A Million Doughnuts

TITLE: A Million Doughnuts
AUTHOR:  Dawn Colclasure
ILLUSTRATOR:
PUBLISHER: Polliwog Press
COPYRIGHT:  2012

In A Million Doughnuts a boy named Rusty asks to eat a doughnut. His parents do not let him and he wishes that he had a million doughnuts. He even writes his wish in a book about doughnuts. The next day he awakes to find his room filled with doughnuts. Rusty eats many doughnuts and quickly notices some changes, like not fitting into his pants anymore or having any energy. Rusty learns his lesson about not eating too many doughnuts and ends up sharing the doughnuts with others as they continue to come day after day. He eventually marks out his wish that he wrote in his book to make the doughnuts stop appearing.

I liked the lesson that Rusty learned as well as what his parents learned. They refused to let him have one doughnut and learned that one every once in a while is actually okay.

I would have liked to see the illustrations in color instead of black and white.

Thank you to Great Minds Think Aloud Publishing for providing this ebook for my review.

Queen Emily's Enchanted Kingdom: Litterbug

TITLE:  Queen Emily's Enchanted Kingdom:  Litterbug
AUTHOR:  Lee-Ann Graff-Vinson
ILLUSTRATOR: Emily Vinson, Joely Hannah Casavant
PUBLISHER: Polliwog Press
COPYRIGHT:  2012

Big Ted tells Queen Emily that garbage is covering the Enchanted Kingdom. The people of the kingdom have not thrown away their trash and it is a huge mess. Queen Emily investigates and talks to Litterbug about the problem with throwing things out instead of putting them in the trash.

This is a nicely written and illustrated book. I did not like the mention of "casting a spell" on the people of the kingdom that caused them to not clean up.

Thank you to Great Minds Think Aloud Publishing for providing this ebook for my review.

Queen Emily's Enchanted Kingdom Sugarland

TITLE: Queen Emily's Enchanted Kingdom
AUTHOR:  Lee-Ann Graff Vinson
ILLUSTRATOR:  Emily-Ann Vinson
PUBLISHER: Polliwog Press
COPYRIGHT: 2012

Queen Emily loves sweet treats and is excited to wake up (in a dream) to find the kingdom covered with all sorts of sweets. She goes out and begins enjoying treat after treat until she is stuffed, sick, and increased in size. She finds out that the baker had made a wish to fill the kingdom with the goodies she bakes. Queen Emily and the baker learn a lesson about eating too many sweets.

I thought this was a good book with a good lesson. The illustrations are bright and colorful.  They are done by the author's daughter.  The full-color images go nicely with the book text.

Thank you to Great Minds Think Aloud Publishing for providing this ebook for my review.

Play, Louis, Play!

TITLE: Play, Louis, Play!:  The True Story of a Boy and His Horn
AUTHOR: Muriel Harris Weinstein
ILLUSTRATOR:  Frank Morrison
PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury USA
COPYRIGHT:

Learn about the childhood of famous musician Louis Armstrong in this book.  It is creatively written from the perspective of his horn!  It tells how young Louis worked to make money for his family and the role music played in his life.

This chapter book would be enjoyable for elementary aged children. It is easy to follow the story and enjoyable as well because it is written from the horn's perspective.

My son and I read this book together because it was on the Texas Bluebonnet list.  We both enjoyed the story and thought it was well-written.

Oink, Moo, Meow

TITLE: Oink, Moo, Meow
AUTHOR: 
ILLUSTRATOR:
PUBLISHER:  Sterling Children's Books
COPYRIGHT: 2012

In this board book you will find a variety of animal pictures along with the sounds they make.  What I liked about this particular book is that there was such a good variety of animals, many of them unique to these type of books in my opinion.  It isn't often I see a dove or a grasshopper in a book about animal noises. 

This is a great board book for infants-toddlers. 

Homer

TITLE: Homer
AUTHOR:  Elisha Cooper
ILLUSTRATOR: Elisha Cooper
PUBLISHER: Greenwillow Books
COPYRIGHT: 2012

Family members ask Homer to do things with them, but he doesn't want to do any of it. He prefers sitting on the porch.  He doesn't need a thing, he has all he needs. 

This is a nice book for dog lovers. I was initially drawn to the book because of the cover.  The watercolor illustrations are simply beautiful.  There is minimal text per page and would be good for an early reader beginning to read aloud on his own.

Because of the small amount of text and nice dog pictures, this book would be enjoyed in my opinion by young children in preschool through early elementary.

God Found Us You

TITLE: God Found Us You
AUTHOR:  Lisa Tawn Bergren
ILLUSTRATOR: Laura J. Bryant
PUBLISHER: Harper Blessings
COPYRIGHT: 2009

This is a touching book of a Momma fox and her baby fox.  The little fox is asking questions and she is telling him about all the waiting and praying they did as they waited for him. 

This is a sweet story for families who have adopted a child.  There are several picture books by this author, and I have enjoyed the ones I've read.