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Toad Cottages and Shooting Stars: Grandma's Bag of Tricks [Paperback]

Sharon Lovejoy (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Make leaf rubbings, learn the neighborhood bird songs together, turn an aquarium into a worm hotel, create a firefly lantern. There are garden projects, both for the outdoors—grow a container snacking garden, a pumpkin patch in a pot—and the indoors, i.e., how to use something called "indoor garbage gardens" to grow pineapple tops, sweet potato vines, peanuts, and more. Cooking projects, both in the sunshine—baking in a solar oven—and in the kitchen—what child will ever forget the time the two of you made Potato Volcanoes with Lava? And lots of rainy-day activities for times when nature's in a cranky mood.

Created by Sharon Lovejoy—a grandmother of four and the author of two classic books of garden activities for grown-ups and kids, Sunflower Houses and Roots, Shoots, Buckets & BootsToad Cottages and Shooting Stars is an ecologically inspired guide that combines more than 130 green activities with timeless grandparenting advice. Illustrated with Lovejoy's distinctive, delicate watercolors, it's an inventive resource for grandmother and grandchild to connect with each other through nature. It is the book to make sure an afternoon, a day, or a weekend turns into a memory that lasts forever.

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Toad Cottages and Shooting Stars: Grandma's Bag of Tricks + Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children + Trowel and Error: Over 700 Tips, Remedies and Shortcuts for the Gardener
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Sharon Lovejoy calls this treasure trove of crafts, recipes and activities “a natural outgrowth of the way I have always lived and interacted with children.” Many of the ideas and projects originated from her journal notes and sketches. Who could resist a “Faeries’ Tea Party” where Heart- and Star-Shaped Faerie Sandwiches and Button Pie appear on the menu? Or building the title cottage for a toad and collecting leaves and flowers for a 3-D collage? More than 130 activities encourage an exploration of both the natural world and a child’s imagination. Clear instructions, illustration and abundant photos make each project inviting, and a list of “ingredients” makes them manageable. “The book is about unplugging from electronics and plugging into adventures, projects, discoveries and the simplest pleasures of childhood,” says Lovejoy, “watching shooting stars, following animal tracks, creating art, and keeping family history and traditions alive.” (Ages 6-10, adult)
-Kirkus Reviews
(Kirkus Reviews )

From the Back Cover

Make leaf rubbings, blow jumbo bubbles, bake Moon Pizzas and Granny-ola in a handmade solar oven, grow a snack pot of radishes and carrots, create a firefly lantern, and on a rainy day make rainsticks.

Illustrated with evocative photographs and the author’s watercolors, this magical book shows how to do 130 activities that connect grandmothers and grandchildren through nature—in the kitchen, the garden, and the art room.

Toad Cottages & Shooting Stars is more than an activity book; it’s an interactivity book. It’s about being curious, about being adventurous, about noticing and really seeing things, about instilling a sense of wonder. Sprinkled throughout are Mrs. Lovejoy’s inventive grandparenting ideas that help make every visit a memorable one, filled with simple joys and discoveries that will have grandchildren coming back again and again.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 205 pages
  • Publisher: Workman Publishing Company; Original edition (February 4, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0761150439
  • ISBN-13: 978-0761150435
  • Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 8.1 x 0.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #51,016 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

For the first seven years of her life, Sharon Lovejoy was introduced to the wonders of nature by her Quaker grandmother Abigal Lovejoy, a botanist and an educator. As an adult, Sharon's passion for the natural world guided her to become an award winning nature, gardening, and children's book author and watercolor illustrator.

As a graduate with Distinction in the Field of Art from San Diego State University, Sharon successfully combined her training in art with her love of botany and natural science. She worked as a docent naturalist for the Morro Bay Museum of Natural History and for the Smithsonian Institution in the lagoons of Baja, California.

In 1982, she founded Heart's Ease Herb Shop & Gardens in Cambria, California, where she shared her love and knowledge of nature and ethnobotany with visitors for the next 15 years.

Sharon's home, business, and display gardens first captured national attention on the cover of the August 1990 issue of Country Living magazine. Since then, her home and garden creations have appeared in numerous books and magazines, and she has been a guest on countless radio and television shows from coast to coast, including NBC's Today, HGTV, and The Victory Garden on PBS.

In 1991, Interweave Press published her first book Sunflower Houses: Garden Discoveries for Children of All Ages,a recollection of the influence from her Grandmother Lovejoy and the inspiration that has introduced tens of thousands of children to the wonders of nature through gardening.

From 1993 to 2006, Sharon wrote and illustrated the award winning, regular feature column "Heart's Ease" in Country Living GARDENER magazine. She currently is the Southern California regional contributor for the popular Lowe's home improvement store "Garden Grow Along" blog and a frequent contributor to Farming magazine.

Sharon has been a consultant for the Reader's Digest Association and a children's garden design consultant at the Bay Area Discovery Museum in San Francisco, the  Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College in El Cajo, California, and for EDAW, one of the world's leading landscape architectural firms (now AECON), at the Red Butte Botanical Gardens in Salt Lake City and the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. In 1996, she was chosen to design the Children's Gardening Pavilion for the highly respected Cincinnati Flower and Garden Show. She currently serves on the National Children and Youth Garden Advisory Panel of the American Horticultural Society.

As a recognized gardening expert, Sharon has lectured throughout the United States at conferences, educational symposia, museums, botanic gardens, arboreta, public and private educational institutions, and for professional trade associations and gardening organizations.

Her professional affiliations include The Authors Guild, Inc., Garden Writers Association, Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and American Horticultural Society. In 1995, Sharon served as President of the International Herb Association.

For her contributions to education, Sharon received the Key to the City of Indianapolis, Indiana, and the Gold Leaf Award from the Santa Clara Department of Education at the Kindergarten Forum in Saratoga, California. Her writings have been reprinted in educational and testing publications in English and Spanish.

 

Customer Reviews

20 Reviews
5 star:
 (17)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
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2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (20 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Creative Fun for Grannies & Grandkids, February 24, 2010
This review is from: Toad Cottages and Shooting Stars: Grandma's Bag of Tricks (Paperback)
If you're a grandma or a mom (or even a nature-loving, kid-daffy grandpa or dad), you're going to be delighted by Sharon Lovejoy's latest book, Toad Cottages & Shooting Stars. It is the ultimate Granny Handbook, designed especially for those of us who are lucky enough to have at least one small child to introduce to life in the kitchen, the backyard, and the garden.

Sharon Lovejoy has always helped us to work with our kids in the garden, from her delightful Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots to Sunflower Houses; Hollyhock Days; and A Blessing of Toads.

But Toad Cottages & Shooting Stars is special, because it is designed as a "manual" for grandmas, and Lovejoy has crammed it full of playful activities that even grannies without green thumbs can manage and kids will absolutely love. To whet your appetite, here is a short sampling from the six chapters: Faerie Mailboxes, Firefly Lanterns, No-Bake Nests, Be a Pumpkin Parent, Potato Volcanoes, and Worm Hotel.

Want more? How about these chapter titles? Preparing Camp Granny (lots of fine ideas, even if you're a long-distance granny). Or The Neighborhood Naturalist, Kids in the Kitchen, the Kitchen Garbage Garden (starts with an activity called "Learning from Leftovers"), Kids in the Garden, and Rainy Day Activities. Each chapter offers recipes (Moon Pizzas, anybody?), games, and activities--each one a learning opportunity for both granny and grandkid. And best of all, the book overflows with color photographs and Lovejoy's delightful drawings of bugs, plants, food toys, and faeries. Every page is a treasure.

In her introduction, Lovejoy notes that being a grandmother is "one of the truest and purest joys" of her life, for her grandchildren have given her the gift of "child-sight": "the ability to stop, hunker down, and see things through their fresh, young eyes and minds." In Toad Cottages & Shooting Stars, Lovejoy shares that gift with her readers, through her playful art and the creative, imaginative activities she suggests. "Grandmotherhood is a state of grace," she says, a place of wonder and child-like delight. Toad Cottages & Shooting Stars will help you and your lucky grandchildren find that place and enjoy it--together.

by Susan Wittig Albert
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Just Bought Extra Copies!, May 10, 2010
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Toad Cottages and Shooting Stars: Grandma's Bag of Tricks (Paperback)
Bought a first copy of this book for myself, and my children's active grandmother fell in love! She found so many sweet and simple ideas that kept my 3-year-old son busy outdoors with her for her entire visit. The book is wonderfully written, with beautiful photos, highly appealing layout, so fun to browse through. It also helped me save the tomatoes I'd overly-ambitiously (with new baby at home, that is) started indoors :) Loving this publisher. Have just bought another copy for myself, and 2 more for gifts for friends.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Video Review, July 12, 2011
Length:: 3:40 Mins

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