Paul Harris, Grow Up! Irene Herz

Paul Harris founded the first Rotary Club in Chicago in 1905.  Just twenty years later, it had become an international service organization, dedicated to helping others through grassroots projects.  Today, Rotary International© has over one million members worldwide and is a leading player in the battle to eradicate polio worldwide.

Paul Harris’ story is particularly appropriate for youngsters because he had such an unpromising start in life.  His father never made enough money to support his family, and Paul himself was always getting into trouble.  Sent to live with his grandparents in Vermont, he was considered to be a fellow who would never amount to much by the neighbors.

The story of how Paul used his love of people, of having fun, and of doing the right thing to build an organization of lasting good in the world will inspire youngsters and help them to understand that even the most unpromising of youngsters can grow up to be important.

Website: Paul Harris Children’s Book

The Mudhogs by Dalton James

AshBooks Review for The Mudhogs by Dalton James:

A book written by a charming an intelligent 8 year old boy (and this is already his third book!) that tells the tale of 3 little pigs who love mud and tried everything  to get it back when it ran dry. A good moral lesson awaits at the end.

For information: http://outskirtspress.com/mudhogs

User Submitted Reviews:

What a lovely book! . Learning life is worth waiting for is priceless.

The NY Times have just released their own list of  10 best illustrated children’s books for 2009 today, quite a short nifty list, with about 10 titles shortlisted. We thought that was great, but wasn’t good enough so we’ve came up with our own slightly better version of 15 of the best illustrated childrens books for 2009.
It’s a list comprising of illustrated childrens books for 2009 not from 2009, so there is a nice mix of old and new books here. All are still relevant today.

Enjoy!

(from top left to right)

The Giant Play And Learn Book illustrated by Pascale Estellon

An Awesome Book! illustrated by Dallas Clayton

Cinderella And The Hot Air Balloon by Ann Jungman and illustrated Russell Ayto

The Turnip by Walter de La Mare, illustrated Kevin Hawkes

Winnie The Pooh illustrated by EH Shepard

The Wizard of Oz illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger

Pinocchio illustrated by Sara Fanelli

Wicked Nursery Rhymes illustrated by Gris Grimly

Boo Hoo Bird illustrated by Jeremy Tankard

Hansel & Gretel illustrated by Majd Soudi

A Book of Sleep illustrated by Il Sung Na

I’m A Little Bit Scared Of… illustrated by Madi

Lost And Found illustrated by Oliver Jeffers

Three Little Pigs illustrated by Aaron Blecha

Little Red Hen illustrated by Jago

Brand New Baby Blues illustrated by Kelly Murphy

Last week, I went to see Fantastic Mr. Fox at the cinema; a film based on one of my favourite children’s books by Roald Dahl. Having thoroughly enjoyed the book, I was pleased to find myself enjoying the film as well – although the differences in plotline did catch my attention. For the sake of nostalgia and to be appropriate to modern cinema, I thought I’d recap on Roald Dahl’s book. So here is a quick review of Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl.

Every family needs to eat and, being that foxes are carnivorous beats, Mr. Fox is forced to steal chickens and geese from local farmers to support his wife and children. These aren’t ordinary famers either; these are the three meanest farmers around – Boggis, Bunce and Bean (one fat, one short, one lean). As time goes by, these farmers get so frustrated with Mr. Fox stealing their livestock that they set out to slay him – waiting outside his foxhole one night, determined to shoot him down.

Luckily for our hero, he manages to escape the trap, but loses his beloved tail in the crossfire. Infuriated by their failure, the three farmers pursue Mr. Fox, using shovels, bulldozers and teams of men to hunt him down –trapping the fox family underground. Stuck and starving, the foxes find themselves in a sticky situation for three longs days, with neither food nor water. Eventually Mr. Fox hatches a plan and, using their exceptional digging skills, the family digs a tunnel underneath the farmers and into Boggis’ chicken house!

Meeting the other animals along the way, Fantastic Mr. Fox recruits his friends and together they dig a system of underground tunnels into all three farms; creating an easy way to steal chickens, geese, turkeys and cider from the nasty farmers. Outside the foxhole, however, Boggis, Bunce and Bean never stop waiting for Mr. Fox to show up.