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Happy Holiday Savings!

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Happy National Cookie Day!

December 4th is National Cookie Day, a day to celebrate the majesty and wonder of the greatest of baked goods - the cookie. How can you celebrate Cookie Day? Bake some cookies! Eat some cookies! . . . Hang on, maybe that's not such a great idea . . .

Read a book about cookies! Yup, that's a a better idea!

Another fun way to celebrate Cookie Day is to learn how to say the word "cookie" in different languages.

English (U.S.) - cookie (The English word cookie comes from the Dutch word koekje, which means "small of little cake.")
English (U.K. and Australia) - biscuit
French - biscuit (sounds like bis-kwee)
Italian - biscotto  
Spanish - galleta (sounds like guy-etta)
German - keks
Korean - gwaja

Reading Rainbow Remixed

Books are AWESOME! But you don't have to take my word for it . . .

Reading Rainbow Remixed, 

by John D. Boswell, aka melodysheep, 

for PBS Digital Studios.

Black Friday Sale!

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Brains . . . Brains . . .

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Double the Deals!

Save 20% on any book order from Lulu.com with the coupon code JEKYLL.
Or save 25% on a book order of $300 or more with the coupon code HYDE.
Offer ends Oct. 26 . . . so run, don't walk to . . .
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A Nice Treat!

Get 75% off ground shipping on any book order from Lulu.com. Offer is only good for Oct. 18 and 19. No coupon code needed.
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20% Off Any Order from Lulu.com!

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Ahoy There! Take 15% Off Your Next Book Order!

Arr, maties! Did you know September 19 is Talk Like a Pirate Day? From now until Friday, Sept. 21 you can save 15% on your book order from Lulu.com when you use the coupon code PIRATA.
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Labor Day Sale!

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Celebrate Literacy!

September is National Literacy Month and Saturday, September 8th is International Literacy Day! How can you celebrate literacy?

1. Read a book.
2. Make a book. (Check out the Masked Pixie's bookmaking tutorials.)
3. Act out the story from your favorite book.
4. Start a book club.
5. Go to your local library.
6. Try some of these games and activities from ReadWriteThink.org.

Happy Reading!

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Astounding Savings!

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90% Off Ground Shipping!

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Happy Birthday Beatrix Potter!

I prefer birthday cake, but birthday carrots are good too.
(Source)

Beatrix Potter was born in London on July 28, 1866. She wrote and illustrated 23 books between 1902 and 1930. Some of her most famous stories are The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, and The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck. 


Beatrix Potter loved animals and nature. When she was a little girl she had rabbits, mice, bats, and a hedgehog! When she was older, she worked to conserve the Lake District in the UK.


If you want to learn more about Beatrix Potter, you can check out peterrabbit.com/uk. Her books are free to download or read on-line at Project Gutenberg. You can also listen to The Tale of Peter Rabbit in this Children's Classic Literature VideoBook.

Silver Savings!

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Happy Birthday E. B. White!

Some Author! . . . Terrific! . . . Radiant!
(Source)

E. B. White was born in Mount Vernon, New York on July 11, 1899.  He is best known for his books Stuart Little (1945), Charlotte's Web (1952), and The Trumpet of the Swan (1970). All of these books have been made into movies, but I really recommend reading the books first. They were some of my favorites when I was a kid!

If you want to know about E. B. White's inspiration for his stories, take a look at this letter he wrote to respond to his readers' questions.

Catch a Great Deal!

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The Masked Pixie's Top Ten Picks: Quotes About Books and Reading

Do you like reading? Do you like reading about reading? Here are 10 rad quotes about reading for you to read! Are you ready? Get reading!

1. "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." 

     - Dr. Seuss (from I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!)

2. "Once you learn to read, you will be forever free." 

     - Frederick Douglass

3. "There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island." 

     - Walt Disney

4. "You cannot open a book without learning something." 

     - Confucius

5. "A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe."

     - Madeleine L'Engle

6. "A book is like a garden carried in the pocket." 

     - Chinese Proverb

7. "Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten." 

     - G. K. Chesterton

8. "A house without books is like a room without windows."

     - Horace Mann

9. "The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read." 

     - Abraham Lincoln

10. "Books make great gifts because they have whole worlds inside of them. And it's much cheaper to buy somebody a book than it is to buy them the whole world!" 

     - Neil Gaiman

BONUS DR. SEUSS QUOTE: "Be awesome! Be a book nut!"

Books On The Move!

Have you ever wondered what the books do when the bookstore is closed? Check out this is cool video made by Sean Ohlenkamp at Type Books in Toronto.

Save 20% On Books!

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Summer Reading Deal!

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New on iTunes . . .

Everybody Has a Cat Named Molly is now available on iTunes for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch!

Free Shipping on Orders from Lulu.com!

Today you can get free shipping (no coupon code required) when you order books from Lulu.com! Just choose "Mail Shipping" at checkout.
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20% Off Any Order from Lulu.com!

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World Book Night

Tonight is World Book Night! This celebration of reading began last year in the U.K. This year it has come to the U.S. You can learn more at http://www.us.worldbooknight.org/.
Need a new book to read? Use coupon code EARTH when you make a purchase from Lulu.com and save 16%! (Offer expires April 27.)
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Book People Unite!

This is an awesome video from Reading is Fundamental! How many of the book characters do you recognize?

It's National D.E.A.R. Day and Beverly Cleary's Birthday!

Today is National Drop Everything and Read Day (D.E.A.R. Day)! It's easy to celebrate . . . just read a book!

 D.E.A.R. Day is celebrated on Beverly Cleary's birthday. Beverly Cleary was born on April 12, 1916. She wrote The Mouse and the Motorcycle, the Ramona series, and many more books between 1950 and 1999. Before becoming an author, Cleary worked as a librarian.

Happy birthday to Ms. Cleary and happy D.E.A.R. Day to everyone!

Source

Ooh! It's a Mystery Sale!

Lulu.com is having a Mystery Sale! You won't know how much you will save until you put the item in your cart.
Offer ends April 6. No coupon code required.
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It's International Children's Book Day and Hans Christian Andersen's Birthday!

April 2nd is International Children's Book Day - a day to celebrate books and reading!

April 2nd is also Hans Christian Andersen's birthday. Andersen was born in 1725. He lived in Denmark, but his fairy tales are known all around the world. Some of his most famous stories are The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Princess and the Pea, and The Nightingale.

If you want to read these stories on International Children's Book Day (or any day), you can get free eBooks by Hans Christian Andersen from Project Gutenberg!

Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid in Copenhagen, Denmark. (Source)

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

I really like this short animated film. It's all about the magic of books!

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Buy three books from Lulu.com, and get your 4th book free!
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15% Off Books on Lulu.com

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

Use coupon code 15STPATRICK345 and get 15% off your purchase from Lulu.com.
Offer ends March 16.
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Happy Birthday Howard Pyle!

Robin Hood and Friar Tuck from
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood.
(Source)

Howard Pyle was born on March 5, 1853. He is best known for writing and illustrating adventure stories about legendary heroes, such as The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, and The Story of the Champions of the Round Table. You can get free ebooks by Howard Pyle at Project Gutenberg.

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Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Dr. Seuss reading his own book!
(Source)

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904. He wrote and illustrated books under different pen names, like Theo LeSieg and Rosetta Stone, but he is most well known as Dr. Seuss. He published his first children's book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, in 1947. Some of his most famous books are The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, and Horton Hears a Who. All in all, Dr. Seuss published 46 children's books! 

One Day Sale!

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Happy Leap Day!

Sweet Deal!

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Offer ends Feb. 23.

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30% Off Books from Lulu.com!

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Buy One Get One 50% Off!

Use coupon code DOUBLEBOOKED when you order 2 books from Lulu.com and get 50% off one of your books.
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20% Off Any Order from Lulu.com

I don't really care if that groundhog predicts a long winter
because I like curling up with a book and a hot cocoa when it's cold out!
Source

Use the coupon code SHADOWHOG to save 20% on your purchase from Lulu.com!
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Happy Library Lovers' Month!

February is a time for love . . .
No, I'm not talking about Valentine's Day!  I'm talking about Library Lovers' Month!  Huzzah!

Isn't this library romantic?
(Source)

February is a time to celebrate the contributions of all libraries - public, school, and private. Just how do you celebrate Library Lovers' Month? You can volunteer or donate to your local library. You can also encourage others to get library cards. Go to Librarysupport.net for more Library Lovers' Month goodies, like e-cards, free printable bookmarks, and fun crafts and activities.

30% Off Books from Lulu.com!

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A Very Merry Birthday to Lewis Carroll!

Illustration by Jessie Willcox Smith (Source)

Lewis Carroll was born on January 27, 1832.  He is best known for writing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865 and its sequel Through the Looking Glass in 1871.  The name Lewis Carroll is a made-up name that the author used for his novels and poetry.  His real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.  Besides being an author of fantasy novels, Dodgson was a mathematician.  He used his real name for his mathematical works.

If you're interested in reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland or other works by Lewis Carroll, you can download them at Project Gutenberg for free!

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Bookmaking with the Masked Pixie - Part 5: The Envelope Book

This is the fifth post in a series of instructions about making books. If your are intersted in making other kinds of books, check out  Part 1: The Basic Book, Part 2: The Bow Book, Part 3: The Accordion Book and Part 4: The Scroll.


The instructions for this book are the same as the instructions for the Basic Book in Part 1, but instead of regular paper, this book's pages are made from envelopes.  There are different ways you can use the envelopes to tell a story. 

You can tell a story through letters written by your characters.  This is called an epistolary book.

You can make a joke or riddle book.  Write the question on the outside of the envelope and write the answer on the inside of the envelope's flap.

You can make a hide-and-seek book.  When the reader opens the envelope he or she finds a picture under the flap.

Let's get started . . .

Pen Names Quiz

A pen name, or a nom de plume, is a name an author uses instead of his or her real name.  Why use a different name?  An author might want a more interesting or unique name.  An author also might want to hide his or her real identity.  In the past, especially during the 1800's, women writers sometimes used male names or just their initials because it was more difficult for women to get their work published at that time.

Can you match each author's pen name to the correct real name?  The names in red are pen names and the names in green are real names.

Mark Twain 
J. K. Rowling 

Lewis Carroll 

Stan Lee  

Dr. Seuss 

Theodore Geisel
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
Joanne Rowling
Samuel Langhorne Clemens
Stanley Martin Lieber

Click "Read more" to see if your answers are right!

Happy Birthday A. A. Milne!

Illustration by E. H. Shepard. (Source)

A. A. Milne, the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh, was born on January 18, 1882.  He also wrote plays, novels, and poems.  Milne published Winnie-the-Pooh in 1926 and The House at Pooh Corner in 1928.  The character Christopher Robin was inspired by his son, while Pooh was inspired by his son's teddy bear.  The toy bear was named after a real bear at the London Zoo that was called Winnie (short for Winnipeg).

The true bear that inspired the Pooh Bear. (Source)

You can find out more about the inspirations for Winnie-the-Pooh and other book characters from this video from Yahoo News.

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Happy National Dress Up Your Pet Day!

January 14th is National Dress Up Your Pet Day.  It's easy to celebrate . . . just dress up your pet!  Don't have a pet to dress up?  No problem.  You can print out this Poodle paper doll and dress her up!  (Goldfish has chosen to not participate in this celebration.  It's just not her cup of tea.)

Click on the images to enlarge, then print.  You can also print the PDF version (page 1 and page 2).

Happy Birthday Charles Perrault!

Illustration of Cinderella by Oliver Herford. (Source)

Once upon a time there was a French author named Charles Perrault who wrote fairy tales.  He was born in Paris on January 12, 1628.  In 1697 he published Tales from Times Past, a book of fairy tales, such as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Puss and Boots.  Perrault did not invent these stories (they were folktales that had been passed down for years and years and years), but he wrote them down and his versions of the tales became popular.  Did you know the Disney movie Cinderella was based on Charles Perrault's version of the story?

New Year, New Savings!

Buy one book from Lulu.com and get the second one free!  Just use the coupon code SECONDHALF305.
Hurry - offer ends Jan. 15.
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