A. J. WoodRecensioni

Anthropomorphize life of a juvenile emperor penguins

Anthropomorphize life of a juvenile emperor penguins

I spotted this book yesterday in a little used book shop on our way home, and I couldn’t resist its magnetic cover or the quick glimpse I got of the inside before MT whisked it off to the counter for me. I’m a sucker for books with little bits and pieces glued to the inside: envelopes with letters, or fold out flaps of additional information. They bring me the same delight as a well-done pop-up book.

Being rather exhausted on our return home, this felt like the perfect fit for me last night, and it was. It’s beautifully put together and the writing was clear, concise, and well balanced for a middle schooler with language aimed at their reading level without being at all childish. While certainly not detailed, I thought it covered the high points of the Beagle trip for Darwin; certainly enough for a middle schooler’s introduction to Darwin. I’d have liked it to have a few more bits and bobs in it, but that’s just my inner child talking.

For what it is and what it’s trying to be, I think it excels. It’s a gorgeous and charming book.

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A newly hatched Emperor penguin wants more than anything to look like his tall, strong father. But when his own fluffy gray feathers start to fall out, Little Penguin is sure his wish will never come true. It takes a long ocean journey and some gentle words of wisdom from his mother before he realizes that he has become what he most wanted to be after all.
Nature lovers of all ages will delight in the captivating illustrations and the reassuring story about growing up. On every page, lavish embossing illuminates the frosty beauty of the Antarctic setting and adds intriguing texture to the feathers and footprints of the creatures that live there. -- Scholastic, Inc.

This book presents the alphabet A to Z with a twist. It's not simply that A is for alphabet, B is for birds, C is for creepy-crawlies, D is for dinosaurs, and so forth. Within each letter is contained A to Z again. So B is for birds contains albatross all the way through to zebra finch. Therefore, each page spread invites children to seek and find all the letters of the alphabet over again. Sometimes the text gives the children a list of items to look out for, while other times the image is captioned (but never are the items in alphabetical order). On one occasion (V is for vehicles), the items are neither listed nor captioned, with was just terrible. Otherwise, this is a pretty cool concept.

However, my concern is that the children who will best be able to have the focused attention and reading skills needed to find all the hidden items will be turned off when an adult tries to suggest an alphabet book to them. If they can get past the idea that it is indeed not a "babyish" book, they will quite enjoy it, as I thoroughly did. They may even learn something as I did -- for instance, I had no idea what zorbing was before reading this book.

Some added fun bits are that a mouse and a number are hidden on every page. Most pages also have a pair of underwear and quite a few have a being on a toilet or a nude human body (tastefully done but still may not be for everyone).½

Magnificent illustration and over all design

I liked this book for two reasons. First, I really enjoyed the illustrations throughout the story. The illustrations covered every page in the book and really helped to tell the story. They were very detailed and were made using many colors. For the illustrations on each page you were able to see the little duck and the big duck who were on a mission to find the golden egg throughout the story. The book was also interactive with the illustrations. On most of the pages there was a piece folded over that you could lift up to see the color of the egg that was being talked about in that part of the story. The color of the egg was also made with a shiny textured paper which made it stick out from the rest. For example, on the last page the egg was purple, green, blue, red, yellow, and gold. However, the gold was shown with the shiny paper so that was the color that stuck out the most to me. Another reason that I enjoyed this book was the rhyming in it and the way the words flowed. While reading this story the words read very smoothly since they rhymed. This made the book much easier and fun to read. An example of this from the last page is, “So off they set and soon they find a Goose upon her nest. She looks a little puzzled when she hears of Ducks request.” In this part, the words nest and request rhyme. There are many more examples of rhyming throughout this story.
The main idea of this story is to keep trying at your goal if you have one. The little duck’s goal throughout this story was to find a golden egg. He never gave up on this idea, and it eventually paid off. After finding many other colored eggs, he eventually found a golden one and was finally satisfied with an egg.

The main idea of this book is to get students excited about learning the animals through a game and then giving them information about different animals in different habitats. I think the spot the difference throughout the book is a fun way to get students interested in learning the topic. One thing I don't like about the book is that the information about each page is at the end of the book. I think it would benefit to have the information either with the pictures or on the page after.

a little penguin is learning about all the different things around the arctic and how they survive and fish for food
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This book teaches us about how there are different types of eggs and each egg goes with a specific species.

I don't know what obscure economy determines the popularity of baby books but this one was excellent and deserves way more than six other people to have it on LibraryThing. Emmett, who loves being read to but is a baby of capricious and exacting attention span, sat rapt for nine consecutive readings and got way sleepy. As did I. And every time the sheepy came around he patted its wool.

UPDATE JAN 22/15 He kisses the baby now.

This is a fun book to have students try to solve the picture puzzles collaboratively. Each picture set in history has 10 errors that students can try to discover. It also gives information about the time in history represented in each illustration. It is a fun book- there is also a answer key at the book.

"The Little Penguin" is a book that touches on the life span of a penguin. A central message of family and maturity. As the story progresses the illustrations slowly unveil little penguins gray feathers. Along little penguin's path to become a great emperor like his father, he meets friends along the way. These friends are other native animals to Antarctica, which expands student multicultural horizons.

This is a informative book on eggs and what animal they will become. The book uses a pull out method to show each egg opening. It would be good to use in a Science lesson.

Title: The Christmas Hat

Author: A. J. Wood (Illustrated: Maggie Kneen)

Genre: Children’s

Challenges: PB & J Challenge, 101 Books in 1001 Days Challenge, A to Z Reading Challenge, The Year Of Readers – 2009, Pages Read Challenge, Young Reader's Challenge 2009, Read a Book a Month Challenge, Summer Vacation Reading Challenge 2009, Summer Reading Challenge 2009, 2009 Support Your Local Library, 20 Books in 2009, 100 Reading Challenge – 2009, Christmas in July, What an Animal II, August Reading Challenge

Rating: 4/5

No. of Pages: 32

Published: 2005

From the inside cover: When Rabbit and Badger adopt a lost baby owl, they don’t realize how challenging it will be to look after him – especially when his downy white feathers help him disappear in the snow!

Rabbit creates a Christmas surprise for Little Owl that will make finding him easier. But danger lurks in the woods, and Rabbit and Badger are not the only ones who see Little Owl more clearly in his new red hat….

Mine: Beautifully illustrated book with textured pages. What a wonderful story about how we all need to take care of each other in this world. So that owl could be found in the snow (since he is a snow owl – white). Rabbit makes him a red hat so that he can be spotted when he’s out in the snow.

Unfortunately the Red Fox can see the owl. Everyone is shouting – “take the hat off” when he does the fox walks right by. Owl finds a new wonderful use for his red hat – a nice bed to sleep in.

Story of how much Little Penguin wanted to look like all the other penguins, adult penguins. He just had to grow up to look like the big penguins with sleek, shiny feathers and long strong beaks.

“The Little Penguin” is a children’s book that follows the life of a little penguin as he hatches from an egg and as he grows up. As the penguin is growing up, he wanders off and becomes separated from his family. During that time, Little Penguin meets with and talks to many different animals. Little Penguin also begins to lose his feathers. When Little Penguin reunites with his family, he is all grown up. This book is considered fiction because the penguins and other animals talk, but the information given about penguins is accurate.

Genre:fantasy
Age Appropriateness: primary and intermediate
Media: colored pencil
Review: This book is a good example of fantasy because the penguins are talking to eachother. This is the story of a baby penguin that goes on a journey with his father and decides that he is getting board with the plans this father has for him. Little penguin (main character) goes off on his own and meets a bird who tells him that his feathers are falling out. This concerns little penguin and he decides to go off and try and find his father. After his journey has brought him closer to the ocean he sees both his mother and father who had been looking for him. He tells his parents that he is loosing his feather and is worried. His mother tells him not to worry he is now just like his father with sleak black feathers.

Age Appropriateness: Primary/Elementary
Genre: This book is fantasy because it is about penguins that talk. It could also be seen as informational because it give a variety of information on the penguins. However, because it is a fictional story is mainly fantasy.
Media:Watercolor/ colored pencil

Genre: Fantasy
Age Appropriateness: Primary
Media: I’m not exactly sure on this one. It could be colored pencils or pastels.
Review: This is the story of a penguin growing up, getting lost, and then finding his family once again. It is fantasy because the animals in the story speak English.½

Fantastic book looking at bugs in different parts of the world. Has textured sections and lift the flap for the little ones, but lots of interesting facts for early primary school readers

Various animals inside a house are busy getting ready for the arrival of Santa Claus, who arrives in the guise of a polar bear in Father Christmas robes revealed by the 25th door on the last page. Folds out to over 6 feet long.

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9688, halloween