I am a parent, grandparent, author, historian, and educator with forty years of experience as a teacher, principal, and school district administrator serving children in both the general and special education populations. I provide parents and teachers with tools and resources to accomplish their goals.
A family enjoys a picnic in a local park. When a bottle-cap falls off the table, their dog Buddy runs away with it. He just wants to play fetch. But that bottle-cap finds itself on an unexpected journey when different animal groups in the park commandeer it to use for fun. The boy runs around trying to regain possession while readers are treated to a riotous adventure.
The funny picture book features huge, colorful illustrations and large font. It is a fun read aloud for adults or beginnng readers. Characters are multicultural and diverse including children with disabilities.
Highly recommended for children ages two through five.
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A simple title for a book that delivers a lot of value in a picture book. The author employs rhyme, alliteration, onomatopoeia, descriptive adjectives, and sentence building to offer a host of learning opportunities for toddlers and preschoolers.
The words are associated with the colors that represent them, each page adds more text so that as the book unfolds readers repeat and reinforce the learning. At the end of the book a glossary is included to remind young readers exactly what those “hard words” mean.
The female captain is a role model for young girls unaccostumed to seeing females heading up the captain’s job.
This book is one that will be read over and over, each time reinforcing and building upon the learning that has already taken place.
Highly recommended for parents, teachers, and librarians who work with toddlers and preschoolers.
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This rhyming picture book aims to teach toddlers and preschool children how to count from one to five and back. Each one is accompanied by a pastel illustration that has a vintage feel. They feature common situations like cooking in the kitchen, playing at the seashore or frolicking on the playground.
The book is an excellent choice for a circle time in nursery school or a bedtime interactive reading activity. Parents of children with sensory needs or occupational therapists will find it useful in improving a child’s fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
I received a copy of the book from the author and voluntarily decided to read and review it for no compensation.
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Celebration Babies: Highlighting Special Events for Babies, Toddlers, and Children, from Around the World
Written by Stephanie Seidler
Illustrated by Pete Olcyzk
This picture book packs a lot into forty pages. The author covers countries from around the globe and their cultural celebrations. These include celebrations connected with religion, holidays, heritage, and environment.
The description mentions that the book is appropriate for babies and toddlers. While the illustrations will enthrall that age group, the vocabulary and length of sentences are too complicated for that audience. Parents and teachers will need to adapt it to make the concepts clear for them. I would suggest making the font of the text a bit larger so that new readers might be able to handle it better.
Nevertheless, this is a beautiful book to place on a parent or teacher’s bookshelf to celebrate the best of all our cultures and remind children of the beauty of diversity and multiculturalism. I especially recommend it for ages five through nine.
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A Christian family talks about how to stay strong while dad is deployed in military service. The older brother and sister help with chores, assist their baby brother and create projects to send dad and keep his spirits up. Though it is difficult for them, they understand the meaning of his sacrifice and are proud of him.
This picture book is recommended as a resource for families in military service.
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An adorable, little counting book for toddlers and preschoolers. The illustrations are vibrant and fun; the text is easily read aloud.
The author uses sandpipers as her subject. Beach scenes feature counting from one to ten. The bonus features include a song to sing and interactive identification of other sea creatures for the young reader to search out and identify.
Highly recommended and fun for both children and adults.
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Ninjas Go to a Party: A Rhyming Children’s Book About Parties and Practicing Inclusion
Written by Mary Nhin
Those fun-loving ninjas work hard all week, but they do love to take a break occasionally to party. When they do let their hair down, Inclusive Ninja makes sure that everyone has an enjoyable time. He welcomes all to eat, share activities, and work as a team.
This book is part of a series that employs lovable characters to teach life lessons and values like friendship, empathy, compassion, and inclusiveness.
The entire series is available in boxed sets, individual books, and collections arranged by theme.
A fun book to read aloud, for a bedtime story, or for classroom discussion.
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The Choices I Make: Children’s Book about Making Choices, Anger, Emotions Management
Written by Michael Gordon
Illustrated by Max Larin
A nice, rhyming picture book to open up a discussion on how to deal with anger for preschoolers and elementary school children.
When Josh discovers that his sister took his favorite toy, he lashes out at her. Josh’s dad hears the shouting and offers some advice to his son. Why not stop and think for a minute and then count backward?
In the coming days, Josh learns other ways to control his feelings when he feels anger rising to the surface. He does not like losing a game to his friends, being refused candy, or waiting patiently for his needs to be met.
Adorable illustrations and simple scenarios teach young children how to control their emotions.
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Publisher: Practice Readers Books | ISBN-13: 9781778066702
Publisher’s Synopsis: Letter Sounds Abound is a friendly alphabet book that highlights big ideas about how written language works for preschool and kindergarten children. It focuses on the most common letter-sound relationships while helping children tune in to the fact that letters can make different sounds in different situations to avoid confusion for beginners. The rhyming text makes it fun for parents to read to their children time and again, while simple line drawings inspire imagination without competing for attention with text.
Catherine S. Young has spent her career putting research insights into practice across the spheres of education, public health, and electronics. The proud mother of three delightful developing readers, she founded Practice Readers Books to provide evidence-aligned books to support the unique needs of fledgling readers (and their parents) at school and at home.
Victoria Gesner (Pelletier) is an artist and educator based in Fredericton, New Brunswick. She believes in making literacy and art affordable and accessible to all.
A simple tool to teach preschool and kindergarten students to learn and read alphabet sounds and words. The author introduces forty-four sounds and the twenty-six letters of the alphabet. Young emphasizes first skills of reading like tracking left to right and following with the finger. Gesner’s illustrations are presented as simple black and white pictures containing the single letters, digraph sounds, and alphabet letters. Children learn how to point out the capital and small letters as they find out about the sounds associated with each. Two sentences on each page rhyme to make reading out loud a fun exercise pleasing to the ear.
This book provides a teaching tool for adults to read as well as for the child to pick up independently as she becomes more confident and proficient in phonetic and reading skills. Certainly, a valuable teaching tool for preschool and early childhood teachers as well as parents.
GIVEAWAY
Enter for a chance to win a signed copy of Letter Sounds Abound, the companion practice book Alphabet Print and Colour, a beginner’s notebook, and a set of alphabet letter magnets!
March 1, 2023
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