The first time I lay my eyes on  Paris Goes To Los Angeles, I was already attracted to the colourful and cute illustrations. I cannot emphasize enough the importance  of attractive illustrations when it comes to children’s books as it helps increase their attention span. 15 year old author, Jenna Conwisar writes about Paris and her sisters who went exploring in Southern California while attending Uncle Phil’s birthday with her cousins.

The story is pretty short and simple to understand. Paris and the twins’ journey include visiting Hearst Castle, Hollywood Walk Of Fame, Santa Monica Pier, Venice Beach, San Diego Zoo and many more interesting places. For those who have never been to LA, this book could even be used as a travel guide! You will surely not run out of ideas on where to bring the kids exploring the next time you visit LA.

Paris Goes To Los Angeles is the 6th book in the My Friend Paris series. You can check out the other titles here.

Disclosure :  The above ebook is courtesy of New Year Publishing. However, I was not compensated for this book review and all opinions expressed are solely my own.

Will The Courageous: A Story About Sexual Abuse by Amy Barth talks about 6 year old Will who was sexually abused by his babysitter, Nana’s nephew but was terrified to tell anyone. What follows is a series of odd behaviour  from Will, such as having stomach aches,  nightmares, fear of going to his babysitter’s house and also wetting his bed.

The number of sexual abuse cases among children are on the rise but yet, this is a subject that many parents find difficult to broach. With books like Will The Courageous, it helps ease the communication of such issue between parents and young children. It enables us to teach our young children and make them  aware of the difference between the touch of someone who is showing them affection and the touch or approaches of someone who is trying to take sexual advantage of them.

Most important of all, Will The Courageous encourages young children not to hide such sexual abuse incident BUT to always tell their parents or those whom they trust about it.

Disclosure : The above titled eBook is courtesy of Loving Healing Press but all opinions expressed are solely my own.

What Do You Use to Help Your Body?  Maggie  Explores the World of Disabilities by Jewel Kats is a book about how Maggie discovers  people’s disabilities while going out on a walk around the neighbourhood with her Momma. She also learns how these people uses special aids to help them overcome their disabilities. The book is written in a simple and easy to understand story which is ideal for children aged 6 years and above. I thought the illustration were also a big help as they clearly show the disability aids, which many children may not have seen before OR have seen before, but are not aware of what they really are.

If you are more observant, you may also notice that the characters in the book consisted of people from many different cultural background. Thumbs up to the author and illustrator for including that. Another great lesson from the book was to send the message across to all child readers that people with disabilities may not be comfortable with questions and that they should always respect people’s disabilities.

Disclosure : eBook for the above review was provided by Loving Healing Press but all opinions expressed are solely my own.

• ISBN-10: 1455808385
• ISBN-13: 978-1455808380

My nephew is what you would call a book worm. Every time I see him, he has his head in a book. His biggest love is fantasy books and he loved the Harry Potter series as well as the Percy Jackson books. I think he just loves getting lost in a world that is so different from ours.

He will spend hours reading and even takes his book with him on the school bus every morning. Whenever he comes to stay at my house, he will make sure he has his favourite book with him so he can fit in a couple of hours reading before he goes to sleep.

While some people might think this is unhealthy, I feel that reading will give him a great head start in life. His vocabulary is amazing and he has a wonderful imagination. Since my daughter enjoyed the Kane Chronicles series, I thought he might like them too and I was not wrong. He  absolutely loves the Kane Chronicles and I have just bought him part two, The Throne of Fire. He read the first book in a matter of days and he seems to be ploughing through this one just as quickly, if not faster. I would definitely recommend this series for anyone who loves their fantasy novels.

• ISBN-10: 0766608271
• ISBN-13: 978-0766608276

I wanted my son to read some of the classic science fiction novels from authors such as H.G. Wells.  He loves science fiction and I thought it might be a good idea for him to read some of the books that I had read as a young child.  I had a look online and found an illustrated copy of The Time Machine.  This book was certainly an eye opener for my son and he thoroughly enjoyed it.

He loved the way the author predicted what the future would be like and he loved the actual story.  It is a book that he had his nose in for about a week.  He was eager to find out what happened so much so that he forfeited his favourite television programmes a few nights.  This is not something that he has ever done with other books that he has read before.

Usually he will keep his book and read a few pages every night before lights out but with this book he wanted to read it whenever he had a spare minute.  I was really surprised about how such a classic book would have such a pull on him but he is now looking for more books like this.

• ISBN-10: 1423113381
• ISBN-13: 978-1423113386

I was recently looking for books to buy for my eleven year old daughter as part of her birthday present. She loves books and anything to do with magic and as you can imagine is a huge Harry Potter fan. She has read all the Harry Potter books more than once and was looking for something else to get her teeth into.

The Kane Chronicles were recommended to me by a teacher friend of mine who told me that the children at the school where she teaches were developing a love for these books. I decided to buy the first book The Red Pyramid to see what she would think of it.

I have to say that I am glad I bought this book for her. I had thought that she would find it hard to move on to new characters because of her love for Harry Potter but this book was something that she loved straight away. Before she was even half way through, she was on at me to get the second part. She has now started the second book eagerly and I think she will be soon looking for more books from this gifted author.

• ISBN-10: 9781402714535
• ISBN-13: 978-1402714535

If you’ve ever needed to curl up in front of the fire with a good mystery book, this is the one you should have. Although my son (grade 5 ) is an avid fan, the book has kept him intrigued and reading for several days. I also have a sneaky suspicion that the book is about to go for round two with him playing Sherlock and and his sister, Watson.

The Sherlock Holmes stories are filled with mystery and intrigue, as well as intellect and deductive reasoning. As much as you try to think of ways to outwit Sherlock, he always seems to be one step ahead. His faithful friend Dr. Watson is also the perfect complement to Sherlock’s genius. Through his questions, the difficult aspects of the case are simplified and readers are able to follow the thread of the story easily.

The book is unabridged which means that you get the true version of the story and not a simplified version. My son’s vocabulary has suddenly become startlingly sophisticated and everything in and around the house is a mystery to be solved. I can highly recommend this book to any parent.

Please Explain “Anxiety” to Me! is co-written by the Feelings Doctor aka psychologist Dr.Laurie Zelinger who herself had gone through an anxiety phase when she was a kid. The book explains anxiety to the reader by using the characters of dinosaurs and then moves on to compare them to human reactions. The story, written in an easy to understand and simple language will benefit young children who are trying to have a better grasp of the biological reasons behind anxiety. I like that the author actually pointed out that anxiety is not ALL BAD. It’s when there is too much anxiety that causes some upsetting responses.

As a parent, I learned something new in the book too! Did you know that we have a “sympathetic nervous system” ? It’s like a switch in our body which gets turned on when we feel that we are in danger. This “switch” is NOT supposed to be on all the time. To counter this reaction, the authors have recommended some simple activities to relax the mind and body such as breathing more slowly, blowing a giant soap bubble, doing jumping jacks, playing jump rope or even daydreaming something fun. You can find four fun rhymes at the end of the book which will help children remember these therapeutic techniques.

I like that Please Explain “Anxiety” To Me! covers the “why” and “how to” of anxiety in a kid friendly manner. Knowing what causes anxiety in children is not enough as it is equally important that the child suffering from it, understands this as well. Just as important is the fact that as parents, we know HOW TO teach our children to deal with anxiety.  There is also a special page on “Notes To Parents” which I find pretty informative.

Overall, Please Explain “Anxiety” To Me! is a good book with beautiful and colourful illustrations which will serve as a useful tool for parents to help TURN OFF the anxiety switch of children who are suffering from it. You can get your copy from Amazon.

Disclosure : I received the above book courtesy of Parent Reviewers to facilitate my review. I was not compensated for this post and all  opinions expressed are 100% my own.