Tag Archives: Book

Review: The True Princess

Eva received the book, The True Princess for Christmas from my Aunt Donna. It is an excellent books with a very wonderful message. There is a religious vein to the book as the tag line of the book is “What makes someone a true princes in Jesus’ eyes?” The values of self reliance, humility, kindness and caring are universal values to teach our children and this book does so very well. The book was written bu Angela Elwell Hunt and the illustrations were done by Diana Magnuson.

The Story
A young princess is entrusted to the care of her father, the king’s servant Nana. The king had to leave the country for a while and to keep his princess safe the princess and Nana were disguised as bakers. While the princess had been used to a life of luxury she soon learned to be more self reliant and understand the roles of those who had the duties to care for her in her life as a princess. In the end she builds character and becomes a princess who is worthy of ruling.

The Illustrations
The illustrations are bright and beautiful. Very colorful and well drawn.

The Message
The message of learning to truly love yourself as well as others by being kind, caring, and humble is excellent. The princess learns to entertain herself and others, laugh and love. The true princess learns to serve others and in that she is elevated to her rightful place as a true princess.

Final Thoughts
This story is a nice read, there are many wonderful characters and moments for good reading. For me that means the option to use different voices and be different characters. Allison has been reading this to Eva often and she simply loves sitting there listening to the story and looking at the beautiful illustrations.

Read to Me Dad Ratings

  • Story – Excellent
  • Re-Readability – Excellent
  • Illustrations – Good – vibrant colors
  • Message – Excellent
  • Plot – Excellent
  • Characters – Excellent
  • Does Eva Like It – She loves looking at the pictures and she is very attentive when we read this to her.
  • Recommended Ages 4-8

Review: We Are Wolves

I picked up the book We Are Wolves by Molly Grooms when I was in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul airport. The book I have is the board book version and it has a nice puffy soft cover. I flipped through it and saw the beautiful illustrations by Lucia Guarnotta and fell in love. I am a fan of wolves and think that they are beautiful and majestic animals. Then I read the story and fell deeper in love with it, I knew I had to buy this book.

The Story
The story is about two wolf pups that learn what it is to be a wolf from their Uncle and the rest of the pack. Uncle Wolf watches over the two wolf pups for a day as he teaches them valuable lessons.

The Illustrations
I might be biased because I love wolves and how they are just so beautiful. These illustrations do seem to leap from the page an right into my heart as they are so well done. The colors and the detail are amazing.

The Message
The message of this book is what really drew me to picking it up for our kids (I bought this before Eva was even a thought on the horizon). Here is a story that shows how family nurtures each generation in their love and their lessons. Uncle Wolf takes the pups on a journey of discovery about who they are as wolves. Each lesson is reiterated at the end of the books in a series of statements about wolves. A very lovely story about what it means to be family and to have a strong identity to your past.

Final Thoughts
I love reading this book to Eva because there are four characters, Uncle Wolf, Mother Wolf, the Pups (all lines for the pups are said as one speaker) and the narrator. I can change my voice for each character and give them distinct sounds. And I like that there is a story here and plenty of things to read and not just pretty things to look at. I’m reading to my daughter to help improve her verbal skills and give her a head start in life. A well written story is going to be much better than one that is just full of pretty pictures. Luckily this book as plenty of both.

Read to Me Dad Ratings

  • Story – Excellent
  • Re-Readability – Excellent
  • Illustrations – Excellent
  • Message – Excellent
  • Plot – Excellent
  • Characters – Excellent
  • Does Eva Like It – Yes
  • Recommended Ages – 4 to 8