Can You See What I See? Toyland Express by Walter Wick
Published by Scholastic Press
Pages: 40
Buy It: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Powell’s Books | Indiebound | Book Depository
Publishers Summmary:

CAN YOU SEE WHAT I SEE? TOYLAND EXPRESS, the eighth title in the bestselling search-and-find series, follows the life of a toy train from the workshop to the attic, only to be rescued at a yard sale and brought to life once again in a new home. As readers search for more than 250 hidden objects, they will also notice how the train takes on various transformations along its journey.

Can You See What I See? Toyland Express by Walter Wick takes vintage Christmas toy magic to an entirely new level! Open the pages and entire a world filled with trains, toys and every imaginable related object will come to life before your eyes. This was our family’s first venture into the world of Walter Wick’s “look and find” style books, but I’m positive I’ll be sharing more with both kiddos. The images are gorgeous! Walter Wick has an incredible talent for capturing the life of a still toy making it seem as if they may begin moving at any moment.

Anyone who’s a fan of vintage toys, train sets or even simply has a kiddo who loves to discover new things should pick this up for the season. We will definitely be adding to our collection and I know that the Turkeybird especially is excited to have another chance to discover a brand new world of toys!

The1stdaughter Recommends: Ages 4 to 8. Flip through pages of toys and discover the hidden treasures waiting for children of all ages. Perfect for hours of enjoyment seeking and finding.

About the author:
Walter Wick has opened millions of eyes to a world of treasures big and small in his award-winning, bestselling I SPY and CAN YOU SEE WHAT I SEE? picture-puzzle books. Walter discovered his passion for building picture puzzles by accident. One day when cleaning out a drawer, he scattered odds and ends on a glass tabletop and photographed them. The photo appeared in a magazine and caught the eye of Jean Marzollo, editor of Scholastic’s Let’s Find Out. This photo inspired the first I SPY book, with riddles by Jean Marzollo, and led to their long collaboration.

In his more recent CAN YOU SEE WHAT I SEE? series, Walter’s detailed photographs convey subtle hidden stories. Walter meticulously constructs 3-D sets for CAN YOU SEE WHAT I SEE? in his Connecticut studio. For videos and more photos, visit www.walterwick.com or www.facebook.com/walterwick.

Giveaway!

As an added bonus the publisher, Scholastic Press, has provided me with one Signed copy of Can You See What I See? Toyland Express by Walter Wick to giveaway to one There’s A Book reader! Please fill out the form below and good luck!

Find Can You See What I See? Toyland Express by Walter Wick at the following spots:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Powell’s Books | Indiebound | Book Depository | Goodreads

Thank you so much to the publisher, Scholastic Press, for providing a copy for review & giveaway! Find them on Twitter as well as Facebook.
Purchasing products by clicking through the links in this post will provide us a modest commission through our various affiliate relationships.

Worst-Case Scenario Ultimate Adventure #2: Mars! by David Borgenicht
Published by Chronicle Books
Pages: 208
Ages: Middle Grade (8-12)
Buy It: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Powell’s Books | Indiebound | Book Depository
Publishers Summmary:

Join the youngest crew of astronauts ever to make the trip to Mars! Faced with fearsome dangers and difficult decisions, your choices will determine your fate on the Red Planet. Will you achieve the mission and return home to Earth safely, successfully earning the title of the youngest astronaut ever to make it to Mars? Or will you be forced to turn back early? This thrilling adventure offers twenty-two possible endings, but only ONE leads to the ultimate success! With eye-catching comic book–style illustrations and information based on scientific facts related to Mars and space exploration, young readers will be over the moon with this entertaining addition to the Worst-Case Scenario series!

As the youngest member of a crew of astronauts headed to the planet Mars you have a lot to prove. Not only will you be faced with keeping your crew alive, but potentially aiding in the continued survival of the human race that will soon be colonizing the red planet. You will have to read up on the many conditions of space travel as well as the environmental aspects of Mars in hopes that you will survive to return home to planet earth as a successful adventurer and astronaut.

It seems as though I’m making up for lost time with my recent reads of the “choose-your-own-adventure” style books. In the past two years I’ve read a minimum of two a year and sometimes more. As an adult I find them incredibly fun though obviously not my first choice for my personal reading I can absolutely see how they appeal to young readers. If I had been exposed to these type of books as a ten (or so) year old I’m positive I would have devoured as many as I could have gotten my hands on. Worst-Case Scenario Ultimate Adventure #2: Mars! is no exception to this and I’m thoroughly excited to share the series with my own kiddos, the Turkeybird especially.

So, what exactly about Worst-Case Scenario Ultimate Adventure #2: Mars! in particular do I think would appeal to the Turkeybird specifically? Without a doubt I know the non-fiction aspects of the story would grab him right away. At some point they may appeal to Littlebug as well, but her interest in non-fiction type material has yet to emerge. The Turkeybird on the other hand is constantly on the lookout for new bits of information to devour and this would be perfect. In the back of Worst-Case Scenario Ultimate Adventure #2: Mars! there is a helpful “Expedition File” that includes information about everything from the way to determine north and south while on Mars by the stars to how to survive a dust storm to the types of robotic machines and more. It’s fantastic! With the addition of the story you determine by making certain choices this is easily a book that could be read over and over and over again for hours of reading fun.

Adventures in space and an outcome determined by the reader, the edition of Worst-Case Scenario Ultimate Adventure #2: Mars! by David Borgenicht is sure to be a hit with young readers who love learning. Having myself only read a couple of the choose-your-own-adventure type books I can only judge them based on my limited exposure to them and husband’s experiences reading them in his youth. But having said that I’d easily say this would be a top choice among today’s versions of the chose-your-own-adventure books! Worst-Case Scenario Ultimate Adventure #2: Mars! was captivating as well as educational and each of the scenarios you are placed in require more than simply guessing which way to go. I’d highly recommend this as well as the other books in this series by Chronicle Books to young adventure seekers who love a little bit of fun learning mixed with their reading!

The1stdaughter Recommends: Ages 9 to 15. A “choose your own adventure” style book that non-fiction fans who love adventure stories will absolutely fall in love with. Fantastic for hours of reading fun!

Find Worst-Case Scenario Ultimate Adventure #2: Mars! by David Borgenicht at the following spots:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Powell’s Books | Indiebound | Book Depository | Goodreads

Today’s post is part of our month long celebration of Chronicle Books for our monthly feature “Book Publishers 101“. Make sure to stop by the Chronicle Books for more information about this title and more. For more information about our Book Publishers 101 feature take a look at this month’s opening post.

Make sure to take a look at this month’s Book Publishers 101 feature giveaway as well, for your chance to win some fantastic books from Chronicle Books!

Thank you so much to the publisher, Chronicle Books, for coordinating many of this month’s features and reviews! Connect with them on Twitter and on Facebook!
Purchasing products by clicking through the links in this post will provide us a modest commission through our various affiliate relationships.

Family Storybook Treasury: Tales of Laughter, Curiosity, and Fun by Rey and others
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Pages: 304
Buy It: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Powell’s Books | Indiebound | Book Depository
Publishers Summmary:

Family, friends, your favorite characters…bring them all together at story time! Share the book that is sure to entertain, delight, and make the whole gang laugh. The Family Storybook Treasury is a collection of your most well-loved picture books and poetry, now available in one beautiful keepsake volume with bonus audio CD! Includes eight complete picture books:
Curious George and the Firefighters by Margret and H. A. Rey
Martha Speaks by Susan Meddaugh
Lyle Walks the Dogs by Bernard Waber, illustrated by Paulis Waber
Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw, illustrated by Margo Apple
Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester, illustrated by Lynn Munsinger
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow
The Great Doughnut Parade by Rebecca Bond
Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
A beautiful treasure to give, receive, and pass down.

The Turkeybird Speaks: “This is such a fun book to pick! Sometimes I pick it for bedtime and try to get my dad to read all the stories in it because it’s still just one big book, but we usually just pick one or two at a time. My favorite is the story about the penguins. There’s a goofy penguin who gets to stop some bad guys from hurting his friends and it’s so funny! I also really like the monkey one because we always used to sing the monkeys jumping on the bed song.

“There are so many fun stories in this one, you don’t want to lose it! I love reading all of the stories and if I could talk my dad into it I’d read the whole thing every night.”

Mom’s Two Cents: Together in one entire book are many reader’s childhood favorite books from Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed to Martha Speaks. The Family Storybook Treasury has numerous books that will leave you feeling nostalgic and looking for a child to pass them along to. Enjoy an afternoon of reading with your favorite child as you turn the pages of this fantastic compilation.

Coming from someone who’s shelves are usually packed to the brim the Family Storybook Treasury was an easy book to add to our collection. Who can resist not only one picture book, but half a dozen put together into one very delightful compilation? I certainly couldn’t and Littlebug & the Turkeybird both have enjoyed reading this one. As Turkeybird mentioned already we do have a couple of favorites: Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Martha Speaks and Tacky the Penguin are our top three and the ones that get read over and over again. As a parent, though the size of the book is a daunting 300 pages, this is still a marvelous addition to our home library if for no other reason than the versatility it provides within one bound book. Not to mention the fact that it’s packed with magnificant authors and illustrators.

Family Storybook Treasury: Tales of Laughter, Curiosity, and Fun has been a delightful addition to our home library and one that I’m positive will be read again and again as it’s passed down from child to grandchild in the years to come. There’s no doubt there will be a favorite amidst the over half a dozen full picture books included within it’s pages, but regardless there will be numerous stories to be enjoyed by one and all. This has been a wonderful reading experience to have with both of my kiddos because not only are the authors and illustrators wonderful, but the versatility allows for hours of reading without losing the attention of those young readers. Definitely a picture book collection that should be added to everyone’s home library.

The1stdaughter Recommends: Ages 2 and up. A versatile compilation of picture books and poems that will give both young readers and parents hours of reading enjoyment.

Find Family Storybook Treasury: Tales of Laughter, Curiosity, and Fun by Rey and others at the following spots:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Powell’s Books | Indiebound | Book Depository | Goodreads

Giveaway!

Thanks to the publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,I’m also offering two copies of to two There’s A Book readers. Thank you! Please fill out the form below and good luck!

Thank you so much to the publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, for providing a copy of this book for review and giveaway! Connect with them on Twitter and on Facebook!
Purchasing products by clicking through the links in this post will provide us a modest commission through our various affiliate relationships.

Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn
Pages: 326
Ages: Young Adult
Buy It: Amazon | Amazon Kindle | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords | iTunes
Goodreads Summmary:

When everyone reads minds, a secret is a dangerous thing to keep.

Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can’t read thoughts or be read by others. Zeros are outcasts who can’t be trusted, leaving her no chance with Raf, a regular mindreader and the best friend she secretly loves. When she accidentally controls Raf’s mind and nearly kills him, Kira tries to hide her frightening new ability from her family and an increasingly suspicious Raf. But lies tangle around her, and she’s dragged deep into a hidden world of mindjackers, where having to mind control everyone she loves is just the beginning of the deadly choices before her.

In a world where everyone who’s normal has the ability to read minds being special isn’t exactly what Kira was hoping for. As the world around her booms and brightens with the loud cacophony of thoughts Kira’s world is silent, the only noise she hears are the thoughts in her own mind. That is until her best friend Raf attempts to kiss her and immediately ends up falling to the ground completely knocked out. From that point forward Kira’s life changes forever. She learns from a fellow student that she’s a mindjacker, and a powerful one at that. Having the ability to enter and control the thoughts of those around her is the last thing she’d thought she’d be doing during high school, but it may lead to more problems than simply knocking her best friend unconscious.

In a growing pool of young adult fiction Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn stands out as a novel with a fantastic premise, excellent characters and an incredibly well executed plot. Being a fan of dystopian and sci-fi in young adult books this was exactly the type of book I was hoping to fall in love with and absolutely did. Quinn took the idea of human evolution and took it one step further by adding an element of involvement from the government. It wasn’t that they were simply involved in the aftermath of the evolution, but the initial development by introducing toxins into the water supply that eventually triggered the first changes to mind reading by all. This was certainly a unique concept, especially since the entire population was affected by it and I’m now interested to see where the idea goes from here in the next two books in the series.

Now everyone who knows my reading preferences know that I am not a huge fan of the typical love triangle and at first I thought I was going to be annoyed by Kira’s love intersts, but I absolutely wasn’t. Obvious to anyone who reads Open Minds there’s a huge development at the end of the story that changes everything making the love triangle completely different than those other more typical situations. Between the two I’d certainly say I was much more on the side of Raf, her childhood friend, than Simon, the “bad boy”, but as the story went on I did feel more sympathetic towards Simon and his situation. In many ways I could understand Kira’s desire to be with Simon because of their shared abilities, but at first the way she shunned Raf was a bit irritating since he was always so supportive of her “zero” status. In the end the conflict was perfect and the way all of their relationships progressed were extremely believable.

Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn is a brilliant addition to the ever increasing pool of dystopian/sci-fi young adult fiction. There’s something for readers of all types in this fantastic new YA novel, from action to romance to science and more. As many of my readers know, I don’t read many self-published books primarily because I find the stories underdeveloped and poorly edited. To be honest I’m completely shocked Quinn’s Mindjacker series hasn’t been picked up by a major publisher, because it certainly doesn’t fall into either of my dis-qualifiers. This is a novel that’s been extremely well thought out, written beautifully, and it’s obviously been edited professionally. YA readers who love authors like Ally Condie, Veronica Roth, Lauren Oliver and others would be missing out if they failed to pick up Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn. Join Kira on her journey to save her fellow mindjackers and potentially change the landscape of her world forever.

The1stdaughter Recommends: Ages

Find Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn at the following spots:
Amazon | Amazon Kindle | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords | iTunes | Goodreads

Giveaway!

Thanks to the author I’m also offering an eBook copy of Open Minds to one There’s A Book reader thanks to Susan. Thank you! Please fill out the form below and good luck!

Thank you so much to the author, Susan Kaye Quinn, for providing a copy of this book for review and giveaway! Connect with her on Twitter and on Facebook!
Purchasing products by clicking through the links in this post will provide us a modest commission through our various affiliate relationships.

To celebrate the US publication of ‘Nightshade’, the Poison Diaries team are offering a chance for readers of There’s A Book to win a copy of ‘Nightshade’ with a personalized message from author, Maryrose Wood!

To be in with a chance of winning they are asking entrants to engage with their Twitter, Facebook and the Poison Diaries website. By interacting with the following sites and social media you’ll be able to receive additional entries for the giveaway! Take a look (my favorite is the actual Poison Diaries site, it’s amazing!) and use the Rafflecopter entry form below to enter to win this amazing giveaway thanks to the Poison Wood team, Blazer & Bray and Maryrose Wood!

The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes by Mark Pett and Gary Rubinstein and Illustrated by Mark Pett
Published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Pages: 32
Buy It: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Powell’s Books | Indiebound | Book Depository
Publishers Summmary:

Beatrice Bottomwell has NEVER (not once!) made a mistake…

Meet Beatrice Bottomwell: a nine-year-old girl who has never (not once!) made a mistake. She never forgets her math homework, she never wears mismatched socks, and she ALWAYS wins the yearly talent show at school. In fact, Beatrice holds the record of perfection in her hometown, where she is known as The Girl Who Never Makes Mistakes. Life for Beatrice is sailing along pretty smoothly until she does the unthinkable–she makes her first mistake. And in a very public way!

The Turkeybird Speaks: “Whoa! This girl can do everything super super good. She even has a little brother who is always messing up all the time, just like I have Littlebug as a sister. Littlebug is always falling and running into things so her brother sounds a lot like my sister.

“My favorite part was the ending. All the times I read it I laugh and laugh. Being silly and making mistakes sounds way more fun than always doing everything right. I don’t think I want everyone watching me all the time like her anyway, that sounds boring. This book is so fun and my favorite part is the ending and her little brother who makes mistakes all the time.”

Mom’s Two Cents: What would it be like to be perfect everyday of your life? Beatrice Bottomwell knows exactly what it’s like and loves every minute of it. That is, until one day during class when she almost makes her first mistake. Having never thought about the possibility of making a mistake before she now lives in constant fear that her world is about to change for the worse. What happens when her fears come to fruition? Will she still be the carefree girl she’s always been and will she ever be happy again?

This is the first picture book that I’ve read that dealt head on with the issue of making mistakes and it was wonderful. Not only did I appreciate it as an adult who suffers from a bad case of perfectionism, but my son enjoyed it for many of the same reasons. Though the Turkeybird does make mistakes (quite often as he’s only four) he’s also prone to expecting to be able to do everything he sets his mind to and perfectly at that. He also is inclined to think it’s funny that his little sister is often found falling and tripping over her own feet. It’s never out of meanness mind you, just the sort of silliness to little kiddos have when playing and laughing together. But what I found with reading The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes with him was that it helped him to realize you never need to take anything so seriously that it ruins the fun of living and enjoying what you’re doing. Which was exactly what he needed since he often gets incredibly serious about certain tasks he’s set out to complete.

When perfection and being the very best is often at the forefront of people’s minds it’s good to remember that life can be just as fun with a few mistakes. The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes by Mark Pett and Gary Rubinstein is a fantastic book for children and adults who may suffer from a bit of perfectionism or who simply want to read a great new book. In our home, filled with perfectionists and one clumsy little adorable girl, it was just what we needed to have a good laugh and realize life is for living even if we make a few mistakes along the way. Fall in love with Beatrice Bottomwell and the story of how she became the girl who does make mistakes, happily.

The1stdaughter Recommends: Ages 3 to 9. A lesson that children and adults alike can appreciate and will learn from; none of us are perfect, enjoy.

Find The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes by Mark Pett and Gary Rubinstein at the following spots:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Powell’s Books | Indiebound | Book Depository | Goodreads

Thank you so much to the publisher, Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, for providing a copy of this book for review! Connect with them on Twitter and on Facebook!
Purchasing products by clicking through the links in this post will provide us a modest commission through our various affiliate relationships.

Giveaway!

As an added bonus the publisher, Sourcebooks, has provided me with one copy of The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes to giveaway to one There’s A Book reader! Please fill out the form below and good luck!