picture book

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:

Early readers / picture book / preschool / toddlers — 4 Comments
8
Jul 09

REVIEW: The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss

the-cat-in-the-hat-by-dr-seuss“The Cat in the Hat” and “The Cat in the Hat Comes Back” were two of the books I’d lined up in our home library. Recently, my toddler asked me to read “The Cat in the Hat”.

“The Cat in the Hat” starts off with a boy and his sister, Sally stuck at home alone on a rainy day with nothing to do. As they sit staring out of the window, a Cat with a hat walks in and promises the kids “lots of good fun that is funny” and “good games we could play”.

The kids’ pet fish senses trouble and tries to advise the children to chase the Cat away but the cunning Cat stays on and starts his tricks:

  • balancing on a ball;
  • balancing an umbrella, the pet fish, a book, a cup and saucer, a cake and MORE and MORE things!

Of course, they soon come tumbling down creating a big mess…But the Cat introduces Thing 1 and Thing 2 who “help” to clean up…

Review: My boy *loved* watching the Cat balance the various items and got excited at the HUGE mess and of course, the two Things who cause even more havoc around the house.

As he learned the words of various things found around the house, he also learned about keeping his playthings back where they belong and tidying things up.

The best is that Dr. Seuss has managed to turn this simple children’s adventure into such an educational and fun story to read!

THE CAT IN THE HAT COMES BACK

the-cat-in-the-hat-comes-back-by-dr-seussThe boy and his sister, Sally are asked by their Mother to help shovel snow off the driveway when the Cat shows up and tells them to continue with what they are doing – HE’s going into the house to “find something to do” O_O

The Cat ends up eating a cake in the bath tub with the water running! The boy chases the Cat out of the tub, only to find a PINK ring all around it. What’s worse, the Cat takes the Mother’s dress to clean the ring…

The rest of the story deals with how the Cat and and his troop of 26 “Little Cats” (named letters A – Z) tried to get rid of the PINK stain which spreads itself all over the house and the compound.

Review: Another exciting adventure with the Cat minus the Fish. Here, the book goes through letters of the alphabet and being responsible on their own.

My boy seemed to identify with the boy in the book because he was horrified too when the Cat used the Mother’s dress to clean the spot and also when the pink spot jumped from one place to another and grew so humongous that even the snow in the yard was PINK!

I think he felt as relieved as the kids were when the Cat restored the snow to its original, clean white :-)

Rating: ★★★★☆

Fantastic children’s books! Grab a copy from my Amazon Bookstore

picture book / preschool / toddlers — No Comments
21
May 09

REVIEW: Sadie’s Sore Throat by Dr. Charlotte Cowan

sadies-sore-throat-charlotte-cowan “Sadie’s Sore Throat” was the third Dr. Hippo book my toddler picked up after reading “The Little Elephant with the Big Earache” and The Moose with Loose Poops.

I think he was attracted by the brightly illustrated cover (by Katy Bratun) and the three giraffes (or gee-wuffs).

The story of “Sadie’s Sore Throat” begins with little Sadie who is beading for her School Art Fair while her little brother, Barley (?) plays with his toy aeroplane.

Sadie, Barley and Mom talk about handicrafts they can make when Mom notices that Sadie didn’t eat her snack or drink her favourite orange juice. Oh no, Sadie has a sore throat!

The story gets interesting because Sadie is quite an assertive girl (or giraffe).

  • She balks at taking medicine because her throat is sore;
  • Although she has a fever, she refuses to see the paediatrician, Dr. Hippo and
  • She mentions that her “tummy hurts too” when Mom tells the doc what’s wrong.

The story ends happily with Sadie spending the day at Grandma’s house and gets well enough to finish her “secret” project for competition at the Art Fair.

He loved the book because he could identify with many familiar situations in the story:

  • having a sore throat – he had a really BAD one last summer where he lost his voice;
  • refusing to listen to Mummy when told to go somewhere…
  • the FUN waiting room and the paediatrician’s office – crayons, books, tacked drawings, jigsaw puzzles, lots of toys but interestingly, he didn’t recognize the train wedged in the toy box (when he woefully pointed out, “NO train…”, I said “See, there’s a train in the toy box!” but he disagreed. He said, “It’s not a train. It’s a house!”  Uh-oh…
  • laughing and imitating Sadie when she sticks out her tongue;
  • getting stickers from the doctor;
  • balloons and boat rides at the fair and
  • of course the PURPLE popsicles!!!

For me, I find the “Simplifying Sore Throats” guide for parents really helpful especially as Dr. Cowan points out that antibiotics only work for BACTERIA and not on viruses.

I thought this was great especially as doctors in some countries tend to prescribe antibiotics as if they are candy or sweets.

I love “Sadie’s Sore Throat” because Sadie has a little brother, Barley, which was great to prepare my child the idea of having a brother or a sister :-)

I think little girls will like this book because it’s got a strong arts and crafts theme throughout the story.

Rating: ★★★½☆

Check out Dr. Cowan’s series of Dr. Hippo books:

← Older Entries
Related Posts Widget for Blogs by LinkWithin