Can You Make a Scary Face? by Jan Thomas

Can You Make a Scary Face? by Jan Thomas

Rating: 5 stars

I have two mom friends with whom my trio and I have weekly "dinner parties."  This tradition started last summer when my pal   Steph and her two adorable blondies, Sophie and Ryker, realized we were tired of being the only grown up at the table.  We got together every Wednesday afternoon for a long play session followed by dinner.  We switched locations/houses/dinner responsibility every week--usually we met at one of our homes, but sometimes for a treat, we went to a local park for a summertime picnic.

At first, our goal was to simply break bread (albeit gluton-free) with good friends.  But we soon realized there were a ton of other benefits for the kids, including: learning how to eat at someone else's house, trying new food, how to be a good host in your own house, how to be a good guest in someone else's house.

But mostly, it was really fun.  And the older our kids get, the more time they spend playing without us moms, and the more we get to chat by ourselves.  What a treat!

It was at Steph's house last month that we came across this book.  Steph called to cancel our dinner because she was having someone come over to spend 30 minutes going over paperwork.  I said, "No!  Let us come over and I'll watch the kids so you can focus."  (You know you've got a good friend when you can say "no" to her...)  So the plans stuck and we headed over to her house after Lorelei got home from school.

Right as we were finishing dinner, the Someone came over to chat with the grown-ups of the house, and I was left with five kids.  Yikes!  Steph had shown me this book earlier, and when the kids were done eating and starting to get antsy, I grabbed Can You Make a Scary Face?  The book is PERFECT for situations like these, when you need to get and keep kids' attention.  For those times when you need a book to read to your child's class, this is The Book to grab.

Because all it really is is a funny looking ladybug giving "orders" to the kids.  "Hey, you!  Yes, I'm talking to YOU! Stand up!  No, I changed my mind...SIT DOWN!  No, I changed my mind AGAIN.  STAND UP!"

Those are the first three pages of this simple-but-wonderful book.  You see where this is going--down a very silly, giggle-filled road.  That's always a nice road to be on.  The book ends with the ladybug asking his audience to make the scariest face in the world in order to scare away a giant, hungry frog (who wants to eat ladybug pie for lunch).

Hmmm.  Maybe I should read this book to Ben's class before any other mom in his class sees this and knows about this book and reads it first...!