Some Amazing Shoes (and Dresses) to Fill

Children have a way of seeing the possibilities in almost anything—a sword in a stick, a fortress in a cardboard box, a train tunnel in a toilet paper roll. It shouldn’t surprise anyone, then, when a child’s ability to envision the type of person or creature who would “fill” a particular article of clothing exceeds the imaginative power of many adults. Rosie Flo’s Coloring Book (Chronicle Books), a unique work given to the world of creative kids by English designer/mom Roz Streeten, honors this very phenomenon. By providing page after page of dresses sans damsels, Streeten sets her young readers free to flesh out the head, legs, arms of each picture—or, for that matter, to plant a beak, paw, or fin where a human appendage might otherwise fit. As a companion volume, Rosie Flo’s Garden Coloring Book picks up where the cherished original left off, and adds a few new twists—or fairies, gnomes, animals, and other garden dwellers, to be precise.

Finally, the third volume in this delightful set, Rosie Flo’s Animals Coloring Book, is themed entirely on the fauna of our world. Zebra-inspired gowns, pants tailored for monkeys, empty suits strolling beside bulldogs, this book is an invitation for animal lovers of any age to ponder the endless connections between our furry friends and ourselves, and to take our own lives a little less seriously. Whether as a welcome antidote for road trip boredom, an effective oil with which to grease your little one’s creative wheels, or a gift that’s just plain different, Streeten’s books are a timely throwback to the days when kids had time to imagine, and to let that image take on a life all its own. To order a personal copy of any of Roz Streeten’s books, visit Chronicle Books.com.

Louis Lives On

Pop Quizzity: In literature, what does it mean to truly value language? An answer could be gleaned, perhaps, from surveying the work of the word-coining master William Shakespeare or, on the other pole, of verbal uber-economist Ernest Hemingway. In children’s literature, however, the proof is in the pudding—or more specifically, in the texture of the pudding as it tickles the tongue, plays on the palette, and rolls down the roof of the mouth like a sliding rain. When Louis Armstrong Taught Me Scat (Chronicle Books), a word-wiggling giggling story of a young girl who is mentored by the Sultan of Scat himself, combines the playful prose of veteran children’s writer Muriel Harris Weinstein with the Coretta Scott King Award-winning talent of illustrator R. Gregory Christie to create a work that is an absolute pleasure to read aloud. Jazzy, smoky, melodic and happy, this dream yarn strings together lines of scat like links in a lip-loosening jingle, to the effect that anyone, young or old, who attempts to read it in a sober tone will find it impossible to keep the music embedded in Weinstein’s prose from bubbling to the surface. Even Christie’s colors are appropriately harmonious, beginning with a ragtime-rosy pallet of simple tones, and punctuated with spontaneous bursts of color at just the right measure. It is, at the end of the evening, a story of which Louis himself would have been proud, and more importantly, one which your children will want to hear again. To order a personal copy, visit Chronicle Books.com today.

Be sure to also enter our giveaways here.

Dairy Fine Bathing

Is it possible that milk “does a body good” in more ways than one? Any woman whose skin has ever been softly kissed by the smooth-as-velvet lathery richness of a milk-based soap would consider the question rhetorical. Referring to most beverages, the phrase “I’d gladly take a bath in it” is mere hyperbole. When it comes to milk, the phrase is quite literal. For as it turns out, as uber-soapmaker Anne L. Watson demonstrates in Milk Soapmaking (the indispensable companion to Smart Soapmaking), milk soaps made properly are well-known for a quality of luxurious buttery softness that is undeniable. Watson also proves, through the use of recipes as seductively named as Chocolate Silk, Cinnamon Oatmeal, or Avocado Cream, that once milk is added to the basic fat-and-lye combination at the heart of most soaps, the possibilities are deliciously far-reaching. For those of us who need help with the basic questions (Cow, goat, or plant milk? Whole or nonfat? Farm-fresh, or pasteurized?) of dairy, let alone the chemical quandaries of the soapmaking process itself, Anne once again acquits herself ably as a scholar of the suds and a natural communicator. We can’t all be professionals, but we can certainly show a little love for someone who knows her Shea Butter from her coconut oil (and isn’t afraid to use them). To order a personal copy of Milk Soapmaking, click here.

A Soap Ah-hah-pera

It unfolded like a scene from a PBS documentary on working-class homemakers driven to diabolical extremes by the current economy. I walked in on Tara unexpectedly as she labored in our kitchen over an unidentifiable substance; her eyes and hands covered by a bulging pair of industrial goggles and latex gloves, a white lab coat the only piece missing to complete the chemist’s ensemble. Aghast, I looked behind me to make sure no patrol cars were passing along our street, then quickly closed the door, trying to formulate a polite way to ask my wife why she had declined to tell me she was giving up coffee in favor of a much stronger home-mixed stimulant. Not to worry, she said, looking up at me through the goggles. It’s soap. Thus I came to learn that for the past few days, Tara had been researching the ancient practice of soapmaking, her education guided primarily by one Anne L. Watson, universally respected and loved author/crafter/curator of this lost art for thousands of aspiring soapers (and one of the few crafting icons out there today who actually invites beginners to contact her with the many questions they invariably have.)

Watson’s groundbreaking Smart Soapmaking isn’t the only book on the market that breaks down this obscure process, but it’s unquestionably the best book with which to begin. To be precise, it’s probably the most accessible, most reader-friendly, and most immediately useful container of information on the subject a first-time soapmaker could hope to find. Turning out a bar of soap is not as simple as it looks. It is, for one, dependent on a chemical reaction (saponification) that comes from mixing vegetable oil or animal fat with a strong alkali, and thus involves the use of some ingredients that are caustic, hazardous, and hide-the-children-while-I-pour-this powerful. Balancing fragrance with other elements also tends to require quite a bit of trial and error. Anne Watson’s wonderful recipes, however, combined with her attention to questions frequently asked by novices, all laid out in straightforward language, make for a feeling that anyone can do this, and that even if one fails at the process, at worst the failure will make for a great story. In other words, it’s not elementary, but thanks to Watson it’s far less mysterious. To visit her home page, to contact her, or to order your own copy of this invaluable book, visit www.annelwatson.com.

The soap pictured is my attempt at making Anne's Shea Butter Supreme recipe (her recommendation for your first batch of soap.)

The Story of a Love Come Home

When it comes to the talk that every parent must eventually have with his or her adopted child, two options present themselves. One is to obscure the facts, to dull the whens and hows and whys in hopes of avoiding any unsettling turns along memory lane. The other option, facilitated beautifully in Zoe Francesca’s My Family, My Journey: A Baby Book for Adoptive Families (Chronicle Books), is to celebrate the uniqueness of the adoptive experience by chronicling, not cloaking in secrecy, the milestones of the adoptive journey. From the “pre-family” days before a match was made, to the moment of choosing and of being chosen, to the many birthdays and benchmarks that follow, this cherished journal honors the special joys of adoption for parent and child alike. With areas for pictures, notes, lists, and items that can be gathered and kept in the enclosed envelope, it is a baby book in every way. At the same time, however, it is a reminder of the hidden treasures that lay waiting to be discovered in this process that is unlike any other in the world, the soul-blessing rewards that can only be known by an adoptive mother or father who has found his or her destiny delivered, tenderly as if by angel hands, in the incomparable form of a child. To order a personal copy of My Family, My Journey, visit Chronicle Books. Memories like these, after all, deserve a place as special as the people who make them.

Chronicle Books is extending a generous 30% off your purchase total and Free Shipping. Enter the code: WishingWillow when checking out.

Yankees Aren’t the Only Dandy Doodlers

What if doodling, the timeless art of stream-of-consciousness drawing in the margins of important papers (or on whatever happens to be lying around) while some speaker drones on incessantly, were encouraged as a stepping stone to artistic development, rather than denounced as a useless hobby of ADD sufferers? It’s a great question, but unfortunately anyone looking to formally discover an answer will have to get in line behind Taro Gomi, the illustrious Japanese children’s author whose book Doodle All Year (Chronicle Books, 2008) not only promotes doodling as an art form, but provides hundreds of charmingly child-like, barely-there sketches with which to prime the pump.

Gomi, who won our hearts with the unequivocally titled Everyone Poops and garnered widespread acclaim for his Scribbles, Squiggles and Doodles series, gives specific directions at times (“draw a winter rainbow,”; “this horse needs a rider,” for example) but more generally uses the transitions of seasons as a template for children (or grownups, for that matter) to let their hearts/minds/markers run free. Whether one is seeking to encourage youthful creativity, or simply looking for a great book to help energetic youngsters survive the family road trip, one would be hard-pressed to find a more useful tool than this one. You'll be thrilled to hear that Chronicle Books is giving away a free copy of Doodle All Year to one lucky reader. To qualify, visit Chronicle Books, then come back here to tell us which book you would most love to add to your library. Tell us in a second post if you subscribe to Wishing Willow, since our subscribers receive an extra entry in the contest. To post without a Google account, just click “anonymous.” Be sure to also leave your email address. The winner will be chosen randomly. Contest ends 1/23/09.

We have a winner! Congratulations kellyache who said, "Aaacckkk!! I've been wanting to get the Scribbles colouring books forever! For me, Logo by M. Evamy would be a fantastic addition to my design library." Congrats!

A Primer for Memory Keepers

Some of us are devout collectors of our children’s school mementos, immortalizing their wallet-sized grins and milestone moments in grand collage; others are hybrid scrapbooker/techies who scan and save those precious memories on zip drives for posterity. The vast majority of us, however, do what parents have been doing since the advent of kitchen appliances: we hang it all on the refrigerator and call it a day. For these millions of moms and dads and their good-but-misplaced intentions, School Years: A Family Keepsake of School Memories is a salvation of sorts. Designed as a perfectly sized and proportioned dual journal/trapper with expandable pockets between each page, this handy little book zones on in the basic unforgettables of school life in every year from kindergarten through the twelfth grade: report cards, school pictures, friend lists, hobbies, and the like, and cuts out all the fuss with a refreshingly streamlined format. Remember your favorite teacher in the fourth grade? Probably not. With a little help from School Years, however, your child will. Even better yet, your child will know that his or her world is important enough to you that you took the time to capture it in a memory book. In the end, nothing could be more rewarding.

Chronicle Books is extending a generous 30% off your purchase total and Free Shipping. Enter the code: WishingWillow when checking out. To purchase your own School Years copy, visit www.ChronicleBooks.com.