Heave Ho! {Review and Giveaway}

Heave Ho! by Jose Lucio is a fun book about a worm trying to come up from underground with a little help from his friends (and a twist at the end!). It's a book about teamwork that appeals to a wide spectrum of ages.  

My Review: My first impression is that the book is printed on very high quality paper and bound nicely. It feels sturdy enough to survive countless readings with young hands, despite being a paperback. The illustrations are engaging and expressive and the story itself is very appealing. I wasn't sure if I was rooting for the worm or the opposition, but both sides showed innovative thinking and teamwork.

Kids' Review: Each of the kids enjoyed reading this book several times. It's a bit young for Jack (age 9), but he likes to read to his brother and sister, so it was a great book for that. All of the kids squealed with the twist at the end and agreed that it was their favorite part. They had fun choosing sides to root for! The animal illustrations are so fun - the kids loved them as much as the storyline. We all highly recommend this book! If you'd like to purchase this book, it is available here.

Now the fun part: The author was kind enough to provide two copies of this book for a giveaway! Enter via Rafflecopter below for a chance to win your own copy at no cost to you. :)

*We received a copy of this book from the author, but the review is purely our own.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Busy Dizzy {Review}

Busy Dizzy by Dr. Orly Katz is about that little voice in our heads that makes us doubt ourselves or our abilities. The story is set in a classroom, led by teacher Mrs. Young, where various kids are plagued with being shy, embarrassed, or being afraid to lose. Mrs. Young recognizes these doubts and teaches the kids about the "Busy Dizzies", describing them as:

 "...creatures that no one can see...some make you feel angry, some make you feel shy, some make you embarrassed and some make you cry...Busy Dizzies say words that JUST AREN'T TRUE! Busy Dizzies make you think there are things you can't do!"

Mrs. Young has the kids draw what they think their Busy Dizzies look like and teaches them a song to sing when they feel their Busy Dizzy close to get it to go away and get their confident selves back.  

My take: I really like the concept of this book. I like that it gives kids the opportunity to give name to their self doubts and gives them the power and the tools to get rid of them in a fun way. When a situation arises, I'll be interested to see if my kids recall this story and can give name to their own "Busy Dizzy"! We read the e-book version of this book and I'm not entirely sold on the format. I have been mostly reading e-books for myself, but this is the first that I've read with the kids. I think it was a bit more difficult to allow all three kids to see the "book" at once, and there are really fun pages in the back of the book where the reader can name and illustrate their own "Busy Dizzy", but those sort of get lost in the e-book format. That said, my kids thought it was really cool that they had a book on their Kindle Fire (that, I'm not going to lie, they use mostly for Minecraft!). The intended audience of this book is ages 4-8 and I agree that it is an appropriate age range, although Jack enjoyed it as well and he's slightly older than that at nine.  

Jack's take: Jack is actually the one who read this story aloud to the rest of us on his Kindle Fire. He is nine and had no trouble with any words or with the flow of the story. His favorite part of the story was the silly looking "Dizzies" - some of them look like little monsters and some of them look like exaggerated versions of their owner. As I said before, he was pretty excited to have the book on his Kindle and despite my own reservations, really enjoyed reading this story in the e-book format.  

Colin's take: Colin was less interested in the story, but he is also less interested in abstract concepts like feelings and self-doubt, so this didn't surprise me. Like Jack, he did love the illustrations of the kids' "Dizzies" and the silliness of it all. They definitely made him giggle!

You can find this book on Amazon (not an affiliate link) in e-book format ($1.99) as well as paperback ($12.57). If you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited, you can read this book for free! We recommend that you check it out!

*We received a copy of this e-book from the author, but the review is purely our own.