Tots and Me... Growing Up Together: 12 Days of Picture Books

Showing posts with label 12 Days of Picture Books. Show all posts

Thursday, December 17, 2015

12 Days of Picture Books Blog Tour Day 12 - The Day the Crayons Came Home {A Review}

Welcome to my sixth and final review post in the Penguin Young Readers 12 Days of Picture Books Blog Tour. I am thrilled to be participating in this event during this holiday season. What better gift to bestow upon your child(ren) than a book (or many books) to instill the love of reading. Not only have I be sharing reviews of some great children's books (6 to be exact for this blog tour), but you will have the opportunity to go over to the Penguin Young Readers Facebook page to enter to win some awesome books for your kids.

I invite you to stop by my intro post to see the list of the books that are a part of this great celebration.

Today I would like to share my review for The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt.

This book is a followup to the book The Day the Crayons Quit. I have not read this first book, but I will say, you don't have to read it to be able to enjoy this new book. The story is told in the form of postcards that are sent to the young boy named Duncan from his crayons. Each of the crayons that write have their own predicament and personality. They each have a different reason for contacting him.

On each double page spread there is a post card on one side and a picture of the crayon in its surroundings on the other. Each crayon has written the postcard itself, as you can tell by the color of the writing. Maroon crayon was stranded on the couch, was sat on, and broken in half. Pea Green, who changed his name to Esteban the Magnificent, wanted to run away, but later in the book was ready to come home (after a very short excursion). Neon Red states she is walking back from the hotel pool where she was left 8 months prior. Poor Yellow and Orange were left outside to melt together in the hot sun. And look at what happened to Turquoise Crayon!

Well, you get the idea. I would hate to give away all the fun. The crayons were in all sorts of predicaments and wanted Duncan to come and get them. They each described their stories on their postcard. You can see the details of these events in the crayon illustrations. There is even one page with glow-in-the-dark drawings as glow-in-the-dark crayon was left in the basement. In the end Duncan saved them and built them a wonderful new home.

I love how the crayons have been made characters in this story. They each have a different personality and story. The illustrations are really cute and show the feelings of the crayons. The fact that they are drawn in crayon is just perfect. I also enjoyed the way the crayons and other characters are "talking" in the illustrations. It is a very cute story and one the children and I both love. Now, if our crayons would just write to us to tell us where they have been stranded!!

Don't miss your chance to win 1 of 12 copies of The Day the Crayons Came Home. Just head on over to the Penguin Kids Facebook Page.

Though I won't be posting a review every day of this blog tour, I hope you will remember to head over to their Facebook page to enter to win the books that you are interested in. Be sure to check out my reviews for:

Also, be sure to check out the Penguin Young Readers Holiday Gift guide where you can build and share your own wish list from a huge assortment of kids’ books for all age groups.

Here are the participating blogs!

Sleeping Should Be Easy
House of Burke
Homegrown Friends

Growing Up Madison
InRandom
Crafty Moms Share
Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers
Inspiration Laboratories
Clarks Condensed
Book Rock Betty
Kid Lit Frenzy
Bored Mommy
The Delightful Life
Reads and Recipes
Omazing Kids
KidsCreative Chaos
The Chirping Moms
Hello Happy
Spark and Pook
Fun Handprint Art
Mama Smiles
Craftulate
Imagination Soup
Tots and Me
Design of the Picture Book
Gravity Bread
Creative Family Fun
Future Flying Saucers
Mrs. Karle's Sight and Sound Reading
JaMonkey
Coquette Maman
Growing Book by Book
A Little Bit of Everything
Happily Ever Mom
Little Earthling
The Little Tourist

Disclosure: I received a hardcover copy of The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak in exchange for my honest review as a part of this blog tour. No further compensation was given. This did not in any way influence my review. I only recommend products I use personally and feel will be a good products for my readers.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

12 Days of Picture Books Blog Tour Day 11 - The Book With No Pictures {A Review}

Welcome to my fifth review post in the Penguin Young Readers 12 Days of Picture Books Blog Tour. I am thrilled to be participating in this event during this holiday season. What better gift to bestow upon your child(ren) than a book (or many books) to instill the love of reading. Not only will I be sharing reviews of some great children's books (6 to be exact for this blog tour), but you will have the opportunity to go over to the Penguin Young Readers Facebook page to enter to win some awesome books for your kids.

I invite you to stop by my intro post to see the list of the books that are a part of this great celebration.

Today I would like to share my review for The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak

This book starts out by stating that the reader might think it is no fun to read a book with no pictures. It goes on to say that a person might feel it would be boring or serious. Which might be true as children are used to books with pictures. Pictures help to tell the story in a children's book. Of course, Tabitha and Amelia know that this isn't quite true because they are used to reading chapter books with no, or few, pictures. Hannah and Harold on the other hand, are definitely used to having pictures to look at while reading. So, we could definitely understand where the author was coming from.

The thing is, this book is fun and funny without the pictures. The rule of the book is, the person who is reading the book to the child is required to read every... single... word out loud. No skipping words. Even when the reader has to say such things as, "I am a monkey who taught myself to read," or "And my head is made of blueberry pizza." We also had to sing a song about eating ants for breakfast off of a rug. Then of course, there were the silly sounds:

What makes it all the more hilarious is that the reader is also reading the small text which makes it sound as if he or she is fighting against reading the book. For example, after reading "Also, I am a ROBOT MONKEY." which is written in the large font, the reader is to state, "What?!" It's like the book and the reader are having an argument, which the children just LOVE.

The children enjoyed it the first time we read it, and we thought it would be hilarious to have daddy read it to them. This book was right up his alley. He loves being silly, and The Book With No Pictures gave him ample opportunity to be silly.

Once again, we have found another book we highly recommend. I love that children learn that books can be fun with or without pictures. And it is quite fun as the parent to be reading a silly book. One little warning, the book does use the word, "butt" on one page. It states, "My only friend in the whole wide world is a hippo named BooBooButt" and then the small text questions, "BooBooButt?!" The children found this hilarious. I realize some may have a problem with it though.

You can find out more about The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak at the official site.

Don't miss your chance to win 1 of 11 copies of The Book With No Pictures. Just head on over to the Penguin Kids Facebook Page.

Little Tree
I am Amelia Earhart
Llama, Llama Gram and Grandpa
The Nonsense Show
The Day the Crayons Came Home (posting 12/17)

Also, be sure to check out the Penguin Young Readers Holiday Gift guide where you can build and share your own wish list from a huge assortment of kids’ books for all age groups.

Here are the participating blogs!

Sleeping Should Be Easy
House of Burke
Homegrown Friends

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

12 Days of Picture Books Blog Tour Day 10 - The Nonsense Show {A Review}

Welcome to my fourth review post in the Penguin Young Readers 12 Days of Picture Books Blog Tour. I am thrilled to be participating in this event during this holiday season. What better gift to bestow upon your child(ren) than a book (or many books) to instill the love of reading. Not only will I be sharing reviews of some great children's books (6 to be exact for this blog tour), but you will have the opportunity to go over to the Penguin Young Readers Facebook page to enter to win some awesome books for your kids.

I invite you to stop by my intro post to see the list of the books that are a part of this great celebration.

Today I would like to share my review for The Nonsense Show by Eric Carle.

About the book:

"In this book, nonsense and surrealism combine to spark creativity and imagination. What’s true? What’s impossible? What’s absolutely absurd? From Eric Carle, creator of the classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, comes a book to make children laugh and think, preparing them for a lifetime of loving both words and art.

Yes, there’s something strange, something funny and even downright preposterous on every page of this book. But it’s not a mistake – it’s nonsense! And it’s also surrealism. Nonsense lies at the heart of many beloved nursery rhymes. Children readily accept odd statements like “the cow jumped over the moon” and “the dish ran away with the spoon.” This fanciful bending of reality is also basic to surrealism.

Following on the heels of The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse (an homage to the artist Franz Marc and expressionism) and Friends, with its semi-abstract artwork, The Nonsense Show forms a trilogy of sorts, dedicated to introducing young readers to different styles of artwork without ever overlooking the need to, first and foremost, appeal to children and their love of play. One of the true legends and pioneers of picture book making continues to expand and challenge the genre."

I have always enjoyed Eric Carle's books, and this is no exception. It is a fun book of silliness with lots of rhyme. I think the best way to describe the nonsense in this book will be to share the children's favorite pages.

We loved looking at the pictures and talking about what was wrong and how it would have been in real life.

I figured the poor snake in the following picture had 2 heads, but the Tabitha said, "They are each other's tail and if one went one way and one went the other way they would find out."

The children picked up on the fact that the dog was talking while the man was barking in the following pages.

There is much more silliness to be found in the pages of this awesome new children's book by Eric Carle, but I don't want to ruin it for you. Don't open the book expecting it to read like a story where all the pages are linked to the plot. It is more like entering the world of a circus or a variety show, and seeing the different acts. Each page is a separate act of ridiculousness, and each page stands on its own. The book is illustrated with Eric Carle's signature painted tissue paper collages, which I have always enjoyed. I highly recommend picking up this book to share with your children.

You can visit Eric Carle at his website.

Don't miss your chance to win 1 of 10 copies of The Nonsense Show. Just head on over to the Penguin Kids Facebook Page.

Little Tree
I am Amelia Earhart
Llama, Llama Gram and Grandpa
The Book With No Pictures (posting 12/16)
The Day the Crayons Came Home (posting 12/17)

Also, be sure to check out the Penguin Young Readers Holiday Gift guide where you can build and share your own wish list from a huge assortment of kids’ books for all age groups.

Here are the participating blogs!

Sleeping Should Be Easy
House of Burke
Homegrown Friends

Disclosure: I received a hardcover copy of The Nonsense Show by Eric Carle in exchange for my honest review as a part of this blog tour. No further compensation was given. This did not in any way influence my review. I only recommend products I use personally and feel will be a good products for my readers.

Monday, December 14, 2015

12 Days of Picture Books Blog Tour Day 9 - Llama Llama Gram and Grandpa {A Review}

Welcome to my third review post in the Penguin Young Readers 12 Days of Picture Books Blog Tour. I am thrilled to be participating in this event during this holiday season. What better gift to bestow upon your child(ren) than a book (or many books) to instill the love of reading. Not only will I be sharing reviews of some great children's books (6 to be exact for this blog tour), but you will have the opportunity to go over to the Penguin Young Readers Facebook page to enter to win some awesome books for your kids.

I invite you to stop by my intro post to see the list of the books that are a part of this great celebration.

Today I would like to share my review for Llama Llama Gram and Grandpa by Anna Dewdney.

I have to admit, I have never read any of the Llama Llama books before. When the opportunity came up to review the newest one as a part of this blog tour, I thought it would be great fun to finally read one. You know what else I have to admit? I wish I hadn't waited so long to introduce my children to this cute character.

In this story Llama Llama's mommy is going out, so he gets to go on his first ever sleep over at gram and grandpa's. Such an exciting opportunity. Llama packs his bags and makes sure to take his Fuzzy. He was so excited to arrive and see Gram and Grandpa. It wasn't until he went to unpack that he realized that he forgot something so very important. Fuzzy was left in the car!!

Gram and Grandpa keep him busy, in such places as the garden and Grandpa's workshop, but his mind keeps going to poor missing Fuzzy. After dinner Llama doesn't want to go to bed when it is time to, so Gram and Grandpa take him out to see the stars. He finally prepares for bed (takes a bath, reads some stories, and gets a kiss), but he finally can't hold it in anymore. Poor Llama is in tears, until Grandpa finds a cuddly solution. He finally is reassured that "This is home . . . away from home."

This book is such a cute little story to help a child who may be anticipating their first sleep over. It is exciting to go and visit grandparents, or have a sleepover elsewhere, but it can be scary too. The book shows how Llama was so excited and enjoyed doing things with his Gram and Grandpa. It also showed that it is okay to miss something like a "Fuzzy."

I always love books that have a rhythm and rhyme to them, and this is no exception. The rhymes work perfectly as does the rhythm. I found it was a joy to read. The illustrations alternate between full pages of color and images on a white background. They are bright, created with oil paint, colored pencil and oil pastel on primed canvas. On the pages where Llama is very emotional regarding the loss of his Fuzzy, the background is painted in swirling, slashing brushstrokes of shades of blue and purple. Tabitha thought this was quite "very smart" to show Llama's feelings this way.

We enjoyed this book and definitely recommend the newest addition to the Llama Llama series of books. You can find out more about these books at the Llama Llama website.

Don't miss your chance to win 1 of 9 copies of Llama Llama Gram and Grandpa. Just head on over to the Penguin Kids Facebook Page.

Little Tree
I am Amelia Earhart
The Nonsense Show
The Book With No Pictures
The Day the Crayons Came Home

Also, be sure to check out the Penguin Young Readers Holiday Gift guide where you can build and share your own wish list from a huge assortment of kids’ books for all age groups.

Here are the participating blogs!

Sleeping Should Be Easy
House of Burke
Homegrown Friends

Disclosure: I received a hardcover copy of Llama Llama Gram and Grandpa by Anna Dewdney in exchange for my honest review as a part of this blog tour. No further compensation was given. This did not in any way influence my review. I only recommend products I use personally and feel will be a good products for my readers.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

12 Days of Picture Books Blog Tour Day 7 - I am Amelia Earhart {A Review}

Welcome to my second review post in the Penguin Young Readers 12 Days of Picture Books Blog Tour. I am thrilled to be participating in this event during this holiday season. What better gift to bestow upon your child(ren) than a book (or many books) to instill the love of reading. Not only will I be sharing reviews of some great children's books (6 to be exact for this blog tour), but you will have the opportunity to go over to the Penguin Young Readers Facebook page to enter to win some awesome books for your kids.

I invite you to stop by my intro post to see the list of the books that are a part of this great celebration.

Today I would like to share my review for I am Amelia Earhart by Brad Meltzer.

I am Amelia Earhart is one book in the Ordinary People Change the World series by Brad Meltzer and illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos. The premise behind this biography series for children is that "We can all be heroes." The author has written this series in an effort to answer the question, "What makes a hero?" Each of the books in this series shares the story of great role model, sharing what it was that made them special. In addition to Amelia Earhart, you will find the stories of these famous people:

Helen Keller
Albert Einstein
Abraham Lincoln
Rosa Parks
Jackie Robinson
Lucille Ball

And coming next year, Martin Luther King Jr.

In fact, the first 4 books are available in a boxed set.

I am Amelia Earhart begins in Amelia's childhood. We discover that she loved adventure from an early age. She didn't like the idea of having to be ladylike, and would rather be doing such things as building her own roller coaster using a couple of planks, the side of the shed and a wooden packing box on wheels. Oh, and that was when she was only 7 years old.

As she grew older, she loved going to air shows, and dreamed of becoming a pilot. She got to fly with Frank Hawks when she was 23 years old. We discover that she worked a variety of jobs to earn money for flying lessons. We learn about her very first plane, a biplane named Canary and her flying instructor, who also was a woman. And of course, we learn that she was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic by herself, though she had been told it wasn't a good idea. The books shares a bit about the flight and the records she broke.

The reader learns what made Amelia special:

She didn't let people deter her from trying new things.
She worked harder than anyone else.
She chased her dream.

The book concludes with pictures of the real Amelia Earhart and important people in her life, in addition to a quote from her, "Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn't be done."

The book is written to appeal to young children, ages 5-8. Besides the simple text, the pictures are bright and bold, and they have a "cartoony" feel to them. While the adults are proportioned normally, the children have large, over-sized heads. Additionally, there are little speech bubbles on a majority of the pages, adding cute little dialogue to the story. It is meant to be a fun way to introduce children to biographies.

My daughters enjoyed reading this book independently, though they questioned the fact that Amelia Earhart is shown throughout the book as a child. It just didn't make sense to them. I admit, I have to agree. It was a bit weird. I get that the book is directed at young children, but Amelia Earhart was an adult when she did most of the things mentioned in the book. That said, it is still a great introduction to the life of a famous woman. I would say, a jumping off point to learning more about her life. It is just enough for the youngest readers, however, I would say children who are in the older range (like my girls who are 7 and 8) are going to want to know more.

Personally, I loved the pictures in the back of the book. And Amelia got a kick out of seeing a picture of the real Amelia Earhart at the age of 7 (seeing as that is how old she is right now).

If you are looking for a fun way to introduce your children to biographies, this series may just be the thing for you. They are a great way to show children that "We can all be heroes."

Don't miss your chance to win 1 of 7 copies of I am Amelia Earhart. Just head on over to the Penguin Kids Facebook Page.

Little Tree
Llama Llama Gram and Grandpa
The Nonsense Show
The Book With No Pictures
The Day the Crayons Came Home

Also, be sure to check out the Penguin Young Readers Holiday Gift guide where you can build and share your own wish list from a huge assortment of kids’ books for all age groups.

Here are the participating blogs!

Sleeping Should Be Easy
House of Burke
Homegrown Friends

Disclosure: I received a hardcover copy of I am Amelia Earhart by Brad Meltzer in exchange for my honest review as a part of this blog tour. No further compensation was given. This did not in any way influence my review. I only recommend products I use personally and feel will be a good products for my readers.