Book review: ‘C’mere, Boy!’

“C’mere, Boy!” by Sharon Jennings, illustrated by Ashley Spires
c. 2010, Kids Can Press
$16.95 / $18.95 Canada
32 pages

No. That’s all you ever hear. Mom says no, but you hope that’s not the end of it.

All you want is a pet. A dog or cat you could call your very own. Something warm to snuggle every night. Someone who would be glad to see you when you came home from school. You’d even settle for a guinea pig or a hamster, or …

But Mom said no. So you try even harder.

You promised to clean up after it. You said you’d take care of it. But nothing works and you’re almost ready to take matters into your own hands. Before you do, read “C’mere, Boy!” by Sharon Jennings, illustrated by Ashley Spires, and see what happens when a different kind of boy wants a different kind of pet and it almost ends in disaster. …

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Vintage nicknames: Boys edition

nameberry.com

Nicknames are tres chic these days, which is why it makes sense to search for new old sources for fresh examples. Here, choices from a long list of vintage nicknames from 18th and 19th century America from the Connecticut State Library.

Not only are some of the proper names used in Colonial and Victorian times now rarely heard, but the nicknames may be antiquated too.

I’ve left off the predictable choices like Rob for Robert or Jack for John. What’s here are either surprising combinations or short forms for still-used names that are in danger of becoming obscure.

Here, some vintage nicknames that will distinguish you from the Jakes, Charlies and Wills currently heard in every pediatrician’s...

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Use your imagination and make your own creative critters

By Susan Dunlap, McClatchy Newspapers

Stuffed animals and dolls don’t all have to be sweet, pink confections of fur. They can also have unique personalities, edgy ones even. My daughter, and many of her friends, have embraced a line of stuffed animals that are funky, almost the antithesis of cuteness, which makes them even more adorable.

We thought we’d offer our own take on strange, cuddly creatures. And, instead of hitting the fabric store, we ran to the thrift store, challenged with using recycled sweaters and shirts. Twenty dollars later, we were armed with plenty of inspiration. We also rummaged through the button box and other extra sewing notions we already had to give our guys their faces and quirky...

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Google launches fourth doodle competition

McClatchy-Tribune

You know the fun Google logos that adorn the search engine page every now and then? For the last couple of years, Google has challenged kids, kindergartners through high school seniors, to try their hands at doodling a Google design.

Now, they’re launching their third Doodle 4 Google competition and the prizes are pretty fantastic: a $15,000 college scholarship for the national winner, laptops, trips to New York and technology awards for eight lucky schools.

The theme is “If I Could Do Anything, I Would …” Contest entries come in via classrooms.

Teachers need to register their classrooms by March 17, and submissions are due by March 31. Then check back on May 27, because the glorious winning doodle chosen by...

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Charity begins at home

By Alicia, 50-Something Moms Blog

“The world” has responded quickly and generously to the earthquake devastation in Haiti. It feels good to be generous, to respond to human suffering, even if all we do is click a button to donate $20 to the American Red Cross. But what about the suffering right here at home, in the United States?

I’m not talking about the ongoing poverty in Appalachia or the relentless misery of our urban hell-holes — you know, the kind of situation that often elicits “the poor will be with us always.” I’m not talking about the 1.5 million children in this country who are homeless or the half million women who are victims of domestic violence every year — you know, the kind of situation that stirs public...

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The real deal on getting back into the sack post-baby

By Erin van Vuuren, TheBump.com

Hi. I’m a new mom, and I have no sex life. (Your cue: Hi, Erin.)

I’m not kidding. Right now, sex seems uncomfortable, time-consuming, and oddly depressing. My friend, Beth, is a new mom too … and she can’t get enough of the stuff.

(I hate her.) Which of us is normal? Well, according to Dr. Jennifer Wider, MD, author of “The New Mom’s Survival Guide: How to Reclaim Your Body, Your Health, Your Sanity and Your Sex Life After Having a Baby,” we both are. Her simple explanation? “We’re all different.” Yeah, we all knew that, but this is one of those cases where little reassurance goes a long way. To help ease your mind (and mine), let’s take a look at a few...

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Confessions of a scrapbook drop-out

By Monica, Silicon Valley Moms Blog

Scrapbook I’m finished! I’m done with my children’s scrapbook.

One of my scrap-loving friends might ask, “Done with the preschool scrapbook? The family vacation book? The birthday party pages?”

No, I’m done with the whole darn thing the book is complete until I add their wedding pictures in a couple of decades.

When I was first pregnant, I bought a lovely scrapbook, special colored paper, and fancy tape, planning to document every element of my little darling’s life. Two years later, I only had seven poorly laid out pages.

Page 1: Birth announcement.

Page 2: Photos of the nursery attached to baby-themed card stock.

Page 3: Photos of the baby shower. No...

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Book focuses on teens and how not to be hornswoggled by them

By Beth Whitehouse, Newsday

If you’re the parent of a teenager, you need to know the definition of this word: hornswoggle.

It means to bamboozle. To deceive by underhanded methods. To dupe.

According to Ellen Pober Rittberg, an author and mom from Roslyn, N.Y., your teenagers will hornswoggle you. They will lie. They will try to throw at least one party involving “fermented grain products” at a time when you aren’t home. They will lead a secret life that it’s your job to infiltrate.

You need to anticipate this, she says, and in her first book, “35 Things Your Teen Won’t Tell You, So I Will” (Turner Publishing, $9.99), Rittberg lays out her suggested proactive tactics to help keep your children alive...

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Notes from a first-grader

By Kay Leander, Philadelphia Moms Blog

Ever since my daughter figured out that letters make sounds, she’s been writing things down. Notes, shopping lists, feelings. Only recently, though, can I decipher them. These little notes are extremely enlightening. Like little windows into her mind, I can tell what’s going on with her. They give me insight as to how to parent her, make me laugh, make me almost cry.

One day, cleaning her room, I found a note on the floor near her window seat. It read “I love my mommee so much but she ax like she dusnt love me.” Wow. Talk about tearing my heart out. I’m sure on one recent day when she’d been sent to her room, she curled up in the corner and banged out that little doozy of a note. And...

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Choose a name that links to love

nameberry.com

Valentine’s Day certainly isn’t the only time we can think about names related to love, but it does present an opportunity to look at the themenames that will make a child feel especially cherished.

First of all, there are those that relate most directly to the holiday and its traditional symbols:

• ARROW
• CUPID
• DART
• DOVE
• HART
• LACEY
• ROSE (favorite flower of Venus, the Roman goddess of love)
• VALENTINA
• VALENTINE
• VALENTINO

Then there are the words-of-endearment names, though some of them might be wiser to use in the middle spot, as in Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Tobey Maguire’s daughter Ruby Sweetheart and Kate Winslet’s Mia...

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