Read, Listen, and Wonder Books by Candlewick Press are also suggested in the new book The Autism Sisterhood: A (brief) Manual. I had the opportunity to review five different books.
Each book focuses on an animal and comes with a Cd that contains three tracks – the story, facts about the animals and the real-along version. The pictures in the books are painting of the animals. Geared toward elementary aged children, these books vary on the amount and presentation of the information. Some books take a story approach while others stick to the facts. At the end of each book, there is an index of terms. The pages contain the regular text and then added facts written in italics.
Big Blue Whale with Audio: Read, Listen & Wonder
This books explains the amazing big blue whale with many facts and comparisons that elementary aged children can understand.
T. Rex: Read, Listen, and Wonder
The Tyrannosaurus is an animal that we don’t know much about. This book is a conversation between a boy and his Grandpa. The boy asks many questions while the Grandpa explains that there is a lot unknown. What is known comes from the bones that scientist have discovered. The Grandpa explains that maybe the boy will grow up to discover more information about this wondrous animal.
Momma C’s Thoughts: The phrase “millions and millions of years ago” is used many times throughout the book. Depending on your belief in Creation and the Bible’s use of the word “day,” this may not be a book that you want to have in your home. Because we believe that God created the world in literal 24-hour days, we believe the world is not millions of years old. Thus we used this book to explain to our kiddos a little about the different beliefs of Creation compared to what we believe the Bible says.
White Owl, Barn Owl: Read and Wonder
A Grandpa and a boy create a wooden-box home for a barn owl. While waiting for an owl to come to the box, the Grandpa teaches the little boy about owls. They begin by looking at the owl’s pellet to see what an owl eats. Finally one night they notice that an owl is living in their box. They watch the owl fly around, get food, and return to its family.
One Tiny Turtle with Audio: Read, Listen, & Wonder
This story takes you through the life of a Loggerhead Turtle. The cycle begins with a baby sea turtle growing to become a mommy and then new sea turtles are born. The readers learns about the challenges, needs, and life of a turtle.
The Emperor’s Egg with Audio: Read, Listen, & Wonder
Reminding me of the Morgan Freeman movie “March of the Penguin”, this book contains facts about the Emperor penguin.
Momma C’s Thoughts:
My kiddos are still a little young for the “Books on Tape” concept. While they love to be read to, they still need the “live human.” So, time will tell whether this becomes a future part of our life or not. I personally listened to some books on tape growing up and believe there is a lot of opportunities to utilize this type of learning.
While these books were very informative (on various levels and degrees depending on the particular book), my kids didn’t really get into these books. Again I think this may be an age thing. They are more into the stories of books and less into the facts. But even then, these are books that are great “first reads” but did not pull the kids back.
Unless your child is into a particular animal, I feel these books would be excellent ones to check out at the library. Use a specific book to further an interest or for a school project.
Thank you to Candlewick Press for providing me the opportunity to review these books.
