This week is a mish-mash of review books I’ve had sitting around, some of them for waaaay too long.  Maybe you’ll find something here that appeals to you and your family!

One Hand, Two Hands by Max Lucado is a sweet rhyming book just right for the preschool set.  It’s not so much a story as it is an illustrated nursery-rhyme-like poem about all the things a small child can do with her or her hands.  It begins with fun things children do with their hands like petting a dog or playing baseball and then progresses on to helpful things:

Wipe tears.  Give a gift. 

Write Grandma a letter.

With hands and a hug,

we make people feel better.

It ends with bedtime and the folding of the hands in prayer.  The last two pages of the book include lists of things that helping hands, kind hands, and loving hands can do, presumably to spark conversation between the person reading the book aloud and the child who is listening.  This is a gentle little book, of course, and the illustrations by Gaby Hansen help create just the right atmosphere.  My girls are too old for it now, but I’m hanging on to it to share it with the DLM in a year or two.  This would make a nice first or second birthday gift, I think.  Thanks to Tommy Nelson and the BookSneeze blogger review program for the opportunity to review this title!

Astro: The Steller Sea Lion by Jeanne Walker Harvey is the true story of a Steller sea lion that was orphaned as a young pup off the California coast.  However, because of the good work of the people of The Marine Mammal Center, Astro was well cared for.  The scientists attempted to return him to the wild, but alas, Astro had bonded with people instead of sea lions.  The story goes back and forth for a while with Astro being returned to the ocean and then showing back up again with people until finally, Astro is trained and sent to an aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut.  I read this story to my girls and they enjoyed it.  This book contains four pages of additional material, mostly scientific in nature, entitled “For Creative Minds” at the back.  My only criticism of this story is that it seems to me that it might need a little more editing; I noticed an error or two in punctuation, etc.  One of the big pluses of this story are the beautiful mixed-media illustrations by Shennen Bersani.   I’m not sure how she made them, but they are a mixture of photography and portraiture.  Lovely!   Of course, we couldn’t help but think of Andre   (linked to my review) while we read it.  Andre was a harbor seal, but I still think the two stories might work well together.  Thanks to Jeanne Harvey and SylvanDell Publishers for providing me with this review copy!  (Be sure to visit Ms. Harvey’s blog, True Tales & a Cherry on Top for her own book reviews written in a fun format!)

Last we have Mitchell’s License by Hallie Durand.  When a marketing intern from Candlewick Press emailed me about reviewing this book, I jumped at the chance because I enjoyed Ms. Durand’s Dessert First and even got to interview her here at Hope Is the Word.  Mitchell’s License is a fun, fun picture book about a little boy who takes his daddy for a drive, literally.    The opening lines of the story set up the situation: 

Mitchell never EVER wanted to go to bed.

Until his dad finally said he could drive there.

Mitchell was three years, nine months, and

five days old when he got his license.

What follows is a rowdy bedtime routine that is sure to appeal to preschoolers and beyond.  My girls LOVED it!  Lulu read it aloud to us from her seat in the rear of the van as we were leaving the post office, and I could see her and Louise smiling in my rearview mirror and I could hear the laughter in her voice.  Mitchell does all sorts of mechanic-ish things to his dad like cleaning his windshield (his glasses) and honking his horn (his nose).  I believe this book would really appeal to little boys the age of Mitchell, although this is an untried-as-of-yet theory here at the House of Hope.  Toward the end, Mitchell does have a little melt-down, but it is resolved in what I think is a pleasing way by his car dad.  Tony Fucile‘s illustrations are very cartoonish (including lots of “sound effects” like VROOM! and BONK! when Mitchell drives daddy into a wall) and capitalize on the very physical nature of this story.  (I recognized his style immediately after having read the award-winning Bink and Gollie not too long ago.)  I give this one a Highly Recommended!  Thanks to Candlewick Press for providing this review copy. 

As always, my disclaimer labeled “The Fine Print” over there in the sidebar applies to this post. 

So what are you and yours enjoying this week?  Leave a link in the comments, and I’ll link you up in this week’s RAT Links post! 

Have a terrific Read Aloud Thursday!