R is for River Rocks and Red

We made this Red and Rocky R using:

Chipboard cut from a cereal box for letter base

Torn pieces of red origami paper

River rocks (from the $ store)

Glue: stick and hot to adhere rocks

A rock books we like:

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig was a book I loved having read to me as a kid and now my kids enjoy it the same. In this book Sylvester the donkey thinks it must be his lucky day as he discovers a magic, wish granting pebble. Sadly, Sylvester makes the mistake of wishing he was a rock when he is confronted with a lion. His only hope to turn back into a donkey is for someone to find the pebble and wish such. This is a Caldecott Honor book but is also on the banned book list because the characters are depicted as animals and apparently someone found the police pigs particular upsetting. Really...that’s the reason. So if you think you might take offence to animals being portrayed as people, you may want to avoid this one, along with almost every other childrens picture book.

Red books we like:

There are so many red themed books we like but for now here are just two recommendations. The first one is called, The Red Shoes by, Eleri Glass. While shoe shopping with her mother, a young girl becomes subject to size test one drab looking pair of shoes after another until she spots a shiny red set that call her name. She may just convince her mother to buy them for her. The lyrical text in combination with the illustrations (giving a 60’s era vibe) make for a perfect read.

Our second recommendation is Little Red: A Fizzingly Good Yarn by Lynn Roberts and illustrated by David Roberts. This one is a take on the classic Little Red Riding Hood story only in this adaptation, Little Red is a young boy (a nice break from the fairytale standard if you ask me).  The illustrations are nice on the eyes and subtly spooky for a mysterious tone which fits the theme of the story quite well. I think this is my boys’ favorite version of the tale but watch out…things don’t end so well for the grandma in this rendition.  

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