Today I Will Fly

By Mo Willems

64 pages – ages 4+

Published by Hyperion Books on March 13, 2007

Theme/Topic – Determination / Believe in Yourself

Opening and Synopsis – 

Piggie “Today I will fly!”

Gerald “No. You will not fly today”

Piggie has a GREAT idea! Today, Piggie wants to fly! Gerald tells Piggies she will never fly.Piggie won’t let that stop her. She is still determined to fly today even if she needs a little help!

Why I liked this book – Elephant and Piggie books are FAVORITES in our house.They are such good friends. I really like this particular Elephant and Piggie book because I really love Piggies’s “never quit” attitude. The ending of the book is just great. Gerald changes his mind and announces “Tomorrow I will fly!” Now that’s the spirit Gerald! Elephant and Piggie books are always illustrated wonderfully. I like how Elephant and Piggie’s speech bubbles are different colors.

Activities and Resources –

You can visit Mo Willems website HERE.

I found a teacher’s guide to the Elephant and Piggie books HERE.

I also found an Elephant and Piggie activity book with all sorts of activities (games, coloring pages, story times, topics of discussion etc) HERE.

To find more Perfect Picture Books please visit Susanna Hill’s blog HERE

For those of you who don’t know Jack, she is a 11-year-old kid blogger. Her blog, “The Girl Named Jack,” has all sorts of fun posts about life as a kid, writing and book reviews too. Jack has even written and self-published a book “The War of the Split Hoofed and Winged.” Make sure to check her blog out – click HERE to go to it.

I am so glad that Jack sent me the first chapter from the new book she is working on “Goldpelt”! It is totally AWESOME! Here is an excerpt from it below, and you can read the whole first chapter at the link at the bottom. I hope you like it!

 Goldpelt crouched behind a tree, waiting for her prey to walk by.  With her fiery gold/orange striped pelt she blended in well with the underbrush she was crouching so low in.  She opened her mouth letting all the smells of the forest and its creatures that dwelt in it flood through her mouth.  She caught scent of, leaves, decay, running water somewhere nearby, and…deer!  Yes, this was what her long wait crouched in the middle of a bunch of scratchy bushes was all about.

The deer came walking slowly by, his split hooves stepping daintily over twigs so he wouldn’t alert anything out to eat him.  Wrong, I already know you’re here. Thought Goldpelt feeling very pleased with herself.

The deer was a strong looking male who stood about 5 feet tall with antlers that spread out about 3 feet.  He was plump after a spring of stuffing himself with green grass, acorns, large green leaves, anything he could chew that looked half decent.

Goldpelt readied herself to spring up out of the bushes when it got closer.  The buck took a few more tentative steps in her direction, turned his head around sniffing the air for danger, then settling down by eating the leaves off the bushes that kept her hidden.  Goldpelt pulled a fanged grin at how lucky she was that the wind was blowing towards her to hide her scent.  Gathering her haunches underneath her and bunching her muscles she sprang into the air and let loose.  The buck jerked back its head from the bushes and galloped at top speed away from her outstretched claws.  She landed with a thump and set after him just as fast as it.

It galloped just in front of her; just a claws swipe away from her was the buck, leaping over fallen logs, galloping under low hanging branches careful not to entangle its antlers in them, and skidding over foliage.

Meanwhile Goldpelt’s paws carried her over the slick leaves that littered the ground and gripped in logs to thrust her more closer to the deer.  But suddenly the forest around her dissolved to darkness along with the deer.  Goldpelt blinked her eyes open and stared around her blearily.  It was early morning and she was sleeping in her cave in a nest of moss and leaves.

To read the whole first chapter, click HERE and to visit Jack’s website, click HERE.

Published by Grabarchuk Puzzles; 1 edition (February 28, 2012)

Ages 8+

Sold by Amazon Digital Services

Do you know the answer?

Do you like to challenge your brain? If so, this book is right for you! With a wide variety of puzzles in a fun-to-use format, you’ll spend hours trying to figure all these out! The ebook format is easy to use and understand (and I think it’s pretty neat they could do this on my Kindle). Just move the cursor to click on the right answer. Here’s an example puzzle above - In the “Puzzlebook Trilogy” you get 303 puzzles all together (3 separate books all in one). Pretty cool!

This is the second Grabarchuk puzzle book I reviewed. I reviewed a 20 puzzle, Easter puzzle book (click HERE to read the review) and I liked it so much that I wanted to try more. I found that the puzzles in the trilogy ranged from the really easy, to ones I just couldn’t figure out. There is a good mix of difficulty levels in the book. The puzzle book is in color, but my Kindle doesn’t have color and I don’t think that it really made a difference as far as solving the puzzles. I did think a couple of the puzzles had more han one answer and a couple had a bit confusing directions, but it was only a couple out of 303. Overall I thought it was really well done!

Five out of five bookworms!

The Grabarchuk Family had been designing and making puzzles for many years. To learn more about them and their puzzlebooks please visit their website by clicking HERE.

by Mark Simon Smith

240 pages – ages 7+

Published by CreateSpace on March 9, 2012

Queen Gobbledeegook is missing from the kingdom of Mariskatania! The hero of the land, Sir Nathan, and his trusty steed are sent to find her and bring her back. With the help of many strange and unique people (and things), our hero and his horse go through a long and difficult quest to find the queen. Will they succeed and not meet a horrible fate? Will they survive the giant-sized toddlers that want to eat them? Will our hero EVER get to finally smite someone (or thing)? Read the book to find out!!

This not somewhat silly, but VERY silly adventure has it all! I think the story is a great adventure story and there is so much silly humor in the book I was laughing out loud at a bunch of places! Sir Nathan is an AWESOME character and Tupolev, Sir Nathan’s talking horse, is another character I really liked. There are some simple illustrations throughout the book which were a nice addition. I really liked how each “evil” character Sir Nathan ran into actually turned out to be pretty nice! The book is completely clean of and bad language but packed full of silly humor! I recommend the book to advanced young readers and anyone who likes a good laugh!

Five out of five bookworms for Sir Nathan and the Quest for Queen Gobbledeegook!

To learn more about Mr. Smith and the Somewhat Silly Stories, please visit the Somewhat Silly Stories website HERE or visit Mr. Smith’s facebook page HERE.

You can get the book as an ebook or paperback. Click HERE for ordering information for the book!

Book 2 in the series, Sir Nathan and the Troublesome Task, is supposed to come out this month!

First I made a FAQ page (this was one of my New Years Resolutions anyway). You can click on the tab at the top of my home page to see or (or click HERE). Let me know what you think or if there are any other FAQs I should add.

Secondly I made an official section saying how to send me a book to review. You can see it at the tab at the top of my home page or by clicking HERE.

Thirdly I made a blog schedule. I saw that on a lot of your blogs and I think it’s a good idea! Click on the tab at the top of my page or HERE. To go to it.

Let me know what you think of my changes and if you have any other suggestions! 

Now for something fun!

The Birthday Contest hosted by Susanna Leonard Hill!

The rules are “The contest is to write a children’s story about a very creative and/or unique birthday celebration in 300 words or less. Poetry or prose, your choice.”

Here’s my entry!

Not Another Birthday!

By Erik

Billy hated his birthdays, every single one of them. The day was always a complete disaster. One time, on Billy’s seventh birthday, most of his party guests ended up in the emergency room! In fact, none of Billy’s friends will come to his parties anymore. Only Billy’s relatives show up because they have to. 

Things usually start off pretty well. The guests arrive with smiles on their faces, carrying presents in colorful paper. There’s lots of ”Hi’s”, hugs and  “How are you’s?” Everyone puts their party hats on. There’s pizza for dinner, and games like guess the wizard, and pin the drawbridge on the castle.

Then comes the cake. Billy’s dad carries it in. This year it has twelve candles on it, brightly lit with flames dancing in the air. Billy notices it is an ice cream cake, “UGH!” He says to himself. “Even WORSE!”

The cake is placed on the table in front of Billy; all the guests cower behind their chairs and under the table as they nervously sing “Happy Birthday to You” in hushed voices. As Billy listened to the song, getting ready to blow out the candles, he thought to himself, “This makes no sense for a fire-breathing dragon.”

_________________________________________

OH NO! (or How My Science Project Destroyed the World)

By Mac Barnett

Illustrated by Dan Santat

Published by Disney Hyperion Books on June 1, 2010

40 pages  – ages 3+ 

Theme/Topic – Books for Boys / Girl Power / Humor

Opening and Synopsis – From the inside cover “It’s a terrible thing when a giant robot starts destroying your city. It’s even worse when it’s your fault.”

A girl genius builds an award-winning giant robot for her school science fair. The robot malfunctions and starts to attack the city. The girl is unable to stop it so she (of course) creates a giant toad to battle the giant robot. This turns out to not be a good idea.

Why I liked this book –  First I have to say I am a huge fan of old Japanese monster shows (Godzilla and Ultraman are my favorites).

This book reminded me of them. I love the comic book style of the story. There aren’t many words in the book  because the pictures are very important to telling the story. I read the book a couple of times and each time I saw and thought of something new. Here’s a page…

The story was funny and it was cool to see a picture book with a great action / adventure story. I think boys will really love this book. I like the idea that the main character is a girl. I think girls will like it because it has a girl hero. I think it is a great book for reluctant readers too.

The end pages are even cool. They have blue print diagrams of the science projects. There’s a lot to read in the end covers. There is a lot to discover in this book!

The dust cover opens up into a poster.

Even the hard cover is cool. It looks like a scientist’s notebook.

Activities and Resources – I found a great craft activity at the Critters and Crayons website. The activity is to make your own robot out of cardboard boxes. Click HERE to go to it.

I also found a list of do at home science experiments at Science Bob’s website. Click HERE to go to it.

The trailer for the book is cool too (it reminds me of Godzilla ).

To find more Perfect Picture Books please visit Susanna Hill’s blog  HERE!

As part of this blog hop I have to write about the theme of the hop. Here’s what it says about it at On the Plum Tree – “The theme of the Blog-Hop is, Self as Child. What did you think of yourself as a child? Write something on any theme related to this. Perhaps you would like to express something on the subject of the inner child, or a relationship with a child that makes you reflect on your own childhood.”

I know, I know, you’re all saying “Erik you ARE a kid! How do you write about your inner child?!?” OK maybe you didn’t say that, but I did. I had an idea to write about my “inner adult,” but I’m really not sure what that means. Then I had an idea to write about what I think about growing up and what I will be like.

Here is the poem I wrote -

Who will I be?

By Erik

Every day, I wonder

Who I will be in a decade or two,

From a little ten-year old,

To a… something. What? Who?

An inventor?

If so, will I make a big difference or small changes?

How about an author?

If so, will I write children’s books or about politics?

I see myself as a father,

Taking care of two.

Will this small dream be real one day?

Or will I take a different route?

Now I think of Ninjas and Super Heroes,

But will I still think the same as an adult?

Or will I be so serious,

I will have no time for jokes and fun? – NAH!

There is one way to find an answer,

To all of these important questions and dreams,

And that simple solution is to…

Wait and see.

Please check out the Youth Tube site and tell every kid you know about it! My sister and I sent in drawings showing how we see ourselves for the site’s first project called ”Self.” The pictures are up on the site now. I like how Josie sees herself as a garden fairy princess

Here are the next dates and places for the hop!

Friday: May 18th http://aprilthomasbooks.wordpress.com April Thomas

Sat. 19th -www.jontybabe.blogspot.com Jonty-Babe

Sun: 20th: http://darlenefoster.wordpress.com/ Darlene Foster

Mon 21st – http://steepedinbooks.blogspot.com Georgia Saunders

Wed: 23rd May: http://tomdharris.wordpress.com/ Tom Harris

Finally, I’d like to say “Thank you” to Patricia Tilton of Children’s Books Heal for telling me about Dr. Clune and Youth tube and Dr. Clune and everyone at Youth Tube for letting me be part of this!

by S.W. Lothian

Published January 12th 2012 by S.W.Lothian

226 pages – ages 9+ 

It all started when JJ saw a green light coming from a mummy in the Egyptian exhibit at the museum his father works for. After seeing the strange light, JJ had a weird dream and then actually met Anubis (the Egyptian god of the dead). Anubis tells JJ that he is needed to help save the world and asks JJ to go on a mission to do just that. JJ tells his best friend Linc about meeting Anubis and the mission to save the world and Linc decides to go with JJ. The boys then get whisked away to Ancient Egypt by Anubis. In Egypt the boys meet Rani a girl from their time but from a different part of the world who was also sent to ancient Egypt to help save the world. JJ, Linc and Rani meet Horus (the Egyptian god of the king and sky) and Horus tells the children they have to find the Golden Scarab before Seth (the god of the desert and chaos) finds it. The Golden Scarab holds all of Seth’s powers and if he has it, the evil Seth will rule not just Egypt, but the entire world. Not only do the kids have to find the scarab, but they also have to get it to the goddess Ma’at (the goddess of truth and justice) to defeat Seth. To complete their mission, the kids must battle ruthless enemies, deal with traps and survive a long journey through ancient Egypt. Can three ordinary kids defeat the god of the desert or will the world suffer?

This story is really, really cool! When I first got the book I thought the description of it made it seem too close to the “Kane Chronicles” by Rick Riordan (one of my FAVORITE series) but I could not have been more wrong! This story is unique, action-packed and exciting. The characters are well-made and are very likeable. JJ is brave and selfless, Linc is funny and loyal and Rani is kind and smart. I thought the book started out a bit slow but after the first two chapters, I was totally hooked on the story. The action was great and it had a lot of humor in it (I actually laughed out loud at a couple of places). One problem I had with the book was it had a bunch of typos and editing errors. They were distracting when reading the book and made it a little less enjoyable. The book is clean with only some mild violence and references to gods of mythology. There’s a lot of information about ancient Egypt and mythology in the book which made it even more interesting.

I am looking forward to reading the next book. Four out of five bookworms for Quest one: The Golden Scarab.

To learn more about Mr. Lothian and the Quest Series please visit Mr. Lothian’s website HERE. The book is available at AMAZON.

The trailer for the book is awesome!

Quest One, The Golden Scarab is the first book in a 5 part series. The second book, “Quest Two: The Cursed Nile” will be released on Kindle on the 1st June 2012.

by Debbie Brown

Published by iUniverse (August 31, 2011)

295 pages – ages 12+

Tommy doesn’t remember his father. He was two when his father left. His mom tells him that his father still loves them, but he can’t be with them. When Tommy’s mother tragically dies in a car wreck, Tommy’s Dad comes to care for him. That’s when Tommy’s life changes completely.

Tommy is whisked away to a space ship and Tommy realizes that his father and everyone on the ship is an alien…and he is half alien! His mother never prepared him for this. Because he is half-alien and half-human, Tommy feels like an outcast. He is even bullied by some of the other kids on the ship. They don’t understand his way of life even though he is trying hard to understand theirs.Tommy’s father loves him very much and helps him to fit in and feel at home and Tommy wants to make this new place his home, but can a half-human kid show the others on the ship that his ways aren’t so different? Tommy also learns of another danger and it has to do with his amethyst-colored eyes - eyes like his fathers. Beings with eyes like Tommy’s have reason to fear for their lives!

This book had a very interesting plot. The story was cool. I really liked how it had a bunch of high-tech gadgets and technology in it. Tommy was the best main character I could want in a book. He was brave, kind, smart and knew how to stand up to bullies. There is some violence but nothing graphic. There’s a creepy part to the plot where these evil aliens want to capture Tommy for his eyes, but it isn’t told in detail and it is only a small part of the plot.I thought the cover art wasn’t the greatest because it’s so dark (you can’t see it too well). The trailer is at the bottom of this post and it’s pretty hard to see too (or at least I think so). I liked how Ms. Brown described Earth and the alien world so well. It was interesting that both worlds had good and bad points. On Earth you have a lot of freedom and can choose to do what you want but there was sickness and violence. On the spaceship, there was no sickness (and supposedly no violence but there still was) but you were pretty much told what to do and what job you would have. It is an awesome action book and has a great message about fitting in.

I give Amethyst Eyes 5 out of 5 book worms!

To learn more about Ms. Brown and her book, please visit her website HERE. Amethyst Eyes is available at Amazon – click HERE.

Check out the trailer! -

Happy Mother’s Day!