On the 7th Day of Christmas ,The Phantom Paragrapher Gave to Me : A Top Ten Collection of Christmas Movies  to Check Out. For as long as I can remember, I have loved the thought of Christmas . Growing up , we had really good christmases with a few lucky big family ones . Then sadly , I turned 22/23 and Christmas in my household became the worst as that was the year in October , that my family would fall apart and my Dad had never really been a Xmas person anyway and with no really extended family around. It just became another day and I have to say I hate that part of Christmas as to me it should be the best day of the year. It got worst over the next few years as two years ago was when Christmas stopped for my family completely.  As my mum went into hospital on Xmas Eve and died four days later and just like that Xmas ceased to exist in my household. I see other families and friends talking about their big family get togethers and I yearn for that again .  I ...

  Looking for an Interactive Book to share with your preschoolers or kindergarten class ?   Review: The Story of Chester - Susie Vanderlip - January 2012 Are you studying Larvae, Caterpillars, Cocoons and Butterflies ? Wanting to find a resource that you can use to teach preschoolers about the above ? Is your Kindergarten doing a project on the lifecycle of a Butterfly ? As a Children's and Young Person's librarian, I am often asked about finding books that will be suited to the preschool age as we have lots for the older children but nothing at a simple level. Not till now, The Story of Chester follows a Caterpillar named Chester through his lifecycle talking about what he eats, what he likes and the way Chester becomes a butterfly. At 24 pages, The Story of Chester is a quick read and will hold the child's attention . Even better is the colorful photographic illustrations so that the children can sit and immerse themselves into the process that Chester too...