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Children’s Book Review- Welcome to Kindergarten

June 28, 2012 By Heather Leave a Comment

Welcome to Kindergarten
by Anne Rockwell
Paperback, 32 pages
Published: May 2002
by Scholastic, Inc
ISBN-10-439-35257-6
Book Source:  Bought
Rating: 4.5 stars

Book Description: “Tim, Come meet your kindergarten teacher on Thursday at 3 o’clock.” In Anne Rockwell’s Welcome to Kindergarten, Tim visits his new classroom before the start of school. After working in the science center, making “things out of wet and squishy clay, playing ball outside and having a cookie with a new friend,” Tim discovers that his new classroom is not too big after all, but “just the right size for me.”

Mary’s Review: Tim is starting kindergarten and is going to meet his teacher and see his classroom.  He sees many things in a classroom he thinks is too big for him.  There is the science center, the math center, the reading center, the cooking center(yummy), the weather center and many other areas he will learn things from.  He meets and makes new friends and even gets cookies that the previous kindergarten class made for the new kindergarten class.


A great little book that helps introduce little ones to school. They will love the illustrations showing each learning center and what is found there.


I recommend this book for children ages 4-6.

Author Bio:  I was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1934 but spent much of my childhood traveling throughout the United States. From the farmlands of northern Mississippi where my grandparents lived, to the magnificent landscape of the American Southwest, I learned to look, the most important skill an artist can develop. People used to say I was born reading. I can’t remember when I learned to draw and paint but I never dreamed of becoming anything but an artist.

By the time I was 18 I was living on my own in New York City, working and attending art classes at night, and learning from masters in museums. In 1955 I married Harlow Rockwell, an advertising art director and illustrator. When our daughter Hannah was born in 1958, I bought picture books. Sharing the joy of reading with her was one of the greatest pleasures I’ve ever had. I was sure that creating books for children was what I was meant to do. By some strange miracle, the first publisher who saw it published my first effort, “Paul and Arthur Search for the Egg” (Doubleday 1964).

By 1966 we had two more children, Elizabeth (Lizzy), and Oliver. I was fascinated by the different ways individual babies used their developing language to make sense of the world, and the way books helped them find their way. I think I learned as much about making books for young children by reading to our three as was possible.

We soon needed more space and moved to Old Greenwich, Connecticut, a community on the shore of Long Island Sound, where we could walk and sail and sketch by the beach, feed birds, have a garden and a dog. I was gaining confidence as a writer. Some books I wanted to write struck me as suited to my husband’s style of artwork, particularly those having to do with the real world, which he was able to present with simplicity, grace and charm, as well as uncanny accuracy. By 1977 we were collaborating on books full time.

After he died in 1988 our daughter Lizzy illustrated a picture book I’d written for him, “Apples and Pumpkins.” This book has become a classic, enjoyed in homes, schoolrooms and library story hours as soon as there’s a nip of fall in the air. Since its publication Lizzy and I have done 14 books together, with more in the works! Leonard Marcus, that fine historian of children’s books has done a chapter on us in his book, “Pass It Down.”

My own illustration style continues to evolve. Two of my recent picture books are “Here Comes the Night,” and “My Preschool.” For these books I wanted the soft and painterly effects you get with monoprints. My granddaughter Julianna, who is a wonderful painter, helped me with the printing.

It’s thrilling to see these gifts continuing through generations of the family!

Book Review and Giveaway- A Pocket Full of Kisses

June 27, 2012 By Heather 2 Comments


A Pocket Full of Kisses
by Audrey Penn
Paperback, 32 pages
Published: 2004
By: Scholastic
ISBN-10: 0439696682
ISBN-13: 978-0439686167
ASIN: 0439686164
Book Source:  Bought
Rating: 5 stars

Book Description: A follow up to The Kissing Hand, Audrey Penn’s A Pocket Full of Kisses has Chester Raccoon working through feelings of jealousy when he becomes a big brother.

Mary’s Review: A very sweet and loving book touching on the issue of sibling jealousy.

Chester wants to send his baby brother back where he came from.  His baby brother takes his toys, his swing, and anything else that is his.  But most of all he is taking his “hand kisses” and his mother’s love.  Chester is hurt and jealous and just does not want to share.  Find out how Mother Raccoon solves this problem and helps Chester understand how there is always enough love to go around.

This is a very timely and clever book addressing this issue.  The illustrations are beautiful.

I highly recommend it for ages 4-8.

Author Bio: I started my first career as a ballerina dancing with the National Ballet, New York City Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, and the Danny Diamond Dance Theatre. I also served as alignist and choreographer for the U.S Figure Skating Team in preparation for the Pan American Games (1973), and for the 1976 Olympic Gymnastics team. In 1980 I became too ill with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA) to continue dancing. Because I had done a lot of children’s theatre and children’s dance, and I have always enjoyed children’s literature, I turned to writing children’s books for my creative outlet.

But my writing career actually began much earlier than 1980. When I was a young girl, I had two older brothers who took great joy in teasing me.

 When I was in the fourth grade, I began keeping journals of the silly things they would say and do. Then I began adding things my pets did. Finally, I began to write down everything I saw and heard every day.

When I was in my early twenties, my mother found my journals and I turned the stories into my first book called, Happy Apple Told Me. But, I learned a very hard lesson writing that first book. I learned that you don’t just write a book; you rewrite, and rewrite, and rewrite, and rewrite a book. Thirty years later, I am still learning.

My passionate advocacy for children continually molds my writing style and subject matter. I have taken my one-woman educational program, The Writing Penn, into schools, libraries, and children’s hospitals, where I shape and refine my story ideas in partnership with kids.

My favorite part about being a children’s author is meeting my readers when I speak at a school or at a store. I get so many wonderful ideas from you, and you, and you. So, thank you for your inspired ideas, and letters, and emails. Now, it’s your turn to keep a journal.

 I live with my husband, my youngest daughter (who inspired The Kissing Hand ), and two dogs in Olney, Maryland. We have three children and one foster child.

The Giveaway: Little Red Reads is giving away one paperback copy of A Pocket Full OF Kisses to out readers. To enter to win, choose your ow entries in the rafflecopter form below.

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Children’s Book Review-The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs

June 22, 2012 By Heather Leave a Comment

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs
by Jon Scieszka
Paperback, 32 pages
Published Jan 1991
by Scholastic, Inc
ISBN:  0-590-44357-7
Book Source:  Bought
Rating: 4 stars

Book Description:  Everybody knows the story of the Three Little Pigs.  Or at least they think they do.  But I’ll let you in on a little secret.  The real story is…I was framed!
A. Wolf

Mary’s Review: “I’ve been framed”.  So says Mr. Alexander T. Wolf.  According to Mr. Wolf, he was only trying to borrow a cup of sugar.  Really?  According to Mr. Wolf he had a cold that resulted in his sneezing and blowing the little pigs house down.  Really?  All this resulted in his eating two of the little pigs.  Mr. Wolf says that the media jazzed up the real story to make it more interesting.  “I’ve been framed”.

This is a cute version of the Three Little Pigs told from the wolf’s side.

The illustrations are cute and kept the attention of my grandchildren.

I recommend this book for children ages 3-9.

About The Author:  Jon Scieszka was born in Flint, Michigan on September 8, 1954. It was a Wednesday. Right around lunchtime.
He is the second-oldest, and nicest, of six Scieszka boys. No girls.
His mother, Shirley, worked as a registered nurse.
His dad, Louis, was an elementary school principal at Freeman Elementary.
 His dad’s parents, Michael and Anna, came to America from Poland. “Scieszka” is a word in Polish. It means “path.”
Jon went to Culver Military Academy for high school. He had some spectacular teachers there, and became Lieutenant Scieszka.
Jon thought about being a doctor and studied both Science and English at Albion College in Albion, Michigan. He graduated in 1976, lived in Detroit, then moved to Brooklyn, NY to write instead. He earned his MFA in Fiction from Columbia University in New York in 1980, then painted apartments.
Not knowing what he was getting into, Jon applied for a teaching job at an elementary school called The Day School in New York City. He started as a 1st grade Assistant Teacher, graduated to teaching 2nd grade, taught 3rd and 4th grade Math, 5th grade History, and then some 6th, 7th and 8th grade.
Teaching school, Jon re-discovered how smart kids are, and found the best audience for the weird and funny stories he had always liked to read and write. He took a year off from teaching to write stories for kids. He sent these stories around to many publishers, and got rejected by all of them. He kept painting apartments and writing stories.
Through his wife Jeri, who was working in NY as a magazine art director, he met a funny guy named Lane Smith. Lane was painting illustrations for magazine articles, and working on his first children’s book. Jon gave Lane his story—
A. Wolf’s Tale. Lane loved it. Lane drew a few illustrations for the story and took it to show many publishers. He got rejected by all of them. “Too dark,” they said. “Too sophisticated,” they said. “Don’t ever come back her, okay?” they said.
Jon and Lane liked A. Wolf’s Tale. They kept showing it around. They kept getting rejected. Finally, Regina Hayes, an editor at Viking Books said she thought the story and the illustrations were funny. She said she would publish the book. And she did, in 1989, with the title changed to: The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!.
3 Pigs! has now sold over 3 million copies and has been translated into 14 different languages. Over the last 19 years, Jon and Lane have worked together on 8 picture books and 8 Time Warps. Lane’s wife Molly Leach has designed all of their picture books.
Jon’s books have won a whole mess of awards, and sold over 11 million copies all around the world.
Jon is now working on a giant pre-school publishing program called Trucktown. It’s a world where all of the characters are trucks. And all of the trucks act like real preschoolers—loud and crazy and wild and funny.
Jon still lives in Brooklyn with his wife Jeri. They have two children: a daughter Casey, and son Jake.
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We are the children's division of Fire and Ice. We review baby board books to middle-grade titles. We also review products and toys for the family. For inquiries on reviews, blog tours, and author interviews contact FireandIce.Heather@gmail.com
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