Score: 95+/100 (9.5+ out of 10)
The Kids Gratitude Journal and Activity Book Series is truly one of the most outstanding collections of journals & activity books for children that we have ever seen! These gratitude journals aim to actively encourage children to be appreciative and helpful citizens/ tenants of the world. They teach kids to be mindful and reflective about themselves and the world around them. It is spectacular how author Apryl Monte was able to pack so many relevant, helpful, educational, and thought-provoking activities into her books without it being overwhelming or confusing for children. Just the opposite, actually! These books are simple, clear, concise, and specific. For example, children are encourage to write a letter to a loved one telling them how thankful they are for them. They are asked to list three people or things they are thankful for or good things that happened to them that day. Everything in these journals is bright, colorful, inviting, welcoming, and—above all—POSITIVE! These journals are incredibly positive, calming, and uplifting. No, you don't get bombarded with inspirational, motivational, or even educational quotes. Actually, these books are beautiful in how engaging and interactive they are. They actually invite the student to participate in their own learning and to come to their own conclusions through the Socratic method—the asking and answering of questions to come to a conclusion. We could presumably see these prompts being fantastic for freewriting assignments at the beginning of a class. Children from as young as maybe fourth grade could write their responses to these prompts. Younger children might be able to do it with adult assistance, perhaps with the child dictating their thoughts like with some preschool assignments. There are some inspirational quotes to be found as well as positive affirmations. That's quite standard for books of this nature. Not only do their journals excel in their educational purpose, but they also excel in just being pleasant to go through and look at. Everything seems so well thought out in terms of the aesthetics. Even the lines are wide enough for younger children with less fine motor skills to be able to write in! Clearly, the author must be an experienced educator. Aside from how bright, colorful, and beautiful all the graphics and layout are, every journal is also in theme. For example, the autumn journal features autumn leaves and woodland animals as well as a yellow-orange-brown aesthetic that fits the season. The spring journal features a wide variety of nature scenes such as flowers, friendly bugs, pets, grass, eggs, and the sun. There's also a heavier emphasis on outdoor activities, sports, and games. The summer journal is very aquatic in its theme, featuring water scenes, flip-flops, beach balls, and sea creatures like whales. The winter journal, as you might expect, places a heavier emphasis on “snowy” or “icy” colors and cool-weather things like snowmen, ice skates, snowboards, scarves, and penguins. Interestingly, the journal not only features Christmas references but also Hanukkah references, making this journal (and the others) quite inclusive. Speaking of inclusivity, this book contains a lot of representation of different groups of people and races. All in all, we found these gratitude journals for kids to be incredibly impressive! Check them out on Amazon!
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Score: 95/100 (9.5 out of 10)
Dancing Deepa is a phenomenal children's book by Suchi Sairam that also excels at being inspirational, educational, and multi-cultural! This book is so good, it will even have you pronouncing Bharatanatyam correctly! We are enormously impressed and pleasantly surprised by this book, we can't say that enough! What Suchi Sairam achieved in crafting this is remarkable. We commend her for being able to tactfully weave so many different and complex themes and make them simple, digestible, and understandable for kids. That's an art in itself. This book covers such themes and topics as self-doubt, timidity, shyness, self-confidence, self-expression, culture, dance, and performing arts. The book follows the titular character, Deepa, a 4th grade student from India who appears to be immigrating to the United States with her family. Deepa is very impressed and passionate about traditional Indian dance, particularly Bharatanatyam. Deepa is inspired by auditions for a talent show after seeing some of the other dances and performing arts that are represented. She fantasizes about being able to share her culture and unique form of dance with her school and classmates, but she is crippled by fear and anxiety of what they would think and say. She becomes discouraged, like many of us would be in her situation. Her teacher, Miss Molina, sees that Deepa is in need of a pep talk and a new opportunity, so she schedules her to perform for the class. Deepa, as expected, does a lot better than expected. What's really telling though is how her classmates react: with amazement, fascination, wonder, support, and encouragement! It's really powerful, actually. Something rather beautiful about this book is how conversational and sentimental it is. The author, through Deepa, seems to be communicating directly to the reader. It's actually quite nice and intimate. She knows that Bharatanatyam might be a tough word for American English-speakers to say and pronounce, so she acknowledges that and guides the reader through it like a friend would. Last but not least, the art is exactly what it needs to be. The art is really nice, pleasant, and appealing. All in all, this is an excellent children's book. That's why it achieves are highest rating ever for its category. Check this out on Amazon! Score: 93/100 (9.3 out of 10)
Well, how about that! Simon Hunter is a surprisingly fun, fanciful fantasy novel about a shape-shifting dog-boy and his magical fairy friends! The thing about this book is that it ultimately picked up but started a bit flat. Who are we kidding? This book disarmed us with its opening. You're first introduced to the two main protagonists, Betsy and Eric, a married couple who are living a pretty bland life in a pretty bland home until the inciting incident. To be perfectly honest, though Betsy's perspective dominates this story, we often forgot who she was outside of being Eric's wife or even what her name was. It's a strange feeling as a reader when you find yourself in the shoes of someone who just feels generic and empty, but that might be the point. She was a bit of a blank slate in other words. You're meant to put yourself in her shoes as you discover these strange new things. And, boy, does it get wild! Betsy and the opening were really the only weaknesses of this book because otherwise it's rather superb. Simon is such a cute, charismatic, and compelling character—a magical boy who can transform into a dog (border-collie) and later even a cougar. Some of his greatest moments are him being naive about humanity and their ways, cryptically referencing the ways of the fairies, and just plain acting like a dog. Simon Hunter gives this book its name for a reason, he is really central to it. He's the glue that holds everything together and one of the plot's main driving forces. Another thing that is a huge plus in this book's favor is the mystery surrounding the creation and disappearance of the magical creatures. Not to spoil too much, but this book builds the suspense and mystery steadily, adding tension to the escalating situation. There are times the characters don't trust each other and question each other's motives. Some might have ulterior motives and their own agendas. There are times when information is uncovered that's truly shocking and surprising. You want that in a book like this. And we can't ignore the fact that this book is just lighthearted magical fun! You get loads of magical creatures from fairies (“faeries”), pixies, elves, and trolls. Each is so unique and interesting in their own way. Perhaps our favorites were the mischievous and somewhat ominous pixies, basically fairies with fouler attitudes and sharp teeth. Among the most interesting of the magical creatures is Sally. Ironically, we'd just read a book called Everything is Everything in which a character named Sally befriends a fairy. Sally, similar to Simon, is an eye-catching, cute, charismatic, and compelling character. She may be a nominee for “Hottest Character.” She gets herself involved in a few awkward situations as she becomes accustomed to living among humans. Not only does she glow physically, but her personality is also glowing. You can practically feel the glitter and sparkles coming from every page she's on! Speaking of unique creatures, the trolls are another such example. One of the most charming troll moments is when Theira, a troll who acts rather feminine, cries and her tears drip “down her mustache and onto her bearded face.” Like, we feel bad for Theira, but how can you not love that sentence? It just shows you how different these characters and their world are. Another thing that we can't ignore, although we did talk a bit down about the main couple, is that Betsy and Eric do have a rather impressive and incredible arc. They change and learn something from these experiences, particularly in raising and protecting Simon. It makes them aspire to be parents for the first time, and that's quite special. Check this out on Amazon if you're on board for a magical adventure! 90/100 (9.0 out of 10)
The Rapping Astronaut by Sonia Marta is a very, very ,very, VERY, VERY, VEEERY interesting and unique book. We've never seen a book quite like this! There are so many words that might be used to describe this book, some of which work for and some of which work against it: unique, special, strange, weird, different, risky, choppy, jumpy, disjointed, clever, cryptic, and quirky. It helps not to think about this book as a children's book. We know that might sound weird, but it's true. A lot of children are going to find themselves lost and confused reading this unless someone competent is there to guide them through. This is more a book for professors to invite Political Science and Sociology majors to do a research paper on. This book is more of a winding, weaving subliminal message to the rest of the world about an oppressed and censored people—a people who can't speak freely, do the things they want to do, say the things they want to say, and pursue the dreams and careers they want to pursue. If it were ever possible to say you're protesting and making social commentary without outright saying you're protesting and making social commentary, then this book would be the ultimate example! We've seen the sparse protests that get leaked to the media from Eastern block countries. People who simply write “Two Words” (no war) are taken away by police. Anyone caught speaking out against the war in Ukraine are pursed, caught, censored, and “reeducated.” It's all about control—controlling the narrative and thus controlling the population. No society is immune from the influence and effects of tyranny and censorship. The United States, we fear, may become such a place if we forget ourselves. In Russia, the effects are felt far more profoundly. It's practically expected. People there are afraid to speak out. They're afraid to say “no” or “no more.” They're afraid of their leaders, not the other way around. This book is very timely, in a sense, as we see freedom of speech and expression deteriorating not only in countries like Russia, China, and North Korea, but even in the “bastions of democracy” like the United States, Great Britain, and Australia. No group of people is more vulnerable to these effects than the children. Children are impressionable and, thus, moldable. If a tyrannical autocracy were to shape children from a young age to act a certain way, believe a certain thing, they'd be more likely than adults to obey. The subtext of this book is very powerful. Let's finally look at the book itself. The book stars Austro, the “rapping astronaut.” Austro is not actually a rapper or an astronaut, but a young dreamer who imagines becoming both of those things. Unfortunately, he lives in an oppressive, repressed society centered around a city called Quitequietville where people have no mouths and, so, can't speak out and express themselves. They are, in fact, VERY quiet. Austro seems to be the only person with a working mouth in Quitequietville, even being able to brush his teeth, a rare luxury. He has a “stupid” friend named Bob who believes everything that he has been told and who tries to convince Austro to work the jobs that he and everyone else is working. In other words, Austro is his pressured out of his individualism and personal goals and into careers his society deems acceptable. The main villain of this book, though he's unseen, is “His Majesty, the King”--possibly inspired by a real life leader—who lives a castle separate from his people. The will of His Majesty, the King is enforced by royal guards dressed in black robes almost like cultists. They are essentially his Gestapo or KGB. They, in turn, are informed by the Quitequietville National Company which collects information and spies on everyone. It is even implied that some friends in this society could be informants or spies. You have to watch your back and be doubly sure you think the right thoughts and say the right things or Big Brother will know and get you. And the consequences are severe. Although execution and torture aren't explicitly shown, they are implied. You also see medieval instruments of these practices. The book poses the question of: what if someone as imaginable, creative, and ambitious as Austro were allowed to be truly FREE? Imagine the things he could create and do! This book makes heavy emphasis on, well... heavy emphasis. Bold letters are often used to heavily emphasize concepts and emotions like bravery, terror, friendship, and secrets. Again, the subtext of this seemingly innocuous book is very deep. We can definitely appreciate and understand the cryptic nature of this book. You don't want to come right out and protest a totalitarian government that might want to punish you and your associates, you need to be tactful. And that's what this book is: it's unbelievably tactful. At the same time, as a source of children's entertainment, this leaves a lot to be desired. It can be very confusing, overly complex, and wordy for kids. Even a middle-grade reader might find this to be a bit much. The thing is, it's not written in a way your mind naturally wants to read a book. It's written in a scattered, fragmented, disjointed, cryptic way. It's almost like if you took a beautiful porcelain bowl and intentionally shattered it to make collage art with it. Speaking of the art, it's actually quite good! That's a plus in favor of this book. Is it as good as the art in something like Do You Know the One? Or Everything is Everything? No. There's really no contest there. However, the art looks solid and presentable. The people and backgrounds are easily recognizable and distinguishable, and there are some interesting, eye-catching things to be found. All in all, we commend and appreciate what this author was trying to do. You can check this out on Amazon! Score: 94/100 (9.4 out of 10)
Gilraen and the Two Cities by Joanne Reid is one of the best books in the ongoing Jaralii Chronicles! It is the sixth book in the series overall and the third in the “Doom of the Adjudicars” arc. Gilraen and the Two Cities is a welcomed return to form for the series which seemed to be losing a lot of steam and momentum after the epicness that was I Conquered (book three). Like book three, this book features a lot of action, good tension, high stakes, and epic moments. This book actually addresses many of the complaints we've had about books four and five such as Gilraen's character growth, how Gilraen comes across at times, and what was perceived to be a lack of meaningful action or stakes. Books four and five seemed to be leaving a lot in the tank. They were clearly building to something: something big. Thankfully that something big was this book! This book incredibly action-packed, arguably even more so than I Conquered or I Came. There are several high-stakes battles in this book featuring multiple different factions and interesting dynamics. Another thing we really appreciated about this book is that we got to see both sides of Gilraen's dynamic personality. For whatever reason, in Gilraen Returns and Gilraen and the Guilds, Gilraen had come across as very egotistical, extremely bossy/demanding, and maybe even a bit mean. In Gilraen and the Two Cities, our fiery, feisty Elf queen gets to show a lot more of her soft side, even in the midst of battle. Furthermore, she does this without coming across as disingenuous or like a Disney princess. Dare we say, she is NOT a Mary Sue in this book. Actually, she is challenged in multiple ways and pushed far outside of her comfort zone, having to rely on others to overcome her many powerful enemies. We'll get back to those enemies in a second, but let's continue to talk about how much of an improvement this book is in terms of Gilraen's character. Let's talk about doubts and anxieties. Gilraen in the past was almost always perfectly confident of her plans and their outcomes. She is, indeed, extremely gifted in her intelligence and her physical abilities, having military and tactical gaming experience from her player (Anthony). However, in this book, she actually has worries and nightmares about failing. She has a nightmare in which she is attacked by Auchust Machister, the powerful supreme guild master of Narwortland and one of the main antagonists of the last book. She even fears being recognized by Sheldrake, a guild master whom she had pretended to be an ally of during her infiltration of Narwortland. The situation is as awkward and embarrassing for her as it is for us, the reader, and that's a good thing. We feel the way Gilraen is feeling because what she's feeling is a familiar concoction of emotions. Imagine walking into your old workplace after quitting in frustration five years ago, confronting some of those same faces and wondering if they still hold a grudge. Imagine coming to court to face the guy whose car you accidentally rear-ended last year. It's that familiar awkward feeling. Another great thing we get to see in Gilraen again is her respect, deference, and appreciation for people who deserve it. In the middle of the series, it almost seemed as though Gilraen had become quite arrogant and patronizing, thus she became a more distant and less relatable character. In this book, she is willing to remove and raise her crown to William in public to help him to be acknowledged as king in the midst of territorial and political instability. Also, when she meets with the various masters such as Vigash, Talbot, and Targus, she treats them with an enormous amount of respect. She is excited and happy to see them, and it comes across in her dialogue and the way their scenes are written. You really see Gilraen rely and depend on others more and not try to solve all problems and win all fights on her own. William, for examples, serves as the hammer in his wife's original hammer and anvil strategy. Gilraen acknowledges that without the support of her many retainers and generals, the conflict ahead is insurmountable. She values William, Cassandra, Armjurst, Durkin, Elizabeth, Richmond, Oberon and even Roselyn, knowing that they are more than “pieces on a chess board” (as a reviewer had called them in the past), they were irreplaceable allies in a very difficult struggle ahead. She even asks for help to put on her armor. It's little things like that that show her growth and give her dimensions. Another thing is that Gilraen really comes across as a “good guy” and a good person in this book. In the past, we almost had a feeling like this was some kind of falling-from-grace kind of story in which the hero becomes the villain. In this book, Gilraen goes out of her way to lessen the amount of casualties on both sides, knowing full-well that no matter the outcome, these kingdoms still have to somehow coexist and work together in the future in the way the USA, Japan, and Germany worked together following World War II. You cannot just embrace total war and try to annihilate your enemy, that's one sure-fire way to lose a powerful ally. Gilraen even introduces sandwiches to some of the people who are foreign to the humankind of Earth. She is concerned when others are hungry and offers to feed and eat with them. And she does this not out of deception or to garner political favors. In the past, Gilraen would schedule elaborate events that were essentially staged publicity stunts or intended to ingratiate her with the aristocracy of whichever land she was trying to persuade. The people she's feeding in this book seem to be civilians and peasants, they don't have much to offer militarily or politically. No, this time, Gilraen does it out of the goodness of her heart, and that's a really good thing to see from your main protagonist. Furthermore, she forges the noble goal of ending slavery and corruption in all lands she controls. Gilraen also seems to have clearly set limits such as not wanting or being able to cast certain powerful spells over great distances as they are more taxing on her (think Luke Skywalker's Force projection in The Last Jedi). And, yet, Gilraen is still Gilraen. She isn't transformed into a completely different character entirely, which is technically a good thing. Gilraen is still severe, bossy, and even mean at times. For example, she threatens to send Roselyn to a dungeon for insubordination and failure, although it is debatable if she actually intended to carry this out or was simply trying to get into Roselyn thick head to ensure it didn't happen again. Even William calls her out on this, saying that they're technically family and that they don't want to lose the support of their close allies. The villains are a huge improvement and play a much bigger part in this book, and that really lends itself well to adding tension to the story. This book brings true meaning to the phrase “doom” or “wrath of the Adjudicars.” There are so many powerful Adjudicars in this book, stated to be well over a dozen. Think about this: so far to this point, Gilraen has only faced faced a few, Galdor, Caranthir, and arguably Beckworth. Until now, we've heard about the Adjudicars and their great, menacing power, but Gilraen hadn't quite faced their full fury... until now. It turns out that Galdor, Caranthir, and Beckworth weren't the worst of it, there are even stronger Adjudicars, and there are possibly DOZENS of them! In fact, there are times in this book when Gilraen and her forces are faced with three, six, eight, or even more Adjudicars at one time. And all of them have really cool names like Jellicothe. In addition, Gilraen is also menaced by Machister and finally has her long-awaited showdown with him. He is enhanced by multiple Adjudicars, so Gilraen is forced to accept help and rely on others in this fight—something we enjoyed seeing. In the past, Gilraen was a one-woman army who basically could do anything and everything. Even this conflict might be too big for her alone. What's really nice about that is that it finally gives a rub and some shine to other characters. For example, there comes a point in the book when Gilraen and her forces have suffered the casualties of one-sixth of their troops. Gilraen is looking for whatever advantage she can find, so she turns to Master Talbot who is said to know a defensive spell that can lessen the effects of the Adjudicars' spells. There are a lot of ups and down in this book, which is also great to see. That's how to write great fight and battle scenes: by making them go back and forth. The pendulum needs to swing. You can't have one group of people just routing the other side, and that's why I Conquered was as great as it was: you actually had the good guys suffering very grave consequences including atrocities and the death of loved ones. Similarly, there are times in this book when Farrowspike is pressed, then Narwortland is pressed. The tide of battle turns several times. The writing in this book is dramatically improved since book one. Spelling, grammar, and formatting are solid. The one area that remains a bit of a weakness is that this book, like many others in the series, does tend to meander when it comes to discussing things, mostly military tactics and strategy. It can be very interesting for people who watch war documentaries and love to hear about how Hannibal won at Cannae or Alexander won at Gaugamela, ironically with many of the same hammer and anvil tactics Gilraen uses. However, the average reader may find this to be heavy handed, overwhelming, or even unnecessary. If you're going to describe a battle before the battle happens, it becomes a bit redundant. There are also times when one battle plan is repeated to one person, then another. It's written/read almost verbatim to that next person. The reader is already aware and already knows the battle plan, it only tests their patience to repeat it again. This book, like the others, is actually quite long. It may take 11-15 hours to get through. You could, however, make the argument that this is epic fantasy, and that's just the way epic fantasy is: it's long, complex, and elaborate. We can definitely recommend this book on Amazon if you're looking for a solid epic fantasy novel! We sound like a broken record, but we do hope to learn more about Anthony and to learn about how playing as Gilraen has affected him and his personal life on Earth. Score: 94/100 (9.4 out of 10)
WOW! We were not expecting a children's book of this complexity and beauty to come our way and are pleasantly surprised! Everything is Everything: Finding Your Magic covers topics that are familiar (self-fulfillment and contentedness), but does so with a really unique angle that we don't think we've seen yet. Ultimately, from what we gather, this book is about finding happiness and joy within yourself, being yourself, being true to yourself, and doing the things that you love doing—even if that means spending time in nature, playing video games, skateboarding, or pursuing an unpaid hobby like chess or knitting. Many of these activities seem like “wastes” of time, but let's not forget that life isn't all about the work we do and the things we accomplish, it's about enjoying the time we have on this earth and with each other. How many things and special events have you put off because you had work or something presumably more important to do? How many times have you determined that you had a bad day because you didn't accomplish as much as you'd planned or hoped to? These are real things that people really feel. A lot of times, our sense of self-worth is exclusively tied to how much we've done and accomplished—how many “wins” we have in our day. How much time do we spend appreciating what we already have? Appreciating who we are? Appreciating the person God made us and the gifts he has already given us? Think about those gifts. You have things like food, air, water, shelter, friends, family, pets, a seemingly infinite world and nature to explore and discover. This book invites young readers (and possibly even adults) to stop and smell the roses. Slow down and appreciate things in all their glory. There are really two words that stand out in this book: NO & STOP. If you weren't given context to them, you might assume this book was about something else entirely, mainly personal boundaries and stranger danger. It's not about those things at all. NO & STOP are used to encourage young people to know that they can choose to not have to do anything or be anything they don't want to. People are free to say “I feel like playing today” or “I feel like picking flowers today.” Now, you could potentially see this could be problematic when a kid gets the message that they don't have to do their chores or homework if they don't want to. We're assuming that's not what the author was advocating for at all, but it's possible children might misinterpret this. So, the message gets at least a little bit muddled by complexity. The book is a bit wordy, but not unmanageably so. It does meander a bit. There are a few slight grammatical mistakes like misspellings and words being capitalized that don't need to be (like seasons). There are informalities like multiple exclamation marks being used. With that aside, this book is gorgeous and very cute! The art is extraordinary and exactly the quality it needs to be for a children's book. Every single page is bright and colorful. And one of the other great things we noticed about the art is that the facial expressions are spot-on. Emotions such as surprise and wonder are very well put across. Sally is a solid and compelling main protagonist, a cute, curious, and charismatic girl with a good heart. She is joined by her adorable pet dog, Pup. Thank goodness his name is Pup. In the past, we'd had problems with authors naming pets elaborate names in homage to people in their lives, and it became difficult to follow, especially when there was more than one pet. Pup's feelings and emotions are also well-portrayed in both the art and the writing. For instance, you know that he's curious or excited when he wags his tail. Another stand-out character is Crystal-Claire, a fairy who helps Sally to come to grips with the feelings she's feeling. And what feelings are those? Well, that's encapsulated by this haunting line when asked about the “Voice” of self-doubt she hears: “Mostly it tells me to stop, especially if I am not doing anything which could be called productive. It keeps me in line, it’s like being told to stay in the lines when coloring in a coloring book. Use the right colors, don’t be messy, don’t do anything weird or frivalous [sic]. It makes me feel unimportant and worthless, as if I was not enough just being me, that I am valued only by what I do not by who I am. Do you understand me, Crystal-Claire?” This is a very powerful piece of dialogue. It's tragic to think that this is the way that many kids and many people feel when they make mistakes or think they're not “good enough.” The book sends the powerful message that YOU are ENOUGH. Check it out on Amazon! Score: 95+/100 (9.5+/10)
If you're looking for a children's book with heart and soul, a positive and reassuring spiritual message for kids, appealing art, and a terrific audio version accompanying it, look no further than Do You Know the One? by Michelle Bentley. This children's book hits on all cylinders. This book has it all. It hits all the right notes, does all the right things, and checks all the right boxes for how a book for young children should be constructed. It is, in that sense, a “clinic” on creating books for young children. Now, what makes us say that? Well, let's start with the art. The art isn't Picasso, Leonardo Da Vinci, or Rembrandt, and it doesn't have to be. You could make the argument that a comparable children's book like God Made It All (which likewise scored a 9.5/10) featured far more elaborate art, but that's not always necessary. A book like We All Have Spots by MJ McDonald or Ancient Egypt for Kids by Samuel Cerro may not have the most outstanding illustrations, but the illustrations support and facilitate the message. Do You Know the One? does what it needs to do in terms of art: be beautiful, colorful, and appealing to kids. Second, let's talk about the writing and why it's so beautiful in its simplicity. Young kids need brevity. Their attention spans are short, even shorter than ours (as adults). That's why we are so happy to see information and ideas presented so concisely yet effectively. There are two traps we so often see children's authors fall into: 1. Trying to draw and color the art themselves, usually with unprofessional results, 2. Making the writing too wordy and too complicated for kids to follow. This book avoids both problems with effective yet simple writing by Michelle Bentley and effective illustrations by Louise Hargreaves based on simple geometric shapes. Now, look, we recently met with Thomas Estrada, an illustrator and animator who helped to create many of the legendary characters from The Emperor's New Groove, Treasure Planet, and Prince of Egypt. What he showed us was the power of building upon simplicity—working from a simple geometric shape like a circle, oval, or rectangle, and adding complexity to it. You can see that the illustrator here is definitely competent and capable. And let's also say that the artwork is very cute, lively, and happy. The characters—both human and animal—are almost always smiling. Even the lobster and crab are adorable. Imagine that! You also get a lot of ethnic and cultural diversity in this book with human characters from all around the world being represented. The core characters appear to be a Black girl and an Asian boy who are frequently joined by their loyal pup. Kids will point, smile, and laugh at how involved the dog is, doing things that you'd expect a human to do. The two racially-diverse kids appear to be best friends, holding hands and playing together. If MLKJ could see this book and hold it in his hands, it would put a smile on his face and a tear in his eye. It shows that humanity isn't segregated by race, but that there is one race, the human race, made in the image of God. Another thing we loved was the use of repetition and anaphora—the repetition of an opening phrase—and epimone—the repetition of a question in a text. When it comes to children especially, patterns are where it's at. Children love patterns. They catch onto these patterns—latch onto them—and follow them like a sailboat with the wind. It also gives the story a particular beat that, like a song, is pleasant and inviting. The art and the writing work in synchronicity with each other to put across what is ultimately a very powerful message: that the child is a child of God who—above all the other creations—was made by God in his image. The book teaches children the basic fundamentals of Christian creationism and theocracy, that everything they see was made that way because of God and that they have a special place in the universe. Now, with all that said, let's talk about the extra-something-special that came with this book: the audio portion. Now, obviously we have to judge that separately in fairness to other text-only books, but we did want to talk about it and consider it for the sake of our audiobooks category. The audiobook is phenomenal! We're not just saying that because it's narrated and voiced by the one-and-only John Eric Bentley, the voice of Barret Wallace from Final Fantasy VII Remake and Lebron James from MultiVersus (yes, really). John Eric Bentley really demonstrates his incredible professionalism and range in the reading of this. His pitch is a bit higher than the roles he's known for, and his tone is much more light, uplifting, cheerful, joyful, and happy. There's an “airiness” to his delivery that almost makes you feel like you're light on your feet/seat/bed. You can just tell he was smiling when he recorded this. That's really something when you can pick up something like that from just hearing someone. It's calm and relaxing. And the beautiful music, apparently made by one of Michelle & John Bentley's sons, beautifully accompanies the words and the narration. If we were to describe the music, it almost sounds like a playful choir of angels. The only thing we can say that might be constructive is that, around the 3/4ths point in the audio, the narration and the music are both playing at their maximum volumes, seeming to compete with each other in the listener's ears. It almost feels that near that 3/4ths point, John Eric Bentley is trying his best to speak over the music. It becomes noticeably harder to hear him. This might be partly because the music “picks up” at that point but the volume was adjusted and set for the way it sounded in the beginning. But with that aside, this is pretty much the perfect little audiobook for children to listen to at the beginning of nap time. This is one of those short, little books that believing parents can read to their children every day without fail. It's truly a great children's book! Check this out on Amazon! Score: 92/100 (9.2 out of 10)
Poetry of a Life is a hard-hitting poetry collection by Sharon Romero that covers such topics as the ups and downs of life, faith, spirituality, relationships, and even trauma. Now, let's get this out of the way first: first impressions are very important, but they aren't everything. This book started up as creaky, grinding, and rusty as an El Camino that's been sitting in a garage under a tarp for decades to preserve its good looks. In other words, this book had a very slow and concerning start that doesn't reflect the overall good quality of the rest of it. This book is very bottom heavy. You generally want your biggest, strongest, hardest-hitting content near the front. It's what grabs the readers. Almost all of the best poems in this book are closer to the back. But, boy, did we love those later poems! Something you'll immediately notice about the poet's style is that she loves to use the repetition of phrases. It's far and away her favorite technique. We're curious who or what inspired her to adopt this style and if it was something she learned or just developed spontaneously. There are several different variations of this technique, one of the most common being what's known as anaphora, the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of lines of poetry. We see this particular technique used in “You Got to Be Good” in which the title phrase is used in almost machine-gun fashion from line to line. Another example is “Who's that gorgeous girl?” repeated in machine-gun fashion, again, from line to line with emphasis. “You & I” is a poem that uses a wrinkle of this technique with the phrases “You are my...” and “I am your...” starting different, contrasting parts of the same line separated by a semi-colon. Romero actually seems to favor the epistrophe variation of poetic repetition. Epistrophe is the use of repetition at the end of lines of poetry. For example, in “Why You and Me” the title phrase is repeated about every 2-4 lines. Likewise, in “Women without Notice” the title phrase is repeated at least five times at the end of a series of statements. Now, with that said, the anaphora and epistrophe poems tend to be some of the weaker ones in this collection, although they are great case-studies for poetry students. The truth of the matter is, they're an example of something that actually becomes cloying in a work of literature. When you are exposed to the same things over and over again, you become desensitized and less amused by them. That's just the truth of it. It's like that with anything. If you have characters who have near-death experiences in every single chapter, you're going to catch on as a reader that the character probably isn't dying anytime soon, thus ruining the suspense and specialness of the work. Likewise, if you have anaphora and epistrophe as your bread, butter, and crutch in over half your poems, it's going to come across as a bit gimmicky and contrived after a while. You generally want your poems to flow. You don't want them to stop and go. You don't want them to hit a breakwater or a dam, you want them to flow freely down a slope and into greener pastures. Ideally, you want one thing to lead to another thing and then another thing. Instead, what usually happens with these repetitive techniques is that, well, they become repetitive. You keep going around in a circle. Well, with that out of the way, let's get to what we really loved. Once this book got past the lovey dovey, mushy stuff, the repetition, and the social commentary (things which are all standard in every poetry book ever written), it really picked up. One of the very best poems in this entire collection—one that hit like a brick—was “Someone Else Doesn't Replace Someone Else.” Yes, it employed a lot of the same repetition techniques we'd seen earlier, but it punched home such a familiar feeling: the feeling of replacing or being replaced—the profound feeling of loss and wondering where you're going to go from here. That was truly something special. Many of us know someone who has lost a loved one, then went on to remarry, adopt, or move on to “someone else” in one way or another. It's a very uncomfortable, unsettling thing, but it almost seems natural and commonplace. This poem reminds us that just because we move on with someone new, it doesn't mean we've forgotten, replaced, or stopped loving that special loved one from our past. Instead, it's almost like writing a new book. It's separate from the old with its own specialness and uniqueness. Another extraordinary poem is “Time Travel”--written with a combination of three and four line stanzas. This is another hard-hitting poem that generates a ton of emotion and empathy for the sole reason that it's something we've all considered from one time or another: what if we could go back and change the past? What if we'd chosen differently? Treated that person differently? Warned them or ourselves that something awful would happen? Last but not least, there's the phenomenal poem titled “Shiver and Shake.” This might be the best, most tactful portrayal of post-war PTSD we've ever read, or at least one of the most accurate portrayals. We are or know people who suffer from post-war PTSD, and this is exactly what it feels like. You will often have dreams of being attacked, assaulted, or otherwise in conflict, then wake up clutching or ready to fight the person near or next to you. You sometimes feel cold and anxious, unable to rest without feeling like something might happen or that some unseen enemy might “get” you when you're vulnerable. You shiver and shake. So, overall, we can definitely recommend this book of poetry! Check it out on Amazon! Score: 95/100 (9.5 out of 10)
As a non-fiction, business book, this is going to be very hard to top! WINX: The Problem Solving Model to Win Exponentially with Customers, Employees and Your Bottom Line by Irma Parone is a phenomenal, remarkable, excellent business book that every leader and decision maker should read! That's right, we're looking at you, Congress. The author comes from a place of both passion and experience. She clearly cares about the subject matter and making sure that businesses perform to the best of their abilities—reaching and exceeding their projections and potentials. She wants to see businesses not just stay in business but continue to thrive, all the while harboring a positive, psychologically safe work environment which will pay the company back tenfold in the long-run. Not to oversimplify things too much, but the author main proposition seems to be that a happy workplace is a productive and successful workplace. She's right! You don't have to look far to see examples of rich (or formerly rich) people who are unhappy or struggling with things like addiction and depression. The author provides such examples in the book, using lottery winners as one example. Interestingly, the cases of lottery winners serves several functions: it serves to show that you can't win if you never play (try new things and take risks), but it also shows (primarily) that just having a quick win doesn't equate to long term happiness or success. Many lottery winners had fundamental problems with money mismanagement, familial difficulties, and issues like addiction that were worsened by suddenly becoming rich. Some even wished they'd never won the money or had thrown the lottery ticket away because of the problems it led to. The point is, you need to have your bases checked and not go all-in with only a quick, shallow victory as the goal. You need to remember yourself, your family, your employees, and your customers. You need to take to heart that these people are more valuable than any sum of money, and that when you start losing these people, you really start to feel how meaningless those quick, shallow victories are. The author uses several examples of people who were seeking a quick win even at the expense of life and safety. One such example is the Ford Motor Company in the 1970s when they released their Ford Pinto, a vehicle with a design flaw in which it tended to explode and lead to a fire if struck at more than 20 MPH from the rear. So, in theory, a simple fender-bender could turn into a deadly incident due to this design flaw. Despite know this, the Ford Motor Company was guided by the release date and the dollar bills they would be leaving on the table if they didn't release the car. They ignored the potential human costs as insignificant or losses they could deal with. Guess what happened? A deadly accident occurred in which one of the Ford Pintos caught fire, killing several children inside and leaving one alive but with 90% of their body burned. It took this tragedy to force Ford to reevaluate the human costs, and it really shouldn't have. The accident and ones like it tarnished Ford's reputation and hurt them financially in the long run with lawsuits and loss of revenue. Another such example is the tragic launching of the Challenger space shuttle in 1986. NASA was under tremendous pressure from the White House to launch the mission on time for publicity purposes, so as not to upset the American peoples' expectations or embarrass the United States on the world stage near the tail-end of the Cold War. Well, the powers that be were concerned about the wrong things, prioritizing superficial things over human life and safety. There were a lot of red flags including several people who said that the temperature outside was not safe to launch the Challenger. One person refused to sign off on the mission. Others objected. Yet, the mission was launched anyway with disastrous consequences, killing all on board. What these cases remind us of is to remember what we're really working toward: we're not trying to succeed at all costs and darn the consequences, we're trying to succeed and have continued success for years and years—even decades or generations—to come. The author is concerned about the longevity of your prosperity, and you should be too! Something else the author emphasizes is what she calls “psychological safety.” Psychological safety is feeling comfortable and safe to express your opinions and ideas without fear of reprisal, condemnation, or punishment. Specifically, this applies to the workplace in the context of this book, but it could apply to anywhere people meet and make decisions. Psychological safety is super important because it leads to more creativity and thus more problem-solving. It's really the cornerstone of America—the fact that we have freedom of expression also leads to things like airplanes and the Internet being invented here. In a more repressive environment, ideas and creativity are also repressed. People are afraid to share new things, stunting the growth of that community. Even with that in mind, psychological safety is surprisingly uncommon in business environments. 23% of employees say that their employers do not respond constructively to their sharing of opinions. That means that most employers tend to not want to hear from their employees? Why? Well, it seems pretty simple. They look down on them as less qualified and devalue their opinions. The author encourages business leaders to hire people who don't like them and will challenge them. Hire people who are honest and smarter than you. These critics and consultants are going to be the ones to fill your blind spots. The authors says that there's power not in numbers but in diversity—diversity of opinions and ideas. This leads to creativity and problem-solving, allowing you to attack a problem from multiple angles. Overall, this is a great business book! Check it out on Amazon! Score: 86/100 (8.6 out of 10)
In this adventurous little middle grade book, a character named Suthor retreats to a cabin in the woods following a tragedy that leaves him with a deep sense of emptiness. These aren't just any woods, this is the infamous Cold Wood, an inhospitable place filled with bears where it is said no one has lived for decades. He intends to live out his days as a hermit and a woodsman, trapping and hunting—a simple life away from civilization and closer to nature. However, he's in for the shock of his life when he finds a mysterious severed hand in one of his bear traps with the rest of the body missing. Who does the hand belong to? Where is the rest of the body? How did it get there? Should he avoid suspicion and try to hide it or do the right thing and try to get to the bottom of it? What is the Dream Gully and why is it shrouded by so much mist and mystery? And, also, why does the hand move on its own?! That's right, this mystery has both a grotesque and a supernatural slant to it, though probably not too much to turn away kids and parents. In fact, if you have a kid in your home who has a little bit of Bart Simpson in 'em, this might actually appeal a lot to them. It kinda has a coolness and an edginess factor to it, things that are missing from many middle grade books. Here's the thing though: look at that opening paragraph. That's a whole lot of questions raised and not a whole lot of time to answer them. It's sorta like season six of Lost in that sense. For about four-fifths of the book, the story seems to get more and more complex without much reprieve. Next thing you know, you're looking at the number of pages left, and you're wondering how on earth the author plans to unravel all of this and stick the landing in time. Does he stick the landing? Well, you can decide that for yourself. We honestly felt like the ending was pretty confusing for kids and fell a bit flat. It has to do with some sort of prophecy that the main character was given before all of these events occurred. And what do we know about prophecies in fiction? They always come true, just not in the ways you think. Another thing: why would you reveal a prophecy at the very end of a book? Shouldn't it be near the beginning or middle as a form of foreshadowing? Just a little thing to think about. There are times when things just seem to happen in this book, which suggests that the author is a pantser—someone who writes by the seat of their pants or as they go along. And there is a degree to the story that seems self-insert. The character of Suthor does sound a lot like how the author describes himself in the “About the Author” section. And that's fine. In fact, being a pantser and self-inserting yourself as a character can work. It just doesn't feel like this story or its characters have enough room to breathe in such a tight space. Does that make any sense? It's like trying to shove a four-book series into a 60-page middle-grade novel, and it's really only about 30 pages without the large spacing and short margins. That's about 25 minutes of content. But we digress, because 25 minutes fits well with the attention span of a young person, and there's a high degree of accomplishment that a young people feels completing a whole story. Furthermore, large spacing and short margins are very helpful for young readers who can be overwhelmed by wordiness. If you've read SRA (student reading assessment stories) and children's books in general, its not unusual for the stories to feel a bit... flat and unrefined while looking at them from the lens of an experienced reader. Being an experienced reader, you tend to have overly high expectations based on other books you've read. What you'll usually get from an SRA story is a very clear moral message and a very clear beginning, middle, and end. The problem is, this book doesn't really seem to have an end. The ending is very abrupt. All this mystery and suspense is built up, and then you hit the “About the Author” section like a brick wall at the end of a 50 MPH drive. This book does have redeemable qualities. We liked some of the subtext and moral of the story as well as some of the characters. The moral of the story isn't so difficult to uncover, and it can be quite powerful. Loss is something that every single human being will have to go through, and it can especially be confusing and hard on kids. Kids and adults alike run the risk of becoming reclusive and repressing their true feelings rather than expressing them or putting them in a manageable context. Suthor is clearly someone who is choosing to become reclusive and repress his feelings—literally locking himself in his room and becoming antisocial. He is an empathetic character in that regard. Sometimes, it takes a crazy, unpredictable, unexpected situation to get someone like Suthor back on their feet and back into society. Another part of this story we liked is the character of Dog, the husky who adopts Suthor as its owner. He's a really compelling, cute character. Who doesn't love a charismatic, loyal husky? And there's almost like a Sven and Kristoff (from Frozen) relationship between them. Suthor is always trying to read Dog's thoughts, but it usually turns out that it's actually his conscience that's talking to him. So, this book is a solid one for middle-grade kids (8-12) and could be entertaining for older audiences as well. Also, as mentioned before, it does have an edginess to it that many middle grade books lack. And, let's be honest, there's a coolness to following a rogue woodsman. Check it out on Amazon! |
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