Review: Snorkeling with Sea-Bots!

Snorkeling with Sea-Bots! by Amy Lemke

My Rating: 3 out of 5 Wave-Making Robots

Recommends for readers of Boy + Bot by Ame Dyckman, Stone Rabbit series by Erik Craddock and Mighty Mighty Monsters series by Sean O'Reilly.

Summary: Kolten meets an underwater robot named Rip at the beach. Rip shows Kolten his home.

Review: Snorkeling is a delightful read with vibrant illustrations.  It will be a great introduction to graphic novels as it is easy to navigate. I'm often intimidated by the layout of graphic novels and move them to the pile of Daddy read-alouds.

The large illustrations and sparse text make this an excellent conversational book to explore "reading" the pictures. Small children can work on their narrative skills, while those a little bit older will enjoy the robots and oceanic humor. Didn't you know the waves, bubbles and mysteries of the sea are controlled by underwater robots?

Fun Extras: There are three activities at the end of the book to extend reading. Fabulous!

Sensitive Readers Beware: None. Good read for all ages. This would be a fun book to read with the whole family.

Bobo Projects: Robot Zombie Frankenstein

Bobo and I have been reading Robot Zombie Frankenstein for weeks, now. You can read more about it in my "What My Child Is Reading" post. The inside cover of the book has all the parts you need to make your own robot zombie Frankenstein.

To do this project, we copied the inside cover of the book, cut out the pieces and glued them together to make a robot. This particular robot is the "ninja robot." Bobo has already asked to make another one.

WMCIR: New Favorites (Age 3)

Two robot friends compete with costumes. It's Bobo's perfect book! They even dress like superheroes. We've read this one each evening for the past week. I love the bright robots and the use of white space. Bobo loves dressing up. I plan to use the inside cover of the book to make an activity for the weekend.

In the newest Pete the Cat adventure, Pete has mishaps with his buttons which lead to subtraction. Bobo can subtract with these small numbers. I didn't coach him, so this book is great for working with little ones. I didn't download the song, because we borrowed the book from the library. I did make my own tune, which is Bobo's favorite part. My favorite part is the surprise ending. A wonderful extension for the book would be counting buttons, like we did with our trays.

You are a Lion! is the best yoga picture book I've seen. It uses animals to teach the poses, brilliant! As I was reading aloud, Bobo did each pose on his own. I didn't even suggest it! He also learned the word "namaste." His favorite pose is the one on the cover, the lion. My favorite pose remains cat. Although it's nice to concentrate deeply while practicing yoga, I also enjoy sharing it with Bobo. He loves to lie under the "bridge" while I am in down facing dog.

Let me know if you read any of these books. I'd love to hear what your children think. I link up with What My Child Is Reading every week, so check out my sidebar. I also share on Read Aloud Thursdays.

WMCIR: Aliens and Robots

We've been talking about aliens the past couple of weeks for our Outer Space theme. I knew this book would be perfect the moment I saw it. Bobo loves robots. This is a retelling of the Three Little Pigs. It includes some space vocabulary and vehicles. I had to sneak it into the pile of books to take back to the library.

This is a fun, rhyming, retelling of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. The aliens are very funny. It is great to share one on one, but would be difficult to read to a group. The illustrations are large and vibrant. I find reading graphic novels to be a challenge to read aloud, but this had just the right combination of dialogue and text.

Boy + Robot is my favorite of the week. The boy and robot meet and play, until the robot's power switch gets turned off. The boy thinks it's sick, so he tries to make it feel better. When the boy goes to sleep, the robot's turns back on. It thinks the boy is sick, and tries to make him feel better. While the boy tries applesauce and reading stories, the robot tries oil and reading instruction manuals. I love this book!