Easter Parade

Easter Parade

by Eloise Greenfield
illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist

Set in the year of 1943, this book is about a young girl named Leanna and her excitement about the "Easter parade." Leanna calls her older cousin, Elizabeth to ask her more about the parade. Trying to sound excited for the sake of her little cousin, Elizabeth is really concerned about the fact that she and her mother have yet to receive their regular letter from her father who is away at war. I used this book as a read-a-loud to my daughter. We were both surprised to discover exactly what the "Easter parade" was!

Tiana's Dream

Tiana's Dream

by RH Disney

This is a Stepping Stones chapter book based on the new Disney move, The Princess and the Frog. It is one of the first chapter books  read with my 6 year old daughter. She absolutely loved the book, except for the "scary" parts. (We skipped over those!)

As much as we love and appreciate that there is now a princess that is "brown like me," the book and the move have a very dark side to them. There is alot of black magic and voodoo. When we saw the movie in the theater, she closed her eyes and ears for parts just as we skipped over a few pages when reading the book. Overall, we both love the book. I like that it encourages hard work and determination. She loves it because Tiana is a princess who looks like her!