Michael J. Rosen (1)Recensioni

“A Tale of Rescue” is a heartwarming tale of courage and duty that will particularly appeal to animal lovers.
The story centers around a family from Florida who become lost outside during a sudden blizzard while they are vacationing in Ohio. Their rescue comes in the form of a cattle dog, who leads them to safety by unusual means.

Candlewick Press has a reputation for extraordinarily high quality children’s literature, and this book is no exception. The writing has a melody to it, which based on the story’s content just makes one want to snuggle under a cozy blanket and savor each word. The artwork is extraordinary and will enchant children and adults alike.

4 Stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Candlewick Press for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

While the teacher in this book is hilarious. And this book does contain some mind-boggling math problems. This book is one of the many that can prove math can be fun. This book contains math problems but if you don’t get the answer the answers are on the back of the book. The illustrations are also quite fun.

This is a perfect poetry book for a beginner reader; each short and easy-to-read haiku has a picture of the dog breed being written about. Children love their pets, and many children own dogs. This is a perfect book for a pet lover, as they can connect to the poems. The illustrations match the poems, which helps the reader gain context.

A story for Chanukah and Christmas.

When Benjamin Franklin was a boy he wanted to be a sailor, but his father would not hear of such a thing. He tried other careers but they thoroughly bored him. He learned something from every failed career and that is what made him into the inventive and inspiring man he became. I would recommend this for any collection as an introduction biography about Benjamin Franklin. The illustrations are well thought out and you can almost feel the emotion of young Benjamin.

My two favorites:

Balinese

on the windowsill's
balance beam, the cat pirouettes
as the kibble pings

Abyssinian

curled up on your book
cat won't care what happens next
now's the only page

Otherwise pretty meh. (Keep in mind that given cats haiku, my expectation going in was = awesome. If your bar for the fun of cat poetry is a bit lower, you might like this a lot more.)

It was interesting to learn about all the travels Marco Polo went on. Some of them were pretty cool to learn about.

sweet and lovely combination of cats and haiku/poetry

Amanda is worried that Thanksgiving won't be the same without her beloved grandmother Bubbe, but when she remembers Bubbe's favorite custom--making wishes on the wishbones she saved throughout the year--Amanda and her family find comfort and solace in tradition.

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When Earth was first created, it was dark cold and lonley. God along with Dog as his companion walks Earth fixing and creating to make Earth better. Seasons, landforms, people, animals, weather, and all the other things that are apart fo our world today are created by God with the help of Dog. This folktale not only tells how Earth was created but emphasizes the importance of relationships and compnaionship in life in whatever way makes you "better", as said in the book. My dog makes my life so much better, taking away stress and anxiety that I feel everyday in my life. I loved this book and the illustrations and message it sends. The author wrote it in a form of poetry that allows th reader to take what message speaks to them.

A little boy narrates this story of his family's Hanukkah celebration. Also a counting book.

A young boy describes the lights of Hanukkah in this lovely holiday picture-book. From the night before the celebration begins, when family preparations are afoot, through the eight nights when the candles of the Menorah are lit, to the nights afterward, when the boy sees many things that remind him of Hanukkah and of being Jewish, the theme remains that of light - and of love. An afterword gives more information about the historical circumstances that gave rise to the holiday...

I enjoyed Chanukah Lights Everywhere, which is actually my second Hanukkah picture-book from author Michael J. Rosen, following upon his Our Eight Nights of Hanukkah. There is a feeling of homeyness and family warmth in the story, and in the artwork. I appreciated illustrator Melissa Iwai's use of color and (of course) light here, and I found the cats depicted throughout to be absolutely adorable. Recommended to anyone looking for fun and engaging Hanukkah picture-books.

Spending my wife's birthday reading through a small pile of picture books together. (5 of 5)

All the animal noises makes this a fun book to read out loud, but it is totally carried by the gorgeous art. The adorable wolf pups elicited many high pitched squees from these two adult readers.

The pumpkinheads are tired of sitting on porches while kids dressed up in Halloween costumes have all the fun year after year. They just aren't going to take it any more. So this year the pumpkinheads set out to transform themselves into scary creatures to frighten the children instead. With a swarm of bees, giant dinosaurs, gargantuan spiders, and slime, the pumpkinheads are sure to be a scary hit. Or will they? It seems the pumpkinheads are in for a big surprise.

The Bottom Line: Master carver Hugh McMahon lends his talents to his first children's book. The result is a visual treat. You'll never see pumpkins the same way once you've read this book. Highly recommended for kids in grade school. Also, enthusiastically recommended for crafters looking for new ideas and inspiration. It includes instructions for carving a pumpkin and a recipe for roasted pumpkin seeds too. Yum!

This review also appears at the Mini Book Bytes Book Review Blog.

The illustrations bring the words to life. The combination of drawing and watercolors is amazing. This folktale story is about a traveler who had a dog always by his side. As they traveled along creating different animals, man and woman, land and water the story unfolds. The labels by the pictures of animals is great for children as they like to seek and identify.

This book contains a mind boggling math problem on each page. The questions are all those that require estimation and major calculations such as how many glasses of lemonade would it take to fill an olympic swimming pool or how long would it take me to sign a card to send to every person on earth. All the questions are accompanied by cute illustrations and funny comments. The book explains how the answer would be found as well as giving the answer. At the back is a glossary as well as more explanations and further reading. This is a great book for a junior classroom to get children thinking about all the ways you use math in everyday life.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Every Thanksgiving, Amanda and her entire extended family descend on her Bubbe's house, where they enjoy a feast like no other, prepared over the course of an entire month. Bubbe also prepares a series of wishbones for each of her grandchildren, allowing them the opportunity to make a wish on each night they are visiting with her. This year however, Bubbe is gone, and Amanda and her family must carry on without the family matriarch. Hosting her cousins and aunts and uncles at their new house, Amanda's family attempts to recreate Bubbe's fabulous Thanksgiving dinner, only to find themselves in the dark when the power goes out. Then their new neighbor Mrs. Yee arrives, and with the help of some of the other neighbors, Amanda and her family manage to have Thanksgiving after all. Amanda even gets to make a Thanksgiving wish, discovering in the process what it was that Bubbe herself wished for, every time they snapped the wishbone...

The second holiday picture-book I have read from author Michael J. Rosen - the first being his lovely Hanukkah title, Our Eight Nights of Hanukkah - A Thanksgiving Wish offers a poignant, heartfelt examination of one Jewish American family's Thanksgiving traditions, and how that family copes, when the grandmother around whom the entire celebration revolves passes away. Amanda's sense of loss, her feeling of being lost without Bubbe, is captured in the text, as is the particular difficulties that holidays pose, to those facing the death of a loved one. I appreciated the father's words here: "You never stop missing someone, Mandi...You sort of forget how much you miss them until something - like Thanksgiving - reminds you again" - as they are so true! The accompanying artwork from illustrator John Thompson, which looks like it was done in oil paint, captures each scene beautifully, depicting a family at work together in the kitchen, or sitting around a table filled with candlelight. This one is very text heavy for a picture-book - it's almost more an illustrated short story - so I would recommend it to those on the older side of the picture-book audience (perhaps six and up?), and particularly, I would recommend it to anyone looking for children's Thanksgiving stories which address loss, and the first celebration without a grandparent or other loved one.

Children came up with an idea to build a playground in their community. With the help of their teachers and other adults, they think about ideas. They do many things such as brainstorm about what they want in their playground. They then get together to build a playground with the help of Kaboom! After the playground is finished, they enjoy it and play in it.

There are some outrageous animals in this book for anyone looking for fun facts about animals and how they adapt to their environment. Some examples in the book are a fish that walks on land, a frog that can make its own sunscreen and an insect that can become invisible. They have learned to adapt because of their changing environment or to outwit a predator. These are the key to their very survival. There are many marine and land animals described in this book. The animals range from bats to lizards and everything in-between. I would recommend this for older children and anyone who is doing research. This would make a good comparison source.

A collection of haikus all depicting a different dog breed.

"A Drive in the Country" is a cute little picture book about a family that just hopes in the car and begins driving without a destination. The family spends a whole day enjoying nature and more importantly enjoying time with each other. It's a wonderful story that reminds adults to slow down from their busy lives and take the time to just enjoy the most important things like time with your family. The book reminds me of last summer when I took my kids to the French Quarter with no agenda in mind. We relaxed near the river for 20 mins or more. Enjoying the quietness of the river and throwing rocks in the water. Like the family in the book, we discovered new shops such as a gem shop that the kids really enjoyed.

I think that a great activity to do with the reading of this book is to have children close their eyes and pretend that they are in the different scenes in the book and ask them to describe how the how smells, how they feel, what they hear and see.½

The Dog Who Walked with God, is a story from the Kato Indians. The Kato Indians loved their dogs so much that they believed their creator must have had a dog companion, too. After a great flood the "Great Traveler" and his dog fix and create a new world. From the land to the sea they create trees, grass, and release animals. The book is written in all quotes, scribing the rods said from the Indian man who told the story.
The illustrations are done in water color. The story begins talking about how the whole world was water, and each page is painted with very watery water colors. The "Great Traveller" who represents God is painted in a way in which he looks transparent, whereas the dog is painted opaquely. On each page the different trees and animals are labelled with their name.