A Net in Time

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Reviews

Review: A Runtamuffin Tale

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Runtamuffin…. is a cute little chicken that learns quickly that people are it’s friends, and that thought carries Runtamuffin throughout her entire life. This fun picture book for children captures life in a barnyard, while teaching important truths to it’s readers.

 Imagine you want to give someone a gift unique to them, what would it be?
In Lasse’s case….he wanted to be a farmer…the gift, just for him…chickens!  Oh my the girls had fun in making this gift special for him.  You could sense the delight they had in the creating, and their love for him.

And so starts the story of Runtamuffin and her adventures.  She learned to trust her humans, she learned to trust the other animals, to count on their aid, and they in turn learned to count on her. Tales of adventure awaited little Runtamuffin.

It’s a nice story for youngsters, the font making it one to read along side a child as opposed to reading to a group of children.    

The illustrations are full colour and give many talking points, such as why a chicken might sit on the back of a horse, how they might learn which horses were safe to visit and which were not, and the joy of listening to a well told story.

If you want to know more about the author and illustrator, as well as read snippets of other reviews you can go here.

My thoughts:
It was a cute story, seeing all the farm animals, the protective dog, the newest arrival and the curiousity among the chickens and the boldness of Runtamuffin.  Nicely told.

A Runtamuffin Tale
Melissa Taylor
Marc Beauregard (illustrator)
57 pages
Ages 5-8
Picture book, animals, life on farm, relationships

Reviewed for: Ascot Media Group. 

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Review: Santa’s Magic Key

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We have NEVER done Santa in this house, I didn’t grow up with Santa in my formative years and always thought it was a bit silly to believe in him, or to encourage children to do so. I deliberately chose to exclude Santa from stories with the lad when he was little as I remember my mom saying “don’t lie on purpose to your children, if they do, they just might wonder what else you are lying to them about.”

That said, every once in a while though I run into a Santa based Christmas Story that I just enjoy, and that I then share with my lad, and when we are done I ask him “what do you think the truth is in that story?” Today I want to tell you about Santa’s Magic Key.  This is honestly, just a lovely book.  🙂   I am looking forward to, when this review is over, putting it in the Christmas box for the local gifts for the needy.


Imagine if you would, a young boy who lives in a new home, has been taught all about Santa, and now it’s Christmas.  

His new home doesn’t have a chimney….what is a boy in a new home to do?   Worry that’s what!  He writes a letter to tell him of this conumbrum…and so the story continues. 

Simon Mendez does an excellent job of illustrating the words of Eric James.  These beautifully wrought pictures bring the story to life showcasing the story so wonderfully you’d almost feel like you were in the pictures with this young boy. 

In this sweet story we get to see the kindness of a shopkeeper, the heart of a young boy, and a future promise.   If I read this book to my lad he could easily find truths to hold on to, and so I think would your children.  See the truths, enjoy a make-believe story, and touch on a bit of the wonder of Christmas.  You just need to look a little harder for it. 

My Thoughts:
I loved that this book comes with a heavy key… what a great way to help children live out the joy of  Christmas promise.   The illustrations are simply beautiful and the story so easy to read.  The large font would make it ideal to read to a group of children gathered round your feet, the pictures large so all could see, and yet the book sits comfortably in one’s lap to share individually with a child.  

Santa’s Magic Key
Eric James
Simon Mendez (illustrator)
Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
40 pages
Christmas, picture book, seasonal, hardcover
ages 4-9

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books.

Where can I find it?
Amazon.ca: Santa’s Magic Key.
Amazon.com: Santa’s Magic Key. 

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Art Book: Duct Tape Engineer

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I know you have already gotten a bit of a preview of the fact that my boy likes to build with duct tape. I KNOW I have shown you pictures of his knight’s outfit.  He is my duct tape engineer!   So when the chance came to review “Duct Tape Engineer” I thought WOW…this is a book made for me and my lad.

The Duct Tape Engineer: The Book of Big, Bigger and Epic Duct Tape Projects is filled with things that the lad and I want to build, even dad poked his head in and said “neat idea”.  We haven’t, at this point, actually built any of the items in the book to their full size, but we did build some mini versions of them.  🙂

 What can you build?   Included are plans for: 

14 different builds to delight you, inspire your creativity, and.. save you money.  Why spend 1000’s on a kayak, when you can build your own using plastic sheeting, duct tape and pvc pipe?  

Alternatively, you could do the math and downsize them and make doll furniture or child-sized seating.   All plans are for the adult person, so just doing the math and downsizing gets you inexpensive furniture that you can grow as your children do, or that can delight your offspring with doll furniture that they can pretty up to suit their tastes (or the preferences of their doll).  

 
Each project includes a set of clear ingredients.  I love that not only do you receive a written set, but are given a visual as well.

 Instructions are as well done as the needed supplies. Text along with pictures. Everything is so clearly spelled out it makes each project a dream to build.

 What did we make with it?
Nothing full sized….but we did make doll furniture using the plans just downsizing. 

 As you can see they also make excellent small polymer pet furniture as well!  🙂

My thoughts:
This is a fantastic book.  If you have a duct tape builder in your house, get this book.  If you have a creative child, who is also good at doing math (or needs to practice it) and likes to build with duct tape…get this book.  It’s fun and helps you see things that you too could create with duct tape.   This a goodly thing to do!  🙂 

 Duct Tape Engineer: The book of big, bigger, and epic duct tape projects
Lance Akiyama
Rockport
160 pages
softcover with built in fly
Crafting, duct tape, create, resource, math, engineering

Reviewed for: Quarto Group

Where can you find it?

Amazon.com: Duct Tape Engineer.
Amazon.ca: Duct Tape Engineer. 

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Review: The Magnificent Book of Dinosaurs

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Who doesn’t like dinosaurs, those magnificent creatures that once roamed the earth?   Don’t they just fill your mind with questions, letting your imagination source as you ponder how something so large once covered our planet?  The Magnificent Book of Dinosaurs and other Prehistoric Creatures is a superb book about… well obviously.. Dinosaurs.  If you have a child interested in dinosaurs, this book will hit the spot.

 Rudolph Farkas does a great job as he uses a two page spread to bring each dinosaur to life.  From the mighty T-rex to the middlin Velociraptor and the unusual utahraptor.  Each dinosaur is shown in colour, and feathering or furring.

Granted, it’s impossible to truly know what the dinosaurs were like (for instance I’ve heard the t-rex might actually have been feathered), but in this book he is shown as so often he is, like a giant lizard-like creature. 

Each two page spread shows a coloured image of a dinosaur along with information and a fact box.

I liked the small information box on each page, showing the dinosaur relative in size to a person.  It helped me picture the size of these old creatures.  If you believe in a young earth, you may wish to take some of the facts with a grain of salt.

The book closes with a map of all the dinosaurs discussed in the book.  I found it interesting the most were discovered along a belt of the world.

 My Thoughts:
 I think that any dinosaur loving child will enjoy this book.  There is much to learn and look at. It’s a lovely oversized book so you get the beauty of these large animals displayed wonderfully.   It is also a great resource to be used for any study of dinosaurs.

The Magnificent Book of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Creatures
Tom Jacksom
Rudolf Farkas (illustrator)
Silver Dolphin Books
hardcover, dinosaurs, prehistoric creatures, resource
80 pages
Age: 8 Years +

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books. 

Where to find it?
Amazon.ca: Magnificent book of Dinosaurs.
Amazon.com. The Magnificent Book of Dinosaurs. 

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Review: The Big Earth Book

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You know what?  I love Lonely Planet Kids books.  I find them to be well made and very interesting.  The Big Earth Book is no different. You are invited to discover how earth, air, fire and water shaped the world that we live … take a tour to discover the past, the present and the future of our world. 

 

The Big Earth Book starts off by introducing us to the fab four. Earth, Air, Fire and Water.   The entire book is divided into those four sections.
Here are some of the topics for each.

Earth:
Structure of the Earth, Geothermal, Digging for Treasure, The World Today

Air: 
Layers of air, Into Space, El Nino, Playing with the wind.

Fire:
Before Fire, Wildfire, Oil Rush, Beacons of Light.

Water: 
Origins of Water, Water and Farming, Canals, The Future of Water.

Colourful illustrations draw the eye in, helping you to want to learn the facts that Mark Brake wants to impart to us. Most of the pages are full of illustrations by Brendan Kearney. Occasionally full colour photos are added.  Aren’t they well done?   You can just see how the ocean currents and the air movements work together can’t you?

This isn’t just a book about four elements, we get history, geography, science and so much more.  The bright colours, the easy reading text, the well placed photos, all add up to a book chock full of good information for your upper elementary to middle school students.

The text is written at an easy to understand level without talking down to the student.  The purpose is to educate with good vocabulary to help the student think, but with enough good material so as to be informed.

I just love how the whole package fits together.   I learned so much leafing through the pages.  For instance, did you know that “trade winds” got their name because at the time “trade” meant “path” in the English language and these winds follow a path as they move about, sailors used them to trace a path across the Atlantic ocean…Neat eh?!

My Thoughts:
Lonely Planets Kids is not a christian organization, and as such follows the old earth frame of reference, this does not need to detract from the great information contained within it’s pages.  It’s bright, colourful pages provide numerous talking points, and help show what the text is referring to.  It’s well worth a look at whether you are secular or Christian.   I think it would be a great resource to add to any library or to leave sitting around for a curious minded child to pick up and leaf through.

The Big Earth Book
Mark Brake
Dr. Mike Goldsmith (consultant)
Lonely Planet Kids
256 pages
Ages 8-12
Hardcover, earth, geography, history, science, resource

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books. 

 Where can I find it?
Amazon.ca: The Big Earth Book.
Amazon.com: The Big Earth Book.

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Review: Writing Radar

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I freely admit that I have not read this book.  I have read bits and pieces of it, but predominately this was read by my 12 year.  He’ll be giving a report on it later in this post.  I’ll be giving the factual details about it like chapters, length, interesting features etc.

My lad read this book over the month of September through mid-way October as his language arts component, I occasionally asked him what he was learning about, and he’d give me a verbal chapter synopsis, and what he thought of the ideas presented.  It worked well for us.  

What do you get?
20 chapters, with titles such as:
Trust me; Getting started; The Best Journal in the world is yours;The Writing Journal in action; Blank Slate; Story Maps; Good Habits lead to Great inspiration; Focused Drafts and much more. 

Scattered throughout the pages are black and white illustrations that sometimes illustrate a point or add humour to the page.

Since I occasionally heard giggles while the lad was reading I assume that the author used humour to convey his message.   Neither did I hear complaints about it taking too long to read, or being boring, or too difficult.  The only thing I would hear was “Sorry mom, I forgot to read Writing Radar today.  Can I do two chapters tomorrow instead?”   I simply would say, it needs to be done in five weeks, how he managed that was up to him.  From what I read, it seemed crafted for 9-12 year olds.  A good middle school level book.

Leafing through I noticed they have these little grey boxes with “writing tip” at the top.  handy those I thought.   Asked the lad what he thought and he said “they told the point of the chapter or section”. 

The lad’s Report: 
Overall: Good book.
Liked: I don’t know how to understand this part exactly.  I liked most of it.
What did I learn: How to write a book or a story.
Specific example that I liked: How a draft of a story is like a wedding cake and you just add on layer after layer after layer.
Didn’t like: I liked the whole book. I can’t think of anything I didn’t like.
I think, maybe, it would have been good to add some questions to answer after chapters or something. 

Recommendation: Get it if you want to know how to write a story or a book.

 Writing Radar: Using your Journal to Snoop our and Craft Great Stories.
Jack Gantos
Farrar Straus Giroux
202 pages
Trade Paperback
Language arts, story writing, journaling, writers, middle school
Middle school
Reviewed for : Raincoast Books

Where can you Find it?

Amazon.ca: Writing Radar.
Amazon.com: Writing Radar.

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

That Mad, Monkish Architect!

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This is Gaudi  is a book I reviewed about Antoni Gaudi, people either loved him or hated him, and in this tome we learn why.  🙂  Author Mollie Claypool walks us through his life, his formation of ideas, and the work that he did. 

I found it a bit different that this biography had no table of contents, it dove right into telling us about Gaudi, and continued to just walk us through his life.

Filled with images that spoke to the life he led and the work that he did, this is not a dry boring read, but one that intrigues and teaches.

He wasn’t a healthy lad by any means, and a poor student, but he made friends, and he did learn!  We are introduced to his observations about life and his dreams for the future.   He and his friends made grand plans to restore the monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet.  This monastery remained a focus for the rest of their lives. “They would remain committed to it’s restoration throughout their lives”. 

That his faith was important to him remained evident throughout the book, and in how he did his architectural work.  He never married, but experienced deep love with a young lady, but for reasons unknown dropped the relationship. 

Part of his madness, was he didn’t do his work in an always conventional fashion. He could put up walls and tear them down the same day, only to put the wall somewhere else.   He invented the “parametric, adaptive model”, a model that inspired generations of architects.

Filled with images and illustrations showing Gaudi and the work he did, this book will give any student a thorough look into the life of Antoni Gaudi. His ethics and determination shone through the pages. 

My thoughts:
I thought Gaudi was a fascinating individual, and can’t say I agree with all his life decisions, but he had his ideas and worked with them to the fullest he could. His faith was important to him and he weaved it into his work to the best of his ability.   I found the font small, which just meant closer up reading for my tired, older eyes.  🙂   I don’t see it being an issue for younger students though.  It’s written at a level I’d say for middle school and up.  It would be a interesting book to give to a highschool student and ask the question “How do you think you could interpose your faith into your work life?  What do you think of how Gaudi did it?”

This is Gaudi
Mollie Claypool
Illustrator: Christina Christoforou
80 pages.
Hardcover
Art, Architecture, biography, history,

Reviewed for Raincoast Books. 

Where can you find it?

Amazon.ca: This is Gaudi.
Amazon.com: This is Gaudi.

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites