Saturday, November 1, 2014

Captain No Beard pt. 3

Title: Captain No Beard Series
Author: Carole P. Roman

This is my third part of the Captain No Beard series review. The series follows Alexander, who is Captain No Beard, and his imaginary crew on many adventures aboard the high seas with his crew of friends. Each books focuses on a different lesson that is taught throughout the books. Below are mini reviews of the three most recent books:



The Treasure of Snake Island
Grade: B
This particular Captain No Beard book focuses on the importance of reading in learning new information. When Polly the Parrot brings up a saying she read in a book the entire crew discusses how you can learn something new just by reading a book. I obviously love to read and have a mission each school year of planting the seed of the joy of reading in each of my students. I think that this book states that fact in a fun and unique way. I do have to say that this was not my most favorite book in the series because it did not have a lot of action by the pirate crew, but I do like that it relayed the importance of reading to the children reading the book.


The Crew Goes Coconuts
Grade: A
This addition to the series tackles the always important subject of bullying. When First Mate Hallie brings aboard her goat Matie, no one is very happy when Matie drinks all of the juice. Everyone starts to be mean to Matie and starts to call her names. When Captain No Beard discovers this, he teaches his crew a lesson on how everyone is unique. I think that bullying s a very prominent subject in society today. In most schools there is a big push on identifying bullying and how to prevent it. Explaining bullying to a preschooler is sometimes hard because they don't always understand what bullying is. Most of the time their version of bullying is saying unkind things about someone. I think that this books displays that type of bullying very well and why it really does hurt someones feelings. I think that this is the perfect book on bullying to read to a preschool class!


Around the World with Carole P. Roman

I recently received some more of the books in the If You were Me and You Lived in... series, by Carole P. Roman and am very excited to review them all most recent ones. I have the books for the countries Kenya, India,  Norway, Australia, and Russia.


Review
Like I said in my previous post, these books focus on different aspects of the country that apply to children. They leave out the facts such as the economy and politics that children would have no interest in. Instead they focus on things such as holidays, games, where you would live, and what you would call your family members. I love the different illustrations and how they depict exactly what the narrator is talking about on each page. My favorite part is the page where she describes what a child would call his mom or dad in each country (ex. In Kenya you would call your mom Mazzi and your dad Baba),  Roman gives just the right amount of information on each page that would hold a child's short attention span. I really love that Roman pays attention to the smallest detail on each page and the cover. She even phrases the information in a way that doesn't "dumb down" the info, but makes it applicable to a child reading the book. I think she has once again created a series that is much needed in the world of children's books and am excited to see the countries that she covers next! If you are a teacher I STRONGLY suggest that you check out this series and even get some of them for your own classroom library! You can read more about Carole P. Roman and her books on her website.

Happy Reading!
Bookaholic