Tuesday, July 3, 2012





A Stick Is an Excellent Thing: Poems Celebrating Outdoor Play


A Stick Is An Excellent Thing
Author: Marilyn Singer
Illustrator:  LeUyen Pham
Publisher:  Clarion
Ages: 3-8
ISBN: 978-0-547-12493-3
In this age of electronic gadgets, what are children to do when all they have is the great outdoors and a stick?  Maybe there are adventures to be found by going back in time and joining in the fun of simple children's games requiring no batteries and just a wonderful imagination?  Do YOU know how to make mud soup?

6 comments:

  1. I remember as a kid we used to make our own bows and arrows. I have never seen kids today doing this yet it entertained us for hours.

    Technology is useful but not to the exclusion of all else.

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    1. Hi JP! I completely agree! I think the two worse things to happen to children is the TV and handheld gaming devices like the DSI. It has take away their ability to self-pacify and just about killed their creativity. If you were to hand them what WE had to play with when we were children and they would be dumbfounded as to what to do with it! ;0)

      Thanks for stopping by and come back any time!

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  2. My brother made bows and arrows out of bamboo stalks. My sister and I made dolls out off sticks and rags. We didn't have to, we wanted to.

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    1. Hi Janet! I remember those days! I also remember making mud "pies" and grass "soup". And yes, it was because we wanted to...all part of the imaginary world we lived in...

      Thanks for stopping by and come back any time!

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  3. I can remember making doll houses from boxes. We even painted some. Going crawfishing was so much fun. I have much younger brothers born in the 80's and they have no idea the fun we had growing up in the 70's. I can't wait to get my hands on this book of poems.

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    1. Awwww, Pam, you brought back memories. There was a small creek which ran behind one of the houses I lived in during my childhood and we would go crawfishing with our TOES as bait as we walked through that creek...and we made slip n slides out of large refrigerator boxes that we grabbed from the dumpster of an appliance store near our house...;0)

      Thanks for stopping by and come back any time!

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