11 June 2008

We Still Know How to Read! and a Giveaway!

Whoa! We still know how to read in this house. Yes, it's true. Despite not posting a book review in months the OWTK household still receives and reads (and thinks about reviewing) dozens of books each quarter. Here are some of the best that we're flippin' through right now. And at the bottom, there's a little giveaway. One lucky OWTK reader will end up with some cool kid's-lit.

Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau
by Jennifer Berne
Illustrated by Eric Puybaret

A story of conservation and passionate exploration centering around the young Jacques Cousteau. Manfish utilizes flowing, conversational text that sounds brilliant read aloud (at least when the Mrs. reads it) and pairs that with striking paintings that invite children (and their parents) into Cousteau's France and under his sea. We swim along with Rays, Sharks and Turtles as we learn about Jacques love of both film and the ocean's underworld. A very useful Author's Notes section at the conclusion of the book points interested readers to other avenues where one can learn much more about the famous Cousteau, his books, films and conservation efforts. It would've been swell to include a DVD with the book to see some of his footage. I know that the Bear would have jumped at the chance to immediately follow up the reading with some real underwater scenes starring the Manfish himself. One tiny drawback is the dark text on a few dark pages in the center of the book which makes it tough to read at bedtime when the lights are dimmed. Otherwise, this is a quality work that is capable of makeing both 4 year olds and 32 years olds want to learn more about the great oceanographer Jacques Cousteau.

Dahlia
by Barbara McClintock
I found Dahila through a serious of clicks after the new Adele & Simon book (also a McClintock work) teased me with it's prominent placement on my cookies-enabled personalized Amazon.com page. Dahlia was a classic internet impulse purchase but one that has ended up being so rewarding, much more so than the slightly perverse brick and mortar equivilant of picking up the latest US Weekly while you check out at the grocery store
Dahila is, just like Adele & Simon, a tremendous period-piece-esque work of childhood fiction. The story is a must own for anyone with a young daughter. Whether a fairy princess or not, your little lady will fall hard for this charming tale of Charlotte, a Victorian-era tomboy (she still appears dressed to the nines as per the time, which makes the story work so well) who prefers bird's nests to tea parties and would rather her hands be covered in mud than silk. When a fragile, frilly doll arrives unexpectedly Charlotte explains the way she and her stuffed teddy Bruno operate before they embark on their normal day of tree climbing and stone planting. Dahlia is illustrated with such care and grace - the art alone is worthy of a gallery showing. This is the perfect edition for grandmother's, especially those who fondly recall a more proper era, to read to their precious granddaughters...but really this is, much more simply put, a nearly perfect children's book.

Little Pea


Little Hoot
by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Illustrated by Jen Corace

A garden pea that is forced to eat candy to grow big and strong. A young owl made to stay up far too late in order to become old and wise. Clever turn-the-table tales that has the makings of a mini-franchise that, hopefully, can stick to it's formula without becoming a mind-numbing money grab (see:
If You Give A Writer A Dollar). These are two cute little stories, even the size and square shape of the books is neat, with fun & simplistic (not at all in a bad way) illustrations that match the playfulness of the text perfectly. It's really cool to watch the mind of a young child as he or she navigates the play on themes here - eat your candy before veggies and play a bit longer before bedtime. To see them work out how backwards that is rather adorable, because it inevitably ends with a wry smile and a "what a gosh-darn minute" glance up at you while you read to them.

***********************************
The OWTK Spring Book Giveaway
Leave a comment here before 11:59pm ET on Tuesday June 17th, 2008 and you'll have a good chance to score all four of these fine books. Yes, that's right...all 4!!

How cool is that? Just a little summertime reading love from your friends at Out With The Kids.

104 comments:

Lalah143 said...

First time here, but I'll be back! Thanks for this service. Lalah

Anonymous said...

Count me in, and I hope The Bear is ok!

michelle said...

We are looking to build up our collection of children's books in our home library. I would love to be entered.

michelle at northofthe49 dot com

justme said...

count me in
feener44atgmaidotcom

jceko77 said...

My girls love to read. The more books the better!
jceko77@yahoo.com

Marcia said...

I love reading new books to my daughter! She learns so many new words from our reading together.

learningmama at yahoo dot com

Maude Lynn said...

My daughter and I love Dahlia!

kelli at pfrog dot net

Molly said...

Yay free books!
momabr@yahoo.com

EJW said...

We could definitely use some new books, as I think I've read my son's favorites 1000 times each.

Sandie said...

These books are new to me. Would love to share with my granddaughter!

greenpastamomma said...

lovely books!

CJW's folks said...

I'm building a library for my little guy!

Dr. Dolly (@drdolly) said...

i've heard great things about little pea and little hoot. i'd love to win these books for my son. he ADORES books and storytime!

Thanks.
Dr. Dolly

Sundi said...

My kids need some new books for me to read them (I think I've read every book on the bookshelf at least 50 times!). These look great!

Genevieve P said...

We're addicted to books here, and these look great!

Staci said...

My daughter gets so mad if we don't read to her every night so this would help add more selection to her book selection.

Maggie Smith said...

I am a reading teacher (who can't get a job) and I just had my first baby a few weeks ago. He loves it when I read to him and I would love a few new books to add to his collection! THANK YOU!

royaldixie@charter.net

lrbodine said...

Oh we love books in our house - you can never have too many!

ltbodine@yahoo.com

moushka said...

We do a lot of reading in our house so new books are always welcome.

Bree said...

My daughter LOVES books. She'd love to win these!

Amy said...

I'm a former preschool teacher turned stay at home mom and we LOVE to read at our house! This would be a great addition to our library. Thanks for the fun contest!
Amy

Alice H said...

These books look great - and any contest with books is a great idea!

Anonymous said...

The books all look great! I would love them for my two kids!

samsakara@twcny.rr.com

Anonymous said...

Great site! I'd love to win these, my little girl Jaedyn was born in May and these would be a great start for her book collection! :-)

Thanks!

ladyufshalott at yahoo dot com

Miss Spoken said...

These would be a great addition to out storytime. Thanks for the giveaway.
gkstrato s@yahoo.com

Rashmi said...

They sound like really great books - fun and educational! I'd love to read them with my son.

Thanks,
callmeabookworm at gmail dot com
ps - I’m having GIVEAWAYS @ A Book Blogger’s Diary & A Bookworm’s Diary.

Claire said...

nothing better than great books!

AubreyB said...

I would love these books for my son!
byubabe14 at yahoo dot com

Beth said...

Great looking books! Thanks for the chance to win.

Anonymous said...

I've always wanted to get the Little Pea book!

Unknown said...

We love books over here!
ce613 at hotmail dot com

Erin said...

My kids love books and I haven't heard of any of these.

maeflower said...

Little pea looks like a lot of fun!!!

Unknown said...

My son and I love to read together and we are always looking for more books.

thanks!

mesargent813 at yahoo dot com

Anonymous said...

My son and I love books. I am not allowed in the bookstore alone with him anymore because we always way exceed our budget. Thanks for the chance.

skylergrotz at hotmail dot com

Sky said...

I'm a librarian and we LOVE books in our household!! I really want that Little Pea book. My daughter is called Pea by everyone! I love it!

Anonymous said...

fingers crossed for my little boy!
Stephanie V.

Mary512 said...

Great giveaway, thanks!

angela said...

My little boy loves new books!

Unknown said...

These books look great! Thanks for the chance to win them. healngpwr@yahoo.com

Belinda said...

My first visit to your site, thanks for a great giveaway! I love books and I'm teaching my baby girl to do the same:)
belinda_streak(at)hotmail(dot)com

silly said...

our bedtime routine is reading books every night before bed. it would be great for us to have some new material to read.

Mrs. Csirke said...

4 books?? how wonderful! one can never have too many books!

The Mommy said...

We always need new books in this house to keep my daughter interested. Thanks!

Kristie said...

My daughter loves being read to-these would be great!

Jen said...

I love Little Pea (we've read it at the library) and would love to discover the others. Thanks!

additionproblems [at] gmail [dot] com

windycindy said...

Happy Friday! What a wonderful prize package of books. I adore children's books. You have covered a few ages and boy/girl choices! My niece and nephew stay with us a week or two weeks every summer. I would love to have new books to read with the two of them. Please enter me in your drawing. I appreciate it! Many thanks, Cindi
jchoppes[at]hotmail[dot]com

melonkelli said...

Ooh, we love new books!

CanCan said...

I've been wanting to check out "Little Pea", and the Manfish book looks great, too! I'm a teacher and a mom so I can never have enough books.

Superdumb Supervillain said...

I think Roo would love Dahlia! And my dad used to make us watch Jacques Cousteau when I was little.

Unknown said...

Would love to get the books! My son would go crazy over the Jacques Cousteau......

Alleen said...

Those look like fun!

alleensantana @ yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

These books look like delightful reads - my kids would adore them! Thank you for the contest!
Megret
meg.wilson@gmail.com

Betty N said...

Such lovely books! I love to read to my grandchildren and have them read to me!

Heather said...

We love books!

meka foo said...

I LOVE Jen Corace!!

Anonymous said...

My 5 year old would love all of these, but she would go crazy over the dahlia one especially! Thanks for the giveaway!

foxsquirrelrabbit@yahoo.com

javaFlower said...

please include me in the drawing!
kidlets and books,
just 2 of my fav things!

JenO said...

All four? Way cool! We don't have many children's books and need to get on that! My hubby calls our daughter his little "sweet pea" so little pea will be lots of fun. And I'm a science teacher, so I'm excited about manfish! They all look good!

Michele said...

Oh, they all look wonderful, especially the "Manfish", for me anyway! Books my grandkids will surely enjoy and treasure for years and hopefully have for their kids!

Stacy said...

Great giveaway, we always need new books!

Panjo Kids said...

I love it! We could use some new books around here.

Uniquely Yours said...

OMG! My daughter and I go to the library every week to borrow new books. She would love this and it would be perfect timing her birthday is in three weeks! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for the opportunity.

planetmisty@gmail[dot]com

nannalynda said...

MY GRANDDAUGHTER WOULD LOVE TO HAVE THESE BOOKS...WE READ EVERY DAY AND ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR NEW BOOKS TO READ.

Anonymous said...

My granddaughters would love these!

Katie said...

These books look great! Thanks!

destee said...

I can never have enough books! It's becoming a bit of a problem, I can no longer fit them all on my son's bookshelf! We read daily, I think that's so important.

Anonymous said...

These would be great books for my nephews! Books are always a great giveaway.
Elaine R
emrosser@shaw.ca

annalene said...

cute cute cute! i love the artwork on these books, its difficult to find good stories with nice artwork these days.

judybrittle said...

nothing nicer than to snuggle on the couch and reading together. thank you so much for the chance for some great reading.

sweetsue said...

I would love any of these books, especially Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau, he was always one of my heros. I would love to teach my grandchildren about him.

shimmala said...

Can't get enough books at our house...would love to win this!

Paula said...

I love getting books for the grandkids. These ones sound great.

Milk Mama said...

Oh I'd love to win! Books are always the best prize of all!

Suprizeme said...

These are some great books, Thanks for the contest!

krmore said...

I wish books weren't so expensive then we wouldn't have to win them

yyeres said...

nice books for some summer reading, thanks

Anonymous said...

We love new books!!

calgirl said...

I would love new books to read to my kids

Bunny B said...

I'd love to win these for my nephews! Thank you for the chance!

bunnybox9 at gmail . com

Unknown said...

Little Pea and Little Hoot look so cute! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Did you mean leave a comment? 'Cause I'm totally here for the prizes.

Anonymous said...

My daughter loves being read to these days. We'd love to add these books to our small collection.
beccachristensen at hotmail dot com

Anonymous said...

I think my son would love these books. Thanks for the opportunity to enter.

ecfreitas579@hotmail.com

kaylee8 said...

Great books for summer fun!

Anonymous said...

First time Grannie here who loves to read to my grandaughter. Books open the world to kids, love books.

Sara DMS said...

We just picked up the Little Hoot book a few weeks ago, and my 3-year-old loves it! I would LOVE to win the Little Pea book, and I've also been eyeing the Dahlia book for a while too. And, the Jacques Cousteau book looks great! Wow, what a wonderful giveaway -- I hope I win!!!

sara_demaster at yahoo dot com

Anonymous said...

We love to read books and we love to visit the library. This would be a great addition to our growing collection.

Anonymous said...

We love to read! My 4 year old has memorized many books and he'll sit and "read" them all to his 2 yr. old sister. I'd love to have some new books for them!

murphykatt(at)yahoo(dot)com

amyparsons1@yahoo.com said...

What a great collection. My daughters would love these books.

Marlene McGarrity said...

I have had my eye on ManFish, but I don't know the other ones.

Please enter me in this great giveaway.

Anonymous said...

These are wonderful. I don't think there's anything I could get for my children that holds more value than a book. They never go out of style and the stories are timeless. Thank you for the giveaway.
doot65[at]comcast[dot]net

Brooke said...

These really look like GREAT books. I have my fingers crossed!

/\Heather/\ said...

What a great set of books to keep the reading bug alive this summer! Thanks for the giveaway.

Anonymous said...

What a fun selection of books! We'd love to win!

bison61 said...

great set of books, thanks

tiramisu392 (at) yahoo.com

Amira M said...

i love the books!

skipthelaundry said...

Looks like great summer reads!

Sunshine Mama said...

These look like great books. If I don't win, I will have to try and find them at our library. Thanks.
kristie2 (at) comcast.net

Emilie said...

I would love to win these! My son LOVES being read to!

Connie said...

I've got four grandchildren that would really enjoy these, one for each of them!

Anonymous said...

My daughter would love these books...I encourage reading! Thanks for a great contest...

Rockin' Mama said...

Awesome....we love to read!

jasonncaryn at yahoo dot com