BOB Books – Sight Word Collection

This was a Costco impulse purchase.  One day my daughter and I were looking on the book aisle, and I saw this.  As sight words are a big part of testing in California.  I thought I should by this collection.  Hopefully it would make sight word learning more fun than rote memorization.

Author: (Bobby) Lynn Maslen Kertell
Illustrator: Sue Hendra
Publisher: Scholastic Inc. for Costco (2011)
Prices: Set - $16.99
Reading level: 4 to 7 years old 
Interest level: Lower Grades
Physical Characteristics: 6 x 6 inches. 20 books, a teacher guide and 16 flash cards in a collectors box.

ISBN: 0545341795
Genres: Beginning readers

Subjects:
Readers (Primary)
Sight Words

Reading readiness.

English language -- Study and teaching (Primary)

Annotation:
20 Books to help Kindergarteners and First Graders learn common sight words.

Summary: 
This collection is made up of 20 books.  Each book has 12 pages and focuses on a small amount of sight words.  Each book repeats sight words in short sentences to aid in learning.  Seeing and reading words several times will help the early reader learn and retain the sight words in the Bob books sight word collection.

Evaluation:
I like these books.  I wish I had gotten them a bit earlier in my daughters reading life.  By the time we did purchase and read them, she said they were too easy.  That being said, we keep them in the car and on road trips she goes through all twenty of the books, one by one.  So, if repetition of simple sounds and words is good for retention and learning, then I think these books are helping.  Any reading is good reading!

Similar Titles or Authors:
Sight Word Readers Parent Pack: Learning the First 50 Sight Words Is a Snap! By Scholastic Books

BOB Books – Advanced Beginners

Websites:
http://bobbooks.com/bob-books-at-costco/

http://www.scholastic.com/parents/bob_books/

Awards & Recognition:
Best Book Award from Oppenheim Toys

Professional Reviews:
Publishers Weekly

Notes:
In partnership with Costco and Scholastic, Bob Books has offered Bob Books Special Collections

All images (c) BOB Books

Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months

I used this book in a recent story time, and had to write it up here, because it is such a good book and teaching tool.

Author / Illustrator: Maurice Sendak
Publisher: Harper & Row (1962)
Series: The Nutshell Library
Prices: Hardcover - $12.99, Paperback - $6.99
Reading level: 4 to 8 years old
Interest level: Lower Grades
Physical Characteristics: 4.2 x 5.9 inches, 32 pages 
ISBN: 006443253X
Genres: Children’s Picture Book, Children’s Poetry

Subjects:
Months and Seasons
Concepts – Juvenile Fiction
Humorous Stories
Books in Rhyme

Annotation: Travel through the months of a year with a little boy and his beloved chicken soup and rice.

Evaluation:
I love Carole King and Maurice Sendak and the combination of the two of them is amazing.  This book is so much fun to read alone or to look at while listening to Ms. King’s version of the story.  It gives kids a clear understanding of the months of the year and of the seasons, all while enjoying a wonderful silly story with great illustrations.  Mr. Sendak’s use of frames around the names of the month seem as though you are flipping through a calendar of the narrator’s year.  This is such an enjoyable and informative book.

PS - In the Carole King song, I shout along every time she say ‘WHALE’ in November.

Similar Titles or Authors:
Pierre: A Cautionary Tale in Five Chapters by Maurice Sendak
Really Rosie (CD) Lyrics by Maurice Sendak, Music by Carole King

Websites:
http://www.harpercollins.com/9780064432535/chicken-soup-with-rice

Awards & Recognition:
Chicken Soup with Rice received no individual awards, but Mr. Sendak received:

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, a lifetime achievement award from  the American Library Association in 1983
The National Medal of Arts in 1996


Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, an international prize for children's literature established by the Swedish government. in 2003

Professional Reviews:
LibraryJournal

Time

New YorkTimes




All images (c) Maurice Sendak

Blue Hat, Green Hat

I am a sucker for Sandra Boynton.  Her whimsical animals and simple stories are always a hit with my girl.  One of our favorites is Blue Hat, Green Hat.

Author / Illustrator: Sandra Boynton
Publisher: Little Simon (1984)
Series: Boynton on Board
Prices: Board Book - $5.99
Reading level: 0-4 years old
Interest level: Preschool and Lower Grades
Physical Characteristics: 5.8 x 5.8 inches, 14 pages
ISBN: 0671493205
Genres: Board Book

Subjects:
Humorous Fiction
Animals
Basic Concepts
Clothing

Annotation:
An elephant, a moose, a bear and a turkey are getting dressed, and one of them can’t seem to get it right.

Summary:
An elephant, a moose, a bear and a turkey are showing the reader how to wear clothing.  They are: hats, shirts, pants, coats, socks and shoes.  On every page all the animals show the correct way to wear the items, except for the turkey.  And on every page above his silly head is the word OOPS.  On the last two pages you see that the turkey finally gets it right.  He is wearing all the pieces of clothing we have already seen, and this time he has them on correctly.  Right when you think he has gotten it, he dives in to a pool fully dressed… OOPS.

Evaluation:
Sandra Boynton’s books are epically enjoyable to even the youngest of children.  The simple and short sentences, sometimes one word, move the ideas forward and make the reader laugh at the same time.  Ms. Boynton’s animals are whimsical, unique and silly.  In Blue Hat, Green Hat the eyes of each of the four animals are so expressive, even though they are just white circles with dots.  But, the way Ms. Boynton shifts the dots makes for perspective and emotion that is evident to children and adults.  I simply love the last page of this book, and it always makes my daughter laugh.

Similar Titles or Authors:
Doggies by Sandra Boynton
My Shirt is White by Dick Bruna

Websites:
http://www.sandraboynton.com/sboynton/index.html

http://books.simonandschuster.com/Blue-Hat-Green-Hat/Sandra-Boynton/9780671493202

http://loudcrow.com/blue-hat-green-hat/

Awards & Recognition:

Ms. Boynton was the 2008 recipient of the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award given by The National Cartoonists Society

Professional Reviews:
Kirkus 

All images (c) Sandra Boynton 

That’s Not My Fairy…

This book was a hand me down from my niece to my daughter, when she was born.  It is severely tattered, which is a sign that it has been loved by two little readers.

Author: Fiona Watt
Illustrator: Rachel Wells
Publisher: Usborne Books (2004)
Series: Usborne touchy-feely books, That’s not my… collection
Prices: Board Book - $9.95
Reading level: 0 to 4 years old
Interest level: Preschool and Lower Grades
Physical Characteristics: 6.5 x 6.5 inches, imbedded fabrics for touching, 10 pages

ISBN: 0746062605
Genres: Board Book, Baby Book, Touch and Feel

Subjects:
Fairies
Picture Book

Annotation:  The reader gets to touch each fairy to find out if it is theirs.

Summary:
The reader gets to touch five fairies before she finds her fairy.  One fairy is too fluffy, one is too shiny one too bumpy, one too smooth and one too frizzy.  Finally the reader will find her fairy, whose wand is so sparkly.

Evaluation:
This is a good length for reading to a baby or toddler.  It is only 10 pages, and the book is incredibly sturdy.  The fabric, feely, parts are a big draw for the smallest kids.   And as a parent you can know that your kids are developing sensory skills and building basic book sense, i.e. how to turn pages.  I enjoy all the books in the series, and my daughter is still a huge fan, even though they are what she refers to as “baby books”.

Similar Titles or Authors:
That’s not my Pirate by Usborne books
Touch and Fell Books by DK books

Websites:
http://www.usborne.com

http://www.edcpub.com

Awards & Recognition:
Series: Practical Pre-School Silver Award 2009
Series: Prima Baby Reader Awards "Best Buy" 2004 and 2006

All images (c) Usborne Books