I'm a full-time mummy

When I received the invitation to review this book, I never expected I would have to print out the book myself before going through them with our kiddos. Often, I get PDF copy of books that I reviewed (sometimes I prefer PDF as it is expensive to mail the paperback version to me in Malaysia) but there are times when I insisted to have the paperback version as well - this would normally be for books that I can use for our kiddos as I want them to flip and work through the book together.

But for this book, it is a first unique experience as the author is hoping to fund the production of the book through Kickstarter project. Since I can't request for a paperback version, I decided to print out the book myself and laminate it using our recently bought laminator machine. Why laminate when we can read it on our iPad or PC? The book is full of beautiful illustrations and I think it has a potential to be reuse again and again in future, hence the decision to print it out myself.

Title: A New Friend for Sally
Author: David Tang, Lora Lee (Illustrator)
Publisher: Tiny Robot Books (Independent book)
Paperback:  20 pages

Description from the product page:
"The tale of a lonely farm girl who really wants a pony, but instead her dad gets her a chicken... an animal it turns out that she's absolutely terrified of! A New Friend for Sally is a heartwarming story about unlikely friendships with the valuable lesson of not judging a book by its cover. This children's book is for kids aged 6-9."

Firstly, the illustration is very very nice. I love the details drawn and reading this book together with our 5 years old boy and 2.5 years old girl is just a wonderful delight! I think the colors would be much more intense if it is printed from a higher spec printer but since I printed it from our home printer, well, that is good enough for us as it is.

As our 5 years started his pre-K this year, I decided to read through word by word on each page (instead of summarizing the story and telling a simpler version based on his understanding which I previously do), stopping from time to time when there are words I think he may not hear before and then explaining to him what the words meant.

I can see our kiddos being very interested in this book, since this is kinda the first time they go through a book with different layout and feel. As I flipped through the laminated pages, I make use of the opportunity to play hide-and-seek with them as well, asking them from time to time to look for certain objects and animals in the pages.

I use the opportunity from this book to teach our kiddos to:

- Not throw tantrum when things doesn't go your way. 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.

- Be brave and face your fears. Just like Sally, even though she is terrified of her new pet chicken, things worked out in the end and they became the best-est of friends.

- Not judge a book by its cover. We should not be influenced by first impressions or our false sense of security.

In summary, it is a very fun book on friendship with educational 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 this book will be marketed soon!!

You can find more info on this book at http://www.tinyrobotbooks.com/.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a PDF 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"

As a mother of a 5 years old boy who is crazy with robot stuff at the moment, this book is just perfect! I have read this book 6 times in the span of 2 days. So happy I was with this book that I must get this review up as soon as I possibly can to help spread out the word about it.

Title: Bing & Nero: Boy + Robot = Fun!
Author: I L Williams, Inci Alper (Illustrator)
Publisher: Northern Phoenix (March 26, 2014)
ISBN-13/-10:  978-8293353003 / 8293353007
Paperback:  36 pages

Description from the product page:
"“The perfect story for every child who has ever wanted their own robot.” Share a day with an inventive young boy in a story that celebrates creativity, friendship and fun! Bing wants a dog. But his mother says a dog is out of the question. What´s a young boy in need of a friend to play with on a boring Saturday morning to do? Why, make his own friend! And what a friend his new creation is! The product of Bing´s rich imagination and household junk from the basement, Nero is a metallic wonder. From the moment he is switched on, the house is filled with fun! And when they take to the sky for a late afternoon flight, boy and robot are in for a joyous ride that celebrates their friendship. This debut book from I.L. Williams gives young readers an opportunity to share an exciting experience many dream of with a young boy in a story that showcases creativity, friendship and fun. An excellent book with vibrant illustrations, for parents and children to enjoy together."

Firstly, the illustration is very nice. I love the details drawn and reading this book together with our 5 years old boy is just a wonderful delight! The pictures are on the left hand side while the text is on the right side.

As our 5 years started his pre-K this year, I decided to read through word by word on each page (instead of summarizing the story and telling a simpler version based on his understanding which I previously do), stopping from time to time when there are words I think he may not hear before and then explaining to him what the words meant. I can see him being very interested in this book, as he can relate himself with Bing, the main character in this book. Like Bing, our boy wanted a pet dog too but we told him that he is too young to care for a dog now. Other than that, our boy is very much into robot stuff at the moment so to have this book to read through is very exciting and fun!

I use the opportunity from this book to teach our boy to:

- Not whine and complain when he is bored. I told him to emulate Bing, even though he is bored and do not have a pet dog, he still finds way to fill up his time and uses his brain to create the robot etc.

- Have proper planning when trying to come up with something. In one of the page illustrated, I showed our boy a blueprint drawing of the robot and some crumpled papers next to it. I explained to our boy that we need to draw or write out our ideas on paper so that we can see clearly what we wanted to do / make.

- Not throw tantrum when things go wrong. In one of the page, Bing realised he made the robot wrongly but that does not deter him from continuing his work, he just rectify his mistakes and move on.

- Set goals and works towards achieving the goal.

I use the opportunity to play with our 2.5 years old girl when I read this book to her. I came up with my own version of a simpler and easier to understand version for her due to her shorter attention span at the moment. I got her to point out where the cat is on some pages, making it a fun hide and seek game. I also got her to imitate some of the expressions shown by Bing and got her to tell me the names of the objects I pointed to her from the book.

In summary, it is a very fun book on friendship and adventures with a robot friend and encourages creativity, imagination and sense of hope to make your dreams come true. I can definitely see this book being read over and over and over again. Highly recommended!!

You can get this book from Amazon. You can have a look at the animated video here or find out more from the website.

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 was looking around for some nice cloth books which we can use and read to our kiddos before their bedtime now that our almost 5 years old boy has started his preK and we have started establishing our daily routine. I couldn't contain my excitement when I stumbled upon these 2 cloth books as I can immediately think how fun and educational they would be for us! I had initially intended to purchase the cloth books when the sponsor generously offered to sponsor me the books in exchange for my review.

"We're a friendly online store which mainly providing educational toys, cloth books, family tee and other mother baby items. Owning a cute and active toddler of our own, we understand what a parent would need. We love to bring convenience for all busy parents to just browse online, place order and all items would be delivered to you by door step. niceVin, your family store."

 I will start off with the 1st book which is "My Quiet Book". This book is so colorful! It is a little over 6 inches long and 6 inches wide and opens up to about 12 inches long in reading/playing mode. I like that you can close up the book by zipping it up all around and that there is a cloth handle for you to hold and carry it around. Neat!

I like this book for its educational purposes. When I go through this book, I think of the Montessori methods where children learns everyday tasks such as tying up shoe laces, working with zips and buttons and more.

The 2nd book which I totally fall head over heels with is the "Little Bear's Lullaby and Good Night Book".

This book is just so freaking cute and awesome! It is a little over 6 inches long and 6 inches wide and opens up to about 12 inches long in reading/playing mode. I like that you can close up the book by zipping it up all around and that there is a cloth handle for you to hold and carry it around.

I like this book as it helps to guide our kiddos and ease them into a proper bedtime routine. Brushing teeth, bathing, changing into their bedtime clothes, reading a bedtime story book, praying, and then going to sleep, all this are pretty much what we incorporates into our bedtime routine.

The cool and cute thing I like about this book is that you can move some of the objects (milk, soap, pajamas etc) and help the teddy bear as it gets ready for bedtime.

You can actually take out its clothes, put it into the bath tub, bath it with the soap, put on its pajamas and so on. Way, way, way realistic and cute at the same time.

Everynight, right before we get ready to sleep, we will take this book out and our kiddos will be waiting for either hubby or myself to go through this book with them.

I normally let them in-charge of each subsequent pages, first Benjamin then Alyson and so on until we finished the whole book. Both of them will be excited to be responsible and helping teddy bear gets ready for bedtime.  This book is a must have!!!

Summary: The "Little Bear's Lullaby and Good Night Book" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, I love it so much that I bought another one as a gift to our close friend. The "My Quiet Book" is a wonderful book as well as it  to have and I am glad to be given the opportunity to review this product and keeping it. Recommended! 

You can get the "Little Bear's Lullaby and Good Night Book" & "My Quiet Book" from niceVIN Facebook page.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the product by niceVIN 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.