God Shows The Way

TITLE:  The Berenstain Bears' God Shows The Way
AUTHOR: Stan and Jan Berenstain with Mike Berenstain
ILLUSTRATOR:  Stan and Jan Berenstain with Mike Berenstain
PUBLISHER:  Zonderkidz
COPYRIGHT:  2014

Book Description:
Now in a convenient 3 stories in one collection, young readers will learn from the Berenstain Bears just how important it is to serve and love one another. Written in level one of the I Can Read standards, this bind-up of stories from the Berenstain Bears Living Lights I Can Read series is sure to please young, emergent readers as well as parents and grandparents looking for good quality reading that will help practice early reading skills as well as teach lessons about serving and caring for others. Included in this collection are the following titles: Faith Gets Us Through Have No Fear, God Is Near Piggy Bank Blessings.

My thoughts:
I've always enjoyed the Berenstain Bears and the cute stories that always teach a lesson.  This book is three stories in one hardback book.  All three have a religious theme with a Bible verse at the beginning and another in the story. 

This book is appropriate for early readers, those who are beginning to read on their own.  These are written at a much simpler level than other books in the series. As you can see on the cover it is Level 1 reader.

While I liked the simplicity of the stories of these well-loved characters and the values taught through the stories, I always have an issue with books that include "scary" topics such as monsters, shadows, etc.  This is just a personal preference I've always had not to read books related to such topics to children.  I never would read these type of books to my son because he wasn't afraid of such things. I didn't want him to read these books and think he should be afraid of them!  Now if you had a child already scared of such things, this book would be fine. Both the first two stories talk of such things and your child could learn from how Sister Bear handled her fears.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” TITLE:

My Little Book of Cars

TITLE:  My Little Book of Cars
AUTHOR:  Michael Worek
ILLUSTRATOR:
PUBLISHER:  2013
COPYRIGHT: Firefly Books

Read this book with your toddler to discover cars and other modes of transportation.  This book is filled with great photos of all sorts of cars, trucks, and other things that go!

This is a good book to develop vocabulary for your toddler.  It uses some color words too to describe the cars.  One thing I noticed is some of the pages have simple two word phrases to describe the picture while other pages have sentences.  However, there are no capital letters or periods used on these pages which I found odd.

Splat the Cat Blow, Snow, Blow

TITLE:  Splat the Cat   Blow, Snow, Blow
AUTHOR:  Amy Hsu Lin (based on bestselling books by Rob Scotton)
ILLUSTRATOR:  Rick Farley (cover art); Robert Eberz (interior illustrations)
PUBLISHER:  Harper
COPYRIGHT:  2013

Splat the Cat really wants it to snow so he can build a snowcat.  He waits and waits for  some snow and tries to make some snow of his own.  Then it starts snowing but only lightly.  Will it snow enough for Splat the Cat to make his snowcat?

This is a great winter book for beginner readers.  There is a lot of repetition of words as well as long o rhyming words.

Biscuit Plays Ball

TITLE: Biscuit Plays Ball
AUTHOR:  Alyssa Satin Capucilli
ILLUSTRATOR: Pat Schories
PUBLISHER: Harper
COPYRIGHT: 2012

Biscuit wants to play ball but he is told this ball game is not for him.  He does eventually get to play when his friend Puddles comes.

This book is appropriate for those learning to read and would be enjoyed by preschool aged children.  Little ones enjoy the Biscuit character as they are beginning to read on their own.

Series: Community Helper Mysteries

TITLE:  Community Helper Mysteries
AUTHOR:  Amanda Doering Tourville
ILLUSTRATOR:
PUBLISHER:  Capstone Press
COPYRIGHT:  2012

While volunteering at the school library I came across one of the books in the Community Helper Series.  I asked the librarian if she had others and found and read the other three in the series.  This books are well done, and I wanted to share them with you.

The layout of the book is one page with minimal text and the opposite page is a close up photo to fit with the text.  Each page is a clue to help the reader figure out a community helper who is revealed at the end of the book.

These would be great for a classroom or school library.  It would be enjoyable for PreK--1st graders and could be read by beginning readers with help.

Here are the other books in the series and a link to the site:

 
 

It's a Baby Skunk!

TITLE: Skunk!
AUTHOR: Kelly Doudna
ILLUSTRATOR: (various photographers)
PUBLISHER: ABDO Publishing Company
COPYRIGHT: 2008

We found this great little series of books at our local library. This one is called It's a Baby Skunk! Other books are about prairie dogs, hippopotamuses, and flying foxes to name a few. It provides great photographs of skunks and interesting facts.

We checked out several from this series, and I have found all of them to be enjoyable and educational. These would make a nice addition to a classroom library or school library.

Pip Squeak

TITLE: Pip Squeak
AUTHOR: Sarah Weeks
ILLUSTRATOR: Jane Manning
PUBLISHER: Laura Gerimger Books
COPYRIGHT: 2007

Pip Squeak the mouse works very hard to clean up his house only to have his friend Max come and make a mess of everything. This book is a beginning reader and a sequel to another cute book called Drip, Drop.

My son and I enjoyed this book and reading it together.