( F ) Books - Page 2

Whoever You Are (Reading Rainbow Book)

Mem Fox

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Wonderful, Colorful, Great Message 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I love this book. It has beautifully colored illustrations to go along with a wonderful message that no matter how different we all are, we are all the same in many ways...we all smile, laugh, hurt, cry, and experience joy, love, and pain the same way.

One of our favorites 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I bought this for my daughter who we adopted from Guatemala. It is one of her favorite books to read at bedtime and I love it too! Perfect for any adopted child!

A great look at introducing youngsters to cultural diversity 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Dirty Sally
Whoever you are is great look at introducing youngsters to cultural diversity. "Culture" basically refers to commonalities that run through a group of people with a shared heritage. Sometimes children probably believe that her culture - way of doing things - is the "right" one and that others are a bit "funny." As you read Whoever You Are, you can begin to look at other cultures with your child, aim for an appreciation of differences. Eventually, this will lead to an increased appreciation of the incredible variety of human attributes, flexible thinking, and less prejudice and stereotyping. This type of conversation has to take place. That is why I wrote a children's' book entitled, Dirty Sally..The untold stories of mixed race kids who find a new identity, love, faith and forgiveness through GOD.
There is an interesting story behind the title. I was often taunted or teased about being biracial. Some of my family members and friends called me Dirty Sally. Dirty Sally is an old slavery term used to identify the descendants or offspring of Sally Hemings, a former slave and the late President Thomas Jefferson. Sally Hemings was biracial her mother was ½ white and ½ black and her father white. This book focuses on the misconceptions surrounding racial identity and the importance of choosing one's racial identity. Dirty Sally is a must read not only for inter-racial families, but for all parents hoping to instill in their children a sense of understanding and compassion. I believe that change requires resistance and within that process we can help heal some of the wounds that continue to inflict on racially mixed children. Purchase available on Amazon.com the ISBN# is 9781432707743
For more information or to contact the author, Myrtice J. Edwards visit [...]

Editorial Review:

Every day all over the world, children are laughing and crying, playing and learning, eating and sleeping. They may not look the same or speak the same language. Their lives may be quite different. But inside, they are alike. Stirring words and bold paintings weave their way around our earth, across cultures and generations. At a time when tolerance still needs to be learned, Whoever You Are urges us to accept our differences, to recognize our similarities, and--most important--to rejoice in both.

More Adventures of the Great Brain

John D. Fitzgerald

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Weakest link in a terrific series 3 out of 5 stars.
5 of 10 people found this review helpful.

Once again, the young narrator J.D. relates the adventures of his natural born con artist brother Tom, aka the Great Brain.

A hundred years after this series takes place, the writing that makes this series live and breathe is still in full force. The authentic details that flesh out life in the small town of Adenville, Utah are great touches and elevate the story above similar tales that take place in the present. The series also banks on the realistic and lovable main characters, especially John D. and Tom himself.

Despite all that, I have to say that this is the weakest of the Great Brain books. Tom's adventures are more grandiose than in the others, and I think that the series is more comfortable when Tom is operating within the realm of his peers, rather than conning the entire town on a big scale. He creates a stir when he convinces the entire town that a monster walks among them at night, and later in the book seeks to capture a ghost that has scared him and the other children away from an old mine. These episodes are just a little less fun than when Tom is conning quarters and dimes from the other kids.

Another chapter that I had a problem with was "The Taming of Britches Dotty," which is so demeaning toward women that I think it would actually be harmful for any child who reads it. Britches Dotty is essentially a rough and tumble cowgirl whom Tom "tames" by teaching her to wear pretty dresses and "act like a girl." He also teaches her to read and write, so it's not like the chapter couldn't work with some revision, but the notion that girls have to dress nicely, act demurely, and look pretty is so out of touch that the chapter should be altered or removed before it's given to a child.

But these books are episodic, and I do have to say that, on the positive side, this book has one of the best episodes in the entire series, which is when Papa and the boys get hopelessly lost among the local canyons, with Papa despairing that they will make it out alive.

There is also a touching chapter about the boys heading up a funeral for a local dog.

Mercer Meyer's detailed sketches are absolutely wonderful, with lots of detail and shading, and characters that retain some of their cartoonishness even as they look real.

This is a terrific series, and everyone who reads it will enjoy it.

Editorial Review:

Has Tom Jenkins, a.k.a. the Great Brain, given up his con-artist ways for a bicycle? Not for long. Soon the Great Brain is back to his old tricks, swindling and trading, even convincing the whole town there’s a prehistoric monster on the loose. But when someone robs the bank, even the police are stumped. Can the Great Brain solve the crime and put the crooks behind bars?

Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge (Public Television Storytime Books)

Mem Fox

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great for the 100th day of school! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I use this book as part of my 100th day of school celebration. It helps my k students to have empathy for the elderly. We also discuss what they may look like when they are 100. Wonderful illustrations - typical Mem Fox style - perfect! Love it!

my all time favorite 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

All I can say is I have had this book for many years and it is one of my FAVORITE children's books. Cutely written and the message is wonderful.

Got Grandparents? 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is a beautiful story. It's perfect for reading to children who have grandparents with major memory loss. The illustrations by Julie Vivas are equally beautiful.

Absolutely wonderful! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book was a favorite of mine when I was young and now I love reading it to my girls. It is so sweet and wonderfully illustrated. My absolute favorite from the spectacular body of work of Mem Fox.

Editorial Review:

Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, a rather small boy, lives next door to a nursing home in which resides Miss Nancy Alison Delacourt Cooper, his favorite friend, because she has four names as well. When Miss Nancy "loses" her memory, the intrepid Wilfrid sets out to find it for her. Full color.

The Black Stallion

Walter Farley

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Subjects -> Children's Books -> Animals -> Horses -> Fiction

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 97 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Not Free SF Reader 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

A boy and his horse.


In something of a change of pace, a horse book that may just be slightly more directed at boys than girls, although the plot stays fairly similar.

Boy helps out horse in island shipwreck situation. Horse returns the favour. Horse of course is an impressive specimen and can do the fast running thing quite nicely.

So, off to the races then go.

This book is AWESOME 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

If you like horses this book is for you. The basic plot:
-after a shipwreck, a kid ends up stranded on an island with a horse
-the two befriend each other and help each other (kid feeds horse, horse kills snake near kid)
-the two our found and taken back to NY, where the kid lives
-all are happy to see the kid's alive
-the horse has amazing talent in the field of racing, but the kid has no papers for the horse so he is unable to race it
-they find a race that was set up by the owners of the horses and ask the owners if he can be entered into it
-they say yes
The book ends with a thrilling race that you feel you are riding in.

Editorial Review:

First published in 1941, Walter Farley's best-selling novel for young readers is the triumphant tale of a boy and a wild horse. From Alec Ramsay and the Black's first meeting on an ill-fated ship to their adventures on a desert island and their eventual rescue, this beloved story will hold the rapt attention of readers new and old.

Corduroy 40th Anniversary Edition

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Collector's item/memorabilia for adults, pages upside down 4 out of 5 stars.
12 of 12 people found this review helpful.

I purchased this for my son, but I'm going to get another copy that ISN'T the anniversary addition. This version contains eight pages of information about the earlier version of the book, letters between the author and publisher, etc. This sort of stuff is more for those of us who remember the book from our childhoods than it is for the kids themselves.

Curiously, the first four pages of my copy of the book are bound in upside-down. Does anyone else have this in theirs? I might have a real collector's item indeed...

As for the story itself, it's a five-star kid's story. Wonderful. But if you are buying it for your kids, I'd get the other version.

Editorial Review:

In 1968, a girl named Lisa fell in love with a little brown bear wearing green overalls with one button missing, and thousands of readers followed suit, making Corduroy one of the best-loved children’s books of all time. Now, forty years later, Viking proudly celebrates Don Freeman’s classic with a very special anniversary edition. With an extra-large trim size and special features including an embossed cover and four bonus spreads of never-before-seen materials, this handsome volume is a must-have for any Corduroy fan.

Seedfolks (Joanna Colter Books)

Paul Fleischman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 92 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Common Ground

A vacant lot, rat-infested and filled with garbage, looked like no place for a garden. Especially to a neighborhood of strangers where no one seems to care. Until one day, a young girl clears a small space and digs into the hard-packed soil to plant her precious bean seeds. Suddenly, the soil holds promise: To Curtis, who believes he can win back Lateesha's heart with a harvest of tomatoes; to Virgil's dad, who seems a fortune to be made from growing lettuce; and even to Mariclea, sixteen and pregnant, wishing she were dead.

Thirteen very different voices--old, young, Haitian, Hispanic, tough, haunted, and hopeful tell one amazing story about a garden that transforms a neighborhood.

An old man seeking renewal, a young girl connecting to a father she never knew, a pregnant teenager dreading motherhood. Thirteen voices tell one story of the flowering of a vacant city lot into a neighborhood garden. Old, young, Jamaican, Korean, Hispanic, tough, haunted, hopeful'Newbery Medal winner Paul Fleischman weaves characters as diverse as the plants they grow into a rich, multi-layered exploration of how a community is born and nurtured in an urban environment.

00-01 Utah Book Award (Gr. 7-12)

Me and My Little Brain (Great Brain)

John D. Fitzgerald

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

If I Only Had a Brain 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I read these books as child by checking them out of a library. Now almost 20 years later, I have decided to reread them all starting from the beginning. In this book, J.D. decides that he can fill the Great Brain (T.D.)'s shoes, while T.D. is away at the Academy in Salt Lake City. It turns out to be a humbling experience, thus the title, Me and My Little Brain. While some people may tell you that this book isn't as good without the presence of the Great Brain, I found this book just as entertaining as the rest. The storytelling is as superb as the rest. You don't want to miss this book because it introduces the character, Frankie, who allows this book to still be about brothers. Towards the end of this book, we find out that J.D. can still do some amazing stuff even though he has a little brain. This book and The Great Brain at the Academy are parallel books, which describe events happening at the same time, however, you should read this book first to have things make sense.

Editorial Review:

Tom, a.k.a. the Great Brain, is off to boarding school. Now his little brother, J. D., is free to follow in Tom’s ingenious, conniving, and profitable footsteps. All of J. D.’s attempts at turning a profit fail miserably, and he soon realizes that he just doesn’t have that crafty Great Brain knack. But when his younger brother is kidnapped, J. D. finds that his little brain may not be so ordinary after all....

Oliver Twist (Books of Wonder)

Charles Dickens

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 138 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted ... 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

What is it about Oliver Twist that keeps people coming back to it so often and for so long? Oliver Twist is actually one of my favourite all-time reads. I try to read it once every few years, and every time I decide to re-read it, I go in search of a copy that I don't already own because it's fascinating the different publishers, typefaces, bindings etc, that this book has gone through. Maybe I'm like Mel Gibson from Conspiracy Theory, collecting all those The Catcher in the Rye copies, but at least I'm reading them. Mel was just trying to save the human race ... or something like that. Poor fool.

A few years ago, I thought that I had run my course with the young Rascal and had actually come away feeling pretty badly about the development of the ending of the story, which, in my honest opinion, is not as strong as the beginning or the arc of Mr. Brownlow. But Dickens was writing in a time when books were not as prevalent and Twist, as we all may know, was a Newspaper column that had developed into a bound and published work due to its popularity. Standards have changed and agents and publishers are more discriminating. But in no way should anyone let that stop them from the experience of reading Oliver Twist as it really is a masterpiece before its time.

Recently though, watching MSNBC (a new hangout for me, I admit), I saw a documentary regarding the global sex trade of young woman forced into boarding, shipped around, mistreated, taken advantage of, stolen, uprooted, you name it ... and my mind wandered to a comparison of Young Oliver and the Ageing and scheming Fagin. In the lives of the girls they covered, there always seemed to be the `Artful Dodger' character who would start off as the mentor, but meet a bad end eventually, and the `Fagin', who controlled the roost and kept the girls feeling dejected and trapped, thus benefiting monetarily from their toils and of course the 'Sykes', who was the one who met head-first with the law. I felt incredibly bad for those girls and disgusted about the habits of some of my fellow "men".

It really is a shame that in 150 years, this year, Dickens moralist tale of child abuse is still just as prevalent, just as relevant and unfortunately just as insidious and heart-breaking as it was on the cold night that he penned the first article.

Editorial Review:

Afterword by Peter Glassman. Completed in 1938 by the beloved artist of Corduroy, these superb illustrations were recently uncovered and are published for the first time in this lavish gift edition of one of Dickens's most popular novels. The memorable story of the orphan Oliver, the infamous Fagin, and his apprentice, the Artful Dodger, come vividly to life in this glorious volume.

Time to Sleep (An Owlet Book)

Denise Fleming

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

I loved using this book with my kindergarten class!! 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

This is a wonderful book to use when explaining the concept of hibernation and change of season. There is a terrific flow from page to page with a "surprise" ending that my students loved. It is a wonderful spring-board for class discussions and "acting - out" activities!

Teaches a valuable lesson 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

My 3 year old loves this book for the beautiful illustrations of the animals and the forest during Autumn. However, one night after we read it a bedtime, she looked over at me and said that she liked "how all of the animals took care of each other." If she can get this simple, yet crucially important lesson from a children's book, I would say that the author has gone above and beyond her intentions.

Editorial Review:

A warm, inviting bedtime book from a Caldecott winning illustrator.

Bear sniffed once.
She sniffed twice.
"I smell winter in the air," said Bear. "It is time to crawl into my cave and sleep. But first I must tell Snail."

Denise Fleming presents a warm-hearted story about animals of the forest settling down for their winter nap. But, like children who must go to bed for the night, they each find a way to put it off just a little bit longer. Richly illustrated in fall colors, Denise Fleming's story book world is right on target for preschoolers.

Koala Lou

Mem Fox

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great Story for an Only Child to Read (or Have Read to Them) In the Latter Stages of Mother's Second Pregnancy or Adoption 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Koala Lou is another great Australian wildlife character picture book. First published back in 1988 in Australia this classic has more than stood the test of time. Since then generation after generation of grandparents, parents and friends of the parents of an only child have purchased this educational tale given to a child before the first sibling arrives to explain to them the fact that the new arrival will no doubt get most of the attention they used to get but that doesn't mean that they are loved any less. Possum Magic (Voyager Books) is probably the most famous of Mem Fox's work in Australia but the great universal message of Koala Lou has probably made it more famous around the world. I know many people here in Australia who have sent this to their friends overseas having a second kid as it combines great pictures of Australian animals to teach them about the wildlife here as well as the living the future vicariously through Lou lesson.

The basic plot of Koala Lou is that when Koala Lou is born everybody (all the other Australian animals) adore her as she is soft and round. Her mother tells her over and again every day Koala Lou I Do Love You. As the years pass she gets older the natural fussing over her by other animals decreases, during this time her mother has just given birth to at least five other joeys (baby koalas) so naturally the majority of her attention is spent on Lou's younger siblings. Lou misses the attention and wants her mother to love her again pinning for her to tell her she loves her like she used to. Lou comes up with a plan to enter the Bush Olympics as her mother will no doubt love her again when she is a sporting champion. Of course not everything goes according to plan and the affection from her mother has never demised as Lou believes. The ending is granted, very predictable but you wouldn't get the message you are looking for if it wasn't.

This is a good book not only for the child but to have those friends and relatives who are no doubt going to fuss over a new baby read as well, just to remind them to not ignore existing children when their are new arrivals.

Other great Australian wildlife fiction picture book classics for kids by Mem Fox you should check out are Possum Magic and Hunwick's Egg. By other authors Sebastian Lives in a Hat by Thelma Catterwell or Wombat Stew by Marcia Vaughan and the entire Steve Parish story book collection by Rebecca Johnson such as The Cranky Crocodile are also great reads. Olga the Brolga and Edward the Emu although not the best stories have some greatest illustrations of Australian wildlife you will ever see.

Editorial Review:

When Koala Lou’s mother becomes so busy that she forgets to tell her firstborn how much she loves her, Koala Lou enters the Bush Olympics, intending to win an event and her mother’s love all at one time. “A first-rate choice for bedtime, story hour, or reading aloud.”--The Horn Book