Book 15 - "Diamond in the Snow" by Jonathan Emmett

This story is about a mole who experiences his first winter. When he sees an icicle, he thinks its a diamond and tries to rush it home, but it disappears in his hand. The mole thinks it is a MAGIC diamond. Then his friends the rabbit, hedgehog and squirrel tell him all about icicles and show them the tree from which it had fallen. In one of the last pages of the book, the beautiful tree of icicles is lit against the golden morning sun and the view is do splendid that indeed they all agree that it was MAGIC.

Rating: 4*

Review: Pictures are great. The beauty of winters and snow is shown very well. The emotions are covered well too. Great book to discover the pleasures of nature.

Book 14 - "The Daddy Mountain" by Fieffer

As I mentioned before, I love getting books that have a family connection. This one is for Papa and I knew it would be an instant hit. I think I have practically read it each day of the 3 week loan :)

The story is about a little girl who climbs on her Daddy all by herself and finally lands up on the top of his head. The story goes thru' the steps and the "catastrophe" and the final victory. The book also has a double page that opens up showing the girl on top of Daddy.

Rating: 4*

Review: Pictures through not elaborate, convey the messages quite effectively. The double page picture in the end adds to the effect. The story rushes at parts though and is slow at some. Could have been more crisper.

Book 13 - "A piece of Chalk" by Jennifer Ericsson

I was not sure Mysha would like this book, but it turned out to be one of her favorites.

The story is about a girl with a box of chalk who draws on the driveway. Each page leads us thru' what she draws. Sample page goes, " I take a piece is chalk; a brick red one; Red is the wall; stretching from side to side". And so she draws the whole picture, but the rain come down and all her colour run into each other. At first she is sad, then she figures she has a rainbow at her feet and she also still has the box of chalks to draw another picture.

Rating: 4*

Review: I like the way the book adds attributes to colors "spring green, fiery orange". The rhyming tone of the book also helps the child read along. I think the few pages at the end could be shortened for a crisper ending.

Book 12 - This way Ruby by Rebecca Harry

I picked up this book just because it was so colorful and with cute little ducklings!

The story is about a family of 5 ducklings. The smallest one of them takes things really at her own pace. Her name is RUBY. One day when Mama and Papa ducks are snoozing, the ducks set out to explore the river. All the other ducks breeze pass the river, but Ruby looks around and ponders at the sights she sees - the waterfall, the fishes, the lotus, the toads, the willow tree, etc. Suddenly there is a storm that gathers and all the ducks run helter-skelter. When they gather they seem to have lost their way. Then Ruby comes to their rescue. She confidently traces the way back past the willow tree, toads, lotus ...

Rating: 5*

Review: The pictures are fabulous. The story is short and zippy. Ruby makes a perfect hero.

Book 11 - Princess Prissy Pants Wishes Her World Pink by Ashley Evans

Well you could guess why Mysha picked up this book - it was PINK in color. It's one of the lessons that all girls need I feel - why their whole world cannot be PINK!

This story belongs to a girl called PrissyPink who wishes on her b'day that her whole world be PINK. And PINK it is, as God grants her wish. Then the problems ensue - The paraders fall into the river as they can't see where the road ends, the traffic is in a mess, Prissy herself runs into the wall and over her cat. Then its finally dawns on her that she is missing all her colors - the blue skies, the rainbow, her pussy's white fur - and finally she unwishes her wish and her whole world is colorful again!


Rating: 3*

Review: It is a great topic to cover with a girl. I wish though this book did not use rhymes because at times I felt the book lost its crispiness in trying to make things rhyming all the time.

Book 10 - "The Saturday Escape" by Daniel Mahoney

This story is a lesson on not lying. It was Jack, the bear's favorite day - Saturday story hour day. But mama bear said he could not go till he cleaned up his room. Jack was so eager to go, that she shoved all the toys under the tent and headed out. He reached Angie - the rabbit's house. She said she could not go because it was time for her to practice her piano. He suggested to her to put her recital tape so her papa would not know. The rabbit agreed and they sneaked out from there and went to Meldon, the mouse's house. Meldon had to paint his windows, but they suggested that he hand the job over to his little brothers. Then all 3 reach the library and in the midst of the story they realised that they had wronged. So they set back to correct things.

Review: 5*
Review: Wonderful way of not being told to stop lying but correction thru' self realisation on hearing a story. Stories are powerful and this one had one story within another!

Book 9 - "Mine" by Kevin Luthardt

I love books with just pictures. No words; no wonder they say 'A picture can say a thousand words"

This story is a lesson on sharing. The story starts with a brown parcel reaching the home of 2 boys. The moment they see it, each one thinks, "Mine" and then dreams of all the things each fancies - car, drum, yoyo, lollipop, drum and more. When the boys finally open the parcel they find a dinosaur soft toy. Then one boy marches away with it saying "Mine". The other one not to stay behind give the boy a blow and takes it away from him. A fight soon following - Mine - Mine. And then the unforeseeable happens - the toy tears. Ouch! Both boys get a scolding from mama and and sent to their rooms as a punishment. When they are called back for lunch, they go to the dining table and to their surprise they see the dinosaur all sown up. The boys look at each other and realise their folly. They give each other the toy saying "Yours" and but finally they realise that its "Ours"

Rating: 4*
Review: Simple, effective and short!

Book 8 - "My Best Sweet Potato" by Rainy Dohaney

Usually I read Mysha atleast one of her story books (that we are take home) at the library itself and not surprisingly that one is often her favorite one for the next 3 weeks that she gets to keep her books.

This story is about a little girl "K" whose favourite toy "Wollyman" goes missing. Usually K did everything from eating, swimming and racing together with Wollyman and usually Wollyman said boring stuff like "You are my best friend" when his string was pulled. But one day after mommy put her in the washing machine, he would always say "sweet potato" in every sentence. On one of K's usual day trip out she put Wollyman on a tree. Little "Mac" the weaverbird saw her. He took fancy of Wollyman and carried it way and he became a good friend. But K? she had kind of lost her world. Then one day she puts pictures of Wollyman on all the trees and Mac sees here sniffing. He realises that Wollyman has a buddy and then puts it back when he picked it up from. K is very very happy to see her Wollyman and as she grabs him he says, "Lets go for a ... sweet potato"

Rating: 4*
Review: The little girl is almost something any girl relates to and with a toy is completes the picture. The emotions of having, losing and then getting back a toy is most wonderfully expressed. The title and the situation of "sweet potato" was a little weird though.

Book 7 - "Little Polar Lear and the Brave Little Hare" by Hans de Beer

This is a series of a Polar Bear "Lars" and his adventures... Mysha identifies "Lars" whenever she sees one of his stories...

This story starts with Lars hearing a whimper and finds a hare at a bottom of a hole. He helps him outside and consoles the scared hare. As they are walking to go home, they see a car and the hare gets all scared. But Lars is all excited because he knows there is some good food around. After grabbing some good bits of carrots, fish and bread, Lars get curious about the noise coming out of the chimney. So he bends down to see and falls right into the controls room. He is scared and even more so as he hears someone coming. Now Hugo comes back into action and thinks he must save Lars. He goes to the chimney roof and kicks in some snow that distracts the man for enough time for Lars to sneak out. Then Hugo and Lars run for their lives before the man can get them. Lars praises Hugo as a brave hare!

Rating:  4*
Review: I love the adventures with Lars. The pictures usually full page are great often covering expressions in great detail so you feel right in the midst of all the action. Sometimes they are bit long for Mysha's age though :)

Book 6 - "Day out with Daddy" by Stephen Cook

I always like to pick up books with real relations. It creates some special reactions and feelings. This one was with Papa! Mysha specially liked the page where Papa is termed as the wildest animal (Mysha loves the camel, elephant, chetah rides with Ilyas)

"Day out with Daddy" is about a son spending his day with Daddy when mommy had to go out of town. Each event is told from the view point of the son and is humorous. For example, Daddy is excited to wake up at 4 am and "dressing to go out" means running outside in a panty with Papa chasing behind and "special meal" is "Papa pizza". In the end mommy comes home and is so sad to miss out on all the fun that she says she will never leave us alone again.

Rating: 5*
Review: Simple and humorous story that will ring the bell with any child. The visuals are great and the simple pun intended lines that go with them, even better.

Book 5 - "Petunia" by Roger Duvoisin

This story is about a duck named Petunia who finds a Red book and remembers overhearing that "He who owns a book and loves it is wise". So she presumes she is wiser in the procession of the book and others start believing that too. In her false wisdom (real foolishness) she tells the rooster that her red comb is made of plastic, and tells the hen that she has six chicks instead of nine. She also tells the horse that he would have to pull out all his paining teeth becoz she has none. The final nail in the coffin was when she tells everyone that the box of crackers was candies. BOOM!!! She has a lot of unhappy barn mates! The explosion opens up the book and Petunia notices that something is written on it. It is then that she realises that one must learn to read to be wise...

Rating 4*
Review - Book with great detail and a lot of words. Not good for Mysha's age but nevertheless a great story and message. Visuals are simple sketches that convey and move the story forward.

Book 4 - Banjo Granny

The story about Granny with a Banjo who sets to meet her grandchild, Owen. In doing so, she has to cross a river, a mountain and a desert. Each time she comes across an obstacle she picks up a banjo and sings and magically the path is made easier. Meanwhile birds give Owen the news that her Granny is coming. Owen excitement grows with each progress news that the birds bring along. Finally Granny meets Owen and Granny sings Owen her song.

Rating: ****
Review: The book contains a song with the musical notes that I didn't know how to read. This book may be even more magical with audio since at every stage Granny sings to make her way

Book 3 - Bamboo and Friends - The furry caterpillar

The story about the formation of butterflies. It's about 3 friends Bamboo(bear), Velvet (zebra) and Beak (bird). Beak looks out for an egg which he intends to have for breakfast but finds a furry caterpillar under Bamboo's head. Bamboo says its his pillow and Beak says that its HIS breakfast since it hatched from HIS egg. They keep quarreling on the same note. On the side the caterpillar is hungry and starts devouring leaves and getting bigger and bigger. One day they both find that it's become a hard shell and Bamboo no longer wants a hard pillow and Beak no longer wants a hard shell for breakfast. One day the shell cracks and a beautiful butterfly emerges.

Rating: ***
Review: Good pictures, but its not really a great story; velvet character not well developed and mentioned just one a few notes.

Book 2 - Snow Angel

The story of a mouse family - Mama, Sam and Daisy - on Christmas day. They were playing around in the snow when they see a kind of a Snow Angel coming down from the sky. It's a giant swan which they think is an angel. Daisy is mesmerized but Sam thinks that there is something wrong. The angel does not look well. It speaks finally and says it is tired and hungry and lost his friends. The mice rush to find some berries and nuts for the swan and after having some the swan feels energized to go. The mice feel very proud about this and go back and tell their mom about the episode.

Rating: 5*
Review: Great lesson on sharing on Christmas and great visuals.

The series unfolds ...Book 1 - The Great Monster Hunt

I had once attended a children's seminar where the speaker advised that instead of watching TV, family should focus on reading stories to kids. Infact before a child goes to formal school, 500 stories is what he/she must have heard ....

Ok, I have GOAL... no its not a new one, Mysha has heard countless stories till now, but I thought it would be nice to record them on her blog. So here come the first set of books -

The Great Monster Hunt - A story about a duck that hears some noise under her bed and cries out for help to the pig. The pig in turn calls the strong bear, the bear in turn the loud fox and the fox in turn the clever owl. The conclude that there is a MONSTER under the duck's bed. So they plan to trap him with a rope and a net. When they all reach the duck's house and look under the bed, they find a little mouse under the bed sleeping making a 'pssst' sound and they smile saying they made a monster of a mouse.

Rating:  *****
Review: Well developed plot with sounds expressions building into the climax. Very good pictures covered expressions well.