Oh my goodness – I just came across Home Grown Books: The Play Set and I am in love! It’s like a mother’s dream come true – each book is a collaboration between artist, educator, and parents!
There are 9 books in the set and each one is engaging for both child and parents alike. The stories are simple making them perfect for beginning readers, there are different sets available.
The art is a great way to foster children’s reading skills and makes these books perfect for gift giving too! And they are made in New York City – printed locally on recycled paper and printed with NoVOC vegetable inks.
P.S. Sweet Greens readers can get 10% off your orders through 2/13/2014 with the coupon code sweetgreens.
Giveaway number nine is for any of the children in your life! A set of 5 lovely children’s books with bright beautiful illustrations, heart warming messages and beautiful stories. Here is a peek at what comes in the collection.
2. Bully Bean by Thomas Weck and Peter Weck This lovely book teaches children one of the most important lessons about life: to love and help everyone around us. Good stuff!
3. Fireflies and Shooting Stars “The Tale of Enzo” by Ed Raarup With beautiful art and included 12 song CD – The Tale of Enzo is the story of a little firefly who faces the challenges of being different. It’s a beautiful story of courage, truth and hope!
5. Bimbambu by Ileana Katzenelson Bimbambu is a fun, colorful story of friendship and is sure to delight your children. We especially loved the animals all dressed up in their winter gear.
Wouldn’t this be a super fun gift for the littles to open on Christmas Eve or Day! A collection of lovely stories that will delight them all year. Yay!
If you are picking up books as holiday gifts – these are some that are sure to please, check them out – however, don’t forget to enter the giveaway below.
Today’s first giveaway is for the chef in your life – I am offering a vegan and vegetarian cookbook library worth over $150! What a fun holiday gift to surprise someone you love with!
This cookbook library includes a variety of excellent recipes for the vegan and vegetarian palette. Here are the cookbooks that the library includes:
1. Vegan Secret Supper Vegan Secret Supper offers bold and elegant menus from a Rogue Kitchen. With simple recipes and beautiful photos this is a cookbook that every vegan should have in their collection. Some of the recipes featured are Avocado Mint Ice Cream, Dark Chocolate Cake and Walnut and Roasted Yam Croquettes with Ancho Balsamic Beet Reduction. + Vegan Secret Supper $26.95
2. The China Study Cookbook Like the Vegan Secret Supper, this cookbook offers simple plant-based recipes with bright, beautiful photos. However, this cookbook features delicious meals that are made using no added fats, minimal sugar and salt to promote optimal health. + The China Study Cookbook $19.95 3. The Clean Plates Cookbook The Clean Plates Cookbook is more of a toolkit that gives you the tools to take back the control of your health. It’s full of sustainable, delicious, and healthier eating options for every body. This cookbook clearly outlines which recipes are gluten-free and includes a weekly meal plan at the back of the book. + The Clean Plates Cookbook $20 4. Raw, Quick and Delicious Cookbook This cookbook is perfect for the raw foodie in your life. Full of recipes for every meal and occasion from breakfast, smoothies, snacks, pastas, sides and main dishes – it has something for everyone. All of these recipes include 5 ingredients or less and are simple to prepare taking only 15 minutes tops!
5. The Complete Leafy Greens Cookbook This is a huge cookbook full of over 250 recipes and fresh green drink recipes for everyone in your family. If you are looking for ways to get more greens into your meals this is the cookbook for you – not only will you learn about all of the different kinds of greens, there are great recipes for all of them too.
#6: BONUS: The Good Life for Less While not an actual cookbook, The Good Life for Less is full of great ways to give your family great meals and good times on a budget! It includes tips on saving money at the grocery store, managing and organizing your home and fun traditions to start with your family. It’s a great book to have in your library!
Eben is a huge book lover and avid reader, so he was excited when I surprised him with the Travels with Gannon and Wyatt book series written by Patti Wheeler and Keith Hemstreet as a gift on Halloween. He has been devouring the books ever since – he especially enjoys that the three books highlight the travels of twin brothers that are his age. The series so far includes Gannon and Wyatt’s travels to Botswana (released May 2014), Great Bear Rainforest (released October 2013) and Egypt (to be released January 2014) with more books coming soon.
Eben and I started the adventure from the beginning with the boys’ adventures in Botswana (which turned out to be our favorite). Where they find themselves on the adventure of a lifetime, an African safari. I found the characters to be great role models for kids, adventurous – yet well behaved. Eben liked the journal entry style of the books and felt a connection with Wyatt because he is more scientific, detailed in his journal entries and really thinks things through. The books even inspired Eben to pull out his own journals and start writing stories of his own! Hooray!
These books really appealed to Eben because both of the main characters are boys, However, I bet girls – especially girls that love adventure, would enjoy them too. These books are geared toward middle-grade kids and would make a great holiday gift for those young adventure readers in your life.
Want to win a set? One reader will win the entire Travels with Gannon and Wyatt series for your child’s library! Enter the giveaway below – the winner will be announced on Monday, November 25th!
NOTE FROM SWEET GREENS: This post wasn’t written by me, thank you for supporting the companies that help keep Sweet Greens in business. —————————————————————
In recent years, concerns over global warming and the sustainability of fossil-fuelled transportation have led to the development of a number of hybrid electrical/petrol and fully-electrical vehicles, such as the hybrid Toyota Prius, the first generation of which was launched in 1997, and the fully-electrical Nissan Leaf, the first zero-emission car from a major manufacturer to reach the mass market. However, despite the recent activity and attention, the birth of the electric car came much earlier – the 1830s, in fact.
INITIAL DEVELOPMENTS
The initial invention of the electric vehicle has been attributed to a number of inventors. Hungarian Ányos Jedlik was responsible for the invention of an early type of electric motor in the late 1820s, and built a small model car powered by it.
Shortly after, an American inventor, Thomas Davenport, took his design of DC motor, and also powered a small model car around a short electrified track. A pair of Scotsmen, Robert Davidson and Robert Anderson, developed their own basic electric locomotives and carriages between 1832 and 1839, but the main limitation holding development back at this stage was the lack of a viable means of storing electricity on board the vehicle, in the form of rechargeable batteries. These did not emerge until the mid-1850s. A number of other variants followed, but it wasn’t until the 1890s that an electric car in the sense that we know it today appeared. This was developed by William Morrison of Iowa, and was a vehicle capable of carrying six passengers.
Following initial interest and development, electric cars began to lose ground to those powered by the newer internal combustion engine. Their low range meant they could not traverse long distances, and the development of improved road infrastructure required cars that could cover these distances. Petrol became more affordable, making internal combustion cars cheaper to operate over a distance, and the lack of public recharging facilities was another of the main limiting factors for the electric vehicle.
REVIVAL OF INTEREST DUE TO GLOBAL WARMING CONCERNS
The Western World went through two oil and energy crises in the 1970s and 1980s, and during these periods, and into the 1990s, scientific bodies began to express concern about the sustainability of transport systems based on the use of fossil-derived fuel, as in petrol (or gasoline). One of the major events that focused public attention on the direction that the motor industry would take was the unveiling in 1990 of General Motors’ Impact concept car, and their announcement of the intention to design and build electric cars for the general public.
A further energy crisis in the 2000s proved to be a tipping point, however, and this, along with increased public focus on energy saving solutions, brought about a significant jump in the sales of one of the high-profile hybrid vehicles, the Toyota Prius. Toyota had launched the Prius to some markets in 1999, to limited appeal, but the energy crisis, combined with its purchase, use, and sometimes public endorsement by high-profile Hollywood stars, sealed its popularity.
A number of other makers jumped on the bandwagon, with the release of other hybrid vehicles, and more time and money was given over to the development of fully-electrical vehicles.
The global recession of the late 2000s led to public demands that the motor industry scale back its production of large, fuel-inefficient vehicles, which some saw as symbolic or representative of the excesses which led to the recession in the first place, in favor of smaller cars in general, as well as hybrid and fully-electrical cars.
Models to have emerged since then include the Nissan Leaf, which was the first fully-electric zero-emission car to be produced for the general public by a major manufacturer, and the Tesla Roadster, first introduced in 2008. The Roadster was the first ‘highway capable’ electric vehicle to use lithium-ion batteries, and also the first production all-electric car to achieve more than 200 miles range from a single charge.
