Tra la!  It’s Friday!

There are just some words that make you feel good, aren’t there?  You know, like cupcake and cottage, raindrop and starlight, bakery and bookstore…and Friday! 🙂

I’ve got big plans for a fancy dinner – pizza with my favorite 4 and 6 year old – tiara NOT optional 🙂 – and a library visit for Big Truck Day.  A pretty hard-to-beat weekend, if you ask me! 🙂  I could have gone to the Garlic Festival… but somehow garlic ice cream sounds less appealing to me than chocolate anything.

However, that reminds me that we did have a conversation at Book Club this week about all the local festivals which include the Garlic Festival, and of course the upcoming NYS Sheep and Wool Festival (where Iza Trapani, Nancy Furstinger, Nancy Shaw, and I will all be so I hope you’ll all come visit us and get signed books for Christmas presents 🙂 ), but did you know we also have a Pickle Festival and a UFO Festival?  Seriously!  I am not making that up!

Anyway,  (watch how I pull this off! 🙂 ) speaking of UFOs, let’s have a look at today’s Perfect Picture Book which is about a pig in space: RUFUS BLASTS OFF! 🙂  (It took me years of practice, my friends, but it all paid off in the end.  My tiara says “Segue Queen” on it 🙂 )

Title: Rufus Blasts Off

Written By: Kim T. Griswell

Illustrated By: Valeri Gorbachev

Sterling Children’s Books, September 12 2017, fiction

Suitable For Ages: 3-5

Themes/Topics: pursuing your dreams, space, perseverance, love of reading

Opening: “Rufus Leroy Williams III had a pirate’s chest filled with books.
He loved every one.
And he read each book again anf again…and again.
One day, Captain Wibblyshins wanted a new story.
‘Arrrh!” said Rufus’s pirate mates.  “A new story!’”

Brief Synopsis: In this third adventure of Rufus the pig, he has already been to school and sailed the seven seas with pirates.  Now, fascinated by Mars, he wants to go to space!  But Commander Luna says, “No pigs in space!”  What’s a pig to do?  He’ll just have to show up over and over, ready for blast off, until Commander Luna finally realizes he has the right stuff!

Links To Resources: make constellations out of pretzel sticks and mini marshmallows; Pie Plate Solar System Game; Glow-In-The-Dark Star Mobile; Moon Dust Writing Tray (for practicing letters)

Why I Like This Book:  It’s hard not to love a pig on a pirate ship.  Especially one who is so devoted to his story-loving pirate audience that he’s ready to blast off into space just to get them a new story (and if he gets to explore Mars while he’s at it, so much the better!)  Rufus is a delightfully determined little soul, never daunted by the repeated refusals of Commander Luna to join the crew.  He just keeps coming back…and coming back…and coming back until she realizes that they really can’t go to Mars without him (though I won’t tell you why – you’ll have to read and find out 🙂 )  Rufus is charming, and the art makes him so cute that he’s irresistible 🙂

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do 🙂

For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.

PPBF folks, please add your titles and post-specific links (and any other info you feel like filling out 🙂 ) to the form below so we can all come see what fabulous picture books you’ve chosen to share this week!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂