A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Kindergarten

If I were a Fish

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product If I Were A Fish through Raincoast Books. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and it is so much appreciated. 🙂

Looking for a fun picture book to enjoy with your littles? This book is the result of some bullying received on a Tiktok video.  Some people are weird (but aren’t we all to some degree or another?) and this is a book that celebrates that it’s okay to be a bit weird. I love that it has no overt agenda, it’s just a happy book the celebrates the uniquenesses of people.   And isn’t that something to be joyful about? 

If I were a fish

Basic Details for “If I Were a Fish”

Title: If I were a fish
Author: Corook and Olivia Barton
Illustrator: Mike Curato
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Pages: 26
Intended Audience: Kindergarten to Elementary
Genre:  friendship, music book, bullies, bullying, picture book
Available formats: Kindle, Audio, Hardcover
Received: Hardcover
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

About the Author and Book

corook also known as Corinne Savage is a singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and a huge dork. Corook’s music is filled with vulnerability and sprinkled with humor. Corook currently resides in Tennessee.   Her companion is Olivia with whom a mutual love of music is shared. 

Olivia Barton a singer/songwriter who writes songs stream from who she is. Barton tours regularly and has release multiple albums. She received her bachelor’s degree from Berklee College of Music. She lives is Tennessee with her partner and her dog Cubby. 

If I Were a Fish takes us into the uniquenesses of who we are showing the reader that we all have someone who can celebrate with us. We don’t have to be stuck with the mean comments from bullies.

if I were a fish

Looking Deeper

If the catchy lyrics don’t immediately capture your attention, the bright colours the flow across the page, depicting under water scenes will!   Enjoy the vibrancy and joy is brilliant tones from across the rainbow.   Balloons, fish, socks, rocks, beats of rhythm, and unique fish dot the pages.  White space is used well and some pages of completely full of colour.

The lyrics are easy to read, written in a nice font, with a decent size.  Sitting with a group of children gathered around to listen (and possibly sing) would be easy to do.  And all the talking points within which makes it just lovely! 

I love it when a fun book with a good message doesn’t include overt messages about gender, sexuality, colour, race, or anything divisive.  It’s all about people being who are they, getting to be who they are, without having to deal with bullying.  Regardless of who you are, you are encouraged to live your life with meanness.  Find your people!  Celebrate living with each other and leaving the garbage of the world behind. 

It’s a good thing NO?  Find your own copy of If I Were a Fish and be glad you have your own uniqueness. 

Can you Dance Like a Peacock?

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product for Can you Dance Like a Peacock? 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. 🙂

Come along with me and dance!   Dance like dolphins, antelopes, bees, and of course peacocks!   Strut yourself through life showing off all your moves.  Learning new moves is always fun too don’t you think?   Isn’t it grand watching your children learning about different animals from all over the world while having fun?  It’s one of the nicest things!

Can You dance Like a peacock?

The Basic Details of Can you Dance Like a Peacock?

Title: Can you Dance Like a Peacock?
Author: Rekha S Rajan
Illustrator: Hannah Abbo
Publisher: Sourcebook Explore
Pages: 40
Intended Audience: 4-8 years old
Genre: Dance, Zoology, Birds, Animals, Picture Book
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books
Available formats: Hardcover, Kindle,
Received: Advanced Reader Copy, softcover

About the Author and Book

The Author

Dr. Rekha S. Rajan is a STEAM educator, musician, author and early childhood educator working out of Chicago.  She resides with her husband, children, and various critters.    Watching the native wildlife in her yard is one of the things she most enjoys doing.   Did you know she is also a classically trained opera singer and plays the mridangam (a drum from South India), the piano, banjo, ukulele, djembe, bongos, recorder, and a lot of other instruments.

The Book

Animals, birds and insects move and dance naturally to communicate with one another. Some for food, some to mate, some to exercise. In this interactive book, children will learn about the animals around them and be invited to get up and dance like the animals!

Digging Deeper

LOVE!   Just love the illustrations provided by Hannah Abbo.   The bright colours, and the accurate depictions of the different animals is just wonderful.   Can’t you just picture the beauty of a peacock as it struts across the forest floor? 

The font is easy to read with good variation in size.  Each of the 7 animals gets about four pages.  Two for description and two for the dance. 

At the close of this read you’ll find author notes telling more about the different animals, and giving suggestions on use in a classroom. 

My Recommendation

Dance, Dance, Dance!   Animals move in so many different ways, and we can choose to see it all as a dance.  Be inspired to dance like the animals around us.   How much fun would it be to have a group of  kindergarten to grade three dancing around in your backyard or on a gym floor?

This would be an excellent book to add to an animal study in a homeschool co-op or in an elementary class room.  An excellent way to get children up and moving as they think about the animals they just learned about.   I even learned a new word!  I thought antelope “pronk” when they jump.  Another word for the same action is “Stot!”.   Learning new words… EXCELLENT!  🙂 

O is for Ocean

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product for O is for Ocean 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. 🙂

Alphabet books can be so much fun!  Greg Paprocki focuses on oceans as he walks us through the alphabet.  We’ll see flying fish, lagoons, and submarines.  Do you think you could walk your way alphabetically through the ocean?  What types of things might you think of?  It’s fun to look through these books to see if the author is seeing the same things in the ocean that you are! 

O is for Ocean review

The Basic Details of O is for Ocean

Title:  O is for Ocean
Author: Greg Paprocki
Publisher: Gibbs Smith
Pages: 32
Format: Board Book
Genre: alphabet books, oceans, water book, oceanography, ecology,
Series: BabyLit
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books
Received: Boardbook

About the Author

Greg Paprocki works full-time as an illustrator and book designer.  He’s worked with the Curious George books, as well as a number of other BabyLit alphabet books. 

About O is for Oceans

An engaging collection of illustrations teaching children all about the plants, animals, and features of our beautiful oceans from A through Z. 

O is for Ocean Review

A closer look

Aren’t the illustrations in O is for Ocean engaging?  Lovely bright colours dotting the pages, with details sharply contrasting so you can clearly see everything that is going on?   Children imagining the whale swimming with the fish, and sea creatures darting in and out among the anemones?  

So many talking points on each page, engaging readers.

As you can clearly see, the font is large and very easy to read using proper terminology.  Yet, while children are taught in a non-complicated manner.  Easy words with brilliant images. 

One word for every page, gradually taking young readers through the alphabet in a nicely created, well-built board book. 

If you have a love for the ocean, and want to help your children learn the alphabet, O is for Ocean by Greg Paprocki is one that you will want to pick up.  Let your children fall in love with the ecology of the ocean and build their love for learning. 

If you are a homeschooling parent doing a unit on the oceans, what a fantastic way to include your youngest children in your studies.  🙂   A great way for your older ones to explain what they are learning to your littles as they help them learn the alphabet. 

Helping Children Handle Emotions

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product for Helping Children Handle Emotions (Rainbow of Emotions, Facing Fears, Big Emotions) through Clever Publishing. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated. 🙂

One of the people I follow on Facebook loves the journals that encourage children in mindfulness and particularly in handling their big emotions.  She often mentions how they have worked wonders with her children. It’s neat to read some of her stories. Clever Publishing has put together three books to help children understand, and therefore handle better, their emotions.  I’m delighted to share with you Rainbow of Emotions, Facing Fears, and Big Emotions.  All designed to help you help your children. 

Helping Children Handle Emotions

The Details You’ll Want

Titles: Rainbow of Emotions: Making Friends with your Emotions
          Facing Fears
          Big Emotions: understanding your emotions
Author: Elena Ulyeva
Illustrator: Olga Agafanova
Format: Board book
Pages: 20
Intended Audience: 2-5 year olds
Publisher: Clever Publishing
Reviewed for: Clever Publishing

About the Author and Books

Elena Ulyeva is an author I have reviewed for before with Hedgehog’s Home For Winter.  She has written quite a few educational manuals and books for children.  A firm believer that children learn best through creativity and play. She is a highly ranked children’s author in Russia, a master of fairy tales, and has 20 years experience as a teacher.   In this series she wants to be helping children handle their emotions better.

Big Emotions: Cam the chameleon is going to visit his grandfather, on the way though, he meets a bunch of unwelcoming strangers.  Watch how Cam feels and then handles his emotions.

Rainbow of Emotions: Cam the Chameleon wants a friend just like him, but can’t find one and has a whole range of emotions he experiences.  Will Cam learn to handle his emotions?

Facing Fears: Cam the Chameleon wants to find his mom but can’t find her, this is scary (and then some).  Can he overcome his fears? 

Helping Children Handle Emotions

Looking Deeper into these emotion books

So I received three books from Clever Publishing that featured Cam the chameleon.  Cam needs to learn about and understand his emotions so they don’t control him.  These three books show Cam’s discoveries and through Cam, perhaps young children can learn as well!

Rainbow of Emotions

Everything about these board books is bright and colourful. And Cam!   Boy oh boy can he show his emotions!   Every shade under the sun.  If Cam feels it, he shows it! 

The writing is very clear, following a natural rhythm in speech.   

Along the way you’ll discover little colour bubbles asking questions to help young readers think through what Cam (and they) are learning. 

Helpful insects pop up along the way with encouragements of “you can do it”, “go for it”, “don’t worry” and more.  Just the thing to encourage youngsters to keep trying. 

And the full-colour pages! You gotta love the facial expressions!  Every page is filled with emotion, I love how the facial expressions help convey the feelings that are going on. 

At the close of each reader you’ll see a page of the different emotions Cam had to deal with.  Such a good way to remind children to think about how they feel and remember how to handle them. 

Add them to your repetoire?

Actually, I think if your primary demographic is young children, these books should be part of your bookshelf.  They make excellent books to share with young children to help them understand their emotions. 

Through these three books, teachers and parents, are also reminded as they read the stories of Cam with their children, that we must work at Helping Children Handle Emotions.  It’s hard figuring some of this stuff out and honestly… I didn’t understand some of the way people felt until well into my 20’s.   So starting at a young age to help children understand is helpful! 

Therefore I urge you to check out Big Emotions, Facing Fears, and Rainbow of Emotions.  These three books would be an excellent compliment to mindset journaling for little ones. 

The Adventures of Tony Balony and Cookie

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (The Adventures of Tony Balony and Cookie) 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. 🙂

Are you looking for short stories to read with your youngsters?   The adventures of Tony Balony and Cookie are short, easy to read stories, great for bedtime reading.  Be inspired to share stories from your own youth, and to encourage your children to tell their own. 

The adventures of Tony Balony and Cookie

Basic Details

Title: The Adventures of Tony Balony and Cookie
Author: Tony Walker
Illustrator: Chuck Jones
Designer: Kimberly Corbett
Publisher: Tony Balony, Inc.
Pages: 34
Intended Audience: children
Formats available: Hardcover
Genre: Children’s dog books, Children’s action and adventure books,
Reviewed for: PrimeStar Publicity

Author and Book Details

Normally Tony Walker writes books on finances, having been in that field for 38 years.  This is his first book for children, taking stories from his childhood to impart life lessons, in short adventures.  Set in the 1960’s he aims to use nostalgia as part of the delight of adults reading with their children.  Married, with three children, along with grandchildren.  He has a black Russian terrier as a pet. 

The Adventures of Tony Balony and Cookie tell the made up story of Tony as a child.  Aiming to impart life lessons through short stories with him and his dog. Set in the 1960’s, work, fun trips, time with family, and growing up fill the pages. 

the adventures of tony balony

A Closer Look at The Adventures of Tony Balony and Cookie

Twelve short stories round out the page of The Adventures of Tony Balony and Cookie.  Most are told over two pages, with accompanying illustrations. Most of the stories have good life lessons, but generally just make for a quick, fun read with young children. 

All the stories are done in couplet rhyme.  This makes for a quick reading story that flows easily off the tongue. The nostalgia in the stories should encourage parents to tell children their own stories of their youth. 

Colourful illustrations accompany each story, bringing aspects to life!   I absolutely adored the cute pup, and how his friends looked, for the most part, like children.  The heads of the children often looked rather “bobble-headish”.  

Read it with your littles?

I have to admit to being distracted by the very adult (to me) looking child Tony.   I found it distracting from the simple stories being told.  12 stories fill the pages, these stories encompassing the lives of children 4-7 years old. 

Do the stories have merit?  I think for the most part they do.  I didn’t care for the “learns to potty” story, but many of the other stories were decent.  Part of me wishes that the stories had a bit more oomph to them as the life lessons were very light.  But all told, these are stories for littles to read quickly for fun.  Perhaps to inspire stories from their parents, or to encourage stories from the children.   The Adventures of Tony Balony and Cookie are stories I’d be happy enough to read once or twice with littles for sure. 

I would use these stories as bedtime stories, they would be an excellent way to close out a day and give a child something to dream on.  🙂 

If you were a City

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

If You Were a City is a book of imagination and fun.  A picture book that takes us, through the imagination of a child.  It begs the child reader to answer the question… what type of city would you be? And honestly… don’t you want to know?  Wouldn’t it be interesting to see where a book might take YOUR child’s imagination?

If you were a city

The Basic Details of If You Were a City

Title: If You Were a City
Author: Kyo Maclear
Illustrator: Francesca Sanna
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Pages: 40
Intended Audience: 3-5 years
Formats Available: Kindle and Hardcover
Received: Jacketed Hardcover
Type: Picture Book
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

About Kyo Maclear 
Born in England, Kyo Maclear lives in Canada. She is an essayist, novelist, and children’s author. She has been nominated for a few different awards.

About If You Were a City
Just like people, there are so many ways a city can be. And this lively picture book explores all of them. From quiet and dreamy to bright and buzzing, the magnificent diversity of our world is celebrated by connecting the uniqueness of its places with the people who live in them. Wild, gritty, bookish, or sheltering-if you were a city, how would YOU be?

Digging Deeper

Francesca Sanna filled If You Were a City with brightly coloured images!  So much colour fills the pages of this lovely little picture book. 

You’ll get to see so many different ways to express how one might be a city.  Through colour, action, mindset, weather, fashion, and more. 

Occasionally vague references would be given to actual cities around the world (like the leaning tower of Pisa), but generally, just a very imaginative read.  Done up in rhyming couplets. 

“Northern, blue, glacial, cold?
Weathered, warm, playful, old?”

So many different ideas presented.   Would you be a ghost city?  A Fable city?  Maybe even a broken city?   A city for biking, healing, dancing, or eating? 

The text is clear and very easy to read.  Changing colour depending on the background. 

So you pick it up?

So, I love the colours, and I love the idea of children having the freedom to make a city that kinda like them.   Children being able to exercise their imaginations is a fantastic thing.  And if in their creativity they learn to express something about themselves, perhaps all the better! 

What might be important to your child to have in a city or in their lives?  Dancing, parks, star gazing, sports or gardening?   What might your child want if you asked the question “if you were a city?”

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.