Tag archives for Toys
Posted by BOOK NAME: Toys Come Home
AUTHOR: Emily Jenkins
Toys Come Home by Emily Jenkins is a story all about the adventures of a few soft toy animals. The soft toys teach you important morals about friendship and taking responsibility.
Stingray is a blue friendly soft toy who arrives at a little girl’s house as her birthday gift. Stingray is learning all about the house and trying to make friends with the other toys, Sheep and Bobby Dot, the walrus. However, Stingray does not like their personalities as Sheep is lazy and sleepy and Bobby Dot is mean and brags. But, Stingray is a true hero for she rescues Sheep from a thorny bush he gets stuck on. When Bobby Dot dies in the dryer, the girl buys Lumphy, the buffalo to take his place. Stingray and Lumphy become good friends and enjoy playing games together. They are soon joined by a playful intelligent ball named Plastic. The three of them realize that they along with the girl are a true family.
This book is a perfect read when you want to enjoy some simple adventure. It’s amazing how each toy has an individual personality that is reflected by their acts. For example, Plastic is intelligent as she reads lots of books and Lumphy is brave for he saves a mouse from a cat. Also, I could picture the toys so easily because of the detailed descriptions. This book reminds me about little children interacting with each other. I cannot wait to read more about the toy’s adventures in the sequels, Toys Go Out and Toy Dance Party.
Posted by BOOK NAME: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
AUTHOR: Kate DiCamillo
Meet Edward Tulane. He is a china rabbit with the fanciest clothes and features you have ever seen on a rabbit. And he is dearly loved and pampered by his owner, Abilene. Unfortunately, Edward’s heart is closed and he thinks of Abilene and her family as dull. However, his life changes dramatically when Edward is lost and is found by another person; in fact, several people. Each person who finds Edward gives him a new name and shares his or her story in which Edward now plays a role. As Edward’s heart is broken and “repaired”, it gets stronger. But it is enough for Edward to learn to love back?
Susanna, Malone, Clyde, and Jangles are just some of the names given to Edward throughout his journey. Each new name and story will either make you feel sympathy or great joy. Since Edward can think but cannot move or speak, his character needs to be tough at times to absorb everything that is taking place around him. My favorite part is when all hope is lost, he still believes somebody will come for him. They say if you love something set it free, if it comes back to you then it is yours. You will definitely find yourself cheering for Edward to end up where he truly belongs.
This book is one of my favorites of all time and with the beautiful illustrations it becomes amazingly vivid. Some people don’t like sob stories, but please just bear through the tears because this is indeed a wonderful adventure!
Posted by Have you ever been to a swap meet? Swaps are a great way to conserve resources because instead of tossing out items that you don’t need anymore, you can exchange them for items that you want or need.
How Swaps Work
Go through your belongings and find items that you don’t use anymore. Be sure your parents aren’t planning to pass them down to a younger sibling!
Pick a date to have a swap party at your house, church, or school. Double check these dates with your parents, teacher, principal, or church leader to find out what works for them.
Pick a theme! You can have a winter swap to swap winter coats and boots, winter sports gear such as ice/hockey skates, sleds, or even snowboards and skis. Or you can have a summer swap to exchange rafts, snorkeling gear, camping equipment, kayaks, and boogie boards.
Or you can set up a swap based on the items your are swapping. Books, DVDs, CDs, video games, and toy swaps are great way to get some new media to keep you busy.
Costume swaps and clothes swaps help you to exchange items that are too small for you for something that fits! Maybe you can plan a Halloween costume swap.
Ask people to bring only those items that actually work and are clean.
Donate any leftover items to charity.
August is National Inventors Month. To celebrate, the National Museum of American History built a giant light bulb model out of LEGO bricks on August 3. Museum visitors worked with LEGO Master Builders to assemble the multicolored model. The light bulb is 8 feet (2.4 meters) tall and contains over 300,000 bricks!
Get LEGO tips from a LEGO Master Builder on National Geographic Kids.
Visit the Smithsonian Institution’s Lemelson Center Invention at Play website.
Photograph courtesy of the LEGO Group
James May is building a new house in Dorking, Surrey, United Kingdom. This isn’t an ordinary house, though. This house will be made entirely out of LEGO bricks–bathroom included! May has received over 3 million LEGO bricks from the Czech Republic to build his house.
May is building the house for his BBC series, James May’s Toy Stories. On August 1, May is hosting a building day! The public is invited to work on the project.
Read more about the LEGO house on the Get Surrey website.
Check out the winning entries from the “Win a Trip to LEGOLAND” contest.
Photo by Sandy Huffaker/LEGOLAND California
President Obama’s Inauguration has been recreated at LEGOLAND California! A crowd of over one thousand mini figures can be seen in front of LEGO brick Capitol building. Temperatures at this mock swearing in ceremony are much warmer than at the real ceremony.
Posted by BOOK NAME: Toy Dance Party
AUTHOR: Emily Jenkins & illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky
This is a really fun book because you start thinking it is about a girl that plays with her toys. But as you read it, you find out that it’s really about her older toys being lonely because she only plays with the new toys. So, the main characters of the book are really the toys and not the people.
The main characters are Bossyboots the Stingray, Lumphy the Buffalo, Bonkers, Rocky Road, Millie and Brownie stuffed Mice, Spark the Shark. The “Silent People” are the Barbie dolls. These forgotten toys have lots of adventures together. There was one time when Bonkers the Mouse sucked into the vacuum cleaner and Spark the Shark helped rescue him. He bit the outside of the bag and Bonkers bit the inside of the bag to make an escape hole that Bonkers used to get out. Everyone cheered for Spark and Bonkers.
Another exciting part of the book is when Spark got bored and decided to go a tour of the house. He found the Silent People and nibbled their arms and legs. He returned to tell everyone else how much fun he had. When the girl the Barbie dolls with small bite marks she was very upset and thought there were real mice living in the box where she kept her Barbie dolls. So, it was a funny trick that the old toys played on their owner.
I liked this story because it had funny parts, sad parts and really made you think that no matter how old you are, you can still have fun playing with your older toys.
