As a parent, teaching your child how to deal with death can be a difficult thing. It’s a hard concept to teach most children. If you are lucky, the first taste your child will have with death will be when they have a pet that dies. While, this is hard on children it does teach them something about what it feels like and how to move on after their trusted friend is gone.

This is what The Forever Dog helps to teach kids. The author, Bill Cochran came up with the idea for The Forever Dog when he lost his special friend, a Golden Retriever named Mo. The result is a beautiful book that offers an important message for children. While Cochran is new to writing books for children, the illustrator, Dan Andreasen, has contributed art to several different children’s books, such as Little House on the Prairie.

The Forever Dog deals with Mike and Corky. When Corky is brought home, Mike falls in love with him instantly. Despite the fact that no one knows what kind of dog Corky is, Mike loves him anyway. In fact, Corky and Mike loved one another so much they did everything together. Corky would even sleep on Mike’s head each night.

The two friends were inseparable. Wherever Mike went, Corky was in tow. Friendships like this are rare, but they made them seem natural. It only made sense when Mike and Corky created their forever plan. It was decided that the two would be together forever. For a long time, things with the forever plan were going perfectly.

However, good things can’t last forever and one day Corky gets sick and is taken to the vet. Mike is sad, but when he finds out that Corky is never coming home his sadness turns to anger. When Mike’s mother finds out why Mike is angry, Mike is taken through his memories and is taught the most important lessons about death.

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Written by Dom, Ash, & Robert Evans - Visit Website
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Bear on a Bike by Stella Blackstone with pictures by Debbie Harter offers a cute story about a bear on a bike. A little boy chases the bear on the bike and before you know it, the two are going on an adventure. The first stop they make is the market where they look at fruits and flowers. Next comes some time on a raft, where they travel through the forest. Later, a train takes them to the beach, and then the bear ends up on a boat. He also ends up in a rocket, on an island, and in a castle.

This is a perfect story book for young children and makes a great naptime book as it is not too long. Children love the story of the child looking for the bear and seeing the adventure unfold with each passing page. This is definitely a cute story for the younger ones in the bunch.

If you your children are learning to read this would be one of the books they would be comfortable going through. They might not make it on all the words, but they would certainly be comfortable with the majority of them.

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Written by Dom, Ash, & Robert Evans - Visit Website
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Follow Me, Mittens is an I Can Read book series book that is published through Harper Collins Children’s Division. Written by Lola M. Schaefer, Mittens is an adorable little kitten who is about to go on an adventure. The story is incredibly simple, but when taking into account that it is for first readers it is right on track. The majority of the words will be simple enough for a child that is learning to handle on their own. This is excellent because it will boost their confidence with reading and make them want to read more.

Ms. Schaefer was a school teacher prior to writing the books for readers that she has published. It is obvious by looking at the book that she has a good grasp on showing children how to gain a joy for reading. Had it been a traditional book, not one for learning to read, I might have said it was lacking, but due to the circumstances I think the average child will do fine with this book.

After reading through the book I can safely say that the art was my favorite part of this volume of Ms. Schaefer’s work. The art, created by Susan Kathleen Hartung, is simply amazing. The pictures offer clear lines, vibrant colors, and a mesmerizing quality to them that so many book drawings lack. Some of the pictures even have a watercolor feel to them that is not only pleasing to the eyes for grown-ups; it is also captivating to children. This is wonderful because at this age, the better the pictures are the more interested the child will be in viewing the book.

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As a child life can be hard. Parents will teach their children to celebrate their differences, but their peers often pick on them for whatever makes them different. To a child, this can be devastating as they all want to fit in. The Boy who Grew Flowers is a heartwarming and beautiful about how being kind is really the more important trait a child can have.

Rink and his family live high up on Lonesome Mountain. As they are the only family there all the other kids like to ignore Rink because he and his family are definitely the strange sort. The teacher leaves Rink in the back of the class and won’t even talk to him. Despite all that, Rink is still a good kid that looks forward to living each day.

Rink is special and has a gift that, while odd, is definitely one of beauty. When the full moon appears Rink grows flowers from his body! This makes him horribly different though he is not ashamed. One day, he meets a girl who is beautiful and kind. He likes her immediately, but the other kids tell her all about why Rink is worth avoiding. Little Angelina’s courage and honor is inspiring as she befriends Rink anyway.

This story has a lovely message from beginning to end. It is absolutely perfect for kids in Kindergarten to as high as the 3rd or 4th grade. Jen Wojtowicz is the first time author of this marvelous book. Before writing, she was (and still is) an artist who also teaches art to people with disabilities. This heartwarming story was created by Ms. Wojtowicz for her brother who has autism. It was her way of showing that people need to try a little harder to be accepting in order to remove some of the suffering that plagues us on a daily basis.

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Any kids that do not like the dark will love this book. For starters, all they need to do is press the moon on the cover and it will light up brightly like the moon and provide them with a night light. If they are sleepy when the light is pressed it should stay on until they fall asleep. Also included with this hardcover book is a lullaby CD that is sure to get younger kids in a sleepy sort of mood.

When it comes to the book, the story is as adorable as you would expect a Carebear story to be. The story might relate to the child that is having the book read to them. Bedtime Bear is reading a story to Friend Bear so that she can go to bed.

However, after the story Friend Bear discovers that she cannot sleep! She gets a drink of water, is tucked in with the help of Bedtime Bear, and then when Friend Bear learns it’s too late to read another story, she asks if they can turn on a light. Bedtime Bear offers to light up the moon, which you can do to thanks to this great book.

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As a child, my favorite books were written by Shel Silverstein. I remember when I bought a book of his poetry at the school book fair. I carried that book with me wherever I went. I used to read the poetry and laugh and wish that I was the people in his stories.

A few years back, our son discovered the same book of poetry that I once had and he loved it. He requested that we buy all of Silverstein’s books. I suppose that is the sign of a good author. Someone with such timeless appeal that a decade or two later they are still able to delight people with their words.

The Giving Tree is a book that was around when we were kids. In fact, most of the kids that I knew had a copy back in the 80s. Now, Harper Collins has introduced an anniversary edition that just goes to show that if your children do not have a copy of their own, now is the time to get them one.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story, it is a simple story with just about one line per page. The opposing page has a corresponding picture to go with the text. The story is about a tree and a little boy. The tree loves the boy and the feeling is mutual. The boy goes to visit the tree each day. He picks up her leaves and uses them in games of imagination. He climbed her, swung around on her branches, and would even eat her apples if he got hungry.

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Written by Ashtyn Evans - Visit Website
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Ashtyn lives in her home state of Michigan with her life partner, Dominick, her 14 year old son, and her baby, the Shih-Tzu, Oliver Twist. Ashtyn is in college, going for a degree in Psychology. She plans to get her Ph.D and work as a therapist in the field of human sexuality. Ashtyn is an experienced and talented chef. She also excels at writing and has worked as a professional writer for the past five years. Ashtyn enjoys spending time with her son and four year old nephew, watching movies, listening to music, and writing works of fiction.

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Simon usually goes by the name Stuff. As you may have guessed, this book is all about him. In Stuff: The Life of a Cool Demented Dude, we learn that Simon has loads of useless knowledge and a wonderful ability to create art. However, Stuff has four problems in life. Stuff’s dad’s girlfriend has moved into their house and she brings along her daughter who Stuff doesn’t like at all. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Stuff wants to break up with his girlfriend without being beaten up by her brother!

While breaking up with his girlfriend might be hard, he has to find a way so that he can be with his (new) true love, Skye. Of course, if he breaks up with his current girlfriend he might end up dead before he can tell Skye how he feels!

The last problem revolves around his comic strip. While the strip was anonymous to begin with, people are starting to figure out who is writing them and Stuff runs the risk of getting more body parts broken! Of course, this is just the beginning, as there is much more to do, see, and learn about Stuff.

As the book progresses we learn more about Stuff’s comic strip. There are six installments that have been split into specific sections. These sections involve Stuff writing the comic strip for the school paper. The comic strip details the life of a kid who wants to get away from the drooling dorkoids (the bad guys, of course) so that he can get to the well of androstopower. The well of androstopower will turn him into a mighty teenager. He enlists help from Sky Surfer in order to get to the well.

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The OG Kid is a 13 year old who loves cartoons, playing outdoors, and eating food at the Olive Garden (not necessarily in that order). He has the opportunity to review a plethora of newly and/or yet to be released DVDs, toys, television show episodes, and movies. With the eyes and heart of a child, he can share his thoughts on everything, from a kid's perspective.

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Written by Clare Beaton and published by Barefoot Books, How Big is a Pig? is a thick board book that is perfect for children that are just learning to read. As the book is a thick plastic it will last through the terrible two’s without a problem. If the child looking at the book is learning to read this book will be simple enough for them to read along with a parent who may need to offer minimal help in the beginning.

Each page offers a rhyming verse that encourages you to find out how big a pig really is. To do this you go through the farm and are presented with other animals that are both big and small. As you learn a little about these animals, each page continues to ask you if you know how big a pig really is.

Each page takes you from one animal to the next. Your child will learn (if they didn’t know already) that some sheep are black and some are white, some cows are thin and others are fat, and that some cats are wild while others are tame. Of course, these are just a few of the animals that you will see on your quest to find out the true size of the pig.

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Written by Ashtyn Evans - Visit Website
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Ashtyn lives in her home state of Michigan with her life partner, Dominick, her 14 year old son, and her baby, the Shih-Tzu, Oliver Twist. Ashtyn is in college, going for a degree in Psychology. She plans to get her Ph.D and work as a therapist in the field of human sexuality. Ashtyn is an experienced and talented chef. She also excels at writing and has worked as a professional writer for the past five years. Ashtyn enjoys spending time with her son and four year old nephew, watching movies, listening to music, and writing works of fiction.

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The concept behind this book is simple and yet it is somewhat ingenious all at the same time. Any parent with a small child knows how much time they spend teaching numbers, shapes, and colors. This book allows your child to begin learning these things on their own. This hardcover book offers spinners on every page and the spinners move around in a circle to show the reader some new information.

The first section features colors. Children will get to see red, yellow, blue, green, pink, orange, brown, and black and white. As black and white are listed as one color, kids get to see tuxedos, penguins, panda bears, and zebras. In the shape section there is circle, square, triangle, rectangle, oval, and heart. Finally, the counting section offers spinners from one to ten.

Each page has two spinners on each page. They are easy to spin and offer easy to recognize, yet extremely child-friendly graphics. The drawings in the book were handled by Michelle Berg. While she was new to me and the drawings are elementary in style, they provide a perfect look for a book that falls in this age group.

The colors are lively and the book will provide entertainment for young children who are offered this book or who get to look at it with an adult. At nearly $10.00, this book by Harper Collins Children’s Division, is a bargain. One of the nicest things about this book from a parental standpoint is the material the book was made out of.

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In celebration of one of the newest Disney movies, Meet the Robinsons, Harper Collins Children’s Division and Disney have teamed up to create the Meet the Robinsons Coloring, Activity Book and Crayons. Perfect for children as young as four up to seven or older, this coloring book has a list price of $4.99.

Included with the book are four thick, jumbo crayons in colors of yellow, red, blue, and green. While coloring is listed as one of the primary activities, there are many other things to do in this book. Of course, one of the nicest touches is that even on the activity pages the drawings and pictures are in black and white, just waiting to be colored. In essence every page is a coloring page, some of which contain excellent additional activities.

Some of the other activities include message decoders, connect the dots, and word searches. There are also pages where you need to find hidden objects and where you play the name game. These are just some of the activities though. There are many others in this book. The entire book offers 31 pages of fun activities and an answer key in the back in case you need to look up some answers for your little one.

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Written by Ashtyn Evans - Visit Website
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Ashtyn lives in her home state of Michigan with her life partner, Dominick, her 14 year old son, and her baby, the Shih-Tzu, Oliver Twist. Ashtyn is in college, going for a degree in Psychology. She plans to get her Ph.D and work as a therapist in the field of human sexuality. Ashtyn is an experienced and talented chef. She also excels at writing and has worked as a professional writer for the past five years. Ashtyn enjoys spending time with her son and four year old nephew, watching movies, listening to music, and writing works of fiction.

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