Our Favorite Story Books: 40 Fun Stories to Help Your Kids Grow

Hello Everyone!! 

As we all know reading and writing are essential to our kids.  One of the first things we are told when we become parents is to make sure that we make time to read out loud to our kids so they may develop better communication skills.  

I love reading, if I were to give you a glance of my Nook's Library, you will see a list of over 200 books.  And yes, I have read every single one of them, some I have read at least three times.  I love losing myself in the story. 

Recently our son has found a series he loves and so far he still wants to continue to read the series even though his summer reading log has been completed and turned in.  

Our daughter prefers when we read to her out loud, I think she loves this because Mommy makes all the faces an funny noises to go with the story line. 

Here is a list our favorite story books: 

I Am Series by Garcelle Beauvais and Sebastian A Jones

*I Am Mixed (I AM Book) #1

*I Am Living in Two Homes (I AM- Book #2)

*I Am Awesome (I AM Book #3)


Princess Truly Series by Kelly Greenawalt

*Princess Truly and the Hungry Bunny Problem

*I Am Truly

*Princess Truly and the Courageous Cape Chase


How Do Dinosaurs Series by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague:

*How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?

*How Do Dinosaurs Go to School?

*How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You?

*How Do Dinosaurs Clean Their Room?

Amelia Bedelia Series by Herman Parish:

Amelia Bedelia Storybook Treasury:   Amelia Bedelia's First Day of School; 
                                                                   Amelia Bedelia's First Field Trip; 
                                                                   Amelia Bedelia Makes a Friend; 
                                                                   Amelia Bedelia Sleeps Over; 
                                                                   Amelia Bedelia Hits the Trail

Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osborne:

Magic Tree House Boxed Set, Books 1-4: Dinosaurs Before Dark, 
                                                                 The Knight at Dawn,
                                                                 Mummies in the Morning, and 
                                                                 Pirates Past Noon

Magic Tree House Boxed Set, Books 5-8: Night of the Ninjas, 
                                                                  Afternoon on the Amazon,
                                                                  Sunset of the Sabertooth, and
                                                                  Midnight on the Moon

Something Every Curly Child should read at least once:

*Ballerina Girl by Kirsten Hall  

*I Like Myself by Karen Beaumont

*What I Like Abot Me by Allia Zobel Nolan

*Spaghetti in A Hot Dog Bun: Having the Courage to Be Who You Are

*Emi's Curly Coily Cotton Cnady Hair by Tina Olajide

The Classic Tales all children should have:

*Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney

*Charlotte's Webb by EB White

*My Mother Goose: A Collection of Favorite Rhymes, Songs, and Concepts By David McPhail

*The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

*The Little Red Riding Hood by Trina Schart Hyman

*The Three Little Pigs by Patricia Seibert

*Goldilocks and The Three Bears by Candice Ransom

*Corduroy by Don Freeman

*The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Who can forget the Dr. Seuss' collection of stories: 

*One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

*Green Eggs and Ham

*Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book!

*The Cat in the Hat

Tips from our friends: 

Emily says: "Remember that reading should be fun and not be associated with "homework". 

Mari says: "Don't stop reading out loud to them even after they learn how to read by themselves"

Geraldine says: "Choose books together"

Your Admin Bill shares: "Reading stories together will develop and strengthen the bond between the two of you". 

   

Small Business Spotlight: Cookies & Cream Couture, Inc.

Hello Readers and welcome to our latest Small Business Spotlight!!  

Today's Feature is: 

Let me introduce all of you to Yaritza Thompson and her family! 

CC&S: 

Aren't they cute as buttons? Like the buttons my son used to have on his overalls when he was nothing but six months old.... we all know how cute those overalls are!! 

The official name of their online boutique is Cookies & Cream Couture, Inc. and you can also find them in Orlando, Florida!! 

Yaritza, please tell us all the social channels we can find you? 

C&CC:

My website is http://cookiesandcreamcou.wix.com/boutique

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CookiesandCreamCouture

Instagram: http://instagram.com/cookies_and_cream_couture

CC&S: 

What can you tell us about your family and this new adventure, Cookies and Cream Couture, Inc.?

C&CC: 

Cookies and Cream Couture, Inc. is an online boutique and community for biracial families and their cute little stylers! It took me a while to come up with a name. Being that this boutique was inspired by my two amazing biracial beauties, what better name than Cookies & Cream Couture! I want this to be a community for families to post pictures of themselves and their children on our facebook and instagram page, interact with one another and share your experiences.

CC&S: 

I love seeing all the photos and parents sharing their advice with other parents!  I understand your are Puerto Rican! My step-father is Puerto Rican, born in Rio Piedras.. how I miss the food... yumm Arroz con Gandules is our favorite! :D

C&CC: 

I am a Puerto Rican, and I'm married to my best friend who is African American and together we have two beautiful children; Zion and J'adore. My husband, Ronnell, is a 4th grade teacher and I am currently in school for education as well. Growing up I never dealt with racial discrimination on any level. I couldn't imagine ever judging someone for who they were culturally, what their hair looked like, or the color of their skin. 


When my daughter was born she was indescribably beautiful. She grew into an even more amazing little girl with a head full of curls. I mean she has enough hair for three people and most of us would die for a head of hair like hers! She began noticing that mommy was different. My hair was straighter, my skin was slightly lighter, and she felt different. She wanted to look like mommy and frequently asked why I was white and she was not. Then 22 months later my son was born. He came out with the curly hair but even lighter than I was. Of course this caused even more questions and it broke my heart. 

Children at the playground talked about her hair, her little friends were confused on why hers was so curly and theirs was strait and this fed into her feeling of not being beautiful. I spoke to her about her inner beauty and that her exterior was just how God decorated her outside. I would point out different aspects of her personality that were beautiful along with different physical features and this began to help. She now looks at herself in the mirror and tells me, "mommy I am so beautiful now." With this, I came up with an idea to design shirts that represented the beauty of being biracial! They are fun shirts that celebrate them and their unique curly locks.

CC&S: 

I completely love your design but is this something new or have you always had a good eye for styling? 

C&CC: 

I have always loved styling and as a Make Up Artists, many times I found myself styling shoots, my friends would call me to take them shopping, and several times I did complete make overs for individuals who wanted a new look. When I had my children, dressing them was so fun and many times I thought about becoming an actual stylists. Well I did with them!!! Being that this is something I have always enjoyed, when I wanted to come up with something to celebrate my children, what better way than to stick with what I love. I sat down and started drawing designs and coming up with phrases, and here we are.

CC&S:

I know that your boutique is relatively new but you've been working on this project for a while now...

C&CC: 

I literally launched Cookies & Cream Couture a couple of weeks ago. This is something I have been working on since October of last year but was not able to launch until now. I am so excited.

My product was designed with my biracial children in mind and of hearing several stories from other mothers of mixed children. I would hear things like, “why do I look dirty, why do I not look like you, I want to be white, I want yellow hair, or I want strait hair.” I wanted to celebrate them. That child who is confused about being biracial, or feels insecure about their culture and looks. Being biracial is beautiful and I want to teach my children to celebrate who they are and where they come from. However, this is a line for all those who are biracial and even those who are not and have locks of fun crazy curls and need to learn to embrace it. One of my favorite shirts is our Blended To Perfection T's which have different words representing being biracial and that they are perfect the way they are! 


CC&S: 

Where or how can we place orders for this fabulous shirts? 

C&CC:

     Orders can be placed through email. By looking through the website, facebook, or Instagram, they can email their orders and a paypal invoice will be sent directly to them.

CC&S:

AWESOME (like applesauce)... as you may or may not know this, we are getting close to our 2nd Year Anniversary...YEP, can't believe that either! 

Yaritza, How do you feel about participating in our Giveaway ??  Can we count on one of your fabulous items for the winner? 

C&CC: 

YES, we would love to participate in your Giveaway! Just let us know what we need to do.. :) 


Alright readers, there it is!! Another Small Business created with our Curly Kids in mind! So make sure you visit Cookies & Cream Couture Inc's social media pages and pick a shirt (or two) for your little ones... 

Thanks for reading!