Diane AlberReseñas

Nice book to open conversation about emotions. We got this one when Mx was having some big emotions (recently started at new school-OMES) and this helped validate all feelings are normal.

Got this for Mx's birthday as he seemed to really like the other "a little spot of..." books. Mx likes this and was really excited about the stuffy (which is not his usual MO). However, this book is more about achievement than birthdays, so I would generally recommend for older kids.

This book came with a set of 9 emotion spots. There have been a lot of big feelings in our house recently and so mom thought a book about emotions with tangible objects to discuss emotions would be helpful. I got this set for Ms, as they are more basic emotions and another set that contains more complex emotions for Mx. Both Ms and Mx enjoy this book and Mx really seems to like the idea of being an emotion detective and it has unlocked a new level of empathy in him. Mx's set came with a coloring/work book.

This is a book that got passed along to me, and in turn I'll be passing it along to some young readers I know. Why not show a book some love as it comes my way?

A Little SPOT of Kindness is a wickedly smart book to teach kids how and when to be kind to others (which is essentially all the time). If you put a spot on your hand, every time you see it you need to be kind to someone! The book gives many examples - saying nice things, sharing, apologizing - all of those important things we want to teach kids. The silliness, the authenticity and overall style of the book really makes this book a hit for me. I really think this is a great way to start teaching kindness to kids (probably around age 3). I highly recommend picking this book up if you want a dash of education with a whole lot of fun!

Four out of five stars.

A colorful read that younger students love. A little girl keeps hearing that she should never let a unicorn scribble. She thinks that scribbling can be beautiful! She tries to teach her unicorn to draw nicely but... she ate the crayon! The little girl tries again and eventually the unicorn explodes with color. It is a scribble masterpiece. The girl is nervous to tell her mom, but her mom thinks its her best work yet. The end result is truly magical! The use of white in the illustrations really make this book stand out. A great read aloud about how it's okay to scribble and be colorful and be outside the lines.

This book teaches you how to grow your self-confidence. It teaches you that different things that you go through everyday can grow your spot or shrink it but the goal is to have your confidence spot be the biggest.
Ages 4-7

Sometimes making friends is hard. A Little SPOT is here to give you some sure-fire tips to help you meet your next great friend! (a preschool Community book)

A Little SPOT of Belonging is a story about the importance of including others and being kind. It also helps children learn how to make friends! (a good preschool Community book)

A cute little book where a little spot goes around and teaches kids how to be kind doing things like offering to play with kids that are alone, and being polite, even when it's difficult, like when someone breaks something of yours. A good little book with a good message, being kind... like the little spot of kindness.

Audiobook
2019

In this book, we meet a young girl who has a unicorn. Everyone tells her she should NOT let her unicorn scribble. She doesn't understand this though, because unicorns ride rainbows and are magic! They should be able to scribble if they so choose. She decides to let her unicorn scribble with a pink crayon - but the unicorn eats it! It's the girl's favorite color! She's beginning to see why you should never let a unicorn scribble.

She then decides that maybe the unicorn just doesn't know how to use crayons and proceeds to show the unicorn how to color. She gives the unicorn another crayon and this time the unicorn eats HALF of the crayon! But! Maybe she is eating them because she can't hold them. Perhaps the girl will come up with an idea that might combat that issue. Her idea does work, to an extent. But now her whole room is redecorated with scribbles, paint, and glitter.

She's concerned about what her mother will think of the mess that was made in her room. But when her mother sees what is actually in her room, she says it's stunning. What do you think is actually in her room? Is it really redecorated by unicorn magic? Or is it something else all together?

I really liked the meaning behind the audiobook. At the end she says that while some people think that a unicorn shouldn't scribble, once it did, it ended up making a masterpiece. If it has never even attempted scribbling, it would've never known what talent it had. Also, it needed to take some time to practice, they didn't get it right the first two times - as a matter of fact, they crayons were eaten the first two times! But eventually, with a little practice and perseverance, the unicorn ended up doing something it would've otherwise never realized it could do. It just had to start.

This sentiment is true for all people. Others might tell you it can't be done, but you will never know unless you first try, try again, and practice.

The narrator of this story was British - I always like a good accent when I'm listening to a book. There was also some jaunty music playing in the background, which gave it a nice, fun, entertaining feeling.

I think that when a picture book is an audio book, it might be nice to have the book there with you to see the pictures. I did also find a narration of the book on YouTube. In the video, they showed all the pages of the book - and I really thought that was a good way to interact with a book while also listening to it.

The app I chose is super cute. It's called Endless Reader. It was the 2013 winner of Apple's Best of the Best Apps in 2013. It was the app of the week on geekwire.com. It is available via Android, Apple and through Amazon as a Kindle app as well. It's fully of colorful, fun, wacky monsters. Which I think is a very engaging way to encourage children to read and further their learning. I downloaded the app to see exactly how it worked. The user is presented with a word - in my case, the word was all. The word is spoken, then the cray monsters come out and knock the letters all over the place so that you only have the outline of the word left. The user is then supposed to put the letters where they belong. When you grab the 'A' it makes the ahhh sound, when you grab the 'L''s a purple mouth appears on the 'L' and sings la la la la. Then the monsters run out again and the user is presented with a full sentence - with some of the words missing (or in a faint outline). In this case the sentence stated: Pinkerton gobbled ___ ____ of ___ cookies! Off to the side there are the words all, up, and the randomly place throughout the screen. The user is then supposed to match the words to where the belong. When you grab up the volume slowly increases saying up, up, up, up making the word sound as though it is going up. If you move the word around the screen, it will continue saying the word. So, you just learned the word all - you use it in a sentence. Then a little monster comes and gobbles up all of the cookies. Once the cookies are all gobbled up - a voice comes on and reads the sentence aloud. So the child or user is learning a word, using it in a sentence, seeing an illustration of how the word is used, and then hears the sentence being spoken aloud.

The next word is ball - which adds on to the word you have already learned - all. When you have spelled ball - the word shifts into the shape of a ball. The process is repeated - with the sentence building. The next sentence introduces a color - red - and the word red is written in red. The next sequence is of a bird balancing the red ball on her beak.

I can't wait to see what my nephew thinks of this app! I think it's fun and engaging. He likes to watch Youtube videos with songs and stories. So, I'm hoping that he'll like this app and be able to learn from it as well.

If you are looking for a good read aloud in your classroom to help promote kindness and accepting those who are different, this is it! The story is about a scribble who is invisible and wishes he could be like all the other brightly colored scibbles. Instead of ignoring him, all the other scibbles try to help him, and even the paints and snippets join in too. In the end, we learn how small acts of kindness can help others in a huge way. "Invisible Scribble" is also a great book for teaching children about different medias in art.

This book would be great for primary grade levels. This book is the story of a possible stick that feels he doesn't belong anywhere. With the help of some other stick friends he soon finds his purpose. The end of the book also includes instructions for a craft that relates to the story. This book would be great for units on poetry, self worth, or rhyming.

This book would work well for primary readers. This book walks readers through what anxiety can feel like, why it can be negative, and how they can help it go away. This book would be a good pick for units on mental health, self care, or when learning about emotions.½

Never Let a Unicorn Crash a Party!
Never Let a Unicorn, Book ?

I Picked Up This Book Because: I’m not sure how these kinds of things get on my kindle but there it was, so I read it.

Media Type: Digital Book
Source: Kindle
Stars: 4

Super cute! A little girl throws her unicorn friend a surprise birthday party but it turns out surprises are not a good idea for a unicorn. I think it's a bit of a misnomer because crashing a party usually means you were not invited but this party was for a unicorn. Maybe it should be called Never Let a Unicorn go to a Surprise Party but whatever.

The Random Thoughts:

This book talks about anxiety, what causes it, and how to change it from a young child's perspective. The text and SPOT illustrations help 'littles' identify different feelings, which is a first step to self-control.

A story of self-discovery... This story starts off with an ordinary, grey stone who thinks he will be become something amazing but then soon realizes he had become just a dull paper weight. He wants to become something more. As he wishes to be greater, he meets scribble and splatter and they all team up in a creative way to bring joy to thousands of people. (Note: The "Scribble Stones Art Guide" book is in our library "Art" section for children who want to create their own scribble stone.)

A young princess has been told never to paint with her unicorn. She decided to find out why. She puts a bit of pain on a brush and the unicorn licks it. She gets out cans of paint and he uses his tail as a brush. Then she decides to see what would happen if she put a touch of paint on his horn. Paint spattered everywhere. This book started out in black and white and then as things happened with the unicorn and paint became very colorful. A very cute book.

When a popsicle goes outside and melts to fast he believes he is useless. He sees himself as just a stained stick. I twig tries to tell him that he is and can be so much more. This is a book about many things. First it is a book about believing in yourself. Then it is also a book about recycling. What could you do with a popsicle stick? What could you make out of it?

As I read this book I kept thinking that this would be a book I should read to my middle school students. It seems that if a child grow up through elementary unorganized then when they hit middle school it is even worse. In middle school they have to keep track of everything for seven different classes. The organization spot starts out helping them organize their messy room. Then he points out that organization starts in the brain. Some helpful suggestions were to create a routine chart, to do list, use notes, stickers on calendars. Then he touched on using graphic organizers for organizing your thinking in school.

The Patiences Spot is here to teach kids how to wait, even when it is hard. Once again they express the need to help your patience spot grow bigger. Problem solving helps grow the patience spot. Making good choices and listening all help grow your patience spot. The important message is that you can’t become patient immediately. Your patience spot is something that grows over time.

The thankful spot advocates keeping a Thankful list. Listing things you are thankful for keep you positive and happy. The Thankful spot gives a list of things they are thankful for. At the end of this wonderful book the reader is encouraged to make a thankful list. For that child who says they don’t know what they are thankful for there is a handout with wonderful starter questions.

Children need to be taught how to make good choices and this book can help with that. According to responsibility spot you first need to identify the problem, think about the positive and negative consequences, then make a choice and then reflect back on the outcome. We call this trial and error. The responsibility spot also makes the case that sometimes adults can help because they’ve had to make a lot of choices in their lifetime. The main message throughout is that the better choices you make the bigger your responsibility spot will grow. A simple message that all need to hear.

This is a great book to start with preschool children. It teaches them things like holding the hand of an adult when crossing a street. Children are taught how to get on and off a bus, how to listen to crossing guards. The Safety Spot then tells you how to stay safe in school. Don’t run, use handrails, look for hazard signs, tell a teacher if you have an accident. In the cafeteria don’t eat too fast, eat your own food. He also teaches the importance of washing your hands to get rid of germs. He tells kids how to stay safe at recess and when playing outside. How not to do something because you have been dared to do it. This is a book that the youngest child should have read to them over and over. This will hopefully keep kids safe from the youngest of ages.

This is a book about diversity. In this day and age we need to teach our youngest children the importance of diversity. This spot teaches kids the benefits of everyone having unique features, ideas, talents and more. He explains through examples how boring it would be if everyone and everything was the same. He makes the point that no matter our differences we all want to be accepted and loved. The author expresses the importance and need for “diverse, idea, perspectives, and talents! I believe that everyone should read this book no matter their age, because this is a lesson everyone needs to learn.

The respectful spot takes a young boy and girl on a tour of how to be respectful. The author has given examples of how to respect people, places and things. Through pictures and explanations this is a great book to have a discussion about respect with the youngest child.