By: Roger Sutton,
on 5/13/2015
When Hervé Tullet‘s Press Here came out in 2011, reviewer Lolly Robinson wrote that its ingenious interactivity “gives the iPad a licking.” Following a similar no-screen-needed interactive model is this lovely pair of books:
Here are a few brand-new arrivals with Press Here–like directions to tap, shake, rub, and blow on the pages:
The post Everybody wants to be Press Here appeared first on The Horn Book.
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Book-O-Beards
Series: Wearable Books
Written by Donald Lemke
Illustrated by Bob Lentz
Capstone Young Readers 2/01/2015
9778-1-62370-183-3
12 pages Size: 8” x 8” Age 1 to 6
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“Fun interactive board book that children and adults can wear like masks, allowing for make-believe games and hilarious snapshot moments! With catchy rhymes, colorful illustrations, and interactive dialogue, everyone will enjoy this laugh-pout-load read-along.” [catalog]
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New for 2015, Book-O-Beards allows young children to become a lumberjack—TIMBER!—a pirate—ARRRG!—a cowboy—YEEHAW!—a sailor—ANCHORS AWEIGH!—a police officer—You’re under ARREST!—or Santa—HO, HO, HO! The Book-O-Beards helps young children role-play different personas as they try these full-spread, fully bushy beards. Read the rhyming text, and then try one on..
“This orange beard
is softer than fur. I
In a deep voice
shout out, ‘TIMBER!’”
While the Book-O-Beards will appeal more to young boys, girls can certainly use this imaginative interactive board book. Made of heavy cardboard, the Book-O-Beards will stand-up to many hours of play. Young children love to play make-believe. The Wearable Books series lets kids try on teeth, hats, masks, and beards, all the while producing giggles. The love of reading can begin with one spark from these unusual dual-fun books.
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BOOK-O-BEARDS (A WEARABLE BOOK). Text copyright © 2015 by Donald Lemke. Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Bob Lentz. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Capstone Young Readers, an imprint of Capstone, North Manakato, MN.
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Purchase Book-O-Beards at Amazon
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Learn more about Book-O-Beards HERE.
Meet the author, Donald Lemke, at his bio box: http://www.capstonepub.com/library/authors/lemke-donald/
Meet the illustrator, Bob Lentz, at his website:
Find more interactive fun at the Capstone website: http://www.capstonepub.com/
Capstone Young Readers is a Capstone Imprint.
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Also available in the Wearable Books series.
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Copyright © 2015 by Sue Morris/Kid Lit Reviews
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It’s not always easy being a kid. You are dealing with tons of emotions you can’t always understand. Kevin’s Big Book of Emotions by Liesbet Slegers helps youngsters explore their emotions with poems, lift-the-flap games, questions, and fabulous illustrations.
I love interactive books and this one definitely fits the bill. The book opens with Kevin as the narrator telling the reader about his emotions. Then it switches gears with a poem that addresses the reader and how he might feel angry sometimes. The next page includes a picture of Kevin and how he might look when he’s angry with furrowed eyebrows, a frowning mouth, clenched fists, and stamping feet. Then there are a series of pictures that might or might not make the reader feel angry. The story then moves back to Kevin again, but spoken from a third person point of view. “Kevin feels angry. He’s angry at his cat.” By picking up the flap the reader finds out why he is angry at the cat. The next two pages show Kevin getting angry at Mommy because they need to leave and he wants to keep playing and drawing, followed up by a great solution between Mommy and Kevin. Finally, there is a quick game of matching the angry animals up with the right food.
Other emotions featured are: afraid, sad, and happy, Each time the reader goes through this series of steps and activities that teach him about the emotions he can feel and how to cope with them.
I’ve been a fan of Liesbet Slegers for some time. She has done a wonderful job exploring emotions with this book, and she does it with a character that is already well known to her readers. Great job!
Rating: 
Age Range: 3 – 5 years
Grade Level: Preschool – Kindergarten
Series: Kevin & Katie
Hardcover: 56 pages
Publisher: Clavis Publishing (October 1, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1605371645
ISBN-13: 978-1605371641
I received a copy of this book from the publisher. This review contains my honest opinion, which I have not been compensated for in any way.
Clavis sent me a group of books to review, which you’ll be seeing soon. Here’s a list of what arrived this week:
The Seesaw and Good-bye, Fish by Judith Koppens,
Circus 123 by one of my favorites, Guido van Genechten,
A Big Book of Face Painting by Charlotte Verrecas,
Kevin’s Big Book of Emotions by another favorite, Liesbet Slegers.
I also purchased a copy of The Crypto-Capers in The Peacock Diaries by Renee Hand. I’ve been following this series since the beginning, so I sure don’t want to miss out on any of them.
Overdue is my review of Soccer Dreams by Clare Hodgson Meeker, but it’s coming soon. I promise.
Typically I read the first chapter of a book, but with this short story collection, I am reading the first story in the book and discussing it.
BLURB: Little Nani is a little girl who likes helping people. However, when she helps people the results can be a bit unexpected. Why is that? Little Nani is a witch! Or at least she wants to be a witch. With her magic wand, she will try to cast different spells to help her friends, but she won’t be successful all the time. Follow Little Nani in her funny adventures and meet her extraordinary friends. Funny ostriches, horses that love reading, super-fast turtles, grumpy zombies… Little Nani has lots of friends! You can also draw your own characters! Little Nani is willing to become a good witch. Will she manage to do it? Who knows? Read the stories and discover what happens next!
COVER: Since the top illustration comes from the first story, I’m guessing these postage stamp or postcard type bordered illustrations contain drawings from different stories in the collection. I love the color scheme and the darker contrasting colors of the borders.
FIRST CHAPTER: The Funny Adventures of Little Nani is about a girl with a magic wand whose spells often go awry. In this opening story, “Little Nani and Some Unexpected Events,” Little Nani tries out the wand she got from a correspondence course and tries to make her friends, Big Billy and Skinny Nikki, grow up faster. That’s definitely not what happens.
This looks like it will be a cute book. I can only judge it based upon the first story I read, but all the characters have unique personalities and lovers of magic and fantasy will enjoy the horse who loves to read. Little Nani appears to be an independent-minded girl who leaps before she looks, which tends to create a bit of chaos for her and her friends. By including pauses in the story called “Drawing Time!” the author makes this an interactive adventure for young readers, who are asked to draw certain scenes from the book. I haven’t seen this before in a book, but I like it.
KEEP READING: If I were basing this review solely upon the uniquely crafted characters and the interactive aspect of it, I would say definitely. The thing that gives me pause is the dragged out dialogue. Big Billy appears riding a horse, which he tries to convince Little Nani to ride. She declines because she’s allergic to horses and can’t touch them. But as Big Billy points out, she’s stroking the horse’s head. It goes back and forth like this for a few seconds, before Skinny Nikki arrives. Skinny Nikki wants to ride, but Big Billy says no because he wants Little Nani to ride with him, to which Skinny Nikki replies, “But Little Nani won’t ride with you. She’s allergic to horses.” And then they start going on and on about how Little Nani wants to ride an ostrich, but she doesn’t have an ostrich, so she can’t ride one.
What I ended up doing is downloading another short story in the series for my Kindle (this book has all the stories in it, but they can also be purchased separately). It appears this dragged out conversation might be the way Little Nani interacts with others. In “Little Nani and The Flying Muffin” it is about how bored she is on a rainy day. She whines “I’m bored!” three times while Big Billy and Skinny Nikki get aggravated over her whining and Horse tries to convince her to listen to the story he’s reading to her.
Children probably won’t notice it. I just didn’t care for this style of conversation. I would probably still keep going. It’s one of those “don’t bite your nose off to spite your face” moments. If you like the characters and the story is funny, is it worth abandoning the book simply because one of the characters is a bit repetitive? No, you keep going and enjoy the rest.
Overall, this is a really cute story and I’m thinking it will be a hit with youngsters, especially those who enjoy humor.
File Size: 1577 KB
Print Length: 144 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00DGXKOWM
I downloaded a free sample of this book to my Kindle. This review contains my honest opinions, which I have not been compensated for in any way.
Classic concepts get a brand new look in these two My First Books compiled by tiger tales.
My First Book Of Things to Learn shares colors, animal noises, shapes, baby animals, numbers 1 – 10, and objects in a child’s world all in bright colors. From pink flamingos to the baa of a sheep, from heart-shaped balloons to penguin chicks, and from 10 ladybugs to a toothbrush and toothpaste, Things to Learn will engage your child ages 3 to 7.
In My First Book of Things to See, little ones get a glimpse at what they will find at the park, on the farm, at the beach, at preschool, at the zoo, and at a birthday party. Everything from slides to tractors, to crayons, and more is included in this sturdy book filled with pictures and simple labels.
In addition to their nice size (8 5/8 x 8 5/8″), the bright colors, sturdy construction, and tabbed pages make these a wonderful addition to your preschooler’s library. The simple labels will help with vocabulary and word-picture association, and the variety of objects featured will provide tons of fun. I could see these being packed in a bag to take along on a road trip, picnic, or visit to the zoo so youngsters can identify objects from the books within their surroundings.
Highly recommended.
Rating: (both books)
Things to Learn
Things to See
By: Mark G. Mitchell,
on 8/9/2011
Illustrators can now jump with both feet into digital publishing with the help of some free software and a contest launched by InteractBooks.com
“What better way to showcase all that our InteractBuilder e-book software can do on the iPad and iPhone than holding a contest to find the very best interactive book it can make?” asks the Interact Books website .
“And who better than you to produce this book by using your developer talent and our app software for the Mac and PC?”
A Youtube video doesn’t do the reading experience justice, but an actual iPad encounter with The Tortoise and the Hairpiece by Don Winn, illustrated by Toby Heflin and distributed on the Apple iTunes store demonstrates how the touch screen interactions and subtle animations of an interactive book (let’s call it an i-book) make for a whole new storytelling language.
I-books or interactive e-books aren’t quite the same as the e-books now making headlines for trouncing paperbacks in sales at Amazon.com.
They’re a new animal — maybe a new art form, and it may be months or even years before anyone knows where this fusion of interactivity and literacy is going, aesthetically or commercially speaking. Developers and a few publishers are delving into the format, but no leader for an interactive book-building engine or platform has emerged — yet.
In the meantime Austin, Texas based-InteractBooks wants to push the innovation timeline up a little by launching the first ever contest for an interactive children’s book. Entries must be built with their free InteractBuilder software.
First place prize – 16gb white or black WIFI iPad2, or $500. lnteractBooks will also publish your title and give you a three year membership in the InteractBuilder community (a $300 value)
All runners up and anyone entering the contest with an InteractBuilder-approved book will have a free year’s membership in the InteractBooks builders community.
The deadline is September 18 and the winner will be announced October 1, which doesn’t give you much time.
That’s why the InteractBook folks are encouraging illustrators and authors to mull over the books they’ve already done, published or unpublished, with pictures and text ready to go — and see how they might adapt their story to this new media
By: Becky,
on 9/9/2010
Maisy Goes to Bed. A Maisy Lift-the-Flap Classic. Lucy Cousins. 2010. September 2010. Candlewick Press. 16 pages.
It's time for Maisy to go to bed.I haven't always been a big Maisy fan. But I really, really liked this one. (Much like I really, really liked Maisy's Book of Things That Go.) I think this may be my favorite Maisy yet. I think it is because of the attention to detail. There are so many small details that make this one work. So many interactive features that make this one fun. Like the fact that you can make Maisy drink a glass of juice. Like the fact that you can make her brush her teeth. Like the fact that you can read Maisy's bedtime book. Little things really like unrolling the toilet paper, putting the plug in the bathroom sink, turning on the water faucets, etc.
Maisy has a bedtime drink.
Maisy goes to the potty then washes her hands.
By: Becky,
on 4/1/2010
Who's that Snoring? A Pull-the-Tab Bedtime Book. Jason Chapman. 2010. January 2010. Simon & Schuster. 12 pages.
It was quiet in the barn. Everyone was fast asleep. Then someone started snoring--it was loud and very deep.Someone in the barn is snoring! And that snoring is waking up animals here, there, and everywhere. Can these animals work together to find out WHO is snoring?!
By: Becky,
on 3/8/2010
What Does Baby Say? A Lift the Flap Book by Karen Katz. 2004. Simon & Schuster. (Little Simon). 16 pages.
This may just be my favorite Karen Katz that I've read. It's simple. It's colorful. It's fun.
What does the happy baby say?
What does the sad baby say?
What does the hungry baby say?
Goo-goo, boo-hoo, and ba-ba! And that's just the start!
I like this question and answer format. I like the fact that it's a book for babies about babies. These are emotions that babies can relate to. I also appreciate that this one (like so many of her other books) is multicultural. There are babies of all skin tones featured throughout in the illustrations.
© Becky Laney of Young Readers
Okay, the publishing world didn't completely change after the announcement of the ipad. (They could have come up with a snappier name!) Picture Books will eventually be digital, but I can go back to spending my time working on stories instead of sweating about how the books will be delivered!
I woke up this morning to a really nice video from someone I don't know, reading my book, Good Egg. I thought I would share it!
Have a great weekend!
Barney
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFq71S1e-tU
By: Becky,
on 1/15/2010
The Grasshopper Hopped. Elizabeth Alexander. Illustrated by Joung Un Kim. 2010 [January 2010]. Random House. 14 pages.
The grasshopper hopped into the pot,
only to find that the soup was too hot!
The grasshopper hopped out of the pot.
He had to find a cooler spot.
Hippity-hop, hippity-hop
In this rhyming adventure, readers meet a grasshopper who's hopping places he has no business hopping. (That pot of soup isn't the most dangerous either place either.) Where does this grasshopper belong? Will he find the right place to be?
This interactive picture book offers readers the opportunity to 'play' with the grasshopper. The reader can make the grasshopper hop on each page by manipulating tabs.
This one has a repetitive refrain which is a good thing. It means that readers can join in on the action if they want.
I think it is a simple story that offers a bit of fun as well.
© Becky Laney of Young Readers
By: Becky Laney,
on 2/5/2009
Model Masters: Dragons. The book includes 4 dragon models, 32 page book, 6 (0.17 oz/5 ml) pots of paint, 2 (0.17 oz/5ml) pots of glaze, and a paintbrush. From the publisher:
Embark on an adventure into the enchanted lands of dragons, where you will discover the origins, powers, and legends of these mythological beasts. From the fire-breathing Western dragon to the three-headed hydra, assemble, paint, and display these magical and mighty creatures from worlds beyond your imagination!
Can't get enough of dragons? Looking for something fun--nice and artsy--to do? You may want to try making your own dragon.
© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
By: Becky Laney,
on 2/5/2009
The Field Guide to Safari Animals: Explore Exotic Africa: Includes 59 Pieces To Assemble 8 Safari Animals and a Removable Diorama.
Published by Silver Dolphin, The Field Guide to Safari Animals is a fun and interactive book for kids (and those young-at-heart adults as well). From the publisher, "Young explorers can take the adventure of a lifetime with The Field Guide to Safari Animals. Inside this beautifully designed book, kids will discover the 1924 journal of fictional naturalist Rebecca Mayhew. Through her journal entries, they’ll read all about her exciting adventure across exotic Africa-from tracking lions in Nairobi to marveling at the birth of a baby giraffe in Botswana. Each page is filled with stunning photographs, maps, illustrations and fascinating facts about Africa’s most majestic animals. At the end of this incredible journey, kids can recreate animal scenes by setting up their own stunning display featuring a cool diorama and 8 different animal models. Let’s go on safari!"
Which animals are included in Safari Animals? A Lion, An Elephant, A Leopard, a Zebra, a Giraffe, a Greater Kudu, a Chacma Baboon, and a White Rhinoceros. Each animal has at least a two-page spread (sometimes more) giving readers details about the animals and their habitats. I liked how reader-friendly the book is. Not only is the book fun because there are animals to build and play with but the book is fun because there are hundreds of things to learn about as well. Fascinating facts that speak for themselves.
If safari animals aren't your thing, you may want to choose dinosaurs, ocean animals, or rain forest animals instead.
© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
By: Becky Laney,
on 2/2/2009
I don't know if there are words to say how incredibly fun this book is! It's called Explore Within A Medieval Castle, and it is published by Silver Dolphin Books. Here is their description:
Halt! Who goes there? Imagine swords clashing atop the towers and brave knights escorting their ladies in the courtyard! Explore Within a Medieval Castle takes young readers where they’ve never gone before: over the drawbridge and into a mighty castle. Once inside, they can explore its secrets, layer by layer, with a unique sculpted 3-D model. Every turn of the page reveals a new aspect-learn about castle design, medieval tournaments, preparing for battle, cooking in the castle kitchen, and more. This amazing, adventure is unlike any other book for kids-perfect for when they retire to their chambers.
I love the topic. Little ones struggle with emotions just like adults. Adults don’t know how to handle them. We sure can’t expect children to. Thanks, Penny & Liesbet for sharing