Book Review: Usborne Very First Reading: Book 2 - The Dressing-Up Box

Written by: Mairi MacKinnon

Illustrated by: Kate Sheppard

Pages: 32 pages

Format: Hard cover

Genre: Children’s Book

Reading Level: 3 – 5 years old 

• An exciting story to inspire very beginner readers.
• Based on the principles of synthetic phonics, supports the "Letters and Sounds" programme used in thousands of UK primary schools.
• Adult and child take turns to read, and the child’s text uses only the letters s a t p i n m d.
• Fun puzzles test understanding, and provide opportunities for discussion and further reading practice.

My thoughts:

This book is part of a series that introduces reading to first time readers. I started reading Book 1: Pirate Pat from the series a couple of weeks back to the kids. Per my previous post on my experienced reading the first book, my kids loved it because they love stories about pirates but I had suspected that the kids won't enjoy the second book so much.

I was right, my kids were not as excited to read the Dressing-Up Box unfortunately. Don’t get me wrong the book was fine but dressing-up is not something my kids are into just yet so that’s why they were not interested when I read it to them. It took a lot to get them to focus on listening to me read the whole book.

So note to self: Read books with subjects that they are interested in and it would be easier for them to stay focus on the book.

I had plans to slowly purchase and collect the whole Usborne Very First Reading Series but was surprised that they had removed it from the shelf of the bookstore I originally purchased it from and is no longer available for sale in any of their outlets. The sales girl was explaining about stocks being on their shelves for only six months and after that it is returned back to the stockist. I called all other local bookstores and they don’t carry it either. Buying it online would just cost more for delivery.

What that means really is that I won’t be reading any other books from this series to the kids. That’s kinda sad cause I was looking forward to reading the rest of the series with the children.

Anyway, I just made major purchases on Audible for the children like Gruffalo’s Child, The Dinosaur that Pooped a Planet and Curious George Visits the Zoo. Big boy and I listened to the Dinosaur that Pooped a Planet last night and he quite enjoyed it because of all the farting sound effects… sigh… boys…

Travel: Sentosa Island, Singapore

The pool at Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa Resort & Spa

This is way overdue but I really wanted to share our experience when we stayed at Sentosa Island during a long weekend holiday in January. Hubs and I have not travelled with the family for almost three years. We made a conscious decision to delay travelling temporarily when I got pregnant with my second son. Reason? Well, we didn't think we were up to travelling with two toddlers.

My second son is two years old now and took his first airplane flight for this trip. He was a star. He did look a bit scared when we took off but other than that, he was enjoying himself on flight.

We wanted to bring the kids to Universal Studios Singapore and we thought it would be best to stay within Sentosa Island itself. We decided to stay at Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa Resort and Spa for the three days two nights trip. While the hotel looks a bit old, the facilities were awesome and honestly the service was beyond excellent. The staff were really friendly and they looked like they really enjoyed the work that they do.

It was also the boys first time experiencing the beach. The beach on Sentosa is not the best that we have been to but it was clean (it’s Singapore! Of course its clean!) and the boys had fun building their first sand castle. We spent more time at the pool then the beach honestly cause Shangri-La’s pool area had a better environment for the kids.

Traveling around Sentosa was really easy as they had a free feeder bus that took you around the island. The feeder bus schedules were consistent and easily accessible. The only time that we took a taxi was from the airport and back and when we wanted to visit The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands.

Universal Studios was good for the kids. They really enjoyed themselves. The boys especially loved Jurassic Park in the Lost World section and the Transformers section. Both my boys are into dinosaurs so you can imagine how excited the kids were when we got to Jurassic Park. My eldest son took his first theme park ride at Jurassic Park and he was super excited. As we were only there for one day, we did not manage to visit every corner of the theme park. We had to be selective and only went for the ones we thought the boys would enjoy. I think we should have allocated two days to visit the whole theme park at a more leisurely pace.

Mum and I quite enjoyed the 50’s diner called Mel’s drive-in. There was a performance by these 4 guys called The Cruisers singing 50’s and 60’s tunes and I absolutely enjoyed myself singing along to the songs (no I am not in my 60’s ok but mum played a lot of her favourite 50’s & 60’s tunes when I was growing up so I kinda know the lyrics to most of the songs from that genre).

Sentosa Island is a great location for short family get-away. We really enjoyed ourselves and would definitely want to visit Sentosa Island again in the future.

Before I end this post I'd just like to add: though I’ve visited Singapore many times, I have never visited Marina Bay Sands. We went to visit the mall this time around and I am absolutely in love with this place. The brands are a bit expensive for me but the detailing and finishing for the building was really impressive. The place was spacious and more importantly had FREE WIFI! Lol…

Till next time!

It's Monday What Are You Reading This Week?

It’s Monday What Are You Reading This Week is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. We use this meme to share what we have read in the past week and what our plans are for the upcoming week.

It was a four-day weekend last week for us in Malaysia to celebrate Chinese New Year. Hubs and I took the opportunity to take the kids on a quick beach holiday in Kuantan. You’d think I would have managed to sneak in a couple of pages in between but seriously I was occupied trying to make sure the kids were ok at the pool or trying to get their ass out of the pool which requires 150% of my time and energy especially when your kids are below 4 years old.

Ok enough about my holiday, last week I finished reading Going Gray by Brian Spangler. You can read my thoughts on the book here. I intended to listen to Curious George Rides a Bike with the kids but I think maybe the audiobook is too long a duration for them. They would listen to it for the first 2 minutes and then suddenly they’ll lose interest and request for their favorite audiobook Jack and the Beanstalk instead. We did listen to The Gruffalo on our drive back home from the resort and the kids and I quite enjoyed it.

This week, I’m reading The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. I’m just a couple of pages in and I’m liking it so far. I also started listening to The Walk by Richard Paul Evans this morning on my drive to work. This audiobook was kinda an impulse purchase. It seemed to have great reviews both on Audible as well as Goodreads plus its only a 4 hour listen. So that’s my reading list this week.

Anyway, I’m back at work today after a four-day weekend and as you can imagine I literally had to drag myself out of bed for work this morning. I’ll be having a really busy time at work from now right up till June. It’s like that every year. So I do hope that I’ll be able to keep up with my reading and blogging despite my busy schedule. In the meantime, happy reading everyone and do share whats on your reading list this week!

Book Review: Going Gray (Gray Series Book 1)

Written by:  Brian Spangler

Pages: 285 pages

Format: EBook

Genre: Apocalypse, Science Fiction

Going Gray is a 285 page novel, and is Book 1 of the Gray Series.

CENTURIES BEFORE GRAY SKIES...

When Emily heard the first scream, she became concerned.

When she heard the second scream, she grew scared.

When she heard the third scream, she was struck with terror.

But it was what Emily could not hear that frightened her the most.

Emily wakes to find that her world has plummeted into darkness--the clouds have spilled out of the sky and taken the sun.

And there is more to the mysterious fog--the mist is poison, killing everything in its path. Emily's home is no match for the caustic fog, and her family is suddenly on the run for safety.

But when she learns that the machines built to save the world could be the cause of the accident, Emily turns to her father, the original architect, with the hope that they can stop the environmental catastrophe.

My thoughts:

Going Gray is a gripping story that kept me at the edge of my seat from pretty much the first page. The book starts off with a bang and was an intriguing read until the last few pages.

The ending however felt abrupt and there was not much story on how Emily and the group survived. I really did want to read more about what happened to Emily, Justin and Peter and how they built their life to survive the apocalypse. It would have been great if it was elaborated a bit more.

But anyway, the ending left me with a few unanswered questions: Why did the skies fall? What is the purpose of the machine? I suppose this book really focusses on how the apocalypse begins and sets the pace for the next book in the series, which I look forward to reading. So much so that I bought the Gray Omnibus version that has all four books from the series on my Kobo yesterday.

Going Gray is a quick read seeing that it is only 285 pages in total. Storyline was captivating making it an easier read. I gave this book a 4 over 5 on Goodreads.

Book Review: We Were Liars

Written by:  E. Lockhart

Pages: 240 pages

Format: E-Book

Genre: Young Adult, Mysteries and Thrillers

A beautiful and distinguished family.

A private island.

A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.

A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.

A revolution. An accident. A secret.

Lies upon lies.

True love.

The truth.

We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.

Read it.

And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

My thoughts

We Were Liars is a story of Cady who comes from a family that is rich with ‘old’ money. Cady spends every summer on a private island with her cousins. The summer of her fifteenth year, a terrible event occurs which left Cady suffering from a severe memory loss and constant migraines. She returns to the island two years later and slowly the memory of the tragic event returns in scattered memories.

Can I just lie and say I didn’t like it? Ok. Truth: I didn’t like all of it but I liked the ending.

The writing style was not something that I’m used to and it was sometimes annoying to read. There were parts where fairy tales were used to narrate the story. Truth, I skipped those parts mostly. I’ve read reviews of people actually appreciating Lockhart’s style of writing but unfortunately, I can’t appreciate it.  

Despite the writing style, the storyline was still engaging. Cady is an unreliable narrator. Her memories are scattered and revealed in bits and pieces but just at the right time and the right doses to keep you wondering and wanting to know what happened to her that summer fifteenth.

What I did absolutely love was the plot twist at the end of the book. I. Did. Not. See. That. Coming.

I finished reading We Were Liars a couple of days ago and honestly the thing I remember the most is the twist and not much else from the book.

I gave this book a 5 over 5 in Goodreads for the memorable plot twist. 

Book Review: Lego Star Wars Book Collection: A New Hope and the Empire Strikes Back

Written by:  Emma Grange

Pages: 32

Format: Paperback

Genre: Children’s Book

Reading Level: 5-7 years

DK Readers is a multi-level reading program guaranteed to capture children's interest while developing their reading skills and general knowledge. With nine new exciting titles to choose from this season, kid's ages 4-9 will find the perfect book at their appropriate reading level to help with school projects or independent reading.

A New Hope:

DK Readers: LEGO® Star Wars®: A New Hope is the exciting story of the iconic Star Wars: Episode IV movie, retold for young readers with their favorite LEGO® Star Wars® minifigures and sets. This Level 1 Reader follows our heroes as they attempt to rescue rebel leader Princess Leia from the evil empire.

The Empire Strikes Back:

Follow the adventures of the rebels as they fight against the Galactic Empire-all in LEGO® form, with DK Readers: LEGO® Star Wars®: The Empire Strikes Back. Clear, informative text helps beginner readers to read on their own in this all-new Level 2 Star Wars Reader from DK.

My thoughts:

I’m a big Star Wars fan and when I saw this box set on the shelf of my local bookstore, I just couldn’t resist getting myself one. The box has a picture of a storm trooper in front. Inside the box set, there are 4 books; one copy of A New Hope and one copy of The Empire Strikes Back plus two activity/sticker books.

My kids are into the Star Wars Rebel cartoon so when they saw me come back with this box set, they attacked it and tore it open. I think my kids enjoyed the sticker books more than the actual story books. The sticker book was really a fun activity to do with the kids and I also honestly think my husband had more fun with the sticker book than the kids.

As for the books, well I’m quite surprised that the author managed to capture the essence of the storyline in less than 30+ pages for each book. The Lego mini figurines were used quite well and flowed with how the author wrote the story.

Obviously, I had more fun reading the books than my kids did because they are below the intended reading level. It really is a cute book and a fun 10 minute read. A definite must have for the Star Wars buff parent who want to introduce their young kids to the Star Wars series.

I gave both these books a 5 over 5 on Goodreads.