Library of Clean Reads: Dinosaurs

Showing posts with label Dinosaurs. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Let's Hug: 15 Hugs for Beginners by Efrat Shoham (Review & Giveaway!)

Today I am spotlighting two delightful books by Efrat Shoham. I loved this latest release from her about hugging. Scroll down to read my review of it and then check out her other book about dinosaurs and be sure to enter the giveaway!

Book Details:

Book Title: Let's Hug: 15 Hugs for Beginners
Author: Efrat Shoham
Illustrator: Yuval Israeli
Category: Children's non-fiction, 36 pages
Genre: Parenting & Relationships / Humor
Publisher: The Pink Camel
Release date: December 6, 2016
Tour dates: Jan 2 - 20, 2017
Content Rating: G

Book Description:

There must be over a millions ways to say "I love you" or "I care about you", but with a single hug, even without words, you can simply feel it. This book is for toddlers, and encourages children and adults alike to try out all possible types of hugs. It's everyone's gain.

It took seconds for the sweet testers who accompanied the writing of this book to adopt these 15 ways of showing love, to give and receive it. And our testers are not alone. Recent studies reveal that Oxitocin, the most fun hormone available, also known as the Love Hormone, is released into our bodies when we hug.

Hugs are proven to have a generally positive healing and relaxing effect, since they increase calm and happiness, reinforce our self esteem, and support our sense of connection to those who are close to us. If you'd like to validate these studies, go ahead and hug.

This book was beautifully illustrated by Yuval Israeli, and it's the second creative collaboration between Yuval Israeli and Efrat Shoham.

Buy the Book: Amazon

My Review:

Reviewed by Laura Fabiani

Are you a hugger? I know I am. So I loved this delightful book that shows parents, children and just about anyone many different ways to hug. I am proud to say I have done them all in the course of my life.

The setup of the pages is perfect for this book. On the left page are two little creatures with a dialogue bubble who comment on the hug being shown on the right page. Their commentary is cute and funny. The illustrations are also cute, simple pastel-colored drawings of animals or creatures hugging each other. There is the Sandwich Hug, which my son still likes to do between my hubby and I, the Catch Hug, which my kids loved when they were tots, and of course the Bear Hug, which my dad is great at giving.

Hugs are so good for us and I think they are underestimated. This children's book celebrates hugging, which I know can sometimes be missing in the lives of seniors or children in wheelchairs. The more we hug, the more we become used to it. Have you hugged your children today, even your grown ones? What about your hubby, ageing parent, or friend? Although this is a children's book, it can be enjoyed by anyone who reads it. A perfect addition to any library.

Disclosure: I purchased a Kindle copy of this book. I was not told how to rate or review this product.

I also want to spotlight Efrat Shoham's previous title, another delightful book that uses dinosaurs to celebrate the differences among us.

Book Details:

Book Title: The Unusualasauruses: 15 Playful Dinosaurs
Author: Efrat Shoham
Illustrator: Lilach Ramati
Category: Children's non-fiction, 35 pages
Genre: Parenting & Relationships / Education & Teaching
Publisher: The Pink Camel
Release date: October 28, 2016
Tour dates: Jan 2 - 20, 2017
Content Rating: G

Book Description:

Ages and ages ago, many different kinds of dinosaurs roamed our planet. Some were as large as whales, while others were the size of small dogs. Some were plant-eaters, while some ate other animals. Some had very long necks and tails, while others were tiny. Some had horns. Some had wings and could fly.

Despite all of these many variations, they were all part of the dinosaur family. And, as is often the case with family, they shared many common features.

No one has ever never whatsoever seen a live dinosaur or spoken to one of them. So, what if dinosaurs could really talk, or smile, cry, dream, dance, play and joke?

To answer all of these questions, all you have to do is become an Imaginesaurus, and meet the Unusualasauruses.

This book is aimed at children aged 4 to 120. It introduces the readers to different types of personalities, characters, and skills and thus helps us to spot them at a glance.

This book was beautifully illustrated by Lilach Ramati.

Buy the Book: Amazon

About the Author:

Efrat Shoham is an Israeli writer and independent publisher (The Pink Camel).

Shoham grew up in a small agricultural village in Israel. Her father was a farmer and her mother – a teacher and librarian. She lives with her family in Tel Aviv, on a small street lined with eucalyptus, mulberry and loquat trees, where 3 rabbits from the nearby kindergarten run wild.

She thinks and believes that curiosity, imagination, humor, green fields, fresh mango or avocado and pink camels are some of the keys to a good and happy life.

Connect with the author: Website ~ Facebook

About the Illustrator of Let's Hug

Yuval Israeli

"I grew up in a kibbutz in the north of Israel and for years I live in Tel Aviv with Roy and our cat "tsimuki". I studied design and illustration at "Vital" the school of visual arts, which reunited later with "Shenkar".

I also learned classical painting in the "station studio".

I always paint pop icons and characters which affected me, and I also always paint portraits of friends. Besides, I always enjoyed painting all kinds of creatures from my imagination".

About the Illustrator of The Unusualasauruses

Lilach Ramati

"I majored in visual communication in Holon Institute of Technology. I studied Interactive, but eventually my final project was an illustrated book. Today I work as a designer in games company".

Enter the Giveaway!

Ends Jan 28

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Saturday, July 20, 2013

Kid Konnection: Tommysaurus Rex by Doug TenNapel

Tommysaurus Rex by Doug TenNapel
Graphix
ISBN: 978-0545483834
Published: May 28, 2013
Trade Paperback, 144 pages
Ages 9-12

Synopsis:

When Ely's beloved dog, Tommy, is hit by a car, he goes to his grandpa's house for the summer to get his mind off things. While exploring a nearby cave one day he discovers a full-grown but friendly Tyrannosaurus Rex. As the news of the dinosaur grows around town, so does the friendship between Ely and his Jurassic pet. But Randy, the mean kid down the street, decides he's going to make life miserable for Ely and his dinosaur-to devastating effect.

Our Thoughts:

My son was ecstatic when he received this book from scholastic. He loves graphic novels and dinosaurs so this combination was perfect. He dug into it right away. About thirty pages in, he came to me all dejected, telling me the book was making him sad because the main character Ely's dog Tommy gets hit by a car and dies and then later Ely gets bullied. The fact that this novel touched my son so deeply and so quickly told me it was good, so I told him to take a break and go back to it later.

Later the same day...

My son finished the novel and couldn't stop talking about the ending. Couldn't stop talking about this book. Period. He was smiling. I could tell the bittersweet ending affected my dinosaur-loving kid. He liked the adventurous story, thought it was funny, even if it did have some really sad moments. I could tell he could relate to Ely, a cute kid who loved his pets. Tommy is even the name of my son's turtle. There was one thing my son didn't like. After the realistic emotions of losing a dog, my son said that making Ely totally unafraid, when he first encountered the T-Rex, was too unrealistic. I agreed. There was no befriending process.

As a parent, I really appreciated that Ely had good parents and a wise grandpa. They were flawed, funny and caring. I enjoyed the story too and also teared up at one point. I loved that this book dealt with several serious themes with sensitivity, interspersed with subtle humour. Some of these were: death of a beloved pet, dealing with bullies, parental separation, family unity and love, and finally forgiveness. It left my son and me with a good feeling.

We both liked the cartoon illustrations. I loved Ely's face. His expressions tugged at my heart, reminding me of my son. I can truly see the appeal of graphic novels for kids. My son loves to emulate various facial expressions and I could see why he likes graphic novels so much. He's already pointed to the back cover of the book, asking me if I could get the other books by this author.

This was a heartwarming and funny graphic novel with positive messages. Highly recommended for reluctant readers and lovers of graphic novels and dinosaurs.

Note: This book is rated C = clean read.

Reviewed by Laura & Son

Disclosure: Thanks to Nikole Kritikos from Scholastic Canada for sending us this book for review. We were not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product.

Every Saturday, Booking Mama hosts a feature called Kid Konnection—a regular weekend feature about anything related to children's books. If you'd like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children's books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, visit Booking Mama.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Kid Konnection: Danger, Dinosaurs! by Frieda Wishinsky

Danger, Dinosaurs! Canadian Flyer Adventures Book 2 by Frieda Wishinsky (Rated: C)
Maple Tree Press
ISBN: 978-1897066829
Published Jan 15, 2007
Paperback, 96 pages

My son and I are very excited to have discovered the Canadian Flyer books. Book 2 deals with a topic that my son is crazy about: dinosaurs!

Emily and Matt are once again transported back in time on an antique red sled called the Canadian Flyer, which takes them to a different part of Canada at a historic point in the past. It happens when they hold an object (this time it's a dinosaur egg from the late Cretaceous period) taken from an old dresser full of strange items in the tower of Emily's house. The object they choose determines where they will travel to next.

There are funny moments in this book as well as heart-stopping near-escapes when Emily and Matt are being chased by dinosaurs, especially the T-rex! Although we know a lot about dinosaurs we learned new things and also the names of Canadian paleontologists and the dinosaurs they discovered. Unlike the first book, there didn't seem to be a mission or purpose to their visit to the past, apart from learning dinosaur history. Emily was whiny and wanted to go back home, but Matt loved seeing the dinosaurs live and the sled would not allow them to go back yet. At one point in the story, Emily angrily stomps off on her own and gets into trouble. She is rescued by Matt and they escape back to the present just as more danger appears.

My six-year-old son pointed out to me that Emily and Matt had to work together to get away safely. I guess he was trying to say that the moral of the story was co-operation. Well, at least he picked up on this quicker than I did! He really liked this adventurous story of going back to the times of the dinosaurs.

If you have a dino lover in your home, they are sure to like this action-filled adventure of two kids who travel back to the Cretaceous period when giant creatures roamed the Earth and filled the air with their terrifying roars.

This book is printed on 100 % post-consumer recycled paper: Ancient Forest Friendly.

Disclosure: Thanks to Kendal Gerard from OwlKids for sending me this book for review. I was not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Kid Konnection: Books Filled With Fun Facts

How Much Does Your Head Weigh? The Big Fat Book of Facts by Marg Meikle (Rated: C)
Scholastic Canada
ISBN: 978-1443100472
Published August 1, 2010
Trade Paperback, 416 pages
Ages: 9-12

This is a great non-fiction book for kids—not only is it informative but it’s fun to read and filled with so many cool facts, almost 400 pages worth!

The layout makes it an easy book to read. It contains wacky cartoons as well as jokes and boxes with additional fun facts interspersed throughout the book. For example, did you know that:

Salt was once such a rare and precious commodity that it was traded for equal amounts of gold.
Sneezing is just an extreme form of breathing. The most chronic fit of sneezing was from an English woman who caught a cold and started sneezing on January 13, 1981… and stopped 978 days later!
The longest word has 1913 letters and stands for a chemical compound.

These are just samples of some of the weird facts taken from the answers to questions that aren’t obvious to answer. My kids particularly liked the intriguing facts about inventions, the fascinating facts about sleep and the strange stories about science. We went through the book and chose the topics and questions that interested us. Some stuff was just plain gross for my daughter or too difficult for my 6-year-old son to understand, so we skipped those and moved on. I especially took an interest in the section about holidays as I have studied their origins in depth. I was pleased to find that the information was accurate.

If you have a kid who loves to learn new things, or who prefers reading short excerpts that explain things, this book is sure to please. Oh, and here's the answer to the question taken from the title of this book: "The average human head weighs about 7.5% of a person’s body weight. So if you weigh about 40 kilos, your head weighs around 3 kilos (6.6 lbs). So when you get tired of holding your head up high, you now know why. It’s heavy!"

Disclosure: Thanks to Nikole Kritikos from Scholastic Canada for sending me this book for review. I was not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product.

Dino-Why? The Dinosaur Question & Answer Book by Sylvia Funston (Rated: C)

Maple Tree Press

ISBN: 978-1897349250
Published March 11, 2008
Softcover, 64 pages
Ages 9 -12

When a kid loves a certain subject, he will have lots of questions. My 6-year-old boy loves dinosaurs. I do too. When I was a kid, I read everything I could get my hands on that taught me about dinosaurs. But no book gave me some of the answers I found in this book.

Dino-Why? The Dinosaur Question & Answer Book is a perfect non-fiction book for curious kids because it has the answers to common and uncommon questions kids wonder about, such as: Is it possible to clone a dinosaur? Which dinosaur would make the best pet? How do you know where to look for dinosaurs? And check this one: If I stepped on a dinosaur tail, how quickly would it react? Cool questions, huh? I bet it never crossed an adult’s mind to ponder on such things. That’s why this book is so great for the inquisitive kid! Can you see why kids would love to read the answers? These are definitely kid (and sometimes … ahem … adult) questions.

Best of all, the answers are short and to the point—no long-winded explanations, which is not to say the answers aren’t well written or satisfying. They are. They are also intelligent. I had to explain certain terminology to my son. Thank goodness for the glossary of dinosaur terms in the back of the book. If you are a Christian, some of the explanations regarding evolution might not agree with your own knowledge. These can be easily disregarded and your child will still benefit from the scientific discoveries regarding palaeontology.

I also liked that the author uses comparisons with things or situations that a child could easily comprehend or relate to. For example, when answering the question Did long-necked dinosaurs get a neck ache? the author begins by stating: "If the stretched-out sauropod Mamenchisaurus ever tried to board a school bus, its head would hit the back window before its front feet even got past the driver’s seat." How’s that for giving a child an idea of how long that dinosaur’s neck really was!

The book is filled with illustrations, photos and quizzes. It is colourful, informative and the layout simple enough to go through the pages and randomly read the info. This book is a great addition to the many dinosaur books that already occupy our bookshelf and would be an excellent addition to public and school libraries. So if your kid is a dino fan, this is THE book to get.

Disclosure: Thanks to Kendal Gerard from Owl KidsCanada for sending me this book for review. I was not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Attack of the Tyrannosaurus: Dinosaur Cove Series #1 by Rex Stone

Attack of the Tyrannosaurus: Dinosaur Cove Series #1 by Rex Stone (Rated: C)
Scholastic Inc
ISBN: 978-0-545-05377-8
Published May 1, 2008
Softcover, 68 pages
Ages 6-10

Publisher's Synopsis:
Eight year-olds Tom and Jamie can't believe their luck when they find a secret entrance to a prehistoric world filled with dinosaurs. The first dinosaur they meet is friendly, but soon, they meet a much less friendly dino: a T-Rex that would like to eat them. First in a new series.

Our Thoughts:
I don’t know how we missed the Dinosaur Cove series, but my kids and I are happy to have discovered them. My 6 year-old son who loves anything dinosaur, was delighted to have first my husband read the whole book to him and then myself. My 8 year-old daughter joined us for the second reading. Needless to say, my son LOVED this book and can’t wait for me to read him the second book in this series. My daughter enjoyed it too.

This book is great for learning because it includes interesting facts about the dinosaurs it features in the story. Right at the start of the book, fact files on the characters and the dinosaurs that look like they were retrieved from a computer screen get the readers in a “let’s discover” mode. The black and white illustrations are perfect for this age group and the maps and glossary are an added bonus.

The story is well paced, adventurous with inquisitive boy characters who become fast friends. There’s plenty of action and suspense without being scary. I did tell my kids that, although discovering and exploring a cave was imaginative and fun in the book, they were never to venture into one without an adult.

This is a great series for both boys and girls who love dinosaurs and exploring the outdoors. We look forward to reading the next book in this exciting series!

Watch Book Trailer:

Disclosure: Thank you to Nikole from Scholastic Canada for sending us this book for review. I was not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Max Spaniel: Dinosaur Hunt, written and illustrated by David Catrow

Max Spaniel: Dinosaur Hunt written and illustrated by David Catrow (Rated: C)
Orchard Books (Imprint of Scholastic Inc)
ISBN: 978-0-545-05748-6
Published September 2009
Hardcover, 40 pages
Ages 4-8

Publisher Synopsis:
Max Spaniel is a daffy hound dog who one day decides to go on a dinosaur dig. But what Max thinks are dinosaur parts is just a lot of junk — or is it? As Max puts his fossils together, readers will see how the random objects Max finds — including a football, a hockey stick, and an old boot — transform into a living dino!

Our Thoughts:
Dinosaur Hunt is a cute story about a dog named Max (who doesn’t think he’s a dog!) searching for dinosaurs in his backyard. More importantly, it’s about the power of imagination, creativity, and ingenuity. My 6 year-old son who loves dinosaurs, liked seeing the dinosaur made of inanimate objects come to life. He asked me to read it to him twice.

The book is both written and illustrated by the author, whose illustrations are funny and vivid, capturing Max’s enthusiasm, determination and fun. In this day of TV and computer games, this simple story well depicts the enjoyment of imaginative play. The ending of the story is lacking, though. The last sentence doesn’t seem to fit, and I would have preferred it to end better.

This book will easily appeal to young children who are beginning to read and who love dogs, dinosaurs, and playing outdoors.

Disclosure: Thank you to Nikole from Scholastic Canada for sending us this book for review. I was not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product.