Genre: Children's Picture Books
Source: I received a copy in exchange for my honest review
I Want a Monster for Halloween by Evelyn Brenner
Martha Green wants a monster
for Halloween. The book takes you on a pictorial tour of a variety of
monsters to choose from. None of them are scary at all. It made me think that a
fun thing to do after sharing this book with a young one, would be to sit and
create some fun monsters of their own. I
loved the creative flair of this book with all of its wonderful and fun
monsters.
The Scare: A Halloween Story
by Kirstin Lenane
Simon the pig received an invitation to attend a Halloween
party and Jim Mouse’s house. Jim wants
no scary costumes or mean tricks. Simon does this to him every year because he
loves all things scary. Simon decides to
get a scary vampire costume anyway. Then
he makes some scary cupcakes and heads off to Jim’s house. He scares little children along the way and
thinks it is funny. When he arrives he
goes into Jim’s house and can’t find him.
This year Jim has a surprise for Simon.
Can you guess what it is?
Zombie Kids by Julie Dweck
This is a cute story told by a boy who loves zombies. I had a student a couple of years back that
would have loved this book because the only thing he ever talked about was
zombies. This boy tells us in rhyming verse all the ways zombies are like us
and why we should like them the way he does.
This was a very cute book. Not
scare, but lots of fun for the young ones.
99 Cents by Jason Sandberg
This is a very short story of a little girl who walks on
Daddy’s feet. She finds it fun in the winter, at the beach, in the house or on
the street. She prefers it to skipping and running. Another cute book by this author.
Don’t Judge an Alligator By Its Teeth by Kevin Ocasio and
Nicole Ocasio
Benjamin goes fishing with his dad. When his dad falls
asleep and he has nothing nibbling at his line he decides to explore around the
area. He finds an alligator and tries to
run away. Then he trips and falls. He is
sure he is going to be eaten. The
alligator explains that he just wants to be friends. He says everyone runs away from him. Benjamin agrees to play hide and seek with
him and has lots of fun until his dad comes to get him. I loved this book. Part of the reason is because I love alligators,
even though I have a healthy respect for them. My only concern comes from the
fact I live in Florida where we have plenty of alligators. I would strongly suggest after sharing this
book with your young one that you make it clear that the real alligators are
not like the alligator in the story.
Maybe: A Little Zen For Little Ones by Sanjay Nambiar
In this simple book we read about a young girl and her
friends. As different things happen to her, the girl’s friends tell her how
lucky or unlucky she is. She always responds, “maybe”. The whole idea is to
focus not so much on if it was lucky or unlucky. Why, what we thought was
unlucky may have benefits we did not see coming. Greatb ook for kids and
adults.
Julio Bunny and the Foreign Lion by Nicoletta Costa
This is a simple story of a lion who can’t speak the language
of those around him. He finds a group of forest friends who help him, take care
of his needs and learn that music is a language everyone understands.
Come Back Dear Sun by Geena Bean
This was an extremely appropriate book for this time in our
lives. A little girl is sad because she’s not seen the sun in a longtime. She
speaks with the moon and learns the sun was sad and went away. Why? With TV and
video games no one came out to play. The sun gets sad and goes away. The young girl and her friends talk with the
moon and ask him to find the sun to come back.
The author is right that our children don’t play outside the way we once
did. I think this is a book that should
be shared with all young children.
Pluto the Starfish by Bonnie M. Anderson
Pluto the starfish lives off the coast of Magical Buck
Island. He cries because he doesn’t know what his purpose in life is. Lewis the
lobster explains that Pluto has a freedom he can’t enjoy. He must hide from humans to keep from being
eaten. Nancy the nurse shark explains
that she has to be wary of cousins such as the great white shark. Lolita the leatherback turtle explains to Pluto that they are just
now making a comeback because they were almost hunted into extinction. Harriet
the Humpback whale explains that being large doesn’t protect you. They have to
fear boats and humans. Pluto the starfish learned that size, color or the
ability to move didn’t make one more important than another in the ocean. After all, he was the star of the ocean.
Alphabet All Stars Academy Animal Pack by Scott Gordon
These four books are set up to teach the alphabet. They
start off with the simplest task of itroducing childrne to the different
animals whose name begins with each letter of the alphabet. The author takes it
a step further by telling an interesting fact about the animal. In the second
book he has included not only the cutsy animals but the real animals along with
a letter from the alphabet and another interesting fact about them. In the
third book Silly animals looks at some of the silly aspects of anials such as
the narwhal that has a horn on his head or the fact that the own has a very
flexible neck. All the while the children are associating the animals with a
letter from the alphabet. I love the final book. It was set up as a quiz. The
reader must guess the letter in the book. The author has given two great hints.
The picture of the animal posed in the shape of the letter. Children learn
letter recognition as well as association of animals with the letter. Since the
letters are out of order it truly is a higher thinking process
When sixteen-year-old Riley is injured in a car crash and sees a girl stealing a boy’s soul, she’s convinced she’s hallucinating. But when she sees the same girl at the hospital later, she knows she wasn’t dreaming. That’s when Riley learns her secret heritage and who she really is: a halfling Angel of Death.
Riley must come to terms with her new reality and supernatural abilities, but before she can do this, girls her age start dying in mysterious circumstances. It’s up to Riley to figure out why, what the innocent victims have in common, and what she can do to stop them.
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