EDITING TLC

Pockets is a sweet story sharing a special relationship between Colton and his great-grandfather. The bright colors and beautiful illustrations enhance the story itself, and will draw children into the book.

There are a number of concepts that could be discussed with a youngster when reading this book: manners, following direc- tions, favorites, handling disappointments, hobbies/collections, ways to protect keepsakes, embarrassing situations, and special relationships. It is packed full of greatness, and a book I would highly recommend to be read to young children, and one they will most likely enjoy learning to read by themselves.This book was given to me for a review and the opinions expressed are solely my own.

When Grandma’s False Teeth Fly is a cute book that is well received by children. I have had the opportunity to read this book to several third grade classes who thoroughly enjoyed it. We were able to discuss the topics of embarrassment, bullying, relationships with grandparents, memories, sharing stories, and even baby teeth vs. adult teeth. It is a book that youngsters will be able to learn to read on their own after hearing the book several times. It is a great lesson regarding taking an embarrassing situation and turning it into a positive situation. It opens the door to discussing bullying, although this book doesn’t provide a lot of solutions, the conversation will lead to adults sharing possible strategies with the children listening to the story. I feel the best lesson is helping children learn how to change an embarrassing moment from a “laughing at” moment to a “laughing with” moment. We all could improve in that department. 

For anyone needing advice regarding speaking in public, this is the book for you. It is well organized and complete with information for various types of speaking. For my many author friends, there is a chapter related to authors giving presentations. Author Yager shares the twelve secrets of the best speakers as well as how to deal with the twelve dreaded speaker situations. I can’t imagine anything else that could be included in this book. The book has an index, glossary, and a great list of resources. I highly recommend this book. It was given to me for review, but the opinions expressed here are solely my own. It is always a wonderful thing when you can give a book a 5-star review for a job well done.

The Adventures of Baylard Bear is a book that I will be using with third graders to achieve their adoptions of Beanie Babies along with reading and writing activities. This is a project that I’ve been doing for a number of years, but this is the first time that I have a book that relates to so many concepts related to adoption, feeling different, unconditional love, acceptance, etc. Even though one reader felt this book did an injustice to some topics, I would say that The Adventures of Baylard Bear opens many doors for discussion. After all, it is up to the adults sharing these stories to create the right impressions for the concepts shared with their children. Baylard gives us the opportunities to deal with issues that otherwise might be too complicated. I do wish that the book could have had more detailed and brighter illustrations. The ones in the book could be used as a coloring book, I guess. But in sharing this with a group, I would have children drawing their own illustrations as I read it because the pictures won’t hold their attention…but the story sure will. This book was given to me for writing a review. The opinions expressed are solely my own.

Henry has a stomach which continually calls on him to fill it, but the problem is that Henry’s choices are not wise ones. In Henry! You’re Hungry Again? He discovers through a “stay-fit” story that his gym teacher shares, just what kind of foods are needed to stay strong and healthy. After that, Henry finds way to “save his world” which includes his family and teachers. This is a beautifully illustrated book which enhances the great story. I was given this book for the review, but my opinions are solely my own. I highly recommend this book for families and classrooms.

Pickysaurus Mac is an adorable book, both in the text and in the illustrations. Children will definitely be pulled into the book via the colorful illustrations, but then continue to want to read because of the fun storyline.

Most children will be able to relate to being finicky with their eating from time to time. The rhythm and rhyme to Pickysaurus Mac make it a fun read-aloud book.

 The thing that most impressed me with this book is that the author, Sandra Miller Linhart, teaches the adult readers about SPD, Sensory Processing Disorder. “Symptoms span a wide range, between being oversensitive or under-sensitive to stimulation of any or all of their senses. Foods pose a particular problem in the SPD child; learning to tolerate textures, smells, and tastes sometimes makes mealtimes traumatic.” Pickysaurus Mac was written to help children with SPD. Thank you, Sandra Miller Linhart, for your sensitivity to children and their parents who are dealing with SPD. I highly recommend this book for all youngsters. Bottom line: it is a fun book to enjoy together.

Cindy Crawford Garrett believes that books are a wonderful way for adults to commun- icate valuable life lessons to children. Garrett takes her gift of telling stories and combines them with the illustrations of Allison Garrett, to bring beautiful lessons to our youngsters. I believe that children up through the middle years of elementary school will find these books enjoyable to hear and/or read. What happens when we don’t follow the directions of those in charge over us? Bob the Rooster will help us understand why obeying can keep us out of trouble, in more ways than one.  

Cindy Crawford Garrett is an author that is certainly working toward bringing values to our youngsters in a fun way. She tells a story, involving the “silly animals on the ranch” which young children will definitely relate to through their adventures. In this story, a hen has a scar. I believe that we all know how people with scars or are somehow disfigured can get treated in our world. This book is filled with lessons surrounding medical issues. Between the text and the beautiful illustrations, children will be pulled right into the story and with the guidance of the adults in their lives, can also learn lessons regarding how to treat other people. (This book has a few formatting issues mostly related to punctuation...but I believe those will be corrected in the next round of publishing. Just needed to make note of it, however.) 

Cindy Crawford Garrett is an author that is certainly working toward bringing values to our youngsters in a fun way. She tells a story, involving the “silly animals on the ranch” which young children will definitely relate to through their adventures. In this story, all of the animals share in the joy of two hens that lay eggs, which hatch on Easter morning. This book teaches responsibility and friendship skills. Keep up the great story writing, Cindy Crawford Garrett. (And thanks to Allison Garrett for the wonderful illustrations, too!!)

Bucketfilling is a theme/concept, which I wish all parents would be aware to share with their children. Within my elementary school, we found that bucketfilling was a wonderful way to get children to understand how they should treat others. In Halle and Tiger, bucketfilling get extended to the family pets, but more importantly, the basic premise of being a bucketfiller is along with bucketfilling strategies are shared on each and every page. This is a tremendous addition to the bucketfilling themed books. Thank you, Peggy Johncox, for your efforts to help our young ones learn such important concepts. 

The Love and Logic Institute has hit a home run when publishing Stand in My Shoes: Kids Learning About Empathy. As a former third grade teacher, who worked with our school’s character education program, this book is absolutely what all children need to read or have read to them. Empathy or rather the lack of it is a major problem in our society today. If this concept can be understood by our children from early on, it could have a major impact on families and schools. THANK YOU, Bob Sornson for your insight into writing this book for our children. This is a beautiful book, from the story to the illustrations. I highly recommend it for all families and schools.

As a retired teacher, who spent 36 years in the classroom, I was familiar with the concept of mind mapping that Toni Krasnic shares in Mind Mapping For Kids: How Elementary School Students Can Use Mind Maps To Improve Reading Comprehension and Thinking. However, I must say that I never had a resource that is this beneficial and forthright in providing the steps either a teacher or parent should take in guiding children on the path to learn how these mind maps can benefit their learning. Connecting mind maps to reading comprehension makes so much sense. Using the strategies of comprehension along with the mind maps provides such a powerful tool for children to use as they progress to higher and higher levels of thinking. The mind maps can just grow right along with them.

The fact that this is an ebook with links within it, is another tremendous addition to the success of learning via mind maps, in that there are many opportunities to check out other sources to back up the learning within Mind Mapping For Kids. Author Toni Krasnic also introduces the fact that there are many computer tools/programs that are available for mind mapping. Parents/Teachers can choose from any of them to incorporate into and enhance lessons, but the great thing is…a piece of paper and some colored pencils can work just as well (in my humble opinion).

As a former teacher, and parent of five, I highly recommend this resource. I will be using this tool for students in my tutoring sessions. Whenever we can paint a “verbal picture,” our learning curve goes way up. Thank you, Toni Krasnic, for providing this affordable resource for parents and teachers. It is a tool that can be used across grade levels and across curriculum subjects.