* NEW RELEASE * The Magic Treehouse is back *

Both my girls have pretty much grown up with THE MAGIC TREE HOUSE SERIES. Hannah was in Kindergarten when she started reading them, and her sister soon followed suit. Now both of them are a few years older but they still like to pick them up for a quick read every now and then. The audio books are wonderful to listen to as well during arts and craft time.  I love that Mary Pope Osborne can share so much information in her stories and yet make a fun, exciting stories for kids. I can’t wait until our new addition can venture into all these stories !

Anyways, it has been a while for a new release from the series and this one is pretty exciting, since we live in Texas ! Hurricanes and Tornadoes are a common factor of life in the south, and just last year many Texans experienced the awful Hurricane Harvey, which was one of the strongest category 4 hurricanes since 2004.  The new magic tree house book tells the story of the Hurricane that hit Galveston in 1900. It had estimated winds of 135 miles per hour (215 km/h) at landfall, making it a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. If we think about the level of catastrophe storms can create nowadays with all the warnings we actually get, one can imagine how awful things must have been back then.  I am curious how Jack and Annie manage to get out of this crazy adventure and to read some of the facts she shares in her Texas fact tracker. It is so hard to find fun books with great details about individual states, this one will be a great addition for our library !

If you happen to get your fingers on one of these soon, come back and comment ! Can’t wait to hear your thoughts ! Until next time,

XOXO  Happy Reading !

Lights, Camera, Cook! (Next Best Junior Chef) { Kids Book Review }

Here is a fun suggestion, of a book my daughter reviewed last year and I haven’t been able to share yet. I believe that children cooking on their own and learning certain lifestyle skills is extremely important and it can be lots of fun, so she really enjoyed this book a whole lot …but let’s see what my daughter had to say about it !! PS: I just saw that the second one will be out next week !!

The next junior Chef, Lights, Camera, Cook , is about a group of kids ages nine to eleven, who participate in a kids’ cooking show on TV. The kids compete against each other to find out who’s the best. Tate is the youngest and has a little bit of a hard time competing against the older kids but really is just there to have fun anyways. Oliver is very serious about winning, bossy to the rest of the team and overall has a bit of an attitude. Rae and Caroline become best friends, and both feel a bit shy and nervous around all the cameras. The kids go through different rounds and win prizes but in the end only one person wins!

This was another fun book. I enjoyed the different perspectives between the kids. Kids eight and up could easily read this and I think boys and girls alike would enjoy reading this book!! The sneak peek of episode two was exciting and I can’t wait to read more!!

 

Cloud and Wallfish { kids book review by 10 yr old }

Cloud and Wallfish

Cloud and Wallfish is a book about a boy and a girl during the time of the Cold War. Noah finds himself in a crazy and dangerous event when his parents decide to go on a trip to East Berlin. His whole life completely changes, and he has to forget his past of quiet, small-town living and take on a new secret identity. He also has to live by the new rules, like Rule #1: They are always listening!

The book was so well written that I felt that I, myself, was there. I was able to understand Noah and feel his fears. I loved this historic fiction novel and that it had true events and facts stored inside it. Some things were hard for me to understand, but it makes me want to learn more about this time. I loved the secret files at each end at the chapter; it helped me know more about what was going on. I would recommend this amazing book for people ten and up.

Cloud and Wallfish is a book full of secrets, codes, and friendships!

 

Parent note ” This was a really great book and I am happy my daughter picked to read this.  Since I am from Germany myself, this was a subject dear to my heart and I am always wondering how I can teach her more about this time back then. Since we also had the opportunity to travel to Berlin the year before, it was really great to have another opportunity to talk about many events. I think the author did a great job of keeping a certain mood and mystery in the book. It wasn’t necessarily an easy read ( not so much because of events in the story but more because of  the bit complicated story line and characters). I think my daughter really enjoyed it though and it helped her understand some of the history.

Upcoming release OXFORD Roald Dahl Dictionary

With the upcoming new movie release of the BFG Roald Dahl’s books are everywhere again. Oh how I love it. I love that these classic books are coming back out of the corners, getting new beautiful, updated covers and kids are getting excited about reading them. My little 6 year old has discovered more and more of his books in the last few weeks. She has read



and

Well, she still needs to read the BFG. Since it is part of the MBTP curriculum in 8-10 we went back and forth deciding if to read it now or later with the studies, but we figured it is more important to just read it before the actually sees the movie. And there is no way I would make her wait that long to see the movie ! We are beyond excited to go see it in the theaters, I think it will be one of our highlights for the summer !!

With the girls upcoming birthdays in summer I have been on the hunt for fun things already. Yesterday I came across a fun new upcoming release !!

Oh how fun will this be !?! Roald Dahl really has an amazing talent with words,so often i hear the girls just laugh out loud and giggle over his fun stories and the amazing word plays he has created. When you read his books, you really step into a whole new world. You feel the characters and get to know them. Each of his books has won a special place in our hearts ! I know this little dictionary will be so much fun to use and bring back many of the crazy words Roald Dahl uses in his books :))

Review

“It’s hard to find the right word to express our levels of excitement around the ‘Oxford Roald Dahl Dictionary.’ Squacking? Jumpsquiffling? Gigantuous? Roald Dahl’s inventive, playful use of language is such a key element of his writing, whether he was using existing words in his own mischievous way or inventing extra-usual new ones. It is wonderful to have this dictionary compiled with such expertise, passion and wit by Dr. Susan Rennie and the team at OUP. There could be no more fitting way to pay tribute to Roald Dahl in the year of celebrations for his centenary. Best of all, as a fully-functioning dictionary for readers and writers aged eight and above, I hope it serves as a swashboggling source of inspiration for a whole new generation of storytellers.”
— Luke Kelly, Managing Director of the Roald Dahl LIterary Estate and Roald Dahl’s grandson

About the Author

Susan Rennie, Quentin Blake, Roald Dahl

Susan Rennie has worked on many dictionaries for both children and adults, including the Oxford Primary Dictionary, Oxford Primary Thesaurus, the Oxford English Thesaurus for Schools and the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. She also writes books in Scots for children, and has translated the first Scots edition of Tintin. Susan is currently a Lecturer in English Language at the University of Glasgow where she teaches lexicography and the history of Scots and English.