Henry and the Hidden Treasure

Henry and the Hidden Treasure is an imaginative adventure a young child has in defending his pocket money against his little sister. Henry constructs elaborate defensive measures that he is sure will stand up to the clever ambitions of Lucy. Little does he know, Lucy has a few tricks of her own.

With a focus on introducing children to the use of ordinal numbers, Henry and the Hidden Treasure also draws out some important qualities of being a kid – such as creativity, the value of listening to parental advice, and of course, being nice to your sister.

*May Contain Spoilers*

Today is the release day of BCR Fegan's newest children's book, Henry and the Hidden Treasure. With pop-up text blocks on the kindle edition and adorable, imaginative illustrations, this book will be a treat for any young listener. 

Henry, the main character, has a treasure chest full of, what I assume to be, his allowance and he doesn't trust his little sister not to try to steal it, because she's obviously a super ninja. This fun set up makes the book interesting to little ones from the very start as Henry tries to discover how best to guard his treasure. 

While the story is creative and entertaining, with mentions of superheroes and monsters, I liked the lessons hidden within. They may be the true treasure of the book. The steps that Henry takes in the story are all numbered, giving order and introducing or reinforcing the number system to young listeners and readers. The story also introduces the idea that siblings may not all be secret ninjas who want to steal your treasure, but are instead caring younger people who want to spend time with you. This may help older siblings understand and better adapt to the introduction of a baby sister or brother. 

The amount of words on each page are very few, only a sentence or two. This puts the book in a beginning reader category. Though the little ones may need help with a few words, the vocabulary is basic enough for children to understand the story and sound out the words to read it themselves. Paired with the illustrations, I think a lot of young readers, especially boys and girls who are into superheroes, monsters, and secret treasures, will really enjoy this book! Plus, I think it's a good length for those beginning readers who tend to have shorter attention spans. 

Rating: 3.5/5 Cups

The Grumpface

The Grumpface is a poetic fairy-tale that tells the story of Dan, an inventor who ventures into a forest looking for a rose. Instead he finds the mysterious Grumpface who threatens to hold him captive unless he passes some difficult challenges. What follows is a humorous adventure that neither Dan nor the Grumpface could have anticipated.

The Grumpface is a tale in the spirit of any grand adventure. It is about a clumsy young inventor's quest for love and the challenges he must face to find it. It is also a tale of bravery, absurdity and happiness, and the power of these qualities over negativity and sheer grumpiness.

Every parent will be acquainted with their own little 'grumpface' now and then. This story stands as a small piece of hope - that no matter how ingrained the grump, there will always remain in every one of us a smile or a laugh just waiting to come out.

**

The Grumpface by BCR Fegan was a very enjoyable children's book! I always read children's books out loud, to get the sense of how they hear as well as how they read, and this book is perfect for reading aloud. It has a great rhyme scheme with a nice mix of vocabulary. The story itself follows Dan the Inventor on a journey to find a rose when he gets lost and stumbles upon Grumpface. 

Dan is a creative main character who carries little inventions around with him. Most importantly, he's nice to the Grumpface even when the goblin-like creature threatens him with being trapped in the forest forever. When the Grumpface sets tasks for Dan and they aren't as easy as Dan believed, he doesn't get frustrated or upset; he just believes he'll do better on the next task. I think how Dan reacts throughout the storybook is a really good example of how to react when facing difficult challenges. To children, this will help solidify the idea that giving up or getting mad isn't the best reaction when things don't go your way. 

The Grumpface, though, a little mean at the start, is more of a likeable villain. As Dan attempts each task set before him, the Grumpface starts to smile a little more. I like how this demonstrates that any anger can be overcome and with children I'm sure this would be a good talking point when it comes to meeting new people. Just because they seem grumpy doesn't mean that they're actually mean people. I feel like it also promotes giving people a chance before judging them as Dan ends up helping Grumpface make his own big change at the end of the book.

With two nice main themes that jump out and a great poetic style, I think The Grumpface is a really good book for elementary school children. 

Rating: 4/5 Cups

What's Next, Wednesday (58)

•  To play along share a book you've been looking forward to reading, whether it's new or has been on your reading list for a while.

I'm looking forward to...

The Grumpface by BCR Fegan. It's time again to switch gears and review a children's book! I like to keep the genres I review on The Coffee Pot as eclectic as possible so when a children's book comes along, I like to include them. This story is about a young inventor who runs into a very grumpy villain and is, literally, put to the test, in order to continue his journey. 

Candy and the Cankersaur

This is the sweet and funny tale of a young girl named Candy and a Cankersaurus Rex! Candy receives a dinosaur as a gift and is determined to train him to be a good pet.

**

Jason Sandberg shares an adventurous day with young readers in his children's book, Candy and the Cankersaur. The book is aimed at preschoolers, up to six years old. The pages have multiple sentences, with words on every page. The story is nice and easy to understand. It teaches children that they shouldn't be jealous of what others have while also showing that it's not nice to use meanness as a way to garner attention.

The plot of the children's book begins with Candy's struggle with her father's busy schedule. She's giving and considerate, but her neighbor is a bit of a bully, always wanting to be better than Candy. Candy's father buys a dinosaur as a pet for his daughter so she isn't so lonely. She looks past the scary nature of the dinosaur and decides to train him. The neighbor, Chucky, becomes so jealous that he steals the dinosaur. He shortly realizes that being mean is not the right way to gain attention and tries to fix the situation. 

I would definitely recommend this book to parents with preschool children. It's a quick and enjoyable read that will entertain children through both the story and the art. 

The Bad Beginning

Dear Reader,

I'm sorry to say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant. It tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe. From the very first page of this book when the children are at the beach and receive terrible news, continuing on through the entire story, disaster lurks at their heels. One might say they are magnets for misfortune.

In this short book alone, the three youngsters encounter a greedy and repulsive villain, itchy clothing, a disastrous fire, a plot to steal their fortune, and cold porridge for breakfast.

It is my sad duty to write down these unpleasant tales, but there is nothing stopping you from putting this book down at once and reading something happy, if you prefer that sort of thing.

With all due respect,

Lemony Snicket

*May Contain Spoilers*

I've always heard great things about A Series of Unfortunate Events. So, to see if the books would be appropriate for my Goddaughter, I decided to read the first one and see what I thought. Lemony Snicket (pen name for Daniel Handler) shares a seriously sad tale of three young children who lose their parents in a terrible fire. The book is written for young readers and is, therefore, a very quick and easy read. However, the emotional connection that I usually look for when gauging/rating a book is not as deeply expressed. 

Klaus, Violet, and Sunny are the three Baudelaire children. And very shortly into the book, the Baudelaire orphans. Violet likes to invent things and loves her siblings. Klaus loves to read, getting lost in a book while gaining knowledge. (There's definitely a character connection there.) And Sunny is still a little baby but she does bite which is quite fun. Readers will immediately gain the foundation for a bond with characters as their Baudelaire parents die within the first few pages. The sympathy felt for the characters will only be built upon as more unfortunate things happen to the children. Though the main connection with these characters is dependent on terrible events happening to them, the personalities of the children make it easy to like them. This in turn makes the reader not want bad things to happen to them which also strengthens the connection. 

The plot of The Bad Beginning begins with the parents death. The children are then adopted by Count Olaf, a very dirty, disgusting, mean, and horrid uncle who is only interested in the Baudelaire fortune. The fortune that Violet will be able to use when she reaches eighteen. To skip the wait, Olaf designs a plan to trick Violet into becoming his wife so that he can dispose of the Klaus and Sunny while taking over control of the fortune. Though the plot and characters are enjoyable, I do recommend the 5th grade reading level as the trickery, evil mastermindedness, and subject of death may be too much bad in one book for children younger than that. I think I'm going to hold off on starting this series with my Goddaughter. Don't think she's ready for all of that yet. 

Rating: 2.5/5 Cups