Sunday is Dr. Seuss' birthday. So, if you don't already have plans, why not come out and join the NEA 's Read Across America birthday celebration?!
Designed and illustrated by Roz Streeten, the Rosie Flo coloring books are fantastic! If you have a young girl in your life who enjoys sketching, drawing, coloring, or painting you simply must buy her these books. Each book is filled with nothing but black line drawings of clever little outfits. It's up the child (or adult as it may be) to draw in the heads, legs, and arms. Then you color in the whole thing. 
children age 8 and up, I think kids as young as 5 will really enjoy them as well. You don't have to be highly skilled in the work of art to have a blast with these totally inventive books. It's almost like it's a reverse take on paper dolls. Instead of putting the clothes on the bodies, you're putting the bodies in the clothes.
Flo's coloring book, you'll find vintage gowns, pjs, sun dresses, and many others. In Rosie Flo's Garden all of the outfits and costumes take on a garden feel. There are wood fairies, garden gnomes, tea party dresses, dresses inspired by vegetation and even bugs. In Rosie Flo's Animals all of the outfits take on a very animal inspired feel. There are animal prints, spider web dresses, bee hive dresses, and more. Tons of creativity went in to designing the dresses and outfits in these three books. It's amazing! Something else really fun about this line of books is that each includes two perforated, large sized post cards so you can share your creative genius with someone you love. 
When a rainy day in the suburbs keeps Garrett, Anthony, and Aimee inside they find themselves bored with nothing to do. Mom suggests curling up together for a story by the fire, but it's not a new story and the kids aren't taken with it. Will the bordem ever cease?
Show me one person who says they don't find their curiosity piqued by the title of this book, and I'll show you a liar! Seriously, a few weeks back I had told myself I was going to stop accepting submissions for review for a few days because I had a lot going on. I wanted to catch up on the books I had in que, meanwhile I wanted to be sure I didn't over commit. Well, naturally, as soon as made this promise to myself this review request came through. The title was hilarious. So, I had myself a good belly shaking laugh, and then I broke my rule for the day by accepting the request. What a great decision that was! :P
This beautiful collection of African rhymes provides wonderful insight into the lives of some of Africa's well loved wildlife- elephants, hippos, owls, fish, crocodiles, and even a fly. With four unique stories to choose from, readers can actually choose to read this book cover to cover in one sitting or opt for one story at a time. The text is lulling and pleasant to listen read; however, Hone uses many big words that I think younger readers/listeners are simply not going to understand or know. I don't doubt for a second that they'll enjoy the stories; but I do think they might not be able to take it all in at once. 
In The Berenstain Bears Play a Good Game the cubs learn several important lessons as their soccor team, the Rockets, goes up against the big and nasty Steamrollers. Not only is their opposing team made up of players way bigger than they are, but the Steamrollers also don't play by the rules. Brother and Sister Bear, along with their fellow Rockets, must learn and determine to play fairly despite the fact that doing so might not help them gain the win. As Coach Papa Bear explains, it's not whether you win or lose but how you play the game. No matter what it is you do in life, you must always strive to enjoy the experience and do your best. Then if you win you had a great time doing so and you know you did it honestly. If you lose you won't be able to beat yourself up over it because you'll know you did the best you could. Likewise, it won't have been a wasted experience because you'll have enjoyed yourself in the process.
Another wonderful life lesson is brought forth on the pages of The Berenstain Bears Love Their Neighbors. With a story that had a definitive Good Samaritan feel to it, the Berenstain Bear family learns a lesson about judging people by their appearances. For you see, the majority of the Bear family's neighbors are all well kept and put together, all but for the Bogg Brothers who live down the road. Wherein everyone else's houses and yards are pretty and clean, the Bogg Brothers live in a rundown shack with junk in the yard and pig wallowing in a muddy pen. Compared to the rest of the town, these neighbors are a problem. 
No One is Perfect, and YOU are a Great Kid by Kim Hix
Kim Hix is a native of Columbia SC. She graduated Lander University with a BS in Psychology 1988. She worked at various capacities at Marshall Pickens Hospital in Greenville SC from 1990 until 2004. She is now employed part time by Greenville Hospital System as a Patient Family Liaison (Advocate) and also as a part time personal trainer for Sportsclub Simpsonville. She has been Married 15 years to Doug Hix and have two children Zack 12(dx OCD, Tourettes Disorder Spectrum, and PANDAS) and Kelsie, 8, a real girly girl! She currently reside in Simpsonville SC with her family and 3 dogs."Prayers from the Heart is based on the results of six decades of
research on accessing children's thoughts and designing ways to help children
express themselves. Begun twenty years ago, the prayer topics, interactive
questions, and Bible Nuggets have been refined based on use with children and
parents of Protestant, Evangelical, Lutheran, Catholic, and other Christian
faiths. "
In this format, parents and teachers can aptly guide their children to focus their prayer time on something that actively affects them and is on a level they can personally understand. If they are praying for a person specifically instead of just a general all encompassing prayer, they are much more likely to invest themselves in the prayer and share deeper thoughts and emotions on that person's behalf than they would with a generic prayer on that unspecified person's behalf.
The one thing that I really love about the Prayers from the Heart books is that they are not designed with any particular day to day structure in mind. In otherwords, unlike a traditional devotional that has you go from day one to day two to day three to day four in succession, Prayers from the Heart is designed to be followed as the child feels led. For instance, if today the child is feeling sad, you can flip to the lesson dealing with sadness. In it the child will be lead to ask, in his/her own words, God to help him/her overcome their sadness. If tomorrow the child is wanting to give thanks to God for helping him/her feel happy you can flip to the session on giving thanks. So while you could go straight through the book from one section to the next this really wouldn't behoove you or the child because you'd no longer be following the child's heart regarding what to focus his/her prayers on.Another great aspect of the Prayers from the Heart books is that they are designed to grow with you and your child. As each prayer section comes with an EASY, NEXT STEP, and GOING DEEPER difficulty level. What this means is that each level inspires the child to think about what they are praying for and apply the concepts of the level in multiple different degrees. By doing so this allows the child to develope aneven deeper connection with God through their prayer life.
In each book the author has included the Bible Nuggets on small wallet sized cards, so older readers can cut out the cards to carry with them when studying, applying, and possibly memorizing them to hide in their heart. Also to cut out their are prayer cards featuring important people that the child might pray for. He/she can cut out and color these cards, and then save them someplace safe as a reminder to include these people in their daily prayers. There are also several activity pages throughout the books that allow the child to list their blessings, portions of a particular prayer, thoughts, pledges to God, etc.In short, I am honored to have been given the opportunity to sit down and talk with Dr Cherlyn about these books. She has spent countless hours researching, writing, revising, and more. And the hard work shows. I'm ashamed to say after all this time I still haven't sat down to actively begin going through these books with my daughters, but I have read through them both on my own and love the concept and material thoroughly. My goal is to do a prayer overhaul on the daily prayer time my girls have, and I intend to start this immediately with the Prayers from the Heart books by my side. I would strongly encourage anyone with children to look in to getting copies of these books for themselves. It is my belief that our children grow up way too fast, and in light of that fact we, as parents and teachers, need to be doing everything we can today to get them on the right path to having a fulfilling and meaningful relationship with the Lord. And I believe that Cherlyn's books are the right materials we need to help us do just that.
OUR RATING: 5 hearts
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
For the first twenty years of her career, Dr. Sunflower taught elementary and special education students in both private and public schools. For the last 25 years, she has provided instruction for prospective early childhood, elementary, and middle school teachers at University of Minnesota: Moorhead, University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, Oral Roberts University, and Northeastern State University. She has taught Language Arts workshops all over the United States for classroom teachers and parents. Since retirement, Dr Sunflower has been active in children's and youth's ministry.
Dr. Sunflower's field of expertise is helping children express their thoughts and feelings. She has authored four popular resource books for teachers that help children capture their thoughts. Over 300,000 copies of these valuable resources have been printed and used in 63 countries:
Dr. Sunflower's training and experience in language arts, especialy with the composing process, has allowed her to cross over into this area of children's ministry. The same research-based methods for getting children to communicate with other people has proved extremely effective in getting children to compose and share their thoughts and feelings with God, their Father.
If you would like to order a complete copy of the Prayers from the Heart books to study or have any questions for Cherlyn, please feel free to contact her at prayersforheart@windstream.net. And visit her website at PrayersForChildren.org.
Baron is like any puppy, full of endless bounding energy. He loves to jump, run, and play. He loves attention. But when Baron nearly runs out in front of an on coming car, his owners decide it's time for a trip to obedience school. Baron finds this new development hard to swallow, yet he does his best to learn the things his teacher shows him. It takes him a little while, but after a while Baron begins to display his newly learned tricks and behavior. Instead of rushing about in a choatic dash all the time, Baron slows down. He sits quietly when asked, follows when called, and is now more than ever a good and obedient pup.
I've reviewed several of Sylvan Dell's books, and each time I'm amazed by how exceptional they are. If you're a child, parent, grandparent, or teacher looking for high quality, entertaining, yet highly educational books then look no further than what Sylvan Dell has to offer. I kid you not, this company doesn't fool around. Working with only the highest caliber of authors and illustrators, you can't go wrong with any of the books they publish.
Let me first start of by saying that when I received the e-mail about this book it was listed as a children's book. It is NOT a children's book. Luckily I realized that before I sat down to read it with my girls. It's hilarious, quirky, and downright bizarre, but it is not for kids. Older kids could probably do okay with it; however, I'd honestly classify it as more of an adult read.
for adults or 0 for kids
Learning to appreciate all the finer details in God's creation isn't always something easily taught. Both adults and children alike are often swept away with the mindset of taking things for granted. We may appreciate the world around us, but not to the right degree. We should find ourselves actually stopping to truly enjoy the smaller things in life, and then giving God the glory.
