Natalie MarshallCritiques

Various ways monsters may be bad and what to say to them to put things right. Fun to share at family story time because you can take suggestions from the kids for other things to say.

These books are SO ADORABLE!

These two, over-sized board books are a little different but definitely intriguing.

The Big Book of Happy uses a large format to parallel the activities of animals and children. A red-haired girl and dark-haired boy take turns mimicking the activities of animals "Owls are happy when they are hooting./I am happy when I am singing." The art is bold and colorful with small details of animals, colors, and shapes to point out.

The companion book, The Big Book of Silly feels like it was aimed at a slightly older audience. It features animals in increasingly silly situations and invites the reader to compare their own silly behavior: "I just want to be silly...like a rhinoceros wearing red polka dot pajamas and eating three hundred jelly beans before bed!" While this title had equally vibrant illustrations, it did not have a cohesive structure and just seemed to meander through the various scenarios.

The books are about 12 x 9 inches and I'm a little doubtful about how they will hold up to a lot of use as the cardboard feels thin and bendy. Each book has 8 pages.

Verdict: I really only liked Happy, personally. However, the large size of the books makes them a great choice for storytime, especially with the activities listed in Happy. I strongly recommend purchasing The Big Book of Happy and, if it's very popular and holds up, you might want to add The Big Book of Silly for fans.

The Big Book of Happy
ISBN: 9781499800906; Published 2015 by Little Bee Books; Borrowed from another library in my consortium

The Big Book of Silly
ISBN: 9781499800913; Published 2015 by Little Bee Books; Borrowed from another library in my consortium

These two, over-sized board books are a little different but definitely intriguing.

The Big Book of Happy uses a large format to parallel the activities of animals and children. A red-haired girl and dark-haired boy take turns mimicking the activities of animals "Owls are happy when they are hooting./I am happy when I am singing." The art is bold and colorful with small details of animals, colors, and shapes to point out.

The companion book, The Big Book of Silly feels like it was aimed at a slightly older audience. It features animals in increasingly silly situations and invites the reader to compare their own silly behavior: "I just want to be silly...like a rhinoceros wearing red polka dot pajamas and eating three hundred jelly beans before bed!" While this title had equally vibrant illustrations, it did not have a cohesive structure and just seemed to meander through the various scenarios.

The books are about 12 x 9 inches and I'm a little doubtful about how they will hold up to a lot of use as the cardboard feels thin and bendy. Each book has 8 pages.

Verdict: I really only liked Happy, personally. However, the large size of the books makes them a great choice for storytime, especially with the activities listed in Happy. I strongly recommend purchasing The Big Book of Happy and, if it's very popular and holds up, you might want to add The Big Book of Silly for fans.

The Big Book of Happy
ISBN: 9781499800906; Published 2015 by Little Bee Books; Borrowed from another library in my consortium

The Big Book of Silly
ISBN: 9781499800913; Published 2015 by Little Bee Books; Borrowed from another library in my consortium

Natalie Marshall’s picture book is all about things that make different animals and people happy. It is a great book to help introduce new vocabulary words and is a chunky board book good for younger children.

This is book is about how to handle monsters 101. You are given multiple scenarios on how to handle each situation if a monsters acts up but if it is good you kiss it and say goodnight.
This book was also very fun and each page wa full of color pictures and different monsters. It can definitely teach readers the upside to seeing a "monster". The creativity in each word was well thought out and grabbed my attention.
USE: To teach students manners
Teach them that you will be rewarded when you do the right thing
GENRE: Fantasy
MEDIA: Ink

I loved this book! Very fun and engaging! I used the ebook version which called for students to verbally use their manners to help teach the monsters their manners! I could see this being great for boys especially!

short monster book, toddler, preschool

This is a great book to approach being respectful, and courteous. The audience is in charge of the monsters, and given instructions to tell them how to behave if they are not. Such as, "If a monster is noisy, whisper in it's ear, be quiet", and "If a monster is mean, walk away and say, good-bye!" Everybody can be little monsters everyone once in awhile, and they just need to be reminded how to behave.

Thanks to Edelweiss and Blue Apple Books for access to this title.

Love the counting aspect of this book. The addition of one more keeps kids interested in where it will go next, and the rhyming text was fun to read. I think this is an excellent read for those learning to count.

This sturdy little book in the MY TURN TO LEARN series is all about the Numbers from 1 to 10.

This book features an adorable chubby brown bear --he's "ONE bear"-- who appears on subsequent pages with TWO owls, THREE birds, etc.

What I really love about this book, besides the cute bear, is that it's super sturdy. The pages are not flexible in the least; but very thick and glossy. I would think they'd hold up very well.

What I'm a bit disappointed about is that numbers 6 thru 10 all appear on the same two pages. I understand that the book would probably be weaker with additional pages, but ideally I would have liked the pattern of two pages per number, with each number having it's own sturdy tab.

Moms and others are going to be able to get a lot of use out this book. The tabs are going to be good practice for chubby little fingers to learn with. And the color scheme and addition of animals and flowers are going to give us the opportunity to teach colors and the names of items first, and then numbers when that time comes.

There are birds (blue birds and owls), flowers, clouds, trees, snails, acorns, ladybugs and leaves, amongst other things to name.

A good selection for older babies. Start with naming colors and things, and then add on numbers later.

Wow. This is one of the sturdiest looking boardbooks I've run across. Each page is really thick and glossy and should hold up well with normal baby/toddler handing (and mild chewing).

The artwork is cheerful and features a momma hen and her chicks. There are flowers and bees, fences and windmills, etc. in the back ground.

The book covers 5 shapes: circle, box, triangle, oval, and star.

And Natalie Marshall shows each shape as part of something else. Like the circle is at the center of a flower petals. And squares are both windows in a chicken coop, and the coop structure itself.

Besides the sturdiness, what I like about the book is that the pages have large thick tabs. Little fingers can work on using these to turn the pages, and moms and others can also ask their young one to turn to the page with the 'square' on it, for example. Then they can ask the child to point to the shape in the picture.

The book can also be used to teach colors and the names of other items that are in the vignettes.