A picture book that is a feast for young eyes. The pictures come in brilliant colors that seem to pop off the page.
A brother and sister come across a Tyrannosaurus Rex on the way home from school. Quickly deciding that he is hungry, the female sibling names him Henry and offers him a sandwich. When she decides to bring Henry home to her kitchen, the mischief escalates.
This book is part of a series of fanciful adventures for young children. Rhymes are crisp and sharp. While the vocabulary is challenging, it serves to enrich a young child’s language skills. Recommended especially for children with active imaginations in the three to six-year-old range.
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The T-Rex twins are adorable characters. The book describes the wonderful adventures they experience together.
They do have a big problem. The twins have exceptionally long arms that make them an object of ridicule. No one wants to befriend them until outsiders realize the value of their physical differences.
Readers learn that it is okay to be different and that each individual has value. Fun and vibrant illustrations combined with well-written text that pops off the page. This book can serve as a bedtime story or a classroom discussion book. I highly recommend it for children up to age eight.
A fanciful picture book for young readers who are obsessed with dinosaurs. The protagonist is a dinosaur who loves to eat. One day he ventures forth to discover the perfect food.
Readers follow him through deserts, mountains, forests, swamps, and rivers. After selecting what he believed to be the perfect ingredients, our dinosaur friend returns home to cook. Something seems to be missing so he visits Dr. Ham’s food technology factory to work on the missing ingredient. Will that dinosaur succeed in finding the perfect food?
Children who love silly humor and/or dinosaur tales will enjoy this picture book. Adults who read the book to children may want to remind them that many parts of the story are not factual.
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A little boy is afraid of thunder. He decides he must put his foot down and conquer this fear. He ventures off on a trip to the sky with helium balloons. Once there he meets all kinds of fascinating scenarios like a pirate ship and a family of dinosaurs who are eating their delicious pie.
Bonus extras include a yummy recipe for Berry Crumb pie. Children will lose their anxiety about thunder and enjoy a delightful rhyming picture book filled with imaginative pictures and verse. I particularly like the color enhancement of key vocabulary words and the font that is friendly for dyslexic readers.
Recommended for parents and teachers of children ages three through eight.
Looking for more learning opportunities for the family.
Publisher’s Synopsis: Welcome to a fantastic world of doodles! Over 90 pages of awesome art are waiting for your creative color choices to make them your own. The delightful doodles are the original creations of Joe Whale, also known as the “Doodle Boy,” an inspirational young artist who’s been painting and drawing from a very young age. Join the fun with these playful pictures and ready-to-color doodles!
Joe Whale, known as “The Doodle Boy,” is a talented 11-year-old artist from Shrewsbury, United Kingdom. He started drawing at the age of six, creating charming doodles of food, monsters, aliens, and any other characters his imagination creates. He’s made many television appearances in the United States and his native United Kingdom, and his signature doodles have earned him many social media followers.
For any child who loves to let his/her imagination soar. Created by an eleven-year-boy with a passion for doodling, this coloring book focuses on the thoughts and dreams of children who cannot stop moving that pencil. If you know a doodler, put this book on your must purchase list.
It reminds me of the hidden pictures pages I used to love as a child. Children are invited to discover, sports, food, alien, dinosaur, faces, computer, and environmental pictures, to name just a few. Some pages contain clearly delineated people, while others are a collage of mixed-up themes.
These could be colored with pencils, watercolors, or crayons. Younger and older siblings might enjoy working on a page together. After finishing a page, the child might enjoy creating a story to accompany his illustration. A group of children might take a few completed pages on a common theme and create a play to act out together. There are lots of creative possibilities.
Highly recommended for budding artists, children who need to express their energy in a productive way, and families looking for a family activity to share.
GIVEAWAY
Enter this giveaway and you’ll earn the chance to win a copy of The Official Doodle Boy™ Coloring Book!
Three (3) winners receive: A copy of The Official Doodle Boy™ Coloring Book
The giveaway begins August 9, 2021, at 12:01 A.M. MT and ends September 9, 2021, at 11:59 P.M. MT.
Publisher’s Synopsis: Welcome to the amazing world of dinosaurs! Children ages 8 and up can discover where these prehistoric creatures lived, the food they ate, and what they may have looked like. Along the way, they’ll encounter bone-crushing teeth, slashing claws, and spiked tails while learning fascinating facts about dinosaur eggs and fossils, moving continents, climate changes, exploding volcanoes, and even an asteroid crashing into Earth.
An accomplished science and nature illustrator, Patricia J. Wynne is the recipient of the 2008 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor and has won awards from Parenting magazine, the John Burroughs Association, and the National Science Teachers Association. Patricia’s artwork has appeared in galleries, magazines, newspapers, and more than 100 books for both children and adults. She is the illustrator of numerous successful Dover titles on science and nature, including My First Book About Outer Space and My First Book About the Body.
Trained as a research scientist, Donald M. Silver has written more than 80 books for students of all ages and for teachers. His One Small Square series takes a close-up look at plants and animals where they live. He has won numerous awards including the Children’s Science Writing Award in Physics and Astronomy from the American Institute of Physicists. He lives in New York City where he has worked with Patricia J. Wynne since 1981 and with whom he has co-authored numerous successful Dover titles on science and nature, including the “My First Book” series.
MY REVIEWS
In My First Book About Dinosaurs, children gain a wealth of information while applying their artistic talent to coloring the pages.
The illustrations are detailed and aptly captioned. First, the definition and concept of fossils are explored. The work of paleontologists is explained. Next, the reader learns about the Triassic, Cretaceous, and Jurassic Periods, names of the dinosaurs living in each period, and their characteristics. Finally, readers learn the parts of the world inhabited by each dinosaur and what might have caused their extinction.
Children learn a ton of information by carefully reading the descriptions and studying the illustrations. Highly recommend it for children in the eight to twelve age range.
The oceans book is a perfect choice for children interested in weather phenomena, sealife, volcanoes, tsunamis, and geography. They will enjoy the illustrations and the detailed information accompanying them.
There is a section about climate, the different types of regions around the globe, animals who live under the sea, and the interrelationship of atmosphere and the oceans. A bit of oceanographic history is included.
Recommended for students in grades three through six.
The coloring book about our amazing Earth is a good first introduction to Earth Science. Young explorers learn about rocks, minerals, mountains, our solar system, and the history of our planet.
They are introduced to volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, caves, geysers, and some of our treasured national parks.
After coloring the beautiful illustration, future scientists will want to keep the book as a wealth of reference information.
Recommended for students ages eight through twelve.
I never fully realized the ecosystem available in my own backyard. This book explores backyard treasures found both day and night. There are insects, birds tiny one-celled creatures, and large animals. Many examples of how their life cycles are dependent upon each other are explained. Silver shows trees, leaves, the changes in seasons, how to identify creatures, and the dangers to avoid in the backyard. Readers even learn how to plant a tree.
This beautifully illustrated book will keep middle-grade outdoor enthusiasts busy for hours and provide a plethora of information about our natural world.
GIVEAWAY
Enter for a chance to win a set of four My First Science Books!
Three (3) winners receive:
A copy of My First Book About Dinosaurs
A copy of My First Book About Our Amazing Earth
A copy of My First Book About the Oceans
A copy of My First Book About Backyard Nature
The giveaway begins May 31, 2021, at 12:01 A.M. MT and ends June 30, 2021, at 11:59 P.M. MT.
Never ask a Dinosaur: Funny Read-Aloud Story Book for Toddlers, Preschoolers and Kids 3-6) Book 4
Written and illustrated by Melinda Kinsman
A little boy decides to bring his pet triceratops to school with him, thinking that they will both have lots of fun. At first, his friends think this is cool. His teachers, principal, cafeteria workers, and staffers don’t agree.
This book contains terrific illustrations that are colorful and expressive. The rhyming text flows well and is fun to read aloud. Children will love the humor and funny antics. The bonus puzzles, matching activities, and games keep the fun rolling along. Book 4 in this series does not disappoint. Preschoolers and primary grade readers can have lots of fun with this series of books.
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This chapter book features a five-year-old boy named Ronan
who is suddenly moved to join his parents at his Grandmother’s rural home in
Sri Lanka. Ronan and his parents lived in the urban area of Colombo.
Ronan is an anxious, lonely boy who does not like change.
His parents have moved in temporarily to help his ailing grandmother. Ronan’s
parents are kind and caring parents who do their best to assuage his fears. One
day while playing in the garden, Ronan finds a lizard named Scoot. Scoot can
talk. He explains to Ronan that she is a dinosaur. Ronan is skeptical, but he
learns to enjoy exploring with her and making friends with Tryx, her dinosaur
friend who lives in the trees.
When Ronan’s parents hear him talking aloud, they think he
is talking to himself and become concerned. So, they take him to visit a
neighbor next door who has a dog named Spike. Ronan is afraid of the dog, until
Scoot talks to the animal. Again, Ronan learns he has nothing to fear.
Ronan’s grandmother has a setback and must visit the
hospital. There he confides in his grandmother and reveals his secret. She
remembers her own youth spent with Scoot. The time has come to sell the house
and move to a nursing home. Ronan is devastated. Will Ronan ever see Scoot
again?
This is a wonderful book to share with children who like to
be alone or who experience anxieties. It gently explains that change is not
necessarily bad and that we grow from personal experiences both real and
imaginary. Targeted for children ages seven and older. I would especially
recommend it for ages nine through twelve as a portion of the vocabulary is
challenging.
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Charming chapter book targeted for readers in the six to twelve age range. This book stretches more than one hundred pages, and is best suited for readers in the eight to twelve age bracket. Color illustrations at the beginning of each chapter are well done; they capture the dreamy quality of the fantasy tale.
Caroline is an inquisitive and imaginative eight year old who lives with her Auntie Ann since her parents mysteriously disappeared when she was four years old. On a cold morning in January, Caroline is bored and decides to go up to the attic, which is one of her favorite places to explore She rummages through one of the trunks and finds something new at the bottom of one of them. It is a box with dials, buttons and antennas that looks like an old radio. She experiments with the dials and sets it to June 15, 2015. When she goes downstairs for a snack, she finds the weather outside is warm and the birds are singing. Caroline has stepped six months into the future.
Discovering that the device seems to work, Caroline sets it back to the time of the dinosaurs. She gets more than she bargained for when she encounters T Rex. By quickly turning the dial, Caroline escapes but finds herself in the Pleistocene Age with Woolly Mammoths and Saber Tooth Tigers. Again she hurriedly sets her dial. This time she is about one hundred years in the past near her house where she meets a little boy named Tommy who wants to befriend her. Caroline sets the dial once more and arrives back at Auntie Ann’s house.
After doing some more research, Caroline tracks down her parents’ whereabouts on the day they disappeared. She is determined to go back to the past and find out what happened to them. But will she get more than she bargained for? Will Caroline be able to bring her parents back to her time or will she step into theirs?
This book is a delightful science fiction/fantasy time travel tale that has a broad appeal. Caroline is a strong, determined female role model who knows what she wants and goes after it. The short chapters with appealing illustrations make it a good choice for a class read aloud and discussion. Look forward to the next book in the series. Warning! The end of book one is a cliffhanger.
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A Dinosaur Quest: The Adventures of a Brontosaurus Prince
Written by J.C. McKenna
Adventure tale of three young dinosaur friends who learn a lot about life after becoming a bit too curious. Parthius is an adolescent prince who has two good friends, Amidon and Krillos. He lives in the land of Egos, where his father is a beloved king. One day, he and is friends decide to explore the nearby forest. His parents have warned him that he must always stay with his own kind and that it is dangerous to set foot on the land of other colonies. When Krillos falls into a lake and disappears, Amidon and Parthius search for him; they find themselves trapped in a faraway land. Their king, Kratonix, decides to send them to Jade Mountain to search for a magic scepter that will bring him unlimited power. Kratonix appoints Eudox as their guide. No matter what happens, Kratonix comes out on top. Either the boys will die in the attempt or he will gain unlimited power.
As the four of them travel on their perilous journey, each will learn a lot about themselves. The boys will need to face their fears and reaffirm their friendship; Eudox will reveal secrets that he has hidden even from himself. There will be many physical and emotional obstacles along the way. Will the boys succeed in their quest or perish? Does Prathius ever return to rule his kingdom?
This story is written without chapter breaks that might have been a help for younger readers. Dialogue is excellent and appropriate for the characters who are developed very well in this short seventy page read. Though the book does need some editing, most readers will not be bothered by it. McKenna has a good feel for a middle grade reader who will be drawn into the adventure. I think that the book is a good fit for an eight to eleven year old audience.
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January 8, 2023
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