Library Day (A day late) Book Review: It's Time to Call 911

This week we are talking about fire safety and other emergencies so this week's book review is the book "It's Time to Call 911" published by Penton Overseas.

Review by Kamel622, originally posted on epinions.com

Overall Rating: 

Pros: *Very educational
*Fun to read
*Hands on dialing
*Encouraging reward for dialing right

Cons: **

The Bottom Line: Young children need to learn how to properly use the 911 emergency service and this book will help them to practice and to learn.

With children having gone back to school my once very loud boisterous daycare is quiet and pretty calm. Right now I have just 4 year old Sonny and 2 year old Cindy. I’m enjoying the quiet, but of course I’m missing Jake and his sister Sammi very much. I recently purchased a book that I wish I would have had while they were here, but am enjoying sharing it with the two that I care for.

It’s Time to Call 911 is a great way for me to teach these two young children about how to use 911 and when it should be used. Since it is often just the three of us in the house, I do think that them being able to use this system could be a very good thing. You just never know what could happen so I want to be sure that at least 4 year old Sonny would be capable of making a call if it were ever needed.

I purchased this book at one of my favorite stores…we call it the teacher store since it is loaded with supplies, posters, books, teaching aids etc. I find it to be a tremendous bargain at $7.95 US or $12.95 CAN and plan to send it on to Mississippi as a part of the Literacy Write-Off hosted by Cindy and Stefanie

The bright red cover of this book is shaped like a telephone and has a red plastic telephone keypad on it. This keypad is visible at each of the pages, so that children can use it to practice dialing 911 as they read the book.

On the first page of the book we see green grass along the bottom half and sitting on the grass is a boy that looks to be crying and holding his arm up. The text next to him says I broke my arm! Below him written in deep red letters on the grass it says When something bad happens and you need help…It’s called an EMERGENCY! on the opposite page it asks Do you know what to do? and the telephone keypad is there to dial out the numbers.

Several different situations are presented such as a house on fire, falling down and unable to get up, someone being sick and not waking up and seeing someone with gun. This book has a firefighter, a policeman and a paramedic to respond to the different emergencies.

For each of the situations the book suggests calling 911 and lets children know what to do. It reminds them to state their name and to tell the nice person on the other end of the phone what the emergency is. I have been practicing this with 4 year old Sonny and he is getting very good at it with the help of this book and the keypad. I also used a real phone to see if he could pick out the right numbers there since it does look a little bit different than the bright red keypad. He did great, so I feel that this book is a tremendous aid in being able to teach children about using this emergency service and also the importance of it.

This book also tells children that 911 isn’t for fun, but only for emergencies. On the opposite page of that message is a place for a child to write their address if they know it. On a small print note on this page there is the reminder that it is recommended that children memorize their address as early as possible.

What I really like about this book is that it reinforces dialing correctly by the sound of a siren going off when the 911 is dialed. Of course the kids love hearing this and so are eager to learn the correct numbers to push. We have talked about the fact that a real telephone won’t have a siren that goes off, but it will bring them the help they need if they need it. When incorrect numbers are pressed there is a ::thud:: sound that lets the child know they haven’t dialed right. The sirens will only sound when the number is correctly dialed.

The illustrations are simple cartoon style using several different boys and girls of varying ethnicities, height and hair colors. The drawings are simple with just the right amount of detail to allow a child who cannot read the ability to understand what is happening on each page.

The text is a brown/red and although it is a bit small, it is placed where it can be easily seen and doesn’t present a problem for me when reading to the two children I am caring for. I do think because of the small text and small size of the book itself, measuring just 7” x 7”, it would be a difficult book to hold up and read to a classroom. It makes a better one on one book too because then each child has the opportunity to practice with the telephone keypad.

As you can tell from my review, I really recommend this book as a wonderful fun story and a fantastic teaching aid too.

Penton Overseas, Inc. published this 14 page board book in 2002. No author is listed.

ISBN: 15591252741


Recommended:
Yes 

Book Review: What Makes a Rainbow?: A Magic Ribbon Book

Original review on epinions.com by Kathy Salazar

What Makes a Rainbow?: A Magic Ribbon Book
by Betty Ann Schwartz

Product Rating:
Pros: Wonderful Rainbow, Beautiful Illustrations, Colorful.
Cons: Not a good 'hands on' type of book, Text hard for these old eyes.
The Bottom Line: A wonderful book of friendship and caring. Very nicely put together.

Loving children's books as I do, I was very grateful when one of our daycare parents stopped by with a new book for the daycare. What Makes a Rainbow? is a wonderful, Magic Ribbon Book and was a great choice by her and is loved by all of the children.

The Story
As the rain stopped, and Little Rabbit and his Mama come out from under a big red flower, Mama mentions that they would now see a rainbow. Little Rabbit wonders about rainbows, and what makes them. Mother suggests that Little Rabbit ask her friends.

Little Rabbit asks the Ladybug, who tells her that red is what makes a rainbow. On the next pages Little Rabbit asks the Fox, the Chick, the Grasshopper, the Bluebird and the Butterfly. Each replies with a different color until on the last page, a beautiful rainbow appears, and Mama tells Little Rabbit that the things needed for a rainbow is "Rain, Colors - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple and...Sunshine!"

The Illustrations
The illustrations in this book make it an interesting one to explore. Since each of Little Rabbits friends has a favorite color that they believe make the rainbow, their page is done mostly in that color. Little chicks page is done in yellows with yellow flowers and the ground a soft yellowish brown. The Butterfly's page is mostly purples with the butterfly itself having purple wings.

The characters faces are very expressive and that makes them look interesting and friendly. Little bunny has a cute smiley face as do the Ladybug and the Grasshopper. The other creatures faces are not smiling but have a friendly appeal.

An interesting part of the illustrations, and each page, is a ribbon that extends from the first page to the second. It is a shiny ribbon, that features the color of that page. It builds upon itself, until near the end there are six colorful ribbons spreading across the pages.

The last page is a very colorful pop out rainbow with the sun shining down on everyone. On this page the colors are truer to what they are, that is, the grass is green, the sky blue etc.


My Feelings
What Makes a Rainbow? is an excellent Preschooler or Toddler book. One of the things that I like with this book is that it works very well for the different ages that we have in our daycare.

As I was making lunch yesterday my daughter (chalathra) was reading this book to all 9 of the children in our daycare.

From the kitchen I'm listening to the quiet hush of the room as the kids listened to every word. When she was done reading they all yelled "again, read it again".

Unfortunately this time they were not listening quite as intently, and not wanting to just close the book and move on to another activity, my daughter creatively gave each child a 'part' in the story. As she narrated her oldest daughter read Little Rabbits part...each of the children got to be one of the other creatures and shout out the color that particular creature. My Grand daughter loved being the Ladybug...and one of the other girls loved spreading her wings as the butterfly, we had happy faced foxes and flying bluebirds.

Reading it in this way, made them an active part of the book, and held their attention much more than if she had just reread the book to them several times.

While I think that the book itself is very interesting, I also believe that how we read a book can be very important to making children learn to adore books as well. This book can very simply become a different type of story each time.

While it may have been a rather simple story to just read to the five year olds, the younger children had a great time recognizing and naming colors and the different creatures, and the infants adored all of the bright colors on the pages as they were turned. It can be different things, for different ages, and I think that makes it a valuable book for parents, daycares and schools to have.

Nuts & Bolts
This wonderful 12 page Magic Ribbon board book was published by Intervisual Books Incorporated in 2000.

The author, Betty Ann Schwartz also wrote What Makes Music..another Magic Ribbon Book, Escape from High Doom and Cave In. Although she is not an author that I am familiar with, I will look for other books by this talented writer.

The illustrator Dona Turner did an excellent job of making the story come alive in this book, and I will also look to read The Itsy Bitsy Spider which was also illustrated by her.

My recommendation on age level for this book is infants through about five year olds. It is short and simple to read, although some of the text is written with too much background color over it. That may not be a problem for some, but my 'older eyes' (did I just say that?) had a difficult time with a few of the pages.

Also while I think this is a great book for children, it is one that could be easily ruined. With the ribbons on each page, and the pop up on the last page, it is a book that we've decided will not go on the shelf where the children can choose books, but rather will be one that will come out only when we are reading it to them. I would prefer for a book to be hands on for the children, so I see this as somewhat of a drawback.

What Makes a Rainbow? has a list price of $8.95 U.S. and $13.50 in Canada.

ISBN: 1-58117-0769

Recommended:
Yes

Original review on epinions.com by Kathy Salazar

Winter Book Giveaway

Let's start 2010 off with a giveaway!

This month one lucky reader will win 2 great books for preschoolers. If you don't have preschoolers save them to give as gifts or maybe donate them to a local child care, library, or doctors office. See below for ways to enter.

Callie Cat, Ice Skater by Eileen Spinelli


and

I Love You, Sleepyhead by Claire Freedman

Callie Cat, Ice Skater is the story of Callie who loves ice skating more than anything and competes in an ice skating contest and learns a valuable lesson about doing the things you love.

I Love You, Sleepyhead is full of beautiful paintings by Simon Mendez of different animals heading to sleep. Some willingly, some not so much!

Enter up to FOUR times using the methods below (please leave separate comments for each entry):

1. Leave a comment on this entry

2. Follow this blog by clicking the the button in my sidebar

3. Become a fan of Tootsie's Tidbits on Facebook (the link will take you to my page)

4. Share this blog post on your blog, facebook, etc or twitter this contest including @tootsiestidbits in your tweet.

Be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry, and include a way to contact you.

I will draw the winning comment on Monday January 18 at 8:00am CST.

I can only ship these within the USA, sorry.

Library Day - Now It's Fall Book Review

Now It's Fall...Lois Lenski...A Poetic Look at Autumn

Product Rating:
Pros: *Autumn themed poetry
*Classic old fashioned illustrations

Cons: *Some poems a bit of a stretch

The Bottom Line: Now It's Fall is a cute poetry book about the season. Fun to read once or twice.

kamel622's Full Review:

Lois Lenski - Now It's Fall I just love watching the leaves change color in the Fall and have fun with my daycare children taking nature walks and collecting different colored leaves.

Not only do we enjoy collecting leaves, we enjoy reading books about this season such as Now It’s Fall.

This book is a small 5” x 6” 48 paged book that has the simple classic illustrations on one side of each two page spread and the text on the other. The illustrations are simple yet descriptive and relate well to the story. Some of the illustrated pages have a solid colored yellow, green or blue background while the text pages are white. Since this is a small book and there are 4 – 6 lines of text on each page the text size is a bit small.

One thing that I noticed that gave me a chuckle is the little girl in this story is wearing a red bow in her hair, but when viewed from the front it looks as if she has devil horns! At first I wasn’t sure what I was seeing but after looking at other pages I realized it was a bow.

This book leisurely takes the reader / listener through all of the fun that Autumn can be from falling leaves to windy days. Apple picking and back to school and all the way through to Halloween celebrations.

Great big golden pumpkins
Ripen in the fall.
From the kitchen garden
We will bring them all.

Oh, see!
What fun it will be
Make a pumpkin face
With nose and eyes,
Mouth wide open
In surprise!

These two paragraphs are a sample of the length of text per page and also the type of rhyme that is used. On most pages the rhyme flows well but occasionally I find myself having to reread in order to make it sound right.

Each pages poem can stand alone, but put all together it is a book that starts from Apples in September and goes through being thankful in November at Thanksgiving.

I read this book to my daycare group, ages 2 – 7, on a day when school was closed and I had 3 older children for the day. Because this is a bit longer book than most of the picture books we read I knew it wouldn’t be of much interest to the younger children. Actually the only one that didn’t sit still for it was 2 year old Cindy, other than that all of the children listened and commented about how this book was like it is outside here, leaves changing color and blowing around. Sammi especially loved that the children had a big pumpkin and carved a jack-o-lantern. They all pointed out they love Halloween and will be going Trick-or-Treating, and of course had to tell me about their costumes. They are all excited and this book brought up a lot of conversation about last year and Halloween and Thanksgiving, oh and Sammi and Jake’s birthdays which are coming up soon.

I love when a book sparks a lot of conversation and when the kids are remembering previous years and the way they are looking forward as well however while this is a book that we enjoyed reading and had fun with I noticed that the children didn’t ask for it again nor did they talk much about it after we finished with it. It is a good example of Fall and the activities that we do but it isn’t a book that will get read very often, at least not by my daycare group.

I would recommend this book for children 4 – 8 years old.

Wow, this book was originally written before even I was even born!! This is an old book! It was first published in 1948 by author and illustrator Lois Lenski. Random House published the copy that I have in 2000.

ISBN: 0375910697



This book is my 3rd entry in the Resurrecting the Oldies Write-Off sponsored by msmorvay

It is also #29 in the 50 Reviews by Halloween Write-Off sponsored by CopeSullivan.


Recommended:
Yes

Library Day - Big Red Apple Book Review

Big Red Apple...Another Juicy Children's Book

Product Rating:
Pros: Fantastic Illustrations, cycle of life, good for early readers, very simple text.

Cons: ~~~~

The Bottom Line: I would recommend Big Red Apple as a good aid in teaching about apples, mother nature and the cycle of life to toddlers.

kamel622's Full Review: Tony Johnston - Big Red Apple
I try to have some type of curriculum for my little daycare group, so that we can learn more about the world around us and focus on one aspect of it.

During September we are talking about apples. Now I know that it doesn’t seem as if there is a lot to say about apples, but I am having a great time teaching the children through art, graphing, eating and of course books.

One of the books that we have been reading is Big Red Apple.


The Story

This is a very simple story of an apple and what its life is like. First a tree grows then the apples grow on it. Finally a wind blows the apples off of the tree.

Along comes a worm who takes a tiny bite in the apple. A bird eats the worm and also pecks at the apple until a boy comes along and picks up the apple and with a

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch! He ate the
Big red apple.

He spit the seeds.
Phut!
Phut!
Phut!
The seeds fell to the ground.
Phit!
Phit!
Phit!

A tree grew and it too was full of big red apples.


The Illustrations

The wonderful illustrations look as if they are cross stitched pictures. They have a quilted look and also a 3-D effect that makes them really come to life.

The colors are vibrant and each page stands on its own for its beauty and colorful way it shows the activity of the page.

The text is a very large black font that is placed on a light colored background on each page, making it easy to see and easy for beginning readers to learn


My Feelings

I love the simplicity of this story and yet it also helps children learn about nature and the natural progression of life. The tree growing fruit, the fruit feeding a worm, the worm feeding a bird, the apple feeding a boy who spits the seeds and another apple tree grows.

Even if the written words were not included in this book it would be a book that children would look at for its wonderful illustrations. The colors are great and the way they look so life like make them take on a meaning all their own. Each page is filled with what looks like a patch work quilt with great attention being paid to detail. No page is overpowering with detail, there is just enough to hold a child or adults attention.

The text size is also a bonus about this book. It is great for beginning readers and even includes a page about how to help your child use this book to begin to read. It includes hints for before, during and after reading. Things like encouraging your child to use phonics, providing the word when a child has difficulty and encouraging your child to read with expression.

My daycare children seemed to really take to this book and asked for it over and over. Sammi paid particular attention to the illustrations and loved just sitting and looking at each page very carefully. They all kept saying that the worm was a snake, so perhaps he should have been drawn a little more wormlike, not a con but rather just an observation.




Nuts & Bolts

Big Red Apple was written by Tony Johnston and illustrated by Judith Hoffman Corwin.

This Scholastic Hello Reader Level One was published in September of 1999 and has 32 pages.

This is an excellent book for 3 to 7 year olds and is great for beginning readers.

ISBN: 0-439-09860-2


Recommended:
Yes

Library Day - The Apple Pie Tree Book Review

Though it's not quite back-to-school yet for most of us, it will be here before you know it, so I don't think it's too early for an apple book review.

The Apple Pie Tree...Sounds Like a Delicious Tree To Me!

kamel622's Full Review:

Product Rating:
Pros: Excellent illustrations, progressive story, Mother Nature

Cons: Nope

The Bottom Line: The Apple Pie Tree is a wonderful book of Mother Nature and how things grow.
The bottom line wants an apple pie!

The Story

This very well illustrated book is about the cycle of life and how an apple tree can become an apple pie tree.

It starts with a very bare and empty apple tree, in wintertime. There is nothing but the brown branches, but as spring begins the book shows how leaves begin to grow and how robins build a nest.

As time passes the tree develops little pink flower buds and blue eggs in the robins nest.

The story goes along with the robins breaking through the eggs, and learning to fly and how the petals grow on the tree until the winds blow and they all fall to the ground.

Through wind and rain the tree stand tall until one day little green apples begin to grow. Through the summer the trees apples continue to grow until they are red, big and round and ready to be picked.

Peeling the apples and then cutting them up, they are added to a pie crust and covered in cinnamon and sugar and baked in the oven. The nameless children in the book enjoy an apple pie that they’ve grown themselves.


The Illustrations

The wonderful illustrations are very similar to that of Eric Carle’s. They are torn paper collage, with most pages being done in soft pinks, browns, blues, yellows, greens and red, red for the apples.

Each page has large illustrations and text making it an easy book to hold up and read and everyone can see them. The majority of each page is filled with the activity of the page, with very little white background left. The text is placed where it is easily seen and doesn’t compete with drawings to be viewed.

My Feelings

I love the illustrations in this book. They look very realistic and are colorful enough to catch the eye but not filled with too much activity or detail. With children it seems that the more simple the line, the more they are drawn to the illustrations.

The story is a cute one, but I’m not sure that with my daycare children are quite following the progression of the tree to apple to pie concept that this story is about although that doesn’t detract from their enjoyment of the book. They do enjoy hearing this story and pretending to pick apples, being the breeze that blows, running through sprinklers, and finally eating the apple pie. I’ve been able to incorporate many activities into this story, which makes it an excellent book for young children and elementary school children as well.

I also like that it shows the different seasons and what the tree looks like through each time of year. The robins building a nest, laying eggs, eggs hatching and finally the baby robins flying really gives the children a bit of information about how birds are born and shows how time progresses in this story.

The last page of this book is very informational and includes a very simple recipe for apple pie and a short four panel description of how bees help apples grow.


Nuts & Bolts

The Apple Pie Tree was written by Zoe Hall (It’s Pumpkin Time) and illustrated by Shari Halpern.

The Blue Sky Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc, published this 1996 book. And recommends it for children in preschool through 1st grade, however I do feel that children in up to around 3rd grade would enjoy reading this book and learning about making an apple pie.

The jacket price of this 32 page hardcover book is $13.95 US and higher in Canada.

ISBN: 0-590-62382-6


Recommended:
Yes

Library Day - The Kissing Hand

The Kissing Hand

Product Rating:

Pros: Sweet story, touching, loving, educational

Cons: Not one!

The Bottom Line: The Kissing Hand is a wonderful book for young children to help them deal with change and transitions.

I don’t often write reviews of books that already have several reviews written, but the book The Kissing Hand is one that is so good, that I just couldn’t resist.

The Story

This is such a cute story about Chester raccoon who is preparing to go to school. At first he tells his Mom that he doesn’t want to go. He wants to stay at home and play with his toys and his friends.

His Mom reassures him that although sometimes things are strange and scary at first, he will enjoy himself and meet new friends and have new toys to play with. She also lets him know a little secret.

With a gentle kiss on his paw, she lets him know that he can feel her kiss on his cheek anytime he is feeling scared or lonely, simply by pressing his paw on his cheek. This makes attending school much less scary.

***Spoiler coming…stop here if you don’t want to know the ending***

When it is time for Chester to leave for school, he knew just what to do. He took Mrs. Raccoon’s paw, gave it a kiss and told her ”Now you have a Kissing Hand, too, Good-bye, I love you.”

The Illustrations

The illustrations in this book are filled with greens and blues and have a very real look to them. They almost look like a matte finished photograph, although they are actually drawings.

The drawings fill the page with beautiful color and enough details to hold the eyes attention, while taking in all that is on the page.

The bold black text is a medium large and placed so that it is easily seen. On some of the darker pages the text is set on the bright yellow moon or is done in white rather than black.

My Feelings

As I read this book to Sammi she listened very intently and when Mrs. Raccoon talked about kissing Chester’s hand, I took her left hand and kissed it. That made her giggle. When it came to Chester kissing his mother’s hand, Sammi kissed mine. I enjoy a book that is interactive as well as interesting and educational.

This story is so warm and gives me a cozy comforted feeling. What a wonderful way to help children deal with transitions and separation anxiety. The simple story holds the children’s attention while letting them know that their feelings are normal and okay to have. This book explores solutions to facing our fears in a creative and loving way.

I love that animals were used to help convey the message of feelings and dealing with fears. Children have such a natural love of animals and these are drawn so realistic and cute that they are really eye catching.


Nuts & Bolts

The Kissing Hand is a Scholastic publication that was printed in 1998 although the author, Audrey Penn’s copyright is 1993, as it was originally published by The Child Welfare League of America.

The wonderful illustrations are done by Ruth E. Harper and Nancy M. Leak.

This book can be purchased for as low as $2.99 used at Half.com in the hardcover format or new for $9.79 at Overstock.com.

Barnes & Noble recommends this book for children 4 – 8 years old, but I think children as young as two would really enjoy it.

ISBN: 0-590-04701-9

This review has been part of Sleeper54's Lean-n-Mean W/O Go Books!


Recommended:
Yes

Review by Kamel622 at epinions.com

Library Day - Froggy Learns to Swim

Froggy Learns to Swim...A Great Summertime Book for Children

Overall Rating:

Pros: *It's Froggy!
*Fun to read
*Froggy faces his fears

Cons: ***

The Bottom Line: Another wonderful Froggy book that children as young as two years old can enjoy. Swimming fears are faced and lovingly dealt with.

As summer approached I wanted to add some books to our daycare shelf that were about summer and its activities. One of the books that I knew would be a big hit was Froggy Learns to Swim.


The Story

Learning to swim can be a bit frightening, but should come pretty natural to a frog. Not so for Froggy as his parents took him to the pond.

FRRROOGGYY! called his mother.
“Wha-a-a-at?”
“Come on in and swim!”
“No!No! I don’t know how to swim!
I want to swing.

Froggy’s parents continued trying to coax Froggy into the water when he managed to release his hold on the swing and flew into the pond.

Frightened he grabbed on to his Mom who told him she would help him learn. Momma frog taught him things like making bubbles and floating and helped him with his flippers, mask and snorkel.

Froggy had a great time in the pond until it happened and he looked more red in the face than green at losing his swimsuit. After that he swam and swam and swam….and as his mother told him, frogs are natural swimmers.


The Illustrations

The color pencil illustrations in this book are like they appear in all Froggy books. Froggy is childlike and walks upright, but still has the appearance of a frog. Froggy and his parents wear clothing and do things that frogs wouldn’t.

Froggy and his parents are their bright green selves that they are in all of the Froggy books and the backgrounds are muted pale shades to look like sky or else there are several different drawings, to show activity, that are placed on plain white background.

The medium size black font in this book is placed where it can be easily seen, on most pages, but I did find a few places where I had difficulty in reading to my little group. I do love that the Froggy word is very large and drawn out and stands out on the pages.


My Feelings

One of the things I really liked in this Froggy book was how many different words there were to use as sound effects. The daycare children really love when we flop, flop, flop with our feet and the zips and zuts and zooks really make for a fun story to hear and to read.

I loved that in this book Froggy had fear, and the help of his mother got him through it. She was patient and kind and persistent. Eventually Froggy learned to swim and then his parents weren’t in a hurry for him to come out of the water. They waited, very patiently, while Froggy swam and swam and swam. While we don’t all have the time to wait until a child is ready to move on to another activity, I do like that Froggy’s parents encouraged him to pursue what he loved.

My daycare children, age’s 2 years to 4 years, had a lot of fun with this book and all of them sat and listened intently. There is so much activity that it even held young Sonny’s attention.

Of course the bright and colorful illustrations are very appealing and a real part of what makes this and every Froggy book so exceptional.


Nuts & Bolts

Froggy Learns to Swim was written by Jonathan London (my daycare children are beginning to tell me the author’s name whenever I pull up a Froggy book, before I even tell them) and was illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz.

Scholastic published this 32 page softcover book in 1997.

This book is recommended for children 2 – 7 years old.

ISBN: 0-590-27452-X

Review by Kamel622 at epinions.com

Late Library Day - Diary of a Worm

I've been neglecting this little blog of mine again. But reading a new blog has me a bit fired up to get back to it and actually be consistent about it, so today you get "Late Library Day" lol.

The review this week is Diary of a Worm. I LOVE this book.

Diary of a Worm...a fun children's book full of giggles!

Product Rating:5 out of 5 stars

Pros: Fantastic text, Fantastic illustrations, Fun and Silly...a great children's book!

Cons: Nope!!

The Bottom Line: Diary of a Worm is a fantastic children's book that will have everyone laughing and enjoying the little worms adventures.

kamel622's Full Review: Doreen Cronin - Diary of a Worm After having a read a review of Diary of a Worm, a wonderful children's book, I knew I had to put a copy on hold at our library. I was so delighted when it was ready for pick-up.

The Story

This is the cute story of a handsome worm who keeps a diary and allows us to take a peek at it to follow what his days are like.

Now it might seem as if worms lead a rather boring life, but this book helped us to see that they actually have a very busy life with lots to do.

On the first two page spread we learn what our unnamed worm friend learns from his Mom.

March 20
Mom says there are three things I should always remember:
1. The earth gives us everything we need.
2. When we dig tunnels, we help take care of the earth.
3. Never bother Daddy when he’s eating the newspaper.

The diary goes on talk about things that the worm does, like teaching a spider to dig, trying to walk upside down like the spider, digging deeper because it is fishing season and using his good manners and saying good morning to the first ant he saw. He had to stand there all day though, because 600 ants followed that one.

Our worm friend has things he likes about being a worm, like not having to go the dentist, never getting in trouble for tracking mud in the house and not having to take a bath.

He also has things he doesn’t like. Not being able to chew gum, have a dog and all the homework. are a few of things that make being a worm a little less than enjoyable.

At the end of his diary his last notation is about people forgetting that worms are even here, but that the earth never forgets.

The Illustrations

The illustrations in this book are just as entertaining as the text is. The fun starts on the front cover of the book and each page is filled with hilarious drawings of the baseball capped worm and his family.

On the inside cover are family snapshots of things like a family vacation, and the worms first tunnel. The back cover has more photos including a snapshot of his mom and dad kissing on their anniversary, which has the word gross written after it and a portion of a twenty dollar bill with Isn’t this an awesome leaf?! written under it. The outside back cover is very cute as well, showing our wormie friend writing in his diary and we can read June 5 - I get the feeling I’m being watched… Very cute and clever.

The inside of the book is just as funny and cute. The brown worm wears a ballcap throughout and makes expressions that look so human, and yet seem to fit for a worm as well.

The text is a medium large black or white font, depending on the background of the page. I like when it is placed so that it is easily read and this book does that. Often in the book the worm talks in conversation balloons as well. The print on these is a bit smaller, but still mostly easy to read.

My Feelings

I’ve had so much fun reading this book to my daycare children and really have to thank deenaf for her wonderful review that led me to putting this book on hold at our library.

When I first opened the book I wasn’t sure that my little ones would sit still for the length of it. I was pleasantly surprised when I began reading and even Jake seemed to get into the story. I’m sure that the wonderful illustrations helped keep this 2 year olds attention. Of course being about worms made the story one of great interest to him.

It was really funny when I got to one part about the worm eating his homework and the girls fell on the floor laughing. I’m sure they have no idea what homework is, but nonetheless they thought that was hysterical.

I do have one very small con about this book. On one page the worm talks about the advantages of being a worm. Unfortunately one of the things he talks about is not having to go to the dentist. While this is true, since he has no teeth, generally the age group that would be enjoying this book may feel they are being told that going to the dentist is a bad thing. That isn’t a message that I want to convey to young impressionable minds. I’ve just been skipping that part of the diary and changed it from being three things that are good about being a worm, to two. It is however a very small con and can be discussed to help children understand.

The illustrations are so much fun and really fit whatever activity is on the page. Things like the macaroni necklace….that is only one piece of macaroni and almost covers the worms whole body or when our wormy friend is pretending to be a Secret Service Agent and has a suit coat, sunglasses and a headset on, makes each page so much fun to look at.

This book, while not necessarily meant to be educational does teach children a little bit about worms, spiders and mother nature herself. Since we had planted sunflowers this Spring, I was glad to find this book and be able to talk about how worms help in the garden.

Last night at Target I pointed this book out to my oldest daughter, who also owns a family daycare, and we stood there in the aisle laughing our heads off. She appreciated the fun illustrations and clever text as much as I do. She decided she had to purchase it for her daycare….lucky kids.

Nuts & Bolts

Diary of a Worm was written by Doreen Cronin, the author of Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type. The illustrations were done by Harry Bliss who also illustrated Count Down To Kindergarten, Which Would You Rather Be and is also a cartoonist and cover artist for New Yorker Magazine.

This 2003, 40 paged book was published by Joanna Cotler Books, An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. It is available in Hardcover and Audio CD.

This book is recommended for children as young as 3 years and would probably still be enjoyed by 6 or 7 year olds as well.

The jacket price is $15.99 US and $19.99 CAN, but as with most books can be found at many dotcoms for much less.

ISBN: 006000150X

Recommended:
Yes

Library Day - Leo the Lightning Bug Book Review

Tuesday is Library Day in my child care.

From a local "teacher store" I purchased book bags and labeled one for each child with his or her name. Ziplock type bags would work just as well. I set up an index card for each child with their name. Each week they choose a book from the the book bin and I mark on the index card the date and which book they are checking out. I have asked the parents to be sure the books are kept in the plastic bag when they are not in use and the children are expected to bring their books back weekly.

The children, many of whom have older siblings who are in elementary school and get to check out books from the school library, love getting to borrow my books. Many choose books that they already have at home, but see it as something special to get to borrow Miss Kim's book.

Over the years I have only had 2 books lost and the parents were more than willing to replace them.

Library Day is a great way to promote literacy, responsibility, and sharing.

This week's book review by Kamel622:

Leo the Lightning Bug...This Little Light of Mine, I'm GonnaLet it Shine!
Product Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Pros: *Wonderful Message
*Great Illustrations
*Stimulates Empathic Feelings

Cons: ~~~

The Bottom Line: I very highly recommend Leo the Lightning Bug for children 4 - 7 years old, it is interesting and carries a wonderful message as well.

My best source for recommendations for children's books comes from some wonderful writers on epinions. Recently I read a review of Leo the Lightning Bug by baileym1 and just had to check this one out from the library.


The Story

Leo was the littlest lightening bug that he knew. He was even littler than Lester, Larry and Louise. Poor Leo could not light up, no matter how hard he tried. His Mom tried to make him feel better by telling him that his name meant lion and that he was big and brave but Leo didn't feel like a brave lion.

Leo decides to go off by himself and try everything he can to make his little light, light up.

He started off with a little squeeze….no light.

Then a push….No light.

Then a big oomph!….Still no light!

He tried a running start and flapped his wings as fast as he could, but no light. Then Leo heard Lester, Larry and Louise who had been hiding in the bushes and laughing at him. Embarrassed he flew off to a dark cave.

Sitting all alone he cried and then he got angry and then he remembered what his mother had told him, that he had to practice to do anything. Flying out of the cave and out into the night he was met by a storm. He mistakenly thinks that he made the loud crashes and the lightening and amazingly he was finally able to light up!

Leo felt wonderful and big and brave too. When he runs into his friends he decides that he isn't angry or embarrassed anymore but rather is able to laugh at himself.


The Illustrations

I really can't say for sure how these illustrations were created. They appear to be chalk renderings but I'm not positive about that. I do like to know how drawings are done but could find little information about it either within the book or by looking online.

The pages are full of beautiful drawings with lush colors that really attract the eye. Our little Leo is a soft purple color and his surroundings, while mostly at night, fit the scenes to a tee. The lightening strike looks as if it could jump off of the page and the dark cave, while very dark also has form to it.

The text is a medium/small font but is done in a very soft yellow that shows up well on the dark pages.


My Feelings

This story brought up great feelings of empathy not only in my daycare children but in myself as well. We've all encountered that horrible feeling of being laughed at and not quite measuring up, just as Leo did. This book really takes a child through the emotions and helps them come to a solution as well. Leo eventually laughing at himself over his futile efforts lightened the mood of the book and helped the children realize that while feelings can be hurt we can also decide how to handle that hurt feeling.

This book carries so many wonderful messages wrapped up in a story that is sure to hold a child's attention. The theme of try and try again, of practicing and of never give up runs throughout. While Leo had a few moments of being sad and then being angry the fact the he was able to deal with his feelings and then overcome his feeling of inadequacy really adds to the message of the book.

My daycare children, ages 4 and 5, loved Leo right from the first page. Of course Jake, seeing Leo looking for his light thought he was looking at his bu** and takes great delight in saying so. Well, he's a four year old boy so I suppose that is great humor to him.

The beautiful illustrations really add so much to this great story. The colors, while mostly dark, are still vibrant and interesting. Each page is filled with activity and enough detail to have us pause in our reading and really examine all that is going on, on each two page spread.

Before listening to the CD that is included I read this book several times myself. I wanted to put my expressions and voices into it before hearing how the author and his son would sound reading it.
The CD is a great addition and is a great way to allow a child to listen to this book whenever they want to. I like that it is the author reading the narration and his five year old son doing the part of Leo. His young voice fit perfectly with what I thought little Leo would sound like. It has a sound for turning the page as well, so that you can keep up with the story as it is read. One of my favorite parts about listening to this book is the background sounds that there are. Crickets chirping, Leo's friends laughing and the sound of the thunder cracking really brought this book to life.

I very highly recommend this book for children 4 - 7 years old, it is interesting and carries a wonderful message as well.


Nuts & Bolts

Leo the Lightning Bug was written by Eric Drachman and this book appears to be the first book by Mr. Drachman but he has followed it up with Ellison the Elephant, It's Me, and A Frog Thing, which will be released in May.

This book was illustrated by James Muscarello who has also done the illustrations for a few other Eric Drachman books.

This 32 page hardcover book also includes an audio CD with the author reading the story and sound effects in the background.

Kidwick Books published Leo the Lightning Bug in 2001 and recommends it for children 4 - 7 years old.

This book has a jacket price of $18.95 and while at first blush that seems high, having it include the CD as well makes it a real bargain.

ISBN: 0970380909


Recommended:
Yes

Library Day - Growing Vegetable Soup Book Review

Tuesday is our "Library Day" when the children get to borrow a book from my library for a week, so I thought it would be a great day to post book reviews.

My mom, who also 'does daycare' is a Top Reviewer in books and an Advisor in the Kids & Family category at epinions.com. You can check out her reviews at kamel622. I've asked her to provide a book review each week to share here.

This week we are talking about gardening and Spring so Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert is a great book for Miss Kathy to review!

Lois Ehlert's Growing Vegetable Soup........A Children's Book of Gardening & Cooking

Product Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Pros: Wonderful Gardening Book, Great Illustrations, Simple Bold Text
Cons: Nope!
The Bottom Line: Growing Vegetable Soup is another wonderful children's book by Lois Ehlert. I highly recommend it for gardeners, cooks and the young children that they love.

When I went to pick up books that I had reserved at the library, I immediately was drawn to the bright red cover of the book Growing Vegetable Soup. Before I even got it to the daycare I had to read it myself. What a wonderful book this is!

The Story

This book starts with Dad says we are going to grow vegetable soup. I asked Jay and John if they knew how to grow soup...they giggled and told me I was silly. :)

Throughout the book we never see a face, but a father and childs hands busily at work planting the seeds and sprouts and giving them water. The story goes on to show the sun shining down on the plants as they groW, and grOW and GROW.

We see the hands tending the garden and weeding it, until the vegetables are ready to be picked or dug up. After washing them and cutting them up they are put into a pot of water and cooked into the best ever vegetable soup and it can be grown again...next year.

The Illustrations

One of the things that I love about this series of books, is the bright pages that Lois Ehlert uses to really captivate even the youngest eyes. Each of the entire pages are either bright purple, red, green, blue or lavender. These pages are very appealing.

The drawings are very simple and the bright colors of each of the sets of hands, the tools, the sun and even the soil make this books illustrations cheerful and fun to view. It seems as if there is more to see each time I've read this book.

All of the plants and seedlings are clearly marked on a plant stake, with their name. I love that not only is visually very helpful to me in identifying the plants, it is helpful when reading to kindergartners in helping them to recognize more words. My granddaughter Toria had fun trying to read what she thought each of the plant stakes said, and the fact that there was corn next to the corn stake made this a little easier.

The text in this book is large bold black writing...my absolute favorite type of writing in children's books..or any others for that matter. Although I wear glasses, I find very often if the font is too small or fancy then I have a hard time reading it. This is not the case with this book, the text is very plain and very easy on my eyes.

A real bonus to this book is that on the back jacket cover there is a recipe for vegetable soup...the directions are written out very simply and would be easy to read, follow and make soup with preschoolers. Perhaps next week we'll use a crock pot, and make some vegetable soup for lunch. :)

My Feelings

This book is a wonderful way to show children that food comes from more than a supermarket. Very often I don't think they realize that food can be grown and home cooked.

The colors are fabulous and make this book more fun to read. Even the gloved hands of a father and his child are bright reds, pinks and oranges. The tools that are used are bright blues, greens and purples. The pages themselves are very bright too, so draw the attention of children to them.

I love that the story is very simple too, with only two to ten words per page. This makes it quick and easy to read and will be an easy read for early readers.

Nuts & Bolts

Growing Vegetable Soup was written and illustrated by Lois Ehlert and published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1987.

This 32 page book is recommended for children 4 to 6 years old. I would also recommend it for families who garden or cook with their children a lot. It would make a wonderful addition to any families bookshelf as well as any daycares.

The price on the book is $12.95 in the hardback version, but it may also be purchased for as little as $4.74 in the paperback from buy.com.

ISBN: 0-15-2325805

Recommended:
Yes