Grover is having a bad day. As soon as he wakes up he stubbs his toe. He forgets his lunch, forgets part of his alphebet, the big kids don’t want to play with him, etc. The last straw is on the way home and his rain boot gets stuck to a piece of gum.
He walks home with one boot on to tell his mother the whole story. Grover sits on her lap and cries for a while. Then they go out and retrieve the boot and go get ice cream.
In the end he says, “I think tomorrow will be a better day.”
It is a nice little book that help kids see that everyone gets frustrated and has bad days.
I would recommend it for kids 3 and up. There is a lot of reading that kids much younger probably would not sit through.
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I don’t always enjoy reading Robert Munsch’s books (as popular as he is). The main point of this story is that you are beautiful just as you are. You don’t need makeup. What I did not like was the other little lessons that kids can take from this book.
Julie (the girl in the book) saves lots of money and “rob[s] her little brother’s piggy bank”, to have a total of $100. Yep, I said robbed. In the end she does pay him back, but she does not get in trouble for taking it.
With the money she wants to buys lots and lots of makeup. Her mom says “oh, no!” but she “didn’t pay any attention” and she goes and buys makeup.
She then puts on all the make up and her parents, postman, etc are shocked. She has black lips, green cheeks, puple hair, etc.
Eventually she takes off the makeup and everyone agrees she is beautiful without it; even Julie agrees in the end.
Then she goes on to sell her makeup to her friends for $300 (not a bad little profit) and from that she gives her brother back his money.
Not sure what this teaches kids.
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I like the Berenstain Bears. They are a “nice” family. Yes, I have heard complaints that Papa Bear is portrayed as not the smartest man, but he makes the stories more fun.
In this story brother and sister bear can’t keep their room tidy. They always argue about cleaning it and it just gets messier and messier. Finally, mama bear has had enough and gets a big box and starts picking up all the stuff off the floor and puts it in the box (assuming it is going in the garbage).
The kids start getting upset until Papa bear comes in and calms things down. Together everyone agrees that there needs to be some storage solutions, and Papa bear (being a carpenter) sets to work to build the kids some shelving, a big toy box and a peg board.
The kids tidy up and even pitch a few unwanted toys and everyone is happy.
It is a nice book that is probably geared towards older children. My 3 year old like listening to it, and so did my 6 year old. It would be a reasonable high reading level (I am guessing level 3 maybe).
Did my kids tidy up after listening to the book? Ahhh, no. But at least the idea was planted in their heads, that tidying makes things easier to find and less likely to get broken. And that their mom is not the only one who makes their kids clean up. Maybe one day they will tidy up all on their own. lol
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Colourful book that is fun and has a little bit of Canada on each page.
There are at least one or two cities/areas mentioned that your children should recognize (if you are from Canada or visited Canada). My son got so excited about “N is for Niagara Falls – hear the water roar!” We were just there a few weeks ago.
They also have maple syrup, hockey, lobsters, a Zamboni and much more.
Fun book! You may be able to get older children to discuss things about the cities and items in the book.
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This is a typical Dora book. Dora and Boots are on an egg hunt and need maps help to figure out where to look for the 12 eggs that were hidden by Dora’s parents.
You need to call out for Map, look out for Swiper and make sure you say, “Swiper no swiping!”, and don’t forget to check backpack for the item you need.
There is lots of matching toys with the egg they came out of. For example you might have a green bear and a blue train, along with a blue egg and a green egg.
There is quite a bit of counting, as Dora and Boots collect eggs.
There is not a whole lot of Spanish in the book. Just a few words and then counting in Spanish from 1-12.
Good news for those of us who do not speak Spanish is that the front of the book has the Spanish words phonetically spelled out.
Nice book, not overly excited about it.
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The classic song that all children seem to love, in an interactive book format. Great!
The cover is shiny and the art work is fun. Children get to open and shut the door, make the wipers go swish, swish, swish. It is a really fun book.
The only downfall of the book is because you get to open and shut and pull tabs that make things work, it can get broken or torn easily.My book has seen better days.
I would suggest this book for children 3 and up. But if you have kids that will look after the book then maybe a bit younger. Sometimes the tabs are a bit tough and may get ripped if little hands pull to hard.
Would make a great gift.
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One of the many Little Miss and Mr. Men books.
I find most of the stories a bit too long to hold my children’s attention.
My son (3.5) wanted me to read this book to him tonight. He sat and listened intently, and asked some questions too. hmmm.
The gist of the story is that Little Miss Birthday loves birthdays. She loves getting the right present for her friends. The problem is Mr. Wrong. She just can’t find the perfect present for him. All the things she thinks of are well… wrong.
In the end she does find the right present, but you will have to read the book to find out what the perfect present for Mr. Wrong is.
It is a nice book. I think a lot of the humor goes over the kids heads. I don’t think my 6 year old catches it all. But at least it is entertaining for the adult reader.
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This is a lift-the-flap book with all your favourite little people.
In the book there is Main Street where children can lift-the-flap and see different professions eg. fire fighter, baker, vet.
Next is the supermarket where the children lift-the-flap to discover different coloured foods eg. red apples, yellow bananas.
The next page has trucks on a construction site. You lift the flap to see things like cherry pickers, backhoes, etc. doing their job.
After that is the park. Children are playing in the park and you lift-the-flap to count things like how many ant under the ant hill, how many cupcakes in the picnic basket, how many birds are hiding in the bush, etc.
Lastly is the shops on the street. The reader is asked to match the people (in a box on the side) with the store they are shopping in. For example there is a picture of a girl playing a guitar. She was shopping in the music store. So you lift-the-flap at the music store and there she is in the music store!
The flap-lifting helps keep my son’s interest while he is learning numbers, colours, matching, and more.
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This is an older book (1989), that I was able to pick up at a used book sale. Chapters book store has it listed as 1999. Anyway…
Great little book to learn or reinforce colours and use thinking skills. I really like that.
Each page is devoted to a colour, and big bird asks if you can guess what item he is thinking about. Eg. “Now I am thinking about something BLUE! It is something good to eat. Can you guess what it is?”
There is a picture of a blue jay, blue jeans, a blue car, blueberries, etc.
My son really enjoys the guessing part. He knows his colours now, but when he was still learning them he liked it when I would ask him what colour were all the things on the page.
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This book is about the death of a pet.
It starts out with the boy playing with a healthy Pepper the cat. Eventually, Pepper gets old and no longer wants to play, drink or purr. This makes the boy sad who asks his mom if Pepper is going to die. Mama replies, “I think so”.
The Mom and son deal with the pain of loosing a beloved pet. They burry him in their backyard (looks like they live in the county).
The boy is worried about if his cat will be afraid where he is now. The mom reassures the son that “His spirit is forever – it can fly, fly, fly”. Nothing more is said.
The book goes on to talk about the loneliness and sadness; so much so that the boy says he thinks he is going to burst. He thinks about Pepper everyday and how the pain never seems to go away.
One day the boy is able to celebrate Pepper. He remember his purr by listening to the wind and realizes that Pepper will always be in his heart.
Well thought-through book. I think it is good that it helps kids see that other children feel the same way. As a parent, I like that it is rather vague on what happens after death. I like this because it enables me to explain to my child what “we” believe.
I can’t comment on how my kids liked the book. I did not want to read it to them, as I know I would cry. So I read it to myself, and cried. My daughter who is 6 read it, and told me she thought it was sad. She has lost 2 cats to old age in the last year.
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