This is my second ebook from the very cute author Siena. Absolutely love the way she’s been doing this. I enjoyed reading this as an individual and as a parent to my kids. This book is based on bringing awareness to kids on why we walk so that it causes no harm to planet earth and how we do not contribute to the global warming by choosing not to take the vehicles that send out emissions.
Siena goes to school by walk with her father daily. She initially talks about the varied types of clothing they wear according to the season. Her dad pulls a red wagon that carries Siena’s bag and at times her. The wagon also has winter wear,, doesn’t that sound cool.
On their way to school father and daughter play a game on spotting squirrels and mostly her dad gives up even though he spots them first.
As she grows up, Siena is curious why as to they walk and there are many others who come by cars and buses to school. That is when her Father let’s out an important lesson for all of us that the exhaust from the vehicles hurt the planet which we should be preserving for the next generation. By walk we make sure we do not contribute to the bad deed of harming the planet.
A simple storyline that emphasizes the need to preserve planet earth for the next generation.
About the Author
Siena is a young author from Canada who loves long walks and enjoys being with her dad. She chose to write out their little adventures as books anonymously.
Illustration
Shannon Willvers is a Canadian illustrator, who loves drawing digitally and also enjoys watercolors. This book is made equally enjoyable to read because of the cute illustrations that support the story
With kids having vacations during thanksgiving we often look out for a long of options to keep them engaged. Though we do have a lot of options to keep them engaged in terms of activities like craft or painting.
But reading books can be done to keep them involved and transport them to the world of imagination. How many of us read to kids before they sleep? If you haven’t done I’d urge you to start doing it and see the wonderful changes it promotes in children.
Here are two books I’d recommend reading this season.
The boy who breathed under water by Izzy Reez
A young boy lies down on his bed gazing around his room. As we know young minds are curious a thought crawled into his little busy mind.
He wanted to know how would it be if he has super powers. But he wasn’t sure which one he’d wanted. So decided to give a try to check out some and then finalize. A mysterious genie comes out just like making the whole situation magical.
He suggests tryouts of powers so that he can finalise the one the boy chooses after a time of one week. The boy decides to try out as many as he can like being invisible, being able to lift up things, being able to breathe underwater, being able to fly, being able to control with his mind, turning into animals.
Though he had imagined having these powers they came with their own disadvantages. By the end of the week he felt that there wasn’t one he chose to decide upon.
The genie appeared and gave him a valuable life lesson that as a kid him playing and pretending would be lot more fun than to have magical super powers. The boy understood the reality and immediately chose to live the moment cuddling the cat.
The book sends out a lovely message to young readers to enjoy the life at the moment. Also helps understand to be happy with whatever we have, because something that we long for and get could have their disadvantages.Having magical powers can seem fascinating but not more than their playful attitude and curious little minds that finds an idea of play and pretending.
The illustrations wonderfully support the text and makes it much more engaging.
The kind who didn’t like snow by Jocelyn Porter and Michael S Kane
Who doesn’t love snow?? Those tiny white flakes bring in a lot of joy cause it’s the season of celebration. But here is a King who dislikes snow. The book brings out a lovely little story of why the King Mark hated snow and how the wizard Bertram Ebenezer Rufus Togtangle shortly called Bert made the King love snow.
Bert and his friend Broderick a bookworm had a lot of fun. Bert was friendly and helped children and people in the village. Broderick was living in Berts book of spells. He’d always wanted to read from the book nd one day he did and he turns into a big squish green bookworm.
Bert doesn’t have space to accommodate Broderick so he asks the King and he readily agrees to make Broderick the Royal Librarian and gives him place to stay in the library.
One fine day it starts snowing and King Mark gets really annoyed. Bert uses his magic spell but it makes situation worse what does he do later to make the King love snow? Read the book to know what he does.
A short read but definitely a fun one. The illustrations are bright colourful and definitely promising for young readers to keep them glued.
Loved the conversations especially the ones between Broderick and Bert. The book definitely sounds an awesome plot for pretend play.
What I loved
This story is dedicated to the volunteers of Hospital Radio Plymouth who broadcast musical messages of love to patients, families and friends whether it’s snowing or sunny. Nothing stops HRP broadcasting every day of the year.
Children always have their own way of retelling events. Their ways of explaining or telling you about an event will have the magic of imagination play a major part.
Their way of looking and interpreting things is actually a lot more different than what we adults do. The innocence combined with the imagery really makes it an interesting experience listening to them.
This book is one such by Siena who describes winter in her city and the events that take place up there.
Named after a beautiful city in Italy, Siena is the author and the teller of the wonderful tale. She lives in the city of Ottawa, Canada.
Winters according to her can be fun making snow man, figurines and sipping a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows. But it cannot be the same for her neighbors.
The piling up of snow makes it difficult for them to lead life so they make efforts to clear them up. Siena also watches the drive ways being cleared up for easy commuting. All this from the comfort of her porch and the lovely cup of hot chocolate made by her mother.
The city graders and snow blowers work to clear off the drive ways and this is being imagined by Siena as a dance by the snow tractors. Their motion of zooming in and out to pull out the piles of snow from her point of view appears as a dance sequence. So doesn’t this do justice to what I just told you.
Children have their own way of retelling what they see. Let’s enjoy the wonderful tales they have for us to hear.
The illustrations are lovely and match up to the imagination of what Siena tries to tell us. Kudos to Shannon Wilvers.
I also would like to appreciate the thought of dedicating the book to the front line workers of the covid-19 era.
‘There he is,’ whispered Vixen. ‘It’s true then,’ said Buck Rabbit. ‘He’s just a small mole,’ said Doe Rabbit. ‘He’s not just a mole,’ said Vixen. A great queen loses a ring. Hundreds of years later a ring slips onto the paw of a young mole. The mole grows to be a wise and trusted leader of Gilly Wood and all the animals that live there. But a great threat is coming. Can one small mole save a whole valley? Mole sets out to do just that with friends he makes along the way and the strange thing on his paw…
Ruth was born on a hot August day on a farm in Sussex.
Her English teacher once made her write a story about
wasps after one landed on her during a lesson. She still
hates wasps but she loves writing. Ruth now lives in
Kent with her family and their strange dog.
This story was inspired by true events.
MY REVIEW:
The initial chapters have me a feel that the book could be a historic fiction. The story starts of with the queen getting ready to visit the village.
Though she has many shoes that match her attire, the queen is determined to wear her green damask shoes. She gets into the carriage along with Mistress Blanche.
They both ride on the carriage with the queen waving her hands out to the folks who gathered to get a glimpse of the queen. While the queen keeps waving she feels that her ring makes her feel uncomfortable. She immediately gives it to the mistress who puts it into her pouch and secures it tight with a golden cord.
A loose golden thread from the queen’s dress was also cut off and thrown away with a scissors from the same pouch. The queen suddenly startles everyone by stopping her carriage. Rumours spread that the queen is unwell and so on. But it was the beauty of the river that was flowing that made her stop. She wants to drench her feet and enjoy the flow.
After the river episode the queen settles for a meal at the inn in Tilling. She’s tremendously happy and satisfied with the meal that she decides to reward them. The mistress forgets her pouch which caught the eyes of young William James. He takes it as soon as they leave the place. The curiosity of what the purse would contain made him clear the dishes at lightening speed. He examines the content to notice a handful of coins, a gold ring and a pair scissors.The gold ring has a black stone beneath which is a star symbol. He suddenly hears a whisper ‘as above , so below’. Indeed a fortune for him.Not to be noticed by anyone he wraps the purse and places it under an oak tree. Later he falls I’ll, taken care by inn keeper’s daughter, he succumbed to small pox. And the queen’s purse remains a treasure underneath the great oak.
Here comes the entry of mole. Having lost his mom, mole one of the three offsprings of the mother. The mole has the ring from the queen’s purse on his foot. There is also an owl above on the oak tree. They grow up to be good friends. The mole helps other animals on the land when in danger with his ring and the whisper. The land comes to the hands of a real estate millionaire.
That is when the owl makes an appearance in front of Elizabeth, a little girl who helps them win this. The girl gives the owl her lunch bag which has an owl image, a gratitude to which the owl and mole give her a coin from the queen’s purse. That becomes the talk of the town that a school girl discovered an age old coin from the queen’s era.
She understands that mole and owl could talk and they are under serious trouble since their land would soon be a golf court. Meanwhile mole and min ( another female mole from a different field meet, become friends and gibe birth to offsprings).On one of the attempts to save the land ,mole sacrifices his life. She along with Timmy, her classmate make a historic discovery. Do they help min and owl to regain their land. What happens then is the remaining part of the story.
I really loved the cute illustration at the beginning of the chapters. Made me wonder how would the coloured illustration look. Though the book started in a historic notion, I enjoyed reading once mole and owl came into action.
The pace of the plot is apt for the age and I am sure kids are going to love this.
This book review is part of Rachel’s random resources (@rararesources )
That Madras Mom 