their separate ways. But the very next day Leela receives the shock of her life when she meets the duke who is set on wedding her beloved stepdaughter.
When headstrong West Indian heiress Patience Jordan questioned her English husband’s mysterious suicide, she lost everything: her newborn son, Lionel, her fortune, and her freedom. Falsely imprisoned, she risks her life to be near her child until The Widow’s Grace gets her hired as her own son’s nanny. But working for his unsuspecting new guardian, Busick Strathmore, Duke of Repington, has perils of its own.
Five years ago, Lady Violet Grey and Lord James Audley met, fell in love, and got married. Four years ago, they had a fight to end all fights, and have barely spoken since. Wanting to teach her estranged husband a lesson, Violet decides to feign an illness of her own. James quickly sees through it, but he decides to play along in an ever-escalating game of manipulation, featuring actors masquerading as doctors, threats of Swiss sanitariums, faux mistresses, and a lot of flirtation between a husband and wife who might not hate each other as much as they thought.
After an unconventional upbringing, Ben is perfectly content with the quiet, predictable life of a country vicar, free of strife or turmoil. When he’s asked to look after an absent naval captain’s three wild children, he reluctantly agrees, but instantly falls for the hellions. And when their stern but gloriously handsome father arrives, Ben is tempted in ways that make him doubt everything.
Post by Susie Rivera, Reference Specialist
#FDL is a weekly update on all things Fondulac District Library and books.
(Sung to the tune of “Six Little Ducks”)
Colorful mittens for me and you
Red ones, yellow ones, blue ones too.
But the one pair of mittens
that rhymes with fellow,
They’re my favorite mittens,
they’re the color yellow!
Continue with rhymes pairs for each color:
bed/red
shoe/blue
bean/green
crown/brown
sink/pink
track/black
Associating pleasurable things with reading helps kids who may not LOVE reading see that it can be fun. This is not a new idea, we can do this every day by making a cozy reading nook for kids to read in and creating opportunities where reading is pleasurable. Book choice is a huge help with this too. During this winter season, you might choose a summery book, a heartwarming book, or revisit old favorites. Some other cozy suggestions include: reading in bed, cuddle with a pet, wrap up in a cozy blanket, sit by the fireplace, curl up in a big rocking chair or wear fuzzy socks.
(to the tune of “Head and Shoulders”)
Hat and mittens, coat and boots, coat and boots,
Hat and mittens, coat and boots, coat and boots,
Scarf and snow pants, warm socks too,
Hat and mittens, coat and boots, coat and boots!
Why do so many kids love unicorns? A lot of the time, they’ll say it’s because unicorns are pretty and sparkly or because they can do magic. Maybe they like that unicorns are often portrayed as being special and different from other creatures. Whatever the reason, unicorns are really popular, and there are all kinds of stories about them. If you know someone who’s a big unicorn fan, it might be fun to introduce them to some of the not-so-magical unicorns that have been appearing in books lately. These books are great for teaching kids that it’s okay to not be perfect and sometimes feel grumpy or act silly. Even kids who don’t love unicorns will find something to like about these books. Check out these examples:
What better way to escape a long winter at home than with books?! Get cozy on your couch and Travel the World from Home with FDL’s Adult Winter Reading Program. Patrons age 18 and older are invited to read books or magazines from the library January 4 through February 27, and record your progress to enter the prize drawing! Register and track your progress with the Beanstack app or online at fondulaclibrary.beanstack.org/reader365. Participants can also pick up a reading log from the drive-up window or download and print the form below. Need help getting started? Talk to a librarian for more information, and be sure to submit your reading log before February 27!
Hi, everyone! My name is Miss Haley, and I’m so happy you’re joining me for our bilingual story time today. Bilingual means more than one language, so I’ll be reading and singing songs in both English and Spanish. Today’s bilingual story time is going to be all about playing in the snow. It might not be snowy where you are just yet, but we’re going to have lots of fun singing songs and reading books about building snowmen, making snow angels, sledding, and more. First, let’s get started with our welcome song.
Great job with that song! Next, we’ll sing a song that will help us get our sillies out so we can focus on story time. Hold your hands out wide like this and follow along with me!
Written and illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats and read with the permission of Penguin Young Readers Group.
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Literacy Tip:
Before we move on to our next activity, I wanted to share a quick early literacy tip with caregivers. There are six early literacy skills we want to help kids build between the ages of zero and five to get them ready to read and write. One of those is narrative skills, or the ability to tell a story and understand story structure. One way to help your child develop narrative skills is to read a book with them and then ask them to retell the story back to you, another family member, or even their favorite toy. They will get better and better at recalling and sharing details the more you do this with them. So maybe later today after you watch this story time, ask your child to tell you the story of The Snowy Day and ask them questions if they get stuck. You could ask, “What did the little boy do after he climbed all the way to the top of the snowy hill?”
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Song: I’m a Little Snowman / Soy un muñeco de nieve
Written by Harriet Ziefert, illustrated by Ekaterina Trukhan, and read with the permission of Blue Apple Books.
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Mango Languages App:
Did you know that we have an app available to FDL cardholders that can help you and your child learn a new language? It’s called Mango, and you can sign up for free using your library card number. I just started using it myself since I’m still learning Spanish, and I love that it lets you practice having conversations and gives you notes on the cultural and grammatical context for different words and phrases. You can even record your voice and compare it to native speakers. This could be a great tool for you to use at home to learn a new language together with your child. Check it out by clicking here!
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Craft: Glitter Snow Angel (Ángel de nieve brillante)
Craft kits are available to pick up from the drive-up window or the atrium while supplies last.
Supplies needed at home:
Liquid glue
A tray or plastic grocery bag to catch glitter
Included in kit:
Blue cardstock paper
Foam snow angel
Bag of glitter snow
Two glitter glue pens
Instructions:
Place your paper on a tray or a plastic grocery bag that’s been cut open to increase its size. This will be our workstation and will help catch the glitter for easier cleanup.
Glue the foam snow angel to the middle of the blue cardstock paper. The paper orientation can be portrait or landscape.
Next, use your liquid glue to “draw” wing shapes on each side of the snow angel and fill the wings in with glue.
Use a spoon or your fingers to sprinkle snow glitter onto the wings and completely cover the glue.
If you would like to add glitter snow anywhere else on the page, do so now. Then gently press the glitter into the glue with a spoon or your hands to help it stick.
Carefully bring your paper over to a garbage can and gently shake your paper over the can to get rid of the excess glitter. Or you can do this over a paper towel or paper plate and reuse the glitter.
Take your paper back to your work station and use the glitter glue pens to create any designs you want.
Once you’re happy with your work of art, leave the paper on a flat surface overnight so the glitter glue can dry completely. You now have a sparkly snow angel!
We’re just about done, so thank you all for joining me today! I hope I’ll see you at our next bilingual story time on Thursday, February 4th, and you can join us again next week for another fun story time. Let’s sing one more song together to say goodbye for now. This one is a call and response song, so when I point to you, just repeat after me, okay? Here we go! ¡Ahí vamos!
The weather is getting colder – so it’s the perfect time to snuggle up and explore YA Fantasy audiobooks in winter-themed settings!
These audiobook titles are available for instant download on Hoopla. Click on any title below to log onto your Hoopla account (using your library card number and PIN/password) and start listening today!
Plain-spoken, headstrong Ophelia cares little about appearances. Her ability to read the past of objects is unmatched in all of Anima, and, what’s more, she possesses the ability to travel through mirrors, a skill passed down to her from previous generations. Her idyllic life is disrupted, however, when she is promised in marriage to Thorn, a taciturn and influential member of a distant clan. She must leave all she knows behind and follow her fiancé to Citaceleste, the capital of a cold, icy ark known as the Pole, where danger lurks around every corner and nobody can be trusted. There, in the presence of her inscrutable future husband, she slowly realizes that she is a pawn in a political game that will have far-reaching ramifications not only for her but for her entire world.
For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—is a chilling presence she can’t seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human… until the cold makes him shift back again. Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It’s her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human—or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.
At 9, Tiffany Aching defeated the cruel Queen of Fairyland. At 11, she banished an ancient body-stealing evil. At 13, Tiffany faces a new challenge: a boy. And boys can be a bit of a problem when you’re thirteen . . . . But the Wintersmith isn’t exactly a boy. He is Winter itself-snow, gales, icicles-all of it. When he has a crush on Tiffany, he may make her roses of ice, but his nature is blizzards and avalanches. And he wants Tiffany to stay in his gleaming, frozen world. Forever. Tiffany will need all her cunning to make it to Spring. She’ll also need her friends, from junior witches to the legend…
Frozen meets The Bloody Chamber in this feminist fantasy reimagining of the Snow White fairytale.
Sixteen-year-old Mina is motherless, her magician father is vicious, and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone—has never beat at all, in fact, but she’d always thought that fact normal. She never guessed that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. Fifteen-year-old Lynet looks just like her late mother, and one day she discovers why: a magician created her out of snow in the dead queen’s image, at her father’s order. But despite being the dead queen made flesh, Lynet would rather be like her fierce and regal stepmother, Mina. She gets her wish when her father makes Lynet queen of the southern territories, displacing Mina. Now Mina is starting to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must decide what to do-and who to be-to win back the only mother she’s ever known…or else defeat her once and for all.
Deep in his terrifying realm underground, the cold and forbidding Goblin King casts a dark shadow over nineteen-year-old Liesl. Her grandmother had always warned her to follow the old laws, for every year on the longest night of winter the Goblin King will emerge into the waking world in search of his eternal bride. Sensible and plain, Liesl knows it’s her duty to keep her beautiful sister safe from harm, but she wishes only to indulge in her wild, captivating music, composed and played in secret in the Goblin King’s honor. When her beautiful sister Käthe is stolen by the Goblin King, Liesl knows she must set aside her childish fantasies to journey to the Underground and save her. Drawn despite herself to the strange, beautiful world she finds–and the mysterious man who rules it–she finds herself facing an impossible choice. With time and the old laws working against her, Liesl must discover who she truly is before her fate is sealed.
Beauty knows the Beast’s forest in her bones — and in her blood. After all, her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering its secrets. So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters out of their comfortable home among the aristocracy and back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas — or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman — but when Yeva’s father goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance. The Beast. Deaf to her sisters’ protests, Yeva hunts this strange creature back into his own territory-a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of magical creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin, or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?
Ernest Cline finally released Ready Player Two in November! In our latest book talk, Jimi shares why he loves this sequel to the acclaimed Ready Player One, and why he thinks you will, too! Place a hold on Ready Player Two and let us know if you like it. It’s available from FDL in multiple formats, including audiobook, large print, eBook, and eAudiobook!
Sarah Booth Delaney, the spunky private eye, tackles a series of strange “accidents” as she and her besties travel during the holidays. Holiday cheer turns quickly into holiday fear in the latest in holiday mysteries by Haines. Available in both print and on Libby.
Three of the most prolific and best-known cozy mystery writers, Joanne Fluke, Laura Levine and Leslie Meier, have combined forces in this enjoyable short story collection. Grab some treats and hot chocolate. Curl up and read. Available in large print, Axis 360, and Libby.
Investigative reporter Charlie Dickens faces the most challenging puzzles of career and they involve his wife. His investigation parallels the activities of
the Dahlia Garden Club as they pursue their activities and the mysteries unfold. Also available in large print and on Libby.
Lawyer Andy Carpenter helps with a young boy’s Christmas dream of obtaining a coat for his mother, a sweater for his dachshund, and finding his father. Also available from Axis 360 and on Libby.
