Book Review: More Parts by Tedd Arnold

This is yet another book that used to be my stepdaughter's (can you tell we don't get rid of books). She was never a big fan of the book and if I recall it was because she was disturbed by the scene of the scene where his brain falls out.

This silly book has a little boy who becomes frightened when he takes certain figures of speech literally. Like when he told to hold his tongue he doesn't realize it means to keep quiet not literally hold his tongue.


The book is silly and cute. The funny thing is that my son's favorite part was my stepdaughter's most hated part. I guess that is the difference between boys and girls. Brains and gross body parts are cool to boys while they are cringe inducing to little girls. The illustrations are great and the examples of figures of speech are amusing. My son enjoyed this book more than I did.


I would have to give this 3 and half out of 4 stars. Bump up to 4 stars for goodreads.

Book Review: The Giant Jam Sandwich by John Vernon Lord/ Janet Burroway

Ok so I decided to dive right into the 1001 books challenge. I've never seen this book before nor heard of it so I was excited when I found it at my library last night. Apparently, this is classic reading for a number of people but I honestly have never heard of it before yesterday.

The Giant Jam Sandwich is all about a town that becomes over run with wasps. Someone in town has the brilliant idea of making a huge strawberry jam sandwich since that is wasps favorite thing to eat. So the whole town gets together to make a giant jam sandwich to trap the nasty wasps.

This was a very cute book and my son really enjoyed it. His favorite part was when they laid down the top piece of bread trapping the wasps in the sandwich. The drawings were very 1970's style and for that it was charming and brought back memories of my childhood reading. I can definately see myself reading this one to my son again on another library trip. If you can find this book give it a read.

5 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Just My Friend & Me by Mercer Mayer

The Little Critter books have always been popular in this house. When my stepdaughter was very little I remember my husband trolling ebay to win huge auctions of books. One of them contained about 10 of the Little Critter books. My son enjoys the Little Critter books and has even asked that we buy more (ebay here we come).

In Just my Friend & Me our Little Critter spends the day with his friend. While the two of them have fun it turns out to be just too much as the friend doesn't help with cleaning up, wrecks Critter's bike, does things better than Critter etc. Critter comes to realize that while playing with friends is great sometimes it's nice to just be alone.

My son loves this book. It is not his favorite of the Little Critter books but it is still one he enjoys. This is perfect for younger children or those with short attention spans. The pictures keep them engaged while the story is told with a dry wit that will keep parents entertained.

5 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin

This book used to be my stepdaughter's. I'm so glad to introduce it to my son as it has always been a cute one that both my stepdaughter and I loved to read.

In Click, Clack, Moo the cows have gotten a hold of a typewriter. This causes a problem for Farmer Brown. All day he hears "Click clack moo". Soon the cows start leaving Farmer Brown demanding notes. The cows go on strike when their demands are not met. Duck gets involved and a intermediary between Farmer Brown and the Cows.

As I said before I really love this book. My son really enjoyed it too. He loved participating in reading this book as I had him make the moo sounds as we read. The illustrations as cute and keep my son's attention. The story is quick and not overly complicated meaning that my son understood what was happening and it was easy for him to follow along.

I give this a solid 5 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: My Dad By Charles Fuge

This is a book that we bought many many years ago for my stepdaughter. It has now become one of my son's favorite bed time story books.

My Dad is all about a cute little bear bragging to his friends about his dad. His dad is tough and rough and has claws and teeth that would scare away anything that crosses his path. In fact his bragging about his dad is so scary that all his friends run away in fear!


This is a very cute and simple book. This has become a go to book for me when my son wants a bed time story but I'm short on time. It is a fast read with great illustrations. It also tells a lot about how a child views their parents. They always see them as grander than the parent actually thinks they are.


I give a solid 5 out of 5 stars!

Book Review: Kobee Manatee by Robert Scott Thayer

I received a copy of this book from netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

It looks like my son caught the nasty stomach bug that plagued my husband and myself all last week. So I figured since he has a sick day home today that I'd read him a few books. I was excited to see this book as I have always been a manatee lover. Ever since middle school I was fascinated with them and even dabbled with the idea of being a marine biologist because of them. I collected books, stuffed animals, glass figurines...well just about anything that had a manatee. While I no longer collect manatees I'm still fascinated by these gentle creatures.

Kobee Manatee is the story of a manatee leaving the chilly waters of Massachusetts to head home to the warmer Florida waters for the winter. Along the way he makes friends with a hermit crab and a seahorse. The three new friends have an adventure on their way south.

I loved this book. The illustrations were absolutely adorable and the story was one that my son was easily able to follow. Through out the book facts are interspersed. I'm glad that they were included as an aside. It didn't over complicate the story making it easier for readers with shorter attention spans. Yet the facts are there for those who want to learn more or those who are a good with sitting through the facts. I read a few of the smaller facts to my son but skipped reading the longer ones to him. Because of his learning disability I knew not to push it too much and found that reading only a few was perfect for him personally. I did go back and read them for myself and each one was fascinating and corresponded with what was currently happening in the book.

My son loved this book. He loves the color blue and was focused on the gorgeous saturation of colors especially blue. He loved Kobee and loved the journey he and his friends made. His favorite part was when Pablo was looking for a new shell.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Life is a Bowl Full of Cherries by Vanita Oelschlager

I received a review copy of this book from netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion. This is not the first time I have reviewed a book by Vanita Oelschlager but this one was by far my favorite so far.

This wonderfully illustrated book is all about idioms or those phrases we use that have nothing to do with their meanings such as "two peas in a pod", "life is a bowl full of cherries", or "cold turkey". This is a very hard concept to teach to children but this book does a fairly good job at giving examples.

This was still a little too over my son's head but he still really enjoyed the book. His favorite being "one bad apple". The book was simple enough for him to follow along even if he didn't get what exactly an idiom is. We both enjoyed the illustrations and he asked me to read it to him again.

I would give this a solid 4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum by Kate Bernheimer

As a child I loved going to museum...heck I still do. I remember reading stories of children running away from home to live inside of museums and quite frankly I wanted to do that more than anything.

The Girl in the Castle inside the Museum is a simple children's book that is about a girl who lives inside a miniture castle that is on display inside a museum. During the day children press their faces up to the glass to try and catch a glimpse of the girl in the castle. But at night when the children have gone home the girl in the castle is lonely. She dreams people coming to visit her.

This book is very hard for me to rate. The story itself was pretty awful. It had the potential to be something special but in the end it was about 2 stars for me and my son. But what makes this book is the illustrations. Oh my god! I could spend all day looking at these fantastical illustrations. They tell the story better than the words themselves. So beautiful and so haunting I just want to immerse myself in the world Nicoletta Ceccoli has drawn. The drawings are 5star worthy. So I'll have to give a mixed star review. For the illustrations alone a solid 5 stars. For the actual written story a solid 2 stars.

Book Review- The Legend of Papa Balloon by CR McClure

Hmmm I must have a thing for balloons lately. Here is second ebook I've received from netgalley this week. The Legend of Papa Balloon is about a land where people worship The Light. Each village expresses their reverence of the Light through a particular color of balloon. A group of children come upon an old man sleeping under a tree. He has a clear balloon under his hat and says people call him Papa. The children call him Papa Balloon. He becomes friends with everyone and in the end he and his clear balloon teach all of the villages that no one color is better than the other and that they are all of the Light.


OK this wasn't a bad book but it is a bit complicated. It was too complicated for my 5 year old son. But as some of you know he has a severe learning disability so that can play into this. For other children this may be easier for them to read and understand. My son enjoyed the illustrations, but he walked away after only a few pages. I loved the color changing ink. This book is obviously about tolerance. One of the biggest problems I had with the book quite honestly is that the children befriend an old man who is a stranger and bring him essentially home with them. I know it is just fiction but I don't think telling kids its ok to bring home that shoeless bearded guy, who was sleeping under a tree and calls himself Papa is a good idea. Stranger Danger.


As I said all in all it wasn't a bad book it just wasn't as good as it could be. I would say that I have it at a solid 2 stars. I think it does a good job with promoting tolerance (especially religious tolerance). With just a little work I think it could easily become a 3 or 4 star book.