A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Preschool

Butterfly on the Wind

By Leave a Comment

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product Butterfly on the Wind 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. 🙂

Imagine growing up deaf and choosing to be part of your hearing school’s talent show.  Now imagine being young and unsure of yourself and needing to be bolstered by your family.  A father’s statement encourages the heart of a young girl to sending butterflies around the world.  This is the heart of Butterfly on the Wind by Adam Pottle. 

Butterfly on the wind

Basic Details for Butterfly on the Wind

Title: Butterfly on the Wind.
Author: Adam Pottle
Illustrator: Ziyue Chen
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Pages: 40
Intended Audience: 3-6 years, grade preschool to one
Genre: children, picture book, deaf, children friendship, children disability
Available formats: Kindle, Hardcover
Received: Hardcover
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

About the Book and Author

Adam Pottle grew up deaf in a hearing family, so learning sign language didn’t happen until he was older.  He has loved butterflies since he was young (including Mothra from the Godzilla movies).  Butterflies are a symbol of the death culture with their fluttering wings creating small winds of their own, just as the fluttering sign language hands create small winds.  Sign languages from around the world have their own way of saying butterfly. 

Ziyue as a deaf illustrator was perfect for helping to bring this story to life.  Showcasing butterflies and their wind circling the world. 

In Butterfly on the Wind Aurora takes hope from her father’s words and upon seeing a butterfly in her garden decides to send the wind of her butterfly sign around the world. 

Butterfly on the wind

Looking More Closely

I love the bright colours that fill the pages of this delightful story.  And oh, how I love that the words of her papa made such an impact on her.  🙂  AND then on people all over the world.  Did people know the impact they were passing along?  But nevertheless… aren’t the colours marvellous?  And the details, don’t they provide lots of little talking points? Can you spot the butterfly?

The text is a good size for reading to a child sitting at your side or to a group gathered round.  The words easy enough for young ones to understand, and yet rounded out enough to broaden vocabulary. 

At the close of the book, Adam Pottle includes an American Sign Language alphabet and tells a bit of his story.  He includes the why of how this story came about.  I thoroughly enjoyed the glimpse into his life. 

Would I recommend?

The beauty and magic of this read make it so worth while reading through.  🙂   The illustrations fit the story so well.  The heart-warming nature of Butterfly on the Wind is fantastic.  We need more of this empathy and compassion in the world you know? Spreading the butterflies from one point to the next, and not letting them die from lack of wind.  

I adore that she took her inspiration from her father, it shows a closeness in her family you know?  And throughout the butterflies being passed along you see communities in action.   Just a lovely book. 

O is for Ocean

By Leave a Comment

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. 

If you were a City

By 2 Comments

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

By 3 Comments

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. 

Blue Baboon Finds Her Tune

By 2 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Blue Baboon Finds Her Tune) 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.

A simple rhyming story about a Baboon who figures out her tune.  Blue Baboon Finds Her Tune by the Docherty’s is meant to be part of a night-time story for young children.  Bright colours, simple lyrics, and lots of fun images make it an easy read with children.

Blue Baboon finds her tune

The Basic Details

I received a softcover ARC edition of Blue Baboon Finds Her Tune from Raincoast Books.   Children from 3-6 years of age will enjoy the bright colours and simple lyrics of this 32-page bedtime story as they prepare for bed. Helen Docherty is the author with Thomas Docherty illustrating. Published by Sourcebooks, Jabberwocky. 

Looking more closely at Blue Baboon Finds Her Tune

Helen Docherty provides simple rhyming lyrics for young children.  Simple lyrics provide a soothing rhythm to help restless minds settle to sleep.   There is really nothing too complicated in the rhyming couplets offered in this colourful picture book. 

For parents looking for more than a soothing rhythm, lots of talking points are provided within the images provided by Thomas Docherty.  From city lights, to musical instruments, wild weather and balloon rides.  So many elements to bring to the attention of your youngsters and to talk about.  

Colour fills the pages from start to finish, with the font large enough to easily read with a group of children.

I won’t give away the surprise ending, suffice it to say that it’s important the blue baboon took the bassoon along for the ride. 

Share with your children?

I tend not to be crazy about simple rhyming books.  I tend to think the best children’s books interest the adult readers as well.. at least a little bit!  Otherwise, why would we want to read them to our children? 

That said, I enjoyed the surprise ending!  I DID!  

Will your children enjoy the surprise ending?  Probably, you might too, or you might even see it coming. 

Either way, it’s a quiet book.  Perfect for a bedtime story for luring children to settle down for a well-needed rest.  So give Blue Baboon Finds Her Tune a look should you see it at your local library. 

Mr. Sunnyside – Imagination!

By 2 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Mr. Sunnyside – Imagination!) through Ascot Media Group.  Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so.

Do your children complain about being bored? Would you like them to learn the power of imagination?  CK Gregory’s book Mr. Sunnyside – Imagination might be just what they need. 

Mr. Sunnyside Imagination

What I am Reviewing

CK Gregory’s family is Canadian hailing from Quebec and Ontario.   In Mr. Sunnyside, Imagination Mr. Gregory encourages children to explore their imagination.  Published by Gatekeeper press, this review copy was forwarded by Ascot Media Group. This picture book is geared toward young children up to 11 years of age (though I think it’s better suited to up to about 5).  34 pages long with illustrator Stephanie Richoll bringing CK Gregory’s imagination to life. 

Looking Deeper in the Mr. Sunnyside, Imagination

Stephanie Richoll does an excellent job of bringing Mr. Sunnyside – Imagination! to life.  She starts this 34 page book off in grey scale.  It fits because the day has a rather blah start to it.  A boy with nothing to do after recovering from illness.  Mom says No to outside play in the rain. 

As the story progresses you’ll see the greyscale turn to full colour.   It was rather neat to see the progression.

The text is large and easy to read, written conversationally. Easy to follow, at times a bit repetitive.  It didn’t always sound realistic, but more like an adult trying to sound like a child. 

Should it be on your shelves

  Mr. Sunnyside Imagination just doesn’t have enough to it to be a store purchase.  It would be one to happily pick up from the library or a yard sale. 

Why?  It just doesn’t have enough to it.   We get a lad who has plenty of toys to play with but doesn’t want to.  An ‘egg’ shows up that says “toys are meant to be played with” and “use your imagination” and that’s the summation of the story. 

We don’t see him really using his imagination beyond that he can see an egg that no one else can and pretends to go flying for just a moment.  The lack of depth had me wondering what the point of this book was.  I guess I just wanted more and there are books out there that give the more. 

Now What?

By 4 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Now What?) through Ascot Media Group.  Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so.

Oh, what a fun read!  A child who is bored and a question Now What?  and before you know it… the now what becomes so much with one event leading to another.  Come along for a day filled with surprises… that started with simple boredom.  Boredom isn’t a bad thing for a child especially with the question… What now? 

Now What?

What I am Reviewing

Ascot media group provided me with a hardcover review copy of Now What? 5-7 year olds, and possibly older, will find inspiration in the pages for when they are bored and need something more to do. 46 pages delightfully illustrated by Peter Trimarco, he brings the words of Brenda Faatz to life. Written in lyrical rhyme this is an easy to read aloud book. 

Digging Deeper into Now What?

Oh, this book made me smile.  I can just see Lizzy (of the Just So books) trying to figure out what to do with her day.  There’s nothing to do and yet…. just maybe, maybe something more can be found. 

Lizzy has such a day ahead of her only she doesn’t know it yet.  A day where one thing will lead to another with the helps of some friends along the way.   I love the use of colour and white space, making the progression in the story so clear.  Some of the pages are in full colour, and others have a good use of white. The farther you get into the story ,the more colour you see.  

Rhyming verse is used to tell the story, from the boring day start, to the life is better at the end.  The large font, the varies with the expressions and emotions of Lizzy, is clear and easy to read.  

The pup is cute.. oh m y word… those long ears and fuzzy tail!  He’s a good help to Lizzy as well, keeping at her side like a good pup should. The story is heart-warming and inspiring. 

Now What? To be on your shelves?

Now What?  Is such a sweet book.  Lizzy (not my cat) is such a nice little girl with a great imagination and a willingness to just do the next thing.  She does an excellent job of keeping herself busy and when meeting a new person instantly finds a way to connect.   It’s so fun to watch the progression in her day.  I would love to read this with a group of children and ask… what would YOU do next?  Just to see what they think might happen, or what potential things they might look for on a grey boring day.    Before you know it, she knows, together with a new friend (or two) the concept of living in the now.