Category Archives: Product Review

Mar 19 2012

#bookreview: The Cookie Thief

Book: The Cookie Thief

Author: Frances Gilbert

Illustrator: Ben Quesnel

ISBN: 978-1-4670-3559-0

Pages/Price: 24/$12.79

Category: Children’s Picture Book

About The Cookie Thief

Delightful story leads children on hunt to find ‘the cookie thief’

The Cookie Thief by Connecticut child educator Frances Gilbert is a charming, simple and engaging story about a family who is hit by a cookie thief.

Thomas is visiting Granny’s house when he hears a patter, a swoop and a rush and oh no. “Cookie thief! Cookie thief,” Grandma shrieks.

Cookies are disappearing, the whole family is in a state of shock. There are no more cookies to be had. People take precautions and start hiding them, "No cookie thief is getting my cookies!" they say. Even the animals are put to work and placed on guard. There are no more cookies to be found anywhere.

Thomas’ wise grown up friend Kristina helps him make a plan to track down the cookie thief.

He looks everywhere. Who could it be? Will he find the cookie thief?

Our Thoughts on The Cookie Thief

What a mystery! Everywhere Alex goes, the cookies go missing! And he’s never able to eat any. So his family starts setting traps to see if they can catch the cookie thief red-handed, or at least get closer to figuring out the mystery. The ending is fun, but getting there is even more fun – for the whole family.

About the Author of the Cookie Thief, Frances Gilbert

My Disclosure Policy

Mar 15 2012

#bookreview Gabby’s Stick-to-It Day by Sheila Walsh

Book: Gabby’s Stick-to-It Day: A Story About Never Giving Up (Gabby, God’s Little Angel)

Author: Sheila Walsh

Illustrator: Natasha Kuricheva

ISBN: 978-1-4003-1805-6

Pages/Price: 32/$14.99

Category: Children’s Fiction/Christian Fiction/Religious Fiction

About Gabby’s Stick-to-It-Day

Gabby God’s Little Angel Book 1

Sheila Walsh Introduces Second Title in "Gabby" Series

Based on Galatians 6:9, this second title in Gabby’s series follows little Sophie on her quest to do kind things for her family. But each of Sophie’s good intentions results in a great, big mess-and a busy guardian angel as Gabby tries to keep the little girl from harm. Sophie quickly gets frustrated amidst each task and refuses to continue. Little ones will learn an important lesson on perseverance when Gabby whispers words from Galatians 6:9 into Sophie’s ear: "Let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up." Young hearts will also be reminded of God’s continual protection over them in the form of angels, just as Gabby protects and encourages Sophie.

Blog tour schedule: http://litfusegroup.com/blogtours/text/13464258/sheilawalshgabby. Take a look to see what other people are saying about Gabby’s Stick-to-It-Day!

My Review on Gabby’s Stick-to-It Day

Just like the first book – I loved it! Gabby is Sophie’s guardian angel and she recently noticed that Gabby is quick to get frustrated with what she’s doing, and simply give up – right in the middle of the job! But what Sophie doesn’t realize is that when she gives it, it can have bad consequences. Good thing Gabby is there to help protect her and the people or animals around her!

Sophie gets frustrated. I’m an adult and I get frustrated too. And I often want to give up, whether the task is cleaning up my house, finishing up a project at work, or something else. And the reason I want to give up varies to – from being tired, being frustrated, or just getting bored. But my house needs to be clean, I need to finish the job I’m given at work, and walking away doesn’t make the task go away. It just prolongs getting it over with!

It’s fun watching Gabby interact wit Sophie, and even more fun to watch her impart some words of wisdom in Gabby’s ear right when she needs it the most. You’ll enjoy reading this book to your little ones (over and over and over again), and you just might learn a lesson or two yourself!

 

About the Author of Gabby’s Stick-to-It Day Sheila Walsh

Sheila WalshSheila Walsh is a Bible teacher, speaker, singer, and best-selling author with more than 4 million books sold. Sheila Walsh is the creator of the award-winning Gigi, God’s Little Princess® brand, which has sold over 1.5 million units and won two National Retailer’s Choice Awards. As a featured speaker with Women of Faith®, Sheila has reached more than 3.5 million women by artistically combining honesty, vulnerability and humor with God’s Word. She resides in Dallas with her husband Barry and son Christian.

Disclosure Policy. Thanks LitFuse Publicity!

Mar 12 2012

#bookreview: Crafty Chloe

Book: Crafty Chloe

Author: Kelly DiPucchio

Illustrator: Heather Ross

ISBN: 978-1442421233

Pages/Price: 40/1$16.99

Category: Children’s Picture Book

About Crafty Chloe

Fancy Nancy meets Martha Stewart in Crafty Chloe, the adorable DIY star of a new picture book series!

When another girl has already purchased the most perfect birthday gift for Chloe’s friend Emma, Chloe decides she’ll make a present—something you can’t buy in a store. But crafting isn’t easy, and it’s beginning to look like she won’t have a great idea in time. Fortunately, with a good doodle session and a whole lot of glitter to inspire her, Chloe figures out just the thing to save the day—and with a little help from her trusty glue gun, she just might save a friendship, too!

This inventive and irresistible picture book will have young readers itching to reach for their googly eyes.

Check out CraftyChloe.com to learn how to make the cool crafts featured in the book!

My Thoughts on Crafty Chloe

There are lots of things crafty Chloe isn’t very good at. It can be frustrating when you’re not good at something. But it’s so much fun when you find something you like to do, and you’re great at it! And crafty Chloe is just that – crafty!

She’s so great at what she does that she makes crafts for her mom, her dad, her baby brother, and especially her dog. They’re all the beneficiaries of Chloe’s craftiness.

But when it comes time to buy a birthday present for her friend Emma’s birthday, Chloe is stumped. Ha! Her stumpiness only lasts a little while. And it turns into brilliance. Not only does crafty Chloe make a great gift, she’s able to make a friend.

The girls and I enjoyed crafty Chloe’s cleverness from the beginning to the end. And we also think her dog is a really good sport. 5 stars from our family.

About the Author of Crafty Chloe, Kelly DiPucchio

Kelly is the award-winning author of several children’s books, thousands of To-Do lists, and a few recipe cards. Two of her books, Grace For President and The Sandwich Swap, were New York Times bestsellers.

Like most kids who grew up in the 1970’s, Kelly had a pet goat and bought all her clothes from the Sears catalog. Like most teenagers who grew up in the 1980’s, Kelly had really big glasses and feathered hair.

Today, Kelly lives with her husband and three children in southeastern Michigan, where she enjoys writing just about everything except her own bio.

Disclosure: I received a review copy from the Amazon Vine program.

Mar 11 2012

#review: Fairy Tales Hair Care

About Fairy Tales Hair Care

All of the Fairy Tales Hair Care products are paraben and sodium laureth sulfate free and use the finest ingredients such as Vitamins A,B and E and passion flower, aloe, jojoba, rose hips, sage, cherry bark and chamomile to help make bath time an easy time for parents and children.

imageTear Free Conditioning Shampoo, 12 oz – Tear Free and so mild. Loaded with Vitamins E and B to restore shine and texture while gently cleansing the hair. Safe for babies and toddlers, too! $8.95

Detangling Conditioner, 12 oz - A daily conditioner that cleans and moisturizes in just seconds – all with no greasy buildup. Extracts of rosemary, aloe vera, cherry bark and chamomile leave hair feeling like silk. $8.95

Static Free Leave-in Detangling Spray, 12 oz - Static electricity no more! Rehydrates the scalp with pure vitamins and no greasy buildup. Enhances luster and pliability with aloe, rose hips, sage and Vitamin B. $8.95

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My Thoughts on Fairy Tales Hair Care

The first thing both girls noticed is the smell. All of the products have a sweet, fruity smell they love! They wanted the detangling spray daily just because of the smell. The first thing I noticed about the products is what’s missing – the parabens and the SLS. It is so hard for me to find natural hair care products for the girls that work and I’ve been using Fairy Tales Hair Care products for over 6 months more for what they don’t contain than what they do contain.

All of the products work well. They clean the girls hair and they don’t dry it out. I still have to add oils to the girls’ hair, and while the detangling spray works well on Lulu’s hair, it doesn’t do anything for Coco’s hair – but that’s to be expected. Her hair is just so curly that I can’t find anything to help with detangling other than lots of time, patience (on both our parts), a few tears, and several different combs.

I will continue to use the Fairy Tales Hair Care line of products for both of the girls, but am still on the look out for a good detangler for super curly hair.

Disclosure Policy: I received review products from Fairy Tales Hair Care and Childs Play PR.

Mar 2 2012

Fun, flirty hair: Goody Heat Wave Creator Styling Iron

I was intimidated when I first picked up the Goody Heat Wave Creator Styling Iron to use it. I didn’t think I’d be able to figure it out. I do have to say that my preferred curling iron, though, is a Marcel one. That’s the kind without the clamp on it. The "professional" one. But since my last one broke, I haven’t been able to find a decent replacement so I’ve been using a flat iron.

What I do is flat iron my hair first. Maybe you can skip this step, but since I’m African-American, and I wash, wrap, and air dry my own hair, it needs more straightening first. After I flat iron it, I’ve figured out that the easiest way to use this is to hold the hair I want curled with hard on that side of my head. So if I’m working on the left side of my head, then I hold my parted hair in my left hand, grab the curling iron with my right hand, turn it upside down, and the twirl my hair around the barrel using my left hand. The one thing you’ll want to do is leave about 1/2 to 1 inch of hair NOT curled at the very end of your hair. That avoids burns on your fingers. Ask me how I know this.

IMAG0164What I’ve discovered – this is probably meant for longer hair than mine. My hair is shoulder length, maybe an inch past my shoulders. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to get the waves – but it works. I don’t see in the product description that it’s meant for longer hair, but the model does have longer hair. Smaller parts makes curlier curls. To avoid standing in front of the bathroom sink for hours, I only curled the "top" part, or crown, part with a few other curls surrounding those. Larger (wider) parts make wavier curls. To get this look it takes much less time. The problem for me with shoulder-length is that the wavier curls don’t make much curl at all. They’re there, just not a lot.

I like this curling iron. It works very well. You might burn your finger as you get used to it, but if you’re a quick reactor, it won’t be bad. For the length of my hair, a shorter barrel would be perfect!

Now Coco says I need to work on my gray hair. But I probably won’t. The cycle of relaxer then hair color every 3 weeks is horrible. Plus about a week after I color my hair, the gray is back. I’m too frustrated to continue that.

Feb 28 2012

#bookreview I Know a Librarian Who Chewed on a Word

Book: I Know a Librarian Who Chewed on a Word

Author: Laurie Knowlton

Illustrator: Herb Leonhard

ISBN: 978-1589808928

Pages/Price: 32/$16.99

Category: Juvenile Fiction

About I Know a Librarian Who Chewed on a Word

It’s been said that librarians take their love of books to the extreme. In this story, Miss Devine, a bun-wearing bibliophile, has a passion for literacy that reaches new heights. She has actually chewed on a word, claims one small witness to this outrageous event. And as the children gossip in a suspenseful build up, dying to know which word set off this smorgasbord, we discover that Miss Devine has munched her way through the whole library. In the manner of “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly,” she has downed a book shelf, table, chair, cart, and a copy of Peter Pan trying to chase down this savory assemblage of letters. What is that word?

Our Thoughts on I Know a Librarian Who Chewed on a Word

I thought I would like this book better. My daughters and I are very familiar with "’There was an old lady who swallowed a fly, but I don’t know why she swallowed a fly…” We really enjoy the rhymes. But we weren’t so excited about this book. It’s a cute book, but I just didn’t love it. And neither did my daughters. My 6-year old was turning the pages faster than I could read them, but it wasn’t because she was excited about the book; she was trying to get it over with and move on to the next one.

The illustrations are fun, and a bit exaggerated, which we all liked.

I give this book 3 stars out of 5. I wish I liked it better.

About the Author of I Know a Librarian Who Chewed on a Word, Laurie Knowlton

Laurie Lazzaro Knowlton has authored more than thirty-five books. Her best-selling children’s book Why Cowboys Sleep with Their Boots On won the Premier Print Award from Eastman Kodak. Art from another one of her picture books, Red, White, and Blue, has been displayed by the Robert L. and Posy Huebner Collection and was highlighted on Martha Stewart’s radio station. An international speaker, Knowlton loves kicking back on her ranch, Roots ’n Wings.

About the Illustrator of I Know a Librarian Who Chewed on a Word, Herb Leonhard

Herb Leonhard received a bachelor of fine arts in illustration from the Pacific Northwest College of Art. His award-winning work has appeared in D Magazine, among other publications. He is also the illustrator of Pelican’s Way Out West on My Little Pony, St. Patrick and the Three Brave Mice, A Southern Child’s Garden of Verses, Leonardo’s Monster, and I Know a Librarian Who Chewed on a Word. Leonhard lives in Prosser, Washington.

Disclosure Policy