If You Ever Want to Bring a Piano to the Beach, Don't! by Elise Parsley

 If You Ever Want to Bring a Piano to the Beach, Don't! by Elise Parsley was published in 2016 and is just a cute as her book, If You Ever Want to Bring and Alligator to School, Don't. As I read and laughed at this book I thought of my oldest daughter and her addiction to her piano when she was young girl. I had to make her go play outside because she would stay on the bench and play piano all day otherwise. 

Parsley's illustrations are hilarious. Magnolia pushing her piano to the beach is the best. She says, "But on the way, your arms will get heavy. Then your legs will get draggy. So you'll find the perfect way to move the piano along." 

Her poor piano goes through a lot, and Magnolia is her typical emotional self. 

We've had some new donations to our NICU book project. We were low on hardbacks, but it seems that whatever we need seems to come our way.

Michelle Schwendiman sent these books over. They are so cute and were such a good price that I went and used some of our donated money to purchase a big stack of them. 

Books from our anonymous donor:

These are from Kohl's and ended up costing only $2 each. 

Max the Brave was sent to us from Theo's mom Britney Shaw. This is such a cute story. 

Liam's mom, Miranda Heinz, sent these cute board books.   

I've been so blessed by people who have chosen to give to our project. In our often chaotic world, it helps me see the good and know that we are contributing to literacy, gentleness, and the bond between parent and child. 

Link to our NICU book registry to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi was published in 2020. This book was originally published as Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X Kendi, and is a remix written by Jason Reynolds for teen readers. I am hoping our school district will add this book to our approved book list because I'd like to use it in my classroom. 

Our school librarian loaned me the school's copy, but I found I needed to annotate - a lot, so I bought my own copy. This book, while not a history book, details the roots of racism in our world and especially in the United States. 

One great thing about this book is it gives just enough information about many topics to make you want to learn more, so it becomes a great catalyst for research. It touches on so many things that are at the roots of systemic racism. This book makes me feel like we can do better and that we must to better. 

Page xvi; "There will come a time when we will love humanity, when we will gain the courage to fight for an equitable society for our beloved humanity, knowing, intelligently, that when we fight for humanity, we are fighting for ourselves." ~Ibram X. Kendi

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

Link to our NICU book registry to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.