IBW Interactive books - **Review and Giveaway**

IBW Interactive books are tons of fun! They are very age-appropriate and entertaining for children. It is really a neat concept, each of their books has a web address at the end of each chapter. After your child, or you and your child, read each chapter, you get on the Internet and go to the address given. Each web scene is a short animation that corresponds to the chapter that was just read.
We were sent one book from the KA Reader series and one book from the Busy Preschoolers series.
My oldest daughter will be 3 on December 6 and she absolutely enjoyed each of these books. She loved the webscenes from the KA Reader book, and the story. She was able to connect the chapters with the pictures and tell me information about the pictures that came from the book.
The Busy Preschooler book was wonderful!! There is an activity for each letter, they are simple yet fun and educational. There is also a webscene for each letter, and an ABC-TRACE. The ABC TRACE really got Emily's attention because she is into learning letters right now. The ABC TRACE has little "tracer pacers" at each touch point of the letter. The child uses the mouse to click and drag, as if they were writing the letter.
I have a video of Emily doing the "H" activity, but am having trouble getting it to upload. :( I will figure it out, and when I do, I will post it too!
So that you can get the idea, I am going to tell you briefly about the activity and will give you the address of the webscene: The activity was a riddle where the child had to guess what body part was being talked about, they had to act out the phrases as you read them (ex. It can count and clap and wave) and at the end guess what it was - hands! Here is the webscene, at the bottom is the link to the ABC TRACER.

IBW Books has very generously offered one of you lucky readers the opportunity to win your own interactive books! You will be able to chose from the following prizes:

The Busy Preschooler’s Guide to Learning – fun activities built around the 26 letters of the alphabet, with step-by-step help to guide parents in how to use everyday situations to teach 105 skills their kids need before they walk in the kindergarten door.

~~OR~~

THREE (3) KA Readers – beginning readers that use a new kind of storytelling where kids see an animation unfold at the close of every chapter! Dr. Seuss-like rhyming hooks kids on the fun of words. Online activities help parents assess a child’s reading and comprehension.

GIVEAWAY RULES
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MANDATORY ENTRIES – there are 2 (must be completed for any extra entries to count): *Go to IBW books’ website and have a look around, then come back and tell me which of the series’ is your favorite. *Tell me which of the prizes you will want if you win.
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Open to legal residents of the USA, age 18+ only. Winner will be chosen at 12 NOON, PST on 12/09 based on the random integer generator at random.org. Winner will have 48 hours to respond to the email I will send them before a new winner is chosen.

Children's Hardcover Books - Pretty Please Press - ***Review and Giveaway***

I was sent a set of four children's hardcover books from Pretty Please Press to review with my family.
This is a collection of books that are designed for reading aloud, and are fun to read. Each of the four books teaches a different concept through the characters and the story.

Bella Basset Ballerina by Laura Aimee Garn (founder of Pretty Please Press), Illustrated by Valerie Sokolova
This is a great story of a Basset hound who aspires to be a ballerina. Bella, the Basset, hears from many people that she is not going to be a ballerina - she is too short, low to the ground, etc - and that there are paths that each dog is supposed to take. Because Bella was willing to work hard and make some sacrifices, she was able to defy all odds in this heartwarming story, giving the reader encouragement to follow their dreams. A great book to teach perseverance!


The Scritchy Little Twitchell Sisters by Laura Aimee Garn, Illustrated by Erik Brooks
This is a story of two sisters who cannot get along to save their lives! It gets so bad that the parents literally divide the house in half and label everything with one of the sisters' names. One day, Mr and Mrs Twitchell take the girls to "Travelstead's Variety Show" and when Emmeline was picked to assist the magician, Lavinia immediately caused a scene and the girls began throwing water, eggs, and anything within reach at each other. The magician saw how the crowd reacted to the girls' "performance" and they sign a contract and go on tour doing what they do best - fighting with each other. After a while, the girls realize that they love each other and want to have a sister to play with rather than fighting all the time. The character building theme in this book is conflict resolution, and as my daughter Emily says - being nice to your sister.

Kick Block Punch written and illustrated by Jacquie Hann
This was actually a really good book, and my girls enjoyed it - wasn't so sure at first since it is about karate. Through this book, Sam (a beginning karate student) learns that it takes practice, discipline, and respect to advance in karate. Sam showed up the first day, kicked one of his friends and punched another and then asked for his black belt. His instructor tells/shows him that only through practice, will he be able to get what he wants - a black belt. I was impressed with this book because Sam went from a rambunctious kid who hits/kicks his friends and brother when he firsts starts karate, to a respectful boy who learns that he is not trying to hurt other people but discipline himself (through practice) to attain his next belt. There is also a glossary of karate terms at the end of the story, and a great statement: "YOU NEVER USE KARATE TO START A FIGHT!" Kick, Block, Punch has a few character building themes that I can see, but the one that is developed through the additional resources on the website is setting goals.


Pynx written and illustrated by Jeffrey Greene
From the Pretty Please Press website:

In a distant galaxy, on a very colorful planet, a brilliant purple Pynx settles into her new home in the jungle. But her noisy arrival upsets the other fanciful creatures who are already living there quite happily. When the Pynx expands her family with dozens of new babies, her neighbors are very upset. The very vocal Pynx has had this problem before, but this time, with a little luck, she finds a real home. This is a story about being tolerant, learning to appreciate differences, and about finding ways to communicate.

The creatures on this far away planet learn to appreciate the new, loud Pynx when she saves the colony from Shovelsnouts. It is a good book, totally fictional, imagination inspiring, and tolerance teaching. The character building theme of this book is tolerance.


Each of the books also has wonderful FREE downloadable tools from the Pretty Please Press website to accompany the book:
■Download Free Vocabulary Building Cards
■Download Free Concept Building Cards
■Download Free Character Building Lesson Plan

My thoughts:I think that this would be a great set of books for a homeschooling family to use, or for extra reinforcement of any child's vocabulary, reading ability, concept and character building skills. For now, we mainly just enjoy reading the stories and we talk about each of the character building themes - a little. I plan to utilize all of the extras as my children get to an age where it is more appropriate.

Buy it These books are for sale directly from Pretty Please Press at a 20% discount on the cover price. They also have a great offer - buy 3 books and get 1 FREE!
Win it!
The wonderful people at Pretty Please Press is offering one reader a chance to win a set of all four of these books!!
Be sure to leave an email address if one is not visible in your blogger profile!
**Mandatory Entry: To enter, go to the Pretty Please Press website and tell me one of the tips they give for parents; or if you are an educator, a tip they have for educators.
**Extra Entries (mandatory entry must be done first) Please leave a seperate comment for each thing you do (each is worth one entry unless noted):
*Follow my blog publicly through google friend connect (left sidebar)
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*Comment on any non-giveaway post and tell me the title of that post (1 entry each, up to 2 extra entries)

This giveaway is open to legal US residents, age 18+. Giveaway will close at 12 NOON PST on 11/27/2009 and winner will be chosen using random.org then notified via email and will have 48 hours to get back with me or another winner will be selected.
I was sent a copy of each of these books for review purposes, all opinions are my own.

Randy Kazandy Where Are Your Glasses? **Childrens book review**

As soon as we opened the package with our book in it, my daughter wanted to read it. The first thing that caught our attention was the cover - great artwork, vibrant colors, and it says that it is "child safe, lead free" so that is a bonus!


Randy Kazandy, Where Are Your Glasses? is a great book! It is written in rhymes, that are fun and easy for kids to follow. This is the story of a little boy, Randy Kazandy, who can't see very well, always misses the ball, bumps into things, and so on, until he goes to see Doctor Bee, the eye doctor. As it turns out, Randy needs glasses, but he does not want to wear them, he tries everything to get rid of his glasses. In the end, Randy decides that he likes to wear his glasses.

This is a great story, especially for a child who has impared vision and needs to wear glasses. It shows kids that glasses can be fun! As if the story wasn't enough Randy Kazandy actually has his own website, where kids can email him and ask questions. On the website, you can learn more about the Rhonda Fischer, learn about the history of glasses, play fun games, and more! Speaking of fun games, there is at least one pair of glasses 'hidden' in each page of the book - we have had lotts of fun searching for them!

I definately reccomend this book for all kids, especially those who might have to get glasses. It is fun to read and doesn't get old, you can come up with a different lesson from the book each time you read it.

Randy's motto is inspirational to children and adults alike: I love being me!

You can buy this book on The Randy Kazandy website for $19.95 + shipping or on Amazon.

Rhonda Fischer, the author of Randy Kazandy Where Are Your Glasses?, sent us a copy of her book for my family to review.