We recently borrowed a copy of Olivia from our local library. This is the first in a series of books by Ian Falconer. There is not a strong story to it, but it features a trip to the beach (because it’s sunny) and a trip to the museum (because it’s rainy). The museum trip features two pieces of real art, so that is nice to have mixed in. The book is set in black and white and red which is a very effective use of color to emphasize things for young readers.
Olivia, like all young children, likes to sing loud songs and has way too much energy. The book follows her through a typical day, which involves brushing teeth/hair, getting dressed, terrorizing her brother, refusing to nap, going somewhere, eating dinner, and demanding multiple books for bed time. Sound familiar? Thought so.
Pictured: What older siblings think “Play with me” means.
Just like when I let my child pick her clothes to wear, Olivia takes a long time and has to try on everything. The two pages dedicated to this feature Olivia in 17 different outfits and provide a great opportunity to learn some words. Keeping with the art style almost all the clothing is red which makes it easy to point to and discuss with your child.
Pictured: Decisiveness
Olivia is very smart and has a vivid imagination. While looking at the artwork of ballerinas in the museum, Olivia imagines herself as a ballerina. This provides a great talking point with your child of how to use your imagination. The other artwork in the museum is an abstract painting, which Olivia says she could paint in about five minutes. She goes home and tries. In the process, she gets paint all over the floor, rug, and wall. Olivia is appropriately punished with a timeout for making a mess. Then she has a bath, eats dinner, reads books with her mom, and finishes with goodnight kisses and exchanges of “I love you anyway” with her mom.
Overall this book has some great concepts for a young reader, a good format for emphasizing objects/characters, and a healthy parent-child relationship. There’s enough reality in the story that kids can relate to Olivia and that helps children to learn.
I recently picked up a copy of The Fat Cat at a yard sale for about 5 cents. This version is translated and illustrated by Jack Kent, but it’s based on a Danish folktale. This story really highlights how much of a jerk cats are, so if you do not like cats, you will love this cat’s portrayal as a no good, lying, glutton.
The story starts out with an old lady cooking some delicious gruel. She needs to run an errand, so she asks her cat to watch the gruel while she is gone. The cat agrees to watch the gruel, but while the old lady is gone, the cat eats all the gruel – and the pot too. When the old lady comes back and asks where the gruel went the cat fesses up that he ate it – “And now I am going to also eat YOU.”
From there everyone the cat meets says something like, “Whoa, you’re fat. How did you get so fat?” The cat lists everything it has eaten and then lets out his signature catchphrase, “And now I am going to also eat YOU.” The cat eats some anthropomorphic creatures, some birds, some little girls, a lady, and a parson.
Pictured: How to Properly Play with Your Food
After all that, the cat makes a big mistake. He attempts to eat a woodcutter who is carrying an axe. That woodcutter says he will not be eaten, and luckily, he is a skilled gastrointestinal (GI) surgeon, because he cuts open that cat and gets everything out that the cat has eaten. There are three lessons here, kids. First, do not tell people your plans to eat them. Second, only prey on people who are weak and do not carry axes. Third, chew your food or you will cause a GI obstruction and need surgery.
Pictured: Duct Tape Fixing Anything
I made the mistake of reading this book with my child for the first time without reading it through myself. She may be a little bit young for a story about a cat that eats people, but it only took one reading for her to learn the phrase “And now I am going to also eat YOU,” so she says that quite frequently now which is hilarious.
Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney is a great rhyming bedtime story and is the first in the Llama Llama series. We received our copy from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (DPIL). In case you have not heard of DPIL before, it sends free books each month to children ages 0 – 5 registered with their program. They send out millions of books each year! If you have not signed your child up for this program, I highly recommend it as we have received some great books and it’s completely free! Follow this link (not a sponsor) to check for availability in your area.
Pictured: Fake News
In this story, Mama Llama puts Llama Llama to bed and like every other child who has ever existed, Llama Llama waits seventeen minutes and then calls for his mama to come back. He tries his best to wait for his mama, but he gets inpatient and starts yelling for his mama, which causes his concerned mother to dash upstairs to his bedroom.
This is where other children’s books get it wrong. Llama Llama has exhibited some poor behavior, but instead of glossing over this like in Giddy-Up Buckaroos! or glorifying misbehavior like in Cookiesaurus Rex (which I reviewed in my previous post), when his mother arrives and realizes nothing is wrong she explains to him that sometimes Mama is busy and he has to wait. She reassures him that this does not mean that Mama does not love him and that she is always nearby if he needs her. Mama Llama tucks Llama Llama back in bed and he goes to sleep.
Our little one always wants her mama to lay her down for the night, but lately, she will wait around for a while and then call for her to come back. However, I swoop in and when my child persists for her mama I explain to her that her mother is busy, but Daddy is here. It only took one or two times for her to learn to be content with her Daddy when Mama is busy (even when it is not bedtime) and I like to think this book helped as a teaching tool.
If you did not know, Amazon has a wonderful Amazon Prime Book Box subscription for children of all ages. For now, our child receives four board books each month. We get to select the four books out of eight possible choices, and if we decide there are not four books we want then we can skip any box. All of this for just $19.99 per box (a savings of about $11 for the books in this box). This post is all about the books we got in our March shipment last year.
1. Hand in Hand (5 out of 5) by Rosemary Wells is a rhyming book about the parent-child relationship. It is written from the perspective of the child using a lot of me and my pronouns. There are a few pages that are good for pointing out and talking about various items to your child. The best of these is a pair of pages that has “Let me know my right from wrong.” There are seven behaviors exhibited with pictures and they are: forgiving, sharing, helping, being polite, praising, being truthful, and giving. All of these are things every parent should talk with their child about.
Pictured: Not helping
The one on helping shows an injured character (they’re rabbits, if that matters to you) who is bleeding profusely and being “helped” by another character who is loosely wrapping the severed artery thereby not applying pressure to the wound. Pro tip: don’t use this book as your first aid training manual.
This book highlights the important role that parents have in teaching children their morals and calls parents to “Be my lighthouse, my north star.” While there is no “story” in this book, the artwork and content make it a great addition to not just any child’s library, but to parents’ too.
Pros
Cons
Distinct and bright colors
None
Rhyming
Teaching of morality
Healthy parent-child relationship
Click on the image to view on Amazon.com
Breakdown
Current Price
$7.99
Duration
1:00 – 1:30
Highest Syllable Word
4 (lionhearted)
Contractions Used
None
2. Cookiesaurus Rex (1 out of 5) by Amy Fellner Dominy & Nate Evans illustrated by AG Ford is the worst children’s book I have ever read, which is really saying something after Me and Meow. A book filled with dad puns should be a winner for children’s books, but the main character is such a brat that it ruins the whole (pointless) story.
Cookiesaurus Rex, being a cookie, is about to get his icing. However, instead of waiting like a good cookie, he demands to be first. Then he gets jealous of the other cookies receiving sprinkles and other decorations and says “That stinks” when he does not get any. This eventually leads to a tantrum where he complains that the only decoration he gets is “this STUPID hat!” Apparently, the silent cookie decorator can hear him and somehow implied that he needs to ask nicely for changes. His response?
Pictured: A great example for my kid.
Cookiesaurus then goes through several costume changes. He never likes any that are put on him, so he demands to do it himself. He finally dons a kingly costume that uses “all the decorations” and is satisfied. Unfortunately for him, the person decorating the cookies licks all of the decorations off of him and… that’s the end of the story.
There are no redemptive qualities about this book. Children are sponges and if you put garbage in a sponge, it’s going to stay there until you put a little soap on it and microwave it to sterilize it. Alas, I cannot do that with my child, so whatever she soaks up is in there for good. I do not want to expose her to such nonsense and I highly encourage other parents to avoid this book for their kids’ sake too.
Pros
Cons
Distinct and bright colors
Main character exhibits many poor behaviors (impatient, jealous, tantrum, threatening, demanding, prideful)
3. Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (4.5 out of 5) by Alice Schertle illustrated by Jill McElmurry is the second in the Little Blue Truck series. The story follows a little blue truck on his journey into the big city. Blue enjoys seeing the city for the first time and is a bit intimidated by its enormous size! Since Blue is probably driven by a nearsighted 90-year old who forgot his glasses at home, he proceeds to drive at 15 mph through the city and is astonished that everyone, including cyclists, are zooming past him. Blue gets overwhelmed by the big city and just stops in the middle of an intersection. Unsurprisingly, this causes a huge traffic jam as Blue sits in the intersection baffled as to why everyone is mad at him. If you were worried that Felicia Bond (illustrator for If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, which I reviewed here, and other books in the If You Give… series) had a monopoly on crazy eyebrows, don’t be. There are plenty in this book too.
Pictured: Road Rage
Blue, now on the verge of a panic attack and unable to comprehend navigation on roads wider than a single lane, yells for everyone to STOP! He then asks for everyone to take turns and go one at a time instead of all at once. This seems somewhat reasonable to the other vehicles, but the limo with the mayor says “Me first!”. For no other reason than dramatic effect the limo immediately breaks down.
This provides the mayor with an opportunity to give a speech to everyone at the traffic jam about how right Blue is to suggest to go one at a time. Completely forgetting that the only reason the traffic jam occurred is because Blue stopped in the middle of the intersection, frozen and unable to process how to drive in the big city. Ironically, Blue is praised as the hero even though he’s the one who caused the problem in the first place. Just like in real life, the resolution of the unnecessary problem-solving was followed by a parade and a story on the 10 o’clock news.
Pictured: New Cult Following
There’s a plethora of important life lessons in here somewhere. If you’re a slow driver, you will make everyone else angry. If you stop in the middle of intersections, you will cause problems. If you create problems and then solve them, you will be regarded as a hero, at least until people figure out what happened like with Resuscitation Rambo and firefighters who start fires. Overall, this book’s message is good – be patient, don’t rush and be kind as you go. I think any parent can get behind those concepts.
Pros
Cons
Bright and distinct colors
None
Rhyming
Teaches patience and humility
Click on the image to view on Amazon.com
Breakdown
Current Price
$7.99
Duration
3:00 – 3:30
Highest Syllable Word
4 (double-decker)
Contractions Used
7 (isn’t, I’m, you’re you’ve, I’ve, we’ll, I’ll)
4. The fourth book in this box was Subway (4 out of 5) by Anastasia Suen which I already reviewed here.
We recently picked up a copy of Me and Meow by Adam Gudeon from our local library. This was the book our child picked out for herself. It’s a book (not a story) about a child (me) and her cat (Meow). For my cat-loving wife this sounds like a great start, and you might be thinking that for a book where 17% of the words in it are “Meow” that it would be wonderful, but from the very first pages we knew it was a downhill journey. The book is mostly two word sentences and the illustrations are terrible. This book is just plain awful and we cannot stand reading it!
But hey, maybe you like for your children’s books to look like they were illustrated by your young children. Maybe you want your children’s books to have the same vocabulary and sentence structure as your young children. Maybe that helps your kid connect to the book and reading in general. If that’s the case, then maybe you’ll like this book, it has a whopping five 5-star reviews on Amazon so somebody out there likes it.
Pictured: Definitely a Cat Lady
For the rest of us, you can skip this one. Besides the low quality of the book, the main character, who is either an unsupervised 4-year-old or a retired, 85-year-old, shrunken, cat lady who has forgotten how to speak in full sentences because she has only talked to her cats in the past 63 years, participates in high-risk activities such as wandering the streets alone on her tricycle, scaring her cat, sleeping with her cat, and lighting candles without competent adult supervision. None of these are things I want to teach my child.
I guess the idea of a book about a child’s day from the perspective of the child is not necessarily a bad one, but I cannot stand the way it was executed in this book.
The Teddy Bears’ Picnic by Jimmy Kennedy and illustrated by Alexandra Day was first a song from the early 1900s. A couple of decades later, Jimmy Kennedy added the lyrics to the song and then somewhere along the line Alexandra said “Hey, I can make this into a really weird children’s book” and Little Simon said, “This will definitely not scar any little children.” Oh how wrong they were.
This book taught my wife that you cannot judge children’s books by their covers. She saw the book in Costco and thought it was cute, so she later ordered it on Amazon. How crazy can some teddy bears at a picnic be anyway, right? Oh how wrong she was.
Pictured: ???
By the time you get to the fourth line in the song, you already know something’s up because if you want to go see the teddy bears’ picnic “You’d better go in disguise”. You better watch your back with this group too, because I get the feeling those cuddly little teddy bears will straight up murder you, and you are warned, it’s “safer to stay at home”. However, if you are dead set on watching their occult practices, you can sneak into the woods disguised as one of their own and “watch them, catch them unawares” (something I really want to teach my child to do) and you can witness the annual, 8-hour convention that lasts from about 10 AM – 6 PM despite “teddy bears” coming from all over the world.
Pictured: ????
When I say all over the world, I really just mean Europe, as the teddy bear parade features flags from Switzerland, Sweden, Austria?, Netherlands?, Italy, and Romania. Other parts of the book seem to showcase other countries where teddy bears can be seen getting ready for their cosplay convention.
If you’re still reading the story after all that, then you’ll be rewarded with various illustrations of teddy bears doing completely normal things like eating corn on the cob, dunking basket balls, playing guitar, competing in bocce ball, and racing in potato sacks. Did I call this a convention? I meant family reunion.
Pictured: ?????
That 6 o’clock comes fast when you are having such an activity packed day at the convention though. You, being that small child that you are, have passed out by then and your parents will have to carry you out of the woods, which are presumably in your backyard. They’ll tuck you in and then, like any parent who regularly dresses in bear costumes, will drink coffee and read the newspaper at 6:30 PM while still dressed as a bear, obviously.
I cannot overemphasize the weirdness level of this book.
One other thing that I do not like about the book is one pair of pages that has almost 50 words on them as compared to nearly all the other pairs that have about 10-15 words on them. My child was frequently inpatient on that one pair of pages because it took so much longer to read and turn to the next page. Since the book is a song, I would expect the lyrics to be used in such a way to rhythmically pace the page turning as other songbooks we have do, but this one ignores that completely and even throws in some pairs of pages with no words at all.
If you did not know, Amazon has a wonderful Amazon Prime Book Box subscription for children of all ages. For now, our child receives four board books each month. We get to select the four books out of eight possible choices, and if we decide there are not four books we want then we can skip any box. All of this for just $19.99 per box (a savings of about $9 for the books in this box). This post is all about the books we got in our October shipment last year.
1. The real MVP for this box was 10 Little Ninjas (5 out of 5). Written by Miranda Paul and illustrated by Nate Wragg, it is a great countdown, bed-time book. While I was disappointed the first time through that the whole book is not actually about ninjas, time heals all wounds and now it is our go-to book for riding in the car. Each number showcases a different costume for the 10 somehow-all-the-same age kids in the family.
I’m not saying you’re adopted…
The kids are wonderfully diverse with different genders, hair colors, hair types, and skin tones represented. Any kid should be able to relate to at least one of the children in the story. But suspiciously, the parents are both white, dark haired, and have brown eyes, so you do the math.
With all the different costumes the kids use and the different roles of authority figures (sheriff, mayor, lifeguard) that the mother takes on throughout the story it is obvious to me that the parents are actors or actually part of a government program to train assassins who can blend into any environment and adapt to any situation. They hide in plain sight with their “cute ninja costumes that they wore at Sally’s Halloween party last year.” They can’t fool me though, I present the evidence:
Defensive Driving
Wildlife Survival
Aquatic Espionage
Despite the clearly nefarious intentions of these “parents”, this story goes through 10 fantastic and imaginative settings while counting down to bed and the parents are shown as true authority figures who have to remind their “children” to go back to bed, but they eventually get everyone there.
Pros
Cons
Bright and distinct colors
None
Rhyming
Parents portrayed as authority figures
Countdown (10 to 1)
Click on the image to view on Amazon.com
Breakdown (10 Little…)
Current Price
$7.99
Duration
2:30 – 3:00
Highest Syllable Word
4 (firefighters)
Contractions Used
1 (couldn’t)
Page Count
23
Word Count
308
2. Baby Loves Aerospace Engineering! (2.5 out of 5) by Ruth Spiro and illustrated by Irene Chan is the first book in the Baby Loves Science series. This book explores how birds fly, how planes fly, and how to fly to space. At a basic level, the book shows how air passes over wings to create lift. I think this book accomplishes what it set out to do, which is to make a complicated subject “understandable” to a baby, but not much else.
Pros
Cons
Distinct and bright colors
Non-engaging story
Short duration
Breakdown (Baby Loves…)
Current Price
$8.05
Duration
1:30 – 2:00
Highest Syllable Word
3 (oxygen)
Contractions Used
0
Page Count
20
Word Count
127
Click the image to view on Amazon.com
Pictured: Living Life on the Edge
3. Pete the Cat: The Wheels on the Bus (4 out of 5) by James Dean is the Pete the Cat version of the children’s song “The Wheels on the Bus”. It’s roughly half verses from the original song and half verses that are more Pete the Cat focused. Pete may not be the most responsible bus driver as he starts his day on an empty tank and lets another animal drive the bus, but if your child enjoys Pete the Cat then this is sure to be a win.
Pros
Cons
Distinct and bright colors
None
Songbook
Click on the image to view on Amazon.com
Breakdown (Pete the Cat)
Current Price
$5.00
Duration
2:30 – 3:00
Highest Syllable Word
2 (wipers and others)
Contractions Used
1 (let’s)
Page Count
29
Word Count
384
Warning: Do Not Attempt to Smell Soup While Underwater
4. Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months (4.5 out of 5) by Maurice Sendak is an incredibly odd book about one boy’s (man’s?) love for chicken soup with rice. All. Year. Long. In this story of reincarnation gone wrong, the main character changes into a robin, a cooking pot, a whale, and a Christmas tree (yes, Christmas, because it was written in the 1960s before people had to say “Happy Holidays”).
His entire existence is concentrated on one thing. Chicken soup with rice. He eats it as an everyday meal and to celebrate special occasions. When he is not eating it, he is fantasizing about eating it. Also, apparently animals love chicken soup with rice too. Birds and turtles cook it while whales and crocodiles swim in it.
Pictured: How to Kill Roses
While he completely depends on chicken soup with rice for all of his dietary needs, he seems to also think that hot soup can be used for things besides eating, like watering your garden.
All in all, this rhyming book is a nice introduction to the months and seasons. I quite like the simple color scheme that only uses blue, yellow, and blending of the two for green which provides a nice teaching moment about colors. The character of the story also travels to Spain and Egypt, so for families like mine who like to travel, that is a bonus.
One bit of warning for parents who are concerned about Halloween, for the month of October, there are witches, goblins, and a ghost, but they are not depicted as scary so use your discretion there.
We recently borrowed If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by Felicia Bond from our local library. It is the second book in the If You Give… series. If you have read any of the other books in the series or my reviews of books 1, 3, 5, 6, or 8 then you know how it goes. Each story is a chain of events that eventually leads back to its starting point. In this story we get muffins, sewing, puppets, and lame Halloween costumes that the moose uses to scare… himself.
Pictured: Socialism
Changing one letter in the animal’s name makes a big difference in house manners. While the mouse ate the cookie offered to him, drank some milk, and then cleaned the entire, filthy house out of respect to his new human captor, moose takes a different approach. He eats a muffin, then decides to eat all of the others, and then asks the kid in the story to go to the store to buy ingredients to make more muffins. All while he contributes nothing to society, but hey, kid must be wealthy with all these muffins, so he should provide muffins to the muffin-less.
On the positive side, this is the first book in the series that I have read where a parent is actually present. The (single?) mother in the story makes blackberry jam part-time and has a budget of $2,350,000 for her spot on House Hunters International. At least she is teaching her son to work outdoors and care for plants.
Pictured: No One’s Fridge. Ever.
Yet, I have to wonder about what she is teaching him indoors. Take a look in their fridge. Who in their right mind stores vanilla wafers, Special K cereal, and a pumpkin in their fridge? Also, what is that green thing on the top shelf? A moldy onion?
Despite this, If You Give a Moose a Muffin is as entertaining as the other books in the series and it contains subtle references to the first book like a mouse sock puppet and the cookie magnet on the fridge. If you like the other books in the series, then I am sure you will like this one too.
If You Take a Mouse to School by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by Felicia Bond is the fifth book in the Where Are These Kids’ Parents If You Give… series. If you have read any of the books in series or my other reviews here, here, here, or here, then you are familiar with the story format. One thing leads into another which leads into another and so on.
Pictured: Flying Rat on a Chalkboard
It is the third book to feature the mouse, so if you love rodents you will be pleased to discover that mouse is actually a genius…at least compared to the eight year-old he lives with and may be imbued with the powers of Spider-man. While at school, mouse does “a little math” and spells “a word or two” on a chalkboard while suspending himself from it. Clearly, mouse is from an advanced alien species trapped in the body of a rat that has only one fatal weakness…cookies.
Pictured: Mania
Moving on, mouse shows his mastery of several school-related activities: building blocks, clay sculpture, writing, and recess. Oh, and we see mouse experimenting with purple goo, which is clearly to be used to overthrow his human captor/roommate, with the unmistakable look of pure, maniacal pleasure. (Yes, crazy eyebrows are included. Thank you, Felicia.)
If you like the other books in the series, you will undoubtedly like this one too. It may also be a nice way to introduce a child to the concept of school showing some of what happens in a day sans mouse.
If You Give a Dog a Donut by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by Felicia Bond is the eighth book in the If You Give… book series. If you have read my other reviews here, here, and here or another If You Give… book then you know the drill. These stories are all about one thing leading into another until they come full circle. This one includes donuts, apples, baseball, pirates, and kites.
Pictured: Crazy Eyebrow (Singular)
In case you were worried, don’t be, because this book contains a crazy eyebrow. Something I look forward to in every If You Give… book, but sometimes they just aren’t included.
This particular story has a much lower word count than others in the series, so it is a shorter read. Because of this, compared to the other books in the series I have to give it a little lower rating.
The Slanted Shelf 