This is a special week on our blog we are celebrating a heap of birthdays over hear and decided to have a week of amazing giveAways on our blog, we are also hosting our own Save the Rhino Campaign…
Let’s begin with the Mother Person:
Project Based HomeSchooling: Mentoring Self-Directed Learners… Hold on to your seats… this is the best book I have read in ages and ages and frankly if you are new to homeschooling or you are an old hand at it, this book is a MUST read. I don’t think you even need to be a homeschooler to love this book, because it is all about ways to spend time and enable your kids to learn about the things they love and to follow their passions. This is a very practical book, full of realistic ideas to help you encourage kids, by creating interesting spaces for them and providing them with materials to learn the things they want to learn… not to mention how to sit with them and chat with them so that they do the work and you are really just there as their assistant. We all know given the time and space that our children will create, will this book is the book to help you create those spaces for them. And in a way that for many parents will be a blessed relief, you are the mentor rather than the player in these self-appointed projects. One of the things I love about this book is that it is not prescriptive in any way – no “should” is mentioned… so many homeschooling books suggest “their way” or the highway. This book is nothing like that and far more a suggestion of a lifestyle of learning and about creating an environment of curiosity, that your whole family can thrive in. This book is equally applicable to your tots, tweens and teens, as well as yourself… I rearranged my workspace to have more of the things that inspire me close at hand… and a couple of projects that were on my back-burner are back in focus as I realise the whole educational thing is not just for our kids to enjoy but for us as well. I tell you this book is well worth the read and may well be life-changing as you rearrange your priorities to accommodate more of the adventures that you would like to be exploring in your day to day living. I think you may be hearing a lot more about this book on our blog… again and again!!!I was given this book to review by the author, Lori Pickert, whose blog I have been following and loving for years.
And now for the kids:
Hood #1: Molly Moon and the Morphing Mystery by Georgia Byng is the fifth in the Molly Moon saga… a series of books about an 11yr old orphan with a lot of hidden talents!!! Molly Moon is a series that has been around and expanding for a while now it is written with spunk!!! If you enjoy travel, time travel or geographic travel you will love these books… A cross between detective, magical and humorous, these tales always have a grand twist. The goodies are good and the baddies are all related to “Roald Dahl’s Trunchbull.” I think the great thing about these books is that everyone can read them… they are a fabulous first “fat” book to read for a reader who is launching out of easy chapter books… My oldest four all love these books. You can read about how Molly Moon came into being, just follow this link. We were given this book by Pan MacMillan South Africa, to review.
Hood #2: Artemis Fowl and the Last Guardian by Eoin Colfer is published by Puffin Books. Hood #2 met Eoin Colfer a couple of years back and has been an ardent fan ever since – I think he would be a fan anyway but meeting an author seems to be a lifetime highlight for our kids. This is the final in a series of fantasy novels about the illusive Artemis Fowl, he is a teenage criminal mastermind and child prodigy, that thought he could exploit the fairies to reach his own ends, only to discover the fairies more than met his match. These fairies use technology and gadgets and have a collection of talents beyond comprehension. Hood #2 loved the plausible technology, the clever plot and the outwitting that goes on between Artemis and his nemesis, Opal Koboi a power seeking pixie. Atremis Fowl has his own fabulous website and you can click on the virtually live button and see an interview with the “real Artemis Fowl,” we loved it!!! We were given this book by Penguin Books South Africa, to review.
Hood #3: This is the week for series books!!! Whisper by Alyson Noel, is the fourth in the Riley Bloom Series. Riley Bloom is a twelve year old soul catcher, who travels back in time to Rome. Her task is to tell an ancient gladiator to accept his fate, while she is there she falls under the spell of Messalina who transforms her into a beautiful young woman. This is a sweet young teen romance, Riley falls for a young Roman and never wants to leave… but she must return to the Here and Now. We were given this book by Pan MacMillan South Africa, to review.
Hood #4: The Human Body Factory by Dan Green, is a fact book… for our fact lover!!! He loved this book… poured over it for hours and hours… Yes it has a huge fold out body in the back, yes it has the most incredible illustrations but it was the hundreds of facts that one this book to his heart!!! On each page there is a map showing which part of the body you are exploring and then in you go… tiny little people fetching and carrying bits and pieces around your body… epic exploration like never before. This would be a slightly junior version of Macauley’s The Way We Work, packed with information in very readable little bites. We were given this book by Pan MacMillan South Africa, to review.
Hood #5: Showtime for Billie and Coco by Tor Freeman, is a beautifully illustrated story full of busy-ness and heaps and heaps to look at!!! The illustrations are packed with lovely details!!! It is the story of a school full of extraordinary performing students, who were are preparing for a performance. You can take a look at some of the illustrations and fun on the author, Tor Freeman’s Website… Fun, fun, fun!!! We were given this book by Pan MacMillan South Africa, to review.
Hood #6: The Princess Mirror-Belle Collection by Julia Donaldson – Who knew Julia Donaldson wrote chapter books!!! Hood #3 read these to her little sister… Three books in one, the collected stories of a wild princess, who is the mischievous mirror image of Ellen a sweet shy young girl. Ellen spends her time covering up for Mirror-Belle and trying not to be caught out and mistaken for the naughty mirror image. We were given this book by Pan MacMillan South Africa, to review.
Hood #7: The Buttons Family, The BabySitter by vivian French, is just the most delightful series on earth. I have written about other books in the series before, they are just so cute and totally appeal to our four year old girl child!!! The Buttons Family, are your typical three child family – a girl, a boy and a baby. It is a “first experiences” series and this is the children’s first experience with a babysitter. Everything about these books is “lovely” which is why it so appeals to my our four year old girl child. AND it comes with stickers!!! There is a page of stickers: a few stars for the star chart and “I was good for the babysitter” as well some adorable “kid-drawn” stickers. We were given this book by Pan MacMillan South Africa, to review.
And the se7en + 1th Book:
Hood #8: Funny Faces, Dressing Up by Jannie Ho, Sometimes we get a book to review and we can’t part with it… This is one of them!!! My youngest saw this in the box of review books and grabbed it and it has slept with him ever since. At night a little hand reaches out for “his book” gotta say its an all-time favourite!!! It is a chunky board book, with handles and two holes for eyes on each page – so you can hold it up to your face and you have a mask. The handles make it especially easy to master for a little person… who is instantly transformed into a robot, a super-hero, a wicked witch and a pirate. Each page has a slight and sturdy pop-up… for example the super-hero’s goggles or the robots nose. Honestly I can write about this board book all night but it should suffice to say – it’s a keeper and of all the books that have passed through the hands of our youngest… this is by far his favourite!!! We were given this book by Pan MacMillan South Africa, to review.
We are giving away se7en of our review books and there will be se7en winners. Our GiveAway Winners are always carefully selected from the folk that comment on our GiveAway posts. So in order to be a winner … leave a comment saying which books you would like to win… if you want to win all se7en of them then say so, but if you want to win just one or two of them then mention which books you would like to win in the comments…
So pick and choose one or two or all of the following books and leave a comment:
This GiveAway works in the usual way, comment before the end of 30 September 2012, and we will draw and publish the winners on the 2 October 2012 I won’t respond to your comments as I do on our other posts because I don’t want to be included in our own giveaway. Our GiveAways are open to everyone world wide, so good luck and happy commenting!!!
If you would like a second chance to win a copy of any of the books: A donation to our Save the Rhino Campaign gets you an extra entry into the GiveAway. Any amount… even the teeniest amount is brilliant… and it doesn’t matter what currency you use… So if you would like an extra entry then click on the map or follow the link directly.
We really want to thank: Lori Pickert from Camp Creek Blog, Penguin Books South Africa and PanMacMillan South Africa for providing us for all the books for review for this post. And we would like to declare that we were not paid to do these reviews, just provided with books. All the opinions are entirely our own!!!
I really love the reviews on Molly Moon, Whisper and the Human Body Factory – so interesting!
They all look wonderful! But I will make a choice…can you please put me down for the last 3 books.
Please enter us for the human body factory and funny faces. Thanks!
Ooooh nice!
The princess mirror belle cause I love Julia Donaldson, the Human body book for my fact-mad child and the Babysitter cause it sounds so cute!
My little would adore the Human Body Factory book. She loves fact books and memorizes them over the course of a week. Thanks so much for hosting this giveaway!
Please can I enter for the Human Body Factory, Showtime, Princess Mirror-Belle and the Buttons family. Thanks for a great selection!
Oooh…Molly Moon! I bet these would be right up my little guy’s alley.
Human Body Factory, Showtime and Princess Mirror-Belle sound like they’d entertain my little ones for hours, they love fact books and anything princess!
We would love to win the Human Body Factory.
(That book you are reading sounds fantastic too – will go see if I can get hold of it. )
Choices, choices – I can’t make up my mind but would love any of them!
Oh my! I’d never heard of princess mirror belle but she sounds like a perfect chapter book for my 5 year old! I’m fairly certain my son would live the body book
Ooh, such fun. Picking out books is my fav thing to do. Molly Moon, Showtime, The princess book or even the Pirate book…they all sound fun. Thank you for this chance.
My six year-old son wants to win the Princess Mirror-Belle collection. I want Artemis Fowl or Molly Moon.
thank you so much, se7en, for the lovely review! 🙂
Oh no! Why did you have to tell me that Artemis Fowl is the last book in the series? I’ve read all the rest of them and I had been putting off this one! I’m going to have to see if my library has it now! And I guess since I came here to comment before I realized it was a contest, I’ll enter for any of them!
I love them all and my boys will love them too. However if i can only choose one it will be the Human Body Factory.
wow – 16 comments already…
I would LOVE to be entererd into Artemis Fowl 🙂 Nothing like a good fantasy
What a lovely book review post as always!
I am sure my boys would love Artemis Fowl, Molly Moon or the Human Body Factory! Greetings from Pretoria
So many lovely books. Hmmmm what would my kids love: Here goes: Molly Moon, Artemis Fowl, Whisper and Showtime for Billie & Coco. Thank you so much!
Definately the Human Body Factory and Showtime please 🙂
ah we just love all kinda books – but the Human Body Factory book and Showtime for Billy and Coco stand out…Thanks so much x
Ah would love to of won Lori Pickert’s book but for the kids the Human Body Factory and Showtime. Thanks x
All the books look great I would love them all! I wish we were able to review books the kids and I would be in heaven. 🙂 Everyone always ask me how I got my kids so interested in reading. My answer is that I love to read so much and I read to them constantly. They enjoy finding out what your kids read and hunting for the books in the library. I can say that my oldest girl loves The Guardian series. Thanks again for all your wonderful book post.
What fun! Please enter me for the Human Body Factory. Thanks (:
I’d love the chance to win the Artemis Fowl or Whisper books.
So difficult to choose….then, we don’t…we would love them all 🙂
All of them, please! 🙂
ANY one would be wonderful! Thank you so much!
I’d love a chance at Tor’s book…lots of little performers here – and a shout out to Kingston alums like Tor and our family friend Giles!!
I want the parenting book for myself, but will have to enter my hat for the Julia Donaldson chapter book. We love her! And, it doesn’t look like I can order it here in the States. Hope we win 🙂
The Human Body Factory would be absolutely perfect for my oldest son! (The younger one will enjoy it, too, since he loves anything his big brother loves!)
The human body factory looks awesome, and I am going to Amazon right now to add that funny faces book to my youngests wish list.
would love the human body factory, we love anything julia donaldson, showtime for billy and coco looks fab, funny faces and the baby sitter i know my littlest would love.
Please count us in for all of them – thank you so much!!
What fun! Please enter me in the drawings for Whisper, Human Body Factory, Showtime for Billie and Coco, and The Princess Mirror-Belle Collection. Thank you!!
My Favorites are the Human Body Factory ,Molly Moon and Whisper. So please count me in.
well done 36 coments already you have got,I also like the human body factory!
We would love the Artemis or Whispers – please enter us…..
We would love the Human Body Factory, Molly Moon, Tor’s book or Julia Donalson’s book….they look like fun! Thanks for the chance!