BOOK REVIEW: A Flea in the Ear

My go-to book is either the Lorax or Where The Sidewalk Ends. I was determined to grab a new book from boys large collection of books. Over the summer, our local library was having a book sale. You buy a bag and then you can fill it with as many books as you can. Joy and I raided the children's selections. One of those books was A Flea In The Ear by Stephen Wyllie and that was the book I randomly choose to read to the boys.

I sat on the rug with the boys standing and then trying to climb me to get the book out of my hands.

The story is about a gullible dog with fleas that's job is to protect the hens. There is fox however who would love to take those hens off the dog's hands.

The fox tries to make a deal with the dog because he has a family secret to get rid of the fleas. The fox offers to give secret for free after the dog denies the first deal to give up the hens for it.

The fox tells the dog to basically go down to the lake and go into the water to drown the fleas. The fox is such a nice guy, he offers to watch the hens so the dog doesn't lose his job.

The dog buys it and heads down to the lake. However, a flea goes up the dog's ear and tells him what's going down.

The dog spares the flea's lives and head's to the fox to seek revenge. The fox had taken the hens.

The dog told the fox he didn't get rid of the fleas because there too many ducks in the lake. The fox then went down to the lake to feast on the ducks but instead got all the dog's fleas. The dog spared all the hen's lives.

One thing I thought about after reading the story is; what is stopping the fox from drowning all the fleas?

I thought it was cute that instead of having the fox feast on the hens, he just kidnapped them by putting them in bags.

All-in-all the story was okay. I'll read it to the boys again. I'm not really sure revenge is the correct thing to teach the boys though.

BOOK REVIEW : Daddy Does The Cha Cha Cha

Dads are just dancing and dancing in this story by David Bedford and Bridget Strevens-Marzo. This would be a fun book to read and somewhat act out while reading. I think kids would definitely enjoy this. Heck, if you can dance go ahead and do so along with the book and why not have the kids do it as well.

So Dougie, whose daddy does the Cha Cha Cha, put together a party. The problem? Dougie said "no dancing dads!" I'm guessing the dad's dancing can be somewhat embarrassing. Instead the kids enjoy a good a dance. However, you can't stop the dads from dancing! Let me tell you that! Because one dad started doing the swing and then it caused a chain effect and the dads were dancing. But when Dougie's daddy got involved all hell broke loose and everything when CRRRAASSHHH! And then the mum comes out and makes everyone clean it up.

This book shows that dads can be goofy as well as responsibility for actions. I would read this book again to boys when they get older.

BOOK REVIEW - Even Monsters Need Haircuts

When I was 17, I was lazy. In no way did I want to have a job. Yuck! I played in a band, that's what I wanted to do. I go to school and then work on my music when I'm not. It was great fun. Then one day it was decided that I needed a job. My dad woke up at 5am for work and there he was knocking my door, waking up me to look for a job. No fun. Luckily it was pretty easy for me to get a job. I turned in two applications and got a call and the job for the first one I put it. Lucky.

This is quite a different story in Even Monsters Need Haircuts by Matthew McElligott. The boy in this story has a job and his dad doesn't even know about it! He sneaks out of the house, against his parents' (I assume) wishes, once a month to take on the same career his father does. His father is a barber. The only difference, he cuts the hair of monsters!

This book is pretty fun. I'm not quite sure of the message/moral (if it has one) but it is a sure fun read. The story takes a twist when a human walks in for a haircut. All the monsters and stunned and the boy is nervous. However, the "human" just wants a little of the top. You'll have to check the picture out to see what he means.

I recommend this book and I have read it several times to the boys and I enjoy the pictures.

BOOK REVIEW - The Halloween Kid

If you haven't noticed I'm a big fan of Halloween. Last year, Joy and I bought a house and you'd have no idea how excited I was to hand out of candy to Trick-or-Treaters that year. I got all dressed up as a zombie, thanks to Joy. Joy was going through the beginnings of pregnancy, so she opted to hang out mostly on the couch that night. We got a ton of candy from Sams Club. We had just bought more that day because we weren't sure how many kids would be coming to house.

5pm came and everything was ready for trick-or-treaters! I was on the pouch, dressed up with bowl of candy. You wouldn't believe how many kids came! None! Not a one! I walked down the street to see if kids were trick-or-treating down the street. Nope.

What does this have to do with the Halloween Kid by Rhode Montijo? Well the Halloween Kid saves Halloween! He's a super hero! I could have used the Halloween Kid to encourage kids to go trick-or-treating and save Halloween! He saved Halloween for anyone who tried to ruin it and I feel the people in my neighbor ruined it for the kids and the neighborhood by either being to scared to go out (we live in a city), religious reasons, or just lame!

This book has a western feel to it, which makes it really fun. Allow me to quote some of the lines from the book:

"He wrassled pumpkin-suckin' vampires"

"Ye-ha-llowen!"

"...the Halloween kid loved him some Halloween...."

This book is great! The pictures look great too. When you read this book, though, you have to read it best southern accent you can do. If you can, put a cowboy hat on too. Why not? I think the boys will enjoy this book when they understand the words. I had a blast reading it and even though they didn't understand me they smiled at my enthusiasm.

Back to my story, my Halloween kid that night was putting a VHS of the Exorcist in and watching it with Joy.

BOOK REVIEW: Three Bears Halloween

In The Three Bears Halloween by Kathy Duval and illustrated by Paul Meisel, The Three Bears embark on a Trick-Or-Treating adventure. They come up to an old looking house. When the little bear says "trick or treat" the door creaks open up. After the door opens up, they hear a laugh and see a witch behind the tree. So, naturally they enter the house and start eating popcorn! After they hear more laughing from the witch they get chased around the house and turns out to Goldilocks in somewhat of a silly revenge tale to scare the Three Bears.

It's a pretty cute story. It's short. It's simple. But as I was thinking about this... should we teaching our kids to be running into some random person's house if they're being chased? I would think the first response would be run into the street and try to find other people. I guess if you were being chased and you do go into some random person's house, maybe you should get to the phone. Anyway, maybe I'm missing the point of this short children's story.

The story was okay. I don't know why but for some reason it bugged me that the little bear said "boo boo boo" instead of "trick or treat" in the beginning of the story. I don't think this a book I would purchase or get it out from library again but it was a nice read.

BOOK REVIEW: Aliens Are Coming!

Halloween is coming and it's my favorite holiday! So we're starting early with the Halloween books. Joy and I request way too many items from the library. It's been a habit to go to the library on Saturday and pick up tons of books, DVDs, and CDs that we ordered throughout the week. The first batch of Halloween books, which we started with haven't been all that great. I know the kids don't really understand what you're reading to them yet but it's good to start early. Plus what is cooler than a good Halloween book!

Last night, I read to the boys (as well and Joy and Grandma W) "Aliens are Coming!" by Meghan McCarthy. Joy ordered this book. It is the story of the 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds by the Mercury Theatre. I'm a big fan of this broadcast and Orson Welles. The story about this broadcast always fascinated me. An evil part of me would love to see if something like this could happen today. If you don't know much about this broadcast, you owe it yourself to look it up.

I would love to expose my boys to this story when they get older. However, I'm not sure if I'd want to tell them story about the broadcast first or let me actually hear the broadcast. I believe I heard the story about the broadcast first in school. I once bought a cassette of the original broadcast and listened to it on a road trip I took by myself. My favorite part of the broadcast is when the aliens start attacking the radio cuts to complete silence. So creepy!

Anyway about the book; I liked it. The actual story tells the main points surrounding the broadcast and tells some of War of the Worlds. While it was fun to read, I think I would have enjoyed if Meghan McCarthy wrote a kids-style version of the War of the Worlds based on the broadcast. However, being that I'm such a fan of story of the broadcast, I did enjoy it quite a bit. At the end of the book, the author goes more in depth about the story in the author's notes. This part is more lengthy than the actual story, I enjoyed this part the most. However the first part is definitely more geared for kids and easier to read.

All-in-all, this book is definitely worth checking out. For more information on the book, please check out: http://www.aliensarecoming.com/.