NOTE: I was asked to do a book review for Your Nose! by Sandra Boynton and the books Good Night, Baboon! and ABC Dance! by Eunice and Sabrina Moyle. While I was given these books, all opinions are my own.
Man oh man! Are things crazy in your neck of the woods? They are at mine!
This self-quarantine thing is not fun. Not by a long shot. The thing I miss most is snuggling with my grandkids on the couch and reading books to them.
However!
There is an easy way around that. You can use Zoom which is a video conferencing software. Use it to connect with your family and see their smiling faces. And, use it to read stories to your grandkids!
The best thing? It has a free personal plan. Huzzah! That’s really appealing, huh?
It’s easy to set up. But, if you have any problems, I bet your kids could help you.
Now to the real purpose of this post. Reviewing some awesome children’s books.
The first book review is about Your Nose! by Sandra Boynton. I ask you, how many books do you know that are about noses? I certainly don’t know of any!
And, how many of those books have a peppy song that sings the text? Zip! Nada!
Okay, folks. Here goes the virtual reading of the book to my grandkids.
See me. See me connect to 3 of my darling grandkids using Zoom.
See the book? See me hold up the book?
See me read the book to my grandkids.
See the grandkids watch me on their own Fire tablet. (Santa really spoiled them this past Christmas!)
See my two-year-old grandson sit quietly. He does not squirm. He does not wiggle. He does not lose interest and wander away.
He is such an awesome grandson.
Your Nose! is an upbeat celebration of noses in all their irresistibly glory. More specifically, a mama fox praising her baby fox’s sweet and adorable nose.
It’s a sturdy board book. One that will withstand the mauling of toddlers, the handling of siblings who read the book to toddlers, or the grabbing of mothers who get the book from the bookshelf time after time because the toddler loves the book.
The colors in the book are bold and bright. I love them!
The illustrations are clever. I love them!
And the accompanying song? It’s a catchy tune sung by Neil Sedaka. (I bet all of you grandmas out there recognize that name!) It’s so catchy that I want to listen to it over and over. Kids will love the song, too!
You can buy a copy of Your Nose! on Amazon for $7.95.
The next book review is for Good Night, Baboon!
Did you catch the play of words in the title of the book? It isn’t ‘goodnight’ as in saying farewell at night to a friend who is departing to go somewhere. It isn’t like you are saying goodnight and have sweet dreams to someone who is in bed and will soon be drifting off to sleep.
It’s good night. As in the night is good. Which is exactly the problem the mama baboon is having with the baby baboon.
Did you ever have a hard time getting one of your kids — or grandkids — to go to sleep? That perfectly describes baby baboon.
In this countdown book, baby baboon is too jazzed up, too hyper to go to sleep. He interrupts other animals as they get ready for bed — the skunks as they are bathing, the dinosaurs as they brush their teeth.
Finally, as the countdown gets to one, mama baboon gives baby baboon one big hug and baby is finally — FINALLY — ready for bed.
This is another very sturdy board book. The illustrations are adorably quirky and kids will enjoy them.
Also, the countdown is fun. It’s not your typical countdown with ducks or cats or pigs. Phew! Parents will enjoy reading this to kids as much as kids will listening to it.
You can get it on Amazon for $7.95.
The last book review is ABC Dance!
This ABC book has all sorts of animals — aardvarks, camels, dolphins, gorillas, llamas, newts, sloths, and water buffaloes — to help children learn their ABCs.
The animals strut their stuff. They glide. They waltz. They clog. They shake their boots. They do the fandango. They move and groove. (You know, parents can encourage their children to do the same dance steps to help the kids get their energy out before bedtime. Just sayin’.)
This is another quality board book with fun pictures and story line.
However, there are two things that I didn’t particularly care for.
First, the llamas dance the lambada. I didn’t know what that word meant. After we got off Zoom, I looked it up. That is a fast, erotic Brazilian dance that couples perform with their stomachs touching. And that is in a children’s book? Really? I don’t think that was appropriate.
Then, there were two animals that were totally unfamiliar to me. I guess that is okay because it could be used as a learning experience to learn about the animals.
However, since I hadn’t read the book in advance, I didn’t know about those words and didn’t want to take the time to look them up while we were on Zoom.
In case you’d like to know, the two animals were xeme and vicuña. A xeme is an Arctic fork-tailed gull. Who knew? And a vicuña is a wild relative of the llama.
I think that the authors probably didn’t want to use common animals because that would make their book common. I predict that the majority of parents are like me and do not know what these animals are. It would have been helpful to have an explanation about the animals at the bottom of the page.
You can get a copy of ABC Dance! on Amazon for $7.95.
