A pair of bear books

Arbordale Publishing could easily be added to our Brain Boosting Books series of books for kiddos age 4-8'ish. The books are bright, eye catching, very detailed for the kids & there are oodles of teacher's helps on the ArbordalePublishing.com website in their Creative Minds, Teaching Activities and Reading & Math Quizzes. To see other books they have available go to their website, click on "Store" and then on the right sidebar there is a list of available resources as well as a preview for each book. You can purchase the book directly from Arbordale by clicking on the title of the book or on Amazon by clicking on the type of book. The Spanish books are available on Arbordales website.

On to 2 wonderful Bear Books - Gianna's favorites!

Blackberry Banquet

by Terry Pierce

ISBN: 978-1934359280

$15.26 (hardback)

$8.95 (paperback)

$9.95 (Spanish paperback on ArbordalePublishing.com)
$8.95 (Kindle)

About the book:

Mmm-mm! Forest animals squeak, tweet, slurp, yip and chomp over the sweet, plump fruit of a wild blackberry bush. But what happens when a bear arrives to take part in the feast? Young children will enjoy following the story by making the animal sounds, and the chaos that strikes upon the bear's arrival will surely bring on the laughter. The cumulative, rhyming text makes for a great read-aloud.

My thoughts:

This fun book will catch your littlest preschooler/toddler's attention when you pull it out. It's illustrated in a colored pencil style that makes the animals attractive to littles and makes them seem alive. Each page is a big double page spread with text on one side. The text on most of the pages is 2 lines and then the sounds the animals make as they eat starts in.... Slurp! Mmm-mm; Tweet! Mmm-mm; Squeak! Mmm-mm – my two younger kiddos joined in with the sounds as I read and Gianna had to examine the animals and when she saw a bear she had to keep hitting the bear until I made the appropriate sounds of awe. One thing I did like as I read was that the animals weren't named. I don't usually mind but when you are trying to teach a toddler animal names and sounds naming them it sometimes confuses them I think.

Animals featured in this book are the black bear, bluebird, deer, fox, mouse, squirrel, then continue on to explore animal relationships further with the following topics: Blackberry Fun Facts, How we eat blackberries (with smoothie recipe), Plants are at the bottom of the food chain, Plants and animals, How do animals help plants?, Are plants always good?. You can go online to arbordalepublishing.com and download another 15-30 pages of activities.

Details:

Age 4-8, 32 pages, available in English/Spanish & ebook/auto-flip pages w/ audio formats

Reading Level Aligned: Accelerated reader: 1.3, Flesch-Kincaid: 3.2, Lexile: 680 NC, Fountas & Pinnell: K

About the author: Terry Pierce is the author of 16 children's books, including picture books, easy readers, joke books & non-fiction. She was a Montessori pre-primary teacher for 22 years, before deciding to follow her dream of writing for children (what she calls, “the best mid life crises ever!”). Learn more at www.terrypiercebooks.com.

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Polar Bears and Penguins

a Compare and Contrast Book (a photo journal)

by Katharine Hall

ISBN: 9781628552096

$10.68 (hardcover)

$ 8.87 (paperback)
$ 8.87 (Kindle)

About the book:

What do polar bears and penguins have in common and how are they different? While they both live in polar climates, they live at opposite ends of the Earth. One is covered in fur (a mammal) and the other is covered in feathers (a bird). Compare and contrast these polar animals through stunning photographs.

My thoughts:

Polar Bears & Penguins has bright beautiful photographs throughout the entire book. The animals are pictured in detailed, close up views. Several pages also include a picture of the globe that points out where the penguins and the polar bears live as well as the various types of bears and penguins in the world. Your kids will see a black bear, giant panda bear, grizzly bear, sloth bear, sun bear and polar bear and they will also see the many different types of penguin such as the African, Emperor, Adelie, Rockhopper, Yellow-Eyed penguins and a Little penguin. A couple of these I personally had not heard of and often I'll comment “I didn't know that”!

Some of the words your kids will hear in this book are: colonies, habitat, Antarctic, Arctic, continents, Southern Hemisphere & Northern Hemisphere. They will also learn about the differences – bears have fur and birds have feathers, small groups vs groups of hundreds or thousands, winter and summer, darkness and sunshine.

Polar Bears and Penguins has the following activities for your families:

Found at the end of each book is a section called For Creative Minds where your kids can learn more about penguins and polar bears.  Polar animals can be very different as we learn in Polar Bears & Penguins. After comparing and contrasting these cold weather creatures, children are able to engage in learning activities that include: Seasons, Polar Bear True or False and Penguin Matching. This particular book's section is more information based instead of activity based & I feel the activities are for older kids. As always, you can go online to arbordalepublishing.com and download another 15-30 pages of activities.

Details:

Age 4-8, 32 pages, available in English/Spanish & ebook/auto-flip pages w/ audio formats

Reading Level Aligned: Accelerated reader: 3.3, Flesch-Kincaid: 3.2, Lexile: 670L, Fountas & Pinnell: N

Awards: Outstanding Science Trade Book; International Literacy Association ILA Literacy Excellence Children's and Young Adults Book Award; Science Books and Films Best Books of 2014 in Zoological Sciences

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Disclaimer: I received this book from Arbordale Publishing in exchange for my honest review. Regardless I only recommend products or services I have personally read or used & think my readers will enjoy.

The Tree that Bear Climbed

This week we continue learning about Brain Boosting Books. 

The Tree that Bear Climbed
by Marianne Berkes
ISBN: 9781607185376
$ 9.95 (paperback)
$ 17.95 (hardback)


About the book:
Everyone knows about the house that Jack built, but this is The Tree That Bear Climbed. What makes this tree so fascinating to Bear? Starting with the roots that anchor the tree, this chain of events told in cumulative verse explores many different things that help a tree stand tall. It also lends itself to further discussion with fun repetition and detailed picture clues, stimulating a child's curiosity. Why does the bear climb the tree and what happens when he arrives at his goal?

My thoughts: 
(Part of this review was originally posted on my old literacy blog 'Classic Children's Books' and I have updated to share our experience now.)

Then: My kids LOVE this book. The story is very repetitive and familiar to the ear. The pictures are huge and really get the kids involved in the story. Usually when I read a story like this I hand it to the kids when I'm done and both Sierra (3) and Connor (5) will try their hand at "retelling" the story. During our reading of the story we talk about the parts & the various needs of a tree - there is soil, the sun, rain, blossoms, leaves and so on making this a great beginning science book for kids 3+.

Now: We now are sharing this book with 19 month old Gianna. She loves to be the bear (or lion depending on the book) and do the RAWWRRR of the bear. She points out the "quirrels" and the birds in the sky or the tree. It's actually pretty funny. I love how BIG the pictures are and the fact that they are a double page spread. The verbiage & text is easy to read and there are enough "big" words to help even the little little kids enhance their language and comprehension skills.

This fall I will be running several reviews on Arbordale Publishings books. All of their books are Science & Math based and include 4 pages of activities at the end of each book. Many of the activities you'll find are math, classification, matching, or refer to different information you'll find throughout the story. Not all of their books are an actual story - sometimes it is a non-fiction story that explains perhaps about a job a Vet or a Marine Biologist does, or may the person in the book is a Animal Rescuer. 

Each book also includes a link to approximately 40 pages of activities for teachers or homeschoolers to use in their curriculum. Since most of the books & activities are for kids age 4+ or grades K-3 you will need to tweak them to make them fit your preschooler or older toddler. All the books are Aligned to Standards and you can find previews of all books in English and most in Spanish as well. You will find all this information as well as the activity guide on the Home Bookpage at Arbordale. 

Click the title to find the Activity Guide & the home bookpage for this book by clicking on these links..

Disclaimer: I am reviewing this book as a service to my readers. I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Regardless I only recommend products or services I have personally read or used & think my readers will enjoy. I was not required to have a positive review & no $$$ exchanged hands.