19
Jan 2011

The Baby Bible Christmas Storybook by Robin Currie and Constanza Basaluzzo

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No Christian kid is too ever too young to get to know the Bible. This is why The Baby Bible Christmas Storybook is the perfect first glimpse of bible stories for a young child.

It begins with ‘Mary’s Secret’ where Mary finds out from the angel Gabriel that she’s going to be the Mother of God.

After that, it’s a chronology of events right up until the birth of Jesus Christ.

There is a short prayer included at the end of every story. I love this one because of the way it’s written:

Dear God, thank You for the best secret: Jesus. Amen

What’s fun is that you don’t only read from the book to your kid but both of you could engage in some fun movements to bring the stories to life! For example,

The angel told Mary a special secret.
Put your fingers on your lips: shhhh.

You and your child will not find a dull moment while reading it.

Written by Robin Currie and illustrated by Constanza Basaluzzo, it is a sturdy board book with cute, colourful graphics to keep your kid (and you!) glued to the pages till the very end. Even if your baby decides to chew on the pages, the book won’t fall to bits.

This book is a recommended read during Christmas, of course. But don’t let it stop you from picking it up at other times of the year and re-reading with your child about the events that lead up to the birth of Jesus, which is the moment celebrated by Christians worldwide every Dec 25th!

***Thanks to Audra Jennings from The B&B Media Group for sending me a review copy of this book.

Popularity: 9%

Categories: Authors C, Genre - Children's Books, Titles B
07
May 2009

Hunky Dory by Jean Ure

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I may be too old to read this kind of books but I do enjoy them so much! Until now, I’ve already read four books by Jean Ure and their protagonists are all approaching their teen years. Ah, who cares? These books make me laugh out loud so I don’t have a problem with how young the characters are.

In Hunky Dory, the narrator is Dorian Jones or Dory and he’s “having terrible trouble with girls”. According to him, girls in his form keep acting weird around him. For example, a girl named Amy Wilkerson sat next to him in Geography class and kept getting cosy leaning up to him while talking to her friend who was sitting on his other side. And another girl kept beaming at him in class.

What makes it even more interesting is that Dory’s younger sister’s friend, Linzi, has a crush on Dory. Dory’s younger sister, Annabel or Microdot (Dory’s nickname for her) regularly gives Dory personality quizzes to do so that she can write his profile to tell what kind of person he is. She also hints to him about why he keeps avoiding Linzi. Dory just goes along with these tests to humour his sister.

Dory cannot understand why other girls can’t be like the Herb, his good friend. Her real name is Rosemary but the Herb is her nickname. I don’t know how she got it anyway. Dory, the Herb and Dory’s other good friend, Aaron, spend their free time in Dory’s garden, digging a hole to look for artifacts. Dory is passionately fond of dinosaurs and hopes to become some sort of dinosaur archaeologist when he grows up.

When Dory finds out that his best friend, Aaron, is going out with a girl, he becomes even more confused. He had always thought that his friends were never into girls and that they think girls are quite silly. He is also puzzled when the Herb acts weird sometimes. Once when he suggested inviting another girl over to help dig the hole, the Herb went quite ballistic.

I like the illustrations that go with the story. They’ll appear after every few pages and it helps the reader to visualize what’s going on. A quick, funny and perfect read if you want to know what young kids are up to nowadays.

Buy Hunky Dory


Popularity: 6%

Categories: Authors U, Genre - Children's Books, Titles H
02
Dec 2008

Famous Five: Five On A Treasure Island by Enid Blyton

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This is the first book in the Famous Five series. This is where the 3 siblings, Julian, Dick and Anne meet their cousin, Georgina or George as she prefers to be called, for the first time. The siblings have been sent to stay at George’s house for the holidays.

George likes to be referred to as a boy and she does act like one. She can swim and run really fast. At first, she decided not to like her cousins and not entertain them at all. She’ll only act civil to them in order not to get a beating from her scientist father.

However, she grew to like her cousins a lot. The siblings are very caring and loyal to her and have defended her at times. They also kept George’s dog, Timmy, a secret from her parents. This is what you’ll find in Enid Blyton books. The children will somehow like one another, which is good and can cultivate positive feelings in younger readers.

Well, George’s family lives at Kirrin Bay, which is near to Kirrin Island. George claims that the island belongs to her since her mother doesn’t want it and gave it to George. While visiting the island, a wreck of a ship which has been underwater for a long time has been brought up by the waves of the sea. There’s supposed to be gold in it, so the children set out to explore it. They did not find any gold, unfortunately.

The most exciting part was where somebody who wanted to buy the island for a good sum of money that can help George’s family. They have been having financial problems as George’s scientist father isn’t making much. Therefore, they jumped at the opportunity of selling the island. This of course angers George who obviously loves her little island and the ruined castle on it.

I thought this book plain boring. Perhaps it’s because I’ve not read it as a child and that I’m only reading it now. The book is meant for children, after all. But if you did read it as a child, you can always read it again and relive your younger days!

Popularity: 7%

Categories: Authors B, Genre - Children's Books, Titles F Tags:
05
Sep 2008

The Rat-A-Tat Mystery by Enid Blyton

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Do I even need to review this book??? I mean, it’s an Enid Blyton book, for goodness’ sake! :D Well, I’ll write about it anyway.

This is the fifth book in the Barney mystery series. Barney, Diana, Roger, Snubby, and Snubby’s dog, Loony, appear in all the Barney books. Diana and Roger are sister and brother while Snubby’s their cousin. He has no parents so he’s always sent to live with relatives during his school holidays but he enjoys spending his holidays with Diana and Roger. Barney is their friend. He has a pet monkey called Miranda. Pretty name, huh?

By the way, it’s the winter holidays for the kids. Barney has finally found his father after an endless search for him and he’s spent Christmas time with his newfound family. After Christmas, Barney invites Roger, Diana, and Snubby to stay at a house owned by his grandmother by a lake and surrounded by hills. Of course, Roger and Diana’s parents agreed to let them have fun by themselves. A Mrs. Tickle will be cooking their meals, washing their stuff, and just basically looking after them.

So at the house, the children spent their time skating and tobogganing down the snowy hills and having the time of their lives. Meanwhile, at night, they hear mysterious knocking sounds like ‘rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat’. Haha! Can you imagine such sounds? To me, it sounds odd but there you go.

As usual, the children being their inquisitive selves and with a huge sense of adventure, they decide to investigate the sounds. They even found a large glove on the ground outside and Snubby thought he saw somebody standing outside looking at the house. Therefore, they found reason to suspect that something was wrong.

I’ve now read 4 of the books in the Barney mystery series. The other three are The Rockingdown Mystery, The Rilloby Fair Mystery, and The Ring O’ Bells Mystery. Being an Enid Blyton fan and one who has grown up reading her books, I find them enjoyable and a great way to ‘relive’ my childhood.

Popularity: 13%

Categories: Authors B, Genre - Children's Books, Titles R Tags:
28
Mar 2008

Astro Socks by Leigh M. Le Creux

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Astro Socks is a brilliantly written book about a young boy who wants to make a pair of socks for his baby sister. Chris is 10 years old and his younger sister is Rachel. One of Rachel’s socks can’t seem to stay on her feet for long. When she’s in her Jolly Jumper and she kicks hard, a sock will fall off. That’s why Chris is determined to find out how to make the perfect pair of socks for her.

Chris is smart as well as inquisitive. He likes to find out how things worked and his parents are proud to have a son like him. They are caring, considerate, and they encourage him to not give up on things easily. Oh, Chris would like to be an inventor one day too.

So, Chris starts his research on how to make socks that’ll stay put on his sister’s feet. He looks up for information on the Internet and finally sends a simple e-mail to a company that makes space suits for astronauts. Little did he know that that e-mail will help make his dream come true, that is becoming an inventor.

This book would be a very good read for children. I like the cover (simple and light) and there are also some cute drawings scattered throughout the book. The drawings were drawn by Leigh’s son and his classmates! This makes the book quite different from the others.

With the book’s simple language, I believe it could help children with their language and vocabulary. Children and adults alike would certainly enjoy reading about Chris and how he tries to solve the sock problem, as Chris appears to be an average and likeable kid. The sock crisis is a new one too. I was eager to find out Chris’ solution to the problem.

Astro Socks is Leigh Le Creux’s first novel. She’s working on her second one too, so open up your eyes and ears for more news!

***I’d like to thank Leigh M. Le Creux for sending me a copy of this book to review!

Popularity: 3%

Categories: Authors L, Genre - Children's Books, Titles A