This past Tuesday, members of the GA Partners of Kindermusik Educators enjoyed a wonderful time at the Church Street Tea House in Cartersville, Georgia. I mistakenly attributed the arrangements for lunch at the Tea House to Kathryn Nobles who has shared that it was, in fact, Katie Hurley from Cartersville who knew about the Tea House and made our reservations for us. Thank you, Katie! It was a wonderful place to eat with many selections to choose from and all of us enjoyed our varied meals.
We also spent time afterwards, sharing about our favorite books for storytimes. Here are some of the selections offered. Be sure to click on the pictures for additional, helpful information about each item.
Fiddle I Fee brought back many memories and laughter from around the table. Kathryn also suggested some other wonderful books. They are:
Sail Away by Donald Crews 
Sitting on the Farm 
Another beautiful book that we saw was Who Took the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?
by David Carter, who specializes in lovely pop-up books. Each turn of the page brought a new character behind the pop-up. Be sure to check out Carter’s other books such as “Love Bugs” and “Easter Bugs”. They all look wonderful! Thanks, Tammaney, for these books!
Another author that was suggested was Joy Cowley. Her Mrs. WishyWashy books are not to be missed! Here’s two that we saw:
and then there’s Mrs. Wishy Washy’s Farm 
Trudy Bennett from Murphy, North Carolina shared a book that she found at the local Walmart store:
Trudy bought this book because it reminded her of one of her students and her lovely, curly hair, but I can see where every child would enjoy reading about other children and seeing that it’s not just okay, but actually good to be different.
Kay Bratton from Rome shared some wonderful selections from Do Re Mi & You:
Put Your Left Paw In - a Jungle Hokey Pokey is part of a set that includes not only the book, but a CD and four magnetic animal puzzles with a carrying case.
She also showed a DVD entitled Get Up and Stomp 
where a child will learn how to make instruments, create rhythms and dance routines using every day objects. Great stuff from Do Re Mi & You! (I’ve got to start my Christmas shopping soon!)
Megan Mingone from Adairsville brought a lovely board book Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes by Annie Kubler. This one would be wonderful for our Village classes!
Sherry Carter from Dalton also had some wonderful selections to share. Some of those were:
The Doorbell Rang 
Our Yard Is Full of Birds 
Feathers for Lunch 
Some other books that were discussed:
The Grumpalump 
a wonderful read-aloud that captured my attention!
Raise the Roof 
Old MacDonald Had a Woodshop 
Katie Hurley from Cartersville also brought an activity CD that she highly recommends:
Musical Scarves and Activities 
It provides additional activities for those scarves that we all love so much!
Other books mentioned included:
Cows in the Kitchen by June Crebbin – a great read-aloud
From Head to Toe by Eric Carle – another classic
Round Robin – Ezra Jack Keat – did I already say “classic”?
Christmas Mice – I didn’t catch this author. Kathryn, I think you mentioned this one?
Favorite places to find most of these books included: Amazon.com, Walmart, Target, and TJMaxx. I found most of these books available through Amazon.com, although some of them were no longer in print, but available through the Amazon Marketplace used books dealers.
Sherry Carter and Tammaney Holcombe also shared that Scholastic.com is also a good source not only for the Kindermusik teacher, but also for your Kindermusik parents to obtain good, reasonably priced books. As the teacher, you can put book orders together to help your parents out and earn free books for yourself in the process. Be sure to check them out.
I have also found in my own online searches that BestBookDeal.com is one of the best places to locate an out-of-print or hard-to-find book. You can type in your book title, author or even the ISBN and it will pull up every available copy online and list them by price, from the least expensive to the most expensive. It also shows shipping costs and shipping times.
Two other possibilities include Half.com as well as eBay.com. At Half.com, you don’t have to bid on your item. The prices are pre-determined by the seller, so, for those of you who hate to be outbid on eBay and don’t enjoy the bidding process, it’s a viable option. Plus, you can find some great prices there.
And don’t forget to check out your local thrift store, the Goodwill annual booksales, your local libraries’ book sales, and the $1 section at Target. All of these usually hold some read-aloud treasures. Have fun looking!
