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Saturday was an exciting day. My Ohio State Buckeyes won the border battle against University of Michigan. I was not expecting the trouncing Michigan took in their, no, in Ohio State’s win. Score: 42 to 13. By all rights the Bucks should have had 45 points, but instead of a field goal, they ran out …

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Here are two wonderful board books for the youngest kids out there ready to open a book or two. Both are colorful and made me laugh. First up, an appropriate book for the mess my shotty computer has caused.

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Monster Knows I’m Sorry

written by Connie Colwell Miller

illustrated by Maira Chiodi

Picture Window Books          3/06/2014

978-1-4795-2964-3

8 x 8 18 pages

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“Monsters are at Plooble School. There’s time for work and play. Monsters make mistakes at times. “I’m sorry” is easy to say.”

Opening

“At Pooble School the monsters play. They also learn the words to say.”

Review

The monsters at Plooble School are a fearsome bunch. From one eye to three eyes or no eye at all, these monster will not scare the little reader. Every monster wears a smile and is glad to be at school. The words to learn today are “I’m sorry.”
All the monsters are seated at their desks, except for one. This monster is goofing around, but when he realizes what he is doing, he faces his classmates and says,

“I’m sorry, friends. I’ll calm down.”

I’m sorry is used in many ways.

“I’m so sorry you feel bad.”
“Oops, I’m sorry, I forgot that rule.”
“I’m sorry, that wasn’t fair.”

What a great way to help young children understand how and why one says, “I’m sorry.” The monsters are funny, kind, and considerate. What wee one does not want to go to school like their big brother or sister? Now, they can go to school at Plooble School with the friendliest monsters seen around books this year. In addition to Monster Knows I’m Sorry, there are three more manner books: Monster Knows Excuse Me, Monster Knows Please and Thank You, and Monster Knows Table Manners. Each book is colorful and uses fun situations to help little children understand the concept of that particular book. I really like this series. I think kids will like the series and may just learn some manners faster than they might otherwise learn them.
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But we are not done. No, not yet. Now we have the biggest beast know to man—the elephant. Meet Eddie and Ellie.

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Eddie and Ellie’s Opposites

written by Daniel Nunn

llustrations by Steve Walker

Heinemann Raintree         8/29/2014

978-1-4109-5355-1

8 x 8 18 pages

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“Eddie and Ellie are good friends. But sometimes, Eddie and Ellie can’t stop arguing. You see, everything that Eddie likes . . . Ellie likes the opposite!”

Opening

“This is Eddie the Elephant. And this is Ellie the Elephant. Eddie and Ellie love animals! But they can never agree which ones are best.”

Review

Eddie and Ellie are the cutest elephants you will ever see anywhere. I love their big white curious eyes and the green bow atop Ellie’s head. Eddie and Ellie are so adorable a stuffed toy companion of each would be irresistible to hugs. Oh, who would not enjoy a “real” Eddie and Ellie sitting on their bed ready to show them some terrific animals? If only they could agree!

Eddie likes BIG animals like white polar bears. But Ellie likes SMALL animals like lizards. (I’ll go with Eddie on this one.) Poor Ellie is cross-eyed watching the lizard crawl up her long trunk. Yuck! Some kids will love it and it is funny to see. Eddie likes HEAVY animals like the rhinoceros, but Ellie likes LIGHT animals like the lemur. (I’m with Ellie, light is best for a pet.) Back and forth, these two elephants compare their likes to one another. One likes DIRTY animals while the other likes CLEAN animals. One likes animals that live in COLD places and the other likes animals that live in HOT places. (Hot, definitely wins.)

Kids will get more than a few animals to admire while Eddie and Ellie counter each other. By book’s end, young children should understand the concept of opposites. Young kids will love Eddie and Ellie’s Opposites. They never argue, just compare their likes to the other’s likes. Eddie and Ellie smile, stand up on two legs raising their arms in excitement, and seem to have a good time with the other animals. Ellie rides a hippo and Eddie admires the long neck of a giraffe. Eddie and Ellie’s Opposites is another cute board book from Heinemann Raintree/Capstone.

.Now, off with you. Go get your own Eddie and Ellie’s Opposites and of course Monsters Knows I’m Sorry. Go on. They are waiting for you. Don’t keep monsters waiting. Those elephants will remember how fast you came for them. Now, shoo!

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MONSTER KNOWS I’M SORRY. Text copyright © 2014 by Connie Colwell Miller. Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Maira Chiodi. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Picture Window Books/Capstone, North Mankato, MN.

Buy Monster Knows Manners series at Amazon—B&N—Book Depository—Capstone—your favorite bookstore.

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Learn more about the Monster Knows Manners series HERE.

Meet the author, Connie Colwell Miller, at her website:    http://conniecolwellmiller.com/

Meet the illustrator, Maira Chiodi, at her website:    http://mairachiodi.com/

Find more board books at the Picture Window Books website

an imprint of Capstone Books

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EDDIE AND ELLIE’S OPPOSITES. Text copyright © 2014 by Daniel Nunn. Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Steve Walker. Reproduced by permission of the publisher Heinemann Raintree, North Mankato, MN.

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Buy Eddie and Ellie’s Opposites at Amazon—B&N—Book Depository—Capstone—your favorite bookstore.

Learn more about the Eddie and Ellie’s Opposites HERE.

Meet the author, Daniel Nunn, at his facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/danielnunn

Meet the illustrator, Steve Walker, at this website:    http://stevejwalkerstudio.blogspot.com/

Find more board books at the Heinemann Raintree website

an imprint of Capstone Books
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Filed under: 4stars, Board Books, Children's Books, Favorites, Library Donated Books, Picture Book, Series Tagged: board books, Capstone, children's book reviews, Connie Colwell Miller, Daniel Nunn, Eddie and Ellie’s Animal Opposites, elephants, Heinemann Raintree, Maira Chiodi, manners, Monster Knows I’m Sorry, monsters, opposites, Picture Window Books, Steve Walker

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Baseball Animals & Baseball Opposites

(Major League Baseball: First Base Books)

by Christopher Jordan

Fenn/Tundra of Tundra Books of Northern New York       2/11/2014       Age 3 to 7    26 pages each

978-1-77049-474-9 / 978-1-77049-518-0

“Baseball Animals celebrates the magical world of professional baseball and introduces young fans to each MLB team named after an animal. In this official MLB publication, children will enjoy following clues and guessing which animal is associated with each team, as well as learning why the various teams decided to name themselves after a tiger, a blue jay, or a diamondback snack. With detailed information and brilliant wildlife photography celebrating each animal, Baseball Animals will teach children about nature through the exciting world of baseball while they cheer for their favorite teams and players.

“Baseball Opposites introduces children to important early concepts through the exciting world of professional baseball. From such entries as safe/out to on/off and day/night, children will learn all about the much-loved game, while appreciating the many opposites that appear in the sport and in the word around us. With simple yet informative text and incredible action photographs of the players, this book is the perfect choice for young baseball fans to enjoy on their own, or for parents and caregivers to read to the next generation of MLB stars.”

Opening

Baseball Animals: “Which MLB team was named after a black bird with a bright orange underbelly? This bird likes to perch high in the treetops and prefers to eat dark-colored fruit such as cherries or purple grapes.”

Baseball Opposites: “small – A baseball is small. big – A baseball stadium is big.”

Reviews

Baseball Animals hits a homerun. The clue pages contain two clues: a rather easy clue, marked with a question mark, and a harder clue below that, marked with a hand-held magnifying glass. Not every easy clue is as easy as it might seem, at least for young kids. The other, harder clue, is great for older kids beyond the age intended for Baseball Animals and for adults. If you are a die-hard fan of Major League Baseball, both clues might be a breeze. Being a fan myself, but not one who thinks much of teams other than the ones she likes, I could not answer all of the questions. Of course, you also need knowledge of animals.

The answers, always on the next spread*, left side, includes a baseball player from the team in question. I believe the players are stars from their respective teams, but without an in-depth knowledge of MLB, I am not sure. The Baltimore Orioles, named after Maryland’s state bird, has at times used a cartoonish oriole while at other times it looked authentic. Personally, I love the cartoonish oriole logo but not because the team is cartoonish. Say that, and you can cease reading this review immediately. In addition to the beloved Baltimore Orioles, kids will learn about a couple of sea creatures, a few from Africa and Asia, the dessert, a great American symbol, and every young child’s favorite. Young children will love the close-up, full detailed photographs of the team-named animals and most will enjoy the same detailed photographs of the MLB players. An appendix lists—by division—each team’s location, date it joined MLB, and a color photograph of its logo. Young kids, especially boys, will enjoy Baseball Animals.

Baseball Opposites contains basic concepts young children need to understand. An understanding of baseball, or even simple enjoyment of the game, will give kids greater enjoyment of Baseball Opposites. Each spread*, contains one pair of baseball related opposites, in the upper-outer corners of each page. Next, is a baseball-related sentence using each term, located somewhere on each page, and finally, an illustration of the term—always an MLB photograph filling most of each corresponding page. MLB visually explains each opposite pair with baseball players or baseball objects. These photographic illustrations have sharp detail and some even help explain a baseball concept. Young, and old, boys will love the action portrayed on most pages. If lucky, their favorite team or player will be among those helping young children learn opposites.

Though all the terms are baseball related, most of the terms children should be learning at this stage, (age 3+). These include such opposites as on/off, up/down, open/close, hot/cold, sit/stand, and left/right. The opposites are not strictly baseball terms, such as infield/outfield or homerun/strike out, but do use baseball as the point of reference. Should this disappoint anyone, turn the pages until you come to the opposite safe/out. The umpire struts his stuff calling the player sliding into home plate, “SAFE!” The ump is calmer while declaring a Chicago Cubby out—on a three pitch swing and miss. Baseball Opposites also contains additional MLB information for the young and old baseball fan. Rather than a team-related appendix, a glossary of baseball terms fills the page: bunt, steal a base, switch-hitter, dugout, and GRAND SLAM!

Oh, wait. “GRAND SLAM” is not in Baseball Opposites. I meant to say Baseball Animals and Baseball Opposites are GRAND SLAM books for young baseball fans. Dad, it is your turn to read these books to your children, getting them ready for the baseball season. Though the 2014 season in nearly half-over, there is never anytime better than the present to begin something, unless, of course, when waiting for an inside pitch to drill down the third base line. That is something completely different to teach your child.

*Spread – A spread is the left and right pages when a book is opened flat. Eg. pages 2 & 3 may be a spread and the end page image is a spread.

BASEBALL ANIMALS and BASEBALL OPPOSITES: (MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: FIRST BASE BOOKS). Texts copyright © 2014 by Christopher Jordan. Photograph copyrights © held by various individuals. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Fenn/Tundra of Tundra Books of Northern New York, Plattsburgh, NY.

Purchase Baseball Animals and/or Baseball Opposites at Amazon—B&N—Book Depository *on sale—Tundra Books—or your local bookstore.

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Learn more about the Sports (MLB — Hockey — NASCAR) series by Mr. Jordan HERE.

Meet the author, Christopher Jordan, at his short bio:  http://www.tundrabooks.com/authors/author.pperl?authorid=152647

Find more books at the Tundra Books website:   http://www.tundrabooks.com/

a division of Random House of Canada Limited:  http://www.randomhouse.ca/

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Also by Jordan Christopher

 

 

 

 

 

Hockey & NASCAR

123           Colors

ABC         Opposites

Animals    Shapes

 

 

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Filed under: 5stars, Books for Boys, Children's Books, Library Donated Books, Picture Book, Series Tagged: animals, books for young boys, children's book reviews, Christopher Jordan, Fenn/Tundra of Tundra Books of Northern New York, Major League Baseball, MLB, opposites, Random House of Canada Limited, Tundra Books

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Among scores of spring themed picture books, families with young fans can celebrate the season with this diverse selection of 5 baseball inspired books.

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. Is It Big or Is It Little? by Claudia Rueda Eerdmans Books for Young Readers 4 Stars . Back Cover:  To a mouse, nearly everything looks big—but to the cat that chases him, things look a bit different. Opening:  Is it BIG? Or is it little? Is it DEEP? Or is it shallow? About …

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Opposnakes a Lift the Flap Book about Opposites by Salina Yoon is a great concept teaching tool. Bright and lively illustrations with friendly faced snakes introduce opposites in a fun way! Few words are used which will engage young ones and also emerging readers can confidently read their own way to the end. Really great find!




ALSO TRY:

One Weighs a Ton by Salina Yoon

The Crayola Rainbow Colors Book by Salina Yoon

Super Babies on the Move by Salina Yoon

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I Like Vegetables. Lorena Siminovich. 2011. Candlewick Press. 10 pages.

Above
Below
Carrots


Inside
Outside
Peas

I Like Vegetables is one of four titles available in Lorena Siminovich's Petit Collage series published by Candlewick. Previous titles include: I Like Toys (a concept board book about shapes), I Like Fruit (a concept board book about colors), and I Like Bugs (a concept board book about counting to five). And I must admit it is one of the best in the series. I thought it was really clever to use vegetables to show opposites! That harvest time is a great time to learn about opposites. The opposites included in the book are: above/below, inside/outside, tall/short, big/little, and empty/full.


It is a touch-and-feel book. And I enjoyed those elements on these pages. I especially liked the carrots and the peas! Well, for that matter I loved the corn too! If I'm being honest, I loved it all! I just *wish* that a touch-and-feel book would try a little harder to get the pumpkin right. Because I am relatively sure that most pumpkins do not feel velvet-like.

It is easy to recommend this one, to recommend the whole series! I just love the art and design of these!!!

© 2011 Becky Laney of Young Readers

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*Picture book, fantasy, for preschoolers through 2nd graders
*Penguin and boy (from Lost and Found) are main characters
*Rating: Up and Down by Oliver Jeffers will make you smile and celebrate friendship!

Short, short summary:

Penguin and boy are best friends. Penguin gets the idea that he would love to fly. He has wings, so he should be able to fly, he reasons. But when he tries, nothing happens. He learns that penguins everywhere don’t fly, and this makes him sad. So, he runs away and answers an advertisement for a circus act where he will be shot from a cannon and fly through the air. The boy misses the penguin while he is away and begins searching for him. When Penguin does finally fly (with the help of the cannon), he’s not so crazy about it.

So, what do I do with this book?

1. Opposites are a good subject to discuss with the book, Up and Down. You can also ask students why they think Oliver Jeffers named his book Up and Down while you are discussing opposites. Look at the illustrations with your students or children and find more opposites in the drawings. Be creative. The important point is that students name opposites.

2. Penguin and the boy are great friends. You can use this book to discuss the characteristics of a good friend. For example–the way the boy rushes to be at Penguin’s side when he is fulfilling his dream. Students can also compare one of their friendships to the one in the book or compare themselves to either Penguin or the boy.

3. For fun, ask students to make an advertisement for Penguin’s circus act.

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I seriously think there may be something to the whole stars, charts, and rising signs astrology thing. I’m not so invested that I would refuse to leave the house based on a dire horoscope, but if the tides are influenced by the movement of the planets and our bodies are mostly water, it just makes sense that when they move, we get a little cosmic tug. I also have two children born at the tail end of May, which means I’ve got more Gemini folk than I can comfortably handle sometimes. In the zodiac, Gemini represents the twins. In my house, Gemini represents the drastically polar personality shift that can happen to kids #2 and #4 at a moment’s notice. These are children who give new and more profound meaning to the metaphors associated with emotional swings--hot and cold, night and day, Jekyll and Hyde, etc. It is always amazing, and sometimes a little bizarre or frightening, to see a small person in the progression from sun to wild storm and back again in the amount of time it takes for toast to pop up. This duality kept going through my mind as I was reading Michael Bond’s Paddington’s Opposites to the littlest quick-change artist in my life. The contrasting conditions in the book are pretty straightforward--on/off, neat/messy, open/closed--but the illustrations are a bit outrageous, especially on the “negative” parts of the pairs, and those are (naturally!) the ones Scarlett likes best. Or not. It all depends on her mood.

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A Garden of Opposites by Nancy Davis

This bright, graphically-interesting and fun book offers pairs of opposites in a garden setting.  The opposites are very basic such as open/closed, long/short, and asleep/awake.  Davis’ illustrations are big and bold, filled with bright colors that will shout out to a group easily.  Equally likeable is the font and text size which will work well for reading aloud but also for new readers just figuring things out.

Recommended as a cheery spring opposite book, this one is perfect for toddlers ages 1-3.

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This week's theme is OPPOSITES...

Illustrate your interpretation of the theme. Have fun!

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