Wednesday, May 9^th at 6:30 pm, local author of Bluefish, Pat Schmatz, will be hosting a book signing at the Lettie Jensen Library in Amherst.

Children ages 2-8 are welcome to join our craft workshop where we will be making a colorful, mixed media, art card.  Moms, dads, grandparents, or any guardians are welcome to join in the fun, children under 5 must have at least 1 adult along.  Cost is $3 to cover cost of materials.  Please register in advance by calling the store (715-256-9186) or stop in to sign up.  Limited seating is available.

For less than the cost of a store bought card, bring the kids in for a fun art project and to make something to be proud of to give their special Mama.

 Activities for Children’s book week at Dragonwings:

Coloring/drawing contest: Create a book cover featuring your mom.  Be creative, use any materials you have (Crayons, markers, paints, mixed media etc.) to have your mom be the center of the book cover.  She could be the main character of your favorite book or be  from an original theme.  Artwork is due Saturday, May 12th at noon. We will hang the drawings in the store and pick 3 winners Saturday afternoon.  Winners will be posted on our facebook page and website.  All contestants will be entered in a drawing to win a featured booked signed by the author.

Vote for your favorite children’s book of 2011: Come to Dragonwings and place your vote.  All contestants will be entered in a drawing to win the book that received the most votes.   For a list of some great choices check out indiebound.org or stop in the store for the printed list.  Vote ends Saturday May 12th at noon. Good luck and keep on reading!

Create an original essay or drawing depicting a favorite story from The Boxcar Children Mysteries.  Illustrated entries need not contain any text.  Essays must be in English and no longer than 50 words.

Check out www.albertwhitman.com for more details.

One prize will be awarded.   Author and Newbery Medalist Patricia MacLachlan will visit Dragonwings Bookstore and do one or two presentations, at least one of which must be in the school or library of the winning child.  As a bonus prize from Dragonwings, we will post the winning essay or drawing of the winning child on our website.  

Come and celebrate National Poetry Month with

Poem in your Pocket Week — April 23-April 30.

Share your favorite poem and pick one from our PoeTree.

The last week of April, Dragonwings will be having an in-store discount for anyone that brings a poem  in your pocket.  Read one of your favorite poems to a Dragonwings staff member, add it to one of our PoeTree’s and choose a random poem off of our other PoeTree to receive anywhere from a 5-25% discount on any single item in the store.

What a fun way to share your favorite poem and read someone else’s favorite.  Children of all ages love to rhyme and tell stories, why not get them into poetry?

If I Don’t Eat My Vegetables by Jack Prelutsky

If I don’t eat my vegetables,

Like broccoli and peas, 

My mother says I’ll start to grow

Potatoes on my knees.

My toes will turn to cantaloupes,

My ears will fill with salt, 

My nose will fill with pepper,

And it all will be my fault.

If I don’t eat my vegetables,

My mother has no doubt

I’ll lose my belly button, 

And my teeth will soon fall out.

I also have to finish them

To prove I love her cooking.

And so I eat my vegetables–

But only when she’s looking.

Dragonwings is decorated for the season with egg trees, spring flowers, and colorful displays of tiny treats – just the right size for filling eggs and Easter baskets. Here is a sampling of many of our favorites – some are useful, some are silly, and all are fun.

Painted wooden tops - perfect for baskets and for spinning.

All kinds of sea creatures just the right size for an egg-opening surprise.

These are tiny puzzles, but they are also erasers.

In these kaleidoscopes frog and toad designs make glorious patterns.

Tin yo-yos are a classic reborn.

Who doesn't marvel at a Jacob's Ladder and wonder, "How does it do that?"

Big-bug-eyed balls for throwing and catching. Around 4" diameter.

Talk about classics, tin insect clickers like these have been around forever, and have never lost their appeal.

Baby robins, lop-eared bunnies, fuzzy chicks and bright-eyed squirrels make a basket of cuteness, and they are also finger puppets.

3 foot Measuring Tapes that really work! I've been using mine for years.

Mermaid dollies are a perfect match for the new Fancy Nancy book Mermaid Ballet.

Bobble animal pens are silly, and practical, too.

A Dragonwings favorite returns - rainbow colored mini clay packs.

It's a sock monkey revival, and these pastel colors are perfect for Easter.

Decorate your butterflies with the rub-on tranfers, and add more detail with our mini-markers.

Beautifully detailed frogs, our photo doesn't do them justice.

Large, wooden dice. Fill a few eggs with these, and play some dice games after the egg hunt.

We were amazed at the detail on these little dinosaur erasers. Our mailman wished he'd had some when he was a kid.

Very tricky wooden catch balls. Try to catch the ball on one side, then the other, on the bottom of the handle, and then for your grand finale catch it on the top peg. Practice makes perfect. i've seen it done.

Call to the birds with these songbird whistles, and see if they answer back!

American Girl mini activity packs with games, puzzles, and paper dolls.

Cutest Peace Dog Purse ever!

Recognize this little owl purse? Probably not, since they "fly" out of the store as soon as they arrive.

Our Dover activity book racks are restocked with new and classic titles. Our mini-markers are an "eggcellent" match.

Cha Cha shaker eggs. These are the best we've found. Musicians buy these from us!

Endearing Doggy banks will safeguard your allowance until needed.

Flexible ears change our bunny's expressions from playful to mischievous. Fill the basket with treats or with an egg or two.

Clues in the Shadows Molly

Molly is trying to help the war effort, but she has a lot to worry about at home. Being in the war has changed her father, and living during wartime is hard on everyone. Who can help her figure out why someone is sneaking into their shed at night? Will Molly’s own bravery be enough?

Secrets in the Hills – Josefina

Josefina grew up hearing the local legends about buried treasures and ghostly tales about the Weeping Woman, but, after the appearance of a mysterious stranger, the legends seem to be coming true. A treasure hunt and a dark, crying figure roaming the courtyard at night provide lots of excitement for Josefina and her family.

Midnight in Lonesome Hollow – Kit

When Kit visits her relatives in Kentucky, she meets a traveling professor, Miss Lucy, who is studying mountain traditions. Assisting Miss Lucy is interesting and fun at first, until someone begins sabotaging their projects and turning the local people against them. Can Kit find out who’s causing trouble and why?

Runaway Friend – Kirsten

Kirsten is still getting used to life in Minnesota, when her neighbor Erik, another Swedish immigrant, disappears. If he doesn’t come back, he will lose his land, Kirsten’s family will lose his help at harvest time, and her uncle will lose the money that Erik owes him. Kirsten is sure that he hasn’t run away to escape from his problems and promises, but why else would he leave so mysteriously?

Danger at the Zoo – Kit

Kit stumbles upon a mystery when she is working on a newspaper article about the zoo. The door to the monkey house has been unlocked at night, but no animals are missing. Is it thieves trying to steal baby monkeys for the black market, or is it more complicated than the zoo manager could ever imagine? Leave it to Kit to investigate until she finds the answers.

Good old Greg – still clueless, still hopeless, but his sad life gets funnier with every book. A blizzard has Greg trapped in the house with his family, but the authorities are ready to pounce as soon as the snow lets up. Could things get any worse? Don’t ask.

Our Llama Llama Storytime at 1:00 PM on Thursday October 6 will be registered at Read for the Record.  You can be part of our pledge group by coming to the storytime, or you can visit the store anytime on October 6th to read the book and be counted. We will make Llama Llama bookmarks and give out Llama Llama tattoos at our storytime.

Copies of the book will be available to read all day at Dragonwings, and Llama Llama dolls will be given away with any Llama Llama book purchase including the new release Llama Llama Home with Mama.  Earlier in the day we will be visiting the Waupaca Pre-school to read to a class of 18 students. You could think about reading the book to a kindergarten class, or at a preschool or  daycare center.  It also counts if you read the book at home to your child.  You can call us to be part of our pledge group, or you can sign up at Read for the Record (readfortherecord.com).

Why are we doing this?  For fun and to support literacy programs:

Jumpstart was founded in 1993 at Yale University and has been setting up volunteer programs across the country to give children in low-income neighborhoods a jumpstart in preschool to help them be successful in life.  The first Read for the Record campaign was launched in 2006 to raise awareness of Jumpstart’s literacy efforts.  Each year since then Americans have joined together to break the world record by reading classic stories: The Little Engine That Could (2006), The Story of Ferdinand (2007), Corduroy (2008), The Very Hungry Caterpillar (2009), and The Snowy Day (2010).