Category Archives: Book

I love to read.

Book Review: The Umbrella

Jan Brett is a pretty amazing woman. Her stories and artwork are so captivating. She is one of the foremost author illustrators of children’s books in the country. She has over 33 million books in print. That is an amazing accomplishment. My mother actually is the one who introduced me to Jan Brett’s work. One of her favorite books is The Gingerbread Baby. We will have to read that one to Eva around Christmas time. Jan has a ton of books and one that we like to read to Eva often is The Umbrella (This is a “rain forest version of Jan’s book The Mitten). This book is about a young boy named Carlos goes into Monteverdi Cloud Forest in Costa Rica on a quest to see animals of the Cloud Forest. Carlos brings his woven leaf umbrella with him on his journey. He decides that he’s do better finding animals if he was higher so he leaves his umbrella at the base of a giant tree and climbs up.

While Carlos is in the tree a series of animals find the umbrella a fun place to spend their time. First we have a tree frog and then a toucan, a kinkajou, a baby tapir, a Quetzal, a monkey, a jaguar and finally a tiny hummingbird. As each animal climbs into on upon the umbrella it becomes a tighter and tighter fit for everyone. The umbrella is tossed into the river by the monkey and finally when the hummingbird sets down umbrella sinks into the water and all the animals bail out. Carlos climbs down from the Giant Fig tree none the wiser.

What I really love about the story is that it introduces Eva to animals that she wouldn’t hear about otherwise. And with the lifelike illustrations she knows exactly what these animals are supposed to look like.

Read to Me Dad Ratings

  • Story – Cute and entertaining.
  • Re-Read-ability – Excellent, I read it often and can enjoy the illustrations over and over such incredible detail.
  • Illustrations – Excellent – One of the most detailed and amazing illustrators ever.
  • Message – Good – Not much of a message here, just an entertaining and educational story.
  • Plot – Good – Easy to follow and children are apt to enjoy that Carlos misses all the action while he goes up a tree. Each animal has a distinct character and seeing the group get bigger and bigger is fun and builds a wonderful tension for the outcome.
  • Characters – I love the Character of the frog and how the Baby Tapir only makes a Blaat sound.
  • Does Eva Like It – She is mesmerized by the wonderful colorful images and settles down to enjoy the story.
  • Recommended Ages5 to 8

Book Review: Shelby

I picked this book up at the Tulsa Zoo in 2006. I knew that we should have a book with the same name as my baby sister. And since Shelby is Eva’s godmother I figured this would be a good book for her to read to Eva when she comes and visits. However, I spend a lot of time reading this to Eva.

Author and Illustrator
The story was written by Stacy A. Nyikos and she lives in Tulsa, OK. If I had planned ahead for my next trip I would have tried to get an audience with her to interview her for this blog. She has two other books, Squirt and Dizzy. The illustrations were done by Shawn N. Sisneros who also worked with Stacy on Squirt.

The Story-
The story is of Shelby, a Lemon Shark that lives in the roots of a knotty old tree. Shelby is afraid, she is afraid of the other fish. She is afraid that she cannot make friends because she will scare all of the other fish with her large teeth. And Shelby is lonely.

One day a large beast comes to her home and threatens the lives of the other fish. A call for help is raised and Shelby must summon more courage than she has ever had to reveal herself an help those fish she desperately wants to befriend.

This is a great story of using our talents and accepting ourselves. It is also about fear and how it prevents us from living our lives to their fullest. But overall it is a story of accepting one’s own self and having courage. Some excellent messages for children and adults alike.

In the back of the book are many facts about the lemon shark. And at stonehorsepublishing.com there are supplemental materials for the Shelby book including a quiz and questions to talk about with your child. Might be nice for homeschoolers. The materials are a free .pdf download.

Read to Me Dad Ratings

  • Story – Excellent and it rhymes well.
  • Re-Read-Play-ability – Excellent, I read it often
  • Illustrations – Excellent – The fish are so colorful.
  • Message – Excellent – Using your talents selflessly for the enjoyment of others.
  • Plot – Good – A nice little story that introduces characters and events that occur in an easy to follow manner.
  • Characters – Shelby is a wonderful character that illustrates how you must be brave to overcome fear and doubt.
  • Does Eva Like It – She enjoys the bright colors and I like to sing the book to her as well as change voices.
  • Recommended Ages3 to 8