Reviews of Children's Books
Title: Children from the sea
Author: Lookman
Publisher: Nightingale Books
ISBN: 9781903491638
Genre: Fiction / Children / Fantasy/ Adventure
The
cover photograph is rather odd and the story is odd too. It is a
fantasy of children being converted to dolphins, staying in the sea for
a few hundred years and getting reconverted into children thanks to a
kiss from an adolescent girl, Katie.
Katie is forced to relocate
from England to a small village in Spain because of her father’s
business. What she thought would be a boring life turned out to be
quite an adventure thanks to the dolphins / children, the eldest being
a little elder to her. It would not be fair to reveal what happens
after they get transformed into children and the ending is rather
interesting.
Lookman was born in Surrey in 1950, a time when
children roamed freely and adventurously and made their own
entertainment (not having so many gadgets to distract them as now). His
interest in Sufism led to his use of the pseudonym Lookman, after the
wise sage in Qur’an. The Sufi leanings of the author come through in
the story and if you are a fundamentalist in any religion (something
alien to Sufism), you may not relate to the story.
The story
is interesting enough to keep reader’s interest and the style is good
enough to keep you going. Some passages in the story are moving and the
account of religious persecution strikes a chord even today!
Though
the book is meant for children (I would say the suggested age group is
10 to 15), it may appeal to elders too, especially those whose inner
child is still alive and active. Give it a try and decide whether it is
for you. I would rate it GOOD.
Title: Archy The Flying Dolphin And The Vampire's Curse
Author: Alan Williams
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 9781425131517
Genre: Fiction/Children/Fantasy
About
the Book (From the Back Cover): Archy The Flying Dragon & The
Vampires' Curse is a children's fantasy/adventure... a roller-coaster
ride of fun and excitement, where eleven year old Thomas Parkinson and
his sister, Suzy, embark on a perilous voyage of discovery, where they
confront the most powerful forces of evil and where danger lurks around
every mysterious corner.
My impression: It is a good read, and
as expected, the forces of good and love win over the forces of evil
(which help to bring out the universal love and are not thus really
evil!). It being a fantasy, don't expect logic (I had to keep repeating
to my grown up adult ego). I could not appreciate the parents flying
off to Honolulu leaving the children in that isolated place with their
Uncle, but then I am an Indian and my values are different.
Editing and printing: Good.
Recommendation: Good reading for children of ten years and above.
Title: Virus Games
Author: G. L. Sheerin
Publisher: Synergy Books
ISBN: 978-1-934454-04-6
Genre: Fiction/Fantasy/Children
About the Book (From the Back Cover):
Peter
Dempsey hates computers. He detests looking at monitors, can barely
type with two fingers on a keyboard, and considers his PC 101 class a
torture chambers. But when a fateful bolt of lightning gives him the
ability to see just who lives and works inside our computers, Peter
might have to change his mind.
Peter befriends the "packets" who
live in his computer and begins to learn about the secret world alive
inside the Internet. Packet World isn't always friendly, though. A new
super virus has just been unleashed, and Peter and his packets realize
they might be the only ones who can stop the "bullies" from shutting
down the internet, and Packet World, forever.
My own impression from a reading of the book:
Though
the author himself is a computer expert, he has not fully succeeded in
using the power of the story to teach how computers and internet work.
While he might have succeeded in holding the attention of young
techno-phobes like Peter through the use of some ingenious substitutes
for the normal technical terms, he has not attempted to convert the
story into a good lesson on the working of internet, data packets,
Protocols etc. He could have used the book to discuss computer viruses,
how they are detected, how they are studied and how they are
deactivated etc.
Editing and Printing: Good.
Recommendation:
The book is a good effort to make technical topics like computers
interesting but the end results could have been better.
Title: Good-bye, Baby Max
Author: Diane Contrell
Illustrator: Heather Castles
Publisher: Bridgeway Books
ISBN: 9781933538952
Genre: Children's Books/Illustrated Story
Good-bye, Baby Max is a beautifully written and equally (or more importantly)
beautifully illustrated book for children in the suggested age group of 4 to 8
years. For the children in the younger part of this age group, the parents or
elder children and other care givers can help in reading and also deal with the
emotions that may arise.
Story outline from the back cover: Mrs. B's class excitedly awaits the
birth of three baby chicks. When Max is unable to crack open his shell, the
children's loving teacher assists them in expressing their feelings of loss and
planning a special good-bye.
An excerpt:
Silence falls over the room.
Liz and Rob begin to cry.
"Don't worry," says Mrs. B.
"We will find a way to say good-bye."
"We had a funeral for grandma!" Riley exclaims.
"Maybe for Max we could do the same?"
Jeremy joins in. "We had a memorial for Uncle Jim.
People sang songs and told stories about him."
So they plan a funeral to have the next day,
With songs and prayers and kind words to say.
End of excerpt.
The illustrations are beautiful and help to invoke the right feelings.
The book tells children some important things about life: Life is a struggle
and everyone doesn't make it. It is OK to cry and mourn those who fail and fall
down. But life is about accepting the loss and moving on and seeing the
emergence of new life.
The children can be encouraged to read, explore and analyze the emotions that
well up.
The book has A Note to Parents and Educators from the author, which puts the
story in the right perspective.
The book is edited and printed well.
I would have liked to see the book in a CD form with the story set to music. I
hope the publishers will think of bringing it out even now.
DIANE CANTRELL is a former kindergarten
teacher who currently works as a Licensed Professional Counselor and Life
Coach. Diane lives in San Antonio, Texas, with her husband, Rich, and their
three dogs.
HEATHER CASTLES is a children’s book illustrator who likes
inchworms, dandelion puffs, and leopard print purses. Heather and her husband,
Ben, live in Australia.
S.V.Swamy is an avid reader,
editor, author and reviewer with a small child in his heart.
Title: The Magic Violin
Author: Mayra Calvani
Illustrator: K. C. Snider
Publisher: Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 978-1-933090-49-8
Genre: Fiction / Children
The
book is about a 8 year old girl Melina and how she regains her
confidence that she can indeed learn the violin through some stratagems
of her wonderful teacher Andrea.
When Melina starts losing
her self-confidence, Andrea disguises herself as an old woman and tells
Melina that her violin will become magical. And the child trusts the
old woman and regains her confidence, which is of course the real magic.
The
story of course only hints at this stratagem of Andrea and thus the
children who read will really enjoy the old woman and the midnight
magic so beautifully described in the short but sweet story.
The book is printed well, edited well and the illustrations are very appealing.
All in all, an excellent book for gifting to a child in this festive season.
Title: On Shapes and More
Author: Roni Rosenthal-Gazit
Illustrated by: Jehanne Silva-Freimane
Publisher: StoryTime World - publishing house
ISBN-10: 0-9792800-0-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-9792800-0-9
Genre: Children/Picture Book
This little book aims to teach children shapes such as triangles, circles, squares etc., by relating them to some every day objects which they can relate to. The text is presented in a nice rhyme-like manner which goes well with the colorful illustrations.
I enjoyed going through the little colorful book that teaches the shapes and how they relate to every day objects in life. Congratulations to the author-illustrator and publisher team for a very useful project to help the children learn the connections between maths (and science) and life in a fun-to-read and fun-to-do manner. Parents can encourage children and help them extend the knowledge of shapes to more every day objects in and around the house.
There are a few blank pages at the end of the book for the child to try out his / her own hand at drawing.
I would have preferred that the pages of the book were laminated to withstand the rough and tough use expected from active and energetic children. As printed, the pages are good enough for a few readings and a few trials of shapes from the children's hands.
Title: Eric, Jose & The Peace Rug
Author: Dr. Helen B. Mcintosh
Illustrator: Carol Blumenaus
Publisher: The Peace Rug Company (www.peacerug.com)
ISBN: 978-0-9763949-8-3
Genre: Children / Story / Psychology
Presentation: Paperback
About the book (from the back cover):
Not only do Eric and Jose not get along – they hate each other. Theirs is a “simple-to-understand” story of conflict resolution, learning to talk to each other about the problem, talking through a plan to make things better, learning to be friends, and even teaching others “how” to become friends, including you the reader with a step-by-step plan that adults and children can understand.
My impression: The book, meant for children of all ages (especially school children) is beautifully illustrated and the story line is simple and direct. The message is clear and direct. If you want friends, you must be willing to listen to them and you should be willing to change. The message is equally valid for adults too as pointed out by the author.
The colorful illustrations add a tremendous value to the story and the book.
My Recommendation: Strongly recommended to all children, parents, other adults and schools etc.
Title: I Can Handle It!
Sub-title: 50 Confidence-building stories to empower your child
Authors: Susan Jeffers and Donna Gradstein
ISBN: 0-9777618-0-0
Publisher: Jeffers Press
Genre: Parenting/Children's Self-Help
Presentation: Paper Back
No. of Pages: 137
The book is a collection of 50 short stores and is aimed at Parents (and those who are in a parental position of helping and guiding children) and children. The stories have different themes, Fear, Guilt, Embarrasment, Frustration etc., but have one thing in common - all of them teach the child how she can handle it. Each story has the byline, "I can handle it" three times (the third time, it says, "No matter what happens, I can handle it") thus reinforcing the child's ability to handle a situation. Affirmations have better chance of succeeding in children since they are like virgin soil without the weeds of negativities. So, the seeds of affirmations have better chance of taking root.
While one may differ with the way a story is told, one will not differ with the theme of the book. Many of the stories are enjoyable to even the adults and resonate with the inner child.
My only reservation with this book is the soft-cover presentation. Considering that the book is meant to be handled by parents and children over many days (and considering the situation where the child may like to read it by himself), a hard cover edition with plasticised pages would have been more appropriate. However, the cost of production would have gone up and the aim of reaching as many children and parents as possible would have been defeated. A good e-book (with nice background music) would have been a good option.
I recommend the book strongly to all children and their caregivers.
Title: Big Idea's Veggie Tales Bible Storybook - with Scripture from the NIrV
Authors: Cindy Kenney with Karen Poth
Illustrated by: Casey Jones and Robert Vann
Publisher: Zonderkidz
ISBN: 978-0-310-71008-0
Genre: Children/Stories/Religion/
A good effort to bring Bible Stories to kids, I found that the book succeeds in bringing the Biblical Stories to the present generation of parents and children with a fresh approach. I also found that the values taught by the book are applicable all over the world to all cultures and religions in general, though some controversial statements like Jesus being the only one son of God could have been avoided.
Using the commonly available vegetables as characters is an interesting experiment in educational entertainment. I am not sure whether the suggested age group of 4-8 is appropriate since now a days, kids appear to be much smarter and may not enjoy a vegetable speaking to them.
However, even elder children will certainly enjoy reading the stories from the Bible and the accompanying values. Each story ends with an affirmation, 'God made you special and he loves you very much'. This is a very important contribution of this book to instill love in childen and the parental figures in their lives.
I would have normally recommended that the book be converted into a multimedia DVD or VCD, but I found that the book is actually adopted from the Videos.
In general, I liked the book and recommend it.
Title: DragonSpeaker
Author: Laura J. Chipman
Genre: Fiction/Magic/
Reading level: All Ages
Paperback: 76 pages
Publisher: PublishAmerica
ISBN: 1424101360
DragonSpeaker (it is written together though the book cover shows the two words separately) is a book for the child in each of us. It is a story of magic, of fire-breathing dragons and how a small girl of 10 is called to save them fromextinction. The dragons use the fire not only to punish evil people, but also to roast apples! Jamie Mathews is a DragonSpeaker, one who can speak with dragons. She is consistently called through dreams to her true purpose of life and is helped by her grandma. She goes out on the adventure accompanied by a bully Billy, who ends up becoming her friend.
When Jamie unites the tear drop pendant with the original stone of Magic from which it has come out, she discovers her oneness with the mountain and thus the whole world. She is also united with her parents who went to save the dragons and were trapped in the mountain. The book conveys a deep spiritual message to each of us, that we all need to discover our true mission in life and fulfill the same to achieve happiness. It also conveys the idea that the magic in each of us will be restored when we become whole and complete.
The book is well written and appeals to children of all ages. I liked this book for its different take about saving of dragons as opposed to the others dealing with slaying of dragons.
Title: Goober The Golf Ball's Great Adventure
Author: Michelle Lynn DiCicco (Writer) & John Terlato (Illustrator)
Publisher:Trafford Publishing
Category: Fiction / Children's
ISBN: 1-4120-2071-9
"Goober the Golf Ball's Great Adventure" is a children's book, written by Michelle DiCicco and illustrated by John Terlato. It is a short and sweet story, humorous and with a happy ending. A boy Tommy loses his favorite golf ball, Goober. After a short separation, they get reunited.
The story is simple and easy to read for children. The illustrations are colorful and are eye-catching.
It would have been better if the age group for whom the book is meant for was mentioned somewhere, on the cover or in a short intro. Also, even in USA and Canada (for whom the book is meant for) there could be parents who don't play golf and so will be at a loss to explain what is a driver and what is meant by slicing. Such golf terminology could have been explained so that the curiosity of children and parents could be taken care of.
The story and the illustrations lend for a multi-media approach in the form of a CD (with nice music and the story read out).
A good effort from a first time author.
Title: The Roly-Poly Hunters in Kindergarten
Author: Robin Merlino
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 1-4120-5353-6
Pages: 24 plus cover
Genre: Children's Fiction (Illustrated)
Rating: 8/10 (4 stars out of a possible 5)
The Roly-Poly Hunters in Kindergarten, written and illustrated by Robin Merlino is a visually delightful and colorful book meant for children of 3-6 years (Pre K through 1st grade) and their parents / care givers etc. It is a short and inspiring story of how a small girl Maddie overcomes her shyness and makes friends with her Kindergarten class mates with the help of Roly-Polies. The book has a nice educational value too since the author explains what a Roly-Poly is in the beginning with the help of a good illustration.
The illustrations are appealing, the colors are eye-catching and the story is good. The target readers may need a little help from their parents or other elders to read and understand the story. The book may be a good addition to play schools and libraries that cater to children.
While the editor has done a good job in general, I came across a minor slip. The spelling of one Roly-Poly as Cassy and Cassie on two different pages is a little confusing. Except for this, the book is well-produced.
Title: When Your Heart Seeks the Sky
Author: Wang Jian
Publisher: Authorhouse
Category: Fiction / Fantasy
88 pages; ISBN: 1418485985
Rating: 9/10
When Your Heart Seeks the Sky by Wang Jian is a fabulous book, the story of how a spirit finds its true nature. Written as a fable, it is the moving and heartwarming story of a bald eagle, who was raised as a chicken, but who finds his true nature and regains his rightful place in God's creation. A very heart warming story, it has all the elements that touch you, all the values that help you find your true self.
This book is a good read for children of all ages, since there is always a child in each of us, a child, who had dreams, whose dreams have not yet become a reality. It is the birth right of every soul to dream, but to make the dream a reality, one has to take the trouble of going through a spiritual renewal, a painful but necessary process. Wang Jian holds your attention at every page, nay, every line.
Read it for simple entertainment, if you prefer. But read it, with sincerity, read it between the lines, for the real message of spiritual renewal, that the book is really about. And then, go for it. Go for fulfilling your own dream! Learn to soar!
I would in short sum up the book as very Heart-warming, Highly Symbolic and Spiritual.
Title: Ramayana - A tale of Gods and Demons
Author: Ranchor Prime
Published by Mandala as Mandala Classic Edition
Category: Fiction / Religion
100 pages; ISBN: 1-932771-02-6
Rating: 8/10
Review
ISBN : 1-932771-02-6, pages: 100,
Ramayana - A tale of Gods and Demons by Ranchor Prime is a colorfully produced, beautifully illustrated and well printed book. It was originally published as a full color bigger art book. The present Mandala Classic edition itself is eye catching. The cover depicts Hanuman, the Monkey God and the servant, devotee and friend of Sri Rama. Hanuman looks charming indeed on the cover and I was thus attracted to take up the book ahead of the que of books pending review. The inner pages too are well printed. The illustrations by Shri BG Sharma are really appealing and add visual value to the well-printed book.
Tha story of Rama is now fairly well known, but bears repetition and retelling again and again. Ranchor Prime followed a particular translation of Valmiki's Ramayana. His narration is good. A few incidents as depicted in this book appeared odd to the reviewer who read different versions. One example is that the queens of King Dasaratha received Dasaratha and his party on return from Mithila with Sita. Another example is that Ravana is depicted as dragging Sita by her hair to his chariot. The story which the reviewer read is different, wherein Ravana doesn't even touch Sita but makes her swoon by showing his frightening form and then lifts her up indirectly by digging up the earth surrounding her body. The reason was that Ravana was cursed by another beautiful woman Vedavati that he will die if he ever touches a woman against her wish.
There are a few more similar differences in the story, but in general, the story is well told. One important omission is Aditya Hridayam, the Heart of Sun, a glorious hymn in praise of Sun God, told to Rama by Sage Agastya. Ravana's death was certainly felicitated by Sun God's blessings of Rama's efforts. Aditya Hridayam is one of the most beautiful hymns of Valmiki Ramayan and is chanted daily by lakhs of devotees.
This book will be a good read for children and adults who are interested in Hindu mythology.
Title: Forrest Tales - The Secret of The Labyrinth
Author: Rhianna (C.J.Lewis)
Hardcover: 216 pages
Publisher: Uplight Books (July 1, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN: 0974217913
Category: Fiction / Fantasy
Review
"The Secret of the Labyrinth" is the first of Forrest Tales, a series of adventures featuring Edward Forrest. Written as a juvenile fantasy, the book is an extremely good read for adults too. I couldn't put the book down except for brief intervals necessitated out of fatigue. I had to finish it in one day. The story is good, the style is mostly good and the characterisation is very good. Most of the time, the author succeeds in painting a vivid picture in the mind of the reader.
The book is not only about powers of light and darkness, but also the story of courage, withstanding temptation, learning to forgive and ultimately learning to 'be in the light'. The last few chapters of the book are spiritually very uplifting. Whether the present generation children will resonate with the lessons presented by the author is a debatable point. But the book is certainly an inspiring addition to every school, library and I would add, every home too, where a child lives.
I helped in editing this book.
I compliment the author, for an excellent effort and look forward to more offerings from her pen.
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