Potty Animals has been nominated for one of School Library Journal’s brand-new Trailee Awards! Visit the awards page to view the nominees and cast your vote: The Trailees! Voting ends October 22, 2010.
Helga, Georgie, Sukey, Arnold and all the gang thank you in advance!
When my first picture books came out way back when, there was very little book blogging going on. Nowadays, book bloggers are the gift that keeps on giving! Long after the major review venues have weighed in (or not), great reviews from real readers keep trickling in. If you’re still not convinced that Potty Animals is a book you Simply Must Have, maybe these intrepid readers can persuade you!
There’s A Book: “Potty Animals is the perfect book to get kiddos excited and interested in using the potty and wonderful for potty ‘veterans’ who may have some quirks they need to work on. Parents will most definitely love this book just as much as their kiddos (if not more), because the humor is so great and not at all crude. Vestergaard’s story and Petrone’s illustrations make this the potty book you want to read with your kiddos. A must for parents with kiddos in this often times difficult stage of life, not only to help the kiddos, but to give the parents a much needed chuckle” — © 2010 Danielle Smith
Quiverfull Family: I can’t honestly remember a time that I’ve laughed so hard reading a picture book. This is such a funny, frank, and age-appropriate way to delve into these issues. — © 2010 Jennifer Bogart
Brimful Curiosities: “This is not a potty training book, but a book for kids on bathroom manners. Somehow Vestergaard manages to cover this important topic in a fun and tasteful way without sounding preachy. She’s a veteran early childhood teacher so she’s had plenty of experience with the subject matter. And it’s pretty hard not to laugh at Petrone’s bold illustrations of the cartoon animal characters as they break the rules.” — © 2010 Janelle@ Brimful Curiosities
NC Teacher Stuff: “In my career as an elementary school teacher, I have seen every one of these bathroom issues come up at one time or the other, so it’s nice to have a book that combines humor, understanding, and potty etiquette. If you work in preschool or kindergarten, you know the bathroom makes the top ten list of daily issues, so find a copy of Potty Animals if you need to have a discussion with your students about bathroom etiquette.” — © 2010 Jeff Barger
5 Minutes For Books: “As the mother to three children, you could most definitely say that potty talk is big in my life…Having read just about every picture book that introduces the concept of ditching the diapers and becoming a Big Boy or Girl, I can honestly say that the new book by Hope Vestergaard, Potty Animals: What to Know When You’ve Gotta Go!, stands unique in the crowd…If I make it back into a preschool classroom in the coming years, this book will most definitely be coming with me.” — © 2010 Morninglight Mama
While visiting my husband’s homeland, we enjoyed not one but two endless family parties with many courses, songs, toasts, and time with favorite aunts, uncles, and cousins. On the menu? Lots of fish, potatoes, sausages, and bread. The four food groups!
We also enjoyed fresh walks in the country. I took so many field and cloud pictures (harvest time! gorgeous) I will save them for a dedicated post, but we also saw lots of charming houses.
Some of us tried out Funballz in the fjord. The verdict? Fun, but sweaty.
One happy Saturday we stumbled across a flea market, known this time as a trunk sale because you were allowed to sell what fit in your car’s baggagerum. (Favorite loot included awesome seventies keychains and colorful vintage plastic buttons!)
We also biked many kilometers on railbikes, which are specially designed to fit on railroad tracks. There’s an abandoned track through the countryside. GORGEOUS!
And then it was time to come home, to gardens that took advantage of our absence, piglets that seemed to have doubled in size, doggies that were thrilled we were home, and a visting sister! As they say in DK, Jubii!
Meet Bon Jovi!
Our sweet cow, Susie, hasn’t gotten pregnant since having her first calf, Wally, a year and a half ago. The vet told us that her plumbing might make it hard for her to get pregnant again, so we were considering sending her to market later this fall. She has been looking fat, but she always does…she’s just one of the heavier cows. Anyway, I looked at her the other day and thought she looked wider than usual. I asked Mike if it were possible that she might be pregnant. He’d had a similar thought, but since the cows had been pregnancy checked within six months, she wouldn’t be due any time soon. We decided to have her checked at the end of August, after we return from vacation.
Famous last words. As I drove up the driveway yesterday, I noticed several neighbors standing along our fence line, chatting. I wondered what in our field could be so interesting. When I walked in the house, the phone rang. It was one of the neighbors, who said we had a calf in the field — did we know?
No, we did not! Susie had delivered a bouncing baby boy. He was clean and walking and the herd had had enough time to settle down. (Like people, they get a little wound up when someone has a baby.)
Since Mike was out of town, Carsten and I had to separate Susie and the calf from the group so we could be sure he was getting colostrum and we could check Susie out. Luckily, she is a mellow, calm cow who expects nothing but good things from us and it wasn’t too hard. Meet our newest Belted Galloway, Jon Bon Jovi!
