Showing posts with label young children's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label young children's. Show all posts

Saturday, April 11, 2020

Mara the Space Traveler by An Leysen


Rating: WORTHY!

From an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

Here lies another children's picture book mangled by Amazon! I cannot understand at all why any publisher would want to release this in a Kindle version, not even just for review. If there's one thing that Amazon's crappy Kindle conversion process does with utter reliability, it's that it totally mangles anything that's not plain vanilla text. This is one of many reasons reason I refuse to do business with Amazon. The Kindle version of this was chopped, shredded, julienned, and sliced and diced until the story was out of order and made no sense. Even on a iPad, the images were reliably out of order and sliced in half, and not vertical so they would have at least followed the pages, but horizontally, so it was impossible to read. Some of the text was so small that it was blurred out of legibility.

Fortunately, in both Bluefire Reader and Adobe Digital Editions it looked perfectly fine. Originally published as "Mauro de Ruimtereiziger" by Belgian artist and writer An Leysen, this is now available in English. It's beautifully illustrated (in the non-Kindle versions) and tells the thought adventure of Mara, who travels in a helicopter-like spaceship to a distant planet inhabited by little reptilian creatures of the forest. Their habitat is being threatened by the thoughtless and selfish sun-king who is drying up everything and turning it into desert under the guise of providing sunlight to everyone. Mara manages to defeat him by engaging with the water dwellers, and then she's off to another adventure!

This story was short and gorgeously illustrated, and very charming. I commend it as a worthy read.


Ella Has A Plan by Davina Hamilton, Elena Reinoso


Rating: WORTHY!

From an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

This is the second book I've enjoyed by this team of writer Hamilton, and artist Reinoso. Told poetically, this story features Ella, who has a problem in that cousins Taye and Jade just do not seem to be able to get along. The last thing Ella wanted was to have her mom's big day spoiled. She consulted mom about it and mom referred her to great grandad Frank, who had a similar problem many years before and solved it in a highly original manner.

Before she can learn what that solution was, Ella finds herself having to quickly come up with one of her own, which she does, and it works a treat I love a story with a strong female character. Young Adult authors could learn a lot from reading this book! LOL! I commend this for a fun story, sweet text, and engaging illustrations.


Mop Rides the Waves of Life by Jaimal Yogis, Matthew Allen


Rating: WORTHY!

From an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

Mop is the nickname of a young surfer dude who has some issues with his fellow kids. Written by Yogis, and illustrated charmingly by Allen, the short book tells in a straight-forward way of how Mop learned to be more mindful of his behavior and his reactions to the behavior of others.

I've said this before many times and I feel compelled to say it again here: I honestly cannot for the life of me understand why any publisher would want to release a picture book in a Kindle version, not even just for review. If there's one thing that Amazon's crappy Kindle conversion process does with utter reliability, it's that it totally mangles anything that's not plain vanilla text. This is one of many reasons I refuse to do business with Amazon. The Kindle version of this was mangled. Even on an iPad, the images and text were out of sync, although the images, amazingly, were at least not sliced in half like they had been in an earlier children's book I reviewed, but still, in this case, parts of the text were omitted altogether in Amazon's crappy Kindle app.

Fortunately in both Adobe Digital Editions and in Bluefire Reader, they appeared fine, and with the correct text next to the picture it related to! So I was able to follow Mop to school, watch him play four square (whatever that is! I'd never heard of it!) with his friend and get into an argument during which he pushed his friend into the sand box. One has to wonder where the teacher supervision as during this time! But his anger issues are not improved by his giving vent to them, so during a surfing trip with his mom - which was a nice touch - he learns a valuable live lesson, and he turns his life around before it gets out of control.

I've read a couple of (grown-up) mindfulness books myself recently and so I can understand where this is coming from and get with it. It's a good idea and a useful tool for managing potentially difficult or troubled children, and I commend this as a worthy read.


Plastic Soup by Judith Koppens, Andy Engel, Nynke Mare Talsma


Rating: WORTHY!

From an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

I cannot for the life of me understand why any publisher would want to release this in a Kindle version, not even just for review. If there's one thing that Amazon's crappy Kindle conversion process does with utter reliability, it's that it totally mangles anything that's not plain vanilla text. This is one of many reasons I refuse to do business with Amazon. The Kindle version was chopped, shredded, julienned, and sliced and diced until the story was out of order and made no sense. Even on a iPad, the images were reliably out of order and sliced in half, and not vertical so they would have at least followed the pagination, but horizontally, so it was impossible to read.

Fortunately I have more than one reader app option, and in both Adobe Digital Editions and Bluefire Reader, the book was beautiful: colorful, the illustrations charming, the text brief but informative, and the story well done. The story, written by Nederlander Judith Koppens, and Andy Engel, and illustrated by Nynke Mare Talsma, whose middle name appropriately means 'sea', is of course, the appalling amount of plastic that's in use today, far too much of which gets into the ocean.

It not only gets there in the form of bags and bottles and other large items, it also gets there - and this understandably isn't covered in this story - in the form of micro plastics, some of which is even now probably in the table salt you have in your kitchen. It's a disgrace, a menace, and a health hazard for every living thing, and everything we can do to educate and warn about this is to be commended, which is why I commend this as a worthy and educational read.


Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Dinosnores by Sandra Boynton


Rating: WORTHY!

How can you not love a children's author who carries a name like Sandra Boynton? It's not possible! LOL! This was a cute and colorful rhyming book about dinosaurs and bedtime. It was short and simple, and fun and sweet and might just work to get your kid to sleep! On that basis I commend it as a worthy try at least!

Saturday, March 28, 2020

Hey Black Child by Useni Eugene Perkins, Bryan Collier


Rating: WORTHY!

Written well by Perkins and illustrated finely by Collier, this book sends positive messages and comforting affirmations to young black children, reassuring them that they can do and be whatever they dream of if they stay the course. It's a good message to send, especially at times like these when people are feeling despairing, fearful, and lonely.

Sometimes I have mixed feelings about books like these because there are no white people or people of any other race depicted here, so in that sense it's racist. Books like this need to be more inclusive, but given the important message it's trying to send, I was willing to overlook that on this occasion, so I commend it as a worthy read.


What a Wonderful World by Bob Thiele, George David Weiss, Tim Hopgood


Rating: WORTHY!

I liked this because it was something different. The words are taken from the song by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss that was written for Louis Armstrong and released in 1967. It was a huge hit in the UK, although not so much in the US where the idiot owner of the company Armstrong has just signed for, refused to promote the song! He was wanting another "Hello Dolly." Moron. They had to lock him out of the recording studio because he was so disruptive!

Illustrated by Hopgood, the book is just the kind of reassuring, feelgood book the world needs at times like these, and I commend it as a worthy read.


Good Night Biscuit by Alyssa Satin Capucilli, Pat Schories


Rating: WORTHY!

Biscuit is the ultimate clinging and OCD puppy. He won't go to bed unless everything is just so. He needs the bed plumped up, his blankie, his doll, a goodnight story, a goodnight kiss...and then he wants to start over again! In fact, he really takes the biscuit. Hopefully though, by the time you've read this book to your child, the child will be snoring little kiddie snores and fast asleep and you won't have to go through all this stuff! The book was charming: simply-written by Capucilli, and nicely-illustrated by Shoires. I commend it as a worthy read.


Love You Forever by Robert Munsch, Sheila McGraw


Rating: WARTY!

This was a bizarre pasteboard children's book about a creepy mother who treats her child like a baby even when he's a grown adult. It was entirely inappropriate and I can't believe it was ever published as a children's book. Shame on Firefly Books. This is more like a Stephen King horror story than a book about love.

it starts out perfectly fine with a new mother loving her child, but as the child grows older she becomes more like a stalker than a mom. She spies on her child, as a teen, sleeping in his room - opening the door without permission to watch him in bed. When he moves to his own house, she literally breaks in a cradles him, sitting on his bed? WTF? This book is a sickness in print. Stay way from it if you don't want to warp you child.


Wednesday, March 18, 2020

The Bees by DC Swain, Anna Bonita


Rating: WORTHY!

Written poetically by Swain and illustrated charmingly by Bonita, this is a somewhat fanciful and quite short story of a bee's day, from waking up to heading out to play and then getting down to work of gathering pollen, but first the hive must be defended from an overly inquisitive dog!

The story is playful and entertaining, and colorful. Before this, the author was batting a .66 with me, but he's now edged up to a .75, because I liked this book and commend it as a worthy read.


Thursday, February 27, 2020

Harriet Tubman Conductor on the Underground Railroad by Ann Petry


Rating: WORTHY!

Adopting the same title as an earlier book: " Harriet Tubman, Conductor on the Underground Railroad" by Earl Conrad, this is a middle-grade book about America's first super hero. Forget Captain America. He's fiction. Tubman was the real thing. In many ways, as this book reveals, it's insulting to use the name she's most commonly known by. Harriet Tubman was born in slavery as Araminta Ross, and as a child was known as Minty. She became Harriet Tubman when she married John Tubman, who was a free man, and who had no interest in moving north with Harriet so she could be free as well. When she started talking seriously about running, he threatened to turn her in!

She decided to go anyway, but feeling bad for those she'd left behind, she became 'Moses' as she was known back then - a conductor on an underground railroad - which some had thought was a real railroad, really underground! Today she'd be known as a mule, but that often has negative connotations. There was nothing negative about Harriet, who was both physically and mentally strong, independent, determined, and who became expert in avoiding authorities, hiding out, reading the lie of the land, and successfully ferrying people to freedom.

The pro-slavery crowd thought Moses was a guy, but it was Harriet leading people to the promise land of the free north. She began freeing her family, but when she came for John, he was already shacked-up with another woman and had no interest in Harriet. Despite set-backs like this, she continued to free her family and many others, and over a dozen trips or so, delivered three-score and ten people safely to the north. She worked in winter, when nights were longest, and she would bring them out late on Saturdays, so the newspapers would not be able to print notices of their escape until the following Monday, giving them plenty of time to move.

When the civil war began, she was of course on the Union side, initially working as a cook and a nurse, and later as a scout. She personally guided the raid at Combahee Ferry that freed ten times as many slaves as she herself had conducted north. After the war she was thanked for this in no way at all, and had to eke-out an existence by selling fruit and vegetables she farmed, and from the proceeds of two books which were written about her by a friend who wanted to help her. The union would not pay her a pension, and the only income she had was the pension her new husband - a man by the name of Davis - earned because of his role in the war. This helped to sustain her after he died prematurely of tuberculosis.

Tubman herself died in 1913 having lived to a ripe old age - probably her early nineties. I fully commend this book as a worthy read and a great introduction to a real hero.


Thursday, February 20, 2020

Let's Fly a Plane by Chris Ferrie


Rating: WORTHY!

From an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

Friends, red kangaroos, children, lend me your engineers! Having just seen Fantasy Island at the movie theater, (the plane the plane - yes they did use that phrase and the movie was great!), how could I not want to review this book with such a bold and maybe even a teensy bit reckless title?

This was a short and fun little book about a kangaroo who wants to fly, but who can't seem to get off the ground. She seeks out author Chris Ferrie who has a doctorate in applied mathematics and who is a senior lecturer at the University of Technology in Sydney. Dr Chris explains the four forces involved in flight (drag, gravity, lift - or was it Uber? - no it was lift!, and thrust), and does so in simple terms. The lift component to flight is the one that's most often misunderstood, even in textbooks, but the explanations here are kept simple and straight-forward.

Red Kangaroo still can't manage to propel herself into the air, but she gets to fly in an airplane! This was a colorful and easy book, useful for introducing young children to a complicated idea without straining young minds. Hopefully a few who read this will become engineers and make some wonderful things because their interest in science was piqued by books like this one, I commend it as a worthy read.


Sunday, February 16, 2020

Little Joe Chickapig by Brian Calhoun, Pat Bradley


Rating: WORTHY!

Written by Calhoun and illustrated by the author and Bradley, this book tells the quest of Little Joe, who is a chickapig: part chick, part pig, who lives on a farm and has ambitious dreams of going on quests, having adventures and even maybe fighting pirates. The pig part seems to be just his nose and ears, but that's not important. It takes a long and winding tale to set him straight about who inspires who to follow their dreams and the tale comes right back home at the end. I thought this was amusingly-illustrated, well-told (in rhyme yet!) and was a wonderful story. I commend it as a worthy read.


What Makes a Hero by Pamela Bobwicz, Eda Kaban


Rating: WORTHY!

Written by Bobwicz and illustrated by Kaban, this was a cute book and a good idea: having female heroes from the Marvel stable advising young children about what makes a real hero - and it isn't a costume and a cape, or super powers. In this era of intolerance, rudeness, name-calling, boorishness, misogyny, homophobia, dishonesty, self-serving power-grabbing, and general disregard for rules and common decency (and we all know where that buck stops), it's important to remember that decent behavior and consideration of others are super powers! I commend this book as a worthy read.


Saturday, February 15, 2020

A Beginner's Projects in Coding by Marc Scott, Mick Marston


Rating: WORTHY!

From an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

This book certainly isn't written for me, since my programming, while far from stellar is a bit more advanced than is taught here, but guess what? This isn't aimed at me. Who knew?! Seriously, it's written for any young children (or even adults who want to learn) who've never programmed in their life, and for that purpose, it's perfect.

Written clearly by Scott, and colorfully (and amusingly!) illustrated by Marston, it starts out with an explanation of what coding is and why it's important, before introducing users to the Internet-accessible MIT programming language called 'Scratch'. It advises how to log in (don't use your own name and do pick a pass phrase that's easy for you to remember rather than a complicated password). From then on, the child can assemble easy, but effective and entertaining programs like putting together a jigsaw - but simpler!

The programs can ask questions and provide answers, and even do some animation. Later the book talks about a next-level programming language called Python which is actually a professional language, but available for free and quite simple to learn especially if you've used Scratch beforehand, and got a feel for how programs are put together.

Python (which was named after the BBC TV show Monty Python's Flying Circus, but don't let that scare you!) is quickly installed on your computer so no web access or login is required once it's installed, and it's also quite simple - as long as you follow the step-by-step instructions given here. It can do a lot more than can Scratch and is perfect for young programmers wanting to spread their wings.

The book is bright, easy, and helpful, with lots of good advice, hints, and tips, and it even has a few words about web page programming too, which is a fun and useful thing to learn. I loved this book and commend it as a useful tool and a worthy read.


Small Matters by Heather Ferranti Kinser


Rating: WORTHY!

From an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

If the fact that bumble bees have hairy eyeballs grosses you out, then this book is not for you! Not that bees really have eyeballs as such, but you know what I mean. The book literally zooms in on animals and finds things that are too small to be seen with the unaided eye.

I don't know about you, but for me, some books are way too long. This was too short, because it was over before I felt fully-satisfied by these truly engaging images and revelations. I wanted more, but for a much younger child than me, it's probably the ideal length. It educates young children to the unseen world, and encourages them to realize that there is much below the surface to fascinate and learn. I don't doubt that the lessons taught here will be as useful in preparing us for learning about fellow humans as they are in learning about the animals presented here, from all walks - and slithers an flights - of life.

In some thirty pages, we meet a sea-snail, a shark, a butterfly, a bird or two, a snake, an insect or two, and others that each has a microscopic secret to success. For example, I'm sure many of you know that a gecko has a sort of 'suction pad' on its feet that help it climb the walls, but the details of exactly how this works are really interesting - and it's not really a suction pad! Each creature we visit here has a similar script about some aspect of its life. It turns out that 'small matters' are big deals! I found it fascinating and educational and I commend this as a worthy read.


Follow Those Zebras by Sandra Markle


Rating: WORTHY!

From an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

This book was definitely a worthy read. I mean who's doesn't love a zebra - and here's a British joke: who doesn't appreciate a zebra crossing?! This is about Zebras crossing scores of miles of terrain (when they're allowed to with farm fences not getting in their way). A herd (sometimes known as a zeal of zebras!) of some 2,000 animals, would disappear periodically and return just as seemingly magically.

No one knew where they went or why, so they fitted collars to some o the mares (who fight less, of course, than the stallions do, so they're much less likely to damage a collar) to track them by satellite. They made some interesting discoveries, and in the light of climate change, a scary discovery, too.

The book for me was a bit too prolix. The 44 pages could have been cut by maybe a quarter and still presented a solid and educational book, but I'm not going to bring it down because it had a few extra pages of zebra pictures, including some young 'guns. The story it told was very educational: scientistic and informative, and it handsomely explained what was happening, so I commend this one as a worthy read.


Beijing: A Symmetrical City by Dawu Yu


Rating: WARTY!

From an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

I found this book to be highly dissatisfying. I imagine it was not designed as an ebook, but that's all a reviewer like me ever has to judge it by, and it was less than stellar. It was also quite confusing and left me in the dark much of the time. Some of the text was misleading. For example, at one point when discussing the front entrance to the Forbidden City, the text mentions the "U-shaped Noon Gate" but all of the gates in the illustration are rectangular! The previous illustration had U-shaped gates (or more accurately, n-shaped!), so i couldn't tell if the text was wrong, the illustration was wrong, or if I was simply misunderstanding what was being said, or what. I'd specify a page number, but there were no page numbers in the book, which was another problem, at least for reviewing purposes.

Note that the book was 'adapted' whatever that means (I assume because of the fact that Chinese and English texts flow in different ways, but I may be wrong about that), by Yan Liu, and translated by Crystal Tai, so it's entirely possible that something got lost long the way. The illustrations by the author are meticulous and colorful, but they're very busy and it's often hard to distinguish exactly what's being talked about. Plus I have no idea what gender the author is. It's irrelevant to the review, except in that I can't use 'he' or 'she' to I'll stick with 'they' or something equally neutral.

There was a guide in the back of the book which highlighted greyscale drawings with colors to indicate specific parts of earlier illustrations. If only those had been included along with the text, it would have been a big improvement! It didn't help to have them in the back - and especially not in an ebook because unlike with a print book, it's a nightmare trying to go back and forth in a ebook and keep your place readily.

Some of the illustrations were oddly chopped-up, too. For example, regarding the aforementioned Forbidden City issue, this was also where it looked like one image had become trapped behind another, so maybe the text was right, but the image it referred to had become hidden behind the next image or mangled or something. But there were other issues, and again the transition point seemed to be they Forbidden City page.

Initially (and I was reading this in Adobe Digital Editions on an iPad FYI) there was one page per screen, but in landscape mode, it was possible to slide the image across and see a seamless 'full-page spread' as it were, whereas other images had a vertical white line down the screen marking the page transition. Right after the Forbidden City page though, the layout changed so that double page spreads were included on one screen, making them much too small in portrait mode, and comfortably visible only in landscape.

Again, this is not a problem you would have with a print edition, but publishers insist on sending out only ebook version for review unless you happen to be a top tier reviewer. What this means is that books can get electronically-mangled and publishers all-too-often fail to make sure the book is readable. This clearly happened here, but even ignoring all of that, the book as still confusing and sometimes indecipherable, and frankly I disagreed with the premise that Beijing - even ancient Beijing - is symmetrical. At least if it is, the author failed to convince me! I found the book not acceptable, and I cannot commend it as a worthy read.


Friday, February 14, 2020

Search and Find Unicorns by Georgie Taylor, Maaike Boot


Rating: WORTHY!

Written by Taylor and illustrated by Boot, this book seems designed to endlessly entertain. The deal is that there's a hidden unicorn on each page that can only be discovered by 'painting' the page with water! Once the water dries, the magical unicorn disappears, and so it remains to be discovered again next time. Each illustration contains a clue as to what to look for.

It seems to me that a book like this will not only be magical to a child, but will encourage confidence and perhaps draw-out (so to speak!) a budding artist. Yes, I'm coloring up after such a bad pun. I commend this one as a worthy read.


French Fairy Tales by Jennifer Afron


Rating: WARTY!

This book for young children was a bit bland and boring. Perhaps young children might find it interesting, but I prefer my fairytales with a bit more oomph than these four or so very short, but illustrated stories pretend to. Although very colorfully and entertainingly depicted, these stories didn't really seem to have much of an ending, to say nothing of teaching a moral. Aargh! I said to say nothing of it and then I went right ahead and said it! Oh well....