Imaginative and Fun New Picture Books -- Book Reviews

Be sure to check out my on-line Thirty-One Review & Party!! Get all your summer organizing essentials!!

Disclosure: Penguin Random House Books gave 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.

Are you looking for some new fresh books to spark your child's imagination? Today I am going to share two new books from Penguin Young Readers that do just this. The first is for the younger kids who like the humor in There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. The book is Me and Annie McPhee by Olivier Dunrea and illustrated by Will Hillenbrand. 

In this fun book two monkeys (the narrator and Annie McPhee) are stranded on a very small island. It is just them except for the various other animals (numbers going from one to ten). It is repetitive and rhyming with each new animal group. Each group of animals are doing something to rhyme with their names like "six black bears eating pears." And with each one the previous animals are also listed. By the end the little island is rather crowded and loud. 

This book is really a fun fresh version of those repetitive rhyming books that kids love. It is silly and cute plus the animals doing some of the things like pigs wearing wigs are just imaginative and funny. Hazel and I were laughing quite a bit with this one and it certainly brought some fun into our summer reading!! We recommend it and hope you will check it out. It was released just this week!

Our second book is The Magical Fantastical Fridge by Harlan Coben and illustrated by Leah Tinari. In this story Walden is asked to set the table, but he wants an adventure. The next thing he knows he is drawn into his drawing that his hanging on the refrigerator. From there he goes from picture to picture and realizes all he wants is to be with his family for the extended family weekly dinner. He has to use his imagination to move from dangerous pictures to others. This book is in the graphic novel format but is for younger children. It is fun and requires the reader to use his/her imagination to travel through the pictures with Walden. Then it also makes one question what is on one's own pictures on the refrigerator. 

So if you are looking for some fun books that will get your imaginations (and your kids') going, check these two books out. They promise some adventure, fun and laughs.