Book Review : Icky, Yucky, Mucky!

~Medha is 3 years 5 months old~

Few days back, I happened to see this book cover picture in one of the posts by LittleReader'sNook that they are going to read this book in their Story Session happening in Mumbai for "Just for Laughs" theme. I was impressed with this as I never used or taught those words to Medha. So I ordered this book online.

Title : Icky Yucky Mucky

Author : Natasha Sharma
Age : 3+ years
Pages : 32
Publisher : Zubaan

Book Review : Giraffes can't dance

~Medha is 3 years old~

When I was thinking of books that are about "being YOURSELF" theme as part of The Bubble Ink - 30 Books in 30 Days challenge, I came across this book. When I read first time, I found this as a sweet story with funny and beautiful illustrations.

Title : Giraffes Can't Dance

Author : Giles Andreae
Age : 3-6 years
Pages : 32
Publisher : Cartwheel Books

Book Review : Big Dog Little Dog

~Medha is 3 years old~

I must thank Falak for sending me this book as part of Tale In Mail kit for Friends Theme. We are reading this book on Day #2 of 30 days 30 Books challenge.

Title : Big Dog Little Dog

Author : P.D.Eastman
Age : 3-7 years
Pages : 32
Publisher : RHUS

Our list for 30 Books in 30 Days Challenge

As mentioned in the previous post, here is the list of books I am planning to read with Medha in 30 Days Challenge. This is a tentative list that I am planning to read, I may change or add any new book as per Medha's interest on that particular day and/or as per Bubble Ink recommendation.

No.	Book Name	Author	Publisher	MMM Review Link
1	Room On the Broom	Julia Donaldson	Macmillan Children's Books	Review
2	Big Dog Little Dog	P.D.Eastman	RHUS	Review
3	Bear feels Ill	Karma Wilson	Simon & Schuster Childrens Books	Review
4	One Ted Falls Out of Bed	Julia Donaldson	PAN MACMILLAN INDIA
5	Goodnight Gorilla	Peggy Ramnathan	G.P.Putnam Son's	Review
6	Handa's Surprise	Eileen Browne	Candlewick Press	Review
7	Monkey and Me	Emily Gravett	Mac Uk
8	Where is Gola Home?	Chitra Soundar	Tulika
9	Never Too Little to Love	Jeanne Wills	PAN MACMILLAN INDIA
10	Kat and Kit	Tomie, DePaola	Penguin USA
11	Bestfriends forever	Richa Jha	WISDOM TREE-NEW DELHI
12	Monkey Puzzle	Julia Donaldson	PAN MACMILLAN UK
13	The watermelon route	Quentin Greban	Jyotsna Prakashan
14	The Milkman's cow	Vidya Pradhan	CBT Publications
15	Just Like a baby	Juanita Havill and Christine Davenier	Chronicle Books
16	Born to Read	Judy Sierra	Knopf Books
17	Pranav's Picture	Nandini Nayar	Tulika
18	Chocolate Mousse for Greedy Goose	Julia Donaldson	PAN MACMILLAN INDIA
19	Penguin	Polly Dunbar	Walker Books
20	Chicken Licken
21	The Bad Tempered LadyBird	Eric Carle	Penguin UK
22	"Slowly, Slowly, Slowly," said the Sloth	Eric Carle	Puffin Books
23	Hippo has a hat	Julia Donaldson	PAN MACMILLAN INDIA
24	No Matter What (Fox Book)	Debi Gliori	Kindle
25	I like it When	Mary Murphy	Red Wagon
26	Say Boo to the Animals	Ian Whybrow	Macmillan Children's Books
27	What makes a rainbow?	Betty Ann Schwartz	Piggy Toes Press
28	Carduroy	Don Freeman	Puffin Books
29	Purple Jojo	Sameera Zia Qureshi	Tulika
30	When a duckling is scared	Shyamala S
31	Toy Horse	Deepa Agarwal	CBT Publications
32	Where's that Cat?	Manjula Padmanabhan	Tulika
33	Feet Problems
34	Guess how much I love you	Sam MacBratney	Walker Books
35	Postman Bear	Julia Donaldson	Acorn wood
36	Mallipoo Where are You?	Radhika Chadha	Tulika
37	Ekki Dokki	Sandhya Rao	Tulika
38	What Shall I make?	Nandini Nayar	Tulika
39	Party Animals	Kathie Lee Gifford	Perseus Books
40	What did you see?	Nandini Nayar	Tulika
41	Up Down	Vinayak Varma	Tulika
42	If you give a pig Pancake?	Laura Numeroff	Harpercollins
43	Brown Bear Brown Bear what do you see?	Eric Carle	Penguin UK
44	Watch Out	Shamim Padamsee	Tulika
45	Mala's Silver Anklets	Annie Besant	Tulika
46	Kangaroo's Cancan Cafe	Julia Jarman	Orchard

Though it's for 30 days, I noted down around 40 books in the list as I can use them if she is interested to read more books on any day. Some of these books are reviewed here in my blog. And also I prepared this list with the books what we have at home only.

And I also decided to take this opportunity to make sure I review each book we read everyday. Please participate in this challenge, get inspired by fellow moms who are reading and start reading to your kids also everyday without fail.

Book Review : Handa's Surprise

~Medha is 3 years old~

I must thank Devaki from Little Reader's Nook for recommending this book in her story sessions. Not only Medha, even I loved this book a lot. This is such cute and sweet story. You must not miss this book for your kids.

Title : Handa's Surprise

Author : Eileen Browne
Age : 2-6 years
Pages : 32
Publisher : Candlewick

30 Books in 30 Days Challenge from Bubble Ink

Despite my best intentions, I never could get myself to blog on a regular basis due to my work commitments and personal as well. I am well aware that blogging is one of the best ways to record all the activities we do and books we read.

This year I resolved to blog more and, luckily, I had a little help. The recently started a blog about book reviews, The Bubble Ink created "30 books in 30 Days" challenge that challenged participants to read a book daily for 30 days. Please read the more details here.

The next post will be the list of books that we are thinking to read during this challenge which is tentative list. We may change the book to read based on Bubble Ink recommendations or Medha's interest. And I am preparing this list as it helps us in identifying what books we have and what we read already and what can we read during challenge.  Keep watching this space and please participate in this challenge to raise readers in your home. :) 

And I am extending this challenge to make sure I review the book I read in the challenge. So "30 Book Reviews in 30 Days challenge", I must say. Looking forward for this challenge to see what others are reading and getting some good recommendations of books for Medha from fellow moms. 

Book Review : Bear Feels Sick

~Medha is 35.5 months old~

I must thank Devaki for sending me this book as part of February theme, Love Makes Our World Go Round, subscription kit from Little Reader's Nook.

Title : Bear Feels Ill

Author : Karma Wilson
Age : 3-7 years
Pages : 40
Publisher : Simon & Schuster Childrens Books

Book Review : Where's that cat?

~Medha is 35.5 months old~

Last week, we are talking about Farm Animals a lot, then I was searching for some simple books that involved animals, then I came across this simple yet beautiful book from Tulika Publishers.

The cover is pretty simple a picture of an innocuous orange cat looking out of the curtain and I am sure every one will like the text with humorous illustrations.

Title : Where's that Cat?

Author : Manjula Padmanabhan
Age : 3+
Pages : 20
Publisher : Tulika Books

Book Review : Chocolate Mousse for Greedy Goose

~Medha is 35.5 months old~

Having previously read few other titles by Julia Donaldson, I decided to try and locate another one of her books and across this one. I bought this from PassaroBooks for 150/-. 

The cover is pretty simple with the title and an illustration. The illustration; a goose holding a bowl of mousse, perfectly depicts the title. It gives young readers the chance to look at the picture and link them to the words of the title, a good way of young readers creating an understanding that words have meaning. 

Title : Chocolate Mousse For Greedy Goose

Author : Julia Donaldson
Pages : 24
Publisher : Macmillan Children's Books

Book Review : That's Not My Bunny!!

Touch and Feel Books are must try-out books for babies and toddlers. They respond especially well to books which feature different fabrics, textures and surfaces. These can be particularly good for stimulating the various senses. These books can help young children to collect information and explore the things through their fingers. These are perfect for discussing descriptive words like "SOFT", "BUMPY", "SHINY" etc. 

The prime age for touch and feel books is from toddler-preschool. Because these books are aimed specifically at helping children develop knowledge while increasing the use of their senses, appeal is lost to older generations who more than likely already possess the skills being taught. One of the key advantages to teaching senses and vocabulary through the use of touch and feel books is the connection a child can gain by instantly being rewarded with the texture which the word describes.

We read few Touch and Feel books from library earlier, but this is the first one we bought especially from Usborne's "That's not my....." series. 

Title : That's not my bunny

Author :  Fiona Watt, Rachel Wells

Publisher : Usborne Books

Splendid Sites - Fun With Spot

The Splendid Sites feature is designed to help you find fun and safe websites to visit with your toddler and kids. Some of the sites are educational in nature and some are just plain fun! If this is your first time visiting, be sure to check out some of the toddler websites that we've featured in the past.

If your child loves the Spot book series by Eric Hill, then you will enjoy the website based on the cute little dog! The site provides some great activities for kids and also resources for parents.

Online sites we buy kid's books

If we have to buy books online, I am sure most of us prefer Amazon, Flipkart or Infibeam. Recently I have come across following sites too. Please do check these and avail benifits if you like.

Kutoohala : 

A space with exclusive children's books, toys, parent and child workshops and story telling sessions. Checkout their website to see the subset of their collection of used books and new books. You will definitely love this as you can get international authors used books in a reasonable price. They have added only subset of books in their website, if you are in Bangalore, please visit their store to see full range of their book collection. I haven't been there to see their full collection.

I have bought around 5-6 used books along with few CBT publications books through their online site. Though they're used,  condition is good.

PassaroBooks :

It started recently, in 2013, with the objective of offering low cost, high quality Pre-owned imported (UK/US) books to the Indian public.They also have (new) activity books, children’s books (Geronimo Stilton, Hardy Boys, Diary of a Wimpy kid) etc of Indian editions from various publications. 

I had bought around 30+ costly books at a reasonable price from them. And condition of books is almost like NEW.

Pappadum : 

It is co-founded by Priyanka Raghunath and Harini Lakshminarayan and offers us eco-friendly range of products for children aged 0-5. There is clothing, books and stationery, toys and much more. They do have a unique collection of books like Olivia books etc. But they don't have a catalogue to browse through. You have to check their pinterest board here to see the books and they are very friendly and prompt in responding to your queries on price and availability of books. 

And I keep updating this post whenever I come across such sites. Keep browsing and get your kid reading wide collection of books. 

Book Review : Postman Bear

~Medha is 33.5 months old~

Received this book as part of Little Reader's Nook December kit. And also Devaki mentioned that all Julia Donaldson's "Acorn Wood" series are beautiful for younger kids.

Title : Postman Bear

Author :  Julia Donaldson

Pages : 14
Publisher : Macmillan Children's Books

Review : My Little Chatter Box - Tale In A Mail

After subscribing to Little Reader's Nook, I had came across My Little Chatter Box (MLCB) "Tale In a Mail" box. This is also just similar to Little Reader's Nook. Their each box will have 3 books, some activity cards, and some information cards about the books. 

I thought of subscribing to this too as I really impressed with the books they are selecting for each theme every month. Some of my close friends asked me to know do I need to subscribe to 2 when both are same? I had thought about this lot of times and finally decided to go ahead for 2 reasons: 

• Medha loves books and lot of books. We read again and again at least 10 books per a month. 
• Both subscription boxes are different in terms of the themes and books they select.

Book review : Hippo has a hat

~Medha is 33.5 months old~

One of my new friend, Rajeswari, suggested this book for Medha as it's a big hit for her daughter. As this book is also from Julia Donaldson, the author of Room On the Broom book, without second thought I ordered this book for Medha. OMG, how I missed this book all these days. I should have own this book right from when Medha is a toddler.  Better than never, here is our review. 

Title : Hippo Has A Hat

Author :  Julia Donaldson

Publisher : Macmillan Children\'s Books (2010)

Book Review : What Makes a Rainbow?

~Medha is 32.5 months old~

I received this book from Devaki, as part of Little Reader's Nook November kit. This book is also called as MAGIC RIBBON BOOK. I must thank her for this beautiful book as part of kit. Medha loves this book and calls this as Color Ribbon Book. :) 

Title : What Makes a Rainbow?
Author : Betty Ann Schwartz

Publisher : Piggy Toes Press
No. of Pages : 14

First Books of Medha

Today I am going to mention the very first books of Medha. Sorry dear without mentioning these books your book-list is incomplete. We had these books along with My First Board Books since Medha was 6 months. 

These board book are die cut in the shape of the animals/birds depicted in the story. Look at me series of board books for toddlers and preschool children's depict baby animals and their mothers. The stories complement full color illustration on every page that are handsomely rendered in a naturalistic style.

Each book is only 4-8 pages and beautiful pictures of baby animals with their mothers. Medha loves to explore these books more for the baby animal pictures. 

Book Review : Purple JoJo

~Medha is 33.5 months old~

Medha's love for dogs made me buying "Purple JoJo" book by Tulika which is about a white dog. I am not wrong in choosing this book, this became one of her favorite book now. She keeps talking about this book everyday at least once. 

Title : Purple JoJo

Author :  Sameera Zia Qureshi

Publisher : Tulika Publishers

Book Review : Room on the broom

~Medha is 32 months old~

After seeing the recommendation of this book by Falak, I decided to get this book for Medha. And I got this from library first to see whether Medha likes it or not as this book is recommended for 5+ ages. This book is magical journey with a delightful witch who loses lots of her accessories as she flies. I must thank her for recommending this beautiful book to me and Medha.

Title : Room On the Broom

Author :  Julia Donaldson

Publisher : Dial Books (2012)

My ways of helping Medha to love reading

Helping your children enjoy reading is one of the most important things you can do as a parent and it's well worth the investment of your time and energy.