winecellarlibrary's Reviews (657)

A cute, simple children's story about heartfulness (like mindfulness, but with your heart, I suppose?). There was inconsistency in the spelling of Jack Brussels's last name (even the synopsis spells it incorrectly) and rather than "pedaling" the bike, the author used a conjugation of the word "peddle" twice. With a round of editing, this book could be a positive read for children.

I found this book through Online Book Club's Book of the Day. It's free on Amazon today.

It's easy to see why Jim Shore is an award-winning artist. The illustrations in this book are amazing. It appears like they are done in colored pencil. There is so much detail! I prefer this style of illustrating to the two-dimensional digital artwork present in children's books nowadays.

Button the bear ventures into the attic to find toys to play with. While up there, he discovers something even more special: a new friend.

The story is sweet, but something in the writing just didn't hit the mark for me. I would purchase this book based on the illustrations alone.

I received a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Fox Chapel Publishing.

Theo the frog dreams of one day becoming a prince. He knows from the fairytale that he needs the kiss of a princess, so he embarks on a mission to find one. When he cannot find a princess, he puts up posters, and several princesses show up for the task of kissing the would-be prince. But was the fairytale right? Can a princess's kiss really do the job?

The illustrations in this book appear to be a combination of colored pencil and collage. Theo's expressions are really cute. My favorite part of each image is the red umbrella with the bird pommel. You can also see Sofia hiding in the images toward the end.

The story is a cute one, and there is a clear lesson learned at the end.

I received a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Clavis Publishing.

I had really wanted to love this book. Having experienced two losses myself, I was instantly grabbed by the title. My husband and I weren't sure how to talk to my stepdaughter about it, or if we even should. And when I became pregnant again, we didn't know if we should risk getting her hopes up. I thought this book might be helpful for people in the same predicament.

The illustrations are beautiful, but what I wasn't expecting was how religious this book is. Being written by an MD, I had expected something different, I guess. The synopsis refers to the book as nondenominational, so I guess I should have anticipated it to be religious, but I assumed it was secular based on that description.

The book explains that God sometimes takes unborn babies back. This book unfortunately isn't for everyone. I would love to see a similar book for children without the religious overtones. My stepdaughter was not raised to believe in God, so this book would be of no help to her.

I received a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Greenleaf Book Group.

The best part of this book is its illustrations. They are vibrant and beautiful with lots of eye-catching motion. The pages are cut out, so each page gets bigger until you reach the last full pages.

The captions are a bit advanced for the target age group. There are certain words and concepts that will no doubt inspire children to ask questions, which may result in having to do a bit of outside research. For instance, if seahorses don't have stomachs, where does their food go? And what is nacre?

The last page is also oddly different from the rest of the pages. Rather than having a coral reef background, it's a plain blue page with small square images and captions. There is no real order to how the images are presented.

I really enjoyed the illustrations, but I'd like to see a bit more organization and perhaps even a short glossary for unfamiliar terms.

I received a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Happy Fox Books.

My review of this audiobook was written for Reader's Favorite, so it cannot be published to Goodreads. It is also available on my blog: Wine Cellar Library