Winter Crafts for You and Your Cats!

When my niece was a toddler, she was obsessed with the family cat. (And all other cats, to be honest.) She loved watching Frankie prowl and sleep and eat, and she took our “gentle, gentle” petting directions well – for a 3-year-old!

My sister and brother-in-law capitalized on this early interest in cats by taking her to the library to check out books about cats and with cats as characters. I will be forever grateful for the children’s librarian who set aside “the best cat books” for my niece in anticipation of her weekly library visits. (Yes, children’s librarians will do this for you. All you need to do is ask.)

Twenty years later, with an undergraduate and graduate degree under her belt, my niece still loves (and now owns) cats – and, of course, she is a terrific reader.

The lesson for parents is pretty simple: If you have family pets and your child is interested in them, use this as an interest anchor for great books you can get at the library.

This month’s book suggestions combine winter and animals in interesting ways and are from a terrific online library account maintained by the library’s Youth Nonfiction Selector and long-time children’s librarian Sally Kotarsky. Find more of these lists by going to tccl.bibliocommons.com and searching the catalog by “LIST” (instead of “keyword” or “title”) with: TCCL Kids Read Nonfiction.

A Winter Treasury of Recipes, Crafts, and Wisdom by Angela Ferraro-Fanning

If you’re hankering for a little dose of Little House on the Prairie crafts, bakes and gardening projects, look no more! This book focuses on how modern-day homesteaders use eco-friendly methods and a deep knowledge of what nature offers in the winter to give you a variety of fun cooking, crafting and planting projects to try with your child.

Hello Winter! by Shelley Rotner

A beautiful compendium of photos showing the different ways that plants and animals live during the winter, this book also gives basic information about the coldest season. Look out for surprising signs of life and get ready to say, “Hello Winter!” with your child.

Hiders Seekers Finders Keepers: How Animals Adapt in Winter by Jessica Kulekjian

How exactly do animals survive the cold in winter? Many different ways! This book is a great resource of information about a variety of animals, from frogs to box turtles to dragonflies to deer, and how they have learned how to make it through late fall to early spring. The book features detailed illustrations showing such concepts as the migration of butterflies and more.

Get Crafting for Your Cool Cat by Ruth Owen

Cool cats need your crafts! In this delightful mash-up of craft projects and cat-care information, kids can discover how to make things like a lion’s mane hat, an eating game that’s also a puzzle for your cat and a pyramid hideaway.

And since an article that starts with cats and ends with cats wouldn’t be complete without at least one picture of a cat, here’s a picture of my Lizzy and Darcy. Appropriately enough, this was taken during a snow day a few years ago.