Children's Books Part 2

My Name Is Yoon
Written by Helen Recorvits and illustrated by Gail Swaitkowska

Summary: A young Korean girl has recently immigrated to the United States and is struggling to view herself through the English spelling of her name Yoon. She dislikes how it looks in English, it is not happy like her Korean spelling. The dislike of her English spelling is part of her homesickness for Korea and her fear of not making friends in her new home. Instead of writing her name at school she writes other words and imagines how her life would be if she were that word and not Yoon. In the end after making friends she accepts that she is Yoon in English, happy knowing it still means Shining Wisdom.

Why Read: My Name is Yoon has many good qualities to its story. It asks children to look at the world through an immigrant’s eye as they try to learn about the new place they are living. It draws attention to another language that does not use the English alphabet for its words while also focusing on English words and writing. The teacher is a kind supportive person that helps Yoon feel more at home and the other child that befriends Yoon also helps her like her new place. My Name is Yoon is a lovely story of a little girl finding a place in her new home.

The Tiger Has A Toothache: Helping Animals at the Zoo
Written by Patricia Lauber and illustrated by Mary Morgan

Summary: Animals at the Zoo get sick just like people. How do they get taken care of when they have colds, hurt teeth or broken bones? This book answers those questions and more. Each section is a couple pages long and follows one type of animal through their diagnosis, treatment and healing.

Why Read: This is an interesting book about some favorite zoo animals that kids can really enjoy. It brings a different perspective to the world of animals through the stories and colorful pictures. It is a fun read for thinking outside the animal box.

Ladybugs
Written and illustrated by Mia Posada

Summary: Ladybugs is a nonfiction book that goes through the life cycle of ladybugs. Its brightly colored pages and simple explanations of what is happening make this a fun read for children.

Why Read: Ladybugs are easy to spot and fun to find. This book gives children more information about the little bugs that is easy for them to understand and really brings to life an important part of nature.

Library Lion
Written by Michelle Knudsen and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes

Summary: A lion walks into the library one day and loves story time. He quickly learns that certain rules of the library must be followed and strives to follow them. He befriends most of the patrons and the head librarian. To help his friend the librarian the lion one day breaks one of the library rules and leaves. After he is gone he is missed by all, especially the head librarian. The assistant librarian who didn’t care for a lion in the library sets out to find the libraries missing friend and bring him back.

Why Read: Library Lion shows that books are for everyone and the library is a fun place to be. Not only does it shine a bright light on books, but on friendship too. It tells us that friends take care of each other and that friends come in all different shapes and sizes. Also, who wouldn’t like being able to snuggle with a lion and read a good book at the same time?




Make Way For The Ducklings
Written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey



Summary: Mr. and Mrs. Mallard are looking for the perfect place to hatch their ducklings. They fly around Boston discarding different places until they happen upon the perfect island. After the ducklings hatch Mr. and Mrs. Mallard have quite the adventure trying to move their little family across the city to a spot with lots of peanuts to snack on and room to grow. With the help of a policeman the little duck family makes the journey safely.


Why Read: I like that this book values a duck family, a policeman is willing to help and make sure that this little family makes it to their destination. It is also fun to see the different people’s reaction to little family walking across the city. This story leaves one with a good feeling and smile.

Cuddle with someone small and read,

Naomi

Children's Books Part 1

I love children's book. I think that they are fun, imaginative and can open up whole worlds to children that they wouldn't know about otherwise. They can help children problem solve, understand relationships better and so much more. Also kids who like to listen to stories are more likely to enjoy reading and children who enjoy reading more often do better in school.

For my Early Childhood Education class we had to put together a list of our favorite 10 children's books and write a little about each book. This assignment was right up my alley, the hardest part, besides taking time to do the writing, was limiting the number of books to only 10.

Here are the first 5 I chose. I didn't do them in any favorite order, but ordered them by which ones I got first from the library. So there is nothing special about the order.

Vera Goes To The Dentist
Written and illustrated by Vera Rosenberry

Summary: Vera has her first appointment with the dentist and things are a little different than she expects. She ends up biting the dentist’s finger, running away and finally has her teeth cleaned after a second try in the dentist’s chair.

Why Read: Vera is such a real character from wearing her favorite skirt to feel strong and brave to her response of running away from her first dentist appointment. I like that Vera overcomes her fear and finishes her appointment with the dentist and finds that things were not as bad as she feared. Vera’s story shows that little people have big events in life.




Not Norman: A Goldfish Story
Written by Kelly Bennett and illustrated by Noah Z. Jones

Summary: Norman is a goldfish who was given as a gift to a little boy who really did not want a goldfish for a pet. After trying to trade Norman for another pet the little boy starts to realize just how special Norman is and decides to keep him.

Why Read: A fun story about how any pet can be special from the little boy’s point of view. This story can open up conversation about why kids think their pets are special and what kind of pet they would choose if given a chance.





Good Night, Gorilla
Written and illustrated by Peggy Rathmann

Summary: A zoo keeper tucks all the animals in to bed for the night at his zoo. He does not realize that a little gorilla is right behind him letting all the animals out so that they can sleep with the zoo keeper and his wife.

Why Read: This book does not have a lot of words and leaves a lot of the detail of the story up to the reader. It can be a very elaborate or simply told story depending on the reader. I like this book, because it has a lot of artistic detail and the children can tell you their own version of the story if they want to, thus “reading” a book.




Firefighters A to Z
Written and illustrated by Chris L. Demarest

Summary: Goes through the letters of the alphabet, matching each letter to some aspect of fighting fires.

Why Read: Children will enjoy this colorful and detailed booked about fighting fires, while hearing the letters of the alphabet, especially those children that like fire trucks. It brings attention to the need for team work and the bravery of those who fight fires for us.



Franklin's New Friend
Written by Paulette Bourgeouis and Illustrated by Brenda Clark

Summary: A new animal moves into Franklin the turtle’s part of the woods. Franklin when he first sees his new neighbors is scared of them, because they are Moose and very big. Franklin learns to not judge by what an animal looks like, but to accept them for who they are.

Why Read: The story of Franklin learning to overcome his fear and get to know his new neighbor and classmate is very sweet. The book brings attention to the fact it is not what someone looks like that matters and that we all can be friends with someone very different from us. The role that adults play in this book is very good too. They are not condescending or controlling, but offer sound advice to Franklin and try to help him have empathy for Moose, allowing Franklin to make his choice to reach out to Moose and be his friend on his own.

Go Forth and Read,

Naomi

What I've Been Reading

I have been reading the greatest books of late. I love it when I hit a stretch of books that I look back on and can’t find a bad one among them ; I find only good stories that I was sad to leave. I have been wanting to write a blog about the books I’ve read for a long time and realized that it would be wrong of me to put it off any longer and not share these stories with you. I can be such a procrastinator at times; it drives me nuts. Anyway here are the books. Enjoy.

Pride and Prescience by Carrie Bebris
Yes, this is yet another book about the world that Jane Austen created in Pride and Prejudice, one I have to say does a wonderful job following the tone that Austen set in her original story. Pride and Prescience starts at the newly married Darcy’s wedding party and follows them through the first weeks of their marriage as they become involved in a mystery concerning Mr. Bingley’s sister Caroline. I would put this book in the Victorian Cozy Mystery reads, a genre that I find light and fun, even when dealing with some of the supernatural as this one did. I enjoyed this book so much that I went to the library to find book two, Suspense and Sensibility, and enjoyed it as well, though it delved a little more heavily with spiritualism than the first, changing the tone slightly. Still it was a fun read, that I enjoyed.

The Thief Taker by Janet Gleeson
Agnes Meadows a cook for a family of Silversmiths is asked by her employer to help solve a burglary that has taken place, leading her into criminal underworld of 18th century England. I could not put this book down. It felt like I was back in Old England myself with the descriptions of the area and the people. At times I could smell the food that Agnes was cooking or the open sewers of the city. I felt that Gleeson really stayed true to how the people would have behaved, especially the servants towards the employers. My only warning about The Thief Taker is that it can be a bit grisly when a murdered body or two show up. It didn’t bother me, but if one is very sensitive be warned. I can’t wait to read some of Janet Gleeson’s other stories.

A Proper Pursuit by Lynn Austin
Lynn Austin is one of my favorite authors; I have immensely enjoyed all six of her books that I have read. She brings both other times and places alive in her stories while creating wonderful characters that are real in their life and walk with the Lord. I have purposely not read all of her books so that they are there when I’m at a loss of what to read and just want a good book. Silly I know, but fall backs are very important in the literary world. When I first started A Proper Pursuit I was slightly taken aback, because it dealt with a young woman out of finishing school in the 1800’s; like so many other books both Christian and non-Christian that are in the market right now. I almost didn’t read it; what a loss that would have been on my part. Instead of finding a silly book about etiquette fiascos I found a really sweet, charming story about a young woman in search of a mother that she barely remembers. While searching for her mother in Chicago during the Worlds Fair in 1893 with her Grandmother and Great-Aunts in tow Violet Hayes finds more than she bargains for (with one or two fiascos) in suitors and the reality of life. I really enjoyed this coming-of-age story with it’s delightful ending.

The Kommandant's Girl by Pam Jenoff
Emma Bau becomes a spy for the resistance during World War 2 masquerading as a gentile secretary to a high ranking Nazi official. Written in first person this story does not go into a lot of historical detail, but more into the moral decisions and stresses that Emma has to make to help her people against the devastation of the Nazi’s. Her job places her marriage vows and the people that she loves on the line. While I didn’t agree with all the choices that Emma made in her life, I found the story to be interesting, bringing to light situations that I hadn’t thought about concerning World War 2. I don’t think that Pam Jenoff created a really strong, memorable character in Emma, at times I felt that she really didn’t grasp the seriousness of the war and what was going on around her, but then does one really understand what they are in the middle of each day, while trying to survive. Maybe in writing about a character that felt lost, confused, and a bit selfish Pam Jenoff created a real person. For me personally I wouldn’t call this a great book in writing style or characters,but an interesting read all the same.
There are other books that I would like to write about, but I have been catching up on email and other computer stuff all day and am going a little cross eyed. I will have to write more later and share a little about our daily lives too.

Happy Reading,

Naomi