Turn The Key: Around Town

Book: Turn The Key: Around Town

Author: Julie Merberg

Illustrator: Lucinda McQueen

Publisher: Downtown Bookworks

Pages: 12 (Board Book)

Rating: 5 Stars

Turn the Key: Around Town is a different type of “lift the flap” book. The board book takes a child on a journey around the town making stops at the local toy shop, the supermarket, the park and other familiar places. The book comes with a key attached to it and the child uses it at each location to unlock the door and see the area in more detail.

What is so great about this book is that you can “lock” the flap so a child cannot rip it off! It is written in rhyme and the pictures are warm and inviting. Children will get excited about turning the key to open the door and feel a sense of accomplishment when they lock it back up. The book is also an excellent tool for building vocabulary skills. Children can name all of the animals, toys, objects and foods that they see throughout the book. 

Thank You Ryland Peters and Small!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the marketing team at Ryland Peters and Small Inc. for the BEAUTIFUL baby book! I cannot wait to fill it in with all of my son's special moments and pictures, and to track his height using his new growth chart! This is such a wonderful baby gift for any expectant mother or for someone who just had a child. The pictures, illustrations, and color scheme are so well done you will want one for every child you know!

Great Father's Day Gift Ideas For Dad and Grandpa!

Book: I Love You Dad...And All The Things You Say and Do

Author: Susan Akass

Illustrator: Hannah George

Publisher: Cico Books

Pages: 64

Rating: 5 Stars


People are always looking for new ways to say “I Love You” to the people they appreciate the most in life. This is the perfect Father’s Day or birthday gift for Dad! Some of the one - liners are adorable, “You have huge feet and I love wearing your shoes”, while others are as true as can be: “When I fall asleep in the car, you carry me to bed”. Whether it is playing in the park, helping with homework or just spending time together, this is the perfect way to show your appreciation to your favorite dear old DAD. (To share my favorite page with my own Daddy: “I’ve seen you sneak into the kitchen and steal cookies”.) They say anyone can be a father, but not everyone can be a Dad. Here is a unique way to show your dad he is not just your father. The book also contains a bookmark attached to it with a line to fill out a giver and receiver’s name as well as a blank page with five empty lines to personalize the gift. The illustrations compliment the text and I know it will serve as the perfect present on Sunday!

Book: I Love You Grandpa

Author: Susan Akass

Illustrator: Hannah George

Publisher: Cico Books

Pages: 64

Rating: 5 Stars

Does your Grandpa do magic tricks? Make great sandwiches? Take you on trips to the beach, museum or the park? Does your Papa take videos of you doing cute and funny things or teach you how to read maps? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this book is a must for the Grandfather in your life! With colorful and warm illustrations, there is no better way to tell Grandpa that you love everything he does with you! Tell your Grandfather he is the best this Father’s Day or on his birthday with this adorable book! The book has an attached bookmark to personalize who it is to and from as well as five empty lines on the last page. I cannot wait for my son to give this to his Grandpa on Father’s Day this Sunday!

BOY + BOT

Book: Boy + Bot

Author: Ame Dyckman

Illustrator: Dan Yaccarino

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Pages: 26

Grade Level: Preschool and up
Rating: 5 Stars

Boy + Bot is the story of a friendship between a little boy and a robot. When the robot accidentally gets shut off, the boy thinks the robot is sick and tries to make him better. When the boy is sleeping, the robot thinks the boy is broken and tries to “fix” him. This is an adorable book about camaraderie for the techno-savvy children of the 21^st century.

This is such an excellent picture book for children of all ages! The message of true friendship is always important, but the way the boy and the robot try to make each other better is absolutely adorable! The boy uses techniques that a toddler will recognize as a way they are taken care of when they are sick (being fed applesauce, being read a story and being tucked into bed), while the robot’s methods for helping the boy will appeal to any child with battery operated toys (reading the boy an instruction manual, bringing him a spare battery, etc). The vibrant pictures truly bring the text to life and I would highly recommend this book to anyone who values friendship.

Merits of Mischief: The Bad Apple

Book: Merits of Mischief: The Bad Apple

Author: T.R. Burns

Publisher: Aladdin

Pages: 352

Grade Level: 4th and up

Rating: 3 Stars

In the first book of the Merits of Mischief series, Seamus Hinkle, a 12 year old kills his substitute teacher and is sent to Kilter Academy, what his parents believe is a reform school for troubled youth. However, Seamus quickly realizes that Kilter is a school where the more trouble you make the better student you are considered to be. Gold stars are viewed negatively, and the children of the school try to cause as much difficulty for their teachers as they possibly can. All Seamus wants to do is to improve his ways and go back home, but he soon realizes his mishaps make him a brilliant troublemaker. What is a boy to do?

What greater premise for a story than a boy who gets in trouble at school get sent to a school for troublemakers where the bigger the mess you make the better your student ranking? While I loved the basis of this book, I thought it had a strong beginning and ending with a very monotonous middle. I found some of Seamus’ classmates uninteresting and at points the story became dull. The plot picked up at the very end with the perfect cliffhanger for the second book in this series. Any child who has ever been reprimanded by a teacher in a classroom will be able to appreciate the story.  I would add it to a library collection but I do not think this book was particularly well written and hope the sequel is better than The Bad Apple. 

Tracks

 

Book: Tracks

Author: Diane Lee Wilson

Publisher: McElderry Books

Pages: 288

Grade Level: 5th and up

Rating: 3 Stars

Tracks is the story of a young Irish boy, Malachy Gormley, who leaves his family in New York to work on building the transcontinental railroad in California. Once he begins this adventure, he sees how different the Chinese immigrant workers are treated, and along with his horse, Blind Thomas, and his dog Brina, Malachy learns life lessons in hard work, honesty, and integrity.

I really wanted to love this book. I love historical fiction and this book is set in a time period not written about often, and the author does an excellent job of portraying the prejudices of the time and how hard building the railroad truly was. However, I felt that book was a little too detailed in the harsh winter and so much of the book was descriptive of scenery I was looking for more dialogue. Certain scenes really captured my attention, like when Malachy becomes a big gambler and has a personal debate whether or not to send his wages home to help his family or risk it all playing poker, but for the majority of the book I was bored. If a teacher is teaching about Chinese immigration in the United States and needs a supplementary text, I would suggest this book because you can capture the essence of the unfairness and how the Chinese were mistreated, and maybe the class would appreciate the book and relate to it better than I did. I felt Malachy was a weak character and remained a boy the entire journey instead of evolving into a stronger young adult, but then again, at a time when young boys were lying about their ages to help their families and enter the work force, maybe I expect more from Malachy when he was merely acting his age.

City of Orphans

Book: City of Orphans

Author: Avi

Illustrator: Greg Ruth

Publisher: Atheneum Books For Young Readers

Pages: 350

Grade Level: 5th and up

Rating: 5 Stars

At the end of the Nineteenth century, the streets of New York were flooded with Newsies, young boys selling the daily newspaper.  Maks, a thirteen year old boy sells his copies of The World to help support his immigrant family. He is in constant fear of being attacked by the Plug Uglies, a gang that harasses Newsies, which is how he meets Willa, a young girl who comes to aid Maks when he is assaulted. When Maks’ sister Emma is accused of stealing from a guest at the Waldorf hotel, Maks and Willa take on the case with the help of a sickly lawyer to save her from jail time. Avi recreates old New York with a complete sense of how poor and difficult tenement life was for immigrants.

I read this book right after I saw the Disney movie Newsies, which takes place around the same year with a similar premise focusing on the Newsies in Old New York. The two are perfect companions for any class learning the history of New York. Avi is an amazing writer of historical fiction, and truly transports the reader to the time and place he is writing about. If you have seen the movie, you MUST read this book! And if you have read the book, you will definitely enjoy the movie immensely!