A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Raincoast

Wild Orca

By Leave a Comment

Do you love Orca’s?   Have you ever heard of an orca called Granny?  Granny was known world wide by the lovers of Orcas, particularly those who would go watch the whales out in British Columbia. 

It is my delight to introduce you Wild Orca, a lovely picture book I reviewed on J-pod the Orca pod from British Columbia. This book focuses on Granny, the oldest Orca that was known to people. Brenda Peterson does a great job of bringing her and her family to life.  This book was provided by Raincoast Books (a great company to work for).

My Review of Book Wild Orca, picture of granny from the book

Granny was the matriarch of three pods being studied, pods J, K, and L.  They all contained members of her extended family, and every year a little girl called Mia would watch for her to return. Mia’s dad was part of the whale research team, so Mia had learned to watch for the whales to return.

Wild Orca, page showing Mia

Wendell Minor contributed excellent paintings to the text of this lovely, meaty picture book.  It’s a great book filled with a lot of information about whales and about the times that Granny would have lived through. 

Did you know that Orcas out in British Columbia predominately eat salmon and that they are endangered?  Too many of them are being lost.  Orcas should live to be about 80 years old and too many of them are not making it that long.  Too many of the babies aren’t making it past their first year.  Pollution, sonar tests, over fishing and dams causing problems for the salmon being the main culprits. 

Wild Orca, hunting food image from book

My Thoughts:

Oh this book, filled me with such knowledge, but the end of it I was smiling for the joy that is an Orca.  🙂  It’s a lovely book, It would be either a great introduction to the study of Wild Orcas, point to a tourism industry in British Columbia, or be a fine part of an endangered animal study.  OR you could pick it up just to read about a great animal from Canada. 

Wild Orca book cover

 

Wild Orca: The oldest, wisest whale in the world
Brenda Peterson
Wendell Minor (illustrator)
Christy Ottaviano Books (Henry Holt & Co)
40 pages, 4-8 years, softcover
Orca, Sea Animals, Sea Mammal, tourism, endangered animals, research
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books
Find it on Amazon.

disclosure

So Tall Within

By Leave a Comment

So Tall Within: Sojourner Truth’s Long Walk Toward Freedom is a lovely, meaty picture book containing poignant statements and images to that speak to the truth of hard times and hope.  I loved reading through this book and showed it to a fellow homeschool mom who asked “Can I take this home and read it?”  That makes for a nice book eh?   Let me then, tell you all about it. 

So Tall Within, my review

Written by Gary D. Schmidt, So Tall Within walks us through the life of Sojourner Truth on her way to freedom and living as an adult with a mission… freedom for slaves.   I loved the set up of this lovely picture book, which is geared toward children 4-8 years old.  The vignettes that opened each chapter spoke truth about what slavery was and did to the people trapped within that way of living.  This opening page set the tone for the rest of the book, showing the promise within the hardship.  I just loved how aptly the text fit the image created by Daniel Minter. 

So Tell Within

Schmidt walks us through Sojourner’s life, starting with her life as a slave with her momma Mau-mau Bett, learning to remember who her siblings were, to her eventual slavery, through the promise of freedom and finally needing to seize it. She married whom she was told to, had children and found her way to freedom with the help of good people.  Despite her inability to read, she knew the law and her rights and fought for them. And through that, she developed her mission in life.  Tell her story, help bring about freedom for others.  And so Sojourner Truth walked and taught, and walked some more, telling her story to any who would listen.  She travelled through Michigan, Iowa, Washington D.C, and beyond.  Talking and walking, it was her life’s work fighting for freedom.  

So tall within

Interspersed among the 48 pages of the lovely book that causes one to think, ask questions, and ponder the will of a strong woman, are lovely pictures.  Oh my!  They are wonderful pictures filled with tons of images to point out to a young child, or that will inspire the thinking in an older one. 

Images that are full of colour and darkness and light. Images to grab the artist within you and make you ponder all the more the story of Sojourner Truth.  Seeing her faith, seeing her determination, seeing her will to succeed.  Sojourner fought for what is right and didn’t let time or distance stop her. 

So Tell Within

She had help along the way, and we are shown that help.  We saw her loss and fear.   The Slavery was a Time images pulled out truth as we entered into a new part of Sojourner’s life. 

Get this book. Read it with your youngsters.  Use it as a start to a study on Black History. Let your teens read it as well!  It’s not just a book for littles, but for anyone wanting to know more about Sojourner Truth and the struggles that black people had coming out of slavery.   It was a tough time, but determination… wow.. it wins through. 

So Tall within

 

So Tall Within: Sojourner Truth’s Long Walk Toward Freedom
Gary D. Schmidt
Daniel Minter (illustator)
Roaring Brook Press
48 pages, 4-8 years, Softcover, Picture Book
Biography, History, Black history
Reviewed for Raincoast Books
Find it on Amazon.
disclosure

The Fish and the Cat

By Leave a Comment

Have you ever discovered the sheer joy that a wordless book brings?   To be able to look at pictures and formulate your own story?   I tell you, it is SO MUCH FUN.  To sit with a wordless book like “The Fish and the Cat” and tell any old story you choose…it’s a great thing.  And then to flip it around and let the child tell the story to you?  AH!  THIS I LOVE!   I love helping children learn to tell their own stories, and having a prop book just helps them along the way you know?

The Fish and the Cat, a wordless book that encourages creativity

About the book:

The Fish and the Cat is a playful story of pursuit between a cat and pet fish that starts in the house, moves through the neighborhood, and ends in the sky with a chase around the stars and the moon. This wordless picture book, full of action and humor, encourages children to create their own stories and adventures.

Marianne Dubuc brings to life the cat and the fish, using shades of black with splashes of orange-red for the fish.  We are privileged to follow the fish and the cat on their journey through the world and even to the moon!

What kind of adventures do you think one fish and one cat could get into?

Geared for ages 4 and up, this hardcover book, with mostly black/white illustrations, is filled with easy to follow illustrations, making it easy to concoct an adventure for fish and cat to get into. 

The Fish and the Cat, a wordless book that encourages creativity, sample page

My Thoughts:

I LOVE, dearly love books like this.  To be able to sit down with a child with a book in hand that has no words, just pictures to spark conversation and story.  It harkens back to the days when I would ask children I was babysitting to give me three words, any three words I would make a story from them.  We had SO much fun together it was simply delightful. 

The simplicity of the drawings leads to further flights of fancy as I’m not distracted by too much in the illustrations, or I can simply add something not yet seen, only to be imagined.  I simply adore the creative process wordless books like these lend themselves too. 

One time for my homeschool co-op I taught a story-telling class.  I brought in all my story telling props… like story cubes, picture card deck, ghost  story box, grammar fish and more.  We had a lot of fun using these aids to tell stories and to learn all the parts of a story.   A book like The Fish and the Cat would be a welcome addition to my resources.   Wouldn’t it be fun to give this book to a bunch of 9-12 year olds and see the story they would each come up with?  And then share how they came up with it?  Simply marvellous.  

Or you could even make it simpler and have a story time with 6-8 year olds… that could be a blast don’t you think?   Helping creative minds learn how to tell a good story?

The Fish and the Cat, a wordless book that encourages creativity, sample pageI hope that you are as delighted with this book that I am.   Wordless books can be a bit disconcerting at first, but once you discover the joy of telling your own story, or in listening to a child tell their own story, you will find yourself hooked. 🙂

The Fish and the Cat, a wordless book that encourages creativity

The Fish and The Cat
Marianne Dubuc
Princeton Architectural Press
Hardcover, Wordless Book, Ages 4+
at least 60 pages (I kept losing count)
Wordless, storytelling, creative

Going on Vacation?

By Leave a Comment

Ah… I don’t know about you but I am SO enjoying the warmer weather.  Don’t get me wrong… I LOVE winter, and the spring with the flowers that seem to burst out of the ground… I love it!   Tulips and daffodils just make my heart smile after the mud and much of winter turning into spring.

My lad has been asking if I think we’ll be able to get out for at least a week of vacation this year, and I freely admit to him that I hope so, but I can’t guarantee it at this point… I might be, if I’m very careful, be able to swing a weekend.  Wouldn’t that be fun? 

Going on Vacation

One of my favourite things to do on vacation is to bring along books to read.  Granted I love getting out with the fellows on the kayaks and seeing the beauty that is in the world around us, but curling up with a good book and having friendly chipmunks scope me out for food, and listening to birds chatter in the trees around me… is just a wee taste of heaven for me.  I simply ADORE that time. 

Another joy I have is discovering new passions and ideas to pursue and guess what I discovered?   Lonely Planet has come out with a neat book called First Words Mandarin.   This purse sized book is filled with 100 words to learn in Mandarin.   The words are clearly presented on one page, with a full colour image on the accompanying page to make sure that students of all ages are able to know what they are learning to say.  AND if you have access to the internet you can even go to first audio (on Lonely Planets) to hear exactly how the word is spoken.  (if using a smart phone they have a QR code).   It’s that just the coolest thing?   I am looking forward to learning a smattering of Mandarin this summer.. with or without a road trip… though it would certainly make the time travelling down the road pass sooner wouldn’t it?  🙂

First Words Mandarin, a glimpse at book

One of the things we like to do while travelling in the car is to listen to a good story.  Currently, we are going through a Percy Jackson period. We’ve listened to those books and then decided to delve into a series that predates Percy called Magnus Chase and the gods of Asgard.   It’s a fun listen that often makes us laugh.  We’ve also listened to The Ranger’s Apprentice, Brotherband Chronicles, The Unwanteds, Down Gilead Lane and Percy Jackson.  As we listen sometimes the lad will play on his tablet, and other times he digs into one of the creative books we have floating around the place.  

Sticker World Museum, book coverIsn’t that a great segway into StickerWorld Museum?  🙂  Sticker World Museum might sound like it’s just another sticker book, and it does have stickers in it, but it’s more than just a sticker book.  It has colouring, drawing, mazes, dot to dot and more.  Things to delight and keep hands and minds busy as they create their own museum. Written by Becky Wilson the reader is drawn into the world of a museum, filled with painting, sculptures, displays, mosaics and so much more.

It’s a great way to introduce children to the fun of a museum, and all the parts of them that make them interesting.

 

 

Sticker World Museum, sample pages

Another activity we engage in along the way are various car games, games like Cow!   Where you look for cows (and count them by the field) and for graveyards.  A graveyard on your side kills the cows on the opposite side.   Or the ever popular liscense plate game or alphabet game.  We’ve done lots of pass the drawing games as well (where you each draw a head, and then pass it to the next person who draws the torso, and then you pass it along until you see what you finally come up with.  It’s a ton of fun with three or more pcity mazes, book covereople. 🙂

When on vacation a person can find themselves in places they have never been before.  One will find themselves needing a map.   And oh, we all know how a new city can be a maze of unknown streets and new sights that capture the eye and the imagination, so perhaps a book on City Mazes will continue your journey into amazing places.  It’s a rather creatively done book using the streets of cities from around the world as a maze, and along the way points of interest are numbers and explained.  For instance in Berlin you pass by Louisa’s Place (a 1904 building), in London the Churchill War Rooms, and while in Copenhagen the Rosenborg Slot.  All sorts of places to amuse and entertain.    30 cities around the world to visit, most of them from European countries.

Sample page below, see the fine detail and small images of points of interest.City Mazes, sample page

City Mazes, Sticker World Museum and First Words Mandarin are all Lonely Planet books and are distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books.  These titles are available at select bookstores across the country and on Indigo.ca.  Aren’t they all excellent ways to help spend your summer vacation?   Learning, seeing, discovering, and keeping yourself busy as you travel the roads.

PlayTestShare 2018 and Contest

By Leave a Comment

I have two FASCINATING items for you today.  Raincoast Books is doing their annual PlayTestShare contest and I get to take part again.  Pretty cool eh?  This year I have two fantastic items to share with you: Alpha Shapes and Which Would You Choose?  Stay tuned because the contest details are coming later on.

Thet annual contest for #playtestshare from Raincoast books

Alpha Shapes

Alpha Shapes is a really neat set of blocks that you can use to make words or letters.   They come in a variety of colours and various geometric shapes.  They are fun to play with, just to let your children explore and then gradually as they explore show them (or let them discover on their own) how you can use them to make words and letters.

This modern twist on alphabet blocks offers a new way to see the beauty of letterforms. Adults and children alike can build letters and words out of the 39 colorful wooden pieces, spelling out names or creating personalized messages for display.   Its fun sometimes just to play with blocks isn’t it?   The letters and words you can create, or the different shapes…

My son and I had fun playing with these blocks.  Making different shapes and then trying to get them back into the box.  It’s a good thing they have a handy guide because when I tried to wing it well… let’s just say the lad shook his head at me and redid my efforts.  🙂

After Dinner Amusements: Which Would You Choose?

Oh my…you want a conversation starter?   Start going through these 50 cards!   You either get two equally intriguing options  or two equally unappealing options.   Then you get the fun of discussing why you made the choice.  My lad and I had such good conversations, we generally disagreed but we did agreed on this one.

You are granted the power of flight, but you can only fly to work.  OR  you are granted the power of invisibility, but you can only use it once a month.    Both of our eyes lit up with glee.. INVISIBILITY!!!!!   Oh the fun we would have!  The jokes we could play, the sneaking around we could do finding ways to be kind right under the nose of someone, the conversations we could overhear…and the cats…what would they think?   Could we fool them or would they always be able to sense us.. cause cats seem to always know things…..

With 50 hilarious and thought-provoking questions asking players to choose between two equally good, unpleasant, or absurd scenarios, this revealing party game leads to interesting conversations and good fun for all ages!  I went through each of the cards and found all to be very family friendly.  Just imagine the conversations and fun you could have around your table?

The Giveaway!

So Raincoast is doing a giveaway for CANADIAN residents 18+ years of age only.  You get to choose from the two I chose OR one of the following.. IF you are the winner!

Llamanoes
A hilarious herd of llamas star in this laugh-out-loud twist on the game of dominoes. From Llama-nardo da Vinci to Super Llama (it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s . . . a llama?), kids, families, and llama enthusiasts will have a blast matching heads to tails to complete the chain and win! It’s a goofy gift, a boredom-busting game, and a great way to develop matching and fine motor skills, all in one appealing and colorful package.

Pass the Parcel: A Party Game
Everyone wins in this modern take on a classic British party game! Players take turns unwrapping the parcel to uncover cheeky dares that will soon have the whole group beaming. Under the last layer, there’s an envelope containing a special surprise!

Draw Like An Artist: Pop Art
A collection of eighteen fun and colorful activities for aspiring Warhols, Hockneys, and Lichtensteins ages ten and up, or anyone who enjoys working with color, pattern, and pop-culture imagery, and gaining a better understanding of the 20th century’s most popular art movement. Sixteen perforated pages provide plenty of raw material for collage, drawing backgrounds, and inspiration.

The Mystery Mansion
Reviving the Victorian craze for ‘myrioramas’, the 20 picture cards can be placed in any order to create seamless scenes. Almost infinite combinations of cards provide endless storyscaping possibilities. Find sinister suits of armour and the aftermaths of strange accidents, butlers with a grudge and glamorous couples where revenge is never far from the surface. With many games to play and millions of stories to tell, each turn of the card is a new adventure. Where will the story take you?

Crocodile and Friends Animal Memory Game
Fossil, a good-natured crocodile who just wants some peace and quiet, quickly won the hearts of children everywhere in the delightful picture book The Quiet Crocodile. Now Fossil and his friends are back, ready to play, in this fun memory game. The fifty-two cards feature twenty-six charming illustrations of Fossil and his many friends, nested in a handsome keepsake box. An added bonus is a folded poster showing all of the animal friends together, from Fippo the Hippo and Ryan the Lion to Pat the Cat.

In the Ocean: My Nature Sticker Activity Book
The world’s oceans are home to many different species and plants, from tiny organisms like plankton to the world’s largest animal, the blue whale. Deep down in the seas’ depth, you will even find some monstrous-looking creatures that seem to have come straight out of a fairy tale. Vivid digital illustrations help introduce a variety of aquatic creatures in this addition to the My Nature Sticker Activity Book series.

Bob the Artist: Dominoes
Bob the Artist, first introduced in the quirky Bob the Artist picture book, loves to paint with brightly colored splashes, but he has got into a bit of a mess. Help Bob clear up his paints by matching the colors and numbers in this fun game of dominoes. A wonderful concept game for toddlers!

Giveaway.  Remember.. Canadian residents only.  18+ years.  Giveaway hosted by Raincoast.

 

That Mad, Monkish Architect!

By 2 Comments

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

Review: Animals at Night

By 4 Comments

Animals at Night is a rather cool book if you have a darkroom.  What you want to do read the story on a given page, letting the light hit the picture as you read, and then slip into a darkened room and let the page turn to life right under your eyes.

Using paint that glows in the dark, the pages of this book are brought to life as you sit and read each page.  It’s actually quite fascinating to read, and then slip into a darkened room and see animals that perhaps you hadn’t noticed before spring to life on the pages.

I tried to show the effect, but it simply didn’t work for my camera.

 Each two page spread covers a different biome in the life of animals of the night. 

  1. NIghttime Mysteries
  2. In the forest
  3. At the forest’s Edge
  4. Near the Riverbank
  5. In Fields and orchards
  6. On a country road
  7. On the farm
  8. In the neighbourhood
  9. In the Garde
  10. In the Mountains
  11. At the beach
  12. In the desert
  13. By the pond

The book concludes with an answer page for each of the challenges presented throughout the book.

I found the graphics to be simple, basic forms with the muted colours that you would find at night.  

Predominately the pages where filled with information about various night dwelling creatures.

My Thoughts:
My husband (fellow with a sensitive sniffer) mentioned the book has a bit of a smell to it.  Something to keep in mind if you have children sensitive to odours.
I thought it was a very neat book, lots of factoids about a good group of animals, not all were animals I expected to find in such a book.
It would definitely be a great book to add to a study on night time animals, different biomes and bio-luminescence.
 
Animals at Night- A Glow-in-the-dark book.
Anne Jankeliowitch
Delphine Chedru, illustrator
Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
40 pages.
Hardcover
Animals, nature, glow-in-the-dark, interactive, picture book, resource
Ages 8-12

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books.

 
Where can you find it?
Amazon.ca: Animals at Night – A glow-in-the-dark book.
Amazon.com: Animals at Night – A glow-in-the-dark 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