Picture Books

Daddy's Lullaby by Tony Bradman, beautifully illustrated by Jason Cockcroft, is a children's storybook about a young dad who comes home late at night to find the baby wide awake in his crib. In his efforts to soothe the baby back to sleep, dad cuddles him in his arms and tours the house with the baby to see all the other sleeping members of the family. When that doesn't work, dad takes the baby downstairs and sings him a soft lullaby about "Daddy will hold you safe from all harm" and "Love you forever--A promise he'll keep." Exhausted from his long week at work, dad falls asleep with the baby nestled in his arms. In the morning, mom and big brother find them still sleeping peacefully. The strength and power of this dad is displayed in his commitment to his family, "let me chase that bad old dream away" and the warmth and the love he has for them with words like "And here's the best mother a baby could have. You're a lucky baby and I'm a lucky dad!" In this day and age of broken homes, this story is a refreshing encouragement to dads about the real meaning of family life. The captivating pictures poignantly illustrate the tenderness and love of this dad for his family.

This is a really nifty little picture book that illustrates the importance of commas through the use of simple sentences with humorous illustrations contrasted with the same sentence (on the opposite side of the page) differently punctuated. The results are entertaining and quite educational.

Here is one example:

On the left-hand page is the sentence: "Slow, children crossing." The cartoon-like picture shows a crossing guard signalling for cars to stop while some school children cross the road.

On the right-hand page is the sentence: "Slow children crossing." The picture is of a bunch of children holding up traffic by very slowly walking across a bridge weighed down with a dog that won't move, a large pile of books, etc. A car impatiently honks while waiting for his turn to cross the bridge.

My children and I found this very engaging. My 9 year old immediately disappeared, book-in-hand, to pour over it again on her own.

A two-page appendix shows thumbnails of each picture along with their corresponding sentences and a brief explanation of the grammatical rule involved. Here are the explanations given for the examples used above:

Slow, children crossing.
The comma separates two independent phrases Slow and children crossing.

Slow children crossing.
Without the comma, slow is an adjective that modifies children.

There are thirteen sets of sentences in all.

This is a fun and colorful book of cut-out paper dolls that you assemble with small brads or brass fasteners (available from an office supply store), allowing the arms and legs to be moved and posed.
The book is printed on heavy cardstock (with perforated pages for easy removal) and there are two copies of each paper doll – one in full color and one ready to be colored.

There are 20 historical figures included, making a total of 40 paper dolls. These are the historical figures represented: Narmer, Khufu, Sargon the Great, Hammurabi, Moses, King David, Ashurbanipal, Nebuchadnezzar II, Cyrus the Great, A Greek Hoplite, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Qin Shi Huangdi, Hannibal, Hannibal’s Elephant (a great favorite among my younger children!), Julius Caesar, Caesar Augustus, Jesus, Constantine and Augustine.

My children are very much enjoying working with this book and even my eight year old was successful at cutting the pieces out and assembling them herself. Having two copies of each doll made it especially enjoyable to share among four children and I really appreciate that they have the name of each character printed on the back of the doll, so you don’t have to worry about keeping track.

The book also includes a very brief, even cryptic biography of each historical figure. Just enough information to help get the names straight.

In Sophia's dream, all the animals had their coats blown off and so she has to make new ones for them, adding her own special touches. This is the story of "Fur and Feathers" which introduces young children to animal classification.

The story has a good variety of common animals with different coats. A few parts are a bit contrived, like the frog finding the slime, but otherwise the story is engaging. The "For Creative Minds" section at the end of the book contains activities based on animal classification.

Most of each two-page spread is dedicated to the lovely artwork of animals in Sophia's bedroom. You can see a preview document or video at http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/bookpage.php?id=FurFeathers

"Fur and Feathers" is a wonderful beginning book to introduce children to scientific classification, and even to good observation. Read this before your next trip to the zoo!