Book Review: I Will Never Get a Star on Mrs. Benson’s Blackboard – by Jennifer K. Mann

 

 

 

 

 

Book: I Will Never Get a Star on Mrs. Benson's Blackboard
Author/illustrator: Jennifer K. Mann
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Date: June 9, 2015
Genre: children's picture book; age 5-8; gr. K-3
Pages: 40
Price: $16.99
My rating: Such a delightful story!

I Will Never Get a Star on Mrs. Benson’s Blackboard, written and illustrated by Jennifer K. Mann, is a sweet story.

Schoolteacher Mrs. Benson gives stars on the blackboard for spelling and math and right answers and neatness. Rose just KNOWS she’ll NEVER get a star because she can’t seem to give the right answers on anything. She likes to doodle, and her desk is always messy, too. Mrs. Benson doesn’t give stars for that.

One day, Mr. Sullivan comes to visit the class and he talks about being an artist. After his visit Rose thinks a lot about what he said, so much that she’s distracted and spills the class snack on Mrs. Benson! How can she ever get a star that way!

When Mrs. Benson announces she’s going to do a desk check for neatness, Rose’s heart sinks, but the next morning she cleans it the best she can. When her teacher gets each student to make a thank-you card for Mr. Sullivan, Rose’s artistic flair is released. What a mess, even worse than before! In fact, Mrs. Benson laughs because not only is Rose’s desk a mess, so is Rose! She is very impressed with the little girl’s artwork, though, and says that Rose is a true artist like Mr. Sullivan.

At the end of the day, Mrs. Benson calls Rose up to the blackboard. The little girl is worried, but then something wonderful happens.

Jennifer K. Mann‘s illustrations are fabulous in I Will Never Get a Star on Mrs. Benson’s Blackboard. I wish I could share a couple of my favourites here for you, but since I can’t you’ll have to read this delightful book for yourself to see them. Jennifer pulls the reader right in with her combination of words and visuals. Her illustrations are uncomplicated and expressive – very enjoyable.

You can find I Will Never Get a Star on Mrs. Benson’s Blackboard by Jennifer K. Mann on my BUY THE BOOK page. I also post my reviews on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Goodreads, and on Chapters.Indigo if available there.

Your comments for authors and illustrators are greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

Book Review: I Love Sharks, Too! – by Leanne Shirtliffe

 

 

 

 

 

Book: I Love Sharks, Too!
Author: Leanne Shirtliffe
Illustrator: Lorenzo Montatore
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Date: June 6, 2017
Genre: children's picture book: age 3-6; Pre-school-K
Pages: 32
Price: $16.99 
My rating: educational and fun at the same time 

I Love Sharks, Too!, by Canadian author Leanne Shirtliffe, is a book to experience and enjoy. If you ever wonder about sharks but you don’t want to get into heavy science facts, or get too close to them in person, this would be an enjoyable read for you. Written for children it’s safe and fun. 🙂

Stevie is a little boy who loves sharks. He loves them so much he wishes he were one himself. He thinks about them a lot! And why not? Sharks are amazing creatures!

One day, every time his mother spoke to him about something, he replied with a shark fact that fit the topic. When his mother said to stop squirming, he told her that whale sharks can’t stop moving or they’ll die. When she told him to use his manners at dinner, he said bull sharks tear their food apart with their fifty rows of teeth! When she warned him about trying to scare her, he had a fact about hammerhead sharks’ eyes.

They really weren’t communicating very well all day. Even when she told him to turn out his light at bedtime he replied with the fact that lantern sharks glow in the dark. Imagine what that must be like.

Lorenzo Montatore’s illustrations in I Love Sharks, Too! are full of energy and will make young readers – and grown-up ones – giggle. His art for this story is bold and crazy – which suits the story well. It’s enjoyable and educational at the same time.

I Love Sharks, Too! has a surprise ending, a satisfying one. The actual story is followed by eight pages of very interesting shark facts humorously illustrated. 

You can find I Love Sharks, Too! by Leanne Shirtliffe on my BUY THE BOOK page. I also post my reviews on Goodreads, and when available on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, and Chapters.Indigo.

Your comments are greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

We have a winner of The Road That Trucks Built!

It’s been a busy month of July here on Polilla Writes, and it’s been a great experience to be involved in the blog tours of When Your Lion Needs a Bath, When Your Elephant Has the Sniffles, and The Road That Trucks Built – all written by Susanna Leonard Hill. We’ve met her two illustrators – Daniel Wiseman and Erica Sirotich. We’ve learned some crazy, fun, surprising things about Susanna who shared recipes and crafts with us, and we’ve had three giveaways, one for each book, which brings me to …

the pleasure of announcing the winner of The Road That Trucks Built!

Using the random name picker thingie, I learned that ….

the winner’s comment included this: If I were one of these construction vehicles, I’d be a roller. 

And that person is …

DANIELLE!

CONGRATULATIONS,  DANIELLE!

You can expect a book in the mail from Susanna; just give her a little time. 🙂

Huge thanks to everyone who came to read and learn, participate and encourage. It means a lot to me that you came to visit my blog, and to Susanna, Daniel and Erica that you came to learn about their work.

I hope you all go purchase at least one copy of each of these fun books. (I’ve even made it super easy for you to find them by going to BUY THE BOOK here on my blog.) There are children out there who’ll enjoy them. Perhaps you’d like to donate a copy of one, two, or all three to your local school library or public library or day care. Books are meant to be shared and loved.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

Last chance to win The Road That Trucks Built – by Susanna Leonard Hill

Hi, Picture Book Lovers!

I am adding my last extra blog post into my busy all-about-Susanna-Leonard-Hill-&-her-books-and-illustrators-in-July schedule. This is to remind you that today – at 9 PM EST – your chance to win, here on my blog, a copy of The Road That Trucks Built .. brakes to a halt … red light, over.

You can go HERE to read my interview with illustrator Erica Sirotich and leave a comment for your chance to win a copy of Susanna Leonard Hill‘s children’s book The Road That Trucks Built.

Take a look at this fun illustration created by Erica:

 

 

 

Text copyright © 2017 by Susanna Leonard Hill
Illustration copyright © 2017 by Erica Sirotich
Used by permission of Little Simon

If you want to enter the draw, just leave a comment on the July 20 interview post telling us which truck you would want to be or drive – the bulldozer, the scraper, the grader, the paver, the roller, or the paint marker – and your name will go into the random name picker tool I use to determine who is the winner … of a book, not of permission to drive the truck.  🙂  It’s fair and easy!

The month is coming to a close – can you believe it! – ending my part in Susanna’s blog tour for Trucks.  Thanks to Susanna (author), Little Simon (publisher), and Erica Sirotich (illustrator), and – of course – to everyone who enjoyed this with us. We greatly value your interest and comments. 🙂

Be sure to check your email tonight if you entered the draw. In the next post (on July 30) I will announce the winner of The Road That Trucks Built.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂  

Truck snacks from Susanna Leonard Hill for when your little road builder gets the munchies

While we wait a few more days to know who of you wins a copy of The Road That Trucks Built by Susanna Leonard Hill, Susanna came up with a little trio of “recipes” to go with the TRUCK book. 🙂  Enjoy!

From Susanna …

If you’ve got a little road builder at your house, what could be better than a traffic light snack? 😊

Here are three options with varying degrees of preschool do-it-yourself and grown-up actually-having-to-cook involvement 😊

Easy Healthy Graham Cracker Traffic Lights

You will need graham crackers, strawberries, bananas, green grapes, and some kind of nut butter.

Divide graham crackers in half along the lines provided so you have rectangles instead of squares.

Slice circular pieces of strawberries, bananas, and green grapes.

Spread the graham cracker rectangles with a little peanut butter (or other nut butter to taste or if there are allergies).

Place a strawberry round on top for the red light, a banana round in the middle for the yellow light, and a green grape round on the bottom for the green light.

Voila!  Easy, healthy traffic light snack for your little driver!


Rice Krispie Treat Traffic Lights

You will need Rice Krispies, a bag of marshmallows, and about 1/2 a stick of butter, (or ready-made Rice Krispie Treats), and red, yellow and green m&ms.

Make a batch of Rice Krispie Treats as per the directions on the cereal box  or, if you’re short on time or prefer not to tangle with melted marshmallow 😊  do it the easy way and buy ready-made Rice Krispie Treats.

If you make them yourself, cut the treats into rectangles and, while still a little warm and soft, press red, yellow and green m&ms on for traffic lights.

If you use the ready-made ones they are precut to the correct dimensions but since they’re cold you’ll just need to use a tiny bit of nut butter, icing, or softened marshmallow to stick the m&ms onto them.

Voila!  Easy, still pretty healthy traffic light snack for your little construction worker!


Cookie Pop Traffic Lights

You will need a batch of your favorite sugar cookie recipe, or a Betty Crocker or similar mix with 1/3 cup butter, 1 egg, and a tablespoon of flour, or a roll of refrigerated sugar cookie dough, plus some popsicle sticks (flat craft sticks with rounded ends) and red, yellow, and green m&ms.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Prepare a batch of your favorite sugar cookie recipe (or do it the easy way and use Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix or refrigerated rolled sugar cookie dough)

Roll the dough on a floured surface about 1/4 inch thick and cut into 3 X 1 inch rectangles.

Place about an inch of a popsicle stick into a 1 inch side of each cookie.

Place on an ungreased cookie sheet 2 inches apart.

Bake 7-9 minutes or until edges are light brown.

Immediately press red, yellow, and green m&ms into each cookie.

Cool 2 minutes, then remove from baking sheet and finish cooling on cooking racks for about 30 minutes or until completely cool.

Makes about 30 cookie traffic lights for your little road builder!

These all look so fun to make! And you can still enter the July 29 draw to win a copy of The Road That Trucks Built by commenting on my July 20 post

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

 

Elephant snacks from Susanna Leonard Hill for when you & your elephant have the munchies; book winners

It’s been a busy blog tour for Lion and Elephant! And, of course, for Susanna Leonard Hill

Because it was originally my plan to announce the winners of Lion and Elephant books on this date – and then I gave them each their own day of glory – I’ll congratulate the winners today anyway: Happy Congrats to Teri for winning a copy of When Your Lion Needs a Bath and to Debra for winning a copy of When Your Elephant Has the Sniffles!  Yay!

Actually, everyone wins because of the fun extras Susanna has been sharing with us. To linger in the excitement of the release of When Your Elephant Has the Sniffles, here’s something yummy sent by Susanna …

… an elephant recipe 😊

Elephant Sugar Cookies

You will need:

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsps baking powder

2 3/4 cups flour

An elephant-shaped cookie cutter

Raisins or chocolate chips (for the eye)

Sprinkles, small candies, colored sugar, a little icing, etc. for decoration

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cream butter and sugar.

Add egg and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix all dry ingredients then add slowly to butter mixture until all incorporated.

Roll out on lightly floured board to desired thickness (probably about 1/4 inch or so)

Cut out elephant shapes with cookie cutter.

Press a raisin or a chocolate chip in place for the eye.

If decorating with colored sugar or sprinkles, sprinkle on top and press lightly with the bottom of a glass before baking.

If decorating with small candies, press lightly into elephant before baking.

Bake at 400 degrees for 7-10 minutes until light in color with light browning on the edges.

If using icing, add after baking.

If you missed earlier news and fun you can check all of my July posts for fun events, including reviews, interviews and giveaways.

So ends my participation in When Your Elephant Has the Sniffles blog tour. Huge thanks to everyone for adding to the fun through your visits and comments. Especially, many thanks to you, Susanna, and to Little Simon and Daniel Wiseman. 🙂

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

We have a winner of When Your Elephant Has the Sniffles!

Today I get to announce the winner of a copy of When Your Elephant Has the Sniffles written by Susanna Leonard Hill and illustrated by Daniel Wiseman!  yay!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I put the names into the random name picker tool and it selected ….

DEBRA!

CONGRATULATIONS, Debra! I sent you an email for your info. 🙂

Debra is the winner with this comment: “I would amuse my elephant by reading him a book and showing him the pictures that were drawn by Daniel Wiseman. They are whimsical and fun and would totally get my elephant’s mind off of his cold.”

Thank you so very much to everyone for participating. I really enjoyed your visits and comments. Please feel welcome to stop by even when there is no blog tour going on.

There is one more post here associated with Elephant; Tuesday come back for  snacks from Susanna. 🙂 And in the meantime, you can also enter the draw for your chance to win a copy of Trucks.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂