picture book review

Book Review: Lost Kitties Collector’s Guide

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Hasbro Lost Kitties Collector's Guide by Maggie Fischer
Hasbro Lost Kitties Collector’s Guide 
by Maggie Fischer

3 out of 5 stars on GoodReads


This collector’s guide give the details of every Hasbro Lost Kitties toy, along with their bio, their favorite food, their hobbies, motto, life dream, and a hilarious meme for each kitten. The book includes various half-page kitty memes and a poster in the back that says “You have cat to be kitten me right now.”

The illustrations are bright and colorful, and the memes are full of silly misspellings and puns. Each kitty is different and the designs are adorable!

Although most of them are cute and fun and innocent, I found a few slightly questionable kitties with weird bios. For instance, there is Drizzle, the kitty with an OCD paranoia of germs who is constantly bathing. He’s “gripped with the inescapable horror that [germs] are everywhere and on everything. Drizzle once downed a whole bottle of bubble mix because he thought it was just super-clean soap, and farted bubbles for three days.”
Another kitty, Peekerz, is terrified of open spaces, and stays inside her cardboard box all the time. Continue reading →

Picture Book Review: Lost Kitties #NOMZ

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Hasbro Lost Kitties Level 3 Squad Goals by Maggie Fischer
Hasbro Lost Kitties Level 3 Squad Goals: #NOMZ 
by Maggie Fischer

4 out of 5 stars on GoodReads


The Lost Kitties are having some eating issues. Some kitties only want to eat fish, others make their hot sauce way too hot, and one kitty can’t get his toaster to work. From tacos to fancy caviar, these hungry kitties need their tummies filled with delicious food!

The illustrations are bright and colorful with adorable kitty characters on every page. I thought the reading skill level was perfect for young readers, and the chapters are short and fun. I liked the silly little problems that the kitties face, and how their kitty friends join in to help solve their difficulties together.

The only part that I didn’t like was the story about Stuffs, the kitty who works as a food critic. He is known for his reputation as a fancy eater, but his secret favorite food is French fries. He gorges himself on massive amounts of French fries. At one point, he eats “…twelve extra large cartons of fries” in one sitting.

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Picture Book Review: Lost Kitties #ADORBS

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Hasbro Lost Kitties Level 3 Squad Goals by Maggie Fischer
Hasbro Lost Kitties Level 3 Squad Goals: #ADORBS 
by Maggie Fischer

4 out of 5 stars on GoodReads


These cute little kitties are into all sorts of hijinks, pranks, and kerfuffle…
Nap-kin can’t find a decent place to nap.
Bon-bon keeps baking and baking, but the kitties tummies are never full.
Francis gets a crick in his tail that only some relaxing yoga can undo.
Prankster Pants mixes sugar into the soap and it attracts a garden full of butterflies.
Memez is practicing for a music contest, but his dance moves are uninspiring until the dancing kitties tell him that the “best dance moves are the ones that make you feel like yourself.”

I love the cute storylines and funny little dramas! The illustrations are full of bright colors and hearts and rainbows. The writing is perfect for this reading level, and the fun comedy and short chapters keep it interesting.
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Picture Book Review: The Green Giant

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The Green Giant by Katie Cottle
The Green Giant 
by Katie Cottle

3 out of 5 stars on GoodReads


When she goes to visit her grandfather in the country, Bea discovers a green giant made of plants in the greenhouse next door. They have a lovely summer together, playing, swinging from trees, flying kites, and jumping rope with vines. But soon, Bea has to return to the city, and the green giant gives her a magical gift.

I thought this story was charming! The giant tells Bea all about when he was a young sapling in the city, and how he had to move out to the country because of all the pollution that made it hard for him to breathe.
Bea herself is an adorable character. Curious and sweet, she enjoys simple summer activities and is friendly to everyone (and every plant).

I like the crayon look of the art style, but the artwork isn’t very polished or symmetrical. Sometimes Bea’s eyes are different sizes, and the green giant’s design is severely lacking. He just has a plain smiley face for a face! Just two dots for eyes and a line for a mouth. I would have expected something a little more imaginative from an artist. And his body doesn’t seem like it has any structure. He’s a boneless blob of green and yellow leaves. He looks weird, instead of endearing.
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Picture Book Review: It’s Your World Now

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It's Your World Now! by Barry Falls
It’s Your World Now! 
by Barry Falls

4 out of 5 stars on GoodReads

This children’s book encourages children to be creative and true to their dreams, reminding them that they are capable of anything, but also that not everything will go their way. But most importantly, this book conveys the message that each child is loved, no matter what.

The one reason I enjoyed reading this book is the possibility for pointing out so many fun details in the illustrations. There is a ladybug hidden on every page, and it’s so delightful to search for it in the pictures. When reading with a child, it would be really fun to point to each picture and ask them “What is that?” or “Who is that?” and teach them about various people, places, and things.

All the illustrations are bright and colorful with a cartoonish look. The pages vary from simple and clean to extremely busy with complicated pictures of various things all jumbled together. I prefer the clean style, but I can also see the appeal of the jumbled images since it would be fun to point out each thing on the page while reading with a child.  Continue reading →

Picture Book Review: The Big Book Adventures

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The Big Book Adventure by Emily Ford
The Big Book Adventure 
by Emily Ford, Tim Warnes

5 out of 5 stars on GoodReads


Foxy and Piggy love to read. They share their reading adventures with each other, and describe all the wonderful characters they have met. They encounter mermaids and dragons. They fly on a magic carpet, and find buried treasure. Foxy goes to outer space on a rocket, and Piggy has tea with Alice and the Mad Hatter in Wonderland. The two friends decide to start a book club, so that they can go on even more reading adventures together!

I loved the sweet characters of Piggy and Foxy. They are so cute!! They bounce from story to story enjoying each adventure and happy to share the experience of reading with a friend. Continue reading →

Picture Book Review: Big Cat

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Big Cat by Emma Lazell
Big Cat 
by Emma Lazell

5 out of 5 stars on GoodReads

Isobel’s Grandma has lost her glasses, and when a stray cat wanders into the garden, Isobel and her Grandma adopt the very big cat. Without her glasses, Grandma can’t see that the new cat is really a tiger! Food goes missing, and all the little cats are jealous. How will Isobel take care of such a big cat, and when will Grandma realize her mistake?

This is the cutest, most adorable picture book I’ve ever seen! The story is so funny and whimsical. The characters are a delight, and I love how Isobel just takes things in stride when a massive tiger moves into the house. Meanwhile, Grandma is utterly oblivious, and can’t understand why they keep running out of cat food.

The illustrations are bright with wild splashes of color and movement. I especially love all the little details in the background of each page. We can look for Grandma’s glasses hidden behind a flower pot. We see a newspaper advertising “Missing Tiger!”, and Isobel reads a book about tigers while the tiger reads a book about Humans. So many sweet details like that, which make this book truly special and a joy to read.
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Picture Book Review: Emiline

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Emiline by Kimberli Johnson
Emiline: Knight in Training 
by Kimberli Johnson

3 out of 5 stars on GoodReads

This picture book features Emiline, a little girl who is training to be a knight. She struggles with reading because she has dyslexia, but her teacher encourages her to do her best and rise to the challenge. When her fellow knights are in danger, Emiline is the only one who can lead the way to safety by reading the riddle on a magic door and opening the portal.

The story is simple and fun. The illustrations are soft and graceful. But I’m not particularly impressed.
The story is almost TOO simple. The illustrations are TOO soft. I would have liked a little more clarity in the artwork. And the plot needed some more depth. There’s a lot of “telling” instead of “showing”, and the dialogue could have been more polished.

It’s a lovely little book, and I enjoyed reading it. Emiline is completely adorable, and I admire her spunk.

Disclaimer: I received an ecopy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.