Little One Books: Review & Giveaway!

With children come books! From the touch and feel board books for babies to chapter books for the school aged children-reading is a skill and hobby that we need to encourage. Reading with your children is also a valuable bonding time. Book time before nap and bedtime are two of my favorites times in the day. Each child gets to choose a book and we snuggle, enjoying the story together. But with so much reading, we go through quite a number of books!

Have you been to Little One Books? They are an online storefront specializing in books for babies through age five. They carefully select EACH book they carry. Every book has been reviewed and chosen by members of their team. Have you ever purchased a book online and been disappointed to find it was either to elementary for your child or way above their current reading level? Little One Books works with professionals in the child development field to assure that the individual books are put into the correct category. Each item is matched to what they believe is the youngest appropriate age.

Do Princesses Have Best Friends Forever?, Arthur Turns Green and Interrupting Chicken from the section for the 4 year old community:

If you scroll to the bottom of every single product page, you will find a “Why We Chose This” subheading. Each item has a carefully thought out and valuable explanation as to why Little One Books felt they needed to bring this book to your family. You actually have a real person pre-reading these books and telling you what they thought of the story line, characters or illustrations.

In addition to books, Little One Books offers an amazing variety of children’s music. This is also divided up into age groups making it easy for you to find what you are looking for. Wouldn’t your child get a kick out of having their very own Christmas music cd this season? A Folk Song Christmas turns classic Christmas carols into catchy folk and bluegrass tunes! How fun for them to sing along with the fiddle, guitar, mandolin, bass, banjo and other folk instruments!

Dream Songs Night Songs from China to Senegal is a collection of beautiful lullabies from all around the world sung in the native language. I love the idea of exposing my children to these wonderful differences in language and all of the great discussions it would start for our family.

Little One Books currently offers over 143 music cds and each product has not only a thorough description, but also the same “Why We Chose This” explanation, which is very helpful when you have so many to choose from!

In addition to books and music, Little One Books has a generous offering in the video department also. From classic Sesame Street to the So Smart! educational series and also many just-for-fun cartoons; there are 139 dvds in all! My son is a fan of anything with wheels, so Real Wheels: Travel Adventures is on his list this year!

I was sent The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg to review.

The Polar Express, a Caldecott Medal Winner, is nothing short of magical. This book single-handedly keeps Christmas alive for any children still wanting to believe. This beautifully illustrated tome captivated not only my children but the entire family. The 25th Anniversary edition of The Polar Express comes wrapped in a handsome silver bordered dust jacket. Personally I take dust jackets off immediately after purchase but I made an exception in this case as it seemed to add to the magic. It also includes a silvery keepsake ornament and a CD audio recording read by Liam Neeson.

Just in case you aren’t already familiar with The Polar Express I’ll give you the basic plot rundown. A young boy is told by a friend that there is no Santa Claus. The boy knows this to be false and late that night a train pulls up in front of his house. The train, the Polar Express, is filled with other children. The purpose of the journey to the North Pole is to meet Santa Claus who will choose one child and give the first gift of Christmas. If I tell you any more I’ll feel like a spoiler so let me tell you about the artwork. This book has a surreal feeling. Many of the scenes are visible through a flurrying snowstorm and fuzzy edges abound. It leaves a lot to the imagination. And as for the audio recording by Liam Neeson, an actor I happen to like, it is engaging and wonderful to listen to! He has a very good voice for this type of story and it really does show the emotions behind the words.

You can follow Little One Books on Facebook or twitter for all of the most up-to-date specials and to be the first to hear about exciting new products! They also have a fantastic blog with great tips such as what to feed your kids to boost brain function and how to get your little one ready to read!

Right now, you can buy any 2 Little One Books products and receive a free CD. Just enter the code: Sunflower at checkout and receive the relaxing Sunflower music cd by Ulla van Daelen with your order.

Little One Books is offering one lucky Sippy Cup Mom reader a $20 gift certificate!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of The Polar Express to facilitate my review. All opinions are honest and my own.