Loretta’s Caterpillar

I loooved this book! It tells the story of a little girl that watches the life cycle of a butterfly in her garden. We go through all the different phases; egg, caterpillar phrases, chrysalis and then butterfly. We can see what the animal eats and how it behaves. And we follow the excitement of the little girl. At the end of the book, there are some pages with very interesting additional information about this species of butterfly. The illustrations in this book blew me away. I thought they were absolutely fantastic. Done in a traditional technique, they are very colorful, beautiful, poetic, full of ambiance and make the reader emerge totally in the wonders of nature and organic exuberance. I was very well impressed by this book and strongly recommend it to teach kids about wildlife and to contemplate its beauty in these wonderful illustrations!

F is for Fall

Nice to read a children’s book about the fall during the fall season. This book was quite nice! It goes through the letters of the alphabet with words related to the fall season and the text tells fun facts, explain the main fall celebrations and go through the iconic symbols related to this season. The text is engaging for kids and the illustrations are colorful and bright. I think this is a nice and entertaining ABC book for children.

He Wants To Be A Princess

I just read this book and I liked it a lot! It is about a little boy who cries to his mom that he wants to be a princess. His mom gets confused at first but then she accepts. When the boy goes to sleep that night, his mom exchanges all his boy toys for a big princess castle to make him a surprise. But when he wakes up he doesn’t want to be a princess anymore, he wants to be a dinosaur and he wants his toys back.I think this story is very smart and funny and has a great, interesting message for both kids and parents. It tells kids it is ok to be yourself. And it tells parents to get out of the box. Let your kid be what he wants to be and take it easy. Kids are growing, they need to experiment, they change every day, they need some freedom to get to know and express themselves. This is a great message and I think it is conveyed very well in this story. It is very exciting, fun and funny. The illustrations are fun as well, very colorful, naif and expressive. Will make kids and parents laugh and have fun. I recommend this book to kids and their parents to read and learn to be freer.

Gracie to the Rescue!

This is a nice little book that tells the story of a little dog called Gracie. Gracie had a family, but she was given for adoption, thankfully she found a new family, but she was scared and hide a lot. She grew to trust her new mom and dad and to be a great companion. This book can inspire and teach kids and parents on adoption and its beauty and challenges. The illustrations of this book are plain, made in a digital simple, sketchy style that is understandable for kids. I would recommend this book for any family who is adopting a pet or considering adoption. It is also great as a nice little nighttime story for your kid.

She Never Asked for Wings

She Never Asked for Wings on Amazon

Quite a beautiful story!
It is about a special girl swan that is born under a flickering star.
The legend says that when a star is flickering an angel wins his wings.
Well, this swan is born with no wings, but she has a caring family a good heart and a wonderful singing.
She grows to be a lovely swan and one day the swans unite and build wings for her.
Bo, a charming boy swan, gives her the wings and they fly together into the night. But the wings are not strong and she falls. Thankfully Bo catches her and they disappear in the night.
The flickering star appears again and miraculously our special girl swan reappears again with Bo. This time she is flying free with real wings. A true angel swan who won her wings.
The story is exciting and will engage children. It has a lovely message: If you are good, with the love and support of the ones around you and with a touch of luck by the stars, miracles can happen to you!
The illustrations are charming and fit the story nicely. They have a clear style that kids will appreciate. They are colorful and manage to convey the magical spirit of the story.
I definitely recommend this book for children and magic tale lovers.

Let’s Celebrate Ganesha’s Birthday!

I love this series about India’s cultural and religious figures for kids. As a European woman and a mom, me and my son get to touch through this book a little bit of India’s culture. I had seen Ganesha’s images but I didn’t know who he was and his story. This book helped me learn a bit more about him and how he is celebrated in India. I think the illustrations fit the story nicely, they are very colorful and bright, the characters are shown with their traditional clothes, the houses, and streets with all the traditional decorations. The overall style is able to convey India’s spirit and taste. I hope to read more books from this series and learn more about India’s icons and traditions.

A Whole Other Magic

A Whole Other Magic on Amazon

What a wonderful book! This book is about a magical grandma who trades her wings, wand and magical things with simple, ordinary things like, buttons, old recipes, seashells and such. We get to wonder why is she doing this, and then she sits with all these things close to a school. When the kids come out, instead of going home to stay alone, play videogames and stare at their smartphones, they sit together and start playing with all grandma’s things. This turns into magical moments of fun and sharing, and we realize no wand and wings are needed to create magic! This story is very moving and has a very beautiful message about what the world really needs to become more cheerful, loving and magical. The illustrations are quite interesting. They combine beautiful classical elements from the fairytales with modern-day life elements. The characters resemble real people but stylized with fantasy elements. I think this book is very interesting and has a depth to it. I strongly recommend it. Especially to fairytale lovers.

Happy Haiku

Happy Haiku on Amazon

This book if a compilation of haikus for kids. I liked the haikus. They are simple and any child can understand them and at the same time, there is beauty and meaning in a lot of them. My favorite is “floating in the ocean, just the clouds and me”. I enjoyed the nice play with the elements, quite beautiful. I think this is a good introduction to poetry for small kids. The illustrations are very cartoony and colorful. They will be appreciated by kids, but as a fan of haikus and Japanese art, I would have hoped for some Japanese influence on the style of those illustrations. But maybe that’s just me. Maybe something more traditional, with watercolors. I would recommend this book for any small kid as a nice, easy introduction to haikus.

I Love My Toes

In such a difficult time for kids, surrounded by media and images of stars with unrealistic bodies, it is important that books like this emerge. This is a book for small children, follows a little boy, who goes through the different parts of his body, telling that he loves them and why. The book is written in a very fun and funny way that will make kids laugh and have fun as they explore and learn to love their bodies. The illustrations of this book are in watercolor, the elements are big and clear for small kids to understand and like. The text formatting is also very fun, colorful, big and clean, very suitable for beginner readers. I recommend this book for all small children! Everybody should have a copy in their library to help their kid create a healthy body image in their minds.

Mili and the Dragonfly

A nice little book about empathy. This is a simple, clean and cute story about a little dragonfly which gets stuck in Mili and Milos house. They get a bit scared and think of squashing it but their mom makes the kids imagine themselves in the dragonflies shoes. Mili and Milo start filling empathy towards the little bug and set it free. The message is plain and clear for children to understand. My son got quite engaged in the story and I could see how his feelings of empathy grew along with the characters. The illustrations are bright and colorful, with a sweet girly touch to them. The style is clean and works well with kids. I would recommend this book for any child to help develop his sense of empathy towards others and especially the smaller and more vulnerable creatures.