Barefoot Books Review (Celebrate the Earth)

Teaching my children about our planet and living green is important to me. In addition to being a model of green living, I use books to educate my preschooler about our planet, the organisms thriving on it, and the importance of taking care of it. He loves to read. Every night he always asks for an extra book or two during story time. To celebrate Earth Day, I wanted to focus our reading material on Earth. Thanks to Barefoot Books, I was able to do just that. 

About 

Barefoot Books provides unique children's books that allow children to explore our planet, different cultures, and ourselves. Began by 2 moms, Barefoot Books has grown to become a community of artists who believe in engaging children and adults through timeless stories and charming artwork. This eco-conscious company uses recycled paper and vegetable inks and conducts business with social responsibility in mind. In addition, Barefoot Books supports organizations that share their vision and goals.

Social Networks

Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest

Where to buy

Barefoot Books products are available on the Barefoot Books website.

MY THOUGHTS

We received 4 books for review: Grandpa's Garden, The Sun in Me, My Mama Earth, World Atlas. Generally speaking, all 4 books have great illustrations that really help tell the story to kids. Each of them are written well and would make a great addition to any library.

The first time we opened Grandpa's Garden, my preschooler could not even go beyond the inside cover. We spent a few minutes naming and matching the fruits and vegetables before reading our first sentence. My son's attention span is getting longer, so he can definitely sit through longer stories and books with multiple sentences on each page. What he liked about this book was the hero is a boy; so he was able to identify with him even though the boy is clearly older than he is. It took a while to read through this book as every page was met with at least 2-3 questions. What I liked about this book is that Billy had to be patient as the garden grew. I kept telling my son that he too had to be patient as we read through the book to see what was going to happen. Although I think my son got the gist of the book, he will not be able to appreciate the details of the book for a while. At the end of the book are some gardening tidbits for spring, summer, and autumn, which I really like. For Earth Day, I gave my son some gardening tools and we planted a few seeds from planting kits. I definitely think that Grandpa's Garden inspired him to garden (or at least to play with the gardening tools). 

I leafed through The Sun in Me and thought that it might be too mature for my 4year old son even though it is appropriate for 3-11 years old. I love poetry and enjoyed this book very much, but just had to pick the poems that I thought he would understand and appreciate. He enjoyed Behold and The Sun in Me, and I think he understood them as well. What I like about this collection is its focus on Earth: the creatures that live in it, the elements like snow and rain, and the how nature works. This book may not be his first choice during story time, but in due time, I think he will comprehend it more.

My Mama Earth is a lovely story that personifies the planet and gives it a loving and gentle touch. The story is simple and elegantly told. The book provides an explanation of how things have come to be, because of Mama Earth. The rhyming kind of forces a rhythm when you are reading the book. Like with all the other books, the illustrations are a great accompaniment to the text.

World Atlas is my son's favorite of the 4 books. We have read it several times. Well, we actually don't read it, more like go through each page and identify things he knows. This book is full of information that kids and adults will find interesting about each of the continents/regions. I love the Did You Know? trivia flaps; they're really fun to read and my son loves to flip the flap. Like The Sun in Me, I think my son will appreciate this book more for the contents as he grows older. For now, he enjoys pointing to things on the map and getting to know the different places that his family has visited.

A special thanks to Barefoot Books for offering a book of choice to one of my readers.

GIVEAWAY - CLOSED

Prize
A book of choice from Barefoot Books.

Timeframe
Giveaway is open from May 15 -30, 2012, at 12:01 AM EST.

Rules

1. Open to US/CAN residents (no PO Box), 18 years and older.
2. Enter using the Rafflecopter form below.
3. Winners will be selected via www.random.org (per Rafflecopter) and notified by email. Winners will have 48 hours to reply back before a new winner is selected. 
4. Winner's entries will be verified. If I can not verify entries, a new winner will be chosen.

5. Barefoot Books will be responsible for fulfilling prize award to the winner.

For complete rules on giveaways hosted on this blog, visit Giveaway Rules & Policy.

Good luck!

Disclosure: I received free products to facilitate my review. No other compensation was provided. All opinions expressed are my own.