Children’s Library Corner: Beetles Lightly Toasted
Introducing our newest children/family literature expert: Ruhama Kordatzky Bahr. Yes, she is related to me being my sister-in-law. Even so, she is one of the most creative children’s librarians I have ever met. Instead of doing a newly released children’s book review, she wanted to bring to your attention excellent reads that have been overlooked. This month’s selection is Beetles Lightly Toasted.
Amazon link
Beetles Lightly Toasted Summary
The Project Ideas
- Create a revolutionary flavor of ice cream.
- List as many uses as you can for a bedsheet.
- How could you make a birthday (all day long!) super special?
- Design a Halloween costume scenario for your whole family.
- You’ve been selected to go to Mars! What would you pack?
- Come up with a new outdoor game.
- Dream up some hybrid animals.
- Develop a restaurant: what would you serve? What’s the name? How would you advertise?
- Find your own ways to conserve! What is one thing you can change in your house or lifestyle to conserve?
The Food Ideas
Pick up a copy of Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld and select a few recipes to test on the family (I would start with one of the following: Macaroni and Cheese I, Burgers I, Pasta with Bolognese Sauce, Quesadillas or Pink Pancakes). Either work the recipe into your family’s meal plan or turn it into a guessing game. I have fond memories of my mom making tomato soup cake, but refusing to tell us about the soup! We loved that cake, perhaps because it was a bit of a mystery.
If you’d like to do a real taste test, do the baby food game often found at baby showers: remove the labels from several jars and then have everyone take a tiny taste, write down (or tell you) what they think it is and reveal the answers at the end of the test!
Resolve, as a family, to try one new food a month (or bimonthly). Discuss ways to work it into your regular meal routine. This could be as simple as everyone tries honeydew melon or whole wheat pasta.
The Lowdown
- Title: Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Beetles Lightly Toasted. NY: Atheneum, 1987.
- Age level: 4th grade and up
- All ages readaloud: yes
- Series: no
More Children’s Library Corner Suggestions
- Children’s Library Corner: Alice-all-by-herself
- Children’s Library Corner: The Song of Pentecost
- Children’s Library Corner: Introducing Dara Dokas, Local Author
- Children’s Library Corner: Spring Books for Kids
- Children’s Library Corner: The Lancelot Closes at Five
- Children’s Library Corner: Hickory by Palmer Brown
- Children’;s Library Corner: Four Fall-Fun Favorite Books
- Children’s Library Corner: Lionel and the Spy Next Door
- Children’s Library Corner: Brillstone Break-In
- Children’s Library Corner: David LaRochelle