Category Archives: Books

Books, Brick and Mortar, Deals, kids, Summer Activities

Barnes and Noble Summer Reading

June 9, 2012 NerdMom 1 Comment

It is time for the Barnes and Noble summer Program again! Kids just need to either pick up a passport or print it off the website. Then they read 8 books, record the information and have a parent sign off. Then the kids take the completed passport into any Barnes and Noble store, turn it in and pick out a free book!

The program goes first grade through sixth grade. And remember, you don’t have to buy the 8 books in order to qualify. They can be from your personal collection or the library so this is a free activity! But you do have to a brick and mortar store. There is no way to do this through the website.

Barnes and Noble also has a weekly story time that goes year round. In Fresno it is Saturday morning. They are aimed at lower elementary and are topical to the month.

Go read, get free books!!!

Books, Deals, Free, Online

Free Summer Reading for Mom

May 3, 2012 NerdMom Leave a comment

My friend Jaime recommended that I check out a book called Bicoastal Babe by Cynthia Langston for an easy and fun read. I hadn’t gotten a chance to pick it up yet when I found out….

It is going to be free for Kindle Thursday (5/3) and Friday (5/4)!!! Just pop over and put it on your Kindle or any Kindle reader app you use.

Here is the description from Amazon:

Not exactly what you’d call a goddess of cutting-edge culture, Lindsey Miller is shocked when she’s offered the über-hip job of writing for The Pulse, a newsletter that tracks white-hot trends in everything from fashion to cosmetics to entertainment. Before long, Lindsey finds herself on a whirlwind bicoastal romp as she jet-sets between New York and Los Angeles, fumbling to uncover what’s cool today, and what will be the next big thing tomorrow.

The grit and glamour of Manhattan are electrifying – and so is Victor Ragsdale, the slick Wall Street broker who charms Lindsey with his street-smart savvy. But the warmth and sunshine of L.A. are bliss – and so is Danny Wynn, the dreamy blond surfer who sweeps her into his strong, suntanned arms.

Lindsey’s two lives are both so exciting – and both so different. But disaster strikes when her evil trend-spotting partner begins to expose Lindsey for what she really is: tragically unhip and only one dirty martini away from being found out and fired.

Sounds cute! I personally can relate to feeling like I can figure out what is cool for the rest of the world but not myself;). Apparently Katherine Heigl loves it. So much she is developing/producing a show for the CW called Trending that is based on the book.

So grab a copy of the book and give it a read! In the near future I will be giving you my thoughts on it!!!

Books, Educational, Free, Frugal Homeschooler, kids, literature

Free Poetry Month Resources!

March 30, 2012 NerdMom 1 Comment

write_poetry_large_xlg — Graphic of Jack Prelutsky from Scholastic's Page!

Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? It is and as always there is a wealth of free resources out there to teach your kids about poetry! And I mean kids of all ages!!!!

Scholastic has a ton of activities for kids k-12. There are workshops, printables and prompts but it all starts with a reading from Jack Prelutsky!

The Shel Silverstein site has a ton of resources from mini units to single printable pages. They have simple printables under kids and a ton more (including this and last year’s poetry month packs) under educators. 1 warning about the site, it pops up with music and you have to click through a few pages to get to anything.

Poets.org has a variety of units available. They were all created by secondary teachers. It also has poems to teach with some of them even being read to you!

Do you like poetry? I loved Shel Silverstein growing up and gotten his books from the library for my kids. But honestly, other than to answer trivia questions, I don’t know much about poetry. So I look forward to learning about this with my kids! Go get your literature arts on and teach your kids to enjoy poetry!

By the way, make sure you check back because later in the month I will be reviewing some poetry apps too!

Books, nerdy, Reviews

Coming Up on My Reading List

July 18, 2011 NerdMom 2 Comments

I am looking forward to the release of Pursuing Christ, Creating Art! I think it will live up to the promise! I will let you know!

Books

Fascinate: A Review

June 23, 2011 NerdMom 2 Comments

I recently read Sally Hogshead’s Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation and I was surprised how much I liked it! I know that sounds horrible but it is reality;). I figured that it was just going to be an industry book that was just going to be encouraging connection and branding. I was pleasantly surprised that it was so much more than that! Sally Hogshead does a fabulous job of looking at what fascinates us both as individuals and as a society. She takes us on both a historical and study based journey through the 7 triggers of fascination that ends with a fabulous process of application!

The book is split into 3 parts. The first section is called Fascinate or Fail and Hogshead takes an over view at fascination starting with sex & faces then going to media markets and being personally fascinating.

Then in section 2 Hogshead broke down the 7 triggers to fascination: lust, mystique, alarm, prestige, power, vice and trust. She analyzed how to use or not use the triggers. It is, ok I will say it, fascinating!

Then section 3 is the practical application! It helps you to evaluate what you have and want. Then, there is the deployment with what you need to tweak. It is followed up with the Kelton Fascination study.

So the over view sounds great, right? But personally I can say it is very effective. It has given me a new viewpoint on my blogging voice. In real life I have a strong personality but I play it super safe on my blogs. So I have become a tepid influence without a real strong following. Fascinate has given me a new direction on how to best leverage my opinions and voice to develop a faithful readership. I can’t wait to apply all I have learned and reap the rewards of reading a good book!

(This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. As always, while they may have motivated the subject all opinions are my own!)

Books, Geeky Stuff, Graphic Novels

Free Comic Book Day!!!

May 6, 2011 NerdMom Leave a comment

Woot! Free Comic Book Day is tomorrow!!!! This is the 10th anniversary of Free Comic Book Day, are you going?

We went last year with all 4 kids and had a ball!!! Heroes here in Fresno had Darth Vader and Clone Troopers wandering the lines! The kids loved going up to them. NerdPud couldn’t figure out if she wanted to hug Darth or hide from him;).

Remember that this is aimed at kids so if you expect to see only hard core comics out there, well you will be disappointed! This has some points. 1) Get kids into comics! 2) Encourage kids to read. 3)Have fun!!!!

Books, gift worthy, giveaway

Celebrating Love Giveaway

February 12, 2011 NerdMom 14 Comments

It is almost Valentine’s Day and what would Valentine’s Day be without little mush? So here is this sweet book all about love!

Celebrating Love: Share, Remember, Cherish follows Celebrating Mom in a new gift series from 1-800-flowers.com and Celebrations.com founder Jim McCann. I knew that Jim McCann was CEO of 1-800-flowers.com but I had no idea that he had founded it back in 1976. He has grown the 1-800-flowers.com brand to represent all things love and holidays so it is only fitting that he wrote this sweet book on love.

Reinforcing the 1-800-flowers.com and Celebrations.com philosophy of helping customers express, connect, and celebrate, McCann balances the practical with the inspirational, and the poignant with the profound, inside this collection of authentic love stories. Full-color drawings illustrate the book throughout and are interspersed with meaningful quotes and little-known facts about love and affection. Divided into four sections based on the distinct seasons of love, Celebrating Love features 150 entries. It even begins with his own sweet love story!

In addition to the release of this book, 1-800-flowers.com is also running the Love Notes contest over on Facebook. Just “like” your favorite bouquet for a chance to win it (or give it)!

Win it! I have been given the opportunity to give 1 copy of Celebrating Love: Share, Remember, Cherish to one of my readers (US only)!

Mandatory Entry: Now you must do this in order to be entered at all! Just tell me which bouquet you liked!

Extra Entries: This is such an awesome giveaway that I am sure you would like more ways to enter. Make sure you leave an extra comment for each entry.

Like my Facebook page and share this post with your friends! Make sure you share the post!!!
Subscribe to my RSS feed
Follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway! You can tweet once a day!
Post about this giveaway and leave the link in your comment!

This giveaway closes on 2/19/11 and the winner will have 24 hours to respond.

This giveaway was made possible by Mom Spark Media who provided one for me and one for thee. As always thoughts and opinions are my own.

Books, FRN, gift worthy

Family Friendly Comic Book!

April 26, 2010 NerdMom 1 Comment

We love comic books here in the NerdFamily! NerdDad and I both read comic books but finding good ones for that are appropriate for the kids take a little looking. So when I received a review copy of Boy, I’d Hate to be Made Out of That Stuff! through FRN I was stoked!

Lunar Antics sets up this comic series where moon people invade earth to avoid the outrageous tax on the moon. It is advertised as science fiction for normal people;). This is a clean and fun comic. It has some sarcasm and a lot of wit! It is so cute! While the main characters are moon people (who are bright, a bit egotistical and very good at math) the strip is really about humanity.

I recommend this book! I think it is a fun gift for your favorite comic lover be they children or adults! Right now if you order a copy you can get it signed for free! I am a sucker for autographed books;).

Books, preschool

Our Secret Weapon to Teach Reading

November 23, 2009 NerdMom Leave a comment

We have always been a fan of the Bob Books that help kids learn how to read but we have a new favorite. We were given a set of Reading for Fun (Enrichment Library), A Beka, Kindergarden

book by a good friend (love Sue!) since her kids were done with them. Well, I looked at them and they seemed a little advanced because they didn’t just concentrate on one syllable like the Bob Books.

So they sat for a little bit on the shelf. NerdDad picked them up a few weeks ago and said he was going to start taking the 4 year old through them. They are set up with “words to sound” and “words to know” in the front cover. Then it has a little story. There are many books in this set and they build on each other. The copyright date in the ones we have are 1979 and I don’t know if they continued to print them. So you may have to look for a used set but it is totally worth it!

Nerd Family