Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty

My husband is a computer engineer.  So when I saw a children's book that had to do with a child who wanted to be an engineer, I jumped right on it (or bought it).  This is a newer book so don't expect to find it in a thrift store or even for really cheap used anytime soon.

Why won't you find it at a thrift store?  Umm...because it's a totally awesome, sweet book!  Whoever gives this book up to a thrift store is crazy craze.  It's wonderful, fantastic, superb!  I can't say enough how much I love this.

And it's for BOTH genders....  as this does have relation to women's workforce during the world war, a boy and a girl can both enjoy this story.

Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty

 This story starts with a girl name Rosie whose fear of criticism keeps her from sharing her inventions and engineering to others.

As she tries to invent things that would help others, but after being laughed at with one of her projects, she wonders if she could really become an engineer.  Rosie will learn from a great relative with history that she doesn't need to worry about what others are thinking and what everyone else does.  She only needs to believe in herself and see the bigger picture in how her inventions help others.

Now tell me that's not a story your child should hear.

 This book is in a rhyme and let me tell you, it's quite clever.

 The illustrations are spectacular.  The color is amazing and the drawings are just done perfectly that it even keeps my 2 year old's eyes on the pages.

There is another book that's related to this one that's out there that I have as well.  I'll definitely get that one on this blog real soon.  They are both worth paying full price for.  But you can purchase this book for a great price on Amazon.  Don't expect this book to be on Thriftbooks anytime soon.  If it does go on there, it will be for the same price as buying a new one on Amazon.  Click below to purchase!  You WON'T regret it!

The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle

For all of you who have read The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle, you will know exactly what I'm talking about when I say "What the crap did I just read and why did I read it?!"  

I do enjoy Eric Carle's illustrations and I'm a huge Caterpillar fan, but I'm still angry at myself for purchasing this book...even for $1.00.  

The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle (1977)

 Maybe I'm overreacting....and I mean maybe, but let me explain.

As you can see in the picture below, it has the same concept as the caterpillar book, with the growing size of pages...starting with a small 3 inch page to the full book size page.  On each page, the grouchy ladybug finds a new animal or a new bug and asks it the same thing, over and over and over "Want to fight?"  He does this every hour...as you can see by the small clocks in the right corner of each page.  Apparently, this ladybug has major issues as he finds some excuse to not fight each time.  Ugh.

 I won't tell you the ending.  Crap, I can't even spoil a rotten ending, but if you are expecting a dramatic, beautiful ending... it's not there.

By the way, this book did end up on the School Library's Journal of 100 Greatest Children's Picture Books.

Just a little tid bit on Eric Carle:  His artwork is most definitely recognizable by all who know him (even by one book).  He actually hand paints, then cuts the paper into the designs; just as you can see on the ladybug above.  He loves nature which is why most of his stories are about bugs, animals or even things we see in the sky.

If you disagree with my review, you can still purchase this book for a great price on both Amazon and Thriftbooks.  If you are purchasing $10 or more in books, purchase this from Thriftbooks.  Otherwise, purchase it on Amazon for $ .01 plus $3.99 shipping.

The Grouchy Ladybug by: Eric Carle $3.59

Sparrow Socks by George Selden

Both of my little boys each get one story before they go to sleep.  It's been this way since both of them turned 3 months old (when we switched them over to their crib from the bassinet).  It's now something my 2 year old can't live without.  There was once that he was being naughty before he went to bed so I decided to skip storytime and get him straight to bed.  As I was leaving, he started saying "book" over and over.  It made my heart melt.  He loved his storytime and knew it was missing that night.

So I sat next to him and read him this little gem:

Sparrow Socks by George Selden (1965)

This was such an original story, which I'm grateful to find nowadays.

I won't give away the ending, but if businesses could read this book, they'd understand how this story could reflect a huge impact on the way they perform and advertise

 My copy of this book is very old, as you can see.  Barely holding on (with tape) and worn fabric for the cover.  But I love it.  It shows that it's been used and read, which is what it was meant to do.

The Story:  Angus McFee works at his father and two uncle's sock factory.  His jobs usually consist of cleaning the machines and cleaning up the extra yarn that falls out.  One winter day, he discovers his sparrow friends are cold and places socks on each one to help them out.  But unfortunately uses up all the yarn in the factory despite the business being in financial turmoil.  Learn how this little boy finds out what doing a good deed for someone (or something) does in return.  
 The story was great, though I'd have to say this wasn't a story that would intrigue a 2 year old.  Perhaps more for the 8-10 year olds.  The paragraphs are long but more unfortunately, the illustrations aren't spectacular enough for little kids.  There is some great detail, especially when he drew the machines, and I do love how the pictures are black and white expect for the socks which are red.  But they are just pencil/pen type of drawings.

For the story, it's great.  One thing you have to be aware of is when the characters talk, they speak in irish/scots dialect.  Sometimes I had a hard time figuring out what they were saying.

I was fortunate to find my copy at the thrift store for .50 cents.  It was originally a library copy from the Salt Lake Countty library.  What's interesting, and I'm sure my boys will find it interesting too is how the late fee was only .02 cents per day.  So, back then, if you didn't return this book for a year after the due date, it would only cost you $7.30.

Where to buy:

This book isn't cheap since it's no longer in print.  But would make a great addition to a library that boasts historical and vintage pieces of literature or if you read this as a child and need it to keep those memories alive.

The best place to purchase is on Amazon for about $25 plus shipping.  Click the link below to purchase:

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka

When I first learned to read, it was about the late 80's. So you can only imagine how many books my little boys own that are from that era. I've purchased every book that I can remember reading during that time and hopefully I can find more. There was one book that stuck out in my mind and I HAD to get it. At first, I couldn't find this book in the thrift store. I guess it's not something people let go of so easily, which is understandable. So I had to give in and purchase a new paperback version. But that's not what you are going to see here. Why? Because I finally found a used hardcover version at the thrift store for .50 cents. I did find one other paperback a couple years ago (after I purchased the new one) but I gave it away to a friend who had a son that's only 5 weeks older than my boy. She remembered the book, too, from her early years and needed it just as much as I needed it.

So here is one of my most memorable stories from my childhood:

 The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka

This was a former library book from Texas.  

Don't know why they got rid of it.  It's a great copy.  Plus I love how libraries protect the dust cover by covering it with a clear wrap.  

If you haven't read this story....I feel for you.  It's wonderful!  Maybe the Big Bad Wolf isn't so bad after all, according to him.  While trying to find a cup of sugar so he can bake his grandmother a cake, he takes off in search of the ingredient.  On the way, he comes across three very rude pigs who refuse to help out this poor wolf.  Now, I do have to say, despite the wolf being nice, he's definitely not a vegan, so don't expect him to refuse free pork.  

I really wish I would have kept my copy from when it first came out.  I know my mother bought me a copy not too long after it was published.  

This is why you don't sell your kids favorite books at yard sales.  My mom sold each of my books at yard sales or gave it to thrift stores when I was about 13.  And now, I would have loved to give those copies to my boys.  

In a previous post, I told you how you can tell if you have a First Edition/First Printing.  You can view that Here.  

So, no where on the above copyright page does it say First Edition (some publishers don't even announce that, so you have to pay close attention).  But you can tell it's not a First Edition by it saying "First published in 1989 by Viking Penguin"  This edition was published only by Viking.  

The printing line is available on this book.  As you see, it says 37 39 40 38 36.  The lowest number is the printing lot for this book which would mean, in this edition, it's the 36th printing.

WHERE TO BUY:

You could possibly find this book at a local thrift store; if you are willing to take the time to search, and I mean a lot of time.  The last 3 years, I've found this book in 6 different thrift stores maybe about 5 times.  

But you can get this book for very cheap at Amazon; $4.00 with shipping for used, $6.00 for a new paperback, or around $11.00 for a new hardcover.

Or you can get it the cheapest at Thriftbooks ($3.59) if you order $10 or more for books so you can get the free shipping.  Otherwise, it's .99 cents shipping for each book.  Plus, when you reach $50 all together on all the orders you've placed, they will give you a $5 gift card.  I always take this route when I'm interested in multiple books.

Here are the links if you are interested in purchasing from any of these dealers:

                                                                   

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! by: Jon Scieszka $3.59

Thomas the Tank Engine - The Complete Series!

I'm pretty sure there are thousands of moms who are with me on this one.  That their son/daughter is stuck on Thomas & Friends.  Has to have everything Thomas; the little take n play trains, the comforter, stuffed trains, the little rug that can run their trains on, and all of the shows.  Yes, I'm describing what we have of Thomas for my little Thomas lover.

Now since Thomas was based on a series of books, I of course had to find the books for my boy.  

The series is called The Railway Series by the Reverend W. Awdry.  As a child, he grew up around trains when he lived near a train yard.  He would make up stories about each train that he heard since he felt that each train had a certain emotion and personality on just the way they sounded.  He then brought his son Christopher into the picture by telling him made-up stories about trains and even making him the trains as well.  

By the way, Thomas wasn't even in the first book.  He made his first appearance in the second one.   

Now, the Railway Series has 26 books (not including the books his son Christopher wrote after his father was done with the series).  And I didn't think it was possible, nor cheap to purchase each book individually (I did look at the prices and .... ugh.....)

So here was my solution:

Here is the complete book!  All 26 books with all the original illustrations.  It is pretty thick but I'll take the thickness with the cheap cost that came with it.  

I do enjoy the stories.  I mean, if you've seen the Thomas shows, you will understand how the engines work and what their personalities are like.  Many have argued that the Railway series is full of trains who are mean, argue and take vengeance on other trains.  But I don't know what they are expecting.  They are trains!  They are bold, hard workers.  They are the hard industry.  They aren't supposed to be cute, cuddly and have flowers in their funnels.  

There are few things to consider when purchasing the book:

As an American, there are a some words in the book that wouldn't be recognizable or understandable.  Awdry was British, and thus, he wrote that way.  

Sir Topham Hatt is known only as the Fat Controller in the series.  That was his original name.  Only in America is he called Sir Topham Hatt.

The pictures in the book are about 2.5 x 3.5 inches.  They aren't small to where you can't see them but it sure would be nice if they were bigger

But none of these deterred me away from purchasing it.  And I'm glad I did.  It's a fun book for Thomas lover, though the stories are long so they are best for kids around 5-6 years old.  

There's also a beautiful picture of the island of sodor on the front and back inside covers.  Plus stories about the author and illustrator as well.

 By the way, thanks kid for giving up this book even though it was an awesome birthday present from your friend/relative.  So sad.

So where to buy:

Here's a tip on buying this book.  BUY ONLY THE HEINEMANN EDITION.  This is the British publisher which, for some unknown reason, makes this cheaper.  It must be cause the American publisher is Random House, which is a worldwide famous publisher.

I purchased my book on Amazon, but there are two listings.  Since the book was published by two different companies (one in America and the other in Britain) they are sold separately.  The one sold in America is twice or even three times the price as the one from the UK.  So that's where I purchased mine.  On Amazon, via a used book dealer in the UK.  It's the same book, so just go that route.  The cheapest at the time I purchased was overseas and I didn't mind waiting the extra week.  But now they do have some American dealers for about the same price.

You can also find this book on Abebooks from the UK for around the same price.  It's also on Thriftbooks but this is where you will have to pay around $15 since the books are mostly in the US.
I prefer Amazon, so that's the one I recommend.  You can click on the link below to purchase

  

Do you have a First Edition or Early Printing?

This question crosses my mind frequently when searching for books.  I mean, it is an investment when you put your money into a book.  Okay, the big investment is your child reading the book and gaining knowledge and smarts from it.  Of course.  That's the ultimate goal.  But you are still curious and hoping that one day you will come across that one book that will make you money; that's worth more than the $1.00 that you are putting down for it.

So how do you tell if you have a first edition or if you have a first printing?  or both?

During these present days, it's much easier to tell a first edition or first printing.  Why?  Because they actually tell you in the book.  Take for example Hyperion Books (who publishes the Pigeon books by Mo Willems):

As you can see, this is a First Edition.  It plainly states it above the number line.  This means that this is the original book.  There have been no updates, no change of publishers, no change in the covers, no changes to the pages....nothing.  That's what makes it a first edition.

So let's talk about the number line.  It's weird....it doesn't even go in order.  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2  So what's this line about?  It's the printing line.  This tells you if it's a first printing, second printing, third printing, etc.  If it's a first printing, that means it was one of the first books from the publisher.  Second printing means it was one of the books from the second time the publisher issued another printing of the book.  They basically say, "okay, let's print some more"  then they will issue another printing which would be the third printing and so on.

So just look in your number line.  If you have a number one still in the line, it's a first printing.  Just like you see above.  Which is awesome.

Now here is another book printed by the publishers Dutton.  The number line isn't messed up like you saw above but they both mean the same thing.  In this one you can see that the number one is missing from the line and so the lowest number is 2.  This means that it's a First Edition, Second printing.  Not as great as the first printing, but it's still an early printing which makes it nice.

Here's another example of the copyright page from Scholastic:

As you can see to the left, it has a number line, too.  This lowest number is two which makes it a 2nd printing.  But there's another number line to the right.  This line tells you the year it was published.  The line says 10 11 12 13 14 15/0.  The number after the slash (0) indicates it was printing in the 2000s.  The lowest number before the 0 tells you which year.  So the lowest number 10, which means it was published in 2010.  Confusing?  Well, let's try this one.  A year line says this:   7 8 9/8   0 1 2 3/9    This one has two slashes, so this one is a bit more confusing.  But as with all copyright lines, you go with the lowest number.  So the lowest number after a slash is 8.  Then the lowest number on 8's line is 7.  So that book would have been printed in 1987.  They have the additional line with the /9 because it's almost to the 1990s.  So they need it there for when it switches decades.

Plus, Scholastic is nice and tells you when the first scholastic edition was, which was in September of 2010.

They started using number books, I believe, around the 70s.  So what about before then?  Well, that depends solely on the publisher and how they decided to tell you (and some even didn't tell you).  So to tell you, I will have to make individual posts for each publisher as I get to them.  Really, that's the only way since there are SOOOOO many publishers out there.  But hopefully this helps for anything slightly vintage to newer.

I'm BACK!

I'm back!  After having my second little boy, I'm finally able to return and start posting again.  This time with a little more detail than I have before.  Now that I've increased my son's library from 700 books to about 850 (don't judge), I'm ready and hoping to help others in their path to literacy in their children.

I'm a sucker for old, classic children's books.  I collect them in hopes that someday I will find the diamond in the rough.  I especially love classic library books.  If I find a book that I love, already have it but have found it in a library binding, I'll switch them out.  So pretty often in this blog you will see a classic that you remember but my copy will be old, run down.  Just the way I like it.

There's also something about inscriptions that I adore as well.  You know, those copies of books that was given to someone as a present, they wrote a very beautiful letter in there for them, but the recipient just loved it so much that they gave it away to Goodwill.  Yes, I love those.  It's almost like a story within a story.  I have quite a bit of those and when I read them I wonder about the people behind it.

I'm a huge advocate for children's literature and the importance of books.  I just remember as a child having all of these books and I would read them over and over.  Everytime I remember a book that I used to own or a favorite of mine from my childhood, I'd immediately search for one for my two boys.

I also urge the importance of adopting a used book.  There are so many thrift stores around the nation with hundreds of books, why not?  If you don't, they end up being recycled.....kind of like a pet in at the animal shelter (does that make you feel bad?  Yes? Okay)  I admit, I have purchased several new books for my boys, but that's because some people are crazy!  Especially on Amazon.  They will sell their used copy for more than just buying the book new.  Come on, people!  Really?!  Who wants to pay $15.00 for a used book when you can buy a new one for only $8?

So this blog is all about literacy in children, hopefully buying a book that your child can actually hold in their hands and turn pages.  Since I'm also a collector, I'll teach you how to tell if your book is a first edition, first printing, how old, etc.  We will go through reviews on the each book, talk about series, and even give some fun, interesting facts on publishers, authors, or the book itself. --- that was a lot of commas in one sentence.

I hope you enjoy this blog as it takes you down memory lane and into the stories you once loved as a child and newly published books that live up to that potential.