Book Review: Star Wars The Force Awakens New Adventures

Easy Readers can be a very confusing and frustrating to read genre of books. As an adult who can read it is hard to find Easy Reader level books that can help teach young children to read while at the same time not having a mind numbing lack of plot or actual purpose for existence. This book, however, is a pretty awesome and not just because it is a Star Wars book. 

This book does not tell a story, but rather each page or pair of pages introduces a different character or term from Star Wars, such as General Leia, Finn, or The Resistance Base, and there is a short paragraph about the term. 

My favorite thing about this book is how learning friendly it can be. This book includes lots of great resources such as a Quiz to test reading comprehension, a glossary of terms, and finally a Guide for Parents which gives tips to help parents help their children with their reading. 

Another cool feature can be found on the last page where the publishing company recommends other similar books in the same reading level and one reading level lower for children to read next. 

As a librarian we often find ourselves in the position of guiding children and parents to the correct books for their reading level. However, once they leave the library many might not have the resources or know how to enhance their reading experiences. The great thing with this book is that the resources included with the book can give the librarian and the parent the confidence they need to ensure the child gets everything they possibly can out of their learning to read experience. 

Book Review: Wonderland Adult Coloring Book

I love adult coloring books. At first I was skeptical about whether coloring was an actual stress reliever or not, however once I started collecting adult coloring books I just could not stop being enthralled by all the creative, cute, and fun designs that are out there to be consumed. 

As a former English Literature major and lover of books of all kinds this Alice and Wonderland coloring book created by Amily Shen peaked my interest rather easily. This book is particularly fun because the pages actually take you through Alice's story. Shen has expertly illustrated images that might go through one's head while reading about Alice's adventures in Wonderland. However you, as the reader, get to add the color to her world. 

I especially like the text throughout the coloring book that tells the story. This addition takes this from just another adult coloring book inspired by childish things to an actual story book. 

Overall I really enjoyed looking at this coloring book and I look forward to continuing to color this story. 

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review from Blogging for Books.

Book Review: Mustache Baby Series

The mustache baby books by Bridget Heos are probably my favorite books that I have come across in the children's section to date. B

Both books tell the story of baby Billy. In the first book, Mustache Baby, Billy is born with a mustache. The question isn't why does this baby have a mustache. The question is will this mustache be a "good guy mustache" or a "bad guy mustache." In the sequel we meet Javier, Billy's rival, who has a mostly good guy, but sometimes bad guy beard.

I like these books because they're really silly. The overall concept deals with the idea of good vs. evil, but not really. In the first book Billy learns that when he acts like a bad guy he does suffer consequences by being sentenced to crib jail. In the second book Billy and Javier learn that when they're being bad guys towards each other they loose their friends and get lonely. However it is presented in a funny way. 

The author, Bridget Heos, uses and chooses her words and phrases very carefully. I admire her playfulness with phrases such as cat burglar and cereal criminal.

Overall I find these books to be fun for both children and adults. Personally I hope Bridget Heos continues to publish books telling the story of the Mustache Baby. 

Books Without Words

One of my new favorite types of books is books without words. I think there is a lot of potential to build a child's reading comprehension skills and overall personal literacy story when presenting a child with different forms of literature. I have included 5 of my current favorite wordless books in this post. I am sure that I will be adding many more to my favorites in the future.

These first two books were my first wordless reads. In Flora and the Penguin Flora ice skates alongside a penguin friend in Flora and the Flamingo Flora synchronize swim/dances alongside a flamingo friend. These books are beautifully drawn. Anyone of any age can appreciate the effort and skill that went in to making Flora's worlds a reality, at least in book world. The other thing that is really cool about these books are the interactive flaps that help mimic the movement of dance and skating.

 

Journey of the Sea Glass is absolutely my favorite wordless book. This book tells the story of how a bottle of lemon-lime soda becomes a piece of sea glass that floats to shore. This story involves a lot of thought and there is a lot to interpret in the story. First it can be difficult to spot the piece of glass in each frame of the story. Second this story can bring about discussions about pollution because even though sea glass is a cool thing to find on the beach, if the glass were say a piece of plastic or some type of substance that were harmful to the environment that it traveled in this story might be very different. Finally the more perceptive reader may pick up on the idea that the boy who drops the bottle is also the grandfather of the girl who finds the piece of sea glass. 

I think this book can be read and looked at as a very simple, nice story with beautiful illustrations OR it can be a very deep and meaningful story that can lead to an array of topic discussions with audiences young and old. 

These next two books by Mark Pett are also amazing choices because like Journey of the Sea Glass both stories show change over a long period of time and they both can open up conversations about deeper, meaningful concepts. 

The Boy and The Airplane tells the story of a young boy who gets a toy airplane. Soon this toy becomes one of his favorite toys. Like most favorite toys he eventually looses his airplane. The story proceeds to show how he gets his favorite toy back. 

The Girl and the Bicycle tells the story of a young girl who finds the bicycle of her dreams. The book shows her journey to getting the bike.

Both stories make statements about patience, hard work, dedication, and kindness. Both stories can open up conversations with young people about times when they have had to be patient and work for something that they really wanted. They also could work as good remedy books for parents who are dealing with children who exhibit opposite behaviors than are discussed in the books. 

These are just a few of my favorite books without words. I'm sure there will be many more posts like this one in the future.

Book Review: A Mom For Umande

While working on my blog posts for this week I decided I wanted to look for books about Moms in honor of Mother's Day. Since I am me the first one I found was a book about gorilla moms.

A Mom for Umande tells the story of Umande a diamond back gorilla who is born to a gorilla momma who is not quite ready to step up and be a parent just yet. Umande is cared for by zoo keepers until they find a new mom for Umande at another zoo.  

This story was very heart warming. You instantly feel for Umande and want for him to find a forever family. This book is really fun and unique in that it deals with issues of family and adoption in a very inviting way. You get to see how Umande's birth parents were good gorillas even if they weren't fit to be parents. You also get to see the positive, loving relationship formed between Umande and his new mom.

The illustrations are cute, warm and inviting. They really complement the overall positive feeling of the story very well. 

I also find this story very interesting because Umande is a real gorilla. It's very easy to find additional information and photos about Umande on the internet, which lends itself well to projects and learning in conjunction with the book. 

Book Review: What Every Child Needs to Know Series

When I first found these books I absolutely had to read them. I love pizza and I love punk rock so I was extremely intrigued to see how these two topics would be made interesting for a child (these books are board books so I would assume the intended audience is rather young).

Personally I loved the books. I even learned some facts such as the fact that the Queen consort of Italy requested nothing but pizza to eat when she visited Naples. The punk rock book even brings about philosophical debates such as whether a book about punk rock is punk rock or not and the fact that the core principle behind punk rock is about being unique, however many people who identify as punk rock dress the same. 

I am going to be brutally honest in this review. I think their books are fantastic. There are others in the series that are probably equally as fantastic on the topics of Elvis Presley, coffee, cancer, and the economy. While I like the themes, facts, and fun photos in the books I think the execution is a little off. While esthetically pleasing as board books, they would probably peak the interests of more children if they were printed as regular picture books.

Book Review: Ugly Fish

Ugly Fish is a very territorial fish. He loves swimming around in HIS tank and most importantly he enjoys eating. In this book we find out what happens when the fish tank bully finally meets his match.

When I first read this book I thought it was very dark. The second time I read the book I thought it was pretty dark and twisty. The third time that I read Ugly Fish I read the author bio on the dust jacket that said that Kara LaReau decided to write this book after reading about childhood bullying. By the fourth time that I read this book I realized the value in reading about a bully fish that eats all the other fish- especially when your audience is children who may be on the giving or receiving end of bulling. 

After realizing the bigger message embedded in this book I think this book can be very useful for talking about topics of bullying. The bully in this story is presented in a very silly character. The story itself is very simplistic and easy to follow. Lots of very fun voices could be utilized for the different fishy characters. 

Readers also get to see the concept of actions, wishes, and consequences. For example throughout the entire book the Ugly Fish just wants to eat and have his fish tank all to himself. Towards the end of the book, however, he gets lonely and wishes he hadn't eaten all the fish who could have been his friends.Finally by the end of the book the Ugly Fish gets a new friend...and a taste of his own medicine.