I'm a full-time mummy

I have been cutting down on doing product reviews ever since our 3rd kiddo came along in end of Sept 2013. I do still accept review pitches but only when time permits and if it is something that I can see it being useful and beneficial to our family. Also, as busy as I am with 3 kiddos, home cooking, taking care of hubby's administration site of the business and swamped up with managing my FB page and blog, I just can't say no to reviewing good books! Reading is my passion and coupled with books that are of parenting, children, family or religion or educational genre, all the more I gotta say yes!

Title: The Adventures of Squirky the Alien #1: Why Am I Blue?
Author: Melanie Lee    Illustrated by David Liew
Publisher: MPH Group Publishing Sdn Bhd (15-Aug-2014)
ISBN: 9789674152062
Paperback: 40 pages

Description from the product page:

"On his fifth birthday, Squirky realises that he's different from his sister Emily. For one, Squirky is blue in colour. His parents reveal that he's an alien from Planet Q, who was sent to Earth when his homeworld was endangered. They also show him the UFO he’d arrived in, which they had been keeping. Though he is assured of his adoptive family's love and acceptance, Squirky still has questions about his origins. His quest for answers begins when the UFO activates...

Currently, many children's books on the subject of adoption are from Western countries. However none of them deal with issues of adoptees' identity, such as questions over their origins and why they were adopted. Also, adoption is still a relatively taboo subject in Singapore and
Malaysia.

The Adventures of Squirky the Alien is actually a series of six (6) storybooks altogether. Currently, three (3) books are already released and available for purchase now at bookstores while the fourth (4th) book is in progress. If you wish to know more about the series, you can find out more at the FB page started by the author, Melanie Lee. The author, Melanie Lee, a writer based in Singapore, is also an adoptive parent herself. She adopted her son, Christian, who is now a healthy and happy 2-year-old boy living with her and her husband, Darren. Inspired by her son, Melanie then began working together with her friend, David Liew, who is the illustrator of these books, to produce the series."

Firstly, I am very glad to be able to review this book as I have never talked about the topic of adoption with our kiddos. We don't have any family members who are adopted or adopting so there have been no reasons to approach on this topic until this book came along.

The illustrations in this book are very nice. I love the details drawn and reading this book together with our 6 years old boy, 3.5 years old girl and 1.5 years old girl is just a wonderful delight! The pictures are on the left hand side while the text is on the right side. I tried to encourage our boy to read the book but there are some letters that he finds it difficult to read, for example, the letter 'i' and 't' as it sort of looks similar. The words used in this book are easy to understand for young children, no complicated words so I do appreciate that.

This book captured the attention of our kiddos especially our boy as he is into things like aliens, spaceships so he was asking for continuation when we reached the end of the book. I can see he also gained a new understanding on what adoption means after going through this book.

I like that there are notes at the back of the book that guides you on how to discuss about the topic of adoption with children like why should it be discussed and how to comfort the child, at what age is it appropriate to do so, how to respond if a child wants to search for their  birth parents, what to do if a child  disregard their adoptive parents as their 'real' parents after finding out about their birth parents and how to reassure a child that they are still loved no matter what.

In summary, it is an eye-opening book with good parenting points to take note and applied to if you want to approach or be approached on the topic of adoption in a family. 

The book is available at all major bookstores in Malaysia. You could also buy it online from mphonline bookstore.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a copy of the book in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"

I have been cutting down on doing product reviews ever since our 3rd kiddo came along in end of Sept 2013. I do still accept review pitches but only when time permits and if it is something that I can see it being useful and beneficial to our family. Also, as busy as I am with 3 kiddos, home cooking, taking care of hubby's administration site of the business and swamped up with managing my FB page and blog, I just can't say no to reviewing good books! Reading is my passion and coupled with books that are of parenting or religion or educational genre, all the more I gotta say yes!

Title: Have a Happy Family by Friday
Author: Dr. Kevin Leman
Publisher: Revell (September 2, 2014)
ISBN: 978-0800719135
Paperback: 304 pages 

Description from the product page:
"Every member of a family plays a vital role in the health and happiness of the household. Everyone is important, deserves to be treated with love and respect, and needs to know that when they make mistakes they will still be loved unconditionally. And when every member of the family is pulling for each other and on the same team, everybody wins. But is this kind of family life even possible?

Parenting expert Dr. Kevin Leman says it is, and he's ready to show moms and dads exactly how they can make it happen in their family--in just five days. He shows families how to
· communicate honestly and kindly
· prioritize the right things
· maintain great attitudes and behaviors
· determine the role they play in the family structure
· make family time count

As always, Dr. Leman's outstanding advice is laced with humor, great stories, and the wisdom that comes only from a lifetime of experience. For parents who've had it up to here with bickering, hurt feelings, and emotional exhaustion, Have a Happy Family by Friday is just what the doctor ordered."

Firstly, I am very glad to be able to review this book as I fell in love with the writing style of this author. I ended up buying 4 more books from this author! Okay, back to the review of this book.. when I saw this page in the book, I immediately snapped a picture of it and posted one of the statements on my Facebook page, the one where it says 'Everybody wants a piece of you, and there's nothing left to give'. Wow! I often find myself thinking these exact same thoughts!

This book comes with a few categories:

• Introduction
• Monday - Choose Your Words, Change Your Family
• Tuesday - The Big 5: Time, Priorities, Activities, Work and Finances
• Wednesday - Navigating the Perfect Storm
• Thursday - Why Dad Can't Be Mom and Mom Can't Be Dad
• Friday - Mission: Possible
• Ask Dr. Leman - Some Q&As from parents
  
• Bonus Feature from The Secrets of Birth Order

The picture below was taken from the "Wednesday" chapter (page 88). I even shared this on my Facebook page and it received a number of likes and shares. I am guilty of some of the things listed here, especially speaking on behalf. Oh boy, countless times I just can't wait to answer questions directed to our kiddos. Sometimes I was worried that they might answer wrongly or answered with silly responses but after reading this book, I am going to try my best to withhold the urge to answer for our kiddos.

In the "Thursday" chapter, it talks about marriage, factors to a great marriage, critical needs of women and men, top stressors for women, what our children needs from mum and dad and what are the benefits and differences noted when mum and dad is present in their life.

Another chapter worth to read from this book is the "Bonus Feature" which has some brief info from "The Secrets of Birth Order" book from the same author. In this chapter, it highlights how the birth order of each child reveals their characteristics and personalities uniqueness and how we as parents can use that to our advantages. I find myself nodding and agreeing to almost everything listed in this chapter, so much so that I even bought the complete book which I plan to read next.

In summary, it is a very inspiring book with good parenting points to take note and applied to in a family. Highly recommended!!

The book is available at all major bookstores in Malaysia.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a copy of the book in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"

I have been cutting down on doing product reviews ever since our 3rd kiddo came along in end of Sept 2013. I do still accept review pitches but only when time permits and if it is something that I can see it being useful and beneficial to our family. Also, as busy as I am with 3 kiddos, home cooking, taking care of hubby's administration site of the business and swamped up with managing my FB page and blog, I just can't say no to reviewing good books! Reading is my passion and coupled with books that are of parenting or religion or educational genre, all the more I gotta say yes!

Title: Believe, Belong, Become
Author: Nick Vujicic
Illustrator: Dreamergo
Publisher: PMA Music Foundation
ISBN: 9789881278760
Paperback: 93 pages 

Description from the product page:
"A story of faith on how Nick overcomes his limitations and gains strength through God."

Firstly, this is the 3rd book from the 'Give Me a Hug' series but having been just able to review the 3rd one without the earlier 2 series, I don't think it matters which series you are reading on as it can be read on its own as well. I don't seem to see any continuation from previous series but I think it would be great to have collected all the books in this series!

Okay, back to the review of "Believe, Belong, Become" - the illustration is very very nice. Soft, gentle yet comical illustrations coupled with pastel sweet and soothing color choices is very easy on the eyes. I love the details drawn and reading this book together with our 5.5 years old boy and 3 years old girl is just a wonderful delight!

I started off with a brief introduction to our 5.5 years old boy on who is Nick Vujicic and why he is born without limbs. Honestly, I have not been talking about people with physical disabilities with our kiddos as I just don't know how to approach this subject. So I'm very grateful to be able to touch on this subject through this book.

This book comes with 8 chapters, going from the time Nick was a young child, pondering and wondering on why he was born this way, to how he suffered the looks and questions etc from people who came across him to how he overcome and uses his disability in a positive way to bring people closer towards God.

Reading to our young kiddos, there are some instances where I rephrase the sentences in the book for easier understanding but I still make it a point to deliver the message of each chapter to our kiddos.

Our boy particularly enjoyed seeing the illustrations on how Nick was portraying himself as an alien (see picture below). Our boy asked me whether Nick was an alien or a monster and why he looked like that, so I used the opportunity that sometimes we tend to see something that does not look common or normal as something scary or creepy looking like how this girl in the book thought of when she saw Nick.

As our boy started his pre-K this year, I also reminded him that just because Nick does not have hands or legs, it doesn't stop him from doing normal things like us. Nick can continue his studies, teaching and inspiring other people.

A chapter that struck my heart is chapter 5 page 52 '... make use of our abilities and experiences to light others' flame of hope!' It reminded me of the time that I learned to comfort and prayed for a stranger whose mum will be undergoing an operation while my own mum lies on her bed in ICU fighting for her life.

I can see our boy especially being interested in this book as it touches on something different. I use the opportunity from this book to teach our kiddos to:

- Be grateful with what we have been blessed with.

- Not throw tantrum when things doesn't go your way or we are not like others. Just because whatever you wished for doesn't materialise, it doesn't mean the end of the world. We should pick up ourselves and move on and make the best of what we have.

- Not judge a book by its cover. We should not be influenced by first impressions or assumptions.

- Trust God in His purposes for our life.

- Make the best use with what we have to inspire and enrich other people's lives.

- Be patient when seeking answers or help for our worries, troubles and so on. That God answers our prayers no matter what, we just need to lean on him and trust on His will for us.

In summary, it is a very inspiring book with educational and moral values which can be instilled in our children. I can definitely see this book being read over and over and over again. Highly recommended and I hope I get to check out the other books in the series as well!!

The book is available at all major bookstores. So far for Malaysia, only MPH Online carries the Chinese version.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a copy of the book in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"