Posts Tagged: transport

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:

preschool / toddlers — No Comments
8
Jun 09

REVIEW: The Trucks are Stuck by Judy Sierra and Will Hillenbrand

preschool-to-the-rescue-by-judy-sierra-and-will-hillenbrand My 3 year absolutely LOVES this book!

And I can’t get over how I’d just grabbed “The Trucks are Stuck” (originally published as Preschool to the Rescue) off the shelf after a quick browse – adding it to our check-out pile when I saw the lively illustrations, fairly sure my Bob the Builder fan will enjoy reading about trucks etc.

While I’d browsed through the bookshelves, Hubby read it with him once in the library but little did I know that he was hooked to the book!

Thus, when he kept asking for the “mud book” while Hubby was napping, I didn’t know which book he was referring to :P Silly Mummy, right?

This cute story starts off with a

“sleepy, creepy, deeper-than-you-think mud puddle”

and how various vehicles i.e. a pizza van, a police car, a fire engine, a tow truck and a backhoe gets stuck in the mud puddle one after another.

Finally, a group of preschoolers run out to rescue the stuck trucks and that’s when you (the adult) realize the twist in the story :-)

The preschoolers get each of the truck out of the mud in creative, different ways and have a good time in the end making mud pies, mud cookies, mud muffins and mud pizzas.

I will have very, very fond memories of this book because it’s the FIRST book my toddler has attempted to “read”. He’d yell:

“Police car to the rescue!” (and etc)

at the appropriate parts and simply loves reading this book again and again and again.

If your child loves trucks or playing in the mud, you MUST get this book for him/her. It’s a really, really fun book to read out loud :-)

Rating: ★★★★★

Preschool to the Rescue by Judy Sierra and Will Hillenbrand
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN: 0-439-39621-2

picture book / preschool / toddlers — No Comments
18
May 09

REVIEW: My Race Car by Michael Rex

my-race-car-by-michael-rex Lucas picked this book off the library shelf himself and Hubby and I must have read this book at least 3 times a week last month.

“My Race Car” begins with a little boy playing with his race cars in the room and then he imagines himself at a real stock car race. The book is great because it shows

  • how a racecar driver suits himself up,
  • how the team supports him,
  • how accidents can happen in a race and
  • other interesting facts behind a race e.g. the protective “cage” of the car, the average speed of a race car, the different flags used.

I know I certainly learnt a lot about racing! With active illustrations, “My Race Car” is a fun book to read aloud.

Be prepared to have your toddler or preschool say,

“Read again! Read FIVE times!”

(showing five fingers)

or a pleading

“Just one time?”

when you’ve just finished reading it :-)

Rating: ★★★★☆

Get it from Amazon:

My Race Car by Michael Rex
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR); 1st edition (April 1, 2000)
ISBN-10: 0805061010
ISBN-13: 978-0805061017

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