5 great new books for kids! Sylvan Dell Publishing

~ Book Review

This month I will be featuring Preschool & a few baby books on Classic Children's Books and today I will be sharing 5 wonderful new books from Sylvan Dell Publishing. Each of these fiction stories are math & science based and include activities for children to do to help them learn more about the animal, their habitat, the food they eat and how they live. Enjoy!

Be sure to come back on May 6th when Sylvan Dell & I will be hosting a giveaway and one lucky winner will win all 5 of these awesome books!

Sylvan Dell Publishing ~ Spring New Releases

Home in the Cave
by Janet Halfmann
ISBN: 9781607185314
$9.95 (paperback) $17.95 (hardback)

About the Book:
Baby Bat loves his cave home and never wants to leave it. While practicing flapping his wings one night, he falls, and Pluribus Packrat rescues him. They then explore the deepest, darkest corners of the cave where they meet amazing animals—animals that don’t need eyes to see or colors to hide from enemies. Baby Bat learns how important bats are to the cave habitat and how other cave-living critters rely on them for their food. Will Baby Bat finally venture out of the cave to help the other animals? Age 4-8 yrs

Baby Bat is adorable. There is nothing more to say - except that little kids are going love this story and I'm sure you are going to be reading it over and over. Home in the Cave is a good introduction to beginning science for 3-4 years old. While all the other baby bats are excitedly learning how to fly and talking about the adventures their moms are having while hunting in the cave - little Baby Bat gets more afraid as he imagines all the dangers and scary things that are out in the big world. One day he falls and lands on the cave floor where he learns that their are amazing things in the world and with the help of a blind rat he explores not only the cave but the big world outside.

(This one was easily my favorite of the 5 books that I reviewed although all of them were wonderful. The illustrations and the story are memorable and fun and will be a favorite of the children in your life.) 

Three Little Beavers
by Jean Heilprin Diehl
ISBN: 9781607185338
$9.95 (paperback) $17.95 (hardback)

About the Book:
Beatrix the beaver longs to be good at something. Her brother Bevan is an expert at repairing the lodge with mud and twigs. Her sister Beverly is a superb swimmer and underwater gymnast. What makes Beatrix stand out? One day, she runs away by swimming up the creek and finds some fresh garden plants to eat, and tasty trees to gnaw. When her siblings set off to find her, all Three Little Beavers wind up trapped! It takes some simple engineering on the part of the humans who set the traps, and Beatrix’s discovery of her special talents, for the people and beavers to finally find a way to live in harmony. Age 4-8 yrs

My Thoughts:
This is a cute story of 3 little beavers with 3 very different personalities. Two of the beavers are outgoing and do everything right and the last beaver is constantly asked "why can't you be like your brother & sister" (sound familiar?). Discouraged and sad Beatrix decides to run away and in the process discovers that her ability to stay calm and think during a bad situation will help her and her brother/sister get home again.

The Three Little Beavers is a great introduction to the river habitat and how Beavers help the environment and others by being persistent. Your children will learn what they eat, how they can see underwater when they swim, how and why they build dams, box trapping and why people use this method of trapping animals instead of killing these animals. 

I am in love with the illustrations in this book. Big, expressive and filled with emotion your children will connect with them immediately and will want to study each picture to see what's happening. Check it out:





Gopher to the Rescue
A Volcano Recovery Story
by Terry Catasus Jennings
ISBN: 9781607181415
$9.95 (paperback) $17.95 (hardback)

About the Book:
The forest animals are surprised when a volcano suddenly explodes, covering the land in gritty, warm ash and rocks that make it unlivable for many plants and animals. Gopher survives in his underground burrow with food to eat. How does Gopher help bring life back to the mountain? Scientists spent years observing life returning to the mountain following the eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980. This fictionalized story is based on their surprising observations of how life returns to an area that has been totally changed or destroyed. Age 4-9 yrs

My Thoughts:
Gopher has a big job to do! Come learn how the forest, the animals and the ground recovers and heals when a Volcano erupts. I learned quite a bit as I read this book. You don't think about how long and what a major job it is for the environment to recover after a big event like a volcano erupts, a river floods or a forest fire occurs. 

Listen to: Gopher to the Recue
(in Spanish & English)

The book opens with the animals sensing that something is about to happen. Of course they don't know what it is but when the ground starts shaking and a loud BOOM happens they flee. Some of the animals don't make it and die and those that live underground (gophers, insects, worms, etc) continue on as though nothing happened. Gopher to the rescue does a wonderful job in walking children (and grownups too) through a timeline of the healing of the habitat, how the underground animals/insects dig tunnels and their waste feeds the earth to enrich it and help it grow new vegetation - as time goes by little by little animals and other creatures begin to return.

A wonderful book that older preschoolers will enjoy. Early elementary children will enjoy it also and there are activities and explanations about what volcanoes are and why they erupt, natural disasters and habitat changes.

The Great Divide
by Suzanne Slade
ISBN: 9781607185307
$9.95 (paperback) $17.95 (hardback)

About the Book:
Animals, like people, enjoy spending time with their friends and family. Many groups of animals have their own unique names. Did you know that a group of gorillas is called a band? And a bunch of billy goats is a tribe? Following in the footsteps of Multiply on the Fly (multiplication), What’s New at the Zoo? (addition) and What’s the Difference? (subtraction), this rhythmic, fun-to-read-aloud book introduces children to division as they conquer bands, tribes, mobs and more.

My Thoughts:
The Great Divide is a great addition to Sylvan Dell's Math series. Each of the books has a wonderful story/verse that teaches children through story problems how to answer math problems. Check this out:

Nine hungry leopards 

waking up from sleep.

Three groups are on the prowl.

How many in each leap?

With this story problem your children learn: the name of the animal group (leap), how many leopards, what the leopards & the picture shows them the type of habitat they live in: snow, hills, the leopards coloring allows them to blend in with the snow somewhat for protection while hunting.

The Penguin Lady
by Carol A Cole
ISBN: 9781607185369
$9.95 (paperback) $17.95 (hardback)

About the Book:
Penelope Parker lives with penguins! Short ones, tall ones; young and old—the penguins are from all over the Southern Hemisphere including some that live near the equator! Do the penguin antics prove too much for her to handle? Children count and then compare and contrast the different penguin species as they learn geography. Age 4-9 yrs

My Thoughts:
This one is a cute book for preschoolers and it's all about penguins.  There are lots of counting penguins, seeing what penguins eat, if they like it cold or warm ~ and lots and lots of black & white in this book! This one was probably my least favorite of the 5 books I've listed here but it's still a cute book that I think younger kids will enjoy and kids who can read should enjoy reading about animals that most kids like to learn about. I will tell you though that many of the words (Rockhopper, Galapagos Islands will be tough for beginning readers who need to sound out words as they go).


About all the books in the Sylvan Dell Publishing line:
1. All books in this series include 4-5 pages of activities to encourage kids to learn more about the subject in the book. There will be math, science, habitats, foods animals eat, what they need to survive and much much more!
2. All books have a Teacher's Guide with an additional 40 pages online. Just click here, find the book you own, and click on the teachers guide on the right hand side of the screen. 
3. There are book quizzes, book flyers, author interviews, related websites, how the book aligns to standards in the 50 States and much more on the website also.
4. You can also preview many books online in both Spanish and English.


Announcement:

Sylvan Dell Publishing  will be offering all 70 eBooks on their site license FREE from May 7^th through May 13^th.  This is a great opportunity for you to see what a book is about. Click the picture above to go to the website. =D