Cinderella--First Stories

The Cinderella book from the First Stories collection is just delightful. It has 16 pages that have bright well drawn pictures done by illustrator Stephen Cartwright.

This book was written for young children who are just beginning to read. It is a dual reader, meaning that the line at the top of the page is for the child to read and the lines on the bottom of each page give more detail and are meant for the parent or an older sibling to read. The story is easily understood with just the lines written at top so the child can read it on their own. The illustrations are superbly done giving rich meaning to the story.

As many of you know I home school my two daughters. They are 11 months apart, and sometimes this gap is huge while at other times it is incredibly small. The gap never seemed as huge as when I was teaching them how to read. The younger one, who is almost a whole year younger, took longer to grasp reading. This was a perfect book for my daughters to read together. I told the younger one that she was to read the line at the top of the page and the older one was told to read the lines at the bottom of each page. They were ecstatic to read a book together, and neither realized that one part was easier than another.

Another added treat with this book, as is the case with most of the Usborne Books illustrated by Stephen Cartwright, is that there is a little yellow duck hidden on each page! The kids have a great time finding the duck. Some parents have discovered that it is easier to let the kids find the duck on each page before they read what is written! Regardless of when you look for the duck, the child can find the duck even if they are too young to read.

This book is part of the Accelerated Reader titles. Accelerated Reader (AR) is a reading management software that is used in over 60,000 schools. AR helps teachers by providing and easy way to monitor all forms of guided reading practice.

This book is recommended for ages 3 and up. My girls, ages 6 and 7, still enjoy reading and looking at this book.

Usborne Eggs And Chicks Review

We love the book Eggs and Chicks! We are in the middle of doing a unit study on, you guessed it, eggs and chicks, and we have found the book to be an invaluable tool in our home school.

We started out our unit study by having a man from church bring us a couple of eggs and a couple of chicks to our house so we could watch them hatch. We will have the chicks for two weeks and then he will come back and pick them up. Anyway, when he dropped them off we had two new chicks and two eggs. One of the eggs hatched the day he dropped them off and one has still not hatched, I'm not sure if it will.

The girls were so excited about the chicks, all day long they kept calling me over to see the chicks or the new cracks in the egg. You should have heard the squealing when the egg hatched! They sat there for an hour watching the new chick dry off, the feathers fluff up, and the chick gaining more stability and strength.

The book is great because it is written on young reader level 1, so even my 5 year old can read and understand it. It talks about all different kinds of birds and their eggs. Birds that nest, birds that are in the snow, unusual shaped eggs. It also talks about how the chick grows inside the egg and about the chick hatching from the egg. About learning how to fly, eating and growing up.

This book is also great because it is an Internet Referenced book. Meaning that it gives you at the back of the book the Usborne Quicklinks Website, where you can go and discover more information about eggs and chicks. You can watch a movie about birds, watch a video of chicks feeding and more!

The book is recommended for children 6 and up but younger children will enjoy looking at the pictures and having someone tell them about what they are seeing!

The Chicks!

                                                                                       My girls with the eggs in the incubator!

Usborne First Book Of The Recorder Review

Today my five year old daughter asked if I would teach them how to play the recorder as part of their home school lessons. Thankfully I already had the First Book Of The Recorder from Usborne, as well as two recorders on hand. So we were able to get started right away.


I only have the cheap recorders from the dollar store but I will be purchasing the Recorder Kid Kit really soon. The quality of the recorder looks better and it comes with a cleaning tool, carrying case, and what appears to be a chart.


I am extremely impressed with the ease that my girls, ages 5 and 6. are having using the book. They are learning how to read and understand music as well as how to play the notes on the recorder. There are familiar tunes and songs included in the book to develop their skills as a musician at a steady pace.


The book also includes games, puzzles, as well as fascinating facts about the recorder. The book is recommend for ages 6 and up and I would definitely recommend it to anyone, child and adult a like, who wants to learn how to play the recorder.

***It no longer comes in a kid kit but if you want a book of recorder music go here.

Usborne That's Not My Mermaid Review

We love the That's Not My________ series from Usborne. I especially like the book from that same series titled That's Not My Mermaid.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who has a baby girl at home or knows someone else who does. These books are designed with a young baby in mind, they are built sturdily and can withstand a lot of abuse from young hands. The recommended age is 9 months and up.
This board book, as well as the series, is a touchy-feely book with each page has a new and different texture for the child to explore.
Even though it is recommended for a much younger age than my girls who are 5 and 6, both still enjoy looking, feeling, and reading this book!
This is a great book to give to any new mother or mother-to-be!

***This title is no longer being published.  But check out the huge selection of That's Not My ___________     books or mermaid books.

Usborne What's Inside You? Review

Usborne has this great series called the Usborne Starting Point Science. This series is geared towards young children ages 6 and up. The series has detailed pictures and easy to understand text.

I especially like the book from the series titled What's Inside You?This book was extremely helpful in explaining to my kids when I had to go in for my second open heart surgery to replace the mitral valve. I started with this book to help explain to them why the heart is important, what the heart does, and what was wrong with mine making it not work.

Some of the topics covered in this book are eating, where does your food go, breathing, skin, hearing and touching. There are also parts that cover inside your head, your skeleton, muscles, eyes, and what makes up your body.

This is a great book to start teaching your children what a complex thing their bodies actually are, and yet it's simple enough that they can understand what is being taught easily.

If you have a child who is interested in their body and what it can do and how it all works then I definitely recommend What's Inside You?