Review: Rachel’s Day in the Garden by Giselle Shardlow

About the Book

Title: Rachel’s Day in the Garden (A Kids Yoga Spring Colors Book)   
Author: Giselle Shardlow
Illustrator: Hazel Quintanilla
Publication Date: December 23, 2014
Publisher: Kids Yoga Stories
Number of pages: 34
Recommended age: 3 to 6 years

Summary: Experience the benefits of yoga while learning about the signs of spring!

Join Rachel as she and her adorable puppy look for signs of spring in the garden. Crawl like a caterpillar, buzz like a bee, and flutter like a butterfly. Discover spring, explore movement, and learn the colors of the rainbow.

The storybook includes a list of kids yoga poses and a parent-teacher guide.

Kids Yoga Stories introduce you to engaging characters who will get your child laughing, moving, and creating. Reading is good for the mind AND body! The story links several yoga poses in a specific sequence to create a coherent and meaningful story.

This spring yoga story for ages 3 to 6 is more than a storybook, but it’s also a unique experience for children.  Rachel’s Day in the Garden is the first book in a seasonal yoga book series. The summer yoga book is also now available: Ella’s Summer Fun.  The fall and winter ones are in production, coming soon!

AMAZON * BOOK WEBSITE * GOODREADS

My Opinion:

I love this book a lot!

I love the idea that Rachel and her dog, Sammy, exploring the garden while doing yoga, or perhaps doing yoga while exploring the garden? :) It gave me ideas to tell my nieces and nephews that while we're doing exercise outdoor, we'll get to see and learn things, too. So not only you'd be healthier (and more relax), you'd be more richer in experiences and knowledge. So it's definitely good for mind, body and soul. ;)

The illustrations were clear, beautiful, colorful, and somehow brings the joy in me and I couldn't help smiling while going through pages. Maybe it's because Rachel and Sammy seems to enjoy it so much and have those happy faces with them. ^^ 

This kind of book is to be read and enjoyed with children ages 3- 8. But I guess I got that too though I read it by myself. Adult like me can learn and do the simple pose for daily simple exercise. It's so simple that it can be done anywhere. Perhaps in your office after sitting and working for hours? Definitely good for stretching the muscles and relaxation.
Just like the other of her book, the poses in this book were simple and easy to follow. Even if (big if) you don't really get it while reading and going through the pages, there would be list of poses in the end of the book. I also love the fact that there's a Parent-Teacher Guide with tips to get the most out of experiences of yoga stories with young children.

Overall, I really really love and enjoy this book.

***I was given a digital copy for an honest review.

About the Author

Giselle Shardlow draws from her experiences as a teacher, traveler, mother, and yogi to write her yoga-inspired children’s books. This story was inspired by her unforgettable travels to Bali and her desire to share these experiences with her daughter. She lives in Boston with her husband and daughter.

Website - Facebook - Twitter - Pinterest - Goodreads

About the Illustrator

Since her childhood, Hazel Quintanilla has been passionate about illustration. This dedication to her art has led very talented authors from around the world to her. She has illustrated more than twenty books, and she hopes there will be many more to come. She lives in Guatemala with her husband and their three beautiful dogs.

e-ARC Review: The Rat by Elise Gravel

The Rat
by Elise Gravel

Hardcover, 32 pages

Published August 5th 2014 by Tundra Books

(first published August 14th 2013)

ISBN 1770496580 (ISBN13: 9781770496583)

edition language : English

One in a series of humorous books about disgusting creatures, The Rat is a look at the black rat. It covers such topics as the rat's long, agile tail (it's good for balancing and picking noses), long teeth (they can chew through anything, including books) and disgusting taste in food (delicious electrical wires in tomato sauce, anyone?). Although silly and off-the-wall, The Rat contains real information that will tie in with curriculum.

(taken from GOODREADS)

What I Think

I loved this book. A LOT!

Let's start with the cover. It has a simple, wonderful illustration and first time I saw it, I was caught. Like, I really really had to get it. And knowing it's promoting real information in humorous way, I requested it right away. And I'm not disappointed. At all.

Presented with cute font (one that looks like children hand-writing, I love those kind of fonts!), every page gave a short factual information about rat. There's also one or two BIG word that worked like a theme/title for the page. Although the illustration had said it itself very clear. It also had a little humor, told by the rat, in every page which I think it's cute because I felt like the rat is either helping or encountering the narrator with their own view/opinion.

I don't like rats in real life. I hate it because, yeah, they're disgusting. But I must say I really love these rat characters in this book. 

I'm sure my nieces and nephews will find this book entertaining. Some information in this book helped me to gain more understanding about rat. Especially about how they manage to skip the trap we set most of time. Or how they manage to get into the house, the kitchen, the cupboard and so on. Of course, an adult is expected to read along with young readers to explain more about this and that. 

As an adult who loves cute books with wonderful designs and illustrations, it's definitely a must have. I can't wait to read the other books in the series and collect them all.

BUY THIS FROM

AMAZON  or 

BOOK DEPOSITORY

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

e-ARC Review : F Is for Feelings by Goldie Millar, Lisa Berger, Hazel Mitchell

F Is for Feelings

by Goldie Millar, Lisa Berger, Hazel Mitchell

Paperback, 40 pages

Free Spirit Publishing

Young children often need help learning and practicing their “feelings words” so they can express themselves well. When children learn from an early age to share their feelings in clear and healthy ways, they are more likely to grow into adults who feel capable of handling life’s challenges. Friendly and positive, this picture book uses an alphabet-book format to share and reinforce emotional language and the ideas that while some feelings are more comfortable than others, all emotions are natural and important. Charming, colorful illustrations accompany the sweet and simple text. A section in the back provides tips and activities for parents and caregivers to reinforce the themes and lessons of the book.

What I think:

I liked this book. A lot. 

At first glance of the cover, well, I didn't really care at all and almost skipped it. But then I think, hey, I could learn something from this, and teach or share something to my nieces and nephews. 

And I'm so glad I decided to read the book.

I didn't think that feelings can be listed in alphabet. I learned psychology and I should've known that there are lots of emotions. But since there are some basic, so sometimes I just paid attention on that. My bad!

Anyway, so I started reading the book, stopped in every alphabet and emotion, trying to understand and to translate it in bahasa. I also imagined it what to explain to my nieces and nephews once I get the chance to read this book with them. Although it might need some effort, the illustration and the example in every alphabet and emotion was very helpful. It helps the reader to differentiate between one emotion to the other.

Yes, this book is great for children. But for a grown up who would deal with kids, this book gives the activity guide for adults so that they can increasing the value of the book for the young readers. For example: how to explore, share and discuss the content of the book, the feeling. We can start from any emotion that interest us most.

There are lots of people out there (kids and adults) who have difficulties in expressing their emotions. Sometimes they put the wrong label for what they actually feel because they don't really understand the feeling and themselves. I do, too, sometimes. So this book would be a great start to understand about feeling better.

I really really think this is a great book and I can't wait to read and share it with my nieces and nephews.

I received the e-ARC via Net Galley. Thank you so much!