Winnie's Review: Patches & Buttons by Jennifer Link

Summary: Buttons is a bunny who is easy to scare. Patches is a very noisy dog and scares Buttons all the time. How will these two animals learn to live together?

My Opinion: I think this book is good because it teaches an important lesson about friendship. The pictures were fun, too. My favorite part was when buttons got scared by the vacuum cleaner. I rate this book 5 stars.

My siblings Opinion: I read this book to my younger siblings. They said “ I think the animals will learn to love each other." and  "I like this book because I had never before seen a dog and bunny get along." and "My favorite part was when the bunny hid behind the towels." I think they really liked the book so thank you, Jennifer Link for letting us enjoy this book!

Author: To learn more about the author, click here. 

Disclaimer: This was a complimentary copy of the book given to me in exchange for an honest review.

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Winnie's Reviews: A Bad Case of Stripes

The bad case of stripes

Do you like lima beans? It’s the first day of school and Camila wants to look perfect.  She looks into the mirror and sees a shocking thing that can change her life forever!

I love this book because it teaches an important lesson about being yourself. My younger siblings love it, too. I recommend it to 4-8 year olds or anyone who is scared to be themselves. I rate this book 5 stars!

If you would like to learn more about the author go to this website:                                              

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Shannon

This is Renee: Side note - this is also a very good book for older kids to work on sequencing or cause and effect.  

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Winnie's Reviews: Wages Creek by Jeffrey Hickey

Summary: Quack! I read a book called Wages Creek by an amazing author, Jeffrey Hickey. Wages creek is a beautiful place, but you can’t enjoy it when you’re sick. In this book Jeffrey Hickey is a character that goes on an adventure in his mind. This adventure includes ducks, horseshoes, and an unusual event!

Opinion: I love this book! The illustrations are well drawn and the story is thought through. It’s got all the right parts. I love how the author used himself as a character. I rate this book 5 star!

To learn more about this author, click HERE.

Renee: So, Winnie really liked this one. I gave her the book and she had it read before she even made it home. She was also given an audio book by the author. She listened to it and shared it with her younger siblings. They all enjoyed both the actual book and the audio book. 

Disclaimer: This was a complimentary copy of the book given to me in exchange for an honest review.

You can purchase your own copy here. 

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Bink & Gollie by Kate DiCamillo

• Age Range: 6 - 9 years
• Grade Level: 1 - 4
• Series: Bink and Gollie
• Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick; Reprint edition (April 10, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780763659547
• ISBN-13: 978-0763659547

This is about two friends who are a bit quirky and seem to be complete opposites yet they are always the most marvelous of companions. They get into fights, they go on adventures and they test their friendship. It's mixed with plenty of humor and fun to keep students engaged.

The young reader who read this book really enjoyed it. He opened it up just to see what it was about. Soon, he was enthralled in the story and thirty minutes later he was finished. He laughed at himself because he hadn't meant to even read it. He just wanted to flip through the pages. This is a really cute book. 

AR: grade level 2.5

Lexile: AD310L

This would be a great addition to any classroom. It's a fun read and something many of the students would enjoy and laugh about. It teaches important skills of friendship along with improving learning. There are a few words in it that are tricky and would be a wonderful opportunity for students' vocabulary to grow as they learn words like implore, compromise, outrageous, baffle, and several other larger words. The character Gollie likes to use larger words and quite often baffles Bink with her vernacular. A fun little book and great story for a classroom.

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How Do Apples Grow? by Betsy Maestro

How Do Apples Grow? by Betsy Maestro


This is non-fiction and science-y. ;) We've been doing a unit on plants and while he was focusing on flowers -- the pistils and ovaries and reproduction of flowers, we decided to read this book. It starts with winter of an apple tree's life and goes through the process all the way until the next winter. It includes the bees, parts of a flower and everything. It's the perfect book for a plant lesson. I wouldn't recommend it for preschool but it is great for elementary school!

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Where Butterflies Grow by Joanne Ryder

I am so sorry it's been so long since I posted here. I will tell you that I virtual school two children (kindergarten and 2nd grade) through public school so that's intense. I am the cub master of the cub scout pack my son is in, my children are involved in scouting, dance, and taekwondo, and I am working on my teaching practicum. So, lately, all I've been reading are textbooks (mine and my children's) and children's literature (again, mine and my children's). So, I figured since I'm reading so much children's literature, I may as well review it on my blog. :) hehe! So, enjoy.

Where Butterflies Grow by Joanne Ryder

I actually got this book from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. If you have a child under 5 then I absolutely recommend joining that... a free book every month. Woot! I love free books.

The last science unit of second grade is on life cycles. We read this while learning about insect life cycles. While it doesn't give the correct terms the students learn in the unit it brings the whole process to life with very descriptive words and beautiful illustrations. The reader is told to imagine they are an egg under a leaf. Throughout the book the reader is told to imagine what it's like as they go through the life of a caterpillar and then into a butterfly. It's very beautiful and detailed. My children love it. I absolutely recommend this book for all classrooms. Like I said, it doesn't use the vocabulary terms the students use so review those as you read but it's just too beautiful not to use when studying a butterfly life cycle.

Rating: 4 stars ****    

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Eutopia: The Discovery by Kathy Motlagh

Genre: Children, Fantasy, Fiction

Synopsis: A mythical world is ruined and all the virtue guardians fall asleep from a poison that is released. The creatures and plants are killed and the world is destroyed. The task is then given to three Earth children to awaken all the virtue guardians and find the virtue stones by living the virtues and using the gifts given to them by Hermes, the leader of the guardians.

My Thoughts: This was an interesting story. The writing isn't my favorite -- I have a lot of questions after reading it that were not answered. The book also ends with the foreboding words of "To Be Continued". It has a good message though and one that should be taught to children today.

 Author: (info from insert author sent) Kathy Motlagh is the writer and creative force behind the Eutopia book series and products, and managing director of Think Virtues. Motlagh, a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, has taught art at the Montessori School of North Hoffman for the past twelve years and been an active board member of the school since its inception twenty years ago. Motlagh's business experience includes eighteen years in the mortgage banking industry, where she has been featured in business publications as one of the top female financiers in the country. Motlagh resides in Chicago and involves her family, including her sic and seven year old sons, in community service and fund raising activities for many non-profit organizations and causes. Check out her facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/kathymotlagh

Virtues: What virtues are included in this book?  Hope, peace, enthusiasm, cleanliness, honesty, forgiveness, love, grace, courtesy, helpfulness, empathy, and humility.

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Collin's Corner: Caps For Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina

Genre: Children's Picture Book

Review: A peddler calls out, "Caps For Sale! Fifty cents a cap!" as he walks up and down the street. One day, hungry and tired, he decides to lean against a tree and take a nap. When he wakes he discovers all of his hats are missing except for his very own checked cap.

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Collin's Corner: Millions of Cats

My 5 year old's name is Collin so on Saturdays he reviews a book. Well, I write it but with his opinion thrown in there. So, welcome to Collin's Corner!

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Squabbit by Janice Yates and Illustrated by Ann Yates Mertz

Genre: Children's Picture Book

Review: Squabbit, the child of a squirrel and a rabbit, never did quite fit in. Finally, it was time for him to go to school where children, who are always very observant, noticed that he was different. They teased him and laughed at him and chose him last for the teams. Squabbit and his classmates all have to find a way to accept him for his differences.

My 5 year old son absolutely loved this book. It was quite adorable. The illustrations were simple, nothing fancy but my son loved those too. I was a little weirded out at first by a squirrel and a rabbit mating but... it is fiction so I guess it was okay. Once I got past that I really did like the story too. Not quite as much as my five year old but I still found it a fun story to teach my kids about the differences in other people and how this doesn't make them strange but able to do things that are different that we may not be able to do. Fun story with an important moral.
I received a complimentary copy of Squabbit as a member of the

    Dorrance Publishing Book Review Team.  Visit dorrancebookstore.com

    to learn how you can become a member of the Book Review Team.

Author: Yates is from Kansas and is now a retired teacher residing in Columbia, Missouri. Her daughter, a retired art teacher, illustrated Squabbit and she lives in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

I cannot find any more information on these two except what is on the back of the book so if any of you have any information, feel free to forward it on to me. :)

Rating: *** Three Stars

You can purchase your own copy of Squabbit here.

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