Monsters, missing socks and homework awaits you in A.J. Cosmo’s The Monster That Ate My Socks!
About The Monster That Ate My Socks
Max is a young boy who is always getting in trouble for losing his socks! He does not know where they go but if he doesn’t solve the mystery quick his Mother will ground him for the whole summer.
Max discovers that a little green monster is sneaking into his room at night and eating his socks! His Mother doesn’t believe him no matter what he tells her. Max decides to call on his best friend for a sleepover in order to help him catch the monster.
Together the boys develop a plan to trap the monster. To their surprise the monster can speak! It had never meant to hurt the boys, the monster was just trying to feed his family. The monster takes the boys to meet his family and begs the boys not to turn them over to his parents because adults only want to destroy monsters.
The boys are left in a difficult decision. Turn the monsters over to their parents so they don’t get in trouble or let the monsters run free. Together they design a new plan for the monsters.
My Thoughts
I was so pleasantly surprised with this book! I had thought it would be a story of evil monsters who were stealing away poor Max’s socks! Instead A.J. puts together a story of compassion and understanding. When Max realizes that the monster is just like him, he can not help feel a connection to him. The monster talks and is remorseful but all he was doing was just trying to feed his family. Max is left with such a difficult decision – to either help or turn in the monster. His decision shows children that kindness and compassion will solve any problem.
The illustrations are just adorable and go along with the story perfectly! They really help to make the story come alive in your mind. I loved seeing the children monsters.
As a parent, I want the books my children to read to teach and guide them. The Monster That Ate My Socks is the perfect story for this! It teaches children kindness and compassion for everyone.
A.J.’s stories are designed to help parents teach their children everyday lessons in an easy to understand format for children. A.J. pairs artfully illustrations and language, children are challenged to explore his magical world. Connect with A.J. on his website, Twitter and Facebook.
Hands up if those lyrics are played almost non stop in your home?!
Although almost seven years separate our children both of our boys have always loved Toopy and Binoo. So much so that when we brought our puppy home eight years ago she was lovingly named Toopy!
Toopy and Binoo are the adorable stars in this series. You just can’t help fall in love with these two, who love each other with all their hearts and are always up for fun and adventure. Toopy is the witty and engaging mouse while Binoo, his best friend in the whole entire world, is the silent cat. When Toopy has lost something or when he can’t figure something out it is always Binoo who helps him find his way.
I Love Toopy has a total of fifteen heartwarming episodes for a total running time of seventy-five minutes.
The episodes include:
Duckling (The Best Of)
Baby Toopy
Worm Circus
The Big Race
Gone Fishin
Space House
Little Red Binoo
Jungle Toopy
Super Toopy
Magic Mirror
Toopy Goes bananas (our personal favourite!)
Camp Out
Storm in a Bottle
Space House
Bubbles
The second DVD, I Love Binoo also comes with fifteen episodes and a running time of seventy five minutes.
The episodes included are:
Pet Palace
Binoo’s Birthday
Sparkle Binoo
Toopy’s Surprise
Binoo’s Letter
Magic Whoosher
Superball
Funny Bunny
The Castle
The Big Blue
The Lost Bear
Where’s Binoo?
Invisible World
Egghead
Toopy’s Present
Although we thought we had seen all the Toopy and Binoo episodes that were out there we were pleasantly surprised to find new ones on these DVDs! Our youngest son brought his DVDs to daycare so that all of his friends could watch their favourite show together! It was so sweet!
kaboom! Entertainment is giving one of my readers the chance to win their copies of I Love Toopy and I Love Binoo! Canadian residents can enter via the Rafflecopter form below.
Dogs are loving, nurturing and healing animals. They sense our pain and are there to help us through the worst moments of our lives. Almost Perfect by Diane Manning follows the relationship of a young boy and an older woman with her aging dog.
About Almost Perfect
Seventy year old, Bess Rutledge, has fantasized about winning the Westminster Dog Show all her life. She has now come to the decision that she is just too old to follow her dream. By chance, she meets Benny her neighbour one night. Benny is an angry, fourteen year old with mild autism and ADHD. Benny has his own dream: to impress his self-absorbed mother. He becomes convinced that the only way to do so is by winning Westminster with McCreery, Bess’ aging champion standard poodle. Trying to get Bess on board with his plan is not going to be an easy accomplishment.
My Thoughts
When I first read the excerpt of this book I knew it was going to be one that just melted my heart, made me cry and bring me back up again. Diane Manning delivered on this and more!
The relationship between a dog and it’s owner is special. There is an unconditional love and bond that forms that lasts a lifetime. I still miss my Pepper with all my heart – the way she would jump and bark by just hearing our voices even over the phone! A dog can also be very therapeutic and help a child learn responsibility.
When we meet Benny you can tell this is exactly what he needs. He is hurting inside and is angry at the world. He has a Mother, that no matter how hard he tries does not want to be part of his life. She is so absorbed in her own life and her needs that she places a great burden on Benny. He shows this burden through his actions and anger at others. I wanted to cry and reach out to him as my heart broke for the pain he felt. From the way Diane writes you can tell she has had experience with children with social and emotional challenges. I was not surprised at all by her education and work experience! It shows through strongly in her work.
Almost Perfect is a well written, emotional journey that will reach to the heart of every parent and dog lover. You will not be disappointed with this read! You can purchase your own copy on Amazon, Audible and Barnes and Nobles.
Rating: 5/5
About Diane Manning
Diane Daniels Manning is the co-founder and director of The New School in the Heights, a therapeutic school in Houston, Texas which helps children dealing with social-emotional challenges find success in school and life. She has a Ph.D. in Education and a post-doctoral M.P.H from Harvard and is a practicing child psychoanalyst certified by the American Psychoanalytic Association. She was formerly the Director of the Reading and Learning disabilities Clinic at Tufts University, Lecturer and Research Associate in the Department of Behavioural Sciences at Harvard and Chair of the Department of Education at Tulane University. She learned the inner workings of dog show kennels by writing an oral history of a lifetime President of the Poodle Club of America.
Learning is a continual process that as parents we are blessed to be a part of.
It can be extremely hard sometimes to find the right teaching format for your child especially with the variety of ways children learn (some are visual, some need to have it explained and so on). I know both of my children are independent learners who like and respond better to large visual components.
DK Canada has launched a brand new website, DK Find Out! which can be used as a fun learning resource and is aimed at children, educators and their parents.
Nearly two years in the making, DK Find Out is an educational website that gathers together DK Canada’s collection of images and research to create a safe and educational online tool. All those gorgeous images and wealth of knowledge that we have come to love from DK Canada comes to life in an online format.
One of the best features of the DK Find Out website? It is FREE! Yes – free! There are not too many educational resources out there for parents that are free.
The DK Find Out website is accessible on all devices, including iPad, phones, laptops and computers. This makes it that much easier to learn from basically anywhere! Which for us usually includes car rides to soccer practices or the much hated long road trips to soccer games. Why not whip out the iPad and take advantage of this time by accessing the website and learning instead of the usual video games?.
Some of the educational areas include dinosaurs, animals, earth, nature, history, math and many more. The illustrations are gorgeous! Large, bold and bright they draw you right into the site immediately. Children will find it easy to navigate and find their favourite areas. Parents can also easily read along with their child if they are too young to navigate the site by themselves.
To help celebrate their launch, DK Canada is offering one of you the chance to win your own DK Find Out tote bag! Canadian residents can enter via the Rafflecopter form below. a Rafflecopter giveaway
I was blessed to be able to visit Venice while I was in my teens. I immediately fell in love with the history, romance and architecture. Every street has a story and being there was like taking a walk through history. I was able to see glass being made which was just an incredible tradition to be able to see. With its beauty, Venice can also be home to tourist traps as I know I was witness to some – many times with blankets laid out in the streets selling traditional Venetian items.
The author of Authentic Arts: Venice Travel Guide, Laura Morelli, is an art historian and trusted guide in the world of cultural travel and authentic shopping. She guides you to the best of the city’s most traditional arts: Murano glass, carnival masks, gondolas, lace, paper, and more. This indispensable guide includes practical tips for locating the most authentic goods in one of the busiest tourist destinations in the world. The Authentic Arts: Venice Travel Guide is full of useful information on pricing, quality, and value, and with a comprehensive resource guide, Laura Morelli’s Authentic Arts: Venice is the perfect guide for anyone wanting to bring home the unique traditions of Venice.
Artisans of Venice is the companion to Laura Morelli’s Authentic Arts: Venice, A Travel Guide to Murano Glass, Carnival Masks, Gondolas, Lace, Paper, & More. Put both books together and you’ll be the most knowledgeable traveler in Venice!
In Venice, it’s not easy to tell the treasures from the trash. This is true now more than ever before, as increasing numbers of carnival masks, glass, and other souvenirs flood into Venice, imported from overseas and passed off as authentic. There is no substitute for an educated buyer. Laura Morelli helps you locate the city’s most authentic artisans–those practicing centuries-old trades of mask making, glass blowing, wood-turning, silk spinning, and other traditions. Wouldn’t you rather support authentic Venetian master artisans than importers looking to turn a quick profit without any connection to Venice at all?
Venice boasts some of the most accomplished master artisans in the world. Here’s how you can find them.
Laura Morelli leads you beyond the souvenir shops for an immersive cultural experience that you won’t find in any other guidebook. Artisans of Venice brings you inside the workshops of the most accomplished makers of Venetian fabrics, Murano glass and millefiori, carnival masks and masquerade costumes, gondolas, Burano lace, mirrors, marbleized paper, hand-carved frames, and other treasures. This book leads you to the multi-generational studios of some 75 authentic master artisans. If you’re reading on your Kindle device, tablet, or smart phone, you can click directly on their street addresses for an interactive map, and link to their web sites and email addresses directly from the guide. A cross-referenced resource guide also offers listings by neighborhood.
Laura Morelli, an art historian and trusted guide in the world of cultural travel and authentic shopping, leads you to the best of Venice’s most traditional arts. Laura Morelli’s Authentic Arts series is the only travel guide series on the market that takes you beyond the museums and tourist traps to make you an educated buyer–maybe even a connoisseur–of Florentine leather, ceramics of the Amalfi Coast, Parisian hats, Venetian glass, the handmade quilts of Provence, and more treasures.
Bring Laura Morelli’s guides to Venice with you, and you’ll be sure to come home with the best of Venice in your suitcase!
About Laura Morelli
Laura Morelli holds a Ph.D. in art history from Yale University, where she was a Bass Writing Fellow and Mellon Doctoral Fellow. She authored a column for National Geographic Traveler called “The Genuine Article” and contributes pieces about authentic travel to national magazines and newspapers. Laura has been featured on CNN Radio, Travel Today with Peter Greenberg, The Frommers Travel Show, and in USA TODAY, Departures, House & Garden Magazine, Traditional Home, the Denver Post, Miami Herald, The Chicago Tribune, and other media. Recently her art history lesson, “What’s the difference between art and craft?” was produced and distributed by TED-Ed.
Laura has taught college-level art history at Trinity College in Rome, as well as at Northeastern University, Merrimack College, St. Joseph College, and the College of Coastal Georgia. Laura has lived in five countries, including four years in Italy and four years in France.
Laura Morelli is the author of the guidebook series that includes Made in Italy, Made in France, and Made in the Southwest, all published by Rizzoli / Universe. The Gondola Maker, a historical coming-of-age story about the heir to a gondola boatyard in 16th-century Venice, is her first work of fiction.
The baùta is the quintessential Venetian mask, worn historically not only at Carnival time but any time a Venetian citizen wished to remain anonymous, such as when he may have been involved in important law-making or political processes in the city. The simplest of the traditional Venetian mask types, the baùta is a stark faceplate traditionally paired with a full-length black or red hooded cloak called a tabàro (or tabàrro), and a tricorn hat, as depicted in paintings and prints by the Venetian artist Pietro Longhi. Most baùte were made of waxed papier-mâché and covered most of the face. The most prominent feature is a distinctive aquiline nose and no mouth. The lower part of the mask protruded outward to allow the mask wearer to breathe, talk, and eat while remaining disguised.
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