Category: childrens books

March 9, 2018

One Eagle Soaring Book Review

One Eagle Soaring explores counting and numbers with the help of beautiful West Coast animals.

About One Eagle Soaring A First West Coast Book

Following on the success of their bestselling board book Hello Humpback!, award-winning authors Roy Henry Vickers and Robert Budd are back with One Eagle Soaring, the second edition in their exciting new series, First West Coast Books.

One Eagle Soaring is a “first numbers” book and explores counting and numbers with the help of West Coast animals—from a single eagle aloft, to a pair of swimming whales, as well as leaping frogs, honey-hungry bears and a group of ten dozing marmots.

This book combines Roy Henry Vickers’ vivid illustrations, a glossy tactile finish and a simple yet catchy text. The sturdy board book introduces babies and toddlers to the spectacular scenery and wildlife of British Columbia.

My Thoughts

This is an absolutely stunning hard cover book geared towards your toddler but that even a preschool aged child will love.

This beautiful book features ten West Coast animals set in a beautiful back drop. Each number and animal spans two pages of this book that is roughly the size of your hand in a square shape. The animals are bold and bright, featured in either black or colour. The animals are lightly textured in designs that are unique to the West Coast (we loved running our hands over the patterns). The background imagery is done in a complementary colour scheme that really helps the images pop out of the page (I loved the sea-lion page with bold blues and yellows!).

The wording itself is easy to read and geared well to this age group. It also gave us an opportunity to make up a bit of the story, for example when it was written two moose wander by – we asked where were they going, what did they see? It was easy to get silly or serious and even ask further questions to learn more about these animals.

One Eagle Soaring is an incredible and beautiful book featuring the beauty of the West Coast. I loved that it celebrates the breathtaking nature of the West Coast – it is always refreshing to find a book that features Canadian themes! It will make for a wonderful baby shower or first birthday gift and an excellent addition to your young child’s home library.

You can purchase a copy of this book on Harbour Publishing.

About the Authors

Roy Henry Vickers is a renowned carver, painter and printmaker. He is the co-author of Harbour Publishing’s popular children’s Northwest Coast Legends series, which were shortlisted for the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award: Raven Brings the Light in 2014, Cloudwalker in 2015, Orca Chief in 2016 and Peace Dancer in 2017. He lives in Hazelton, BC.

Robert (Lucky) Budd is the co-author of the Northwest Coast Legends series and the author of Voices of British Columbia (Douglas & McIntyre, 2010), which was shortlisted for the 2011 Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award, and its sequel, Echoes of British Columbia (Harbour Publishing, 2014), which won second prize in the BC Historical Federation’s writing competition in 2014. He lives in Victoria, BC.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

November 2, 2017

Opposite Things by Anna Kovecses

It is time to learn all about opposites with your favourite character, Little Mouse!

About Opposite Things

Learn your opposites with Little Mouse! This cute board book features a large lift-flap on every page, making learning about opposites easy and fun! With stylish retro-modern illustrations this is the perfect introduction to opposites for young children.

Our Thoughts

Little Mouse is back and this time we are being taught all about opposites. This is an area, in my own experience with my children, that I found the hardest to help my child learn about. We could talk about it and go over things like big vs small but when it came time for recall later, they had a tougher time with this subject.

This hardcover book (which is a must for young hands!), helps address this topic through imagery, repetitive words and fun. We learn about the opposite of wet, inside, happy and so much more as Little Mouse explores these areas. Children will have fun lifting the flap that accompanies each page which also helps them if they get stuck on a word.

The illustrations are bright, bold but simple. They have a geometric type feel to them that will help young children identify the objects (sun, house, mouth and so on) and helps to engage them in the story.

The book is geared to children aged two to five. It is part of a series of books about Little Mouse that includes Counting Things and One Thousand Things. This book (and the Little Mouse collection) would make a beautiful gift for a young child, baby shower or a special addition into your child’s home library.

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.

About the Author

Young, dynamic illustrator ANNA KOVECSES’s work marries contemporary minimalism with an appealing retro-modern illustration style. Born in Hungary, she lives and works in Cyprus.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

November 2, 2017

Counting Things by Anna Kovecses

Learn to count to ten with Little Mouse!

About Counting Things

Learn to count to ten with Little Mouse! This board book features a large lift-flap on every page, making learning to count easy and fun! With stylish retro-modern illustrations this is the perfect introduction to counting for young children.

Our Thoughts

Math skills are becoming more and more important for young children and one of the basic math skills children learn first is counting to ten. As parents, we can help set up our children for success by helping them learn these important skills in a fun and unique manner – through books!

This unique hard cover book is a follow-up the popular One Thousand Things by the same author. In this book, Little Mouse, takes us on an adventure to learn how to count to ten. We count animals, insects, cars, stars and more in this book. Each page and number features its own large lift flap, which helps to make the book interactive and fun for young readers.

This book is designed for an age group of two to five but your child is never too young to start reading to! The bright, bold design and illustrations on each page will help draw your child into the story and keep their interest. The illustrations are somewhat geometric in design and are perfect for young readers to identify.

Counting Things will make a great addition to your child’s growing home educational library!

You can purchase a copy of Counting Things on Amazon.

About the Author

Anna Kovecses is a young, dynamic illustrator whose work marries contemporary minimalism with an appealing retro-modern illustration style. She was born in Hungary and now lives and works in Cyprus.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

October 18, 2017

How to Turn Your Mom Into a Monster Book Review

Guess what: Mom can be a monster too! It’s up to you to make your mom’s monster come out to play!

About How to Turn Your Mom Into a Monster

Do you like smearing your lunch all over yourself? Do you fight with your sister just because she’s there? Do you find yourself unable to go to bed because mysterious ninjas keep stealing your pajamas? Then you’re a little monster! Guess what: Mom can be a monster too! It’s up to you to make your mom’s monster come out to play.

Our Thoughts

Have you ever read the title of a story and saw the front cover and knew that you were going to love it? Even better that your kids would love it too? This is that book!

We are forever teasing our boys that they have this special magic power that can turn us from nice, quiet parents into grumpy monsters. But it is way too hard to stay mad at them because they are so cute as they do naughty things. Or when they are driving us batty! Those sweet little smiles just can’t help but make us smile too.

This was an awesome book to read together as we could make silly voices and we would alternate turns reading the story. The plot of the story is fantastic and I am sure that both parents and children alike can relate to each page. For example, tooting in public and your child blaming you. Yup, we can definitely relate!

This is a laugh out loud book that is perfect for bed time and basically anytime during the day. Our boys were begging for more! Our youngest even added in his own suggestions for turning Mommy into a monster, boy were they good!

This book is in paperback format and done in bright colours, greens, oranges, purples and blues. The monsters were adorable (just like your child) and not scary at all which is great for all ages. The actual length of the book makes it great for reading any time of the day and the wording is perfect for reading out loud to your child or together. This book is a definite must have addition to your child’s personal library.

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Aurora Whittet started out as a wild red-haired girl in Minnesota dreaming up stories for her friends to read. Today, she has completed Bloodmark, Bloodrealms, and Bloodmoon of the Bloodmark Saga trilogy, Mama’s Knight: A Cancer Story of Love, and How to Turn Your Mom into a Monster. She’s a national award-winning graphic designer in her day job. Aurora lives with her family in Minnesota.

The Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

October 10, 2017

Halloween Friendly Frights with Raincoast Books!

Halloween is our favourite holiday in our home. We love decorating the house, baking themed culinary delights and reading stories of ghosts, witches, zombies and more! Not all children enjoy this fun holiday though. It is important to talk about monsters, witches and all the scary stuff so that children can get used to the idea of Halloween and aren’t afraid of the things that go bump in the night!

To help your little ones get into the spirit of Halloween, Raincoast Books has two great book selections for the young reader: Herbert’s First Halloween and How To Catch a Monster.

Herbert’s First Halloween

Herbert is deeply doubtful about his first Halloween-but with a little help from his dad and a special tiger costume, Herbert might just find confidence on Halloween night. Together, father and son practice roaring, carve a pumpkin, and venture out in search of candy. And by the end of the night, Herbert finds his doubts have melted away. A sweet introduction to Halloween and to being brave, this book is sure to delight the youngest of trick-or-treaters.

Herbert’s First Halloween is a sweet book all about a little boy who isn’t too sure about Halloween. I know many parents can relate to having this conversation with their child! Most young children aren’t too sure about this holiday, they may be scared of the costumes, going up to the houses and even the yells of “boo”. It really helps to open up the topic of Halloween, address the fears your child may have and talk about all the fun this holiday can be. I loved how the Dad showed his son a picture of himself when he was a child dressed up for Halloween. This is such a great idea for parents and one I never thought of. Kids love seeing old photos and it is a great conversation starter. This book is beautifully illustrated in seasonal colours (think lots of greens, oranges and browns). It is an excellent book for those little ones who are heading out for their very first Halloween.

You can purchase a copy of the book here.

How to Catch a Monster

“There’s a monster in my closet,
with claws, and teeth, and hair,
and tonight, I’m going to scare him!
He lives just right through there… “

Get ready to laugh as a young ninja heads into the closet to meet the monster that’s been so scary night after night! But what if things aren’t what they seem and our monster isn’t scary at all? What if our ninja hero is about to make a friend of strangest sort?

If you dare to travel beyond the closet door and into the land of the monsters… you might just find the very best reward of all. But with robots, lava pie, and a smattering of traps-catching monsters is no easy business!

How to Catch a Monster is an adorable, laugh out loud story of a young ninja that is prepared to face the monster that has been scaring him. The young boy comes home from school in his ninja costume full of confidence and ready to face the terrifying monster. He uses his ninja skills and captures the monster! To his surprise, he finds out that maybe the monster really wasn’t that scary and that maybe he might just make the best of friends.

This story was awesome – we had so many great laughs (how can you not with ninja skills, farts and monsters?!). It was very easy to read out loud with a great flow in the wording. It sets a great tone which helps to bring the story to life (we had a great time making scary and loud noises to help our youngest really get in the story). The illustrations are beautiful and really help to tell the story. The monster was so well done and looks so friendly! Perfect for those kids who are convinced that there is a monster hiding in their closet. How to Catch a Monster will be the perfect, laugh out loud addition to your family library that you will enjoy reading over and over again.

You can learn more about this book and purchase a copy of it here.

Disclosure: I received the above mentioned books free of charge in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.