The Night Before Father’s Day by Natasha Wing and illustrated by Amy Wummer

There are some things that I really love about this book. I bought it for my son to read to his dad. He is 8, transitioning from 2nd to 3rd grade. It was easy for him to read and comprehend what he was reading. Another thing that I love about this book is the illustrations. They are really well done and portray a minority family which is something that isn’t often seen in these sort of books. It was a fun read and I enjoyed listening to and watching my son read this story to my husband. It has a mixture of narration and dialect. I liked that he was able to use his “narrator voice” and switch to a “dialect voice.” I’d definitely recommend this story. 🙂

Jade

The Walk Back Home by Oliver Jeffers

The Walk Back Home is a cute little story about a boy from Earth who flew into space with his airplane. He ran out of fuel and landed on the moon. A martian also landed on the moon after his spaceship engine broke. The rest of the book talks about an adventure that the boy and martian go on to help them both get back home.

I am a first grade teacher. I read this story to my students for a Read-Aloud. They loved it because they were able to make predictions based on what we were reading. They connected with the characters because they too have had to help a friend do something.

The illustrations are done with water colors. They are clean and demonstrate what is being read on the page. The one complaint I do have about the book is on a few pages, the words are stuck on a part of the page that is dark and the letters are also dark. So, it is a bit hard to see, especially if a child was to attempt t read it on their own. I do recommend it as a read aloud.

Jade

Will be back and updated by Sunday

Good evening everyone! I just wanted to let ya’ll know that my reviews will be coming and be caught up by Sunday. I apologize for the delay in things but my son just started school, our pet just passed away and I was trying to get everything squared away before I start school on Monday. I hope all is well!

 

xoxo,

Jade

YOU CHOOSE by Nick Sharratt and Pippa Goodhart

Hello everyone! I’ve had a lot of messages asking what happened to the blog. I left off letting you guys know things were hectic and to make things even crazier I’ve been back and forth between the doctor for my son and myself since August. I think things are finally starting to settle so I am going to try and catch up. Please bare with me if I’ve promised a review as I am REALLY behind with school, the doctors and my sons extra curricular activities. I will try to get all the way caught up as soon as possible. Prayers for stability in my life is greatly appreciated. 🙂

Sharratt, Nick. You Choose. Illustrated by Pippa Goodhart. Tulsa: Kane Miller, c2012.

This book mainly done in illustrations. The story is as the title indicates, about choosing. The story goes through several scenarios from being hungry and choosing the food you want to choosing what to wear. The level of this picture book looks like it could easily be read by an early reader, not necessarily an emergent reader. Lots of common sight words that are soundable are used, but there are also words used such as “wear” that children may need help with. This is also suitable as a read aloud book. The sentences are in big, bold, black letters at the top.

The illustrations take on practically the whole page. At first, the illustrations seem extremely busy, but as you go on you realize that its not as busy as originally thought. The illustrations are aligned with the text in that when they ask you to choose shoes, they have 50 different pairs of shoes to choose from. Some of the characters that are in the illustrations have idea bubbles with comments, but these characters aren’t shown through out the book.

I think this is an adorable book and would recommend it! 🙂

Arthur Pong And His Smelly Song by Jose Fernandez

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this book, but I thought it was really cute in a stinky sort of way 😉 At first I was a bit confused with no ending punctuation the I caught on that it was being wrote as a poem. I’m not too knowledgeable on the terminology here, so I’ll explain it. It was four sentences but no punctuation and in rhyme per page. The rhymes was done pretty well. There was one exception when I felt the words were a bit forced, but other than that it all rhymed and flowed nicely. This book is a silly type of book sort of like captain underpants. It tells the story of Arthur and how he creates music and well you’ll have to read it because I don’t want to give too much away. Each page has a title and each title is included in a table of contents at the beginning. 

 

There are simple illustrations done on each page to go with the text. Unlike the cover, the illustrations in the actual book aren’t in color, but rather shades of white and grey. It doesn’t take away from the story, but seems to allow focus on what is going on in the illustrations instead. The drawings are silly and represent the story well. Some of the illustrations are surrounded by white space where as some are boxed in with a light shade. I would recommend this book, but maybe towards an older crowd of maybe 6 and over because there are terms used such as “fart” and “poo” and I know some parent’s don’t really want these words put into young learners vocabulary right away. If you don’t have a problem with that, then read ahead because this one is sure to bring on the giggles!!! 🙂

 

xoxo,

Jade

Little Bird Lost by Kate Larkinson and photos by Steve Larkinson

Good evening friends! So sorry it has been so long since I’ve reviewed. I’ve been a busy busy BUSY bee!

This story is a picture story like all of the books I review, but to be honest it is different! Usually the books have their words and then there is the illustrations. This photographer took the time to photograph a photo for each page. Each page has dialogue that goes in rhyme, but not necessarily ending on that page; basically page turners! The text is extremely easy to understand and although it is not a “young readers” book. It has short and simple sentence structure. I think a young reader would have no problem getting through it. I will let my son be the judge of that for reading time tomorrow!

Back to these wonderful photos! I can’t imagine the amount of time it took for the photographer to sit by this nest and gently snap these photos without scaring them and making them fit into the story. It is amazing how the text and these actual photos go hand in hand. I can’t praise this photographer enough. I urge all of you to go to Amazon and pull it up. It’s such a cute story about a bird family that will sure to bring smiles and sweet dreams to your little ones!

 

xoxo,

Jade

Cat Days by Alexa Andrews and illustrated by John & Wendy

Andrews, Alexa. Cat Days. Illustrated by John and Wendy. New York: Penguin Young Readers, c2012.

 

This book is a level one young reader. This is truly a young reader versus some of the other ones I’ve come across. The vocabulary is very simple and easy to sound out. The pages are repetitive to give children a chance to remember words. The break this book into sections, but not necessarily chapters. Then each section they run with the theme. For example Cat Plays section has a few pages about the cat playing. The story is predictable which also helps with retention for young readers. It also uses ideas that most children are familiar with.

 

The illustrations are bright and simple. They use very simple shapes to make the pictures and it doesn’t distract the reader from the text. Everything is outlined in either black or grey. There is very little usage of white space, but they use color space in its place. The pages that have the section titles are the only ones that have white space usage.

The story doesn’t have much of a plot, but it does a great job with simple words and familiar territory for young readers.

 

xoxo,

Jade

Flight of the Butterflies by Roberta Edwards and illustrated by Bob Kayganich and with photographs

Edwards, Roberta. Flight of the Butterflies. Illustrated by Bob Kayganich and with photographs. New York: Penguin Young Readers, c2010.

 

This book is a Penguin Young Readers book, level 3. They start off by describing what Migration is. They describe the journey that the Monarch Butterflies make into the forests in Mexico. This is a really neat book because it introduces new words that children may not know and also a pronunciation helper. We learn what dangers there are to the butterflies. We then are taken back through the flight back North, wear they lay their babies and back to where they first start. I am a big BIG lover of butterflies and one thing I found out from this book that I thought was very interesting is that the life span is very short;Approximately a year.

 

The illustrations are done with actual pictures and diagrams. When they describe things in the book, such as the plant they lay their eggs on, they show a picture so we know what it looks like. They show us a map with the migration and also the stages of their flight back up.

 

This is a really interesting read especially for science lovers. Even though this is an early reader, I think it would make a great Read Aloud book too!

 

xoxo, Jade

Terry Treetop and the Lost Egg by Tali Carmi and Illustrated by Mindy Liang

Carmi, Tali. Terry Treetop and the Lost Egg. Illustrated by Mindy Liang. c,2013.

 

This is a story about a boy named Terry Treetop who loves to climb trees. Terry finds a little egg all alone on the ground and goes on an adventure to try to find its mother. He asks several animals he sees with eggs about it, and when he comes up with no answers he almost gives up. This is an adventurous story that gives young minds a glance at what type of animals have babies via eggs and how they hatch. It also gives a lesson to young kids that if you find something, they should try to find the owner.

 

The illustrations are really cute. They give you a chance to visualize what is going on in the story and see Terry Treetop go through his adventure. Each animal he visits we see their eggs and see the difference between them all. There are a lot of neutral colors used to signify nature, but some brighter colors are used on Terrys clothes and such.

 

I really like this story and how it gives so many different ideas.

 

xoxo, Jade

Scaredy Squirrel at the beach by Melanie Watt

Watt, Melanie. Scaredy Squirrel. Illustrated by author. Tonawanda: Kids Can Press, c2008.

Scaredy Squirrel is a creature that wants to go to the beach but would rather not end up surrounded by the wrong crowd. He decides that he would like to make a beach at home, so he comes up with a plan and makes lists. He realizes he’s forgetting a shell, so decides to make a very quick trip to the real beach…I won’t spoil what happens, but this is an absolutely adorable book. My son laughed so much. It is silly and demonstrates planning skills, how to overcome fears, and encourages imagination. The author gives very cute and easy to understand diagrams that the squirrel is referring to.

 

The illustrations are very crisp and clean. I checked to see what medium was used and it is done digitally by print shop. It doesn’t look like everything was done in print shop, but this explains all the neat lines and perfection. The illustrations are adorable, and go with the whole silliness of the book. There are maps, and timelines, and exhibits… simple enough for children to understand.

 

I really enjoyed this book. There are others in the series and I will definitely be checking those out. If interested in this, here is the paperback link. http://www.amazon.com/Scaredy-Squirrel-Beach-Melanie-Watt/dp/1554534623/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1377004316&sr=8-6&keywords=scaredy+squirrel

 

xoxo, Jade