Value Bookshop's Reading Notes

If you have children around the ages 9-12 year old who loves animals, you might want to check out the books below. A friend of mine, Rachel, is looking to sell these books of hers. If you are interested, write to her: rachel_heah at hotmail dot com. (books are in Malaysia)

Animal Ark Favourites, ISBN no. ISBN 0-340-69958-2
Animal Ark; Hound at the Hospital, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-69956-6
Animal Ark Hauntings; Deer in the Darkness, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-84418-3
Animal Ark Hauntings;Cats in the Castle, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-84417-5
Animal Ark Christmas Special; Mouse in the Mistletoe, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-77877-6
Animal Ark Summer Special; Porpoise in the Pool, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-79555-7
Animal Ark In South Africa; Leopard at the Lodge, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-77843-1
Animal Ark; Fawn in the Forest, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-68715-0
Animal Ark; Chinchilla up the Chimney, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-73603-8
Animal Ark in Australia; Roo on the Rock, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-65581-X
Animal Ark; Piglet in a Playpen, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-61930-9
Animal Ark; Dog at the Door, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-69948-5
Animal Ark; Panda in the Park, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-72403-X
Animal Ark; Shetland in the Shed, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-68716-9
Animal Ark; Foals in the Field, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-69949-3
Animal Ark; Sheepdog in the Snow & Kitten in the Cold, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-70398-9

Half Moon Ranch; Danny Boy, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-75729-9
Half Moon Ranch Summer Special; Jethro Junior, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-77868-7
Half Moon Ranch; Golden Dawn, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-75732-9
Half Moon Ranch; Skylark, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-79173-X
Half Moon Ranch; Steamboat Charlie, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-79172-1
Half Moon Ranch Wild Horses; Chiquitita, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-79597-2
Half Moon Ranch; Lady Roseanne, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-79171-3
Half Moon Ranch; Silver Spur, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-79169-1
Half Moon Ranch Wild Horses; Santa Ana, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-79596-4

Home Farm Twins; Silky The Foundling, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-69988-4

Animal Alert; Killer On The Loose, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-68171-3
Animal Alert Summer Special; Heatwave, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-74682-3
Animal Alert Christmas Special; Lost and Found, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-74683-1
Animal Alert; Running Wild, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-70876-X

Puppy Patrol; Two’s Company, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-330-48007-3
Puppy Patrol; Puppy Power!, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-330-39092-9
Puppy Patrol; Dognapped!, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-330-39091-0
Puppy Patrol; Willow’s Wood, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-330-39090-2
Puppy Patrol; Boomerang Bob, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-330-39089-9
Puppy Patrol; The Snow Dog, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-330-39088-0
Puppy Patrol; Forever Sam, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-330-37635-7
Puppy Patrol; Sherlock’s Home, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-330-37634-9
Puppy Patrol; Sherlock’s Home, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-330-37634-9
Puppy Patrol; Superdog!, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-330-37633-0
Puppy Patrol; The Puppy Project, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-330-37632-2
Puppy Patrol; Charlie’s Choice, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-330-37394-3
Puppy Patrol; Best of Friends, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-330-37043-X
Puppy Patrol; A Winter’s Tale, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-330-37041-3
Puppy Patrol; Saving Skye, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-330-35492-2

Perfect Ponies; Keeping Faith, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-73660-7
Perfect Ponies; Last Hope, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-73661-5
Perfect Ponies; Sweet Charity, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-340-73662-3

King of the Wind, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-689-82990-6
Misty of Chincoteague, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-689-82993-0
Brighty of the Grand Canyon, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-689-71485-8
Justin Morgan Had A Horse, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-689-71534-X

Thoroughbred; Without Wonder, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-06-106607-9
Thoroughbred; Star In Danger, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-06-106608-7
Thoroughbred; Down to the Wire, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-06-106609-5
Thoroughbred; Living Legend, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-06-106633-8
Thoroughbred; Ultimate Risk, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-06-106634-6
Thoroughbred; Close Call, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-06-106635-4
Thoroughbred; Fallen Star, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-06-105874-2
Thoroughbred; Rising Star, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-06-106824-1
Thoroughbred Super Edition; Ashleigh’s Christmas Miracle, ISBN no.: ISBN 0-06-106249-9

Wow, amazing stuff that most of us don’t think about. Great book that points you in the right direction when it comes to food choices. Just imagine, losing weight just by making smarter food decisions, not necessarily going on a diet.
Get your copy today. Click the link below:
Eat This Not That!: Thousands of Simple Food Swaps That Can Save You 10, 20, 30 Pounds-or More!

There’s also Eat This Not That! For Kids! It’s a fun read and it will get your children thinking about which foods they can swap for a healthier alternative.

Get ideas for healthy kids snacks when you get a copy. Click the link below:
Eat This Not That! for Kids!: Be the Leanest, Fittest Family on the Block!

Learn my secret to how I got my children to eat raw vegetables. Read what it is at my parenting blog post (scroll down a bit when you get there and you will see it). Click here: Vegetables For Kids

Do you have a child going to preschool soon? Well, don’t wait till school begins before you start teaching them something. Keep your little ones busy with interesting, fun, coloring preschool worksheets. Teaching them the alphabets, numbers, shapes and simple math.

Don’t have to hunt all over the internet for pages like the one above. There are 5 Jumboworkbooks with 50 pages each. They also come with bright, cheerful certificates and die cut stickers like these:

You can always purchase each Jumboworkbook separately. They each cost USD7.95. Buy the whole set, and you only pay USD24.95, which works out to be almost 10cents per page. I think this is a pretty good deal considering you can print as many copies as you want. Definitely a time saver as you don’t have to go hunting for nice preschool worksheets all over the internet. Of course it is nice to get free worksheets but usually you’ll find limited copies to use per website. Your child can’t be using the same free worksheet over and over again. Here you get 1 book with 50 different variations on the same topic. I highly recommend it.

Click below to see more examples of the book.
JUMBOWORKBOOKS

SAM FEELS BETTER NOW!
Author: Jill Osborne
Illustrator: Kevin Collier
ISBN: 9781932690606

This is not your normal storybook that you would read to your children at bedtime. This book was written for a very special purpose and that is to help children overcome a traumatic experience. Many things can be traumatic for children e.g. sexual ,physical or verbal abuse, war, natural disasters, dog bites, death of a loved one, accidents, etc….

What’s in the book:
It’s a simple story of Sam, a young boy, who has been traumatized by something awful. He goes to see a special therapist who helps him to cope with the effects of that trauma. Within the story are promptings for children to draw pictures:

• draw a picture of someone who is scared
• draw a picture of something awful or scary
• draw a picture of people that Sam can love and trust
• draw a picture of a place where Sam can feel safe at home
• color Sam’s feelings
• draw ways that will help Sam relax etc…

The story is formatted into stages:
- identifying the source of the problem
- identify people who can give support
- thinking out a safety plan
- identify feelings
- learning how feelings can be felt in the body
- relaxation methods

Sam’s trauma is not indicated in the book. This part is left open for children to fill in the blank. And the interaction exercises gives opportunity for children to inject their own experience into the story. So you can see, if children are traumatized by something, they can tell their experience without apprehension. As you know, some children may not want to tell what happened to them but they are okay telling what happened to Sam.

The author suggest that this book be used as part of a trauma therapy session. It does not replace a therapy but rather works as one of the tools. At the end of the book is a therapist’s guide and a list of references and resources. This book is invaluable for those working as child counselors and professional child therapists. It is especially geared towards children 4-10 years old.

Can parents use this book?
Since I don’t have children suffering from traumatic stress, neither am I a child therapist, I wondered if this book would still be useful to me. Well, I believe almost all children do have some kind of fear e.g. fear of the dark, fear of ghosts etc…. Maybe not to the extend of being traumatized by it but the process of identifying, talking about how to feel better definitely is beneficial. It gives parents an idea of how to approach such problems rather then dismissing their children’s feelings with a “don’t be silly, there’s nothing to be scared about” attitude.

So, in summary, this is not a book you would cuddle up and read with your child. It is a resource book to help children deal with traumatic stress. Ideally, it should be used by a professional therapist as part of a trauma therapy but regular parents like me could benefit from learning what it’s all about too.

This book is by Salina Yoon and I really like her books. They are fun to read, unique and interactive. Here is a slide-up book. It took me a while before deciding to sell this. But I have another one called the Fire Truck. I gave that one to my boy and decided to let this one go. Can’t be selfish and keep all these good books to myself right?

* Click to enlarge image. For more images, go to the review page at my bookshop.

Our review:
I love how you can slide out the top part of the book. The cover is the picture of a bus. When you slide the top out, it shows you the children in the bus. The next page has a picture of a school bag. Slide the top out and it’s a teddy bear that’s in the bag. The colours are bright and some parts are shiny too. The story is all about going to school: packing your bag, reading time, play time, recess time, going home time. A wonderful interactive book that toddlers will love. I know my son loves it.

Currently available at Value Bookshop for RM18.90. Only 1 copy available. Hurry over there and grab it quick!

This is a split-page board book. The top left tells you the name of the shape, the top right is the picture of the shape and the bottom half are items you need to find to match the top half. The shapes in this book includes: circle, semicircle, square, squiggle, triangle, dome, almond, diamond, rectangle and crescent. A fun and interactive way to learn about shapes.

For more pictures of the book, click here – My Very First Book of Shapes
(If you don’t see the pictures, it means the book has been sold).