A book by its cover: dust bunnies, pie and a house

Welcome to my first book review!  I have three books for you today:  In Front of My House by Marianne Dubuc, Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

These reviews are completely my opinion and are not influenced in anyway by outside sources.  In regards to the children books reviewed, as a parent you are ultimately responsible for what your children read.  Please read what they read so you are informed on what they are learning.  I don't reveal plots, give spoilers or just summarize the books.  I don't enjoy reading books filled with cursing or sex so I tend to stay away from those.  This means I read very very few romance novels.  For the children's books I give the Princess' thumbs review and Boo's review (lets just say her reviews are interpretive and make more sense once you've read the book) in addition to my review rating.  My review scale can be found here or hover over the rating for a description.


In Front of My House by Marianne Dubuc

Please do not pin this photo or use it in any other way.

This is an English translation of the book Devant Ma Mason.  I chose this book with the intention of reading it to a preschool class (ages 4 and 5) and a first grade class (ages 6 and 7).  I try to find a book that will appeal to both age groups.  I almost didn't pick this one up because of its thickness, at around 60 pages it seems long for a children's book and I wasn't sure how long I could keep the attention of either class.  As I thumbed through it, I noticed that each page only had three to four words so I sat down with it.  The way each page is worded the book is able to hold the attention of both age groups I read to.  Both classes remained engaged with the book while I was reading and actually asked me to read it again when I had finished.  My six year old can easily read this to her younger sister (who has requested it be read to her quite often).  The pictures are very colorful and inspired conversation between my two with little side stories they made up to go along with the book.  Listening to them, I believe this book encourages imaginative play.  I recommend this book for ages 3-7.  It needs to be read to younger children but older children should be able to read it alone.  The pictures help with the more difficult words.  It is worth the read.  Our school system has the children take AR tests on books so I know this book is worth 0.5  AR points.

The Princess' rating is 2 thumbs up.  Boo's rating was "where did the stars come from."

The Snickety Things rating is

Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas

Please do not pin this photo or use it in any other way.

Ignore the expression her face, she got tickled when I was taking the picture and this was the best I could get.  And she wants me to point out that her fingernails were painted to look like lady bugs.

What attracted me to this book was the very colorful cover.  It is a very short book with few words, but it made me laugh a few times.  It is a story of four dust bunnies named Ed, Ned, Ted and Bob.  When I read it to the preschool class, they enjoyed the pictures much more than the story.  The humor was a bit more than they could understand.  Only a few of the students understood what rhyming was so it was difficult for them to grasp the concept of the book.  The first graders were able to understand the concept of the book much more easily although they still did not understand all the humor.  The first graders also participated  with the story while it was being read and wanted me to read the book again when I had finished.  While the younger group did not seem to get as much out of the book, the fact that many did not know what rhyming was tells me they would ultimately get the most out of it.  I believe rhyming plays a key role in developing reading skills.  I recommend this book for ages 2-6 and their parents.  The adults will get something from the humor.

The Princess' rating is two thumbs up.  Boo's rating is "the blue dust bunny looks sad." (Well, his "ears" are kind of droopy so she has a point.)

The Snickety Things rating is

The Guernsey  Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Sorry, no picture of me reading.  It is really hard to take a picture of yourself reading a book.  Go ahead, try it.

This is a review for the adults.

This book is the main reason I chose "a book by its cover" to be the title of my book review series.  I had passed it many times on the shelf and the title did not attract me at all.  It wasn't until someone recommended it to me and just gave me a teaser of what it was about did I decide to read it.  Once I started I couldn't put it down.  This book got me out of my "book zone" of reading mostly science fiction (you read the about us page and know I was a trained chemist, right?).

It takes place in 1946 after World War II ended but tells the story the Channel Island of Guernsey off the coast of England being occupied during the war.  The book  is written in the form of letters and telegrams between various characters.  This style of writing had me completely swept into the book and I kept forgetting that it was a work of fiction.  The characters were well developed and memorable.  I laughed with some and I cried for others.  The format allows for reading in short time periods.  I often found myself reading a letter or two in the pick up line at my daughters school or while on break at work.

For people who do not like to read books with a lot of cursing or sex, this is a good choice.  Parts may get you a bit out of your comfort zone, but it has very mild language if at all (this means nothing really stood out to me).

The Snickety Things rating is

Check these books out at your local library or follow the links below to find them on Amazon.  I'm going to go ahead and say that if you purchase a book by using one of these links I will make a little money off of it.  Jeff says I have to start paying for this blog somehow since I spend so much time working on it.  There, you've been warned, now go buy some books!  You really don't have to, but I'm not going to stop you.  After all I've warned you and I pasted the links in...

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