In So Many Words

The Sounds of Night
From Jessica Kirkland at Christian Apps 4 Kids

Price: Apple App Store: $5.99; Android Marketplace: $2.99

About the App

DESCRIPTION: The Sounds of Night is a book app that helps put a child’s mind at ease when the lights go out at bedtime. This book addresses one of the primary feelings young children face; fear. The Sounds of Night reinforces the principle that God is the Creator of every creature. Since God makes all the animals that scurry and screech at night, children can lie down and sleep in peace.

FEATURES: The Sounds of Night has over 75 touch points/interactions. It has rich illustrations and 4 Bible verses on fear that kids can learn with their parents and share with their friends.

DEVELOPMENT: Jessica Kirkland is a member of Moms with Apps. She recently launched Christian Apps 4 Kids, which seeks to draw kids closer to Christ one app at a time. Her inaugural app is a result of the fear that was such a part of her life:

In every season of life, the Enemy would whisper the lie that I would “never make it” to the next. I believed it. Time and time again, I thought his words held power. As a young child, I never thought I would live to see my school years. Once I entered school, I never thought I would live to see the next day, next grade, or milestone in life. I listened to a very real enemy, even though I didn’t want to. Even though I came from a strong, Christian family, I felt powerless to stop the lies. Fear gripped me, stole from me, and taunted every careful step I took.

Jessica believes the only way to be free from fear, as an adult or child, is to replace fearful thoughts with God’s Word. Her desire for each book project is that they not only build character, but help set kids free.

The book app was developed in partnership with ROAR. Click here for the QR codes for your smartphone or other device.

About Jessica Kirkland

Jessica Kirkland lives in Southeast Texas with her husband, Robb, and five-year-old triplets. She is an author and speaker whose greatest passion in life is to see young families grow deeper in their walk with God. Jessica’s newest adventure includes launching Christian Apps 4 Kids, which seeks to draw kids closer to Christ one app at a time. A recent release is a book app that addresses fear and scary nighttime sounds called The Sounds of Night, designed for kids ages 2-8. When Jessica isn’t writing, you can find her cheering her boys on at the soccer field, or watching her little girl at the dance studio.

To find out more about her current writing projects, connect with her at: www.christianapps4kids.com or on her personal blog: www.jessicakirkland.com.

COMING SOON: Christmas App!

The Lonely Stable

From Jessica Kirkland at Christian Apps 4 Kids

Price: Apple App Store: $5.99; Android Marketplace: $2.99

The Lonely Stable is a book app that reminds children that it’s never too late to live out God’s plan for their lives. Told from the stable’s perspective, this intriguing Christmas book tells the story of Jesus’ birth. From time to time, we all wonder about our purpose in life. The Lonely Stable wondered why he was still standing, for he was weathered and old. As time passed, he began to question his purpose.

This remarkable tale is a lesson that both parents and children can hold on to when they ask questions like, “Why am I here?” or “Does God care about my life?” This book shows us that God has made each of us for a special purpose. The Lonely Stable is aimed at kids ages 2-10 years old.

About the Giveaway

To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post by December 16th at 5:00 pm Eastern Time. One commenter will be chosen at random and entered into the Grand Prize Giveaway drawing at KCWC.

Note: I received a gift copy of the app in exchange for hosting this blog tour.

Updated 12/16/11 at 5:15 pm EST: Tammy & Parker, your comment was randomly drawn and will be entered into the Grand Prize drawing by KCWC. Thank you to everyone who commented!

Big Daddy’s Tales From the Lighter Side of Raising a Kid With Autism by F. Lewis Stark

Loved, loved this! Sooooo funny!! Here’s the full review on this one.

Times Tables the Fun Way: A Picture Method of Learning the Multiplication Facts by Judy Liautaud and Dave Rodriguez

A friend of mine who has a son with Asperger’s recommended this book to me. Although he is incredibly smart, he was stuck on learning his times tables, but with this book he had them down almost instantly. I decided to give this a try myself and see how Michael would like it.

Turns out he loved it! He enjoyed the little tricks they give for certain numbers, such as calling “0″ the king because he wants everyone to be like him or calling “1″ a mirror because any number sees itself. He also liked the stories that they made up for the harder to remember facts. I was impressed with how appealing the book was and was very glad that he enjoyed it. And multiplication seems to be going quite smoothly, which is a good thing!

The Ultimate Guide to Sensory Processing in Children by Roya Ostovar, Ph.D.

This is a wonderful book from a fascinating perspective that added a lot to the discussion about sensory processing disorder. Full review coming soon!

Updated 7/3/11 – read full review here

Treachery in Death by J.D. Robb

Ahh, who can resist a detective novel set in the future, featuring lots of high-tech and fast-paced action along with a fascinating cast of colorful characters. I love these books and grabbed it off the shelf the second I saw it, despite the number of books already sitting next to my bed waiting to be read. And it didn’t disappoint.

Minding Frankie by Maeve Binchy

Another charming story from one of my favorite Irish writers, full of fascinating characters and centered around Frankie, a baby girl whose mother passes away from cancer immediately after giving birth to her. Although the fact that Frankie’s future wasn’t completely settled kept me rushing through a bit to see what happened, I still enjoyed this book enough to recommend it highly!

Have you read any of these? What did you think?

Thanks to those who entered the giveaway for the two Hallmark Recordable Storybooks. With the help of Random.org, two winners were selected and they were emailed for their address info and choice of book.

The winners were Jean Lasher and JoyMama!

Jean wrote:

I would love to win one of these books for my granddaughter. She lives in NC and I live in NY. We are not able to travel anymore due to my husband being sick so will not be able to see her for the holidays. Do miss seeing her grow up and change. This way she can hear my voice and know I still love her.

and JoyMama shared:

I think a recordable-book would be a great way to help my daughter (age 6) associate words with the printed page — and help keep her interest long enough to keep the book open to that particular page. Books have been a particular challenge for her, with her various developmental issues. Her librarian-mother is sometimes driven near distraction by this! But she does love to hear voice play-backs, and if this could help her stop on each page long enough to put together that each page does have meaning attached… well, it would be a tool well worth having.

Excellent give-away idea — might have to put it on a Christmas list if we don’t win!

I wish I had a book to give each and every one of you who entered – all of your stories touched my heart and I wish you much joy this holiday season.

Hallmark Recordable Storybooks feature simple to use voice-capture technology. All you have to do is lay the book flat, press the record button and speak your message. Once you press the stop button, you will immediately hear a playback of what you have recorded and can simply re-record it if you wish to get it just right. Or, if you are happy with your recording, simply do nothing and move on to the next page.

Once you have finished making your recording, there is a switch inside the battery compartment that can be set to LOCK to protect what have done or switched back to UNLOCK to re-record a page or to erase all of the audio in the book. It’s a simple but effective safety measure to protect your recording from little fingers!

Review

For the review, I received a copy of the book All the Ways I Love You. I was instantly delighted by the adorable illustrations and touching verses. I immediately thought of a recent conversation with my brother, who is expecting his first child in March. He really wants his child to become familiar with his voice even before he is born, but my brother has to travel quite a bit for work right now.

This book would be a great tool for him to use by recording himself reading it so that his wife could play it for the baby when he is out of town. I thoroughly enjoyed trying out this book and was able to easily remove my voice so that it would be ready for my brother to use. Hopefully, he will find it as enchanting as I did!

Giveaway

I am hosting a giveaway for two Recordable Storybooks from Hallmark. Each winner will receive their choice of one of these precious keepsakes.

You can enter up to three times (one via each method listed below):
For your first entry, simply leave a comment on this post telling me how you would use the book if you won it.
One additional entry may be obtained by Tweeting about this giveaway and leaving me a comment with a link to your Tweet.
Another additional entry can also be obtained by sharing this giveaway on Facebook and leaving me a comment with a link to your Facebook post.

All entries must be received by Midnight EST on Tuesday, December 7th. The two winners will be chosen randomly and contacted via the email provided in the email field of the comment form for their address and book selection. I will announce the winners on my blog by Friday, December 10th.

For more information about the recordable storybooks, including browsing through the collection or hearing stories from other families of how they have used these keepsakes, visit Hallmark.com.

Title: Sensitive Sam
Author: Marla Roth-Fisch
Length: 29 pages
Genre: Children’s Nonfiction
Publisher/Date: Future Horizons, 2009
Source: Review copy

About the Book

Sensitive Sam is a charming illustrated story that will help children understand more about what it’s like to have Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). It is written and illustrated by Marla Roth-Fisch, a happily married mother of two, including a son with SPD.

The book opens with this note for parents and educators:

Sensitive Sam is written from the perspective of a young boy with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) and his daily challenges. It is designed to be a book that adults can read to children, and children can then read and review on their own.

The happy ending will inspire hope for your family and promote ongoing discussion about sensory issues.

What follows is a delightful rhyming story about Sam, a young boy who is bothered by many things in his environment. These sensory difficulties make it hard for him to get through the day without falling apart or becoming angry and upset.

Luckily, his teacher and parents work together to find out what is wrong and how to help him. They let him know that he is not a “bad kid” and that there are reasons for why he feels the way he does.

The book then describes in very kid-friendly language what it is like to go to occupational therapy and how they implemented a sensory diet for Sam. As time goes on, things get much better for Sam, and the story ends with these lines:

Take it from me, Sensitive Sam,
That things will be okay.
By doing things a little differently,
I can have fun EVERY day!

At the back of the book, Ms. Roth-Fisch includes a short glossary of terms and a list of helpful websites with resources on sensory processing disorder.

My Thoughts

I was thrilled to receive a copy of this book to review and immediately sat down to read it with my son, Michael, who has sensory processing disorder and autism. Michael greatly enjoyed both the rhyming story and the clever illustrations. He could definitely relate to some of the things that bothered Sam and to the way the occupational therapist and others help both of them with their sensory challenges.

I would highly recommend Sensitive Sam to just about anyone. If you have a child with SPD, this would be a great book to share both with your child and with their siblings or other family members. This would be a good addition to any library or classroom book collection, as well as a useful resource for any organization working with kids.

And don’t just take my word for it. Sensitive Sam received the 2009 Book of the Year Award from Creative Child Magazine, and Parents Magazine May 2010 issue chose Sensitive Sam as one of their “Healthy Reads” stating, “If your child has a medical condition, try reading a book about it. He’ll feel better knowing that some cool characters share his same feelings.” Check out Future Horizons to order a copy today!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists!

My Teaser

If I type fast, I may still get this posted on Tuesday.

A couple of weeks ago, my son came home from school raving about a story that the school guidance counselor had read to his class. He even referenced it later when we were reading bedtime stories and continued to talk about the concept days later.

I got the name of the book from her and immediately ordered it for him – it arrived today and he was excited to see it (this from a kid who thinks all surprises should be toys!). We read it together and he stopped me several times to explain more about it.

So, what is this miraculous book that has helped us break the barrier of perspective-taking? It’s called Have You Filled a Bucket Today?, written by Carol McCloud and illustrated by David Messing. There are several other related titles, but I got this one since it is the version used in his class.

Here are a couple of sentences from the book:

A bucket filler is a loving, caring person who says or does nice things that make others feel special.

But guess what . . . when you fill someone’s bucket, you fill your own bucket too!

I guess this turned into more of a review than a teaser, but that’s okay! For more teasers or to submit your own, visit Should Be Reading.

The idea of the Read Together 2009 Challenge, created by Jennifer at Snapshot, was to set a goal (or goals) for connecting with your children through reading in the month of April.

Here were my goals for reading more with Michael during the month of April:

• Take him to the library once a week to pick out new books together, and then read the books to him during the week.
• Spend some time reading to him at least three mornings per week.
• Start reading the Little House books to him at bedtime. (I’ve always dreamed of sharing these stories with my child when I had one, and I think he would really enjoy them now.)

So, how did it go, you ask?

Goal #1:
We did not make it to the library together, although he did go with Bob once. I have to admit, it is just so much easier for me to put things on hold online and then drop off/pick up books on my way to or from work. But that’s not really the point, so I still want to do this.

Goal #2:
We did not really spend any time reading together in the mornings, but we have spent more time together doing fun stuff like playing card games or making up stuff with his Webkinz. I have also been doing better about having a morning routine to keep the house more tidy and involving him in helping with that.

Goal #3:
On a good note, we are greatly enjoying reading Little House in the Big Woods at bedtime, although we have gotten sidetracked the last few days by an audio/read-along book of Chicken Little that is based on the movie which he just saw last month. Anyway, we started out reading some of the picture books and then jumped into the original series.

He likes the stories overall, although he would not let me finish the chapter about Sundays; he said it was too boring and awful back then on Sunday.

I saw that Jennifer wants to make this a monthly accountability thing for herself and invited anyone who wished to post their goals for May to do so. So I am hereby determined to take my son to the library at least twice this month! That’s it, that’s going to be my only goal, but I think it’s a good one.

I can’t believe we are almost halfway through April already and that Easter has come and gone! It also means the Read Together 2009 challenge is halfway through, so I wanted to post an update on how things are going with my efforts.

My goals included several things I wanted to do to increase my reading time with Michael this month:

• Take him to the library once a week to pick out new books together, and then read the books to him during the week.
• Spend some time reading to him at least three mornings per week.
• Start reading the Little House books to him at bedtime. (I’ve always dreamed of sharing these stories with my child when I had one, and I think he would really enjoy them now.)

So, how am I doing?

Well, we didn’t make it to the library and we didn’t really do any morning reading, I am ashamed to admit. BUT… I did get the Little House books down from the attic and have started reading those with him at bedtime.

I remembered that I had a whole bunch of the picture books they put out a few years ago, so we are starting with those. He LOVES them! I am hoping that by the time we get through some of the shorter stories, he will be ready to listen to the actual books.

I am going to try again this week to get to the library and do some additional reading with him during the day.

In the meantime, I’m working on writing down my thoughts about the books I have read so far for the other book-related challenge I am doing, Spring Reading Thing 2009, and I will post those a bit later on.

The idea of the Read Together 2009 Challenge, created by Jennifer at Snapshot, is to set a goal (or goals) for connecting with your children through reading in the month of April.

All you have to do is post your goals and link up on her blog, and then post/link again at the end of April to report on how it went. And if you publish your goals by April 5 and your results by May 3, you will be eligible for one of the prizes.

Here are my goals for reading more with Michael during the month of April:

• Take him to the library once a week to pick out new books together, and then read the books to him during the week.
• Spend some time reading to him at least three mornings per week.
• Start reading the Little House books to him at bedtime. (I’ve always dreamed of sharing these stories with my child when I had one, and I think he would really enjoy them now.)

You may have noticed all my goals are related to me reading out loud to him. He does read very well for his age, but his willingness to read out loud to me or read a book just to himself varies. I don’t push for it but am always receptive to it when it happens.

Anyway, I’m really excited about having specific, measurable goals to work on over the next few weeks (can you tell I am getting ready for an IEP meeting?). To keep up with how I do on my challenge, subscribe to my feed. To join in yourself or see what others are doing, visit Read Together 2009.

Now that my son is in kindergarten and goes to the library there each week, he is really getting into picking out books to read. He has enjoyed books and reading for a while, but now he is starting to enjoy the process of finding new books.

Last week during library, he actually liked the book that was read to them during class so much that he asked to check it out. For our first Kids’ Picks, I decided to ask him the questions from Jennifer’s post and actually got a couple of responses before he was tired of answering me.

Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White, illustrated by Megan Lloyd

An Interview with Michael

What did you like most about the book? How she didn’t plant anything and the pumpkins grew anyway.

What didn’t you like about the book? How she hated pumpkins.

Would you like to read another book by the author? I don’t care; I want to watch my Thomas DVD.

So there you have it, folks! Seriously, this is a very cute book and especially appropriate this time of year. Visit 5 Minutes for Books to read more Kids’ Picks and to post your own.