BOOK Friday 2015

This is my first holiday season with Usborne, and I'm so excited for their "Book Friday" and Cyber Monday sales! As a consultant even I don't know everything that will be discounted, but I do know there will be 50+ titles up to 60% off.

Click the image to be taken to the website!

The sale goes live on Thursday at 9pm Central time (10pm Eastern), and new titles will be added for Cyber Monday.

Here is a sneak peek of some of the things we know will be part of the sale! If something catches your eye, you'll want to log in to the website right on time because things might sell out fast!

I've gathered some pictures and videos from my "insider" information pages to give you a look inside some of these titles! If you don't see what you're looking for listed below, let me know and I'll see what I can track down for you. I'll be adding to this post as I find more pictures today and tomorrow! 

Happy shopping!! :)

**FYI, I am NOT going to post individual links to the titles below, as sale items have separate item numbers and are located in a different place on the website, and I don't want to send you to the wrong place. Once the sale goes live, I will post the Book Friday link at the top of this post that will take you to the sale portion of the website.**

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Illustrated Classics for Children

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Quiz Tin

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Big Doodling Pad

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See Inside the Universe

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Gardening for Beginners

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Noisy Jungle

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1000 Fantastic Stickers

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Dress the Teddy Bears Sticker Book

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Illustrated Stories of Princes and Princesses

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The Last Thirteen series

https://vimeo.com/88369878

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The Debt series

https://vimeo.com/98925323

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The Railway Children (Monday)

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One Hundred Illustrated Stories (Monday)

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Slot-Together Castle (Monday)

What the Cubs are Reading: November 23

It's Monday! What are you reading? is hosted by Kathryn of The Book Date.  Jen from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers have adapted it to focus on Picture Books to Young Adult Books. Since I recap what I'm personally reading each month with Modern Mrs. Darcy, for this linkup I post what Abby (age 5) and Ellie (age 3) have been enjoying.

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If I Built a House
by Chris Van Dusen. October 2012

We received If I Built a Car as part of the Imagination Library a year or two ago, and loved the fun rhymes and imaginative descriptions and bright illustrations. When Ellie saw this one on the library shelf she just had to get it (okay, it was really me who saw it and had to get it. :) We read it every night at bedtime for at least a week, and Abby (age 5) even went so far as to draw pictures of what she imagined a fun new house would be like. 

Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon

by Patty Lovell. August 2001

This is another Imagination Library book that got read over and over when we first received it, then disappeared on the shelf among the tons of other picture books we have. We pulled it out again recently and the girls love it as much now as they did then. We're in a time where bullying is a real thing that kids face every day, even in kindergarten and preschool (where my girls are). This book encourages them not to fight back and not to become a doormat, but to instead turn the situation into good. 

Thanksgiving Mice

by Bethany Roberts. September 2001

I used this as part of my Thanksgiving storytime when I was at the library a year ago. It tells the basic Thanksgiving story, but is acted out by mice giving a play. Abby has been learning about the pilgrims all month in kindergarten, and even Ellie told us at Thanksgiving we eat turkey. It will be fun to teach them with more in-depth books someday (I'm sure I'll learn a few things!), but for now simple books like this one are great for explaining to them the concept of this holiday. 

Check out what others are reading in today's linkup!

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Purchases you make help support The Lion is a Bookworm a little bit without changing the cost to you!

The Lion's Tales: November 8-14

Inspired by Sadie's Saturday 7 and Jessica's Weekly Ramble, this weekly recap is where I blog about anything and everything from the past week. It could be about books, my kids, my garden... Random things in my life that don't fill enough space for their own post!
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1. I tried a new recipe this week that I loooooved. I've recently become addicted to the Sorta Awesome podcast, so anytime I'm vacuuming or driving by myself I listen. I mentioned this same episode last week when I looked up my Myers-Briggs type, and finally this week had the chance to try out the Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup.

I grilled up a bunch of chicken legs and thighs on Sunday night, and saved the leftover chicken in the fridge and put all the bones and scraps in the slow cooker with water overnight to make some broth. Late the next morning I strained it all, and added the veggies and chicken and spice pack from a box of Uncle Ben's Wild Rice. I kept it on low the entire time, and about 4 hours before dinner added the rice too.

The finishing touch of the cream mixture is what makes this recipe extra special. I do like a broth-y chicken soup, but the rice stands up so much better when this one turns creamy. I had a huge bowl for dinner, the rest of the family seemed to like it, and I had it for lunch the next few days (I'm not usually big on leftovers for lunch). Highly highly recommended for this cooler fall weather!

Ellie's and my lunch on Tuesday

2. The sickness saga continues. Monday night Ellie spiked a fever, which continued on Tuesday. She missed her first ever day of school. By Wednesday morning she cried every time she swallowed, so back to the doctor we went. Sure enough, she had strep throat. Another couple days of a different antibiotic and she's back to normal. I went in last night because I've had this lingering cold and my throat was getting worse throughout the day, but my strep test came back negative. It looks like just viral tonsillitis for me. More ibuprofen and salt water, yay...

3. With all this sickness I've been doing a little research on essential oils. I've always been a wavering skeptic (I'm willing to try anything once or twice if it's not too expensive, but don't really think they'll work). I have a lot of friends who use them, and a few who sell Young Living. This summer a friend gave me a mixture of tea tree and lavender that I mixed with coconut oil for a lotion when Ellie had lots of bug bites.

Lots of people swear by Thieves oil, and this week another friend gave me a spare roller she had that contained thieves mixed with a carrier oil. I've been rolling it on my feet and throat each day, and so far have only enjoyed smelling Christmas-y throughout the day (though Rocky says I smell like a gumdrop). It's almost gone, so I'm not sure whether to bite the bullet and buy a full bottle myself or put it to rest for awhile.


4. The football team for the school Rocky teaches at is headed to the regional final/state quarterfinal game this afternoon. It's surprisingly being played really close to home, so we might actually go. The weather looks like it will be dry, and while Ellie has already told me "it's too loud", it sure would be fun. Rocky and I went to see the basketball team play in the state final game last spring.

GO MUSTANGS! (this was from Homecoming earlier in the season)

Quick Lit: November 2015

Lots of sickness in our house has unfortunately meant more
tv and snuggles and mindless web surfing than reading...

My goal for this year is to read 36 books - 3 a month - after only finishing 24 last year. I'm definitely behind schedule now, with only 26 books completed so far in mid-November (but hey! I've already read more than last year!)

I'm really hoping to catch up during the last week of December, when our family will have long plane rides... and lots of time relaxing in really really warm weather... :)

Here's what I've finished in the last month.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

I finally jumped on the Rainbow Rowell bandwagon with this one. It's a fun, modern YA story that was easy to pick up and put down when I only had a few minutes to read. I'd never really considered the world of fan fiction, maybe because I haven't been into any series that would generate it. Except Harry Potter, but I just read those for the first time last year and when I did research a little more -- and even tried Pottermore for a bit -- all the fan stuff seemed young (like high school kids). Maybe I'm just not looking in the right spots. Or maybe I just haven't been enough of a fan of anything to pursue it further.

Anyway, I plan to read more of Rowell's books, her style seems like one I could load up my Kindle with for our Christmas break trip.

Ruby Red and Sapphire Blue

(currently reading Emerald Green)

by Kerstin Gier

I'm reading these for the last few months of this year's Young Adult Book & Movie Club. I'd never heard of them before having them on the list, and it was neat to discover they were originally published in another language. A bit of romance, a bit of time travel, and a whole lot of mystery keep me going in them. I'll admit it's not my favorite YA trilogy, I sometimes have trouble following the time travel and Gideon's mood swings bother me, but I'll definitely see it through to the end.


Do you have a favorite Rainbow Rowell book? What are some of your other recommendations for easy vacation reads? (not too much romance please!) 


Linking up with Anne at Modern Mrs. Darcy!

This post does contain Amazon Affiliate links. Purchases you make help support The Lion is a Bookworm a little bit without changing the cost to you!

The Lion's Tales: November 1-7

Inspired by Sadie's Saturday 7 and Jessica's Weekly Ramble, this weekly recap is where I blog about anything and everything from the past week. It could be about books, my kids, my garden... Random things in my life that don't fill enough space for their own post!

1. We had our first kindergarten parent-teacher conference for Abby this week. Well, I say "we" but only I went because Rocky was having conferences at the high school at the same time. She is doing great, her teacher loves having her in class, and we got a few pointers of things to work on (raising her hand before speaking, being okay with letting others lead during playtime). She sounds like a typical first-born, in a class of 13 boys and 2 girls. :) 

We celebrated by using her Pizza Hut Book-It coupon from October for free pizza for dinner. Funny thing is, there were lots of other families there using their coupons too, so when the waitress brought out our order she said they had run out of personal pans, so Abby's free pizza was a medium size instead. Score! 

2. Abby's school pictures came in this week. Rather than trying to decide how many pictures to have printed, we just order the "digital download" so we'll have the files and can print them on our own time elsewhere as we need them. What I didn't realize was that the digital download came with copies of her photo on 30 different backgrounds. There's everything from colors to nature scenes to rainbows and American flags... and lasers.

I've been searching for a copy of Rocky's elementary school pictures that had lasers -- I joke that my family never got the "fancy" backgrounds because they cost extra money. :) But seriously I laughed out loud when I saw Abby with lasers!! I'll bet the photography company just put those in for parents of my generation who always thought the lasers were the coolest photos ever.

3. I got sick this week. Again. I feel like I've had colds more this school year already than ever before, and I'm not even working out in the public like I used to! Ellie and I had lots of relaxing mornings this week, and so far Abby and Rocky have stayed mostly in the clear. I lost most of my voice this time which is unusual for me, but I'll take it over the stuffed up headache-y stuff I usually come down with. We have a weekend with nothing planned except church, so I'm planning lots of rest and fluids. 

4. A lot of blogs I've been reading make reference to Myers-Briggs. I remember taking one of the quizzes in high school or college, but honestly the only piece I remember from it is that I'm a strong introvert. So after hearing MBTI talked about yet again on a podcast this week, I tracked down a quiz and took it. 

It was tough because I think some of my answers were affected by my motherly instinct rather than my personality, but I tried really hard to think about what I would do in situations that weren't with my kids. When I read the list of what are considered my strengths I thought "okay, I guess some of these are kind of like me" but when I read the list of weaknesses I was all "YES! THAT IS ME!!" So I guess this is what I am most of the time. :) 

How has your week been? Did you have lasers in your school pictures? What's your Myers-Briggs type?