About Valarie Budayr

Valarie Budayr is an award winning, best-selling children’s book author, a reading and play advocate whose mission is to inspire children, families,and communities to experience and create together, and founder of the popular book website Jump into a Book, where the pages of our favorite children’s books come to life through activities and adventures. Valarie lives at the foothills of the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee with her three children, loving husband and two beloved cats. You can find Valarie at www.jumpintoabook.com

9 Books About Kites

One of our favorite things to do in April is fly our kites at our local kite festival in the park. To get us in the spirit of Kite Flying we pulled out some of our favorite books to read. Hope our list inspires you as well. Kite Flying by Grace Lin – The wind is […]

The Otter, the Spotted Frog and the Great Flood Activity

  Over the years my family has enjoyed reading a variety of “great flood” tales from our local Blount County Library. This month found us enjoying the Creek Indian version called, The Otter, the Spotted Frog and the Great Flood by Gerald Hausman and beautifully illustrated by Ramon Shiloh. In this version, spotted frog announces […]

Multicultural Children’s Book Day

Today, contributor Valarie is going to tell you about an initiative she is a co-founder of. This wonderful project is called Multicultural Children’s Book Day. After you read the post, help us spread the word by sharing it! Why Multicultural Children’s Book Day Mia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom and I, Valarie Budayr from Jump into […]

Hands-On Activities for Mama Panya’s Pancakes: A Village Tale from Kenya

We recently picked up a wonderful book from the Blount County library, this wonderful Kenyan Tale called, “Mama Panya’s Pancakes: A Village Tale from Kenya” by Mary and Rich Chamberlin, Illustrated by Julia Cairns. This beautiful heart warming story shares the great message of “give and you shall receive.“ As Mama Panya and her young […]

Having Fun With the Penderwicks

The Library Adventure uses affiliate links, please see our policies for more information. Let’s Start With a Review We’ve spent a lot of time lately at the Blount County Library in Maryville, Tennessee. When asked which book we should present this time, all of the kids gave a resounding “The Penderwicks”. The Penderwicks: A summer […]