Take Your Child Along a Country Road With John Denver

Books Kids Will Love RATING: BB

BOOK: John Denver's Take me Home, Country Roads

Adapted & Illustrated by: Christopher Canyon

Recommended for ages 2-8

Okay, I am dating myself but I remember singing this song by John Denver as a child. Now the country classic has been adapted into a new children's book. Denver wrote the classic song while traveling through the West Virginia countryside on his way to a friend's family reunion in 1971. Illustrator Christopher Canyon never knew the song originated with an actual family reunion; he says his artist intuition just conceived of the story that way. An award-winning artist, his illustrations are mesmerizing. I love the quilted country feel of them. Children will be drawn to this heart-warming tale.

Dawn Publications
Released in Sept. 2005
32 pages
$8.95 without CD, $19.95 with CD

Celebrating Childhood Around the World

Books Kids will Love RATING: BBB
BOOK: The Milestones Project: Celebrating Childhood Around the World
Photographed By Richard & Michele Steckel
Recommended for ages 3-10

A best friend. A lost tooth. A first day of school. These moments are milestones of childhood that all boys and girls experience. Every child. Everywhere. Like The Milestones Project, a living, growing archive of more than 23,000 photographs of children, this book pays tribute to the core experiences shared by everyone on the planet. Culled from the project’s international collection are engaging and candid images of kids doing what kids do.
The pictures are paired with youthful memories from the world’s most beloved children’s book authors and illustrators, activists, and writings by kids from all over the world. For example, Walter Cronkite talks about peace, famed Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling talks about her first pair of glasses, and Raffi discusses his first day of school.
The result is an album both inspirational and humorous that will have children recognizing and empathizing with each other. The mission of The Milestones Project, founded by the Steckels, is to empower individuals, parents, and families to take actions in their own lives to reduce intolerance, promote nonviolence, and have a lasting impact upon the larger world.
This book is a great conversation starter — parents can talk about their own experiences as children share theirs. Every home deserves a copy.
Tricycle Press
Released in 2004
$17.95, hardcover"