Books

Whatever behavior problem your child is currently having (living in a pigsty, ignoring you when you talk, picky eating), chances are its been addressed in the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series of books by Betty MacDonald. The series of five books was published in the ’40s and ’50s and written by an author who was already famous for her smash book, The Egg and I. In the Piggle-Wiggle series, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is a kind of magical good fairy whose late husband left her a pirate chest full of cures for childhood “ailments.” In each chapter, a mother who is concerned about her child’s behavior comes to see Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle for help and is issued a cure that clears the troublesome behavior right up.

Some of the cures are relatively pedestrian: when Hubert Prentiss won’t clean up his bedroom, his mother simply lets the toys pile up until he can’t get out of his room anymore and is forced to clean it up himself. Other cures are magical: When Evelyn Rover and Mary Crackle are being unkind to Cornelia Whitehouse, Mrs. Crackle gives the girls some candy-like Whisper Sticks that makes their teasing inaudible.

Regardless of whether the cures are real-world or not (I could use some Crybaby Tonic, for sure), it’s fun to read about a kid having a behavior issue to a kid who’s having that same issue, and it can spark both interesting conversations and maybe even change. At the very least, kids love hearing about naughtiness and comeuppance, good adults who know everything, and stories that end happily. And neither parents nor children can resist the Piggle-Wiggle illustrations, some by Hilary Knight of Eloise fame, and some by Maurice Sendak.

By now it’s fairly well established that what turns on men isn’t exactly what turns on women. And as for what turns on a new mom…at least Chronicle Books has an idea. Following up its successful hunks-doing-housework photo book of last year, Porn for Women, Porn for New Moms extends the “this is what women really want” to breeders.

Yes, ladies, it’s hot dads saying “Let’s not have sex tonight. Let me just rub your feet while you tell me about the baby’s day,” and cradling the wee one in his lap while thinking “…and in just eight more hours we can wake up mommy!” Hey, that is hot.

Porn for New Moms, $12.95, chroniclebooks.com.

Time. We can waste it, lose track of it and supposedly make and buy it. But even with our ability to function 24/7 and our mastery of multitasking, even as the owners of the latest and greatest electronic organizers, we can’t add more time to our days (except for next Sunday when we turn back the clocks). There’s no app for that … yet.

Enter Buy Ketchup in May and Fly at Noon: A Guide to the Best Time to Buy This, Do That and Go There. The book by veteran journalist Mark Di Vincenzo recommends ideal times to eat, travel, shop, visit the doctor and a whole lot more. Below are just a fraction of of Di Vincenzo’s “bests”:

Time to have a baby shower - Four to six weeks before the due date.

Place in the sibling order to be born - First. Research shows that firstborns spend about 3,000 more hours with their parents between the ages of four and 13 and that helps explain why many are successful later in life.

Season to be potty-trained - Summer. Fewer clothes to peel off Junior as you run him to the bathroom.

Month to get pregnant - August. Di Vincenzo admits this one is debatable but reasons that if you get pregnant in August, you won’t be pregnant during the hot summer months and you’ll be over morning sickness once holiday party season rolls around.

Day to give birth - Any day but Saturday and Sunday. Hospitals aren’t fully staffed on the weekends.

Time of day to have a prescription filled at the pharmacy - Late morning.

Time of day to buy shoes - Late afternoon when your feet are swollen.

Time to throw out make-up - After six months.

Time to apply for a passport - Fall (Get moving!). The State Department isn’t receiving as many applications.

Time of year to buy condiments - Mid-May to early June. Companies that make these products offer deep discounts then; they’re hoping you stock up on their stuff and won’t have a need to opt for a competitor’s ketchup come the height of barbecue season.

To quote Styx and Charles Dickens, “These are the best of times.”

Available at amazon.com.

We tend to spend a lot of green to celebrate the holiday dedicated to orange and black. Estimates are that we’ll shell out $4.75 billion (National Retail Federation/BIGresearch) this Halloween, and that’s just for candy, costumes, decorations and greeting cards. Left out of this equation is what parents will pay for “witch lit” - all those books chronicling the adventures of witches, ghosts and goblins, et al. The problem: These stories seem to become irrelevant come November second, after you’ve sampled half of Junior’s candy stash. So why not go for options with more staying power? Below are books which stand a good chance of getting some eyeball action well into 2010.

Keep an open mind here. What Do You See under the Sea? is part Rorschach test ink blots, part sticker book and part Jacques Cousteau. Kids can choose from 200 stickers - of fins, claws, shells, eyeballs - to place on the colorful “play scene” pages to create their own underwater kingdom of sea life. Sans stickers, the scenes have an abstract feel, with splashes of bold, vibrant colors scattered about the pages (hence, the Rorschach comparison). Under the Sea is perfect for encouraging the open-ended, imagination-based, child-guided play that so many educators advocate. (Ages 3 and up)

The newest board book in the Urban Babies Wear Black series is Rocker Babies Wear Jeans. Not only do they tend to sport denim but rocker babies also shake their booties and have jam sessions. Adults will recognize author Michelle Sinclair Colman and illustrator Nathalie Dion’s homage to the Fab Four; accompanying the “Rocker babies go on the road” text is a picture of four toddlers crossing the street a la the Beatles’ 1969 cover for “Abbey Road.” (Ages 1-3)

With stunning photographs of snow crystals from fine art/nature photographer Mark Cassino, The Story of Snow could double as a coffee table book. Author Jon Nelson is a physicist and teacher who has been studying ice crystals and clouds for more than 15 years. In simple, clear (but not dumbed-down!) language, Nelson explains how snow crystals form and how they manage to take on different shapes. Includes instructions on how to catch snow crystals. (Ages 4-8)

Lights Out, Night’s Out guides readers on a night-time safari to learn about nocturnal animals. The book is part of the “Ani-Motion” series in which images within special panels move as you turn the pages. A hedgehog rolls himself up into a ball, a cricket hops and a hippo appears to rise from a swamp. No telling who will have more fun with this book - you or Junior.(Ages 4-8 is the suggested age range, but those slightly younger can just as easily enjoy it.)

Destined to earn the “classic” label down the road, But Who Will Bell the Cats? answers Aesop’s age-old question about the logistics involved in belling a feline foe. In Cynthia von Buhler’s tale, Mouse and BFF Brown Bat want out of their impoverished existence in the cold cellar and a piece of the action upstairs in the castle with the fancy library, bubble baths, grand ballroom and banquet hall. But first Mouse must bell the eight cats who live there with the princess. (Spoiler alert) Persistence pays off and this mouse with moxie is successful. Von Buhler created the standout visuals by designing 3-D sets, complete with floors with inlaid wood and mother-of-pearl. The characters were painted in oils on gessoed paper and then cut out and placed in the sets, which von Buhler then photographed. (Ages 4-8)

Check out a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how this book was created at butwhowillbellthecats.blogspot.com.

Frenemy. Bromance. BFF. These days we have lots of ways to label friends and friendships. Heck, thanks to Facebook, the words “friend” and “de-friend” are now verbs. The lingo might be changing but the basic concept stays the same: Friends are important in our lives. And laying a solid friendship foundation for young kids is key for their social development as they get older.

London parenting expert Elizabeth Hartley-Brewer, author of Raising Confident Girls and Raising Confident Boys, is out with a new book entitled Making Friends: A Guide to Understanding and Nurturing Your Child’s Friendships. She offers tips for parents on teaching kids to be good friends without micromanaging those relationships:

Leading by example - For the first three or four years, so much of a child’s learning is about watching and copying. So parents have to teach by example. “You can teach good friendship patterns if you socialize with friends regularly and are warm, generous and relaxed with them.” Let your kids see you laugh with your own BFFs.

Mom in the spotlight - Research into why some kids have happy friendships while others struggle “shows the biggest influence is having a mom who has warm friendships.” So keep your own friendship networks alive when your kids are small no matter how high-maintenance they are. The second biggest factor linked to happy friendships is a good bond between mother and child.

Positive reinforcement - Like all those ads in New York City’s subway stations state, if you see something, say something. “The best way to encourage the traits of good friendship is to say something positive when you see your child” help a friend, share or engage is some other act of kindness.

Showing restraint - With helicopter parenting all too prevalent these days, it’s important to realize that too much parental interference in the friendship process “can not only undermine your child’s long-term skill development and confidence but also suggest to him that you don’t trust him.” Kids need to learn to trust their own judgment. That happens when they are left to their own devices to learn about human nature, their own preferences and the “skills needed to maintain friendships.”

The cousin factor: Many children are friends with their cousins. But after about age six or seven, it’s essential that kids also have friends outside the family circle. Friendships with cousins can be too “easy” and “protected” and don’t necessarily expose kids to some of the “rougher aspects of friendship.”

Making Friends is available on amazon.com.

Little kids giggle when they’re talking about butts. So has it always been, and so will it always be. Endless repeating of the phrase “We talk about that when we’re in the bathroom” will not change it. So why fight it, when there’s a book like Chicken Cheeks? The simple picture book, written by Michael Ian Black of Michael & Michael Have Issues and I Love the 80’s fame, is just a series of pictures of animal’s butts, with alliterative names: penguin patootie, chicken cheeks, polar bear derriere. But it makes kids crack up.

“Chicken cheeks!” they’ll say, rocking back and forth with hysteria. “Turkey tushie!”

Ah, childhood. The sweet illustrations are by Kevin Hawkes, who’s probably best known for Library Lion. Apparently he did research at the zoo to figure out what each animals’ hindquarters look like. Now that speaks to the transformative power of literature!

Educators talk a lot about building students into global citizens. A tall order when you consider that just a few years ago, two-thirds of American 18-24-year-olds surveyed couldn’t find Iraq on a map. We’ve got our work cut out for us. You’ve got your work cut out for you. But it doesn’t have to be “work.”

Homa Tavangar is the author of Growing up Global: Raising Children to be at Home in the World. Born in Iran, Tavangar moved to the U.S. when she was a year old. She’s lived all over the country as well as the Middle East, East Africa and South America and speaks Persian (Farsi), Spanish, Portuguese plus some French and Swahili. She lived with her family, including her three daughters, for three months in West Africa. Talk about a steady supply of teachable moments. Tavangar offers simple, easy methods to introduce young kids to the ways of the world - foods, languages, cultures - and life beyond their own zip code.

Mindset
Adopt the attitude that the things you introduce and integrate into your child’s life will become the “new normal.” This is a slow shift to expand her comfort zone and exercise flexibility. Tavangar notes, “You don’t have to feel like you have to be an expert on the whole wide world. And this takes off a lot of pressure. This shouldn’t feel like work, and it shouldn’t feel like yet another demand on or checklist for parents.”

Languages
Teach your kids greetings in different languages to get them accustomed to the idea that there are other languages besides English, only the fourth largest in terms of number of speakers. If your child is playing, suggest names for her dolls, imaginary friends or stuffed animals that she doesn’t normally hear, perhaps Usha or Xanthe.

Books
Check out fairytale books from other cultures. The author Demi is always a good choice. Her books include The Empty Pot, One Grain of Rice and Magic Tapestry: A Chinese Folktale. FYI … the number of different Cinderella tales from various cultures would blow your mind. And it’s not always about a glass slipper.

Music
Slip some world music into your iPod playlist so it’s mixed in and will become part of your child’s “new normal.”

Movies
The master Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki (of recent Ponyo fame) comes to mind. His films include My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Castle in the Sky. Check out an international children’s film festival. If all else fails, you can turn to Disney movies. Talk about the different characters and where they’re from. Mulan and Jasmine aren’t exactly Jersey girls. Even Mary Poppins hails from the U.K.

Food
Try the old variation-on-a-theme approach. Kids love bread and pasta (noodles). Introduce them to different forms of these carb-rich favorites and the traditions associated with each. Make a PB&J on Lebanese pitas, Indian chapatis or Jewish challah. Encourage your children to be adventurous in sampling new foods.

Globe/Map
Get one or both of these for your home. (Kids can’t resist spinning a globe.) Don’t let it just sit and collect dust. These have endless potential for geography games and open-ended play. Plus they’re good conversation starters for discussing what it’s like to live in other places.

Sports
Another way to get your child thinking about life around the globe is to introduce him/her to sports played in other countries. Front and center: soccer. Yes, we have it here but do not seem to share nearly the same enthusiasm for the sport as the rest of the world does. Visit the website for the International Football Association (FIFA) to learn about all the different countries with teams. Pick a few to root for and follow. Use teams as a window into their cultures.

Growing up Global is available at amazon.com.

In the movie He’s Just Not That into You, Drew Barrymore’s character laments that she has to go around “checking all these different portals, just to get rejected by seven different technologies.” These “different technologies” - e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, BlackBerries and iPhones, to name a few - have revolutionized not only the way we date but also how we gossip. Rumors can make their way around the world in seconds. It’s a ramped up, electronic version of “whisper down the lane.” It’s the grapevine about which Marvin Gaye croons.

The concept of the grapevine and how information gets skewed as it’s passed along are at the center of fine artist Alex Beard’s debut children’s book, The Jungle Grapevine. With stunning ink illustrations, Beard tells the humorous story of animals in the African savanna that engage in what amounts to an old-fashioned game of “telephone.” “It was a great way to tell a parable about innuendo, rumor, misunderstanding and, in this case, leading to innocent chaos but nonetheless chaos,” notes Beard. He says these elements are reflective of his native New York. Beard, the nephew of renown photographer Peter Beard, and the son of a magazine editor and author, grew up in the middle of NYC’s art world. Andy Warhol and Truman Capote were familiar guests in the Beard household. Beard now splits his time between Manhattan and New Orleans galleries, and you can almost feel the bold and colorful Big Easy come alive in the artwork of Jungle Grapevine and the accompanying board games and puzzles.

Spread the word.

Available at amazon.com.

Watching a movie with a young child can be a dicey proposition. What can seem like a harmless kid flick can contain scenes of animal torture (The Secret of Nimh, Babe: Pig in the City) or snuffing (Bambi), the death of parents (practically every Disney flick ever made), and a host of other horrors. If you have a sensitive kid, you’ll want to know in advance what you’re going to see.

That’s where Commonsense Media comes in. Like a Consumer Reports for kids’ media, Commonsense rates movies, games, books, music, TV shows, and websites for parents. What might give parents pause? What age is it intended for? What might parents want to discuss with kids? Commonsense flags anything that might be worrisome, including violence, sex, cursing, and consumerism.

Parents can look up particular movies or games by name or age group, or get ideas for what to consume from Commonsense’s lists of recommended media picks.

Pictured: Rodents are sucked down a vent to their deaths in The Secret of NIHM.

A pop quiz in honor of back-to-school season. What do Louis Vuitton, a life-size diamond skull that fetched $100 million at auction, and the image to the left have in common?

They’re all connected to artists/designers who have images featured in a new board book called Art for Baby. The whimsical pop artist Takashi Murakami, sometimes referred to as the Andy Warhol of Japan, designed Louis Vuitton’s wildly popular colored logo (”Monogram Multicolore”) and Cherry Blossom lines. Damien Hirst did the diamond skull (”For the Love of God”), and the late Keith Haring created the “Radiant Baby” to the left. In all, Art for Baby features black-and-white images from 11 of the world’s leading modern artists. The high-contrast patterns and designs are especially suitable for young babies because their sight isn’t yet fully developed.

Looks like the art market is rebounding.

Available next week at amazon.com.