Santa Claus and YOU!: A Heartwarming Christmas Rhyming Book For Children (Mark Watson Children’s Books)
Written by Mark Watson
A modern version rhyming picture book of Santa’s Christmas eve journey.
Watson has captured the charm of the night before Christmas and combined it with modern elements like GPS and elves on jet packs assisting Santa with his deliveries.
The author uses second person to transform the story into an interactive, personal experience. The little boy who narrates brings the reader into the story as an adventurous time traveler. Illustrations are colorful and expressive; rhymes are crisp and fun to read aloud.
Recommended as a holiday treat for children ages four through eight.
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This picture book presents a bilingual overview of weather and seasons in Spanish and English for young readers. The publisher targets the audience as preschoolers but there are parts of the book that contain a lot of text on one page that might be difficult for a child that young to digest.
There are several things that I like about the book. On the pages where English and Spanish are placed side by side, it is easy to translate from one language to the other. Many pages contain pictures to explain the text within the sentence. Illustrations are AI generated but they do correlate well with the text. The author covers different types of weather common in various parts of the world. There is an interactive component which encourages readers to search and find for certain images which keeps the child engaged in the story.
I do believe the book is a valuable tool for bilingual Spanish/English children and especially for ESL students. However, I feel it most effective for children in elementary grades.
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Pip’s First Flightand the Power of Visualization: A dinosaur children’s story to teach kids positive thinking
Written and Illustrated by Elyse and Garrett Fox
Pip’s mom comes to the rescue by encouraging Pip to visualize all the wonderful scenarios that could happen when he experiences his first flight. Suddenly, the world opens up and he now can’t wait to venture out into the world.
This book teaches preschool and primary grade readers how to visualize and includes activities and action steps to follow up. The story and activities encourage children to use their imaginations to create positive thoughts and teaches self-confidence.
Recommended for children ages three through eight. It is a good tale to introduce an upcoming new activity or experience for a young child.
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NaMOOste: A Yoga Book to Develop Social-Emotional Skills
Written by Marlee Kostiner
Illustrated by Manvi Semalty
A very cute book for a parent or teacher who wants to introduce young children to yoga as a way to relax, become mindful, and deal with social emotional issues.
Thirteen basic yoga poses are presented by different animals portrayed in attractive watercolor illustrations. After trying out the poses, young readers can move on to the fourteen emotional skills in the glossary. The author explains the behavior in simple terms. The author also includes discussion questions based on the content in the book and a link to free resources like videos and free printables.
An excellent introduction to yoga for primary grade and elementary age students.
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I love how this author presents the ocean topic. Children learn about twelve examples of sea creatures that inhabit the ocean, and the life cycle of plant life that interact with them. Then the author discusses the problems that modern-day life has imposed on the oceans and the life within them.
The author uses crisp rhymes with challenging vocabulary that is highlighted in colors that pop off the page. Human characters represent the many cultures that inhabit our planet and how they can work together to sustain it. At the end of the book, readers receive an opportunity to go back and identify the creatures they learned about in the story. Then the author presents them with tangible and actionable steps they can take now to protect our oceans and its resources.
This interactive book should be part of libraries and classrooms. Parents who want to teach their children to be mindful of protecting our planet can count on this resource to put them on the right track.
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Publisher’s Book Summary: Marion is a kind, creative, and easy kid… but he’s faced with BIG emotions. Help Marion identify those BIG feelings in this interactive children’s picture book.
Guess How Marion Feels is a transformative experience that lays the foundation for emotional intelligence and meaningful connections. A gentle Social Emotional Learning (SEL) tool to guide parents, caregivers, and teachers to teach kids who struggle to pick up social cues and have challenges in social situations.
This book is made to celebrate and honor the feelings of our little ones, foster open communication, and create inclusive learning with our neurodivergent kids. Written by a neurodivergent author, Miss Kaye aims to support kids and everyone struggling with social interactions.
Miss Kaye was born in the Philippines. She had challenges as an adult neurodivergent. This serves as her inspiration for writing fun, engaging, and educational stories to teach life skills and mindfulness to kids.
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
Miss Waitthk is from Hongkong. She enjoys making people feel happy and joyful through her drawings. As a kid, she remembered drawing anime characters and coloring them with colored pencils. Since then, she kept on drawing.
MY REVIEW OF THIS BOOK
IT’S OKAY TO FEEL THIS WAY…
Guess how Marion Feels
Written by Miss Kaye
Illustrated by Miss Waitthk
A beautiful, interactive picture book that allows young children to explore and communicate their emotions with others.
Marion wakes up happy to start the day. When his mother reminds him that today is the first day at school, his feelings switch to being scared and apprehensive. As the day progresses, readers watch Marion, and his feelings change. A new situation creates mixed feelings of excitement, worry, hope, anger, confusion, and relief.
Young readers are asked to guess what Marion is feeling in each situation by studying the pictures and text. At the end of the book, they get a summary of the book when Marion discusses the whole range of emotions with his parents.
The book is targeted for readers ages one through seven, but I feel the message in the tale is just as valuable for older children.
GIVEAWAY
Enter the giveaway for the chance to win a 1-hour FREE coaching session to launch your own picture book, along with signed copies of Guess How Marion Feels (one to keep and one to share with a neurodivergent charity of your choice under your name).
Animal Antics: A Rhyming Book of Creatures Big and Small
Written and Illustrated by Tamar Tepper Kochen
A silly rhyming picture book, the first in a series about animals doing absurd things. A few examples are a deer with a rainbow ear, a ferret dressed as a carrot, and a flamingo who loved to play bingo.
The rhymes are short and easy to remember, the illustrations huge and vibrant. Children are encouraged to make up their own silly rhymes with several scenarios included at the end of the tale.
I think that preschoolers and primary grade children who enjoy books about animals and silly stories will especially enjoy this book. It’s fun as a read-aloud or a bedtime story.
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Dragon Cat Wins the Lottery(The Make-Your-Own Ending Collection)
Written by Audrey Beth Stein
Illustrated by Alina Lutaeva
This is a cute interactive book for elementary school children that encourages both artistic and storytelling skills and is part of a series.
Dragon Cat decides to buy a lottery ticket hoping to win $100. When he discovers he has won the next day, he gets the surprise of his life, discovering 100 otters in his kitchen. The book is filled with black and white illustrations that can be colored in the paperback edition. Yet, that is not the best feature of the book because the author leaves the ending of the story blank, allowing the young reader to become an author by finishing the story and becoming co-author of the book.
The book is a good choice for a reluctant or beginning reader. It could also be used with a group to encourage multiple outcomes to problem-solving.
Especially recommended for ages four through eight.
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A wonderful nonfiction picture book that encourages elementary age school children to become young scientists.
The illustrations are colorful and fun but the biggest value of the book is the amount of information crammed into its short length. Readers not only learn about the types, habitats, and daily lives of bees but they are contrasted with many different types of insects. Children will learn about the likenesses and differences as well as learning about both bees and insects.
The author includes the scientific names for each and provides an interactive activity for matching pictures with information. They are also given a bee survey chart that they might complete by exploring bees in their own neighborhood.
A wonderful resource for parents and teachers to place in their home or school libraries.
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The World is Our Playground Series Book 3: Nanak and Tara’s PhilippineAdventure
Written by Jamal Kaur Singh
Illustrated by Ronald Santos
This is my first time reading a book in this series which encourages elementary students to learn about the history, customs, beliefs, traditions, and languages of countries around the world.
The picture book is richly illustrated in vibrant colors and the bold font of the text makes it easy to read. I particularly enjoyed the mini language lessons which encourage readers to communicate in an unfamiliar language while enjoying the adventure. Readers explore the islands while experiencing its history, foods, celebrations, and family ties.
There are questions at the end included to test comprehension of the story. The author presents a lesson plan before the story begins. Background about the series and its characters as well as a summary of the author’s mission comes at the very end.
The book is packed with useful information that children will enjoy. I would suggest putting that background at the beginning to familiarize new readers upfront and then including the lesson plan toward the end.
Highly recommended for parents and teachers to teach about other cultures in an entertaining format.
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December 8, 2024
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