July, 2009

picture book / preschool / toddlers — No Comments
22
Jul 09

REVIEW: Two Little Trains by Margaret Wise Brown

twolittletrains-margaret-wise-brownAfter the success of reading Margaret Wise Brown’s “Goodnight Moon” I was happy to find “Two Little Trains” written by the same author for my No. 1 Thomas the Tank Engine fan.

My toddler was delighted to see that the first few pages had the illustration of a present, which contained a wooden toy train. He immediately said that the wanted a purple present for Christmas – and of course, a train!

“Two Little Trains” is a creative book which features two trains on their individual and parallel journeys “to the West”.

One is a real, modern, express train going up hills, across bridges and through tunnels. Another is a child’s wooden toy train, which mimics the real train’s actual journey throughout the house using various props like:

- the shower for rain in the bathroom,

- the banisters of a flight of stairs for a hill,

- a book propped up horizontally for a tunnel,

- the toy train going through a bowl of grapes, which looked like purple trees…

The trains end their journey at the boy’s bedside when he goes to sleep :-) Personally, I found the ending rather abrupt and had some difficulty adjusting my reading tone to end appropriately with the sudden ending.

I think my toddler was also hanging on for further action LOL

Reading the book again and again with my toddler, I’m amazed at how creative “Two Little Trains” is and how the best children’s books are built out of such simple plot structures! Pure genius…

Rating: ★★★★☆

Yawnnnn…my toddler’s asleep and I think I’m done for the day too. Good night, everyone :-)

Publisher: HarperCollins (September 23, 2003)
ISBN-10: 0064435687
ISBN-13: 978-0064435680

Buy “Two Little Trains” or other books by Margaret Wise Brown:

babies / preschool / toddlers — No Comments
22
Jul 09

REVIEW: Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

goodnight-moon-margaret-wise-brownI was delighted to find this book among the shelves of the library especially as I’ve been seeing it at Borders bookshop since God knows when!

It costs a whopping RM35 I couldn’t bear to buy the book even though it’s a classic. Reading this book with my toddler, I know understand why this book, which was first published in 1947 is still a nursery favourite :-)

The book starts with a little rabbit getting ready for bed in his room. Another rabbit, his mother, sits in a rocking chair at another end of the room.

I think the little rabbit is trying to delay bedtime as long as he can because he goes about wishing “good night” to practically everything in his room!

From the moon, a red balloon, a mouse, a pair of mittens, kittens, socks, telephone, a picture of the cow jumping over the moon etc, the little rabbit is trying to think of everything he could wish good night too until his Mother says “hush!”.

Finally, the little rabbit ends his “good night” routine and falls asleep.

Reading the book together (and he demanded a second and third reading), I noted:
- the objects a toddler would be familiar with,
- the easy rhyme throughout the book and I wasn’t even tired of saying, “good night” again and again LOL,
- the brightly contrasting illustrations (by Clement Hurd) and
- the interspersing of black and white illustrations in between the coloured plates. Interesting!

“Good night Moon” definitely held my toddler’s attention from the beginning till the end. After the third reading, he could even repeat some of the lines himself.

A few days later, he even started his own “good night” routine, which went:
- Good night, TV
- Good night, computer
- Good night, player (DVD player)
- Good night, another player (satellite TV)
- Good night, scooter
- Good night, air-cond
- Good night, clock

Listening to his litany, I think our apartment needs a bit more nature because it certainly sounds like a mini electronic city in here!!!

“Good night Moon” is such an easy and delightful book with a simple storyline, I believe that you could even read it aloud to babies. The book is available in French, Spanish, Hebrew and Hmong (Vietnamese). I’m loving Ms. Margaret Wise Brown a lot :-)

Rating: ★★★★★

# Publisher: HarperFestival (August 2, 1991)
# ISBN-10: 0694003611
# ISBN-13: 978-0694003617

Buy books by Margaret Wise Brown on Amazon:

Adult / Guidebook / pre-teen / teens — No Comments
19
Jul 09

REVIEW: Bobbi Brown Teenage Beauty

Bobbi Brown Teenage BeautyIf you’re shopping for a nice, thoughtful present for a pre-teen or teenage girl, check out “Bobbi Brown Teenage Beauty” because it’s a *great* book for teenage girls.

“Bobbi Brown Teenage Beauty: Everything You Need to Look Pretty, Natural, Sexy and Awesome” is a handy reference of about 200 pages with:

  • glossy pictures of teenage girls of all face shapes, hair colours, shapes and sizes,
  • a foreword by Brooke Shields (Calvin Klein supermodel) on being a teenager – she wasn’t as popular in high school as she was on the big screen,

    A great quote: “I wish I spent more time just being me. Now I get it: It’s okay to try to fit in as long as you don’t compromise who you are.”

    (It’s famously known that Brooke Shields doesn’t allow any make-up artist to trim down her trademark thick eyebrows)

  • 10 Basic Rules of Teen Beauty – great tips on basic skincare and make-up,
  • the perfect make-up kit,
  • individual sections on zits (pimples), eyes, blusher, lips, body types, prom beauty, braces, hair, preteen beauty and lots, lots more!

I was an “early teenager”, which means I got my period (and everything else) at 11 years old.

I didn’t have an acne problem but I did have a shiny T-zone (combination skin…) and the awful once-a-month giant pimple that pops up in the middle of my nose or forehead, which made me look and feel like a witch.

I had thick, wavy hair while almost everyone around me had thin, straight hair.

I was also short and plump.

In other words, life as a pre-teen and a teenager was a mix of good and bad…

Luckily, my Mum, who is a beautician, started me off on basic skincare and was also incredibly patient when I went on crazy crash diets and exercise regimes.

I also had many beauty books and piles and piles of Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Women’s Weekly, Harper’s Bazaar, Female, Her World magazines to flip through…

But I would have found “Bobbi Brown Teenage Beauty” really useful because she talks about:

  • not feeling “pretty” and wanting to look like the supermodels in fashion magazines (e.g. wanting to have straight hair when you have wavy hair!),
  • glamming up for prom night…err, I think I overdid my eye make-up (experimented with the smudged look) and also went overboard a bit with the black theme all the guys called me ‘The Black Widow’,
  • African, Latin, Asian beauty and global (mixed-parentage) beauty – At around 20 or so, I realized that I had more of a ‘Latin’ look instead of an ‘Asian’ look. From then on, I focused on beauty, skincare and haircare products that’s best for me. Of course, I started getting “you’re kind of pretty, you know” comments then :-)
  • ‘So…You Want to be a Model’ – real world tips and advice from an ultra-experienced make-up artist (All teenage girls want to be taken seriously and will appreciate useful information),
  • runway secrets – the coolest tricks of the trade on how Bobbi Brown transforms models who have hangovers, late nights, bad hair days into the gorgeous girls on fashion shows.

The best part of the book is that Bobbi Brown brings out the best in you (boosting a girl’s confidence) instead of trying to make you look like someone else.

When you look at the ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos, you’ll see that she highlights each girl’s best feature and leave them looking naturally beautiful.

Even if the book was meant for teenagers, I think ANY girl or woman would benefit from reading this book. I’m definitely looking out for it…

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