Mind Your Manners, Dinosaurs!
by Danielle McLean, Gareth Williams (Illustrations)
“Time to eat!” The little dinosaurs are called to the dinner table, but they are busy playing, painting, or reading. Will each dino make it to the table on time? Will they remember to say please and thank you? Can they be patient to wait for their food?
This board book is so cute! I love the adorable illustrations and the cute designs for each little dinosaur. They are all so polite and sweet! The story is simple, but really lovely, and it makes it fun to learn good table manners.
The cool thing about this book is that not only does it have die-cut openings, but also flaps with hidden lessons about manners. The flaps are sturdy to withstand the destructive forces of little hands, and the cardboard is thick. I appreciate that good quality construction in a board book, because little ones will tear things to pieces if you aren’t careful!
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.
My Bag of Feelings
by Danielle McLean, Lisa Koesterke (Illustrations)
A child describes their feelings and all the things that made them feel happy, sad, angry, or brave. The child tells about how someone took their toy, or how they dropped their plate of food, or how they won the big race. The child loves to color to help them feel calm. They feel proud, excited, or scared depending on the situation. They look to their friends and family to support them and help them manage their emotions.
I loved this cute board book! It takes simple emotions and explains them through relatable scenarios. This is so great for little toddlers to learn to identify their emotions. I really liked that the book points to ways to manage emotions and stay positive in difficult situations.
The artwork is so adorable! I like the cartoony art style, and how the different items in the backpack are explained as you go through the pages. It’s a clever design!
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.
Dinosaur, Dinosaur, Fall Is Here
by Danielle McLean, Sanja Rešček (Illustrator)
The dinosaurs are ready for fall. They pick pumpkins, play in the leaves, and even wander in a corn maze. Some of the rhymes can be sung to familiar tunes like “London Bridge is Falling Down”, and others reimagine familiar nursery rhymes like “Little Jack Horner” but with dinosaur characters. Many of the rhymes are original poems about autumn, Halloween trick-or-treating, and Thanksgiving.
The illustrations are so cute! I loved the cartoony art work. The colors are bright, perfect for attracting the attention of little ones. I loved the cute designs for each dino character. They are so adorable!
I liked most of the rhymes very much, but a few of them don’t exactly rhyme. “Eater” and “sister” do not rhyme. That just sounds ridiculous. And some of the poems don’t keep a steady rhythm. The meter is all over the place. That annoyed me too. Of course, a child would not notice those things, so it probably would not matter to little readers.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.
Night Night, Little Ones
by Patricia Hegarty, Thomas Elliott (Illustrations)
All the animals are falling asleep, but one or two are still awake! The reader has to pull the slider to show the animals sleeping. At the end there is a child jumping on the bed, and the reader must pull the slider to get the child snoring in bed.
The text tells each animal to go to sleep using different phrases for each of them. “Dream big, hush now, lay your head down, snuggle up, tune out, sleep tight, lights out, etc…” are all phrases used to encourage the animals (and the reader) to get to sleep. It’s so cute!
I liked that this board book is divided into animals in the forest, the savannah, the jungle, and even fish and whales in the sea. I also thought it was fun that there are couple of nocturnal animals, like fox and owl, who have to be woken up!
The art work for this book is so beautiful! I loved the watercolor art style and the soothing colors. The animal characters are so cute, and it’s very restful to see them all snoozing in their nests or in the grass.
The design for the sliders is really inventive and cute! It’s so fun to open it up and see the picture change. I was glad to see that the cardboard of the sliders is thick and sturdy to withstand the destructive forces of little hands.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.
Hello, Frog: Touch, Feel, and Reveal
by Isabel Otter, Sophie Ledesma (Illustrator)
Frog explores through the jungle, looking under lily pads and leaves. There are many exotic animals like piranha, geckos, and a sloth. Frog says hello to his friends, the Monkey, Snake, and Hummingbird. The reader can look behind flaps to find new insect friends, and die-cut openings to the next page. Finally the Frog falls asleep at the end of the day, and we say hello to Moth as the night begins.
This is a cute board book! I love how the flaps create a sense of mystery and exploration as we discover new things behind each one. There are also different textures built into the design with fabrics, glitter, and some kind of shiny plastic. The art work is simple and bright, and I loved the adorable animals. It’s really clever how the artwork, the fabric textures, the flaps, and die-cut openings all work together in a cute design.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.
How It Works: Dinosaur
by Amelia Hepworth, David Semple (Illustrator)
Did you know that the T. Rex had 60 teeth, and could eat 500 pounds of food in one bite? This board book gives you a look inside the muscles, bones, and stomach of a T. Rex. They had small brains, but these big dinos had sensitive sight and smell, helping them to hunt. But sometimes their teeth would fall out when they were eating, and a new tooth would grow back!
The die-cut pages in this board book are so cool! You get to see all the innards of the T. Rex, and learn about how they lived in the olden days. I really liked that there is some interesting information and facts, but they are geared towards a young age group. The text is simple enough for a little child to understand, but interesting to adults too!
I loved the cute illustrations! There is a little mouse character who is a paleontologist, and explains all about the different characteristics of the T. Rex. It’s so adorable!
There is one mention in this book that the T. Rex lived “millions of years ago”. I understand that a baby board book is not going to go into the details of the evolutionary theory. But they could at least make an attempt to differentiate between actual known facts and scientific theories that are not proven. They did it in another place in the book by saying, “Scientists think that T. Rex and other dinosaurs may have had feathers…” That shows that the feathers idea is just a theory. The wording is simple. It’s effective. It shows that the information is not proven yet. So why don’t they do that for other theories? It really annoys me when books don’t take the trouble to present information in the correct way.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.
Baby’s First Bedtime
by Danielle McLean, Craig Shuttlewood (Illustrator)
An owl and two little owlets invite the reader to peek inside the kennel, the birdhouse, the rabbit hutch, and the duck house to see who is sleeping inside. We see a dog and puppies, a bird and little chicks, and all the animals with their parent sleeping peacefully.
I love the clever designs of the flaps! There is a little tiny flap where we can look inside to see a peek of one of the baby animals, then we can open the bigger flap to see the animal parent and all the babies sleeping. It’s so fun to first get a little peek and see if the reader can guess what animal is inside, then open the big flap to reveal the whole animal family together.
I love the cute illustrations in this book! The crayon art style is fuzzy and cozy-feeling. I like that the owls are doing random things in the background like swimming in the bird bath or playing hide and seek in the bushes. It’s so adorable!
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.
Hello, Bee: Touch, Feel, and Reveal
by Isabel Otter, Sophie Ledesma (Illustrator)
As we explore the garden, we discover animals and insects hiding behind flowers and leaves. Caterpillar is eating a leaf. Frog hides behind a mushroom. The Worm is underground digging tunnels. The reader can look behind flaps to find new insect friends, and die-cut openings to the next page. Finally the Bee falls asleep in a flower at the end of the day, and we say hello to Firefly as the night begins.
This is a cute board book! I love how the flaps create a sense of mystery and exploration as we discover new things behind each one. There are also different textures built into the design with fabrics, glitter, and some kind of shiny plastic. The art work is simple and bright, and I loved the adorable animals. It’s really clever how the artwork, the fabric textures, the flaps, and die-cut openings all work together in a cute design.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.
Luminous Libro 