Reviews Written By: A6HXFDIC7DVTCprovided by Amazon.com |
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 | If Kisses Were Colors | |
 | "Ridiculously sweet." | 2009-11-15 |
| This is just an ode to babies and kissable feet, isn't it? It's full of poetic descriptions of what the world would be like if kisses were something else - and how you could *see* how many there are, because parents don't just stop kissing and loving their kids.
Beautiful artwork (well, of course, it's Alison Jay!), and a sweet story. I easily recommend it as a new-baby present, or a first birthday gift for your own kiddo. | ||
 | Froggie Went A-Courting by Marjorie Priceman, ISBN 0316712272 | |
| "Nice variation." | 2009-11-07 |
| As the author states in the foreword, there are literally HUNDREDS of variations of Froggie Went A-Courting. I personally know three different versions (and four different melodies, one of the versions has two melodies) to this song, and I know of several more. So before anybody talks about the "traditional tune doesn't match the words", I gotta ask - which tradition? Which tune?
However, I will note that most versions I know of have a chorus. If you're going to sing this book you're largely going to have to add the chorus yourself, and probably repeat lines here and there. That means this book is going to take two to three times longer to SING than it is to READ. Be prepared. (I sing it by tripling the first line and adding the refrain where needed.) I like the illustrations well enough, and, as a New Yorker, I love the new setting. (You'd be surprised, but there actually aren't as many picture books as you'd expect that take place in a city. I snatch them up wherever I see them!) I will say, however, that some of the word choices are a bit clunky. "Into town the guests did funnel/some by bridge and some by tunnel" springs to mind, as does "How many layers on the cake?/As many as floors in the Empire State". (That one particularly irks me, as the Empire State is New York State. The building is the "Empire State" Building.) And at one point they really make no sense. After Auntie Rat is duly eaten (she spent the whole book trying to break up the happy couple, so no great loss there) we first are told "All the guests then did cry", but then we're told that the guests pretty much IMMEDIATELY "resumed their celebrating" which, no matter how unliked Auntie Rat may have been ("Though cat ate rat there's no denial/Aunt Rat at last made someone smile"), strikes me as a wee bit callous. I mean, she was just EATEN right in front of their eyes! A moment of silence wouldn't go amiss. Still, if you can ignore the few weird areas, it's a great book. I recommend it. | ||
 | C Is for City | |
| "Great pictures of my own city" | 2009-10-22 |
| Now, before I even get started, I want to thank the author of this book for showing a picture of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Our copy of ABC NYC listed only "vendors" for V, and I was very disappointed because, well, the Verrazano is a pretty bridge and I've been looking at it as my touchstone since I was a kid. So seeing it in a picture book, the very same bridge my nieces can see from their mother's window or walking along the water - it's special to me.
That doesn't affect my rating, it's just incidental. This book isn't an alphabet book that happens to have a citified theme, it's an ode to NYC that happens to be written in abecedarian format. And as odes to the city go, this one is pretty great. The author caught a lot of different events and scenes, and the scenes included an appropriate amount of diversity, something you don't always see in picture books. It really was like looking at my own home :) Only thing? It's not so much like looking at my home NOW. The pictures are a bit dated, they look more like NYC when I was a kid. And so this book *was* published when I was a kid, so that makes sense, but it did make me feel slightly awkward reading it... kinda like when you look at your high school yearbook and cringe at what you thought of as good fashion choices, you know? | ||
 | Goggles! (Picture Puffin) | |
| "Not quite like I expected" | 2009-10-18 |
| I've read other books by Ezra Jack Keats. I had expected this book to be on about the same reading level as the others, but the language is much simpler, with shorter sentences and fewer words per page. There's nothing wrong with that, but I was a little disappointed.
It's possible this story may be a little scary for younger children, featuring as it does the imminent threat from the bullies who want to snatch things from smaller children. Peter and his friend rescue themselves very cleverly - and that's a wonderful message for kids! - but you should probably read this book before you buy it. | ||
 | Stephanie's Ponytail (Classic Munsch) | |
| "Great story about copycatting." | 2009-10-13 |
| Stephanie wants a ponytail. And all the kids say "Ugly, ugly", but the next day they copy her style. And she keeps coming up with more and more exotic places for her ponytails and getting more and more frustrated with the annoying hypocrites in her school, until she finally announces she's Shaving her HEAD.
She doesn't, they do. LOL. Great shot at the end of the entire shaven school, teachers and principal and students and all (and birds, and cats, and dogs with their heads shaved!) chasing Stephanie with her one ponytail right in the back of her head. It's ridiculous, it's absurd, it doesn't pretend to have any more meaning than that "Copycats are annoying" - you have to love it. Before you purchase this book, please note that the "Annikins" editions of Munsch's books are specially sized to fit into little kid hands. If you check the product dimensions you'll see this edition is only about three inches square. If you need a bigger book, you'll need to get a different edition. If you purchase the small edition you are NOT allowed to come back here and whine about it. It's your own fault for not reading the product information! (And yes, it is in the product information.) | ||
 | Paper Bag Princess (Munsch for Kids) | |
| "A classic!" | 2009-10-13 |
| This is great. So, this girl - a princess (well, duh) is about to (eventually) get married off. Unnnnnfortunately, a dragon burns everything and steals him.
So, using the time-honored tradition of "making the dragon boast and brag himself to sleep", our princess rescues the prince... only to find out that he only cares about appearances. As she says, he is a "bum". And they don't get married. What's not to like about this story? It's funny, it's short, and it makes a good point: Looks don't matter, and anybody that ungrateful after you save his life is NOT worth your time. Before you purchase this book, please note that the "Annikins" editions of Munsch's books are specially sized to fit into little kid hands. If you check the product dimensions you'll see this edition is only about three inches square. If you need a bigger book, you'll need to get a different edition. If you purchase the small edition you are NOT allowed to come back here and whine about it. It's your own fault for not reading the product information! | ||
 | Mmm, Cookies! | |
| "YUCK! PLAY CLAY!" | 2009-10-05 |
| I love this book. In true Munsch fashion, the reactions of the parents (and eventually kid) eating play clay cookies are incredibly over the top and hysterical. They gag, they scream, they brush their teeth a zillion times. And of course Christopher learns his lesson because, as we all know, turnabout is fair play.
There's no real moral to this book, it's just a bit of fun. | ||
 | More Pies! | |
| "When a little kid stares down three BIG guys, you know who's gonna win" | 2009-10-05 |
| This is a typical Munsch book - weird setting, over-the-top pictures and reactions, cool sound effects, repetition in threes, and lots of funny.
It's really like an intro to tall tales, this book - we've got a kid who eats seven fried chickens and pancakes for breakfast, and who wins a pie-eating contest against a lumberjack, a truck driver, and a construction worker (who turn various colors and fall under the table) and, naturally, pie for lunch. Gotta love it :P | ||
 | The Absolutely Awful Alphabet | |
 | "OMG I LOVE THIS" | 2009-09-06 |
| Many alphabet books are aggressively "real". They feel they have to be in order to illustrate what the letter stands for. That's cool.
This is different. The author decided to make each individual letter its own character. It's own VILE character, that is. (V is a vegetable vampire, obviously our favorite!) Each letter is in some way influenced by the one next in line... often picking on that one, but sometimes annoyed by it. The illustrations are suitably "awful", full of teeth and glares (while still being recognizeably letters). And the vocabulary...! A far cry from apples and balls and cats, here the action is all in the adjectives (and sometimes verbs). We get arrogant, voracious, envious, grotesque, cantankerous... well! If this doesn't improve your child's vocabulary, I'll personally send you your money back! (No, no I won't.) Every library needs this book. I think I'll even buy a few more copies for my niece to give to her pre-k class this year, or her kindergarten class next year! | ||
 | Mirandy and Brother Wind | |
| "I do like this one" | 2009-09-06 |
| So Mirandy wants to win the "cakewalk", a dancing contest. She knows that if she captures Mister Wind she can get him to grant a wish, and that's just what she sets out to do - wish him into dancing with her. There's a very satisfying conclusion here, nothing much to say. | ||
 | Flossie and the Fox | |
| "Love it... mostly." | 2009-09-05 |
| I love the story here. Flossie - who "disremembers" ever seeing a fox - has to walk through the woods where a fox is to deliver eggs down the road. So naturally, when she sees a fox, she tells him he's all sorts of other things right up until she's safe through the woods and the hounds chase him. Seeing the little girl out-trick the trickster is *very* satisfying.
I also like the language - Flossie's speech is full-on in her dialect. (Note: Some people may not like this. If you get het up about the word "ain't" (spelled here "aine", so it's doubly nonstandard!) or double negatives, you will wish to read this book before you buy it.) For a five or seven year old girl, though, she sure does use big words! Confidencer, accord, disremember. And the fox, fitting his role, uses different language altogether, very formal and fancy and, at times, stiff. The one problem I have with the book is the illustration. These pictures are detailed, lush, beautiful - and yet, I don't like them. I keep getting the feeling that I'm looking at posed pictures instead of what is ostensibly going on on the page! This is clearly just a matter of personal preference, but I took a a little off for it. | ||
 | Pink Paper Swans by Virginia Kroll, ISBN 0802850812 | |
| "Not bad, though a little aggressively "multi-cultural"." | 2009-09-05 |
| So, this girl living in an apartment complex (which may or may not have greenery around it - she goes down to the "shadow" to hang out, which is shown as being mostly concrete, but we're also told about the buds swelling on the trees in spring) strikes up a friendship with an older Japanese neighbor over her origami, which she eventually learns to do eventually.
It's a simple enough story, though I would've liked it to have been fleshed out a little more - all we know about Janessa is that she practices her origami a lot, and all we really know about her neighbor is that she came from Japan and is arthritic. | ||
 | Three Cheers for Tacky | |
| "We love the Tacky books :)" | 2009-08-31 |
| This is great. All the penguin schools are competing in a cheering contest, and the WINNERS get big blue RIBBONS. (There's a great image of all the penguins imagining themselves wearing blue ribbons. Tacky pictures his around his feet!)
So after they firmly explain to Tacky that, on a TEAM everybody is the SAME, they practice their routine. Repeatedly. One, two, three - LEFT! One, two, three - RIGHT! Stand up, sit down, say good night! Tacky has a few... problems with it. Naturally. But he finally gets it right... and they find out that the non-penguin judges think all the other contestants are boring as heck! Luckily, Tacky can't get it right forever, and by being weird and cool at the same time, he Saves the Day! The other penguins never are shown mocking Tacky for being different, which is a nice change of pace for this type of book. | ||
 | The Bears' Christmas (Beginner Books) | |
| "One of the "early reader" Berenstain Bear books, not one of the "moral message" ones" | 2009-08-31 |
| This one of the earlier Berenstain Bear books. As such, the book lacks a moral message (other than, perhaps, "Sometimes Dad is a bungler") and is shorter than the ones they write nowadays, with rhymes and easier words. More humor, too. If you're only accustomed to the paperbacks that they're writing now, you'll also be surprised at how the bears look - they have claws and are a lot less "cuddly" than the bears are nowadays.
Some of these words are a little difficult for EARLY early readers - "figure sixteen", "practice", "wrapped" - but if your kid is reading near you it's easy enough to help them on those few words. | ||
 | Jingle Dancer | |
| "Great story!" | 2009-08-31 |
| I got this book because I like, if possible, to have a variety of books from a variety of views for my nieces to read. A book about a Native American girl *living today* (it's so easy for young children to get the impression that Native Americans either are all dead, or are about as real as witches and ghosts, because all they ever hear about them is in the past), written by somebody who probably knows what she's talking about? I had to try it.
The story is fairly simple - a girl wants to dance, and she finds a way to do so by getting other people to share with her. (And she works hard, too, practicing all through the last few pages!) It's a good story, and I love the artwork. | ||
 | Cat Up a Tree | |
| "Can anyone lend me to 80 pound rats? I wish to rid my house of cats!" | 2009-08-23 |
| Nana Quimby has a problem. There's a cat up a tree. So she calls the fire department, but they won't help - and when she looks again there are MORE cats. So she calls various other institutions, ranging from the sensible (police station) to the absurd (library), and finally city hall. Every call results in more cats stuck in her tree, until eventually she gives in and rescues them herself.
And when the whole city calls about the mice infestation... well, let's just say that turnaround is fair play and leave it at that. Sweet book, and a bit silly as well. | ||
 | Water Dance | |
| "Poetry and science at once" | 2009-08-22 |
| It can be hard to write an educational picture book. You don't have any plot (or you DO and it feels tacked on and weird), and it may be a subject - like the water cycle - that seems to go best with dry, flat, boring diagrams with arrows on them.
The author has completely eschewed the normal approach to go with beautiful, evocative paintings and poetry. It's not as informative, maybe, as an early science reader approach, but for an introduction to the subject or a younger child - or just for having around the house! - I think this is the better option. So get one standard, run of the mill book on the water cycle, but be SURE to get this one as well. You won't regret it. | ||
 | Ramona the Pest | |
| "There's a reason we all grew up reading this one :)" | 2009-08-22 |
| Beverly Cleary has a real gift. Although her books span a period of decades, they all read as though they were written today. There's a few odd details in some of them, but mostly they rely on good storytelling and... well, very real-seeming children.
This is the story of Ramona's kindergarten year. It can be hard to find chapter books that are worth reading to kindergarteners, but this is it - Ramona actually seems like an actual child who is actually, really, truly in kindergarten! When she's told to "sit here for the present" she does, waiting for her present. When she struggles to refrain from pulling perfect Susan's curly "boingy" hair, you can feel how hard it is. And it's easy for all small children to understand why Susan's trying to act like a grown-up is annoying for Ramona. I would really suggest this as a first read-aloud chapter book for a young kid. | ||
 | Paper Airplanes | |
| "Cool paper, and the airplanes really fly!" | 2009-08-22 |
| The paper for this book is VERY cool, really awesome designs and easy to fold. The instructions for the planes are easy to follow (with advice for what to do it you fold wrong, and how to throw each particular plane - and they're all rated as to what SORT of plane they are and how hard they are to make), and did I say the planes really fly?
The ONLY two things I have wrong with this book are the paper! First, there's just not enough of it. 40 sheets ought to be enough, but you know it's not. Secondly, and more seriously, the folder the paper goes in is a little too tight, and it's either spend 10 minutes struggling to put it back in OR risk bending or tearing some of the precious plane paper. And that sucks. Aw, there's an easy solution - get your own folder for paper and put it in there. | ||
 | Ramona the Pest (Ramona Quimby (Paperback)) | |
| "There's a reason we all grew up reading this one :)" | 2009-08-22 |
| Beverly Cleary has a real gift. Although her books span a period of decades, they all read as though they were written today. There's a few odd details in some of them, but mostly they rely on good storytelling and... well, very real-seeming children.
This is the story of Ramona's kindergarten year. It can be hard to find chapter books that are worth reading to kindergarteners, but this is it - Ramona actually seems like an actual child who is actually, really, truly in kindergarten! When she's told to "sit here for the present" she does, waiting for her present. When she struggles to refrain from pulling perfect Susan's curly "boingy" hair, you can feel how hard it is. And it's easy for all small children to understand why Susan's trying to act like a grown-up is annoying for Ramona. I would really suggest this as a first read-aloud chapter book for a young kid. | ||
 | The Klutz Book of Paper Airplanes | |
| "Cool paper, and the airplanes really fly!" | 2009-08-22 |
| The paper for this book is VERY cool, really awesome designs and easy to fold. The instructions for the planes are easy to follow (with advice for what to do it you fold wrong, and how to throw each particular plane - and they're all rated as to what SORT of plane they are and how hard they are to make), and did I say the planes really fly?
The ONLY two things I have wrong with this book are the paper! First, there's just not enough of it. 40 sheets ought to be enough, but you know it's not. Secondly, and more seriously, the folder the paper goes in is a little too tight, and it's either spend 10 minutes struggling to put it back in OR risk bending or tearing some of the precious plane paper. And that sucks. Aw, there's an easy solution - get your own folder for paper and put it in there. | ||
 | Ramona the Pest | |
| "There's a reason we all grew up reading this one :)" | 2009-08-22 |
| Beverly Cleary has a real gift. Although her books span a period of decades, they all read as though they were written today. There's a few odd details in some of them, but mostly they rely on good storytelling and... well, very real-seeming children.
This is the story of Ramona's kindergarten year. It can be hard to find chapter books that are worth reading to kindergarteners, but this is it - Ramona actually seems like an actual child who is actually, really, truly in kindergarten! When she's told to "sit here for the present" she does, waiting for her present. When she struggles to refrain from pulling perfect Susan's curly "boingy" hair, you can feel how hard it is. And it's easy for all small children to understand why Susan's trying to act like a grown-up is annoying for Ramona. I would really suggest this as a first read-aloud chapter book for a young kid. | ||
 | Come On, Rain! | |
| "Very accurate :)" | 2009-08-22 |
| It's a hot day. It's a very hot day, and I imagine it's muggy too. Hot, humid, no rain in three weeks, the plants and the people wilting. When our protagonist sees the clouds coming in she gets her friends and tells them to get their bathing suits. You can *feel* the relief when they (and their color-coded mothers) go dancing in the rain as that heat breaks. You can just about feel the rain on you by looking at the pictures! The text makes the mood - weary and tired when it's hot, happier when the rain falls.
One thing I especially like is how the girl gets her bathing suit on. She had asked her mother, but her mother told her she'd burn in the sun. So she went and fetched a friend and told HER to put her suit on - and then pointed out to her mother that if her FRIEND had her suit on, surely SHE could get hers on as well? This is the sort of going-behind-the-grownups-backs that I do NOT encourage or condone - in fact, I pointed it out specifically to my nieces as something that I really don't want them doing - but it's so effective and so typical that I had to laugh! | ||
 | Water Dance | |
| "Poetry and science at once" | 2009-08-22 |
| It can be hard to write an educational picture book. You don't have any plot (or you DO and it feels tacked on and weird), and it may be a subject - like the water cycle - that seems to go best with dry, flat, boring diagrams with arrows on them.
The author has completely eschewed the normal approach to go with beautiful, evocative paintings and poetry. It's not as informative, maybe, as an early science reader approach, but for an introduction to the subject or a younger child - or just for having around the house! - I think this is the better option. So get one standard, run of the mill book on the water cycle, but be SURE to get this one as well. You won't regret it. | ||
 | Ramona the Brave (Avon Camelot Books (Paperback)) | |
| "Love the Ramona books" | 2009-08-22 |
| Beverly Cleary has a real gift. Although her books span a period of decades, they all read as though they were written today. There's a few odd details in some of them, but mostly they rely on good storytelling and... well, very real-seeming children.
This is the story of Ramona's first grade year. Her struggles sound authentically, well, first grade. She has to deal with a copycat neighbor... and then she has to deal with the fallout of acting without thinking. She doesn't think her teacher LIKES her (and we all know how important that is when you're six)! Her room is too dark and she's alone. It's a good book, very real. I especially love the final chapter, where poor Ramona lost her shoe on her way to school. She'd just spent the chapter BEFORE detailing that she KNEW her teacher didn't like her because she never got to lead the Pledge, and now... well... I almost couldn't read it to my nieces, we were all laughing so hard *knowing* she was going to be called on this time, with one shoe off and one shoe on. | ||
 | The Fabulous Book of Paper Dolls | |
| "Very fun, but a few caveats." | 2009-07-20 |
| First, you'll note that the age range on this product says 9 - 12. That's probably accurate, though I know a lot of you will be giving this to younger children. That's fine, but be aware that they'll need more help punching out the dolls and clothes and using the stickers. (Once you get them set up, though, they should be good to go.)
Second, the fact of the matter is that the storage in the back of the book is woefully inadequate for the dolls and clothes. It's cute, but no more than that. Just invest in a few ziplocs and call it a day. Otherwise, I find these open ended paper dolls to be a good investment. They occupy kids for a long time, there are a lot of options, and they're fairly sturdy. Plus - no tabs and no cutting! W00t! The range of skin and hair colors is a bonus. | ||
 | Set: The Family Game of Visual Perception | |
| "Wow. What a work-out for the brain!" | 2009-06-21 |
| This game is... both easy and difficult. There are four different categories for each card (shape, color, number, shading) and each category has three options. You have to identify sets that match in ALL four categories - either they have to be ALL the same in a category, or ALL different in a category. So if they can be all green, all diamonds, but TOTALLY different in shading and number. The person with the most sets at the end of the game wins, and they have suggestions for variations at their website. Teaching yourself to recognize the categories is hard, but the rules are simple. I suspect that some people are just naturally going to find this game easier than others - it seems very much to be a "way your brain works" kind of game. That means it's certain to be a good levelling game because your kids might be better at it than you are - and all kids like to win because they WON and not because of chance or being allowed to win :) | ||
 | The New Kid on the Block | |
| "Loved it as a kid, still love it now." | 2009-06-17 |
| I had to buy this for my niece after I found myself starting a poem from the book and not remembering how to finish it. Imagine that - it's been at least 16 years since I had this book, yet I could still recite stanzas at will. How frustrating it was not to have all of them! Jack Prelutsky is one of the best children's poets out there. You MUST have this book - indoctrinate your kid in the joys of reading poetry aloud when they're young, and you'll never have to unteach them "poetry is boring" when they're older. | ||
 | Chinese Jump Rope | |
| "VERY comprehensive!" | 2009-06-16 |
| They say they have "all the traditional games" - well, it's an oral tradition, what they HAVE are games traditional to a particular school in San Francisco where they got ideas. Coming from NYC, the games I know are entirely different, but that's okay - I wanted more options than the few games I remember clearly from my childhood :) They have several different ideas in here, and they neatly name the moves so you can easily think out and make up your own. I'll get another copy to send to my niece's school with several more Chinese Jump Ropes, it'll be great for gym class or recess. One problem? They don't have any way to store the Chinese Jump Ropes. You'll have to keep track of them separately. | ||
 | Chester's Way | |
| "Good" | 2009-06-16 |
| Chester is the neighborhood Weird Kid. Clearly. He always does things in his own special and particular way. So does his friend, Wilson. They double knot their shoelaces. They use handsignals on their bikes. They never swing at the first pitch. They always carry extra bandaids. Then Lilly moves in, with HER special way of doing things. And Chester and Wilson avoid her like the plague. Seriously. But she saves the day with water guns when some bigger boys decide to taunt Chester and Wilson (it's the hand signals), and they discover that her own weird way of doing things isn't so bad - and that they have a lot in common with her as well. So they become friends. There's a lot of mirroring in this book. The description of Lilly's special way of doing things mirrors pretty closely the description of how Chester and Wilson do things (with different details slotted in, of course), and the description of how the three friends do things together is the same as the description of how the two friends do things together (but with different pictures, naturally). At the end of the book, Victor moves into the neighborhood. In a later book, we find out that Victor does become friends with the trio as well. (Although he must be the weirdest of the bunch - he's shown chasing down a butterfly with his bare hands. GO VICTOR!) | ||
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