A Must Have Book for the young Padawan: LEGO Star Wars The Visual Dictionary

Ricky will be 5 years old in a few weeks and is already hooked on Star Wars - the movies, video games, and the toys. Since Mark and I are fans ourselves, it's kind of nice and lots of fun. I've decided to dedicate the next few posts to Star Wars & Star Wars the Clone Wars.

Let me start off by saying that Ricky and Mark have spent countless hours playing the Lego Star Wars game (as well as Lego Batman and Indiana Jones but that's for another post).

We bought him this dictionary before Christmas last year and Ricky enjoys flipping through it and looking at the pictures while we read the captions to him.

Chapter one is the movie saga, chapter two is the Clone Wars, Chapter 3 is Specialist Sets and Chapter four is Lego mumbo jumbo - merchandising, etc. which is very cool to see.

What's interesting is that the book shows the history of star wars legos. For example, the entry for Slave I shows the set in 2000 (which looks very blocky) and then they show the picture of the exact same set in 2006 and it looks so much better. It shows how the Lego company redesigned and improved the star wars lego sets. You can see this difference throughout the book for the entries whose sets have beeen released and re-released.

The pictures of the legos are amazing and it's fun to flip through. Our dictionary came with a Lego Luke Skywalker figure. This book is a must-have for a young padawan.

Published by DK, 2009.

Look Inside an Igloo by Mari Schuh

Am I on a non-fiction kick? Not really but I did visit the library again yesterday and picked this up for Ricky too. Same author and publisher as the previous book!

When snow builds on our patio set we refer to it as an igloo. We had a pretty good snowstorm a few weeks back and Ricky was able to hide in his "igloo." Mark and I have explained what igloos are to him, but I thought I would pick this book up to show Ricky.

The book talks about Inuits and how igloos are built. It also describes how the Inuit cook food and sleep. We found it fascinating the way they used a sheet of ice as a window - among a few interesting tidbits.

This is a great brief snapshot of an igloo but I feel like the book could have been longer. Just when Ricky was getting more interested, it was the end of the story. Still, I thought this was a decent snapshot for a preschooler. The photos were excellent.

As in typical non-fiction fashion, the book has a glossary and index at the end of the book. I also want to note that the publisher also offers "A Look Inside" a log cabin, pyramid, and tepee plus other titles as well. I foresee reviews of these books in the future if I can find them.

Published by Capstone Press, 2009

Tornadoes by Mari Schuh

Every once in a while I get the urge to read something non-fiction to Ricky. Since he is so faschinated with tornadoes, I grabbed him this book at the library.

This book is very brief, and talks about - in a high level for kids - what tornadoes are and how they form. There is one page that shows destruction, but it's not too bad. Just a bunch of wood and debris everywhere. Don't worry, there are no dead bodies!!

This book is good for preschoolers to just a basic understanding.

Published by Capstone Press, 2010

Max's Words by Kate Banks, Pictures by Boris Kulikov

I've been working with Ricky on sight words for a few months and when I saw this book I thought it would inspire him.

Max has one brother who collects coins and one brother who collects stamps. He wants to collect something too. So he picks words. He discovers that when you put them together, you can say all kinds of things.

What a great concept. Ricky enjoyed this book but it won't be an every-single-night or several times a week kind of book. He told me that he likes the book but I can return it to the library if I want to. hehe.

Published by Francis Foster Books, 2006

Other Countries, Other Cultures - A National Geographic Picture Book: One World, One Day by Barbara Kerley

With the earthquake in Haiti, we've all been thinking about a country other than our own (for a change) and what it is like living in another country. So when I came across this book at the library on the "new" shelf, I grabbed it and wanted to share it with Ricky.

Other than brief clips on Sesame Street, Ricky's never really been exposed to other countries. I mean, we went to the Dominican Republic on vacation 2 years ago when he was 3 but that was on a resort - so he didn't really experience much other than the resort.

This book is interesting because it shows how kids across the world get up in the morning, eat breakfast, go to school, learn in school, eat lunch, go home, do homework, eat dinner, and prepare for bedtime. Ricky liked this book because he could relate to what all these kids were doing. He found it interesting that 2 girls in the pictures had nose rings and we ended up having a conversation about nose rings and why people want them and what they mean. He was actually grossed out!!

Anyways, this is a good book for kids because it exposes them to other cultures. The photography is excellent but I expect nothing short of excellent from a National Geographic book!

Published by National Geographic Society, 2009

Teaching Your Preschooler to Read? A Gizmo For You: Leapfrog's Tag Reading System

Ricky will be 5 years old next month and goes to 4 year old preschool. Since I stay home full time, I've taken it upon myself to teach him at home. He enjoys numbers way more than reading. He's been able to count to 200 since he was 3 and finished the preschool math website in 2 weeks - 1,400 math problems! But reading? Forget it. He just tells me flat out that "mom, I wanna do numbers. Not this."

Right now I've been trying to teach him some phonics, sight words, and concepts that will teach him how to read.

So he got this for Christmas. So far, he has The Cat in the Hat, Po's Tasty Training, and the set of Short Vowels. I've sat down with him and done the Cat and Po books and it's pretty nice. The pen will read each page to you. There is also games. I am kind of disappointed in the sense that I expected it to have an option where it reads each and every word to you as you run the pen across the words - but it doesn't do that. I don't know if the short vowels set does that yet - maybe it does. I'll have to review this again after he gets more books.

In any case, this is a great educational toy because it gets your child interested in independently reading or just simply sitting down with a book.

I'll blog again about this product later on when Ricky's used more books!

More then Just Your Typical Numbers Book - One Wolf Howls by Scotti Cohn, Illustrated by Susan Detwiler

When you go to the bookstore or your local library, there are tons of number books to choose from. We probably own a good 20 of them - they mostly count to 10, involve animals, and rhyme. This is a pretty successful formula. This particular book - One Wolf Howls by Scotti Cohn, kicks things up a notch and takes the learning thing to higher levels. My soon-to-be 5 year old son really enjoys this book - and it has done more than just reinforce the numbers 1 through 12.

Ricky's impression of wolves was largely based on the mean wolves who served the Ice Queen in the Chronicles of Narnia movie and the mysterious pack of wolves in the Polar Express. When we read this book he is able to view them as animals who have a family, who hunt for food, and take care of their pups.

In addition to the nature element, the book has reinforced the months of the year - along with the corresponding seasons and the weather those months bring. Scotti Cohns' writing is appropriate and engaging for preschoolers and very enjoyable to read aloud for parents. The illustrations are picturesque and look very life-like. I feel that this age group has too many books that are cartoon-like already - and they are old enough to start looking at more accurate and life-like pictures. In other words, it's good to mix it up!!

There is a surprise at the end of the book for readers - a matching activity, fun facts, life cycle, and a calendar activity. There is also a page that discusses hunting and endangered wolves.

I highly recommend this book for preschoolers. It goes beyond your ordinary numbers book and tricks your child into learning months and seasons. Since I'm committed to looking into more educational materials for my kids, I've chosen this as my very first review for the new year.