A Squirrel's Story and The Ship Captain's Tale -- Book Reviews

Disclosure: Little Five Star sent me copies of these books free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I am sharing two fun books from Little Five Star. The first is a true story about a mother squirrel who will do anything for her babies. A Squirrel's Story by Jana Bommersbach and illustrated by Jeff Yesh is a story about a mother's love. The narrator is the mother squirrel. 

Every time we read this story Hazel says, "I love that story!" Yes, it is that good. Mrs. Squirrel is wondering around the yard when she sees the meanest and fattest cat she has ever seen. At first she teases it by climbing high in the tree and watching it, but then she worries about when she has her babies. The mean cat keeps coming around. One day Mrs. Squirrel sees the nice people whose yard she frequents putting up a new birdhouse. It looks like a nice safe place to have her babies grow up so she moves in. Although she gets teased by other squirrels and a wood duck who tries to move in, she sticks to her guns and raises her two babies there. The couple begin to watch the squirrel family and point them to their friends. They also get rid of the mean cat so it won't hurt the birds or the squirrels in their yard. It is a wonderful story about motherhood and childhood. One of the babies is brave and the other is timid and afraid. It takes a lot for the mother to keep her babies safe and growing up so they can be adult squirrels who live on their own. It has nice parallels to human life. The end of the book also has a curriculum guide with extensions to go with the book. There are also four crafts on the book's page. I printed out the sheet to make Mrs. Squirrel and the mean cat into paper bag puppets and Hazel colored them in.

 We cut and glued them to the paper bags and Hazel started acting out the story.

 Another fun craft to go with this book I saw on Fireflies and Mud Pies: Acorn Bells. We literally hot glued jingle bells to acorn tops. This year was a year for many acorns, so we had a few tops. And what a fun fall craft that goes perfectly with a squirrel story.

Our second book, The Ship Captain's Tale by V.A. Boeholt and illustrated by Jeff Yesh, is a counting book. It counts up to twelve forwards and backwards.

 
 The story is about how the ship captain tries to sleep but the whistle blows and gets stuck on. The crew cannot get it off and the captain comes and saves the day. There is counting but there are other things like emotions, and words like hero. This book also has a curriculum guide at the end so there are many extensions to take with it besides just the counting lessons. It even includes counting in different languages. It is a fun book that is perfect for little ones learning to count and especially for the ones that love boats!