A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Reviews

The Button Pusher

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (The Button Pusher) through Raincoast Books. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated. 🙂

I honestly wasn’t expecting much when I initially leafed through Button Pusher.  I figured it was yet another light fiction piece done in graphic novel style for the middle school crowd.  Instead, what I found as an informative, based-on-life graphic novel, delineating the effects of ADD/ADHD on a child and their family.  Not a fun, or easy path in life. This would be an excellent book for upper elementary and middle school children and their families. 

Button Pusher by Tyler page

General Details

I received a full-colour, paperback edition with a built-in fly.  Written by Tyler Page in an autobiographical format, within the graphic novel style. Within the story you will find breakouts teaching about different aspects of ADHD. Published by First Second out of New York.   Running at 256 pages and written with youth 10-14 years.  I’m reviewing on behalf of Raincoast Books. 

Seeing ADHD through the eyes of Button Pusher

Learn about how people with ADHD deal with doctors, executive function, the genetic component, environmental factors, how Ritalin works on the brain and so much more.  These blue pages are packed full of information helping youth understand how ADHD affects each person.   I find them to be really well done with language easily understood by middle school youth.

The bulk of the story is told in full colour, with an easy-to-read font.  A full-colour spectrum is used which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Don’t you enjoy it when a book uses a wide range of colour? 

With that colour, you’ll also find a wide range of emotions.  From anger, happiness, confusion and more.  Tyler’s parents struggled in their relationship so you’ll see anger, and the result of objects thrown.  

You will see firsthand some of the issues Tyler struggled with growing up. I found that often times his friends didn’t help him make wise decisions.  

Should you pick up Button Pusher?

One of my son’s friends has a fairly debilitating form of ADHD.  We’ve included him in some of our outings, and find even as a teenager he needs a fair amount of redirecting to help him stay on task.   Even to just keep him from wandering off when we’re out together.   

Just as Tyler learned needed skills as he matured (and meds did play a part in that), my son’s friend has needed to learn a variety of skills.  Maintaining friendships is part of that.  ERGO I think this book would be immensely helpful to not only ADHD youth, but also the friends they may or may not have.  It’s hard to manage emotions, feel confident about yourself, and be a good part of society while managing difficult conditions. 

Button Pusher helps ADHD youth realize that they can do this.  They can learn to cope and channel all that additional energy into good.  Their friends can learn to help their ADHD friends make better decisions. 

The Science of Babies

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (The Science of Babies) through Birdhouse Kids. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated. 🙂

Children often want to know how they came to be, or even where babies come from. The Science of Babies gives parents a way to talk with their children about where babies come from and what they need. A board book so it gives little hands something they can touch, and play with, without damaging the book for others to use.  This book takes a scientific approach and used proper terms when talking about how babies come into being.   Shall we learn more?

The Science of Babies

A Brief Overview

The Science of Babies: A little book for big questions about bodies, birth and families has been published by Birdhouse Kids.  32 pages in board book style. Written by Deborah Roffman and Illustrated by Frank Cable.  It is written for children 3 1/2 and up. Correct scientific terminology is used throughout. 

Birdhouse Kids is located in Vancouver, Canada.  Their goal is to create resources for parents and educators that help them introduce children “to the things in life that will make them accomplished, healthy, and happy.”  Their focus is on early childhood education. 

Looking deeper into The Science of Babies

The board book starts with talking about people are different on the outside, with body parts there, and also body parts on the inside.  Children learn about how some body parts are private and some body parts are used by grown-ups to make new people. 

Over the course of the book, children learn the facts about how the creation of a baby is accomplished.  Including the pleasure it brings adults to do the work of creating a baby.

It’s not all pictures with a bit text, but sometimes mostly text with just a few images. 

All types of families are included without labelling.  So the reader is left to decide how those families can be described.   This later part also includes what babies need: food, sleep, attention, and love. 

What do I think?

I love how they specified that it is grown-ups who make children.   And although  I know the focus was on using scientific language I disliked how they talked about the baby being a fetus. 

I was delighted that they focused on how it is a pleasure to create a baby, rather than focusing on just the duty, or how some babies are created in less than good circumstances.   The authors avoid that hardness.

 When it comes right down to it I’m not sure what I think of The Science of Babies.  I love that they use proper terminology, and their focus on pleasure, and what babies need to grow.  I think part of my hesitation is that I come from a faith-based perspective when discussing where babies come from.   It’s not just the action and the pleasure in creating, but the love and desire of the parents in carrying that child through gestation and into growing as a person.   I feel the lack.

It’s just “here are the facts” and oh, remember to love the fetus once it becomes a baby.  Will it be helpful?  Yes!  Is it a good place to start?  For sure.  You can present this book within the context of whatever faith system (or lack thereof) that you hold to.  You are given the language and the steps, so half the job is done for you.  Then use your social context to make it fuller, fitting your family values. 

Don’t Worry, Be Ha-PEA

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Don’t Worry, Be Ha-PEA) through Ascot Media Group. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated. 🙂

Don’t Worry, Be Ha-PEA is a book filled with funny food puns. You’ll need to check it out with the cookie dough letters and the various foodstuffs in pictures.  Some of them are very easy to figure out, others, well, not so much eh?  It’s a fun book to gift or leave out for guests to enjoy.  A family-friendly book for you to enjoy.  Want to know more… read on! 

Don't Worry, Be Ha-PEA: 101 Deliciously Clever Food Puns

Brief Description of Don’t Worry be Ha-Pea

Curious about how this punny, food-filled 128-page hardcover came into being?   Check out this video! 

Discovering food-oriented puns with full-colour images, divided into seven sections, by Marie Saba.  Published by Familius Books.   You’ll discover 101 Deliciously Clever Food Puns in Don’t Worry, Be Ha-PEA.  Some are very easy, others, well, let’s just say we haven’t quite figured them out yet in this household.  Still fun trying though eh? 

I mentioned seven categories:

  • Deliciously Romantic
  • Movie Title Munchies
  • Nom-Nom Celebrity Names
  • Spicy Slang
  • Sweet Inspiration
  • Tasty Tourist Attractions
  • Yummy Cartoon Characters

Diving in for a Closer Look

Other than the title pages for each section, every page has a pun on it.  The backgrounds are always a solid background, either in singular colour, or as wood panel background. 

I can just see the fun Marie Saba had in creating these.  Wouldn’t it be fun to just come up with puns?  Finding the right produce, and then figuring how to put it together.  She must have used a thesaurus a lot since some of the puns are CLOSE plays on words.  🙂

It’s not a very big book, maybe 7 x 7, which makes it easy to slip into a bag so you can bring it along to gathering and have fun with friends solving the puns (whether you do so correctly or not).  Try, fail, try, succeed, laugh and enjoy yourself. 

Should you get it?

Don’t Worry, Be Ha-PEA: 101 Deliciously Clever Food Puns by Marie Saba is a fun little book.  It’s one that I would happily gift a foodie!  Or have it sitting out on a table for guests to browse when over for a visit.  There is nothing in them to worry about with your children as all the puns are family-friendly. 

OH, I was just thinking.. this would be a good book to use with kids learning a second language.  Can they figure out what the picture is and then hunt for a near word or a rhyming word to solve the pun? Wouldn’t it be a handy way to help cement learning?  Or even to use with a cooking unit for homeschooling (or in the public school system)?  Might be a fun way to encourage your children to practice their thinking skills eh?  

Future Worlds

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Future Worlds) through Raincoast Books. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated. 🙂

What do you see the world looking like in the future?  What changes do you foresee happening in how we live? How will the world change in 100 years?  Do you think things might look different than what Lonely Planet’s Future Worlds suggests?   A good discussion book for thinking about the future with your kiddos. 

Future Worlds

Quick Run Down of Future Worlds

Future Worlds: A Guide to the Planet of Tomorrow was put together by Anna Claybourne and Robert Ball along with publisher Lonely Planet Kids. 24 pages which flip out, hardcover and geared to 9-12 year olds.  This book will make you think about what the world might look like further along in the future.   Consider, what new things might be invented?  Perhaps things might work differently, might be fun to imagine eh? 

I am reviewing a hardcover edition on behalf of Raincoast Books. 

Getting a broader view

One of the many aspects I like about Future Worlds is the foldout pages.  This turns this 24-page hardcover book into a more imaginative, idea-filled, question-filled resource.   As you open up those foldout pages don’t forget to lift the flaps too!  So much more to discover on each of these pages!

Most of the pages are on the horizontal, but occasionally a page set on the vertical could be found, helping us to imagine the height of some of out future buildings.   Lonely Planet tells us this tome is based on the latest in scientific thinking, but I have to wonder about that abit….  

…. because they have us thinking that theatres will be all VR, our food will either be all plant- or insect-based, and that robots will give us superhuman strength.  Not only that, our snacks will be 3-D printed, and we’ll only get around using electric, driverless cars and by hoverboard.

My question is this: would you really want this to be your world?   Or would you welcome such innovations and changes to the way we live our lives? 

Regardless of your answers to those questions, you’ll find ideas packed throughout, while giving lots of space for illustrations to future fuel the imagination. 

My older eyes did find the text a little small, but still quite readable.  Can you imagine an umbrella just hovering over your head?  That idea just spawns all kinds of imagined changes. 

I find it interesting though, I watched the “Back to the Future” movies, and hoverboards, flying vehicles, etc were part of the imagined future as well.  So thinking that we’ll have flying buses and cars fills me with some skepticism.  Those items are so often a part of an imagined future don’t you find? 

So is it one you should grab?

Books like Future Worlds are fun!  Seriously.  To see all the things that people imagine might happen in the future?  It spawns the imagination, and ignites ideas for potential research.  Can I see insects becoming more important in the future?  For sure!  I think more research and publicity needs to occur for the eating of crickets and superworms to become more acceptable.  🙂 

The idea of having a hovering umbrella makes me curious and has me asking questions such as: but what will stabilize it when there’s wind blowing at odd angles? What keeps it at the right angle?  Can you set an optimal height? How will those kinks be worked out? 

Isn’t it fascinating to consider?  I think so, and spurring on the ideas and imaginations of middle schoolers?  How much the better??!?!?!?  Just think about how you can use this in your creative writing program, or as a critical thinking exercise.  So many uses for a book like this to get your kids thinking!

Listen to the Language of the Trees

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Listen to the Language of the Trees) through Raincoast Books. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated. 🙂

Too often adults dismiss the value of picture books when it comes to learning.  It’s so easy to think, it’s a book for little children, what can I learn from it?  What could a middle school or high school student learn?  The thing about picture books is they contain bite-sized bits of learning that you might otherwise miss in a bigger, more wordy book.   Those bite-sized bits can encourage anyone to look deeper into a new concept.  In Listen to the Language of the Trees, I learned about the importance of the mycorrhizal network and about the work they are doing in labs, with an eventual look at field research. 

Listen to the language of the trees

The basic details

Today I am reviewing Listen to the Language of the Trees: a story of how forests communicate underground.   My version is an ARC softcover that I am reviewing on behalf of Raincoast Books. 

Sourcebooks for kids has, together with Tera Kelley, published a picturebook geared at children 4-8 years of age. 40 pages come complete with full colour images, a teacher/parent help section, and an activities area, you have yourselves a small unit study for young children.  This same unit study will prove to be a great starting point for older readers.  

Digging Deeper into Listen to the Language of the Trees

One of the items I appreciate in this book is the clarity of the images. Illustrator Marie Hermansson did an excellent job of conveying how support happened underground.  Full-coloured illustrations demonstrate the path underground to help not only the little tree but also the big tree as well.  Rather neat how the mycorrhizal network is run.

The font is clear and easy to read, I only wish it has been larger to facilitate reading this tome with a group of interested children. 

Do you just love the details?   That squirrel!   Oh my, I could have so much fun talking with a young reader about the squirrel and all the other details provided in these fantastic drawings. 

You’ll love the teacher/parent notes at the close.  They are provided in three formats.  One with easy cutouts with brief explanations, this is written mostly for children.  The second, with more of an adult perspective, includes a more in-depth explanation of what they know and don’t know and how most research has been done in a lab.  Real-world experimentation/observation needs to occur yet.  And third, activities your children can do to add to their learning.

Add it to your shelves?

I have to admit, Listen to the Language of the Trees: a story of how forests communicate underground, surprised me.  I was rather skeptical about the whole mycorrhizal network so it led me to do a bit of research on it.  Such an interesting study!   This video below is just brief intro. 

So this is just a neat way to present this idea to children.   

I think it would be fantastic to also use with middle school and high school students to peak their interest in the unexpected connections in life.  My son in his biology class learned about the classic sea anemone and fish that co-exist and other symbiotic relationships.  Who would have thought that fungi could also do such things?  Rather interesting no?

The Story of a Butterfly

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (The Story of a Butterfly) through Raincoast Books. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated. 🙂

I don’t know about where you live, but here… butterflies!  Butterflies are always around in the summer, and as much as people say to kill the worms and caterpillars… I like seeing the resultant butterflies and moths despite the damage they do!   Since children often exclaim (like I do) over the presence of butterflies don’t you think they would be enchanted by The Story of a Butterfly? 

The Story of a butterfly

The Highlights of The Story of a Butterfly

The Story of a Butterfly was put together by Margaret Rose Reed.  A simple nature book helping young children understand the butterfly lifecycle and what they need to survive.  The focus is on the the life cycle and habitat of the Painted Lady Butterfly.  The picture book’s 32 pages are beautifully illustrated by Manu Montoya.  Preschoolers and kindergarteners will love the butterflies, flowers, and teaching to found within the pages. 

I am reviewing an ARC softcover edition for Raincoast Books. 

I adore letting children ask questions and then giving them the answer.  In this informative picture book, a child asks the questions filling your child’s mind.   I think it’s fantastic how each question is in large, easy-to-read font, and the answers are in a professional font. 

The explanations range from short and sweet to more lengthy.   Proper terminology is used.  This makes it a handy reference when answering questions from the nature studies you do with your children.

Natural progression is shown in the answering of questions, with the children eventually asking why they don’t see butterflies at school.  This leads to a whole new community project where we wordlessly get to watch it all come together.  

Don’t you just love the good use of colour throughout?  Even on the “summing up what we’ve learned page” you’ll find lots of colour!  It’s great to have a page that pulls all the learning together. 

Is this picture book worth your time?

Oh, I think so.  The Story of a Butterfly does a good job of telling us about the Painted Lady Butterfly.  It gives us many details about the life cycle and habitat needs of this particular butterfly.  If you learn how to take care of this one, you’ll take care of other butterflies as well! 

A good book for young children to help them learn more about butterflies, and a decent primer for older students just getting a start on a new unit study.   I enjoyed the use of colour and the details added to each page.  This provides good talking points when reading with a young child. 

Into the Windwracked Wilds

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Into the Windwracked Wilds) through Raincoast Books.  Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated.  🙂

I find myself in a bit of a conumdrum having finished Into the Windwracked Wilds this morning.  The story intrigues, but the method of telling left me feeling a bit left behind. Let me see if I can explain it to you in this review.

into the windwracked wilds

A brief overview of Into the Windwracked Wilds

Reading the third in a series of the Up-and-Under, we have Into the Windwracked Wilds by A. Deborah Baker.  A whimsical way of telling a story with four main protagonists: Zib, Avery, Niahm, and Crow Girl.  They are found traveling the improbable road until they annoy it and it dumps them off into the ocean.  You’ll discover a variety of fantastical creatures, and an odd system of governments…both good and bad. 

I am reviewing a softcover ARC edition on behalf of Raincoast Books.  The publisher is Tordotcom Books.

Just what do you get?

Simple ornamentation decorate the chapters.  Consistently a set of crowns. 

A chapter book, it’s classified as a dark fantasy book.  It’s not a light reading book.  Based in a dangerous world where one needs to be careful with the words you use. Monsters abound and rules don’t make a whole lot of sense.  It has a very ‘dream-like’ quality in the writing style.

I want to say it’s a middle school read, but it’s not really focused on that.  It’s not a difficult read by any means, just very ethereal? Not even sure that’s the right word to use.  The main characters have a goal in mind but side stories, and the characters they meet often side-track them. Everything it seems is very dangerous and being extremely careful serves them well. 

Should you read?

Unless you have read books 1 and 2, I don’t know that I would recommend Into the Windwracked Wilds.  Some series do an excellent job at tying different books together, this one does not. You’ll get a bit of allusion to events, but nothing that really explains how the protagonists got together or even what the whole real point is. 

And if you have read the first two in the series, you know the whimsical style of A. Deborah Baker and will then enjoy reading Into the Windwracked Wilds.Â