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Giveaway:Testing the Ice

noirmom1 — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:19:10 +0000

Testing the Ice by Sharon Robinson

In the early 1950s, legendary baseball hero Jackie Robinson literally
“tested the ice” for his kids who so eagerly wanted to skate on the frozen
lake near their home. Under Sharon Robinson’s skillful authorship and Kadir
Nelson’s vivid illustrations, TESTING THE ICE also becomes a stunning
metaphor for her father’s remarkable racial breakthrough.

TESTING THE ICE GIVEAWAY

One (1) winner receives a TESTING THE ICE prize pack! (The grand prize pack is valued at $52.99)

* Kidorable Hat, Glove & Scarf set (random styles – see attached image)

Four (4) additional winners will receive: The books are valued at $16.99 each

* copy of Testing the Ice (The books are valued at $16.99 each)

Shipping Guidelines:

Prizing is only available to United States mailing address only.
(International readers can enter if they have a friend in the States who can
accept their prizes by mail.)

To enter to win the Testing the Ice Giveaway:

You MUST be a subscriber to www.Noir Mommies.com
Entry Deadline November 2nd
Good Luck!

For additional entries:

1 entries- tweet this contest

1 entries- Email this contest to a friend and CC: DChatman@NoirMommies.com

1 entries- send this contest as a Facebook message to friends and include Diedra Chatman in the list of recipients

1 entries- post this link to your facebook page http://noirmommies.com/testing-ice.html

5 entries- Blog about this giveaway. Leave me a link

Please list each entry as a separate comment.

TESTING THE ICE book trailer

FIND IT ON AMAZON

http://www.amazon.com/Story-About-Jackie-Robinson-Testing/dp/0545052513/ref=
sr_1_1?ie=UTF8
<http://www.amazon.com/Story-About-Jackie-Robinson-Testing/dp/0545052513/ref
=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254753778&sr=8-1>
&s=books&qid=1254753778&sr=8-1

Testing the Ice Review

noirmom1 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:58:40 +0000

Several months back I wrote an article titled “Books for Just for Me” that read like this:

“This past week I went to several book stores searching for books with illustrations of brown children. What I found was bleek and saddening. We, as parents want to encourage our children to read. But why should all of the books be pictures of children that do not look like our kids.

Of course you can always find books by black authors online….but I want to be able to spend time in the book store with my daughter when she gets older for her to build a desire to read.

What is required to get more books in the store for brown children?
Is this our fault? Are we not buying books so the demand is not there?”

Well, I was contacted by a media company to do a review for a children’s book. Without hesitation my first reply would always be yes, for a children’s book. To my surprise, I never imagined how moved I would be by this children’s story and this book will be added to my list of favorites.

Testing the Ice by Sharon Robinson

After finding out the book was by the daughter of the legendary Jackie Robinson this only added to my over excitement. I love to read my daughter and a new book in my home is the equivalent to new shoes for Mommie.

I was anticipating the arrival of my new book the moment I hit send on the email agreeing to do the book review. When the book finally arrived I was taken back, the beautiful illustrations are breathtaking well done is an understatement. I was already out done before I read the words on the pages.

I finally sat down to read the story to my daughter and fell in love with the Robinson Family. Page by page, I developed a different perspective of the man, the legend Jackie Robinson. This legend was not from the perspective of the avid baseball fan but through the eyes of a child. To every child their parent’s are a hero/legend.

When we as parents find wonderful stories of brown children and illustrations of brown children we must do our part to support the book. We cannot later complain that there are not many Books for Brown Children if we will not support the books. We must create the demand for the stores to place books for our children on the shelf.

Suggested Readers:

This is a story of children’s adventures, a child’s admiration for their father, family, wholesome fun and most importantly bravery and courage to break down barriers.

All Children (male and female, all races) should add this book to their collection of books or libraries
This book makes an excellent Birthday or Holiday Gift
Parents: if this book is not at your local book store, library or school library please suggest management orders this book

PROS

A wonderful story of a legendary man/father
Easy read
Beautiful illustrations
Reasonably priced
Noir Mommies is giving away 4 books and 1 prize pack

Family Vacations

noirmom1 — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 04:00:59 +0000

If you are looking for a family vacation, I have found the family vacation jackpot. My family recently traveled to Beaches at Turks & Caicos. Not only is the island oasis a perfect getaway its perfect for children! When searching for a resort in Turks & Caicos I selected Beaches because they were listed as kids friendly but that did not describe just how kids friendly this resort really is.

While checking in upon arrival, the host/customer service rep realized we were traveling with a small child and arranged for a crib to be sent to our room. This was a huge relief to me because while packing I could not stop contemplating whether to travel with my daughter’s pack and play yard, to have a secure place for her to sleep. Every restaurant on the premises had plenty of high chairs and booster seats, a parent’s gold mind, right? In addition all of the restaurants served an adult menu and kid friendly choices for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Then there were the Sesame Street shows. WOW! I sang along to just about every song. In addition to the Sesame Street shows there is a Sesame Street camp where kids participate in the same type activities you would find watching Sesame Street. Not to mention there were always the Sesame Street’s characters to keep the children interested.

Beaches offered something for children of all ages. Children are grouped by age, the kids are off all day long doing activities around the resort. The activities looked so cool, at one point during my vacation we passed smaller children dressed as pirates participating in an excursion another instance the smaller kids were on the beach coloring. There are kids/teen billiard rooms, xbox rooms, kids water parks, never a moment of your child saying “I am bored”.

Camp activities last all day and evening for children of all ages, including a nursery newborns. Of course, you can drop off and pick up your children at your leisure. Then there is after hours care for the nights the Mr. & Mrs. Wish to rekindle the magic.

Beaches makes the most of a family vacation offering family activities and quality time, kids are able to break off and participate in activities with kids their age and enjoy the kids amenities, parents/adults are able to enjoy adult activities while not having to worry about their children. All the while Beaches also offers the same amenities as a high end resort.

Vacations Suggestions:

Select a location that offers activities for the entire family, kid friendly is nice, kid amenities is a must!

Make sure the location allows adult activities when it is bedtime for children

If your children are older or there are numerous adults pack walk talkies so the groups are able to keep in touch

Vacation with friends and family. The more the merrier, large groups get bigger discounts. In addition to the discounts the bonding is priceless.

Search for deals!

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Reading is Fun

PurpleLady722 — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 08:00:31 +0000

Summer Reading List

Summer is a time to relax and a time to share precious fun filled hours at a more leisurely pace. The summer also offers a great opportunity for students to engage in reading wonderful books that will enrich their academic experience. Below you will find the required book reading list for grades k-5. Please encourage your child to read as much as possible. Your child may read up or down on the list if their particular grade level list seems to be too difficult or too easy. The list will also be loaded on our school’s website over the summer. Enjoy your summer! Enjoy your downtime! We look forward to seeing how well you are reading when you return! Have the best summer ever!!!

Grade	Title	Author
K entering 1st	Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?	Bill Martin
K	Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus	Mo Willems
K	Duck on Bike	David Shannon
K	Where is the Green Sheep?	Fox, Mem and Horacek, Judy
K	Kitten’s First Full Moon	Kevin Henkes
K	Rosie’s Walk	Pat Huchins
K	All the Colors of the Earth	Sheila Hamanaka
K	Cars and How they Go	Joanna Cole
K	Is it Red? Is it Yellow? Is it Blue?	Tana Hoban
K	Frog Counts to Ten	John Liebler
K	All the Colors of the Earth	Sheila Hamanaka
1^st entering second	*Days with Frog and Toad	Arnold Lobel
1	* Junie .B. Jones First Grader (At Last)	Barbra Park
1	Fox and His Friend	Edward Marshall
1	When Will I Read?	Miriam Cohen
1	Owen	Kevin Henkes
1	The Very Busy Spider	Eric Carle
1	Rainbow Fish	Marcus Pfister
1	And I Mean It, Stanley	Crosby Bonsall
1	Green Eggs and Ham	Dr. Seuss
1	Cars and How they Go	Joanna Cole
2^nd entering third	* Horrible Harry and the Ant Invasion (or any book in the series)	Suzy Kline
2	Second Grade Friends	Mirian Gohen
2	*Amelia Bedelia (series or any book in the series)	Peggy Parish
2	Doctor De Soto	William Steig
2	Something Beautiful	Sharon Dennis Wyeth
2	Ramona Quimby Age 8	Beverly Cleary
2	Ben and Me	Robert Lawson
2	The Talking Eggs	Robert D. San Souci
2	The Candy Corn Contest	Patricia Reilly Giff
2	*Henry and Mudge (series or any book in the series)	Cynthia Rylant
3^rd entering 4th	Jumanji Charlotte’s Web	Chris Van Allsburg E.B. White
3	I was a Third Grade Spy	Mary Jane Auch
3	How to Be Cool in the Third Grade	Betsy Duffey
3	*Cam Jansen The Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds (series or any book in the series)	David A. Adler
3	Pink and Say by	Patricia Polacco
3	Pinky and Rex	James Howe
3	Shelia Rae the Brave	Kevin Henkes
3	Mrs. Katz and Tush	Patricia Palacco
3	Through Grandpa’s Eyes	Patricia MacLachlan
3	Be Good to Eddie	Virginia Fleming
4^th entering 5th	Uncle Jed’s Barbershop	Margaree King Mitchell
4	Charlotte’s Web	E.B. White
4	The Mouse and the Motorcycle	Beverly Clearly
4	Talk About A Family	Eloise Greenfield
4	Wayside School is Falling Down	Louis Sachar
4	Julian, Secret Agent	Ann Cameron
4	Encyclopedia Brown Gets His Man	Donald J. Sobol
4	Aliens Ate My Homework	Bruce Coville
4	Harriet, the Spy	Louise Fitzhugh
4	You Can’t Eat your Chicken Pox Amber Brown	Paula Danziger

Fifth Grade will not be asked to turn their book list in next year but here are a few suggested titles for summer reading to enhance their fluency and comprehension.

5^th entering 6th	The Watson Go to Birmingham-1963	Christopher Curtis
5	The Skin I’m in	Sharon Flake
5	Maniac Magee	Jerry Spinelli
5	Spiders	Nick Bishop
5	Holes	Louis Sachar
5	Frindle	Andrew Clements
5	Lunch Money	Andrew Clements
5	Bridge to Terabithia	Katherine Paterson

[polldaddy poll="1676978"]

Books Just for Me

noirmom1 — Thu, 21 May 2009 19:05:20 +0000

This past week I went to Borders, Books-A-Million and Barnes and Noble looking/searching for books with illustrations of brown children. What I found was bleek and sadening. We, as parents want to encourage our children to read. But why should all of the books be pictures of children that do not look like our kids.

Ofcourse you can always find books by black authors online….but I want to be able to spend time in the book store with my daughter when she gets older for her to build a desire to read.

What is required to get more books in the store for brown children?
Is this our fault? Are we not buying books so the demand is not there?


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Reading is Fun
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