This book is the sequel to the wildly successful Silly Jokes 1 and it follows a similar format. It includes silly questions, knock-knock jokes, tongue twisters, puns, riddles, one time and a write your own jokes section.
My favorite parts of this collection include the silly facts because I love getting the background or history behind the scene, and the write your own jokes section because it teaches children writing skills while they don’t even realize they are developing new methods of communication aptitude.
The charming illustrations add to the fun. Recommended for children of any age. Younger children can begin with the simpler jokes and progress to those with more difficult punch lines. It is a good choice for siblings to share.
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Mystery of the Egyptian Mummy: (Kid Zet Detective Book 4)
Written by Scott Peters
My first time reading a book in this series. Zet is a twelve-year-old boy living in the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes. He and his sister, Kat, run a pottery stall in the market to support their family. One night a mummy, guarded by a jackal, arrives at their home. Terrified, the siblings return to the market the next day to find that the whole town believes them to be cursed. Their business collapses. That makes them determined to solve the mystery.
What they discover is a much larger plot that will endanger the royal family and all of Egypt. As they artfully unravel clues to solve the mystery, readers learn a lot of information about ancient Egyptian history and culture.
Peters creates interesting characters and an engaging plot to keep middle-grade readers engrossed throughout the read. Educational and entertaining.
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I would describe this book as a short story that could easily be developed into a full-length novel.
Molly Marsh is a curious ten-year-old whose parents are off on a scientific expedition to New Guinea. Her trepidation begins with a bumpy plane ride. Molly is enchanted when a beautiful blue butterfly alights on her. When the family arrives at their new home, Molly meets Yosia, who will be working for them in their new jungle home. She is intrigued by him. At first his strange habits scare her. Then she learns about his magical talents.
These two characters are interesting and could be developed in a fuller narrative. I consider the adventure book a short, chapter book. It is well-written with challenging vocabulary that is most appropriate for nine to twelve-year-old readers.
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As You Wish: After Dinner Conversation Short Story Series
Written by Tyler W. Kurt
This book is a charming, coffee table book that can be used to spark conversations with family or friends. An elderly woman dressed in retro fifties clothing discovers an old trunk in the attic. The stuffed animals that are trapped inside have been there since their former owner abandoned them. They are torn, soiled, and tattered. The old woman has the ability to communicate with the stuffed animals. She offers to repair them and make them new once more. Then one of them announces he doesn’t want to change the way he looks or feels.
At the end of this short story, there is a set of discussion questions for readers with open minds and open hearts. I would recommend the book for all ages.
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Kid Legends (True Tales of Childhood from the Books Kid Artists, Kid Athletes, Kid Presidents, and Kid Authors
Written by David Stabler
Illustrated by Doogie Horner
This book will inspire children to address their fears and reaffirm their aspirations. It is divided into three parts. The first part explores difficulties overcome by J.K. Rowling, Peyton Manning, and Charles Schultz before they became successful. The second part discusses the struggles of Pablo Picasso, Muhammed Ali, and Ulysses Grant during childhood and how they overcame their handicaps to achieve fame. Part Three examines the role that family life played in the early lives of Jeff Kinney, John F. Kennedy, and Gabby Douglas. Before closing, the author and illustrator reveal facts about themselves
The illustrations are rich in detail and humorous. They are fun to look at and read. This book is perfect for middle-grade readers who are dealing with the same type of issues, bullying, family and peer relationships, and self-esteem. The book also provides an opportunity for jump-starting group discussions.
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This book review and giveaway is in partnership with The Children’s Book Review. Please note that 100% of the profits from book sales are donated to COVID-19 relief efforts.
ABOUT THE BOOK
GROW THROUGH IT
Written by Jay Dee
Illustrated by Jacob Chalkley, Darren Geers, Feras Khagani, Mike Shaposhnikov, Ishmam Ahmed, and Axel Schmidt
Publisher’s Synopsis: Ellen is stuck at home. There’s no school and no friends, and Mom is working all the time. It seems terrible until she learns about the choice each day offers: GET through it or GROW through it. See how starting each day with purpose and gratitude can make all the difference! Created during the CV-19 pandemic, 100% of the proceeds from sales of this book are donated to coronavirus relief efforts.
This is the first children’s book on Covid -19, which I have read. Dee writes in a graphic novel style to portray in pictures and words the emotions and frustrations of an elementary school child in dealing with the pandemic.
Ellen feels angry because she cannot go to school and play with her friends or resume the lifestyle to which she is accustomed. Her mother tells her that she has a choice. Ellen can choose to spend her time complaining, watching TV, or hiding in her inside tent. Her other choice is to grow through this crisis by finding new opportunities to learn and help others in her community. Ellen struggles with this decision. She shifts back and forth between the two extremes. How can she stay positive? She desperately wants to see her grandmother to celebrate grandma’s special day.
This book speaks to the disappointments children are experiencing. Ellen’s mother provides a good example as to how parents may assist their children cope with this crisis. I would highly recommend it for elementary school age readers.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher and voluntarily agreed to read and review it with my honest opinions.
This book is a charming, coffee table book that can be used to spark conversations with family or friends. An elderly woman dressed in retro fifties clothing discovers an old trunk in the attic. The stuffed animals that are trapped inside have been there since their former owner abandoned them. They are torn, soiled, and tattered. The old woman can communicate with the stuffed animals. She offers to repair them and make them new once more. Then one of them announces he doesn’t want to change the way he looks or feels.
At the end of this short story, there is a set of discussion questions for readers with open minds and open hearts. I would recommend the book for all ages.
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This book is the first in a new series. The story opens on the first day of middle school for Ben. He is smart and clever but haunted by his older brother, Derek. Derek is just eleven months older. Unlike Ben, he is athletic and popular.
Middle-school readers will delight in the colorful characters like Mr. Buthaire, the principal students love to outsmart. Ben desperately wants to take Sophie to the Halloween Dance but there is a plot to derail it and destroy Ben’s plan. The book contains lots of humor, sibling and peer rivalry, and smart kids determined to outsmart the adults in their lives.
This book is a good choice for readers in grades four through six, though reluctant readers and many young adults will also find it an interesting read.
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As a special educator, I have worked with preschoolers and elementary school age children diagnosed with reading disabilities and speech language problems. I taught the Wilson Reading Program, which is a phonics based approach to reading. While I found it effective with many of my students, it did not meet the needs of all of them.
A lifelong book-lover, Dr. Karen Holinga’s interest in helping children learn to read began during her six years as a classroom teacher, where she saw how much some children struggled to master the skill. Her desire to solve the puzzle only increased during the twelve years she homeschooled her own children.
Eager to better understand the reading process, Dr. Karen pursued a doctorate in Developmental Reading, Curriculum, and Professional Development from The Ohio State University.
With Happy Cheetah Reading, she has taken all her expertise—years of classroom experience, years homeschooling, her doctoral research, and her extensive clinical practice—and crafted a simple plan. As The Reading Doctor, she has successfully helped over 25,000 children learn to read— many of whose parents had lost hope. She knows how some students struggle, and she knows how to help.
I am presenting this program as a resource for parents and educators and not as an endorsement or beneficiary of any of its products.
As you might guess from the name, auditory processing relates to sound. But children with poor auditory processing are not usually hearing impaired. Rather, these children’s brains don’t interpret the incoming sounds correctly.
Is There a Cure?
Auditory processing is a developmental issue.
This means it’s like losing teeth, which is another developmental milestone. Children who lose their first teeth at age four are not “better” than those who lose their first teeth at age seven. If your five-year-old doesn’t have a loose tooth yet, you don’t get angry, or start Tooth Loosening Therapy. Teeth loss is developmental, and it will happen when it happens.
With auditory processing, it’s the same way. You can’t make it happen, so release yourself from any pressure. There is no appointment for you to make, no official diagnosis that will help. There is no fix for the neurology.
Most children work through their auditory processing issues and eventually catch up with their peers, when their body is ready.
Symptoms of Poor Auditory Processing
If, as you read through these symptoms, one or two stand out to you, then assume that, yes, your child deals with auditory processing.
1) Poor phonemic awareness. A single sound is called a phoneme (FOE neem), and children who can’t hear the difference between sounds have “poor phonemic awareness.” This means they cannot easily separate or distinguish individual sounds, and have an especially hard time distinguishing between short vowel sounds, such as bet and bit.
Children with poor phonemic awareness will probably not be able to determine which of these pairs of words rhyme:
sock – sell
rim – slim
sink – drink
tap – shirt
These children can’t hear the wrong rhymes, and can’t guess the right rhymes.
This also can show up in very slow letter sound acquisition. It took my son three years of daily work to (mostly) remember the 26 basic letter sounds and their written component.
2) Difficulty with word retrieval. My son would know what he wanted to say, but his brain couldn’t access the specific words. For example, he might say, “Hey, Mom, remember the book about the person who went on a trip?”
And based on the context of whatever we had recently been talking about, I could usually guess, “Do you mean the book about Chris taking the logs down the Mississippi in Swift Rivers?”
But not always. “Hey, Mom, do you remember when we went to that place and rode on that thing?” could equally apply to the time when our family went to the amusement park and rode the tram, or to the airport and rode on the moving sidewalk, or to the lake and rode on the paddle board. Which sentence is my son trying to communicate?
When children have difficulty with word retrieval, the specifics of language are missing, those clarifying and important words that differentiate experience.
3) Unclear or delayed speech. Self-explanatory.
4) Delayed auditory processing. These children’s brains overload really easily, because they can’t process language quickly.
In fact, some children process information 80% more slowly.
Think about trying to do anything if your brain had slowed down 80%. How much less would you comprehend?
4) Poor auditory memory. Children with poor auditory memory don’t remember what they hear, so they miss a lot.
If a parent says, “Go to your room, get your shoes, and meet me at the door,” the children will show up at the door, but without their shoes.
This isn’t because they’re deliberately disobeying. They simply cannot remember.
On occasion, my son will have listened to almost all of a chapter book. Then, on page 250 of 300, he’ll ask about a key secondary character, “Now who was that again?” He more-or-less has understood the book, but he clearly doesn’t have specific ideas about the different characters.
5) Difficulty with hearing the number of syllables in a word. You may have heard the trick of clapping syllables, a clap for each syllable. So one clap for cat, two claps for tiger, three claps for beautiful, four claps for hyperactive.
My son would guess: “Does computer have one syllable? Does cake have two?” It was astonishing to see all the ways he would contort his speech to make the syllable claps fit the word.
When children can’t hear syllables, it makes reading programs that focus on syllables almost impossible.
Does this sound like your child?
If this sounds like your child, I encourage you to keep reading. Some children, like my son, have both auditory processing delays, and the other challenge that we’ll cover tomorrow.
But if this sounds like your child, only one reading program on the market is going to help your child. Every Orton-Gillingham program, supposedly the “gold standard” for struggling readers, focuses on syllable division and rule memorization. For a student who has a hard time hearing and remembering the letters themselves, loading them down with rules is unhelpful at best, and destructive at worst.
I am thrilled that a program exists that acknowledges and allows struggling readers to move forward, even with delayed auditory processing.
The Happy Cheetah Reading System is designed to get your child up to speed as quickly as possible. happycheetah.com
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August 9, 2020
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