Kid’s Book Reviews ~ Library Haul #16
Hi everybody! Welcome to our Kids Book Review Library Haul post! This is where I give you quick and snappy reviews of our favorites from our weekly library haul. We read a LOT of children’s books from the library, so I don’t bother reviewing all the ones that were just mediocre. I like to keep things positive too, so books that I thought were terrible don’t usually make it into the list either… unless I just really want to rant about it for a while. Let us know in the comments which books were winners in YOUR library haul!
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#1. Flying Solo: How Ruth Elder Soared Into America’s Heart by Julie Cummins
This is by far my favorite book out of the library haul this week, and Sophia is obsessed with airplanes, so I think it’s safe to say that it wasn’t wasted on her either. It is the true story of Ruth Elder, one of America’s first female pilots. In 1927 most people believed that women were supposed to stay in kitchen’s and houses. Working outside the home was frowned on, and flying a plane was completely out of the question. Ruth Elder didn’t agree. She had a passion to fly planes, and she wanted to be the first woman to fly a plane across the Atlantic. On October 11, 1927, she attempted it and failed. She didn’t let failure stop her though. She kept on flying, eventually completing a race across the continental United States. She never achieved some specific goals. Amelia Earhart beat her to being the first female pilot to fly across the Atlantic. She didn’t win the continental race. But she never gave up, and she had a hope that one day women would fly fighter jets… and now they do.
I love finding little tidbits of history that I didn’t know before, and this book was a treasure trove of little historical details. Yes, in a children’s book! Isn’t that wonderful?! Ruth Elder is exactly the sort of girl that little girls should read about. She was strong minded, and she didn’t let popular opinion get her down. Furthermore, she accomplished something really remarkable by becoming a female pilot in a time when it was generally discouraged.
Beyond the obvious lessons about tenacity and perseverance, this book is great because it is perfect for younger children. Too often, the picture books that cover historical events or people are still a level or two above preschool age. This book has it all. It has a great vocabulary, but the amount of text per page is definitely still manageable for my preschooler, and the pictures are these fantastic, colorful, full page spreads.
Definitely check this one out! Whether you have girls or boys or both, it is a great read for all ages!
We loved it: 5 out of 5 stars
#2. Airplanes by Caroline Stamps
Are you sensing a theme yet? This week, our nonfiction mini-study was airplanes, by Sophia’s choice. This nonfiction book was also one of her picks. It never fails to amaze me the attention span she can have. When she is legitimately interested in something, particularly if she picks it out herself, she will sit for hours, listening to and poring over books that I would consider significantly above her reading level–a fact that thrills me, I might add. Mama has a little bookworm on her hands 😀
Anyways, this was a nonfiction book about airplanes. It covered the history of planes, first models, gliders, helicopters, military planes, passenger planes… if it has to do with planes it was probably mentioned (briefly) in this book. There’s nothing particularly special about the writing style. It’s very straightforward, but does have lots of pictures. Sophia loved it.
We loved it: 5 out of 5 stars
#3. Over in the Ocean In A Coral Reef by Marianne Berkes
This is a rhyming romp through the ocean with lots of opportunities for counting, as various species of sea life are introduced. The illustrations are very unique and whimsical. As far as educational value, beyond teaching kids the names and general appearance of the sea creatures, there really isn’t much except for what you personally infuse it with. There is plenty of opportunity for counting and identifying colors, but there aren’t really true facts about the sea creatures themselves. I would love to see a rhyming, fun book like this that incorporated more facts. Sophia really liked it though. She loves counting every single sea creature on the page.
Overall, a good book for general introduction to some sea creatures and counting.
We really liked it: 4 out of 5 stars
#4. Beautiful Birds by J. Roussen and E. Walker
This alphabet book goes through a world of birds. From Albatross to Macaw to Quetzel and Zosteropidae, this book manages to find a bird for every letter. To be completely honest, I’m still not entirely sure what a Zosteropidae is, but I’m going to be googling it. Xanthocephalus would have been equally confusing, except that they conveniently included the definition right below it. This book does rhyme as well, but the most impressive thing to me is the illustrations. They are beautiful, crisp, and very colorful. I’m not sure which of us enjoyed the illustrations more in this case.
This is a great book for birds, and challenging your youngsters vocabulary and identification skills.
We really liked it: 4 out of 5 stars
#5. Sunday Shopping by Sally Derby
This is an adorable story about a Grandma and little girl who go pretend shopping together on Sunday nights. They go through the Sunday paper, picking through the advertisements and “buying” anything they take a fancy too–as long as they have the money. When they’ve spent all their money, they go to bed, but there will be more money next week and they’ll go shopping again. This is definitely a sweet story that shares some of the special relationship between grandmothers and granddaughters. Honestly, it’s a fun idea for anybody. Sophia is always running around with a little pad of paper, telling me that she’s making her “grocery list”, especially on the days when I do my grocery list/menu plan/sales scouting for the week.
If you’re looking for a sweet, family story, this one definitely fits the bill. I think it would make a perfect bedtime story, or an entire day of activities, if you find a bunch of magazines and scissors and do the same thing. We’ll probably include both activities in our next couple days of summer entertainment.
We really liked it: 4 out of 5 stars.