Review + Giveaway! My Home – 我的家

It is hard to get books by a local author let alone local contents AND bilingual one at that too. When I first received My Home – 我的家 (set of 2 books - story and activity book) I was attracted to its bright colours and cute illustration. After ripping the shrink wrap off, I was not disappointed as I flipped through the pages on the hardcover story.

:: The story

The story is narrated by a young boy, Jason (小杰) who started out his day looking for playmates. As he roams around the house with his faithful companion Blackie (小黑）looking for unsuspecting ‘victims’ to play with him, the reader is introduced to both Chinese and English terms used in a typical home setting.

The story is told in a fun manner as we stumble upon Jason’s father in the bathroom

 To getting Jason to help Grandma out in the kitchen

To extending the concept of ‘Home’ beyond the apartment but neighbouring facilities.

 

And of course along the way, children are introduced to the various vocabulary on things in the house and outside of the house. To facilitate children in reading, Han Yu Pin Yin is included and the Chinese text is printed above the English copy too.

The font size is big and colourful (good for young readers) and in instances where the story wishes to introduce the Chinese term of the English word, it deploys the clever use of ‘colour’ to make the association.

(The word 玩 is printed in pink to correspond to the English word 'play')

:: The illustration
The illustration is bright and colourful and it certainly attracted Dumpling. What she enjoyed the most was lifting the flaps where it made the reading more ‘interactive’! It was actually quite fun for us to hunt around on each of the pages for the flaps to lift and see what lays behind.

 

 

 :: The activity book

The title also comes with an activity book and while one of my first thoughts when I received the title was that the title could be a tad too simple for a 5+ year old child, the activity book closed that gap for me.

It has a good mix of simpler activities (pasting of stickers) for younger children

 

to activities such as writing and word recognition

Games were also included towards the back of the book too:

 

Up for grabs! I am also pleased to share that I have not one but three sets of My Home worth more than a total of $90 to give away! 
Enter through Rafflecopter for your chance to win!

 

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/a3722ab635/

 

:: Terms and Conditions:

- Entries that do not fulfill the requirements stated will be disqualified without notice.

- Winners will be notified by email, through the email address provided.

- This giveaway is open to Singapore residents only. 

 

Disclaimer: I received this set from Read with Me Mommy in order to do a review on and give my opinion of it. No monetary compensation was received for this post.

If you have enjoyed this post, please follow me on my Facebook Page where I share my parenting thoughts, food photos (be prepared for tons of them!), early shout outs for giveaways and interact with you, my readers! You can also follow me on Pinterest and Instagram

 

Book Talk Tuesday - Earth Day Special: Chinese Picture Books

In view of the upcoming Earth Day, Dumpling and I have been reading titles on 'nature' and on protecting the environment. Amongst some enjoyable ones: one title from the 巴巴爸爸 series, Berenstain bears and 如果地球被我们吃掉了which I have previously blogged about in a giveaway here.

Here are 3 more titles which we have also enjoyed:

:: 我的环保行动书: 垃圾放哪里
This is part of a 我的成长故事图画书 - 我的环保行动书 series which I recently bought and which I am starting to really like. This series has about 30 odd titles in all and is segmented into various larger topical groups with about 4 books under each topic. 

The entire series is suitable for younger children with its cute illustrations and simple explanations. 

In this title, it serves to explore and introduce the concept of recycling and taking care of our environment through the eyes of a boy who lives next to his teacher. 

The sentences are kept short and simple and the story is done in an interactive manner through the speech bubbles by the students and teachers. 

:: Charlie and Lola 查理与劳拉系列

Translated from an English title, everyone's favorite pair of siblings takes us on an educational "tour" on being ecologically friendly through Lola's imagination and experience! Lola comes to understand the importance of looking after our planet through recycling and leads her school to take part in a contest where they win and plant a real tree in recognition of their effort. Lola's 'never-say-die' spirit and perseverance shine through in this lovely story.

I bought this as a 15-book set. Here's the link to view on dangdang. 

:: 树真好

This last story is not a story on recycling but a gentle poetic story translated based on the English title "Tree is Nice" by Janice May Udry . The title is not based on any storyline but on how and why a tree is nice but with examples on what you can do with a tree and on a tree. Its simple approach brings about much beauty and how this unsung hero is able to do so much (and in turn let us do so much) in an understated manner. What's also lovely is its lovely illustrations which won it a Caldecott medal. 

This is one title to be enjoyed on a quiet morning where you can spend time looking through its illustrations and be reminded of the simple joy and beauty a tree brings us. 

"This is one of those books which prick a child into a realization of the beauty of the everyday world." - New York Times

This post is the second post of an Earth Day series. Part 1 shares how we recycled old envelops, newspapers and postcards to make a Corner Page Bookmark. Click on the photo to head to the post :)

If you have enjoyed this post, please follow me on my Facebook Page where I share my parenting thoughts, food photos (be prepared for tons of them!), early shout outs for giveaways and interact with you, my readers! You can also follow me on Pinterest and Instagram! 

Book Talk Tuesday - Miss Rumphius 花婆婆 REVIEW & GIVEAWAY!

In 'simplicity', there too can be 'beauty'. That was basically what went through my mind when I first read this title in English as part of the FIAR series. This simple and personal story also won the American Book of the Year award in the year of its publication.

:: The story 

Miss Rumphius, otherwise known as 花婆婆 in this Chinese title, is told through the eyes of a little girl (her grand niece). Miss Rumphius grew up in America where her grandfather was a migrant and an artist who painted occasionally. Miss Rumphius' early memories of her grandfather were those of evenings spent on her grandfather's laps as he reminisced his younger days and regaled his adventures with the young Miss Rumphius. That fueled Miss Rumphius' interest in travelling and she told him that she too, would travel when she is older. 

"很好，“ 爷爷笑着说， ”但是， 你一定要记得做第三件事。”
”什么事？“艾莉丝问。
”做一件让世界变得更美丽的事." 

"That is all very well, little Alice," said her grandfather, "but there is a third thing you must do." 

"What is that?" asked Alice.

"You must do something to make the world more beautiful," said her grandfather. 

And so Miss Rumphius did the two tasks (out of three) that she told the grandfather she would. She visited the countries and places which she wanted to and, stayed in a house by the sea. When it came to the third task, she was stuck. She pondered over this question for the longest time, "what can I do to make the world more beautiful?" 

:: The Illustration
Dumpling and I enjoyed the various scenes from Miss Rumphius' travels in the book. From the icy snow caps to her tropical adventures, each page brings on a different 'delight'. 





The colours are rich and vivid, and the layout, interesting. Many pages have an "overlapping" format where the illustrations would 'bleed' into another page with small "scenes" either above or below the text. :) It is no surprise to know that Babara Cooney (both the author and illustrator) has illustrated over a hundred books with 2 Caldecott Award Winners to her name. The art for Miss Rumphius has a permanent home in the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.



Author & Illustrator: Babara Cooney 
No. of Pages: 32
Age Group: From 5YO (as a readaloud), 7 for reading independently 

Delicately woven with a lovely message, I am excited to share that Read with Me Mommy is sponsoring one copy of this title for a giveaway. :)

Earn credits using Rafflecopter below 

(Please share on what you can do to make the world more beautiful in the comment section. Do remember to also leave your email address in the section too):

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 (For Singapore residents only)

The more credits you earn, the higher your chances! :)

That's not all! Just for Beanie N Us readers, you stand to enjoy a 10% savings when you key in this code BEANIENUS at the checkout! 

If you have enjoyed this post, please follow me on my Facebook Page where I share my parenting thoughts, food photos (be prepared for tons of them!), early shout outs for giveaways and interact with you, my readers! You can also follow me on Pinterest and Instagram! 

Book Talk Tuesday - 如果地球被我们吃掉了

Originally a French title (Quand Nous Aurons Mange La Planete], the cover caught my attention. "What if we ate up the world?"

:: The story

The story, aptly titled, discusses conservation and ecological concerns in a somewhat different manner. It poses questions to the readers on the various situations to provoke them to think deeper.  

"What if, we ate up the last apple..."  

"What if we were to sell off the last few puffs of fresh air?"

Where it then leads into the moral of the story. "In the end, all that we are left with is money; money which cannot be eaten..." 

:: What we like about it

For such a big topic, I thought that it would be hard for the children to understand. But the way the book was written was to question and engage the reader into thinking deeper - through inferences made, the 'cause and effect' discussed as well as the "artwork" used. 

The artwork for the book is using a collage format where the various scenes were pieced together where children can draw further conclusions from. 

Because Dumpling is able to read some simple sentences, I also like that there is no Han Yu Pin Yin. Though it has a big message, the sentences / questions posed were kept short and fairly simple. 

:: Extended Activity

Inspiration struck and we then extended it to doing a simple 'booklet' (all of 4 pages, ha!) where Dumpling hunted, tore and cut various pictures from magazines and brochures to form the scenes she wanted to write about. 

"What if we were to finish the last drop of water..."

It was a great activity for us as it allows us to discuss the ecological concerns, food chain and how it impacts the world in Mandarin.

Dumpling understood and you can see from the below how she drew the conclusion of "What if we were to finish the very last fruit (or vegetation for the matter) without replanting them?" She then asked me "What would the animals eat?" And because we found a picture of 2 panda bears, she thought about it and said "熊猫就没有叶子吃了，就会没有熊猫了。。。"

A truly lovely book which can be enjoyed for the younger children as a "read a loud' or to enjoy the illustration but a great title for the K level children to read independently and enjoy the greater message in the title. 

I am pleased to share that Read with Me Mommy is sponsoring one copy of this title (hardcover!) for a giveaway. :)

Earn credits using Rafflecopter below (please leave your email address in the comment section too):

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 (For Singapore residents only)

The more credits you earn, the higher your chances! :)

That's not all! Just for Beanie N Us readers, you stand to enjoy a 10% savings when you key in this code BEANIENUS at the checkout! 

If you have enjoyed this post, please follow me on my Facebook Page where I share my parenting thoughts, food photos (be prepared for tons of them!), early shout outs for giveaways and interact with you, my readers! You can also follow me on Pinterest and Instagram! 

Disclosure: I received a copy of 如果地球被我们吃掉了 for the purpose of the review and to share my experience. 

Book Talk Tuesday - 100 层房子 Review + Giveaway!

When Dumpling first saw the cover (upside down and from a distance) she was confused and trotted over immediately. After seeing the cover the right way up (because the book, though printed in landscape, needs to be read in a portrait format), she went "哦！原来是房子。很好笑， 很有趣!"

:: The story
Written by Japanese Author,Toshio Iwa, the story heads off to a mysterious start when Tochi (多奇), receives an invitation to a 100-storey house. With the invitation comes a trail of questions and thoughts - 这是谁写的呢？(Who wrote this?)  这里以前明明没有房子呀。(The house certainly did not exist previously.)

The adventure was too good to pass off and Tochi decided to accept the invitation and explore!

Upon arriving at the 100-storey house, he was flabbergasted as he could not even see the top of the building! Who stays in this house? Tochi bravely entered and started on his little adventure.

He soon discovers that there are many tenants in this house and every 10 storeys comes a set of animals / insects as tenants.

When Dumpling and I first read this together, we had to stop at level 40 and call it a night as it was bedtime. The next morning, immediately upon waking, Dumpling grabbed the title and turned on the light to read on. She was most anxious to find out who the mysterious host was. :)

:: Illustration
The illustration in this title is quirky and fun. Every 10-storey has its unique features in what is a suitable home for the tenants. From foliage for the family of frogs...

To a hive of bees

And my favorite family of bats (and how everything is upside down!) This was clearly Dumpling's favorite too as she pored over this page for some time, looking through the various activities each 'storey' was engaged in.

Certainly a delightful read for children, this title is wonderful as a read aloud for children from 2YO. To read independently (though font size is a tad small), I would think that it is suitable for 6YO onwards. Regardless of which age group, I'd imagine your children will have loads of fun following the various scenes from each storey and to finally being able to discover who the host is. :)

I am pleased to share that Read with Me Mommy is sponsoring one copy of this title (hardcover!) for a giveaway. :)

Earn credits using Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 (For Singapore residents only)

The more credits you earn, the higher your chances! :)

That's not all! Just for Beanie N Us readers, you stand to enjoy a 10% savings when you key in this code BEANIENUS at the checkout! 

If you have enjoyed this post, please follow me on my Facebook Page where I share my parenting thoughts, food photos (be prepared for tons of them!), early shout outs for giveaways and interact with you, my readers! You can also follow me on Pinterest and Instagram! 

Disclosure: I received a copy of 100 层房子 for the purpose of the review and to share my experience. 

Book Talk Tuesday - 贝贝熊系列 (Berenstain Bears)

One of the 'classics' (to us at least), that I enjoy reading with Dumpling when she was young is the Berenstain Bears series. too. First written in 1962 by husband and wife team - Stan and Jan Berenstain, the story is based on a family of four - Sister Bear, Brother Bear, Papa Bear and Mama Bear. It depicts the daily lives of a typical family but importantly, its stories always add on a moral or safety element.

While Dumpling and I have read the English versions, we have purchased the Chinese versions instead as part of daily Chinese reads. 

For the Chinese version, one thing which stood out for me is unlike some translated titles which I have come across, the illustrations are sometimes left as they are - with 'labels' and 'road signs' etc., in English. However, as you can see below, Bear Kingdom and School were both translated.

The titles in this series are vast and ranges across a broad spectrum of 'parenting' concerns and issues - from The Berenstain Bears and Too Much TV to The Berenstain Bears Visit the Dentist; from The Berenstain Bears Learn about Strangers to teaching the little ones about not being too frivolous with money in The Berenstain Bears' Trouble with Money, etc. 

Each page is still kept quite short with about 5 - 6 lines with the illustrations still covering most of the pages. This is great at keeping the children engaged.

The series shares very true concerns of children (depicted by Sister Bear and Brother Bear) and adults alike (by Mama Bear and Papa Bear). But what it does is that it also adds on a positive angle to new experiences such as Sister Bear below being worried about going to school and eventually, her enjoyable experience there.

What I like about this series is that the issues faced are often 'true' and that it is heartwarming and funny; with Mama Bear being the rational and patient parent who sometimes also has to put up with...

Papa Bear's antics and bad habits. In the picture below (The Berenstain Bears and Too Much TV) Papa Bear was as addicted to the TV as the kids! :)

This is certainly another series which you can consider for explaining various tricky issues / concerns with the kids. And we definitely would recommend the Chinese series as an additional exposure to the language too. :)

If you have enjoyed this post, please follow me on my Facebook Page where I share my parenting thoughts, food photos (be prepared for tons of them!), early shout outs for giveaways and interact with you, my readers! You can also follow me on Pinterest and Instagram! 

Nurturing a love for Chinese #1 - READ READ READ!

I have been asked numerous times on how do I nurture Dumpling's interest in Chinese especially when mine is a 'mixed' marriage and the hubs is not really all that good in the language. (*cough cough* that's kinda putting it mildly). So here's starting a series 1 of 10 (tips) that I have.

:: READ, READ, READ AND MAKE IT FUN!

Many of my friends are sending the kiddos for Chinese enrichment and that's great. One thing that I do is to encourage them to read LOADS to their children and the earlier you start, the better. To this date, I recall the look of utter confusion on Dumpling's face when I first read a Chinese story to her.

In our usual fashion every evening, I'd sit her down and read aloud to her since young. At 16/17 months, I decided to pick up a Chinese title and read out to her. Suddenly, she looked up, frowned at me and asked me "Mama, what?" That was when I first freaked out and understood the arduous journey ahead of us in mastering the Chinese language.

Some comments / replies I get when I advise parents to read aloud to their kids:

- My kiddo is just not interested! He'd run around / walk away when I read any Chinese titles

My advice is to continue to read aloud because some children are not visual learners. What we are trying to do is to expose the child to the sound of the language, vocabulary and sentence structure. If possible, perhaps you can have the read aloud in an enclosed area (a room or in very young children, play yard).

Vary in your intonation and inject some 'life' as you read. Make it fun for your children. You can even extend to craft work after the read aloud. You can make story boxes or do shadow play too.

- I do not know the language so how am I able to read aloud to my child? 

Audio books will come in really handy in this case. You can also invest in one of those talking pens for the same purpose. I recently came across a really neat website that has online books and some are on a 'read to me' mode (uses flash)

Here's one of Snow White 白雪公主

- My child walks away the moment she sees that it is a Chinese title. What do I do?

For young children, I'd encourage brightly colored illustrations and to make it more interactive and fun, lift the flaps are always good too.

One thing which worked very well for us has been for the kiddo to read the translated titles (to Chinese of course) of some English stories. The idea is that if the kiddo has read the English titles before, they'd find it familiar and less resistant to it. Some of the translated titles which Dumpling enjoys are:

:: Mr. Men and Little Miss

Same characters (79 titles in all) with the same funny tales - it was a good way to ease Dumpling into lengthier titles in Chinese. Plus with all the names of the characters being translated, it is also great for them to be exposed to good vocabulary.

:: Curious George

Everyone's favourite monkey - George! Dumpling was able to recognise the same starting sentence 这是乔治 after only a few titles. She enjoys George's crazy antics in the English version and the Chinese copies were no different.

Being the chocolate lover that she is, it was easy for her to fall in love with this title: George and the Chocolate factory. She learnt how to say 'strawberry filled chocolates' in mandarin amongst many other terms too!

Being the dog lovers that we are, she also enjoyed another title on dogs 

:: Elmer

Elmer is another lovely series which Dumpling read when she was around 3+ or so. There is a certain cheekiness to the stories in this series which would have her giggling. With the colorful illustrations, this series is a 'winner'. When I showed her the Chinese titles, there was no resistance at all as it was 'familiar' to her and she was once again captivated with Elmer 艾玛 and his cousin 韦伯 (Wilbur).

Funny storyline like the above would have Dumpling chuckling out loud too

This is part of a 5-part series:
Part 2: Speak it, Use it!
Part 3: Watch it!
Part 4: Play It!
Part 5: Write it! (小书 Small Book)

Linking up:

If you have enjoyed this post, please follow me on my Facebook Page where I share my parenting thoughts, food photos (be prepared for tons of them!), early shout outs for giveaways and interact with you, my readers! You can also follow me on Pinterest and Instagram!