"Sidelights"
Penny Warner, an instructor of child development and nutrition, has penned many books on the subject of how to feed and entertain children. Some of her titles include Healthy Snacks for Kids, Super Toys, Happy Birthday Parties! Kids' Holiday Fun: Great Family Activities Every Month of the Year, and Splish, Splash: Water Fun for Kids. With her husband, Tom Warner, she is also responsible for a series of books for adults on how to plan mystery parties. These are The Secret of the Bitter Sweets: A Murder Mystery Party for Eight People, Greetings From the Grave: A Murder Mystery Party for Eight People, and A Deadly Game of Klew: A Murder Mystery Party for Six People. Most recently, Warner has turned to fiction writing and has had the first two mystery novels of a series featuring a hearing impaired sleuth published, Dead Body Language and Sign of Foul Play.
Warner's first book was Healthy Snacks for Kids, published in 1983. It includes over two hundred recipes, including ideas for everything from lunches to popsicles and blended drinks. Warner also makes suggestions about how parents and child-care workers can make nutritious food look more appetizing to children. Sally A. Lodge, reviewing Healthy Snacks for Kids for Publishers Weekly, praised its recipes as "simply and clearly written" and noted that the recipes "require no more than half an hour to prepare."
Happy Birthday Parties! saw print in 1985. Warner discusses many possible themes for children's parties, and while she doesn't give age limits for each idea, she provides concepts suitable for a wide range of maturity levels. Themes explored include cartoons, nursery rhymes, dinosaurs, and punk rock. Warner also dispenses plans for creative invitations, decorations, and party favors. Denise P. Donovin, critiquing Happy Birthday Parties! in Booklist, hailed it as "a helpful guide for planning . . . children's birthday parties."
Also among Warner's credits is Kids' Holiday Fun: Great Family Activities Every Month of the Year. As the subtitle implies, the author does not just cover the major, well-known festival dates such as Christmas or Easter. Warner supplies her readers with information on such red-letter days as Juneteenth, a celebration of the anniversary of the Union liberating all the slaves in the state of Texas, and France's Bastille Day. Along with each explanation of the holiday, she notes ideas for making it special for children.
Splish, Splash: Water Fun for Kids boasts over one hundred and twenty ways for children to enjoy water. Warner divides the volume into sections--one each for ocean and beach, pool and lake, kiddie pool, slides and sprinklers, the bathtub, and water...