[Reading With Yofel] Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss

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bbi review reading 2017, children, classic, english, fiction, illustration, reading with yofel, yofel

Title: Oh, The Places You’ll Go! 

Writer: Dr. Seuss

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers (2003)

Bought at: Big Bad Wolf Jakarta (IDR65k)

I read this book with Yofel, but I think I enjoyed the content more than he did 🙂

For me this book is quite personal, it reminds me of the journey I’ve taken so far in my life. The story is about a boy who just started to launch into the “real world”- new adventures, new places, new experience..and all the fantastic journey that waits him ahead.

This book gives encouragement to every kid who wants to start living their own life to be brave, to experience things fully, to get up again if there are problems or unexpected things happen.

I’m sorry to say so

But, sadly, it’s true

That Bang-ups

And Hang-ups

Can happen to you.

 

You can get all hung up

In a prickle-ly perch.

And your gang will fly on.

You’ll be left in a Lurch.

 

….

 

Somehow you’ll escape

All that waiting and staying.

You’ll find the bright places

Where Boom Bands are playing.

 

With banner flip-flapping,

Once more you’ll ride high!

Ready for anything under the sky.

Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!

 

This is a perfect gift for kids, especially those who just started to embrace an adult life for the first time. No wonder this book becomes one of the most popular gifts for graduation!

The amazing thing about Dr. Seuss is he could write something for kids, with all those cute words and fun rhymes, but the content would be still relevant for any adults.

When reading this book with Yofel, I reflected on how relatable those advice and encouragements to me! Every person must have experienced a low point in their life, and how hard it was to come out from that darkness. Also how sad it is to look at other people’s lives and realized we haven’t done anything meaningful. But again, life goes on! There must be other fun stuff, success stories, great things to anticipate- so don’t you just give up yet!

For Yofel, even though this book is full of fun words and funny illustrations, I don’t think he could grasp its meaning yet. I plan to read this book again with him sometime next year, and hopefully again and again afterwards- just to remind him of the great life that awaits him ahead!

Graduation Gift

According to Penguin Random House, Oh, The Places You’ll Go! sold as much as four times during the graduation period, compare to the weekly average for the rest of the year. The book even has its version of “graduation gift” and “deluxe edition”, making it more interesting to be the gift for your loved ones!

Gift set version!

Deluxe edition

 

Submitted for:

Kategori : Children Literature

[Reading With Yofel] The Day The Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt

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borrowed, children, english, illustration, picture book, reading with yofel, yofel

Title: The Day The Crayons Quit

Writer: Drew Daywalt

Illustrator: Oliver Jeffers

Publisher: Philomel Books

Pages: 36p

Borrowed from: Dian

This is one of the most hilarious, entertaining books Yofel and I have ever read. The story is pretty simple actually, about a box of crayons who wrote letters of complaint to their owner, a boy named Duncan.

Yellow and Orange kept on fighting because each of them thought it’s the better color for the sun. White was angry because it felt unused, there’s not much different whether it’s in the box or not. Meanwhile, Pink was sad since Duncan used it less and less (girl color? C’mon!), and Blue is overused (it’s Duncan’s favorite color!) – it’s very short and stubby.

Yofel’s favorite, though, is Peach crayon. Duncan tore its wrapper so now Peach had to be naked and can’t even get out of the box XD

The storyline is very original, easy to digest and could relate well with the kids. The language used by each crayon is also effortlessly funny, using words like “We need to talk” or “I am BEIGE and I am PROUD” or “Give me a break”. I love reading this story out loud to Yofel because the wordings are very cute and easy to expressed in different voice or tone.

This type of book can be read over and over again without the kids being bored, and the illustrations help too – they complement the story of the crayons really well. I also love the ending, because it’s quite creative and can address the issues raised by the crayons in a cute way.

Here are some of the illustrations from the book:

Poor Peach!

Pink monster sounds really cool! 😀

And Yofel enjoyed it too 🙂

Thank you Dian who has lent us the book! 🙂 We’ve thought on buying one for Yofel as well 🙂

[Reading With Yofel] Angry Birds Playground: Animals

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angry birds, animals, borrowed, children, education, library, non fiction, reading with yofel, yofel, young readers

Title: Angry Birds Playground: Animals

Editor: Jill Esbaum

Publisher: National Geographic Society (2012)

Pages: 127p

Borrowed at: Library, SDK Penabur 11 Jakarta

Recommended for: Kids 5-10 years old

Since Yofel now has library hour at his school, he brought home a book every week. Our reading together moments are one of my favorite times to spend with him. And since he started to bring back more interesting books each week, I decided to record our reading experience and make a simple review for every book we read together, based on Yofel’s impression and opinion about the book.

Yofel loves to borrow books about animals (dinosaurs in particular), but sometimes he also brought back picture books or storybooks.

For this first edition, we’ve read Angry Birds Playground : Animals, published by The National Geographic Kids. I love this series because it combines funny comical dialogues of the famous game characters from Angry Birds, with knowledge and educational descriptions especially on science topics.

Yofel loves the parts of Angry Birds dialogues so much- he laughed out loud at each joke even though some of them needs translations 🙂

This book told a story about the Pigs (the Birds’s eternal enemies) who stole the eggs of the Angry Birds, and hid them somewhere on Earth. The Angry Birds were panicked and decided impulsively to roam the Earth to find their eggs. There are five habitats that they visited: rain forrest in South America, dessert in North America, Pacific Ocean, Grassland in Tasmania and Tanzania, and Polar both in Arctic and Antarctica. In each habitat, the birds asking questions to the animals about the whereabouts of their eggs. And in this way, the readers were taken to get to know the animals, from Gila Monsters (Yofel’s favorite!) in the dessert, to the Anaconda in Amazon and Leatherback Turtle at the ocean.

The descriptions are funny and light, too, so it won’t be boring for the kids. There are some selected interesting facts to complete the descriptions, and the Angry Birds characters, through their witty dialogues, also added some cute information.

Overall, Yofel loves this book so much and he asked me to read it again one more time from cover to cover XD