Buttons and BOO!

I never thought black buttons could be so scary! Read Neil Gaiman's Coraline on a dark and sp00ky night and you'll understand what I mean! There's a door that leads to another room, ghastly things, and a horrid hand, but there's also a wonderful cat, faithful friends and a brave, brave girl! Just a B00tiful read for halloween!

I am not a Plastic Doll! :-)

Today is Blog Action Day for the Environment and if you still don't have a shopping bag made of cloth now's the time to get or make one! It doesn't have to be the oh-so-fashionable "I am not a Plastic Bag" one. Any good-sized cloth tote will do! Roll it up and scrunch it into your bag so whenever you go shopping you can just unfurl it when you need it. Lets reduce the number of plastic bags that we use and stick to cloth ones instead. Just a little Tudy Tip for Mother Earth!

It's a Treat!

For a hauntingly fun time, serve up this magical brew on your next spOOktacular Tudy party. Need help? Ask the Mummy...

The Witch's Twitch

Fill an 8 ounce glass with ice cubes. Squeeze the juice of one fresh orange. Add 4 ounces of cranapple juice. Top the potion with citrus-flavored Diet Fresca or Sprite Zero. Watch the fizzzz! Garnish with a fresh lime and a berry-flavored gummy worm.

Enjoy the magic... it's Tudylicious!

Can you Track my TudyPets?

Check out TudyDoll.com and track my TudyPets! Meet Woofy, Meowry and Kawaii, try out their different colors and, best of all, print them and take them home with you!

Art Stole the Scene!

Art won as your fave subject with a masterful 71% of the vote. Math equalled second with 33%. Reading and writing inked in at third with 29%. And science experimented at fourth with 24%. Thanks for taking my Fave Subject Poll!

Check out the Tudy Tips and Tudy Gifts links under my Memo Board for more fave polls and fave poll results!

The Room With A View

It's your school library of course! It's the one room you should get to know ASAP! Make a visit to your school library an essential part of your week. You'll get access to every literacy skill imaginable!

And make the connection: Borrow Newberry Award winner Jerry Spinelli's The Library Card. There are four stories in this book and the only thing that keeps the stories together is the reappearing, blue library card. It'll lend credence to the power of books, literature and your local school librarian. You'll never look at a library card the same way again...

Fairy Gifts

And speaking of fairy gifts, can you believe the gift given by the fairy Lucinda to Ella? Just imagining what would happen next kept me reading Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted in one sitting! And those ogres! Yikes! I guess I'll just stick to wishing for my favorite gifts instead - books and dark chocolates and paper dolls and stationeries and trips to new places and stuffed toys (still!) - and leave the fairy gifts to fiction where they belong!

So check out Tudy Gifts on my Memo Board for the results of my Fave Gift Poll and for more fun (and safe!) gift ideas!

My Favorite Princess Story

There's Cinderella and Snow White, Rapunzel and the Little Mermaid, but my favorite Princess of all is Amethyst Alexandra Augusta Araminta Adelaide Aurelia Anne (whew!), or Amy, as everyone called her. Princess Amy is M.M. Kaye's The Ordinary Princess, who was given by her fairy godmother, Crustacea, a most curious gift - the gift of being ordinary! And as you read Princess Amy's story, you realize that there are so many ordinary things that are truly wonderful - like wildflowers, and a summer day, and playing dressup and paper dolls!

What are your favorite ordinary but wonderful things? And what's your favorite Princess story?

Travel Blog

The mountains or the beaches?
The forest for the trees?
The tundra or the desert?
Which one of these?
Blog me, please.

The cruise ship or the air strip?
Or that never-ending road trip?
The lazy-days-turned-crazy-days?
Are we there yet?
Blog me, please.

The Pacific or Atlantic?
The Mediterranean or Caribbean?
The Northern or Southern Hemisphere?
Where were you?
Blog me, please.

Eloise, Please!

Have you read Kay Thompson's Eloise? It's the story of a precocious 6-year old city child who lives at the Plaza in New York City! Altho first published in 1955 (!) reading it now still makes me laugh, laugh, laugh! And makes me want to stay at a posh hotel, order room service and charge it please thank you very much! I also absolutely love the illustrations of Hilary Knight, who drew all the Eloise books. His colors? Black, white and pink all over!

Eloise has been around for more than 50 years and yet she's never been a day over 6. She's so loved that generations of little girls and their mothers go to the Plaza Hotel, not just to see the little brass plaque that lists it as a Literary Landmark (as the Home of Eloise, of course!), but also to look at Eloise's fawbulous painting in the gold lobby!

Hmmm... maybe I should have a little sister...

The Mane Event

Birds have feathers, fish have scales, and we have wonderful, glorious hair! Did you know only mammals have hair? Yes, it's our mane attraction, our special skin protectant. It's mother nature's own SPF! Hair actually grows from hair follicles. And the human head has more than 100,000 hair follicles (that's 10 x 10,000, you little mathematician!).

And here's a hair-raising fact: though hair is the fastest growing tissue in our body, it's actually dead material! "Deadlocks," if you ask me. You can cut, curl, or color it. You won't ever feel a thing.

So don't stress about your tresses! Love your hair. It's unique to you, it's unique to me. Examine each strand with a fine-tooth comb and you'll discover an engineering marvel.

And here's the ultimate, dress-for-less tip: clean, healthy hair will always be the must-have, fashion tease! Think about it. No look is ever complete without that signature 'do. Nothing completes or renews your look more than a few highlights, a new hair color or hairstyle. A new 'do, a new mood, a new look! It's that simple.

So take good care of your hair. Keep it clean and healthy. Long or short, straight or curly, it's your one and only crowning glory! Long live that sheen!!

Gnoles to the Rescue!

You've read about goblins, and maybe even about gnomes, but have you heard about gnoles? In Alan Aldridge's book The Gnole, written with Steve Boyett, Fungle is an intelligent, funny, cuddly, and wise mole-like gnole who lives in the Smoky Mountains. He leaves his beloved home, goes to New York, becomes a media darling, and faces heart-stopping and heart-breaking adventures - all to save the planet Earth!

The book was written a long time ago but I think it has a great message - we all should do what we can to help the only planet we call home!