Book Thoughts: Knight Owl (Denise)
Type: picture bookAges: 4-8Author: Christopher Denise This book brings big smiles the first time you read it! The smart wordplay combined with the fantastic illustrations makes this a winner. We loved it.
keenlykept
Book Thoughts: Golden Name Day (Lindquist)
Type: chapter bookAges: 7-12Author: Jennie D. Lindquist Fair warning: this book positively oozes sweetness. Everyone is so perfectly nice and thoughtful, it doesn’t always seem very realistic–ha! But it truly is a nice change in pace if your daughter is…
Book Thoughts: A Little Princess (Burnett)
Type: chapter bookAges: 7-12Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett *She threatened a whipping and boxed someone’s ears, but her worst behavior is the emotional abuse toward certain girls. In black and white, that sounds worse than it came off while reading. Both…
Book Thoughts: The Children of Noisy Village (Lindgren)
Type: chapter bookAges: 6-10Author: Astrid LindgrenIllustrator: Ilon Wikland *There was only one sentence here, so it’s very minor to the story; however, it gave enough of an out-of-place feeling that I wonder what the original German said. **I have to…
Book Thoughts: The Art Lesson (dePaola)
Type: picture bookAges: 4-7Author: Tomie dePaola As I understand it, this is an autobiographical story of dePaola’s childhood, so my criticism is not toward him as much as it is toward the government schooling system. Interestingly, after I read it…
Book Thoughts: Nour’s Secret Library (Tarnowska)
Type: picture bookAges: 6-10Author: Wafa’ TarnowskaIllustrator: Vali Mintzi What a beautiful book! In the midst of somber events, much hope was brought to a little community with mere books. A sweet quote: “The world of books is wonderful,” Nour thought,…
Book Thoughts: Mr. Popper’s Penguins (Atwater)
Type: chapter bookAges: 5-8Authors: Florence and Richard Atwater This read aloud very nicely! I hadn’t read it since I was a child and couldn’t remember the details at all. My children (7 and 9) were entertained. It was non-suspenseful and…
Book Thoughts: The Kingdom of God (Van Halteren)
Type: board bookAges: 1-4Author: Tyler Van HalterenIllustrator: Aleksander Jasinski If your little one is at the lower end of the above age range, the book might be a little long for one sitting. However, they might be enthralled with it,…
Book Thoughts: Ant and Bee and the ABC (Banner)
Type: picture bookAges: 3-6Author: Angela BannerIllustrator: Bryan Ward This is a rather long picture book and leans toward the see-say/whole word method of teaching reading (which I don’t recommend). However, if you’re ready to sit down with your child for…
Book Thoughts: Eating the Alphabet (Ehlert)
Type: picture bookAges: 1-6Author: Lois Ehlert There is no story to this book–it just has letters (each with a capital and lowercase) and pictures of food that begin with that letter. The glossary has an historical note on each fruit…