This Week’s Children’s Book Reviews: Stormy: A Story About Finding a Forever Home – The Addams Family – I Hate My Cats (A Love Story) – The Big Book of Beasts – Karl, Get Out of the Garden! – Winter Shadow #ChildrensBooks #BookReviews

On By MischenkoIn Animals, Children's Books, Fantasy, Fiction, Pets, Reads

Hey, guys! I haven’t posted children’s books for so long, but after chatting about it yesterday with a fellow blogger, I realized how much I’ve missed doing these. Hopefully you can find some books here for your children to enjoy. 🙂

Stormy: A Story About Finding a Forever Home

By Guojing

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Stormy is a must-read for any dog lover. We picked this up because we read the author’s other book The Only Child which quickly became one of our favorites.

This wordless picture book has the most captivating illustrations. You can expect the same colorful, eye-catching artwork from the cover throughout the entire book. The story is about a little dog who appears to be lost and homeless. He’s very fearful and unsure of human contact. A girl who runs into him at a park takes interest and tries to coax him with a ball, but to no avail. After a few days of persistence, the little dog finally follows her home and a rainstorm develops. What will happen to this poor little dog? Will the girl ever see him again?

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This book is beautifully illustrated and kept our interest from front to back. It never ceases to amaze me how an author can craft a story with no words–one so powerful that has such an emotional effect on people. The kids and I had a lot of emotion reading it and after discussing it, we ended up reading it multiple times again. This book deals with trust, fear, loneliness, love, perseverance, and kindness. It may be recommended for ages 3-7, but it’s truly a book for all dog lovers of any age.

We enjoy wordless picture books and this is definitely one we’ll keep. Highly recommend! We’ll always be on the lookout for more books by Guojing.

  • Age Range: 3 – 7 years
  • Grade Level: Preschool – 2
  • Hardcover: 40 pages
  • Publisher: Schwartz & Wade (September 17, 2019)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1524771767
  • ISBN-13: 978-1524771768

The Addams Family: An Original Picture Book: Includes Lyrics to the Iconic Song!

By Vic Mizzy, Lissy Marlin (illustrations)
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This book is basically The Addams Family theme song along with some really cool illustrations. There aren’t many lyrics at all, so this is largely a picturebook. All my kids enjoyed it, and I appreciated the nostalgia because I grew up watching the show. This is really helpful to teach kids the song. If they’ve never heard it though, the audio would be best to go along with it.

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  • Age Range: 4 – 8 years
  • Grade Level: Preschool – 3
  • Series: The Addams Family
  • Hardcover: 32 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins (September 3, 2019)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 006294679X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0062946799
I Hate My Cats (A Love Story)
By Davide Cali & Anna Pirolli
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I Hate My Cats (A Love Story) by Davide Cali and illustrated by Anna Pirolli has to be one of the best children’s books we’ve read this year. My six-year-old was smiling and laughing from front to back.

Ginger and Fred are the two cats in the story and each is different in their own way. Ginger likes to play with peas and remains fairly active, while Fred loves to sleep and is quite fearful. The cats irritate their owner in multiple ways to the point where he simply can’t stand it.

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We were consistently reminded of our cats’ behavior throughout the story. I was unsure how much we’d love it with the word ‘hate’ as part of the title, but it’s just a reminder of the love/hate relationship we can sometimes have with our animals. I wish there was a lesson here for kids about loving their pets even when they’re bad, but it’s certainly easy to talk about it after.

This book is a very simple read with only a short sentence per page. The illustrations are gorgeous! If you have children who love cats, this is one to add to your list; although, it’s perfect for any cat owner no matter what age.

4****

  • Age Range: 4 – 8 years
  • Grade Level: Kindergarten – 3
  • Hardcover: 44 pages
  • Publisher: Chronicle Books (October 2, 2018)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1452165955
  • ISBN-13: 978-1452165950
The Big Book of Beasts
Yuval Zommer
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This has become one of my daughter’s favorite animal books this year.

The Big Book of Beasts is oversized and filled with illustrations and simple facts for many different animals from honey badgers to leopards. The general location is given for each animal as well. The writing is simple and easy to understand, so children can pick up the facts quickly and remember them.

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We’ve been reading about one or two animals before bedtime and it’s something she looks forward to daily. I think we’ll just reread it all over again!

4****

  • Age Range: 3 – 5 years
  • Grade Level: Preschool – 2
  • Hardcover: 64 pages
  • Publisher: Thames & Hudson; 1 edition (April 18, 2017)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 050065106X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0500651063

Karl, Get Out of the Garden!

 Linnaeus and the Naming of Everything

By Anita Sanchez & Catherine Stock (illustrations)

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This is an excellent children’s book that teaches about Carl Linnaeus (Karl) and how he began the classification system, and the use of scientific names. It’s jam-packed full of facts, beginning from his childhood and beyond. We enjoyed the illustrations and the children learned many more facts they weren’t aware of, including struggles he faced and also how he changed his name.

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This is an informative book for older readers learning about the classification system, and probably good as a read-aloud for younger readers as well. We appreciated the timeline and other notes in the back for further reading.

5*****

  • Age Range: 7 – 10 years
  • Grade Level: 2 – 5
  • Hardcover: 48 pages
  • Publisher: Charlesbridge (March 21, 2017)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1580896065
  • ISBN-13: 978-1580896061

Image source: Penguin Random House

Winter Shadow
by Richard Knight & Richard Johnson (illustrations)
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Such a heartwarming story about a young girl who finds a wolf pup on the way to school one day. Maria is a strong-willed girl and wants to do what’s right, but what will come of this young wolf named Shadow?

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We really enjoyed this book; it’s one I would’ve loved to have as a child. The illustrations are beautiful and offer perfect breaks in the text for young readers. This is an early chapter book, but it’s wonderful as a read-aloud for very young children too. We all loved the ending, which was quite unexpected. This book is perfect for all animal lovers.

5*****

  • Age Range: 7 and up
  • Grade Level: 2 – 4
  • Hardcover: 80 pages
  • Publisher: Barefoot Books; 1 edition (November 1, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1846861160
  • ISBN-13: 978-1846861161

Image source: Barefootbooks.com

Thanks for checking out this week’s children’s book reviews. Have you read any of these or other children’s books you’d like to share? Let’s chat in the comments section below.

31 thoughts on “This Week’s Children’s Book Reviews: Stormy: A Story About Finding a Forever Home – The Addams Family – I Hate My Cats (A Love Story) – The Big Book of Beasts – Karl, Get Out of the Garden! – Winter Shadow #ChildrensBooks #BookReviews”

        1. Lol. It was too funny when we got to the page where the one cat is sitting on the edge of the litter box. We have two garage kittens (Kreese & Rigby) and Kreese is forever doing that so he soils the ground rather than in the litter box. Drives us crazy! I need to get one with a lid. 😂😂 I definitely think you’d love this one.

          Liked by 1 person

    1. It’s so beautiful, Cathy, and such a wonderful story too. My kids all love animals, but my middle daughter especially, and the girl in this book reminds me of her so much because I know this is how my daughter would react to this little pup. Just so sweet!

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    1. Noriko, that book is so beautiful! Wordless picture books are some of my favorites. We always end up reading most of them over and over again. 😉 Thanks for inspiring me to get back into writing up these posts. ❤

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      2. starjustin

        Wow! What a collection. I fell in love with the cover of Stormy. Are these your books or library books? Lol. I wanna check them out when I come home for the holidays. 👍🏻💕

        Liked by 1 person

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  9. Such gorgeous books Jen. I like the looks of several of them and will have to see if I can find them at the library as I can’t buy anymore children’s books, I have way too many now. Stormy especially grabs me and of course The Adam’s Family Book brings back great memories. Awesome reviews.

    Liked by 1 person

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  11. Haha That cat book sounds hilarious and adorable! ^_^ I love the title. Cats definitely have a way of inspiring mixed emotions with all their troublesome-yet-cute-antics, don’t they? 😛

    Like

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