Siblings Books

While I enjoyed the entire Elizabeti series, this one stands out for its depiction of sibling love. While Elizabeti finds her young brother Obedi to be a handful, her love for him is apparent. The book is good-humored and presents a happy, loving family.

After reading Mama Elizabeti by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen, it appears that in this book the author's shares her knowledge as well as her experience from her days in the Peace Corps. The author also demonstrates the connection with a reading strategy known as text to world. Using this strategy she shows that there are similarities from other cultures of the world to our own. I recommend that this book be used as an excellent example to demonstrate how children throughout the world help their parents and find that growing up is part of a continuing learning experience. The book explains to children that as they grow up and learn, they will find not only joy and gratification in helping their parents and siblings, but they will also become aware that they do not need to give up their childhood pleasures and experiences. The book gives the reader the feeling that each person will find the time to enjoy things from the past, present, and future. It is a book that might be shared between parent and child, or in a classroom setting. It is a wonderful example of multicultural reading. I would also highly recommend this book to be used to model as well as be a starting point for discussion of the reading strategy: text to world. It is often difficult to find books that help teachers teach both multicultural experiences and strategies, this book is an example of both.

Max and Ruby are at it again in another humorous adventure that happens to contain valuable lessons about entrepreneurship and competition. Ruby and her friend Louise have their eyes set on two new Fire Angel flashing rings at the novelty store, and they decide to set up a lemonade stand so they can earn the money to purchase the rings. While little brother Max wants to help, the girls do not see him as part of their business plan and they send him off to play. Not easily deterred, Max sets up his own stand and shows the girls a thing or two about competition. Max's Bunny Business weaves some important economics concepts into a clever story with delightful illustrations that will appeal to readers of all ages.

Our whole family loves Rosemary Wells. We love Max and Ruby. Great story.

This is an excellent book for all ages.

This book is really touching and should be read by everyone.

I loved this book! Drama,humor,mystery, it's all there. Just when I thought I had it figured out, the plot twists. The characters are well written and easy to relate to; I alternately loved and hated them all!
Can't wait for the next book!

From the very beginning you feel as though you are in the room with the brothers. The descriptions of the house and family involve you in their thoughts and memories. Just when you think you know where the book is headed, it takes a turn. I had a difficult time putting it down. Can't wait for his next book.

My 5 year old daughter loves this book. It is very sweet with a nice happy ending. I would recommend this book to anyone with a girl aged 3-6 who loves mermaids!!! It is also a great book for little girls who are longing for a sister (especially those who got a brother instead!)!

Mermaid Sister is a delightful children's picturebook about Shelly, a young girl tired of her little brother, who befriends a little mermaid named Coral. It's great to have a mermaid sister instead of an annoying little brother! But there are down sides to having a sister - Shelly and Coral experience their first fight, and Coral is lonely for the ocean. But when they return to the beach, it's not goodbye forever - just the opposite, as Coral has a little mer-brother of her own to introduce. A cheery story about the joys of friendship and siblinghood.

Mokie and Bik live on a boat called BULLFROG: they live on it and around it and are twins whose parents are busy, so they have a nanny, Ruby. Black and white drawings by Jonathan Bean accompany a fun story of two siblings who love boats: perfect for elementary-level chapter book readers who like the water.

I credit Wendy Orr with launching the surprise sneak attack of the century. As I write this she is by no means a household name. Her books are distinctly Australian in flavor and tend to span no more than 100 pages apiece. Then 2007 rolls around and BAM! She starts hitting the American market left and right. First her book, Nim's Island gets sold to a big Hollywood studio and will star such luminaries as Jodie Foster. Then the American release of "Mokie and Bik," comes with an uppercut to the jaw. Yankee child audiences'll never know what hit `em. I would like to warn you here and now that upon picking up "Mokie and Bik," your average adult reader is going to have one of two reactions to the writing. Either they are going to embrace Orr's delicious, sing-song use of the English language or they are going to read half a page and disregard it out of cowardice. I'd estimate that a good 25% of the potential adult readership won't have the sheer moxie to read this aloud to their child, and that depresses me. It's been a long time since I've seen an author take such a wild and wonderful chance with words, phrases, definitions, and pronunciations. This isn't a verse novel. It's three times as amusing and creative as that.

Mokie and Bik, girl and boy twins, live out their days on their mother's boat, scampering about all the live long day. Their father, to hear them tell it, is a parrot with a pirate who has been out to sea so long they've almost forgotten what he looks like. So while their mother does her Arting and their nanny Ruby fishes them out of the sea by their overalls whenever they tumble in, these two get into trouble faster than a man could blink. Whether they're fishing up "eee-normous fisk", learning to swim (via the old toss-em-in-with-a-rope-around-their-waists method), or walking their saggy soggy dog, these two are making a head-first, devil-may-care, hot-snorting, rip-roaring dive to remain in the pantheon of classic children's literature. And you know what? You'd have a hard time arguing against it. Pure liquid charm, this book.

Some twins develop a language entirely of their own, and Mokie and Bik seem to fall smartly into that category. What they say can be deciphered eventually, but it takes some doing. You have to understand what it means when the twins say that their father is a "parrot" who'll come home with "a pirate on his shoulder" and a "treasure on his chest". So what does the book sound like? Here's a taste: "They monkeyed off the roof to the slippery wet deck, slip slide slippering in soggy socks, skate chase racing up to Bullfrog's bow - Mokie was bigger but Bik was faster - and Bik balanced on his sliptoes at the very front point." The spellcheck on my computer is going bonkers over words like "slippering" and "sliptoes" and I wouldn't have it any other way. The water patrols sometimes give the twins, "police cream in a cone." Catching food from the sea is "fisking".

The worry here is that Orr would get cutesy on you. I know a certain percentage of you out there cringe in the deepest depths of your soul when you encounter a children's book where the author lets his or her characters intentionally mispronounce something because, to them, it equals automatic funny. But that isn't what Orr's doing here, so shake off your cringes and give the book a shot. This is a title that concerns itself with the elasticity of language itself. How far can the author push words and phrases so that they still make sense but come out sounding magnificently mangled in the meantime? Somehow Orr manages, and the result is a book that luxuriates in lines like, "Laddie was a sheepdog, a saggy, shaggy, long licky-tongue dog with brown eyes hiding under his wool."

This is a book that demands that you read it aloud. And let me tell you, it is mighty hard to read this book to yourself when you're taking a red eye flight home from Seattle and all you want to do is hear the way Orr's language bounces off your tongue. Bedtime stories rarely come as sweetly as this. It also pairs beautifully (if on the slightly younger end of spectrum) with Natalie Babbitt's wonderful, Jack Plank Tells Tales which also has a sea-based harbor feel. And don't let me forget to mention the evocative pen-and-ink illustrations by Jonathan Bean that capture the flavor of the story. For two twins who are always "overboard or underfoot," you'd need an illustrator with the ability to convey that sheer unbridled energy. Bean does decently in this respect. It's a slim pup, coming in at only seventy-some odd pages, but it packs one helluva wallop. Label this one most certainly worth your time and attention.

This is a beautiful book with the most amazing illustrations you will find anywhere! My daughter is almost 3 and wants to hear this story over and over, and I love to read it to her.

VERY highly recommended!!

Warm period watercolors bring to life this classic tale borrowed from Charles Dickens's story "The Magic Fish-Bone."

When Molly went to buy fish for dinner, she happened upon an old woman who told her that she would find a bone in her portion of dinner fish. The woman identified herself as Molly's Fairy Godmother, told her the bone would provide her with one magic wish, and then disappeared. Molly thought her imagination might be working over time, and went home.

Yet, that evening, sure enough, there was a bone left on Molly's plate. She kept the bone and contemplated everything for which she might wish but nothing seemed quite right.

What she really wants is eventually revealed, and with it a lesson in patience and rectitude for young readers.

The illustrations are delightful, and the moral worth remembering.

Monster Toddler is a charming picturebook for children ages 2 to 5 and is about Timothy, a delightful toddler boy with a "monstrous" alter ego. When Timothy puts on a monster suit and becomes Monster Toddler, he lands himself into a monster-sized mess of trouble! Gentle color illustrations by John Wallace add a very special touch to his warmly presented story about learning to clean up after one's mistakes and tantrums.

One day, Charlotte's little brother, Timothy, puts on a monster suit and is transformed from the "sweetest boy in all the world" into "MONSTER TODDLER".

Monster Toddler then runs amuck, making a mess so big that Charlotte runs into her room and slams the door shut. Monster Toddler is unconcerned with the fleeing Charlotte and continues on his rampage until he makes a mess *so big* that he becomes stuck behind a big pile of disheveled toys and books.

But never fear, "WONDER Charlotte" comes to the rescue. And after she shows Monster Toddler how to clean up the house, how to sit quietly and not pop out and surprise people, and how to be nice to kitty, Timothy decides that he likes being good. He even agrees to relinquish his monster suit.

This is such a delightful story. Not only is the artwork fun and sweet, the plot appeals to children on a number of levels. First, who doesn't occasionally dream of happily running amuck: raiding the refrigerator and eating all the cake. Plus, what sibling doesn't occasionally `bug' their siblings? And what big brother or sister doesn't dream of being a super hero.

Perhaps it is the versatility of this story that keeps my children (3 and 5) coming back for more. They love this book and with its fun artwork and gentle ways and I love it too.

It is definitely a book that has already kept their attention for years (we started reading this when they were 1 and 3 and we feel its a great addition to any kid's library.

Mujercitas really made me wonder about the opportunity we all have to live a life full of joy. Made me also wonder how come most of us do not apprecite and value this opportunity given. With this book I have decided that I will, even if others don't, that's up to them. In addition, made me think about the family I once had and with a little more forgiveness, It could return to me. Read the book, if you are into the sentimental type, but if you are Stone-Cold don't waste your time!!!.

I think Mujercitas is a wonderfull book, which tell us about human kind. It teaches us to love each other ant tha the best things in life are those you can not buy with money.

I read this book last night. I was looking for a gift for Christmas for the son of a friend. This book is perfect. Humor, wisdom, and a great resolution to a problem many young boys face - the ambiguity of how much their success translates into approval by their parents.

Bonny Becker has crafted a cool, funny story. Everyone who has ever hated a brother or sister (for at least ten minutes) should read this book. Everyone who has ever wanted to be perfect should read it. PARENTS should read it, too--especially parents who think they want perfect children. This book is a lot of fun, very real and leaves you feeling good about yourself. What a great story! Highly recommended.