Picture Books Giveaway (5 Winners!)

Sylvan Dell books are so much more than just a picture book.  They educate children about math and science through quality literature.  Every book includes several pages of enrichment activities at the back of the book, and TONS on-line.  I just love Sylvan Dell books, and am happy to say that we will have FIVE WINNERS for a new spring 2011 title for the readers of Live, Learn, Love for our Celebration Week!

Big Cat, Little Kitty, by Scotti Cohn explores the habitats of cats all around the world, both wild and domestic.  This book is definitely for cat lovers who want to share about the differences between the large, wild cats and smaller, domestic cats.  This book also progresses through the days of the week.  I would have liked more of a wrap-up at the end of the book, but we still enjoyed it.  I love how the For Creative Minds explores the habitats and even the furs of the different cats in the final pages of the book.

Deep in the Desert focuses on the various creatures of the desert.  I love the variety of animals included.  Some were familiar and others were new to me.  In this beautifully illustrated book, twelve poems, written by Rhonda Lucas Donald are included to inform the reader all about the desert's creatures.  The poems are to familiar tunes, too.

My favorite was "Hiss, Gila Monster."  The tune is to "Pop Goes the Weasel."  Here's just one refrain.  Isn't it cute?

Near a nest of Gambel's quail 

stalks the Gila monster.  

The quail have left their eggs all alone.  

Chomp!  Gila monster!

In the style of Chicken Little (the tale of "The sky is falling, the sky is falling!  We must go and tell the king!) five friends go off to tell the Mountain Monarch that the glacier is melting The Glaciers Are Melting by Donna Love.  Along the way they meet Wiley Wolverine who tries to deceive them.  The animals can do nothing about it, but maybe the reader can figure out who might be able to help with the glaciers melting.  As usual, with the For Creative Minds section, varied activities and additional information is included about glaciers this time, including some true or false questions and a section of suggestions for people who care.

Encourage your children to explore up different communities in nature (habitats) with the book Habitat Spy by Cynthia Kieber-King.  Your kids will want to take a pair of binoculars (real or homemade) to examine the pond, forest, mountains, and more up close and personally!  I love the realistic illustrations, as usual, with Sylvan Dell books, but Habitat Spy's text is in a little "binocular bubble" and you see different children looking through their binoculars at the different habitats, so it feels  like they are the ones telling the story in the simple text describing a few things they are observing.  Because the text is simple, I think this book can be geared for 3-7 year olds.

Meet the Planets by John McGranaghan introduces each of the planets to the reader.  It gives a few facts about each for the Favorite Planet Competition, often including how the planet was named.  (For those who believe in a young Earth and universe, you may be interested to know that the book does say that the planets have been around for billions of years.)  Just as the planets are personified in the cover illustration, the planets are also personified in the text.  This is a good book for introducing the planets to a child, and the on-line Teaching Activity Guide gives much more detail for the planets.  I especially liked the scaled Solar System Cards.  My only concern with this book is that Pluto hosts the Favorite Planet Competition, but it is never explained what Pluto is.  (All I know is that "he" is no longer a planet.  I didn't notice anything addressing this in the Teaching Activities either, though I could have missed it with so many pages to read.)  It's still a great introductory book!

Sylvan Dell Publishing educates children in science and math through the means of literature.  They're doing a fantastic job, too, offering informative, educational books with realistic and beautiful illustrations.  The books alone are really great, but they help classroom teachers and homeschooling parents in huge ways.  Each book (and ebook) comes with great resources.  The books and activities are targeted for children 4-8 (and 9) years of age.

• 3-6 pages For Creative Minds which is an educational section in the back of each book.  It extends the story and gives additional information.  
• 40-60 pages of Teaching Activities online!  These activities are incredible!  They allow a teacher to customize a unit study to meet their students' interests.  The Teaching Activities go beyond math, science, and literature.   Just click Teaching Activities and choose a title to see for yourself the plethora of activities there are.  The table of contents gives an overview and makes it easy to find what you want. With so many choices, the teacher can choose what is right for the age group they are teaching.  (I love that!!  Unit studies really benefited my students, and I think it's very enjoyable to teach and learn from a unit study.)
• 3 Interactive Quizzes per title online.  A Reading Quiz evaluates reading comprehension from the book itself.  The For Creative Minds (FCM) Quiz is based on the 3-6 pages from the back of the book.  The third,  Math Quiz uses information and context appropriate to the book and creates word problems for the student to solve.  

Giveaway
To Enter: We'll have five winners!  Each winner will receive one Sylvan Dell Spring 2011 book!  These are all great books, but to enter the giveaway, tell me which book you would most likely want to win.  (There is no guarantee that is the one you will win, if you are chosen as a winner.)  I would suggest examining the Sylvan Dell site where you can look at the first few pages of the book!  Make sure I have a way to contact you through email or your blogger profile.

Extra Entries: Leave a separate comment for each entry.

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~ Blog (once) about our celebration week.

Giveaway open through April 19th to US residents.  
GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

Thank you, Sylvan Dell for providing our family with these e-books for review purposes and for sharing them with our readers, too, so they can see for themselves!