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Mother Daughter Book Reviews is pleased to be coordinating a Book Blast for our new picture book,”The Fox and the Snowman” (November 2 to 4, 2015).

About the Book

Title: The Fox and the Snowman | Author: Angela Muse | Illustrator: Helen Wu | Publication Date: October 5, 2015 | Publisher: 4EYESBOOKS | Pages: 28 | Recommended Ages: 0 to 8

Summary: This is a story of a lone fox and his journey through a year of changing seasons. He discovers friendship and family in this colorful winter tale.

Also check out Lil Glimmer, The Nutt Family: An Acorny Adventure, The Pig Princess, The Bee Bully, Eager Eaglets: Birds of Play, Cactus Charlie, Suzy Snowflake, Monsters Have Mommies, The Christmas Owl, The Cat Who Lost His Meow, Caterpillar Shoes & Ten Thankful Turkeys by this author.

Grab a copy of the ebook, available for a limited time at the introductory price of 99 cents! (REG $2.99)

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Kobo

iBooks * Createspace * Goodreads

About the Author: Angela Muse

Angela Muse was born in California to a military family. This meant that she got used to being the “new kid” in school every couple of years. It was hard trying to make new friends, but Angela discovered she had a knack for writing. In high school Angela began writing poetry and song lyrics. Expressing herself through writing seemed very natural. After becoming a Mom in 2003, Angela continued her storytelling to her own children. In 2009 she wrote and published her first rhyming children’s book aimed at toddlers. Since then she has released several more children’s picture books and released her first young adult romance series, The Alpha Girls.

Angela’s husband, Ben Muse writes suspense/thriller books that can also be found on Amazon.

Check out what else she’s working on by visiting www.4eyesbooks.com

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter

** Book Blast Giveaway **

Prize: One winner will receive a $100 Amazon gift card or $100 PayPal cash prize, winner’s choice

Giveaway ends: November 15, 11:59 pm, 2015

Open to: Internationally

How to enter: Please enter using the Rafflecopter widget below.

Terms and Conditions: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. A winner will be randomly drawn through the Rafflecopter widget and will be contacted by email within 48 hours after the giveaway ends. The winner will then have 72 hours to respond. If the winner does not respond within 72 hours, a new draw will take place for a new winner. Odds of winning will vary depending on the number of eligible entries received. This contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook. This giveaway is sponsored by the author, Angela Muse and is hosted and managed by Renee from Mother Daughter Book Reviews. If you have any additional questions – feel free to send and email to Renee(at)MotherDaughterBookReviews(dot)com.

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Copyright © 2015 Mother Daughter Book Reviews, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you signed up to receive the HTML from all of the Book Blasts hosted by MDBR in the Fall, 2015.

These adorable muddy pig paintings were created by preschool art masters!

We learned all about pigs and then created these ‘muddy’ collage paintings. They turned out SO cute!

Muddy Pig by Elizabeth, age 4

Pig by Margaret, age 3

The post Preschool Art Muddy Pig Paintings! appeared first on Scribble Kids.

Today we start with a question. Two questions, to be exact.

1. Can you count to ten?

“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10”

Good!

 2. Do you know your colors?

“Red, blue, yellow, green, orange— ”

—Okay, that’s great!

“. . . pink, purple, brown, black . . .”

Let’s get started. Debut Author Sarah Jones.

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Bunnies Near and Far

by Sarah Jones

Blue Manatee Press      4/01/2014

978-1-936669-22-6

Age 1 to 4      10 pages

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“Colors. Shapes. Critters! Three concepts in one make learning fun! Inspire bedtime or story time, with this fun and educational concept book! Watch colorful native forest animals including red square owl and yellow star frog take shape, teaching basic concepts simultaneously. Rich, sweet watercolor illustrations are a delight for sharing over and over again.”

Opening 

“1 bunny near. 2 bunnies far.”

Review

Farmer Bo has lost track of his bunnies. Where could they have gone? We know 1 bunny is nearby and 2 bunnies are far off. Where did 3 bunnies go, and 4 bunnies? I saw 5 bunnies going up and 6 bunnies going down—they were on a teeter-totter. Wherever 7 and 8 bunnies went in opposite directions. Then I heard 9 bunnies singing to 10 bunnies playing an instrument. Farmer Bo does not know where any of his bunnies are. Oh, look! Farmer Bo counts as the bunnies return home. 1-one, 2-two, 3-three . . . all the way to his 10-ten musical bunnies. Wow! How many bunnies is that?

There are bunnies everywhere in Bunnies Near and Far. The situations the bunnies get into are common and recognizable by little kids. This is a fun way to learn how to count. The bunnies are cute though a tad plump and do some goofy stuff. Little kids will giggle at these bunnies on an apparent day off. I love the color of the book, which is predominately green with a few other colors tossed in on a few pages. The car is carrot orange and is somewhat shaped like a carrot. There even looks to be a smidge of green at the back of the car. I love details like this; things you would never expect. The theme of Bunnies Near and Far is more modern than most simple counting books and maybe that is what makes it so utterly charming.

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Still remember your colors. (Please do not tell me, I remember.) Let’s look at colors.

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Orange, Triangle, Fox

by Sarah Jones

Blue Manatee Press     4/01/2014

978-1-936669-21-9

Age 1 to 4     10 pages

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“Farmer Bo wants to know where his bunnies are. Some are near, some are far, some walking some in a car, and all are as cute as can be! Little ones will learn counting and opposites in this fun tale of bunnies on the go. Perfect for sharing: read and count along to find out what they’ll do next!”

Opening  

”brown circle hedgehog”

Review

Orange, Triangle, Fox is about colors, shapes, and animals. What could be more perfect than all of these concepts in one book for the youngest children? Interestingly, the shape and color become the shape of the animal and its color. The title page is orange and the shape is a triangle. The fox is an orange triangle. I think this will delight kids. The forest animals include an owl, a fox, frog, and a turtle among others. Young children will simultaneously learn about three concepts—shapes, colors, and animals—learning to process multiple stimuli. They may start looking at the world around them for animals or other objects in a certain shape. The forest animals are adorable, maybe more so because of the shape they have become.

As a set, Orange, Triangle, Fox and Bunnies Near and Far help young children learn, or reinforce, their numbers, colors, and forest animals. The books are kid shaped, just the size for little hands to hold. The pages are thick to stand up to kids excitedly turning the page. Spilt milk and blobs of jelly should wipe right off the heavy, glossy pages. At ten pages, bedtime reading of Orange, Triangle, Fox and Bunnies Near and Far can start a tradition of reading and a lifelong love of books. Both of these books are nontraditional in form, but very much traditional in content. Little ones can learn about the numbers one through ten, and about colors, shapes, and animals. Four important elements your child needs to learn, packed into two adorable books with designs by Sarah Jones. Beautiful and functional, child-sized and childproof.

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Learn more about Sarah Jones books for young children HERE.

Buy Bunnies Near and Far at Amazon—B&N—your local bookstore.

Buy Orange, Triangle, Fox at Amazon—B&N—your local bookstore.

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Meet Sarah Jones at her profile at scbwi:  http://www.scbwi.org/members-public/sarah-jones

Find more board books at the website of Blue Manatee Press:  http://bluemanateepress.com/

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ORANGE TRIANGLE FOX and BUNNIES NEAR AND FAR. Text and illustrations copyright © 2014 by Sarah Jones. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Blue Manatee Press, Cincinnati, OH.

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NEW FROM BLUE MANATEE PRESS.

Water, Baby Unplugged

Toast to Family

Your Red Shoes

  Today is a Proud Dad Day. I get Tired Dad Days and Grumpy Dad Days and the odd ‘Oh Dad!’ Days, but today’s day is something special. Today my four year old daughter coolly took off both armbands and … Continue reading →

Blog Tour Stop for My Name is Jake by Jennifer Turner

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2 stars
My Name Is Jake
Jennifer Turner
No. Pgs: 17   Ages: 2+
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Author Website:  ‘My Name is Jake‘ is a colorfully illustrated, rhyming book for kids centered around a boy named Jake. Each page leads the reader through an activity that rhymes with Jake. Rhyming books for kids are perfect for young children, or early readers just beginning to put letters into words and rhyming them together.

My Name is Jake is an easy reader for toddlers.  A pre-story page states A Book About Jake and that is exactly what this is.  The reader will learn all sorts of things about Jake that he likes or dislikes.  One word in each sentence rhymes with Jake.

My Name is Jake.

I live on Drake Street.

The sun is shining in the morning when I wake.

I like to eat pancakes for breakfast.

The above is the opening sentences of My Name is Jake. There are twelve sentences, one per page, each with a word that rhymes with Jake. The rhyming word is in bold print to make it stand out. It would have made more sense to have the rhyming word consistently in the same place, preferable at the end of each sentence. Highlighting these words may look great and might give the book a little character, but it should not be necessary.

I enjoy reviewing books and lean toward the positive, still, the negatives need to be mentioned.  Potential readers deserve a fair and balanced review of a book before they decide to purchase or read.

There is no story in these pages. It looks like rhyming software kicked out every word that rhymes with Jake, and then sentences were written around those words. First Jake tells us where he lives, he gets up, and he eats his breakfast. This is linear and makes sense. Jake begins in the fall, moves to winter, then summer. It seems the author had a plan, but the sentences are all over the place.   Simply a hodgepodge of non-related sentences.

Reading this aloud is difficult.  Children’s books that have a working rhythm and meter flow naturally. The best rhyming books for young kids are almost musical when read aloud. At this level, I start to expect a very short story that kids can understand and most often remember.  Sentences are put together in a way that sticks, similar to the way a song sticks in your brain.

Do you like green eggs and ham?

I do not like them, Sam-I-am.

I do not like green eggs and ham.¹

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You won’t see any tinsel, not even one light.

It only has photos—they’re all black and white.

That’s Edgar the Elder with my Father Frank.

Next to Grandmother Gail and my Husband Hank.²

 Children’s rhyming books are difficult to write. The easier it looks, the harder it most likely was to write. My Name is Jake is amateurish, does not rhyme or flow, and has no story.  Each sentence may have a word that rhymes with Jake, yet some are plural and others not, throwing off the connection.

Rhyming picture books have a musical meter to them. A rhythm that rolls off the tongue when read aloud. One sentence leads to the next and a story unfolds, albeit a short one. My Name is Jake has none of those things.

I like to shake, shake, shake a tambourine.

When we go to the zoo, I don’t like to visit the snakes.

If you drop something it can break.

We bake cupcakes for my birthday.

The End.

 Those are the last five sentences in the book. No rhyme. No reason. No story.

My Name is Jake, A Book About Jake has great illustrations.  They are the bright spot of the book.  Each illustration is bright, happy, and fun. Most are rendered in primary colors, which toddlers can identify. The colors run edge to edge. Kids will enjoy looking at these and might like naming objects found on each page.  A game can be made of finding the object that rhymes with Jake.

If you buy picture books for the illustrations, do not hesitate to get this one. If you want rhyming picture books to rhyme, contain a story your child will love, and written with professional editing and guidance, this is not the book to buy. My Name is Jake would be a wonderful story from a sixth grader, not an adult trying her hand as an author.

1 Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

2 A Bad Kitty Christmas by Nick Bruel

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My Name is Jake

Author: Jennifer Turner   website
Illustrator: Susan Bell   website
SP Publisher: Peaks Press   website
ISBN: 978-1-938032-06-6
Number of Pages: 17
Ages: 2+