All of Baby Nose to Toes

All of Baby Nose to Toes

Written By Victoria Adler

Illustrated By Hiroe Nakata

From head to toe, there are lots of cute things about little babies :]  Miniature fingers and toes are amongst them and in this book we get a look at those things we like to ooo and ahh over when babies are in our midst.  Each section ends with a question....

....and is answered on the following page.

Although this book was a little young for Joey, I still thought it was really cute and it kept her engaged the whole time :]  I loved the watercolor illustrations...such beautiful colors throughout the entire book!  I took a picture of my favorite part.....

This just reminds me of Joey's sister Sammy whose belly sticks out just like this little one's does :]  She will show you her belly at a moment's notice, and so these pages made me smile :]  I mean who doesn't love cute big baby bellies?!?  I know I said this book was a bit young for Joey and I stand by that...let's see what she thought...

The Lonely Phone Booth

The Lonely Phone Booth

Written By Peter Ackerman

Illustrated by Max Dalton

This is the story of a phone booth nestled in the New York city on West End Avenue and 100th Street.  The book tells the tale of this phone booth from it's hay day when people would line up just to use it. 

Since the release of Cell Phones, the phone booth has been neglected.  Nobody is sent to service the booth and it's starting to crack and feel lonely......

......until a great storm hits NYC and all the cell service is knocked out.

Folks line up once again to use one of the only remaining Phone Booths to call family and friends to let them know they are ok.  The phone booth is celebrated as the city's hero and when the workers come to take it away, there is a huge protest.  In the end, the Phone Booth gets to stay right where it is, the city rejoices and the Phone Booth is no longer lonely :]

I thought this book was so cute, and I love that it's about a real Phone Booth in NYC. The illustrations were beautiful and the story line was cleverly written from the Phone Booth's point of view.  I would reccommend this to any family...boys and girls will both like this fun story!  Let's see what Joey had to say about The Lonely Phone Booth....

The Show and Tell Lion

The Show and Tell Lion

Written By Barbara Abercrombie

Illustrated By Lynne Avril Cravath

This book starts off with Matthew...it's Show and Tell Day and he doesn't have anything special to talk about or show, so he makes up a whale of a tale....well a Lion of a tale really :]

Since declaring he has a Lion at Show and Tell, Matthew must keep his friends up to date on all that his Lion is doing.  His sweet little white lie told to impress Matthew's classmates gets so out of hand that all his friends want to do a field trip to his house to see his amazing Lion!

At the thought of a field trip to his house, Matthew begins to panic about the lie he has told.  What will his friends do if they find out he doesn't really have a lion at home?

After speaking with his mother, Matthew comes up with a solution and begins to write the stories he's been telling to his friends on paper complete with illustrations.  In sharing these with his classmates, Matthew hopes to bridge the gap between fact and fiction and stop his friends from coming to his house for the field trip to see the imaginary Lion.

I thought this book was so cute!  I was an excellent liar when I was young, and I'm sure I could whip up a doozie right now if necessary :]  I have had a few stories get out of hand and can relate to Matthew in this story.  This is a great story to read to kids whose creativity can get the best of them at times :]  Where was this when I was Joey's age??  Anywho, read it, I loved it!  Let's see what Joey had to say...

I Love Saturdays y domingos

I Love Saturdays y domingos

Written by Alma Flor Ada

Illustrated by Elivia Savadier

This book starts off with the main character saying this, "Saturdays and Sundays are my special days.  I call Sundays domingos, and you'll soon see why."  We find out that this little girl gets to visit her grandparents on the weekends.  On Saturdays she visits her European-American grandparents and on Sundays {domingos} she visits her Mexican-American grandparents.  The book shows the similarity between the two sets of grandparents even though their backgrounds differ.  

English and Spanish is used to get this story across and give the reader a feel for each culture represented.  The book ends with the little girl's birthday party where both sets of grandparents come together to get the girl a great gift that represents both heritages.

So I have to be honest with you and let you know that this was not one of my favorite books.  It made me realize just how much Spanish I don't know and I found myself tripping over the words and hoping that the end would be coming soon :[  I thought the idea of the book was good and it's great to discover the heritage of your family, but I got lost in the wording.  If you speak spanish, then give it a whirl....if you speak english only, I say move on to the next book.  Let's see what Joey had to say about it! {Please forgive my slip up on the book title in the video :]}

I Can Do It Myself!

I Can Do It Myself!

Written by Diane Adams

Illustrated by Nancy Hayashi

In this book, we meet Emily Pearl who is a very big girl!  Like most big girls, Emily likes to do things on her own.  From heavy lifting to pouring her own juice to tying her shoes, and even to making her bed, Emil does not need help!  

But at bedtime when the shadows creep over the wall, Emily doesn't feel so big anymore, and decides maybe it's ok to need a little help every once and a while.

I took one look at the title of this book and asked Joey "Who does this sound like?".  She said she didn't know, but I'm here to tell you that this is my independent Josephine :]  That being said, I chuckled through most of this book!  I liked the illustrations...vibrant colors, cute depictions of what a day in the life of the main character Emily would entail.  The books pages were a bit repetitive so by the end, I would start a line and Joey could finish it.  I like when she can do that....I point out what she's "reading" on the page and it makes her feel great about herself!  I would recommend this book, super cute, and not too long :] What did Joey have to say about this one?

Still My Grandma

Still My Grandma

Written by Veronique Van den Abeele

Illustrated by Claude K. Dubois

Still My Grandma is a book about a girl named Camille and her special relationship with her Grandma.  They have special traditions these two.  Camille and her Grandma love to cook, have sleepovers, pretend, go shopping and more!  They even have a special kiss between the two of them that has a really loud smooching sound to it.  Camille loves to spend time with her Grandma, but Grandma starts doing funny things like forgetting where her shoes go, and what her granddaughter's name is.

  

When Camille and her mommy take Grandma to the doctor, they discover that Grandma has Alzheimer's Disease.  Grandma has to move to a place where other Grandmas and Grandpas live so that she can have the help she needs to remember to do certain things.  

Even though Grandma forgets the old traditions, Camille starts new traditions with her. Some things never change though, and Grandma never forgets the special kiss that she and Camille share no matter what's going on.

I really liked this book. It was well written and illustrated beautifully!  Johnny read it first to Joey and asked me why I picked out such a sad book.  I said, "I had no idea, we are starting that project where we read through the entire library remember?".  I had to sit down and read this one for myself.  I didn't think it was sad though.  The Grandma does get Alzheimer's Disease, and she does forget things that she and her Granddaughter used to do, but the way the Granddaughter handles it is so sweet.  Instead of she and her Grandma baking together, Camille bakes cupcakes with her mom and brings them to Grandma.  I love that!  This book would be great for any young child who has a relative with Alzheimer's.  I would recommend this book...now let's see what Joey had to say about it...

Welcome To Our Journey

Hi!  I'm Christy and this is my daughter Joey.  

I'm 30 and she's 3 {for now at least}. I am so excited to start this new blog, but before we continue, let me give you a little back story on how it came to be and what exactly it is...

I started taking Joey to the library when she was about 18 months old.  We would get board books and bring them home to read.  She's always loved curling up in me or her daddy's lap to read books :] Now that she's 3, we still love to go to the library and pick out fun new books to read!  Our library has a great selection of children's books and we never have to get the same book if we don't want to....there are that many to choose from.  So I had an idea the other day and presented it to my sweet Joey.  I said "Joey, let's read through the entire children's library!".  I'm not sure if she realizes what that means just yet, but she enthusiastically replied "OK, when can we start our project?".  I told her we would blog about the books and she could even weigh in on whether she liked the books or not.  Now, how could we read through our children's library and keep track?  I decided we should read through our library from A to Z!  Our Library, like all libraries, is arranged by author so we just started with the first 7 on the shelf and now we are off on our new journey!

So what will this blog be?!?  Aside from a project that my daughter and maybe other family members get to work on, it will be a place where children's books will be reviewed.  I'll give short summaries, pictures of the illustrations, and an interview from Joey will accompany each blog post.  We will discuss the book, her age at the time and go from there :]  

So there you have it!  From A to Z has started, and I can't wait to see where this takes us!  I can't wait to go on all the adventures in all the pages in all the books that Joey and I will read!  I'm glad you are taking this journey with us!  Please check out our YouTube page and email on the right hand side.  We'd love to hear from you about your favorite authors and books so we can look forward to reading them!