There is something new under the sun! This brand new book by Aysha Schurman includes recipes such as:  Sesame Orange Coleslaw, Dijon Apricot Chicken Salad, Creamy Bluc Cheese Potato Salad, and Minty Blueberry Melon Salad.  And there are 3oo more tempting recipes to help you and your family eat more of the good stuff!   So if you’re stuck in a salad rut, add this book to your cookbook collection and move beyond the mixed baby greens.  An added bonus–each recipe comes with a complete nutritional analysis to help you make healthy choices.

As I’ve said before, I hardly ever find a parenting book I can recommend wholeheartedly, but I’ve found another one! Dr. Mehmet Oz, host of television’s The Dr. Oz Show, and Dr. Michael Roizen, chair of the Wellness Institute of the Cleveland Clinic, have written a new book, You Raising Your Child:  The Owner’s Manual from First Breath to First Grade It’s loaded with information, from troubleshooting health issues to the fine art of discipline.

The back jacket says, “Imagine child development––and your child’s journey through life––as a ride down a long, often unpredictable river.  You are the guide, there to control the direction and speed that you travel.”  There’s some great stuff in here about brain development––and it’s written in terms we can all understand.  Learn about the various approaches to parenting, and find out if you’re a Marshmallow Mommy or an Iron Maiden, a Pudding Pop or an Iron Master.  The goal is to reach middle ground and be an effective parent. This book is worth adding to your body of knowledge concerning the joyful but daunting parenting journey.  There’s lots of information caregivers in all settings can appreciate as well.

My Silly Body and Book by P. Hanson and Eric Nagourney engages children right away with a life-size, interactive,        cardboard cut-out figure that folds out of the book.  It includes lift-and-learn flaps that reveal the inside of the body––heart, intestines, and the brain.  Flip the figure over and children can examine an x-ray like skeleton with all of the bones in place from the skull to the tiny bones in fingers and toes.

The book is filled with 64 pages of information on how the body works and includes experiments, jokes, and even takes children on a journey of the digestive system to find out why we eat what we eat.  Finally, a book that can unlock the mysteries of the body to young children.  I love it and I even learned a few things myself!