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This story intrigued me, as it never really made complete sense to me. Abbott and his son Barley are fishing by the sea. Barley, not catching anything, gets bored. His dad asks him to wait a little bit, as his friend Isaiah is coming soon, but we soon learn that Isaiah canceled in order to do a cooler activity with his dad. Abbott, not wanting to let his son down, sets a wonderful day of adventures for his son, from visiting the desert to swimming with a whale.
On the final destination, Abbott and Barley meet Barley's friends, who came there all together... but without Barley. They play together and promise to see each other soon when it's time to go home, but it's never mentioned that they formed two separate groups, or that Barley has not been invited at the first place. In the end, the dad has the best answer of all, telling him that the best place on Earth is with him in his arms.
I had to re-read this story twice, as I was not sure about the plot or overall message. Was it about competing to do the coolest things of all, and at the end realizing that in each other's arms is the best place to be? Or was it about the desire of a dad to cheer up his son who has been excluded from his group of friends? A little bit of both, I guess.
I enjoyed the story, but I wish there could have been more clarification and more exploration of Barley's feelings. Special mention to the illustrations wish are colorful, creative and really hold the book together.
Thank you NetGalley and Europe Comics for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Read and reviewed: 2018-11-08
We need more books about introverts and/or non-verbal kids, but this one was not it for me.
On the plus side: The writing when the kid talks about themselves resonated heavily with me, for example “I just like to hear the world spin by / and the songs that the rocks all sing. / I like to think of words that could go along / and the heavy way the winds all ring. / It makes me happy to hear my heart beat, / with its own steady thud-thud-thud.” This is how I experienced the world as a child and still do to this day. :) I also like that the kid is distracted and that their plate is still full while everyone else has finished or almost finished their plate. That was a nice touch :)
On the other side: The first part of writing was less uninspired and sometimes grammatically off, I didn't like the art style, and the design of the text was bad, with the text too small and crammed into corners. Please make the text bigger!
Also, some of the metaphors didn't make sense to me (the snail on a crate?), and too much of the book was about the perception of others about this kid, and not enough about this kid's inner world (only the second half). Also, I'm not sure what to think about the entire family being in the mud at the end... Is it supposed to show the approval of the mud-lover kid? The fact that everyone is in the mud removes the uniqueness of the kid, and that's not how I would prefer to show acceptance and support from the family.
Also, I'm confused about the garden. Do people cross through the pond to go to the gate? The rocks seem slippery... Do they go around? Then why is there not a path around or... mud from repeated foot steps. It boggles me.
Well, I like reading books from this publisher, as they often highlight less marketed topics and marginalized characters, so I will continue. Thank you!
I received a free ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Inspired by real events, this book presents the story of Frances and Elsie, two young girls enamored of nature who one day decide to photograph the fairies living around them. The illustration style is very soft, and intimate and works perfectly to create a universe of poetry and vivid creativity. The writing style is good and displays with elegance the emotions of the two girls. A charming book that I enjoyed reading.
Thank you NetGalley and North South Books Inc for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Read and reviewed: 2018-12-06
Omg this books made me so happy! I couldn't wait for the work day to end every day to cozy up, grab my tablet, and read it :)
This is the story of a 66 years old retired paralegal and writer who decides to RV full time. And wow, she loves this new lifestyle and it shines in each page :) Just writing this review makes me smile, thinking about how content she is with her life (of course, it's not all shine and candy, and she spends a great amount of time talking about all the ‘cons' and difficulties of RVing). She keeps it honest!
So, why do I like this book so much?
- The first part of the book is about living in RV full time, and it is SO detailed and real, I was amazed. She goes over so many topics, like weather, cost, grey and black waste (dirty water and bathroom waste), being a solo woman nomad, writing while RVing, repairs... It's fascinating (by this point, you probably realized that the idea of being a digital nomad/slow traveler has popped up more than once in my head :))
- The second part is about the actual travels she took during her first year. At first, I found it quite mundane and repetitive (I went to this city, visited this museum, met my friends x and y, then moved to campground z...). But then, I realized this is RVing full time. No shine and glamour, just the simple truth. And I started enjoying this part more and more. And there are quite a few places I want to visit myself, especially the salt mine!!
- The third part is about her second year RVing in 2020... during COVID. She kept safe, used masks, social distancing, vaccines, and found ways to isolate herself and keeping safe. Very interesting new perspective on having to stay for longer periods of time in the same place, and what it felt like (the travel bug was itching her!). OMG and I forgot to talk about the dog and home-sitting she did in the previous year! Sooooo interesting!
- The final part is more about the perception of others on her lifestyle, from people lending a helpful hand to people forcefully handing her religious pamphlets to ‘save her soul'. Nothing creepy was described, and she has a good instinct to avoid weird places.
So with everything said, how could I not give it a 5 stars? I loved it! Thank you Sue Ann for writing it :)
Quel beau livre! Tous les jours, Ellie et sa grand-mère Nonna vont à la plage. Ellie s'amuse en construisant des châteaux de sable et en jouant avec le vareng. Elle aimerait bien jouer avec d'autres enfants, mais elle n'ose pas les aborder... Un jour, une autre fille, assise sur un tronc d'arbre, l'appelle et lui propose de jouer avec elle. S'ensuivent de merveilleuses aventures à bord d'un formidable bateau, d'une montgolfière et d'un sous-marin. Un jour, ce sera au tour d'Ellie d'apprendre à inviter un nouvel ami à jouer.
J'ai trouvé ce livre très beau graphiquement et exceptionnellement bien traduit par Rachel Martinez. Le rythme est fluide, les mots utilisés sont beaux, poétiques, et quoique des fois difficiles, tout à fait appropriés à l'univers marin. Une très belle découverte que je recommenderai chaleureusement!
Je n'ai qu'un seul point à critiquer: à la page 21, le paragraphe s'arrête à “Une grosse loutre remonte rapidement à la surface, la gueule pleine de crabes”. Or, il n'y a aucun signe de loutre sur la double page illustrée, ni sur les pages précédentes ou suivantes. J'ai trouvé ça un peu frustrant de ne pas pouvoir voir cette loutre, et préfèrerait ainsi que le paragraphe s'arrête à “...à toute vitesse.”
Cela ne m'a néanmois pas empêché de grandement apprécier ce livre.
Thank you NetGalley and Orca Book Publishers for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Read and reviewed: 2018-11-13
FINALLY a book about a kid with social anxiety where parents do not force, guilt-trip or push a kid to behave like all the other kids. Instead, this is a great lesson of gentle parenting, creativity, positive reinforcement, patience and unconditional love. And wow look at those stunning illustrations and this amazing palette of colors!
Read and reviewed: 2019-11-26
Story about grieving and remembering someone in their old house.
Read and reviewed: 2022-05-15
The story of a girl who wants to learn how to weave with her grandfather in New Mexico. The illustrations were stunning! Parts in Spanish, mostly in English.
Read and reviewed: 2022-06-25
This is the biographical story of Bonyo Bonyo, a boy born in Kenya who became a doctor in the USA and returned to his country to build a medical clinic. The narration is too wordy for kids and some life events are narrated in a cold way, without giving anything to kids to cope with it while reading it.
Thank you NetGalley and VanitaBooks LLC for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Read and reviewed: 2018-12-06
A good book to teach kids about physics, problem solving and the power of cooperative efforts. I love that it includes a girl and a boy actively solving STEM problems and being resourceful enough to figure it out all by themselves!
Thank you NetGalley and QEB for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Read and reviewed: 2018-12-05
This book encourages kids to enjoy nature without cellphones and all the comfort of their house, but it felt too constructed and quite narrow-minded.
I would have loved seeing a more balanced view where technology can be very useful and appreciated while camping, and times when it's good to simply eat together around a fire camp.
“To all dog lovers: no matter where life takes you, your dog will always be there for you.”
This was such a warm and great story! One day, as Dion was running in the desert of Gobi, he spotted a stray dog running next to him. From that moment on, they formed a team and drank, ate, and slept under the tent together. During the race, Dion decided to adopt his dog friend and to name her Gobi. They now live in Scotland where Gobi can play everyday with her cat sibling and her parents.
The story was well written and the dog's behavior felt very accurate. I also enjoyed the colorful and very expressive illustrations. I would recommend this book to any dog lover!
Thank you NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Read and reviewed: 2018-11-08
This is a wonderful source of inspiration and knowledge for any kid curious about architecture, shapes and nature. I learned something new on every single page, and the book kept me interested and involved until the end. The text is not too dense, and richly illustrated, which makes it very enjoyable. It also includes experimentation that you can do with your kids to help them understand physics.
The only negative points that I have about this book are the lack of diverse representation. There are a lot of people of colors illustrated, but they are random people walking by a building. The two biographies with portraits are about white male architects. The author/illustrator had the chance to include a portrait of a woman architect on page 16, as it introduced a new chapter, but put a middle-age man instead. I was also taken aback by the very weird illustration on pages 1 and 6, with the open head of a person filled with mechanics and nature-based architectures.
Except those two negative points, I had a fantastic time reading this book and I feel like it will be loved by adults and children alike.
Thank you NetGalley and Kids Can Press for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Read and reviewed: 2018-11-14
I love nature books but I didn't like this book at all. It tells the story of a seed who grows, lives and dies. I actually had to read someone's review to understand that it was the plot of the book. To me, it was more like a succession of pages, with kids playing in the forest as seasons passed, with trees either small or tall.
My least favorite part is when a tree suddenly cracked, and the illustration makes it feel like it's going to fall on us.. There were absolutely no sign, no storm, nothing, and it felt very sudden and unnecessary scary. Also, when the tree is in two pieces, the illustration is completely wrong: the tree is neatly cut in half, just like with a humane saw, which is illogical, as the tree broke on its own, which should have been reflected in the uneven pieces of the tree. If there were only that... the text was trying to be poetic, but I didn't feel any pleasure reading it.
Thank you NetGalley and Annick Press Ltd for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Read and reviewed: 2018-11-08
Overall, I found this book illogical, with an unclear flow, and quite boring.
This was a respectful and well narrated biography of Anna Swan, a 19th century Canadian woman who measured 8 feet tall.
Born in 1846, she measured 5ft. 6in. when she was 6 and was later billed the Tallest Woman in The World. She wanted a life as tall as her, and this is exactly what she created for herself. She worked at the Gallery of Wonders in NYC from the age of 15, playing the piano, declaiming poetry and acting on plays. She traveled the world and befriend the Queen Victoria. She married her beloved husband and built a house just for their heights, before retiring in Seville, Ohio.
Thank you NetGalley and Kids Can Press for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Read and reviewed: 2018-11-14
We need more books about feeling grateful, but unfortunately, this one was not very well written. It tells the story of Kiko, a young girl who goes on a field trip with her class, and learns what it means to be grateful. The first page starts with “I am an happy camper. I can grow grateful too', which feels very strange as the ‘too' doesn't have a clear reason to be there. When a boy asks what it means to be grateful, the author explains it in a very long and difficult paragraph, while the examples on the following pages would have been enough. The book ends with the question ‘How do you grow grateful?”.
I feel like the initial idea for the book was good but it lacked some serious editing to improve the flow and the structure of the story, The collage was colorful but could have been more pleasant to me without some random newspaper on the clothes or gardens of the characters. 2.5 stars rounded to 3.
Thank you NetGalley and the American Psychological Association for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Read and reviewed: 2018-12-06
This is a fantastic book about growing up and seeing your sibling leave the house, and all the emotions that a young kid can feel in this transitional time. The text and the illustrations were well executed, and I really liked how heart-warming the story ends :)
Thank you NetGalley and Editions Chouette for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Read and reviewed: 2019-12-03
What a wonderful story! I am completely mesmerized by it. Ali and his great-grandmother live in the desert, looking at the sky every night together. Ali realizes that his great-grandmother is getting old, and so one day, he asks him if all of her dreams have been fulfilled. “Every single one”, answers the great-grandmother, “except one!” And from there starts a journey of friendship and solidarity like nothing I've read before.
The illustrations are stunning, a melange of minimalism and beautiful patterns. The narration is flowing and extremely pleasant to read. I highly recommend this story of the love between a boy and his great-grandmother.
Thank you NetGalley and Kids Can Press for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Read and reviewed: 2018-11-14
1.5 star
It is a book that is supposed to educate kids on current and ocean conservation but it was scary and not well written. I wish they would have hired a writer instead of having the illustrator write the story.
Read and reviewed: 2022-06-25
I really struggle with Vanita Oelschlager's writing style. It is unfocused, lacks explanation when bringing new elements to the story, and overall needs more editing regarding the structure. The illustrations were of poor quality, and quite violent for children during the flooding. This is a heavily handed catholic book where the doctor and the preacher are the only white people of the story, and portrayed as heroes. I didn't like the illustration about the grandmother and the text that implies that she let Moses float away. I didn't like the inclusion of a boy sitting on the text box, it was very goofy.
Thank you NetGalley and VanitaBooks, LLC for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Read and reviewed: 2018-12-06
Appropriation of an Inuit tale by a non-Inuit writer.
Thank you NetGalley and Vanita Books for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Read and reviewed: 2018-12-06
This is great book to help kids gain confidence while reading. The mouse is visibly excited to hear her friend the aardvark sing a song for her. The only negative point that I see in this book is that I wish the mouse would not have been told to sit, but instead given the choice either to stand or to sit.
Thank you NetGalley and Schiffer Publishing Ltd for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Read and reviewed: 2018-12-05
This book is from the perspective of a girl whose brother has special needs. She describes what she likes doing at school, then what it is like to live at home with her family. She talks about how she loves her brother, and how sometimes it's not easy for her, as she can feel frustration, sadness or embarrassment sometimes. It does not always understand why her brother doesn't like playing with other kids, or why noise scares him, but she is trying her best. She also talked about how she feels left out at times as her brother requires a lot of attention from her parents.
I think that this topic is rarely talked about, and that this book did a great job at explained all the different emotions that she is going through.
Thank you NetGalley and Future Horizons for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Read and reviewed: 2018-12-06
