The Oregon Kids: The Big Catch

Richley, B. (2017). The Oregon Kids: The Big Catch. Self-published.

Children's Book / Illustrated / Life Lessons / K-3

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Blurb: Reading with your child builds intimacy with your child and a love for reading. It could be a great time to discuss moral character and values. 
In The Big Catch, the value of being selfless and giving to others is exemplified. Billy and Autumn are brother and sister. At the beginning of the story, Billy is selfish and prideful. He sees his sister as a bother and burden. All that concerns him is fishing and catching the biggest fish. At the end, however, Billy shows compassion for his sister, Autumn, allowing her to catch the biggest fish. The Big Catch is meant to be read with your child. It gives parents an opportunity to discuss Billy's character and presents a good example for teaching values of giving, being selfless, and sacrificing. 

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HALL WAYS REVIEW: At just twenty-two pages, The Oregon Kids: The Big Catch is the perfect length to keep young readers engaged.  Author Bob Richley gives readers a well-designed and well-written story with plenty of talking points for adults and children to share as they read together.

Readers will likely recognize themselves when they’ve been frustrated, impatient, self-centered, or clumsy like main character Billy in The Oregon Kids. Children with siblings (or cousins or playmates) will relate to either having the tag-along younger sibling or being that tag-along younger sibling who just wants to belong.  The importance of empathy and sympathy comes about in a natural way, showing readers how good it feels to make someone else happy.

The illustrations are crisp and simple, yet when it’s important that a certain emotion is being conveyed, the expressions on the characters’ faces speak volumes. The illustrator, Hilbert Bermejo, uses a colorful but somewhat muted palette that is pleasing but not distracting.  The layout is designed well with plenty of white space to make the pages less intimidating to young readers, but I would have preferred a larger and/or bolder font.

The Oregon Kids: The Big Catch is a promising start to a new series that offers quick, bite sized lessons on values and virtues. I look forward to the next book, The Oregon Kids: Runaway Whiskers (currently being illustrated). Click here for a preview!

Thank you to the author for providing me a print copy in exchange for my honest opinion – the only kind I give. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: BOB RICHLEY grew up in the Chicago area and now lives in beautiful Colorado. Growing up Richley would often go camping in the Rocky Mountains. It was these childhood camping trips and especially his visit to Crater Lake in Oregon that was the inspiration for events in the Oregon Kids series. Richley is a parent, who has volunteered for years in children’s ministry. Teaching children good values and the grace of God are his passions. His stories, originally written for a single mom to help her raise her children, are a way to fulfill this passion. Richley has always loved children, wanting all children to be raised with love and grace. It is his hope that his stories will be one of many tools that parents will use to teach and to raise their children with Godly values.

  
Connect with Bob on his  AUTHOR PAGE     

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Dinosaur Zoo

Baker, M. (2016). Dinosaur Zoo. Troy, OH: Gypsy Publications.

Children's Picture Book / Life-lessons / Balance

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Welcome to the Dinosaur Zoo, home to playful dinos and one very busy zookeeper! Sally works hard every day, taking care of the zoo and its prehistoric inhabitants. Once they're fed and clean, the dinosaurs are eager to play with their favorite zookeeper. But, Sally has too much to do. She can't just stop working, or can she? This colorful, interactive story teaches the importance of balancing work and play - for kids AND adults!

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HALL WAYS REVIEW: In author Misty Baker's latest children's picture book, Dinosaur Zoo, readers are transported into a zoo full of cute and entertaining dinosaurs. The dinos are full of creative ideas and ready to have fun, but their young zookeeper, Sally, makes the dinosaurs sad because she won't stop working to play. 

  

Melissa Quinio’s illustrations (possibly done with oil pastels?) are darling. Drawings are richly colored and textured, which brings a lot of depth to the pictures and also gives readers plenty to study on every page. The characters' faces are really expressive and the depictions of the sad dinosaurs are so heart breaking, you'll want to hug the book. 

Misty Baker writes an engaging story, which parallels the real world, that will likely get young readers to think and react. Children (and adults reading along with them) may recognize Sally's work-comes-first behaviors and will enjoy Sally's solution. Also engaging is the print itself -- a variety of font sizes, word shapes, and colors are used to encourage the readers to interact with the text and story. 

It's fun to see the chores that have to be done in a zoo full of dinosaurs, and kids will get a giggle out of Sally feeding the dinos and shoveling "dino doo."  Each dinosaur has a favorite playtime activity, to which kids will relate within their own friend groups. Be ready to snort (I did) at Velociraptor and his corny jokes. (What did a triceratops sit on? You'll have to read to find out!)

The book is well-written and includes a section at the end that is directed to caregivers of children. Where the story implicitly conveys a message that kids need their adults to play with them, the "Word to parents and guardians from the author" is explicit about it. Fortunately, Baker offers some activities that seem like playtime but help the chores get done.  

There are some big dinosaur names, so younger readers will need some help with pronunciations. This is a great book to use as either a read-aloud or read-along to foster dialogue between children and adults, and I highly recommend it. 

Thank you to the author for providing me a print copy in exchange for my honest opinion -- the only kind I give.  I feel privileged that she has shared another of her fabulous stories with me. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Misty Baker is an author, freelance editor, and shameless chocoholic. From the age of three, she’s been in love with the written word. Some of her very favorite books were classics such as Black Beauty and Anne of Green Gables, and a few lesser known gems like Never Tease a Weasel and Beatrice & Vanessa. She loves writing children’s books that are fun, interactive, and teach valuable lessons to both children and grown-ups. Published titles include: Quentin’s Problem, Fuzzy Buzzy’s Treasure, Dinosaur Zoo, and A Home for Rosie with more in the works.

Misty also writes romance under her pen name Mysti Parker. Her short writings have appeared in numerous anthologies. On any given day, you can find her writing the next best-story-ever or lost in a good book at her home in Buckner, KY with her husband, three children and too many pets.  

Connect with Misty:

WEBSITE    FACEBOOK    TWITTER 

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BetterNot! And the Tale of Bratsville

Del Vecchio, G. (2015).  BetterNot! And the Tale of Bratsville - Teaching Morals and Manners. Pasadena, CA: BetterNot! Enterprises, LLC.

Children's / Manners / Fantasy

I gave this book 5 of 5 Stars 

Bratsville is an eerie place, surrounded by swamps, where parents are at the end of their ropes because their children are so horribly behaved.  As the parents all warn their kids what they better not do, something magical happens and a purple creature named BetterNot arises from the swamp to teach the naughty kids personalized lessons they will never forget.

 Benjamin Booger picked his nose all day and all night.

No one had ever seen his booger finger in the light.

This book tells it like it is with ill-mannered little kids and BetterNot, the answer to the hapless parents' cries for help.  Author Gene Del Vecchio seems to understand how to lure in the audience and get the point across without being preachy. The kids of Bratsville are over-the-top and completely out-of-control, and the bright, engaging, slightly exaggerated illustrations perfectly reflect the mood and characters of the story.  Even real life offenders will hopefully see the light and value of good manners and respect, and adults may recognize how they inadvertently may contribute to less than desirable behaviors.  This is an ideal book to read aloud to or read along with children, and it lends itself well to discussions about manners and could even be used for a lesson about figurative language.

The book is told in rhyming sentences, but they are not always rhythmic, so it's best not to try and read them to sound musical. There was a lack of punctuation that created run-on sentences (perhaps to aid in the delivery of the rhymes?) and one capitalization error, but they definitely weren't show stoppers and didn't interfere with the delivery.  

Del Vecchio's approach to the subject matter, coupled with the wonderful illustrations by Roderick Fong make this a highly recommended book for parents who want not only results, but lots of giggles from their children. I recommend for kids ages 5-9, but BetterNot could be a little scary for younger or sensitive kids to read alone.

Thank you to the author for providing me a fabulous hardcover copy in exchange for my honest review -- the only kind I give. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gene Del Vecchio is the author of seven books. His first young adult novel, The Pearl of Anton, was honored with a star review in Booklist, while the sequel, The Sword of Anton, was honored with the Young Adults' Choices Award from the International Reading Association. BetterNot! is his latest book.

A longtime entertainment consultant, Gene has worked for major studios and toy companies and has written extensively on the topic of creating great entertainment, including a book titled Creating Blockbusters. He also teaches at USC. Most importantly, Gene lives in Valencia, California with his wonderful wife, Linda. They are the proud parents of Matthew and Megan.

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