Captain No Beard: An Imaginary Tale Of A Pirate's Life....                                              By: Carole P. Roman

What a treat to check my mail and receive a copy of Captain No Beard: An Imaginary Tale of a Pirate's Life..especially on a day of gloom and rain. I could not wait to tell the kids what was awaiting them. So what better way than to give an honest review on a children's book than to read it to your kids and see what they think of it. Consensus says......They absolutely loved it!!

This is not your typical children's book. It is an amazing one. For starters the illustrations are gorgeous...vivid..rich..full of detail...that alone had the kids in full suspense to check out the next page..and then the next page..and then the next (which is what parents need in a children's book to keep our ever so attention deficit kiddies to endure until the end) Second, I loved the font size and style...beautiful and easy to read...perfect for my 7 year old that is moving on to reads slightly harder than he is use to should he decide to follow along or read the book on his own. Easy for me as a parent to be able to hold the book and read it under a tent that is not well lit.  And lastly the story....absolutely loved the story...the ending, showing kids just how far imagination can go and the beauty of it.

My kids loved the book...I loved the book. In the course of about two weeks...since I've owned the book, I have read it to my kids easily over 10 times. We can't get enough of such an adorable read.


and now for the second book I received in the same haul......

                               If You Were Me And Lived In....China                                               also by: Carole P. Roman

So along with the book Captain No Beard: An Imaginary Tale of a Pirate's LifeI also received a copy of If You Were Me and Lived in...China: A Child's Introduction to Culture Around the World Something very much different from the first book but still a great read for kids.

Just as in the first book I figured what better way to give an honest review on a children's book than to go over it with my kids to see how this story holds up. I will say this book is better suited for children a little older simply because there is a lot of wording...and with a lot of wording comes the chance that little minds lose interest right away. My 7 year old held on to the end...my 4 year old walked away..came back..walked away. Still I have to say between my 7 year old and myself we really enjoyed the book. Great illustrations..vivid colors..adorable..by Kelsea Wierenga. It's like a travel book for children. Giving the child an opportunity to learn about a culture..places to visit...dialect..foods to eat...it was fun and informative. A really great idea to teach kids something so wonderful as a new place in the world that they may have never been.

Again, I think this type of book is centered maybe more for older kids past the age of 7 just because there is such rich information that smaller children's attention spans won't grasp. But still my 4 year old loved....wait, LIKED not loved..but a solid LIKED looking at the pictures with us and we have had a good laugh the day he called his father "Ba-Ba" (Chinese word for Daddy)..so you see, at his age he learned something from this book...WIN WIN for Mommy...or rather "Maa-Ma"

Two great reads both by Carole P. Roman. We crawled inside of our reading tent and we read those books...and it was awesome...because any time spent with my kids is awesome but most importantly spending time reading to your kids books that they didn't walk away from in the middle of it...then that's amazing...Read to your kids...Read to yourself...just #ReadAPhugginBook Please!! 


Thanks to the peeps over at The Children's Book Review and to Carole P. Roman for giving me the opportunity to own these books free in exchange for an honest review.