Showing posts with label Read-along. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Read-along. Show all posts

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Book Review: Oliver and Jumpy, Stories 19-21 by Werner Stejskal

Oliver and Jumpy, Stories 19-21 (Oliver and Jumpy, the cat Series Book 7)
By Werner Stejskal
Publisher: Werner Stejskal
Published: Oct. 28, 2014
ASIN: B00LMKWMQM

Amazon Synopsis:

These illustrated cat stories are all about “Oliver and Jumpy”, who are best of friends and experience many adventures together. Oliver is an elegant black tomcat, who is full of himself. As a matter of fact he says: “I love myself!”, quite often. Naughty, isn’t he? But his best friend Jumpy, a kangaroo lady, is aware that he has a soft heart and will always want to help others. The great thing is Jumpy’s pouch, which Oliver loves to ride in! He calls her his kangaroo taxi! These little bedtime stories with their lovely illustrations are great for small kids. A parent can read the text and tell the child in his own words. These animal stories have sufficient text to keep early readers happy and provide some educational value. Depending on your device, there is pop-up text (at Amazon) or audio available. Several talented illustrators are essential to bring these children's stories to you in quick succession. Love you all! Meow! Check out the Free INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES to see how beautiful the illustrations are! 

Story 19: Santa's Chocolate Factory – Naughty Joey is getting into mischief.
Story 20: Triller - One of Oliver's friends is taking part in a singing contest.
Story 21: April Volcano – April Fools' Day can be no joke.

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My Thoughts:

These are three unique children’s stories that your young ones will enjoy.

Santa’s Chocolate Factory
Join Oliver, Jumpy and Joey on a trip to Santa’s chocolate factory. This factory is unlike Santa’s home in the North Pole and there are no elves here. See what kind of mischief Joey gets himself into.

I really liked the illustrations in this story. They were bright, clear and very attractive. The only negative thing I would say about them is that in one of the pictures I did not think one of the illustrations went with the words on the page because the Joey did not look like a kangaroo and appeared frightened rather than doing what the text said he was doing. In a second illustration I thought that Joey looked more like a wolf (with a chocolatey mouth) than a kangaroo.

I totally loved Joey’s promise at the end of the story. It’s the same kind of promise most over-indulgers make, but no true choc-a-holic can keep.

Triller
Triller is a lovely story emphasizing friendship, encouragement, caring and self-confidence. Perhaps it will help inspire your young one to try something he or she is feeling shy about.

April’s Fool
In this April fool’s tale Oliver has a trick played on him and then he, Jumpy and Joey get themselves into some serious danger. You can feel the seriousness of the danger come through in the words of the author. Like a good children’s bedtime book that won’t lead to nightmares though, there is a good ending.


All of Mr. Stejskal’s stories contain animals, fun, imagination and lots of love for children. I would highly recommend these excellent adventure stories for your younger children. I gave this book 5 stars out of 5 stars.


I purchased this book on Amazon.ca.

About the Author:

Born in Vienna, Austria, Werner is now living in the paradise of Perth, Australia with his wife, two married children and three grandchildren. He worked many years in the printing industry and later for the United Nations in Vienna. His wife had been a pen-friend, whom Werner visited in Hong Kong and finally got married to. After an eventful life, now retired, he began to write children's stories, had them illustrated through Odesk, narrated them himself for YouTube and finally published the ebooks on most platforms. Werner's dream is to see "Oliver and Jumpy" animated as a TV series.

There are lots of fairy tales and bedtime stories around and many of them quite violent. This made Werner decide to write something different. On a flight from Europe to Australia he watched the movie Magic on Belle Island with Morgan Freeman, where Freeman teaches a little girl to have imagination and write her first story. This inspired Werner as well and the first stories with his two characters Oliver, the elegant tomcat, and Jumpy, his kangaroo lady friend, made their appearance. Some very capable illustrators have helped to create this picture book series.

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Saturday, July 18, 2015

Book Review: Sunny the Snail by Karmen Sanda

Sunny The Snail- And Colorful Crayons: Inspiring Children's Book about being creative
By Karmen Sanda
Publisher: Studio Sanda
Published: May 27, 2015
ASIN: B00YEYAF30

Amazon Synopsis:

Follow the adventures of Sunny the Snail 

This is a wonderful children's book about a baby snail Sunny who wanted to be different and his family who understood.. 

Sunny is the youngest and the smallest among his brothers and more than anything else he wants to be different. And by being different he also helps his mommy and finds joy in his life by helping others. 

What possibly can a little snail do to be different? Lean back and find out what Sunny does in this lovely picture book. 

This beginner reader’s eBook for your children ages 2
6 

These stories are great for quick bedtime stories and cute tales to be read aloud with friends and family. 

• Excellent for beginning and early readers 
• Great for reading aloud with friends and family 
• Cute short story, great for a quick bedtime story 
• Hand
drawn watercolor & pen drawings 
• FREE coloring book downloads included 

This book is especially great for traveling, waiting rooms, and read aloud at home.

Bonus FREE GIFT 

This FREE coloring
book provides enough black and white drawings to keep children entertained while coloring them. At the beginning of the book you will find a link to download it. 

Scroll up and grab a copy of this children's book today and spend some quality time with your child. 

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My Thoughts:

Sunny the Snail is a delightful tale about a snail that comes from a large family where they can’t tell one another apart because they all look alike. Creative Sunny finds some crayons and decides to colour his shell so that he will look different from his brothers and sisters. His family likes the idea so much that they ask him to do the same for each of them. Pretty soon the whole community of snails is being decorated by Sunny with beautiful designs on their shells.

I liked this story because it encourages children to use their creativity with crayons. Different designs on the shells are shown for examples and a free book is provided for downloading that children can use to create their own designs. There are also a few other activities in the downloadable book such as matching and mazes.

This would be a good book for a parent to read to a child rather than for the child to read to him or herself. The reason for this is that there are errors in tense (both past and present tense in the same sentence) and word choice in the book. For example:

“…decided one day that he is going to help his beloved mommy to finally distinct who is who between his brothers”

If the parent is reading, then perhaps they can catch the tense errors and incorrect word choices. These errors may be due to the author’s first language not being English, but then I think the book should be more rigorously edited and proofread as children learn to read by reading.

Other than that I thought that this was a fun book for children. Due to the errors however, I will have to deduct a star from my overall score, leaving Sunny the Snail with 3 stars out of 5.


Thank you to the author for providing a copy of the book in exchange for a fair and honest review. A positive opinion was not required. All thoughts are my own.

About the Author:

My name is Karmen Sanda. I spent my childhood in a village Kamnica, near the city of Maribor, in a small country called Slovenia.

My first tool for today's successful career were crayons which I got for my first birthday. Since then the crayons were my everyday companion.

As a little girl I could spend hours and hours drawing and making up stories.

I have finished school of economics and graduated from textile design.
After ten years of a successful career in various professions I rediscovered my true passion and decided to return to the drawing board.

Now I am living my dream with my biggest admirers and critics - my husband and my three lovely children.

Together we enjoy beautifully illustrated books and additional creative gifts, such as coloring books and puzzles. We love to create: to draw and to make up fairy tales.

Author Links

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Summer Thriller Read-Along with James Hayman


Summer is the perfect time for a good thriller.  This summer HarperCollins is hosting a read-along of James Hayman's McCabe and Savage series. I'll be reading the books and reviewing them on Shelf Full of Books along with you. Join in at the read-along on the Witness Goodreads page and pop in to Goodreads from time to time to join the discussion.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1868761-the-cutting-read-along-with-author-james-hayman)


TIMELINE OF READ-ALONG
June 20 - Start reading THE CUTTING, the first book in the series
July 18 - Discussion with James Hayman on Goodreads
July 21 - Start reading CHILL OF NIGHT, the second book in the series
August 15 - Discussion with James Hayman on Goodreads
August 18 - Finish up with DARKNESS FIRST
September 12 – Discussion with James Hayman on Goodreads



Synopsis:

The first novel in the nationally bestselling McCabe and Savage series—perfect for fans of John Sandford and CJ Box.

Someone is stealing the hearts of beautiful women...

Detective Mike McCabe moved from a top homicide job with the NYPD to Portland, Maine to leave his failed marriage and suspicions of wrongdoing behind, and to find a more peaceful life for himself and his 13 year old daughter.

But the small New England city is not nearly as safe as he thought.

On a warm September night, a missing high-school athlete is found dead in a scrap metal yard, her heart removed from her body with surgical precision. As outrage over the killing spreads, a young business woman disappears while out on a morning jog.

McCabe is certain both crimes are the work of one man—a murderer skilled in cardiac surgery who is using his scalpel to target young women. With the clock ticking, McCabe and his partner Maggie Savage find themselves in a desperate race against time to find and rescue the missing woman before she becomes the next victim of the sadistic killer's blade.

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Synopsis:

A frozen corpse.
A missing witness.
Strange voices that aren't there.

One cold night, Lainie Goff, a glamorous young attorney on the fast track to a partnership at Portland's top firm, is found frozen in the trunk of her BMW on the local fishing pier.

Detectives Mike McCabe and Maggie Savage quickly uncover a long list of suspects: Lainie's boss, who was also her lover; an ex-priest who runs a shelter for runaway teens; an abusive stepfather who raped Lainie as a teen; and a creepy landlord who seems to know more than he should about her private life.

Still, there is no hard evidence until a mentally ill young woman who hears voices gives an island cop an eyewitness account he doesn't take seriously.

But when she too disappears, McCabe and Savage find themselves in a desperate race against time to stop a vicious killer before he rids himself of the only person who knows who he is.

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Synopsis:

The mutilated body of a young woman. The town doctor lying comatose in the road. A hundred and fifty tablets of Canadian OxyContin. This is the havoc that a merciless killer has wreaked on a sleepy Maine seaport.

As detectives Maggie Savage and Michael McCabe investigate, they realize the man they are after does not exist. Nobody knows his real name. Nobody has seen his face. But everybody fears his blade.

The only one who may know the murderer's true identity is an eleven-year-old girl—who has vanished into thin air.

Taut, twisting, and starring two unforgettable heroes, Darkness First will thrill fans of John Sandford and C. J. Box.


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