childrens-books – Jill's Book Blog

Review: Frankie and Friends: The Big Protest

Title: Frankie and Friends: The Big Protest
Author: Christine Platt, Alea Marley (illustrator)
Genre: Children’s
Publisher: Walker Books US
Source: Publisher
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: May 7, 2024
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Young reporter Frankie and her news crew of beloved toys learn why and how people protest as this engaging series continues.

There’s breaking news on TV at Frankie’s house—a protest to demand justice! Frankie’s mama, a journalist, gets a call to cover the story, and Frankie wants to do her own reporting, too. But what isa protest, exactly, and why do people do it? Along with her news crew, including Farrah the doll, Dan the teddy bear, and Nina the cat, Frankie prepares a feature story by doing research and conducting interviews with Papa and big sister Raven. And when the toys decide to have their own protest in support of the local movement, Frankie is on the scene to help make signs, march, and, of course, get the scoop! In this latest installment of the winning series, Frankie explores big ideas like racial injustice and activism with her supportive family and learns more about journalism in the process. Young newshounds will learn along with Frankie through all-caps vocabulary terms and a glossary at the back.

Review:

This story is a great way to teach children about protests and activism. There are so many protests about important human rights these days. It could be difficult to open that topic with children so they are aware of what’s going on in the world, but not give them so many details that it scares or traumatizes them. In this story, Frankie saw a protest on the news which inspired her to make her own news report about a protest. This was a safe way for her to learn about and experience a protest of her own.

Frankie and Friends: The Big Protest is a great early chapter book for young readers!

Thank you Walker Books US for sending me a copy of this book!

Other books in the series:

Frankie and Friends: Breaking News

Have you read Frankie and Friends: The Big Protest? What did you think of it?

Review: I Will Love You Forever

Title: I Will Love You Forever
Author: Katya Zolina
Genre: Children’s, Board Book
Publisher: Taffy Tales
Source: Publisher
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: December 12, 2024
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

The newest addition to the Love You Forever series, I Will Love You Forever delights the reader with a playful exploration of the relationship between mother and child that balances humor with heart-felt sentiment. “Mama, do you love me?” It asks . . . and answers, and the art invites the reader to linger on each page, to share in the emotion, and it succeeds on all fronts.

Review:

I Will Love You Forever is a cute board book. The baby bear asks his mom lots of questions like “Do you love me?” and “Why do you love me?”. The mother’s answers are given in rhyming verses. There were beautiful illustrations of different animals at the baby’s party, as well as places they will travel to when he grows up.

I Will Love You Forever is a cute board book for early readers!

Thank you Taffy Tales and Bookinfluencers.com for sending me a copy of this book as part of a paid campaign!

Have you read I Will Love You Forever? What did you think of it?

Review: The Princess in Black and the Kitty Catastrophe

Title: The Princess in Black and the Kitty Catastrophe
Author: Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, LeUyen Pham (illustrator)
Genre: Children’s, Fantasy
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Source: Publisher
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: September 3, 2024
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

The Princess in Black may know how to handle all kinds of monsters, but a kitten set on destruction? Me-OW!

Duchess Wigtower had heard that pets are fun, but all her kitten has gotten her is nine lives’ worth of problems. Eeeeek! It’s time for someone else to deal with this catastrophe. Princess Magnolia is thrilled when a kitten lands on her doorstep, but just as she’s about to play with Plumpkins (or should it be Hugmaster Floof?) the monster alarm goes off. When Princess Magnolia returns to her castle, her furry companion has carved up the wallpaper! In fact, each time Princess Magnolia leaves to help the Goat Avenger fight a very grouchy monster, her feline friend wreaks havoc. Has the Princess in Black finally met her match? Ten years after she first donned her cape, the Princess in Black returns for a purrfectly hilarious entry to the New York Times best-selling series.

Review:

This is such a cute book in The Princess in Black series! Princess Magnolia’s grumpy neighbour gives her the cat because he is so destructive. Magnolia must figure out how to get this new kitten to behave, while also defeating a monster in the village. I loved the way her problem with the kitten and the monster were related. The illustrations were adorable too!

The Princess in Black and the Kitty Catastrophe is a cute children’s book!

Thank you Candlewick Press for sending me a copy of this book!

Have you read The Princess in Black and the Kitty Catastrophe? What did you think of it?

Review: Squirrel-ish

Title: Squirrel-ish
Author: Bambi Edlund
Genre: Children’s, Picture Book
Publisher: Owlkids
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: September 17, 2024
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

At the park, people give squirrels free peanuts. And nobody screams when a squirrel crosses their path. But for Rat, it’s all screams and no nuts … until he comes up with a plan: be more like a squirrel—squirrel-ish!

When his attempts at adopting a squirrel-ish posture and pinning his ears down don’t make a difference, Rat considers his tail. And after a few crafty but failed squirrel-ish tail prototypes made from cotton balls, feathers, and spaghetti, he lands on a winning material: straw from a broom!

Finally, Rat can walk through the park without getting shooed. Free peanut in hand, he daydreams about building a re-tail empire … until the dogs in the park spot him and give chase. All of a sudden, Rat understands why squirrels do so much scampering! Maybe his rat tail isn’t so bad after all …

Brightly illustrated and packed with hilarious details and hidden gags, this laugh-out-loud ode to self-love reminds readers that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

Review:

This rat wants to be liked as much as the squirrels in the park. People scream and run away when they see him, but when they see squirrels, they’re given peanuts. The rat figures out that it’s the squirrel’s fluffy tail that makes them more likeable so he tries to give himself a bigger tail. However, he will find out that not everyone loves the squirrels.

This is such a cute picture book! I’m scared of rats, but not squirrels, and I do think it has to do with their tails. The fluffy squirrel tails make them more appealing and friendly looking. However, this story teaches that even though squirrels are more well liked by people, other animals don’t like them. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

Squirrel-ish is a cute picture book!

Thank you Owlkids for providing a digital copy of this book!

Have you read Squirrel-ish? What did you think of it?

Review: Pablo and Splash

Title: Pablo and Splash
Author: Sheena Dempsey
Genre: Graphic Novel, Children’s
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children’s Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: September 3, 2024
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

‘Irresistibly funny’ Guardian

Join time-travelling penguins Pablo and Splash on an unexpected adventure to the time of the dinosaurs in this brilliantly funny full-colour graphic novel. Perfect for fans of Bunny vs Monkey or Bumble and Snug.

Antarctic penguins Pablo and Splash are polar opposites and besties for life. Pablo is a home-bird and a careful planner. Splash is easily bored and hungry for adventure. Sick to her flippers of the harsh, freezing weather, Splash persuades Pablo to go on a holiday with her. But far from the luxury beach destination that Splash has in mind, the pair end up in a time-travel machine that takes them back to the age of the dinosaurs! Suddenly their icy homeland doesn’t seem so dull …

‘Joyful, fun and very silly indeed’ Louie Stowell, author of A Bad God’s Guide to Being Good

This is the first book in a series and further time-travel adventures await for Pablo and Splash.

Review:

Pablo and Splash are two penguins who live in Antarctica. Pablo likes his life on the ice, but Splash wants to go on an adventure somewhere hot. They end up escaping to a scientist’s lab and jump in a time machine that takes them to a beach. However, they have gone back in time to the age of dinosaurs. Pablo and Splash must find their way back to their safe, comfortable home.

This was such a cute graphic novel. I liked how Pablo and Splash were best friends but they were opposites in many ways, which gives two perspectives. This story taught them to love their home.

Pablo and Splash is a cute children’s graphic novel!

Thank you Bloomsbury Children’s Books for providing a digital copy of this book!

Have you read Pablo and Splash? What did you think of it?

Review: Cry Wolf (The Raccoons)

Title: Cry Wolf (The Raccoons)
Author: John Peel
Genre: Children’s
Publisher: Candy Jar Books
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Release Date: March 28, 2024
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

“Why Scaeffer, what big teeth you have!Why Bert, what big fibs you tell…”

There’s been a tornado in the Evergreen Forest! Schaeffer the sheepdog has gone wild! And there are gangsters at Cyril Sneer’s mansion!

Or maybe Bert Raccoon’s imagination is getting the better of him. Perhaps his quest to become the best (and only) news reporter in the forest means fiction sounds better than fact. It’s certainly not Sneer’s three Pig henchmen making the young Raccoon cry wolf.

Nope, no one will believe Bert’s crazy tales anymore.

But Bert really does have a the biggest thing to ever hit the Evergreen Forest. Cyril intends to pave paradise and put up a parking lot…

The classic TV series returns in these brand new storybooks!

Review:

Bert Raccoon is a reporter in the Evergreen Forest, but he wants to be the best reporter. He wants to write a front page news story, but he has trouble finding one. He thinks he sees a tornado, a wild dog, and gangsters going into a mansion, but none of those stories turn out to be what he expected. Bert doesn’t give up though, and he eventually goes undercover to find his biggest story yet.

This was such a great chapter book. It is based on Canadian 80s The Raccoons TV series. The story can be read as a stand-alone without watching the TV show first. The story was great, and there were some fun additions to the book as well. The book had 7 chapters, meant for children to read one chapter a day for a week. There were also QR codes in the book, including one in the middle of the book that leads to a cooking scene from the TV show that also appeared in the story. It was fun to see a scene played out on the TV show after reading it in the book.

Cry Wolf is a great children’s book!

Thank you Candy Jar Books for sending me a copy of this book!

Other books in the series:

The One That Got Away
Blast From the Past

Have you read Cry Wolf? What did you think of it?

Review: Walter the Woogobee: The Vortex to Vidza

Title: Walter the Woogobee: The Vortex to Vidza
Author: Brenda Beckelman
Genre: Children’s, Picture Book
Publisher: Seld Published
Source: Author
Format: Paperback
Release Date: February 6, 2024
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

An otherworldly adventure awaits us all!

Join Walter in this amazing journey as he space travels through a Vortex to strange new worlds where Elephants Fly and the Wind Speaks.

The local village is being destroyed. Walter and his new friends set out to save the village and find unusual animals, a valley full of gold and of course monsters. Will they be able to save the village? Will Walter find his way home?

Review:

Walter is a Woogobee from space. He lands on Earth via a World Vortex Locator after his planet was hit by an asteroid. He makes a friend named Bayron, and together they travel to the planet Vidza. Walter and Bayron join together with their new friend Kian and try to save her village from the Windmaker Monsters.

This was a cute picture book. I really liked the illustrations. There was a 3D quality to them with background images slightly blurry to create perspective. The characters were well developed in a short amount of time. This story is a great start to a new series!

Walter the Woogobee is a cute picture book!

Thank you Brenda Beckelman and Bookinfluencers.com for providing a copy of this book as part of a paid campaign.

Have you read Walter the Woogobee: The Vortex to Vidza? What did you think of it?