The Poky Little Puppy-Classic Kid Book

How many of you remember reading this or your parents reading you this book when you were a kid? Truthfully, I had forgotten about this book until a friend of mine gave us a bunch of their books, her kids were to old for these special classics so I happily took them.

I remember as a kid thinking how special the books were with the golden spine. As an adult reading them to my kids now, I feel that they are even more special. We read a lot of newer character books, Dora and Diego the Explorers, Last Kids on Earth, The Magic Treehouse, etc, etc, but none of them made quite the same impression on my kids.

It was interesting to hear how they reacted to the Poky Little Puppy and how they felt about the consequences enforced by his mother after getting into trouble. In the story, Poky and his siblings keep sneaking out of the yard by digging under the fence to explore the surrounding world, despite warnings from their mother not to do it otherwise no dessert! However, the first couple of times Poky comes back after his siblings have gone to bed and eats the dessert for himself.

My son “Ninja D” and I had a somewhat heated discussion about this. lol He feels that the mother was being unfair to the puppies for not giving them dessert before bed.

So naturally I asked, “so there are no consequences for the puppies breaking the rules?”

he replied, “they only wanted to explore and learn about their world, it’s not their fault they get bored in the yard!”

Me: it’s natural to want to explore the world, but they are to small to go out by themselves. What if something bad happened to them? They wouldn’t know what to do or how to defend themselves.”

Ninja D: “well, their mommy needs to find a better solution. Why can’t she go with them to explore?”

Me: “Maybe she was busy working, cleaning, and cooking for the puppies and she doesn’t have time right then to take them exploring. Maybe the puppies should have asked her if she could schedule time to take them out”

Ninja D: “yeah, maybe. But she needs to be the one to have that idea and talk to them. Not just torture them with no dessert”

Me: “so, do I have to worry about you exploring the world without me?”

Ninja D: “heck no!” “you’re stuck with me!”

I found it to be an interesting moment and very insightful to how his mind works. He doesn’t lack discipline or consequences for his actions. But his mind does process information in a very different way than the majority of kids his age. He already at the age of 8 years old values communication and working things out. He is coming to understand that his mind processes differently and he is trying harder to talk and ask questions instead of get angry and frustrated because he doesn’t understand. I to am trying to understand and have a different response to his impulsive defiance and naturally dramatic personality. As long as he waits till after I have had my coffee, we are usually good for the day.

These kind of conversations don’t usually happen with newer stories. The action and adventure stories are fun, but nothing beats the classics. I am going to look into getting more of the Little Golden Book Classics.

Wishing you a Happy, Healthy, Smart, Strong, and Successful Day!

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“The Last Kids on Earth” by: Max Braillier

I liked it. I thought it was a fun action packed story where kids who normally don’t “hang out” became best friends as they fight to survive their new normal world filled with zombies, dozers, winged wretches, and vine thingies, among others.

When we started this book, I had the boys reading it to me, and they did ok with it. My boys are 7, are are a little behind on the reading level, but more than that they are a little behind on the maturity level also. They weren’t really understanding the dialogue between the characters and the witty sense of humor Jack Sullivan (the main character) has. So I decided to make it our bed time story book, where I read to them. After a few chapters I realized it wasn’t helping much for calming down and going to bed but I enjoyed the book so much I just kept on reading. When I read to them, I typically get really into the story with cheesy character voices, sound effects, and emotion. Not to mention its an action pack monster bashing adventure. Not really the right ingredients for bed time. Anyway, once I took over the reading they enjoyed it more but I had to constantly explain the sarcasm. Which isn’t a negative towards the book or the author, I loved it, it’s just something to consider if your kiddos are seven and take words very literally.

I bought the trilogy, so we will be eventually reading the second book to see what kind of new big bad tries to destroy the rest of the world and what this monster bashing team of friends does to stop it.

What the kids have to say:

Ninja D: ” I liked it because it had a lot of action in it, and I love action.”

Robo D: “I didn’t like it that much. I didn’t really understand what they were talking about most of the time. But I like the cartoon on Netflix.”

Disclaimer: All opinions and context are my own and are not influenced by any other parties. I was not paid or compensated for this review, this was only me sharing some thoughts about the book.

“Ninja Farts- Silent But Deadly”

I have yet to meet a boy who doesn’t want to be a ninja at some point in their life or think that farts are the funniest thing on this Earth. So what better combination for a kids book?

My 7 year old twin boys love Ninja Farts by JB O’Neil. It’s one of the few books that they will read over and over, of course they prefer me to read it because I get the crazy sound effects and voice character voices going, but regardless it’s one that never gets old.

Milo is very relatable for young boys as he finds school extremely boring and often finds himself dreaming about fun adventures using the power of the fart to do good in the world. Even though weirdly gross, there is a moral at the end of the story for kids to learn from.

There are several books in the “Fart” collection from JB O’Neil, I have ordered some of the other adventures for us to go on and can’t wait to share them with you!

We highly recommend going on these stinky fun adventures with Milo Snotrocket, they are fun and entertaining, and extremely gross. All of the major ingredients for fun in a boys mind.

Though my kids are not one for words, this is what they have to say about this story.

Robo D: “I like Ninja Farts because they are farty and it’s funny to fart while reading Ninja Farts! LOL“

Ninja D: “I like Ninja Farts because I am Ninja too and farts are funny! “

Magic Tree House Series Books 1-4

By: Mary Pope Osborne

1. Dinosaurs Before Dark
2. The Knight At Dawn
3. Mummies in the Morning
4. Pirates Past Noon

I really enjoyed reading these books with my boys because the chapters are a good length and they are full of story and facts about different time periods. They held their interest all the way thru in most cases, which isn’t always the case when we ready. I highly recommend these books, especially for readers who are working on improving reading skills because it keeps them engaged. My other little one (hasn’t picked a nickname yet) is behind in reading and after reading these, it brought him up to the level he needs to be for mid year second grade. He was very behind at the beginning of the 2nd grade school year which is what prompted me to start these books. He still has trouble, but these books have helped us a lot. At the end of the second book “The Knight At Dawn” I decided to start creating reading comprehension questions for them to complete at the end of the chapter. They both also struggle with writing, so this was a great way to tackle 2 stressful weak areas they have. Having to write and answer questions is actually more difficult than the reading portion for them.

Ninja D (stage name for one of my sons) likes this series a little bit. He likes that there is a lot of action and excitement through the books. “It’s also cool that there are facts about different places in history. ” He feels that Annie is a little to bossy. His favorite book in this set was Pirates Past Noon because “it had a lot of action and I like pirates”

We look forward to the next set of adventures in the Magic Tree House. If you decide to read these books with your kids and would like to use the reading comprehension questions I created please follow below or send me a message and I will send a free printable version of the questions. Below is an example of what it looks like, the questions get more difficult as you get into the book.