For Moms, about moms, by a mom.
50 Best iPhone Apps for Moms by Babble. This website provides a list of the top 10 apps in the five categories of Health and Fitness, Family and Fun, Creative and Practical, Cooking, and Shopping, right at your fingertips! Actually, this list is just the opinion of one of their writers, but it is a good place to start for new smart phone users. This list is for 2010, but new apps are born every day. Some cross over for Droids, but not all. Need a place to start? Try GroceryIQ. www.Babble.com and search “iPhone apps”
Me…Jane by Patrick McDonnell (Little Brown). Patrick McDonnell, creator of the cartoon Mutts, has authored a brilliant biography of Jane Goodall. Starting with Goodall’s conventional childhood, McDonnell captures the spirit of a child wanting to play outside. With photographs, sketches and stamps adorning this journal-styled wonder, readers get a close of view of Goodall’s passion for living with and helping animals. (2 – 10)
Enjoying the Small Things by Kelle Hampton. Beginning in 2007 with the birth of her first daughter, Lainey, Kelle Hampton began blogging about her budding new family. In January 2010, she welcomed her second daughter, Nella. Reading Nella’s birth story is beautiful, painful and memorable. Kelle continues to write about finding the beauty in life, in motherhood and in children. www.KelleHampton.com
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (Harper/Amistad) With a cover crowded with awards stickers, Williams-Garcia has written an amazing book about a mother’s love. But this love was for a cause—the Black Panthers’ message of civil rights during the turbulent 1960s. Soaked in the details of the time and place, readers learn much more than what is on the page. Recommended for adult book clubs as well. (10 and up)
Erin Brockovich Not every movie needs to be from Pixar or Disney. Claim the couch and put in this celebration of female power! Julia Roberts is tough, beautiful and fighting for real people in this gutsy success story. You might remember the title, but not the details. Not for kids, watch it again with your mom friends. Rated R.
Welcome Home by Rebecca DiLiberto. This writer contributes to InStyle and The Boston Globe and has written numerous lifestyle and beauty books. She has collected rituals and superstitions from across the globe aimed at newlyweds, feng shui fans and decorators searching for that one thing that brings health, wealth and luck into your home. Illustrated, with vintage appeal. (Chronicle)
Julie Hubble is the mother of two wonderful children in Leawood.