There is nothing worse than watching your child struggle through the trials and tribulations that come along with friendship.  There are many children books out that help children learn to make new friends, maintain friendships, and recognize what makes them desirable to other children for companionship.

Poppy, The Wandering Balloon by Eli Jay is just such a story.

Delightful new story for children invites young readers and their families into a world that can sometimes be awkward and unsettling, but is always full of friendship and adventure if you try your best.

Poppy, The Wandering Balloon is facing the cold, cruel world for the very first time. His greatest wish is to come down from the sky and to make new friends. Along the way, he encounters some difficulty with a group of his peers. Despite Poppy’s hopes to befriend them, Tassy, Julius and Gib just do not want to know him, telling Poppy that he cannot be their friend. They even shun him altogether, which makes Poppy very sad indeed. He simply cannot understand why this rejection has happened to him, especially since he had tried so hard to please them. Poppy asks the old teacher, Mr. Widdles, for advice on how he can make his peers like him. But Mr. Widdles words are confusing and poor Poppy falls into a state of loneliness, thinking he’ll never have a friend to call his own. Nevertheless, he bravely decides to go in search for the answers by himself. With some guidance from the Sun, Poppy begins to realize that he must never give up hope and must keep trying to make his peers like him for who he really is. In the end, Poppy succeeds, which fills him with happiness, especially as he finally understands that all he needed to do was be himself.

I had high hopes for Poppy, as the title reminded me of one of my favorite children’s movies The Red Balloon.  Unfortunately, Poppy falls way below this classic in terms of aesthetics and message.

I found the story of Poppy awkward at best.  Mr. Widdles’ advice is reminiscent of The Rainbow Fish, where in order to be liked and make friends you  have to give away something special about yourself.   This advice is rejected at the end of the book, but it remains on the main character’s mind throughout and I fear would do so for little readers as well.

This book does not explain why Poppy is shunned by the other balloons. There is no description of his initial attempt to form friendships.  If this book really meant to teach children how to make new friends, I think specific suggestions would be helpful such as introducing yourself, complementing, asking other children their names, not trying too hard, etc.

I am also annoyed the Sun is in charge of blowing the wind.

After rejection and Mr. Widdles’ advice, Poppy begins a search for finding something special he can do or learn to make the other balloons like him.  He thinks of playing basketball or riding a bike, but only makes excuses for having no arms and legs.  This just is strange…especially considering when Poppy returns to the other balloons, they have got their basketball stuck in a tree.  Aren’t they also lacking limbs?

Poppy finally makes friends by getting the basketball stuck out of the tree.  It is nice he is helpful, but is that truly how our children will be able to make friends?  I think it unrealistic to think children have to solve problems for other children in order to be accepted by the group.

The conclusion to the book is:

Poppy now realizes all along he had never had to have some special gifts or know some clever tricks in order to make new friends.  All he had to do was be himself and believe in his heart that he is very special in his own way.

I agree with that completely, but I don’t get where in this book that comes from.  The lessons on self-esteem and friendship are a stretch from the context of the plot. Besides, wasn’t rescuing the basketball from the tree a special trick?  Poppy wrapped his string around the ball and tugged, something the other balloons hadn’t tried.  Sounds like a special trip to me, without any sort of reinforcement that Poppy’s nature is to be helpful.  Instead of spending pages on why he can’t roller skate or play sports, perhaps Poppy’s wanderings could have been examples of him helping creatures in the forest.

I always feel bad being a harsh critic to a book an author has poured their heart and soul into creating. I can see what the ideas are behind the book, but the text just doesn’t do them justice.

I love to read aloud to my children, but it has to be high quality literature.  We have to make our time count!

There isn’t any information on the book about recycled content or FSC certified paper.

Disclosure: I was sent free samples of these products to review. No prior assurances were given as to whether the review would be positive or negative.

Awkward Children’s Literature about Friendship is a post from: Eco Child's Play

I was excited to receive Adventures of Little Herbert in Mushroom Land by Natasha Guruleva, as mushroom hunting is one of our family’s favorite past times.

Mushrooms hold a special lore in children’s literature. Think of the amanita in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It is a catalyst to Wonderland.

Many fairy tales include mushrooms, especially those from Russia where author Natasha Guruleva grew up.

Adventures of Little Herbert in Mushroom Land  is part of the Mushroomland series.  There is also a video of this photo-illustrated fairy tale.

Just like with Alice, a mushroom (this time a Boletus) is responsible for the change from reality to fantasy.

Little Herbert is a shy and retiring boy who dreams of fitting in with his classmates by learning how to play baseball. On receiving the peculiar advice to try and strike the ball while it’s in the circle of the moon, turning it into a lucky charm, Herbert heads out to the sports field late at night to see if he can make this strange prophecy come true. Nothing seems to happen and Herbert becomes frustrated, accidentally striking a mushroom growing in the grass. Suddenly he faints and, as he does so, is magically transported to another world: Mushroomland. Herbert wakes to find he has been saved by a talking mushroom boy called Bolly. Bolly is excited to meet Herbert and suggests that he dress up in a mushroom disguise so that he can quietly fit in to life in Forest Town. Herbert is introduced to Bolly’s sister Tolly, his best-friends Chanterelle and Saffry and even to Bolly’s Grandpa, who just happens to be mayor of the town. Life in Mushroomland is absolute bliss for little Herbert; everyone loves him and looks after him. He even learns how to play baseball with the mushrooms’ help. He and Bolly become the very best of friends. After a while though, Herbert starts to feel homesick. But just as he is about to ask for the mushrooms’ help in getting home, Mushroomland is attacked by a gigantic Slug and a mean army of worms. It will be up to Herbert to find out why the attack was launched, to help protect his new family and friends, and to save Mushroomland.

Be prepared…there is a lot of text with this children’s book that is awkward at times.

There is no information on the book itself as to the source of the paper.  All books should be made from recycled content, in my opinion.

I’d think I’d rather go on our family mushroom hunting adventures and look at the field guide…All That the Rain Promises and More: A Hip Pocket Guide to Western Mushrooms is fairy tale enough for my kids!  Although, the images will probably inspire my children to build more fairy houses out of sticks, leaves, stones, etc.  This is a favorite outside activity!

Disclosure: I was sent free samples of these products to review. No prior assurances were given as to whether the review would be positive or negative.

Children’s Literature: Adventures of Little Herbert in Mushroom Land is a post from: Eco Child's Play

A story written by nature, Pacha’s Pajamas has an impressive list of endorsements. Van Jones, Julia Butterfly, Vandana Shiva, Mos Def, etc. all give this story positive praise.

Pacha’s Pajamas is an urban fairy tale that centers on a little girl with big dreams. One night, the animals and plants on her new pajamas come alive. Entering her dream as a small gorilla, she comes upon an unlikely group of creatures feeling sad about the state of the world. Nature unites to tell its captivating story at a global festival where species have come together to bring balance to the planet. They build a stadium, half land, half water and powered by electric eels. Fun-filled acts include an insect band called The Beetles, a black-eyed pea rapping for a better world and a beaver named Just-in-Time. At the end of the show, Pacha shares an important message for all of nature and humanity.

An EP also accompanies the book featuring Mos Def and Talib Kweli.

“Come and raise your paws for Mama Earth”

“Butterfly Life” is my favorite tune on the EP. I’m so picky about children’s music, and this is not as cheezy as most kids’ music.  I just don’t like pop music, so I am probably not a fair judge.

I think the story has a lot of elements urban children can relate to, followed by fun facts about different species.  I especially like the blank dream journal pages at the end.

Disclosure: I was sent free samples of these products to review. No prior assurances were given as to whether the review would be positive or negative.

Children’s Literature about Nature: Pacha’s Pajamas Featuring Mos Def is a post from: Eco Child's Play

Tomorrow is Dr. Seuss’ Birthday. Typically this day is celebrated in schools with children wearing Cat in the Hat hats as part of Read Across America. This year, the new Lorax movie will be released on this day.

About a month ago, I was approached to write a compensated post on the movie’s release. I agreed, as I love the book The Lorax; however, I had some reservations after viewing the trailer. I went ahead with the post, hoping that the mainstreaming of the movie would bring across the Lorax’s message to a wider audience.

Apparently, I was right, only this time the conservation message has been turned into one of consumption via 70 Lorax product endorsements.

Dr. Seuss was motivated to write The Lorax because of “his frustration at the overconsumption he found in his community”.  Now, this very story is being used to for branding 70 different products.  GreenBiz.com writes:

I moderated a panel last week in Washington for HP, one of about 70 companies, nonprofits and government agencies selected as sponsors for the movie, and I moderated another on Tuesday afternoon in  San Francisco. That got me thinking about how dramatically business has evolved in the last four decades — although obviously there’s much more to be done…

The panel in DC last week featured executives from HP, Seventh Generation (another sponsor), WWF and the Forest Stewardship Council, all of whom agreed that we’re messing with the earth in unsustainable ways that need to stop. But they are working together to attack some unsustainable practices.

For example, HP, WWF and the FSC are all trying to persuade more companies and consumers to buy FSC-certified paper to protect today’s equivalent of Truffula Trees. Only about 10% of the world’s forests are certified as sustainable in any way, Etienne McManus-Smith of FSC told me…

Seventh Generation, for its part, has pioneered environmentally friendly cleaning products,and it has set standards for transparency when it comes to ingredient disclosure. But Chris Miller, who leads the company’s sustainability work — he joined after a stint as a climate campaigner at Greenpeace — says the entire green cleaning category represents less than 10% of cleaning products. Maybe putting the Lorax on the package of Seventh Generation products will broaden their appeal. We’ll see.

Other sponsors of the movie have strong environmental cred, among them the EPA, Whole Foods Markets, Stonyfield Farms’s YoKids brand in the US. (Here’s a list.)

Then there’s IHOP (huh?) and the sponsor that’s drawing the most negative flack, Mazda, which calls itself“the first and only carmaker to receive the honor of the Truffula Tree Seal of Approval.” The company has created a TV spot showing the 2013 Mazda CX-5 small crossover SUV travelling through the “Truffula Valley.”

There are some truly green companies on the list of Lorax endorsed products, but really, do they need Universal Studios stamp of approval?  Hardly.  Their own ethical standards should be enough.

Honestly, I lose all respect for the Lorax when I watch this commercial.

The Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood explains it well:

For more than forty years, Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax has been a clarion call for conservation. Generations of children have been moved by its powerful tale of how rampant greed and consumerism destroyed the forest of Truffula Trees and the Brown Bar-ba-loots, Swomee-Swans, and Humming-Fish that depended on them. But now the book’s powerful message is in danger of being crushed by a real-life landslide of corporate greed.

This Friday, Universal Pictures’ The Lorax arrives in theaters—with dozens of corporate tie-ins. While the story teaches children to conserve the earth’s finite resources, these heavily advertised partnerships compel them to consume, consume, consume.

Read the book with your children. See the movie if you must. But tell the corporations that have kidnapped the Lorax you want nothing to do with:

• The new Mazda CX-5 SUV—the only car with the “Truffula Seal of Approval.”
• Seventh Generation household products and diapers festooned with the Lorax.
• IHOP’s kids’ menu items like Rooty Tooty Bar-Ba-Looty Blueberry Cone Cakes and Truffula Chip Pancakes.
• In-store promotions featuring the Lorax at Whole Foods, Pottery Barn Kids, and Target.
• Online Lorax games and sweepstakes for YoKids Yogurt, Comcast Xfinity TV, Target, IHOP, and HP.
• HP’s “Every Inkling Makes a Difference” in-school curriculum produced and distributed by Scholastic.

I feel like I sold out Eco Child’s Play writing the compensated post. I hope, dear reader, you will forgive me.

Selling Out the Lorax: 70 Different Product Tie Ins is a post from: Eco Child's Play

1. Vicki’s Vegan Kitchen: Eating With Sanity, Compassion & Taste

For the record, we are not a vegan family, and only the females are vegetarian in our family.  They boys eat organic meat.  I have been a vegan, but my pregnant body demanded more, so dairy reentered my diet ten years ago.  Even though we are not strict vegans, we incorporate many vegan recipes and meals into our daily life.

Vicki’s Vegan Kitchen: Eating With Sanity, Compassion & Taste is full of delicious recipes and instructions. These nutritionally balanced meals sometimes try to imitate meat dishes, like “Vegan ‘Chopped Liver’”, whereas others simply stand alone in taste and uniqueness, like “Cucumber-Wakame Salad”.

Veteran cookbook author Chelf (Cooking with the Right Side of the Brain) expands the vegan culinary universe in this collection of 375 meat-, egg- and dairy-free dishes for those with dietary restrictions. Yes, there are smoothies, Tabouli, and Hummus, but Chelf helps readers expand their diets with vegan versions of pizza, lasagna, and even Cheez Whiz in this accessible and imaginative guide. Chelf’s creative concoctions enable vegans to enjoy French Toast, béchamel sauce, pie, and a mock beef stew that finds its umami in seitan, tahini, and liquid aminos. A guide to vegan-friendly sources for key ingredients, and foods to avoid or seek out ensures larders will be stocked with healthy staples. Helpful step-by-step instructions for baking bread and making noodles, and tips on sprucing up soups and smoothies inspire confidence and enable cooks to expand their culinary repertoire. Though special ingredients are often required for many of her dishes, Chelf does an admirable job of keeping things as simple as possible. This is a terrific guide for vegans tired of settling for a salad.

There are plenty of recipes in this cookbook that would be a wonderful addition to any meal.  Whether your family is 100% vegan or you have a vegan guest, everyone will love these dishes.

Here is a recipe from  Vicki’s Vegan Kitchen: Eating With Sanity, Compassion & Taste I have yet to try, but sounds yummy!

Vegan Cinnamon-Raisin Muffins

• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons flaxseeds
• 1 1/3 cup rice bran
• 1 cup barely flour
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup raisins
• 3 cups water
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1. Preheat ove to 350 degrees F.  Generously oil and flour a standard 12-cup muffin tin and lightly sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the flaxseeds.
2. Place the rice bran, barely flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and raisins in a large bowl, and mix well.
3. Add 1/2 cup of the flaxseeds to a blender along with the water and vinegar.  Blend until smooth.  Add to the flour mixture and stir quickly until just mixed.
4. Spoon equal amounts of batter into the prepared muffin cups.  (I use a 1/4-cup measuring cup with a handle to ladle the batter.)
5. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
6. Remove the muffins from the tin an serve.

2.
I still remember as a child looking for a lost dog or cat.  We would drive around with the window down yelling our dog’s name.  We would shake dog food bags and yell, “Treats!”  I was so full of anxiety and worry.

Now that I live in the mountains, my dogs sometimes go running.  Usually they go to the river, but sometime they visit a neighbor.  Sometimes they are gone for hours.  With Tagg-The Pet Tracker, I can now find them and not worry when they will come home.

Bear hunters use GPS expensive collars to track their dogs when they have treed a bear. The concept for Tagg is similar, only it is for our beloved pets.

Tagg is an advanced GPS tracking device purpose-built for pets, that will notify pet parents through text and/or email alerts if a pet leaves his safe zone—and allows their current location to be tracked so the pet can be brought home. The lightweight Tagg tracker attaches to a cat or dog’s existing collar, is designed to be worn at all times, and can operate for up to 30 days before recharging. A Tagg master kit is $99.95 which includes one month of free service; after the first month, service is $7.95/month.

If you can afford the monthly service, and your pet disappears frequently, I think this is a great product!  It certainly would give me piece of mind, especially since one of my dogs has been found many miles from home when he wandered.  I like that this GPS collar is more humane than a shock collar.  As long as your pet doesn’t lose the collar, I think it is worth it.

Tagg even has an iPhone app!

3. The Stick Book: Loads of Things You Can Make or Do with a Stick

A little over a year ago, Jonathon Liu wrote on Wired about The 5 Best Toys of All Time:

1. Stick
2. Box
3. String
4. Cardboard Tube
5. Dirt

Jo Schofield and Fiona Danks have written about Wired’s number one toy in The Stick Book: Loads of Things You Can Make or Do with a Stick  

The stick is a universal toy. Totally natural, all-purpose, free, it offers limitless opportunities for outdoor play and adventure and it provides a starting point for an active imagination and the raw material for transformation into – almost anything! As New York’s Strong National Museum of Play pointd [sic] out when they selected a stick for inclusion in their National Toy Hall of Fame, ‘It can be a Wild West horse, a medieval knight’s sword, a boat on a stream, or a slingshot with a rubber band . . .’ In this book Fiona Danks and Jo Schofield offer masses of suggestions for things to do with a stick, in the way of adventures and bushcraft, creative and imaginative play, games, woodcraft and conservation, music and more.

This book features 70 stick projects. Each one is beautifully photographed and explained.  My favorite project ideas are:

• Make a Star Wand
• Wild Weaving
• Make a Sun Clock
• Make a Fairy House or Gnome Castle
• Make a Necklace

Would I buy this book?  Yes.  You might think, “Why would I need a book to tell me how to play with sticks?”  This book gives you so many ideas and inspiration from the photographs. I think it is worth it!

4. Snap Infusion SuperCandy

Kids (and some adults) like candy, so why not make it “super”? No high fructose corn syrup and low calories mean you don’t have to worry about your children eating this “supercandy”.  Plus, Snap Infusion is packed with vitamins; however, it appears to not be vegetarian.

We are SNAP Infusion^®, the creators of SUPERCANDY^®,
a quick and delicious snack made from stuff you can feel good about devouring. SNAP is packed with B vitamins to boost your energy, antioxidants to keep your immune system strong, and electrolytes so you don’t get dehydrated and end up a dried-out shell of your former self.

We were sent the following flavors of Snap Infusion to try:

• GUM – Citrus Flavored Gum
• MEL – Chocolate Covered Caramel
• BEAN- Multi-Berry

Snap Infusion is made in the USA.

My vegetarian daughter noticed this “supercandy” contains gelatin.  When I first became a vegetarian at age 16, I learned that gelatin was made from horse hooves.   This may not be entirely accurate, as other random bone and cartilage parts are used from more than just horses.  PETA explains:

It’s probably no coincidence that gelatin rhymes with skeleton—because that’s exactly what it is—animal bones (along with animal skin, hooves, tendons, ligaments, and cartilage all boiled together into a goo that’s added to all kinds of candy and baked goods).

Would I buy this product?  No.  Unfortunately, this “supercandy” is not vegetarian or organic.

5. Munchkin Mighty Grip Spill-Proof Cups

I admit, when I used toddler cups with my kids, I did use plastic at times. Granted that was over five years ago and there weren’t many glass options.  I did rely heavily on the Klean Kanteen sippy cup.

I do understand the fear of glass breaking as toddler bang their cups on the counter or drop them, and I did prefer cups with handles for gripping, like the Munchkin Mighty Grip Trainer Cup with my own children.

Make the transition from bottle to sippy cup a smooth one with our new BPA-free Click Lock cups and these tips from our friends.

We have been sent four different BPA-free plastic cups by Munchkin.

1. Munchkin Mighty Grip Trainer Cup
2. Munchkin Mighty Grip Spill-Proof Cup
3. Click Lock™ Insulated Big Kid™ Cup
4. Munchkin Click Lock Flip Straw Cup

These products do feature silicone spouts, are dishwasher safe (although I wouldn’t recommend it), and are made in China.

Would I buy these products? Probably not. If I had it to do all over again, I would avoid all plastics, BPA-free or not. I just don’t trust them, and more alternatives exist today. I would stick with the Klean Kanteen sippy cup and/or Lifefactory glass bottle sippy cup.

I don’t really care about spill proof, as I think that is how children learn about liquids, gravity, and volume is by actually spilling drinks.  In fact, I always took the valves out of my children’s sippy cups, even the Klean Kanteen, so they would learn to drink without a lot of sucking and the natural consequences of turning a cup upside down.