Hooked On Bookz

I've reviewed this book before about 2 years ago. Click here for it. This time round, I'm adding an activity to complete the entire reading/literacy session which I did with a new group of children age 4 - 6 years old. Read-aloud: Identify the rhyming words with the children, while going back and forth to help them remember what Freddie wished for and what Bessie Belle conjured up for him instead. It is also to get them into the flow of rhyming. Activity: Create your own post-reading activity. I just did a simple one by asking them again what Freddie wished for; why the fairy kept getting it wrong; what were the 3 rules for Freddie - is it important for us to do that too? and so forth. Art & literacy: Think of something you'd like to wish for when you see Bessie Belle and what she might conjure up if you didn't say it properly. Draw. Some interesting ones my kids came up with: 1) School - Tool 2) Baby shark - Mark on his face 3) Toy - toys...

Title/Author:    Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons / Eric Litwin (writer), James Dean (illustrator) Publisher: Harper Pages: 40 pages ISBN: 978-0-06-211058-9 Ages: 4 - 7 In a nutshell Pete the Cat wore his bright yellow new shirt which had four totally colorful, groovy buttons. But it fell off one by one! However, that didn't bother Pete at all. He said, buttons come buttons go, and kept on singing his song, until he was left with one last button - his belly button! :) What I liked EVERYTHING! It's such a simple, straight-forward story, yet my kids (4-5 year olds) in school enjoyed it immensely! They not only loved the story but also the bright, beautiful illustrations. I was quite surprised they loved the book. I guess that's how all children's books should be written - clear storyline, straight-forward & simple; basically KISS - (my definition: Keep It Simple & Straight-Forward) How I read/presented it 1) Get the children interested in ...

Title/Author: The Help by Kathryn Stockett Publisher: The Berkley Publishing Group Pages: 530 ISBN: 978-0-425-24513-2 In a nutshell The Help is set in the 1960's and told by Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter's perspective. Aibileen and Minny are maids who worked for white families and regularly exchanged stories about their bosses they served. Eugena "Skeeter" Phelan is the daughter of a white family who owns a cotton farm worked by African Americans. She just finished college and has returned home to find a job, hopefully as a writer. She finally got a job as a columnist at a local paper. This job sparked a bond between Skeeter and Aibileen, who reminded her of Constantine, a maid she loved and lost. She often wondered about Constantine's disappearance as they lost touch too suddenly while Skeeter was in college. When Aibileen shared a story about the death of her son, she inadvertently told Skeeter about an idea he wanted to work on, " he say he gone write dow...

Title/Author: Moloka'i by Alan Brennert Publisher: St Martin's Griffin Pages: 383 ISBN: 978-0-312-30435-5 In a nutshell This novel is set in the 18t90's to 1970's. The female protagonist, Rachel Kalama grew up in Honolulu and is part of a big Hawaiian family. Her father, was a merchant seaman and she dreamt that she'd travel to places her dad had visited. However, at the age of 7, her dreams shattered as they discovered she had leprosy, ma'i pake and was sent off to K alaupapa, the isolated leper colony on the island of Moloka'i, because the disease was believed to be contagious. As the disease reached epidemic proportions, the government felt isolation was the best and only solution. There, Rachel found a new family - Healer, Haleola who became her adopted 'auntie', Sister Mary Catherine Voorhies, one of the many Franciscan sisters who cared for the young girls at Kalaupapa and Leilani who taught her love. What I liked Kudos to Brennert for su...

Title/Author: Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin Publisher: Bantam Books Pages: 365 ISBN: 978-0-385-34414-2 In a nutshell Alice Liddell Hargreaves is the 'Alice' in Wonderland; the girl who followed the White Rabbit into a land of quirky characters such as the Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts and the Cheshire Cat. If not for Alice, Lewis Carroll wouldn't have written Alice in Wonderland. If not for her, we wouldn't have known Wonderland. This story takes us back to Alice's childhood. At seven, she was different from other girls her age; young, innocent yet wise beyond her years, who felt a special connection with Lewis Carroll (whose real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson). He loved taking Alice and her sisters out for walks and boat rides which they enjoyed immensely. However, Dodgson showed a special interest in Alice and his feelings were reciprocated. She felt he was the only one who understood her, who allowed her to be 'Alice' and loved her as she was...

Title/Author: The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Publisher: Vintage International Pages: 106 ISBN: 0-679-72205-x In a nutshell In February 1955, eight crew members of the Caladas, a Colombian destroyer, were washed over-alive, on a deserted beach in northern Colombia. Several of them drowned shortly before arriving at the port of Cartagena de Indias due to the existence of overweight contraband aboard the vessel. Ten days after the shipwreck, one of the sailors, Luis Alejandro Velasco, turned up on a deserted beach and became a hero overnight. Therein began his telling and selling his story to the media, including El Spectador where Marquez worked. Only this time, he tells the whole story, one that wasn't sanitized or authorized by the Colombian government. What I liked The lesson learnt - accepting adversity and making the best out of it. Velasco was lost and alone on a drifting life raft, far away from civilization. Nature was his friend and foe. She t...

I've been trying to finish reading my ebooks for a very very very long time and am still half way through most of them. I NEVER HAD TROUBLE FINISHING A BOOK BEFORE (except for really sleep-inducing ones)! So I told myself to stop with the ebooks and get back to paperbacks (I don't really fancy hardcovers either :P). And I MUST SOON as I need a good read for our trip to Florida. And so I did! It was tough choosing the RIGHT book. The book that SPOKE to me. Went to Barnes & Noble but none of the books displayed caught my attention. Checked out Walmart too. None. I almost gave up until we went to Target. There...I found...The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb. Somehow, my hands just reached out for it. Browsing the first few pages was good enough for me to decide to get it. And my instincts were right :) Title/Author:  The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb / Melanie Benjamin Publisher: Bantam Books Pages: 458 ISBN 13: 978-0-385-34416-6 In a nutshell: Mrs. Tom T...

I'm a sucker for children's books; anything for ages 0 - 10; especially those written by Roald Dahl, Dr. Seuss, Julia Donaldson and Eric Carle. I normally pick books which are: * entertaining * simple but educational * has good vocab * well written and conceptualised * great illustrations! (for picture books) Recently, I came across this article which listed 10 children's books and I was flabbergasted. Were these books REALLY MEANT FOR CHILDREN??? I won't ever read these books to kids. Would you or allow your kids to? The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb Illustrations by Sanya Glisic First, the title itself turned me off. Suck-a-thumb, and the illustrations seemed to aim at giving children nightmares...Definitely not something I wanna read to my children... The ABC of Anger Ghastly, ghostly, gory...A HUMAN HEAD-SWALLOWING HEAD???! Is this Nightmare on Elm Street?? And check out its title...I dare not imagine what's in their ABCs Brave Mr....

Look what I found while reading Vanity Fair - awesome, pretty book clutches! Find all of them here . Now, guess the price. They start from 490 pounds :P

Title/Author: Handle with Care / Jodi Picoult Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Pages: 548 ISBN 13: 978-0340979044 In a nutshell Willow is born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta (commonly known as Brittle Bones disease) and her mom, Charloote, is offered a lifeline - to file a wrongful birth – suggesting that Sean and Charlotte (the mother) should have been made aware earlier on in her pregnancy that Willow suffered from this life-threatening condition. If they win the case, they'd receive a monetary payout which would secure Willow's future. And the doctor Charlotte would be suing is her best friend, Piper. What's worse is filing for wrongful birth also means that if Charlotte had known in advance about the disability, she would have terminated the pregnancy, i.e. openly declaring it in court she would rather her daughter had never been born. What I liked As with the other Picoult's books that I've read (My Sister's Keeper, Nineteen Minutes), it's though...

Title/Author: The Marriage Plot / Jeffrey Eugenides Publisher: FSG New York Pages: 406 ISBN 13: 978-0-374-53325-0 In a nutshell I'd say this novel is a combination of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and One Day by David Nicholls. It's a love story with lots of teenage angst. What helped it score a notch higher than the other two is of course the language and the literary theories that revolved around The Marriage Plot. The story concerns three college friends from Brown University who graduated from Brown University in 1982. The friends - Madeleine, Leonard, and Mitchell, are 'victims' of a love triangle. Mitchell loved Madeline, who loved Leonard who's mentally depressed. Madeline tries to accept Leonard's condition, while Leonard tries to keep what's left of his 'sanity' by trying to hold down a job and his relationship, and Mitchell, the hopeless romantic, tries to get over Madeline and find spiritual enlightenment. The story follows them in t...

Title/Author: Found in Malaysia Vol. 2/The Nut Graph Publisher: Zi Publications Pages: 256 ISBN 13: 978-9675-26622-5 In a nutshell Found In Malaysia Vol. 2 consists of 50 interviews. This volume is divided into 7 sections - 1930's right up to the 1980's and an 'Exclusive' (never-before published interviews) section which include personalities such as Lillian too, Asha Gill, Khairy Jamaluddin and Baru Bian. Throughout these pages, you'll find Malaysian celebrities like Patrick Teoh, Daphne Iking, Mano Maniam and Harith Iskander; and politicians such as Lim Kit Siang, Ibrahim Ali and Teresa Kok sharing their stories and experiences, while comparing the then and now, and their hopes for Malaysia's future. What I liked I definitely enjoyed reading the first volume more than the second because I didn't know what to expect in the first and was pleasantly surprised by what it offered. Volume 2 shares the same concept and idea, but it has more well-known public...