Skippyjon Jones for Babies

Skippyjon Jones Color Crazy by Judy Schachner

We received this book as a gift, but who can turn down the adorable Siamese cat on the cover? My daughter loves to stare at the cat who thinks it's a chihuahua, then smack it, a good sign that she's interested in seeing what's inside!
Skippyjon Jones has crayons and is ready to color.  He colors a blue sun, yellow grass, a pink sky, an orange tree, and a variety of other objects crazy colors.  Then he colors himself!  A mixed media of acrylic, watercolor and ink, and crayon illustrations are done in a cartoon style and are set against a white background.  The word for the color is also displayed in that same color, and the font is large and stands out from the uncluttered page, making this concept book a fun way to learn colors.  The expressions this Siamese cat who thinks he is a Chihuahua has are similar to those found on a child’s face while drawing, and babies and toddlers will enjoy the silly antics of Skippyjon Jones and the way his drawings look a lot like their own.  My own four month old finds the rounded corners of this board book delectable, and the she can't help but stare at the cat too.

Taxi Dancing and WWII

Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher (2008)
I picked up this book because I enjoy historical fiction, especially anything around WWII.  The cover features a beautiful young woman with a pensive expression, and the back of a man in a suit dancing with someone in the lower right-hand corner.  I just had to know what it was this young woman was thinking about, and what is taxi dancing anyway?

Ruby Jacinski lives in the Back of the Yards in Chicago and has dropped out of high school to support her mother and sister since her father has died.  At the age of fifteen, she is already familiar with the horrors of working in a meat packinghouse, so after bad boy Paulie Suelze tells her about dancing at the Starlight for $50 a week, Ruby knows this is her family’s only way out of the Yards.  Since her mother would not approve of Ruby being a dance instructress, she lies and says she work for the phone company, but every evening she shows up at the Starlight to dance with strange men for ten cents plus a tip if she is lucky.  She meets coworker and soon to be friend Peggy, who shows her the ropes of being a dancer in a taxi-dance hall.  Before long, Ruby is meeting men afterwards and heading out to black and tan halls, clubs that allow white women with African American or Asian dates to come in, and drinks and dances until late in the night.

The job is not as glamorous as it seems, and soon Ruby finds herself in debt to some of the men that visit her, and they expect some sort of pay back.  Ruby remembers how Paulie got into trouble in the army for beating some guy up, so she goes to him and asks him for help.  She also finds that she is falling in love with him, a man her mother has forbidden her to see.  What her mother does not know cannot hurt her, so Ruby sneaks off in her afternoons to visit Paulie, and before long, she finds herself being sucked into his world of crime and deception.  WWII is looming, and Ruby must decide, does she want to stay true to herself and her family, or does she want a glamorous life.

Ten Cents A Dance is an honest look at how poverty and need can lead an innocent girl into a life she may not understand, but quickly adapt to.  Christine Fletcher describes how Ruby waffles back and forth and rationalizes what she is doing in a way young readers can identify with.  Various ethical issues arise in Ruby’s story, which are ripe for discussion.  Ruby’s experiences point to a historical time period that is intriguing and also something of a turning point for women in the American workforce.

If you like this book, you might also like What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell (2008) and Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen (2010).

Knitting for Baby

Simply Baby by Debbie Bliss (2006)
As a woman expecting and suddenly thrust into a sedentary lifestyle, I've decided to begin knitting.  What better than to begin knitting for my future baby?  I picked Simply Baby up at my local library, mostly because the cover has an adorable, sleeping baby on the cover, and a subtitle "20 adorable knits for baby's first two years".  I thought to myself, it'll probably take me that long to learn how to knit, so this is perfect!  One of the best features of this book are the "knitting basics" instructions at the beginning.  Learning how to cast on, create a knit and purl stitch, casting (or binding) off, increasing and decreasing stitches could not have been made easier to follow.  I have tried to learn how to knit out of books in the past without any luck, but I was very pleasantly surprised when I followed the simple instructions here and was able to finish a basic scarf on my own. There are also several more how to's that are equally simple to follow, including cables, intarsia, and how to read patterns.
Moving on to the patterns, I found many of them were simply doable and oh so adorable, just like the cover said.  Staple items such as little sweaters, socks, hats, and blankets are joined by patterns for a teddy bear, smock, and even a cute little shrug.  The patterns are clear and easy to follow, making this one of the most accessible knitting books I have come across as a beginning knitter.  My only criticism is that more patterns are not included here, otherwise I highly recommend this knitting book for beginning, expectant knitters.