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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