Member Reviews
I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I liked the pictures in this one. They were very bright and colorful. The cover is eye catching. It's a fun story and it's good that there is Spanish translation. Sometimes there is a lot of text, so that might be harder for a younger audience.
Maybe this one just wasn't for me, but I am glad I got the chance to read an early copy. I will definitely keep this one in mind for parents, though! I think young kids would get quite a kick out of it.
This is a really fun story that children will love to read over and over again. I could look at the illustrations for days!
The idea of this story is good but the writing was jumpy and the story didn't flow smoothly so it made it hard to follow for me so I am sure it would be hard to follow for children as well.
A bilingual picture book where the story of what happens to the food a toddler throws on the floor is told in both English and Spanish.
The story begins with young Ivan making a mess at dinner and ends up with his food thrown on the floor. After dinner the family is busy getting everyone ready for their baths and bedtime so no one is there except for young Elena to watch the food move on its own. By the next morning the green blob of food is gone. Mom thinks dad has cleaned it, but as more strange things begin occurring, like the dog food disappearing too quickly, they all begin to wonder what is going on.
On each page the story is written in English, but on the same page, but in a different location the story is also written in Spanish. At the beginning, before the story and at the end, is information regarding the two languages. The beginning information identifies how the vowel sounds are different and how nouns are treated when plural. Then, at the end a list of prepositions and their translations are provided.
One of the things that caught my attention was how the mess on the floor wasn't going to be picked up until the next day. The mom had left to go to class and the dad had to get the kids ready for bed and so the mess couldn't be fully cleaned. It's probably a strange thing to notice, but I suspect there are a lot of families out there that just run out of hours in a day and have to let messes sit until there is time to take care of them so it was kind of nice to see 'reality' portrayed in a picture book. Of course, on the other hand, had the parents immediately cleaned it up there probably wouldn't have been a story at all.
Overall, I think kids will like the mystery. The Illustrations showed a normal household - other than a food blob eating strange things. The only issue I do have with them is that the mom and daughter had almost the same color of shirt on at dinner. It probably wouldn't have hurt to have the mom in an orange, or red, etc. - something that was just different. There are only a few pictures that have them both with the same color shirt though. The next day occurs and they are no longer wearing the same color.
Thank you Netgalley and Premio Publishing & Gozo Books for a review copy and the opportunity to provide an honest review.
This is a really nice and fun children's book about what happens with kids food when thrown on the floor. Definitely will read it again with my kids, maybe they will learn a thing or two :).
Thank you NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I should probably preface this review by admitting that I probably would not have read this book had it not been for the fact that the synopsis mentioned it featured a multiracial family. And that was exciting to me. <i>It Came From Under the High Chair</i> by Karl Beckstrand and illustrated by Jeremy Higginbotham follows a story about what can happen when your child throws their food beneath the chair instead of eating it. It's a fairly cute story and I <i>loved</i> that the family was biracial. But overall, I didn't really care much for the majority of it.
I can certainly see children engaging well with the book. They'll probably love the food monster and illustrations. I imagine it'll be quite amusing to see all the ways that food dropped by kids can hide from parents. And the subtle message it sends about being clean and not throwing all your food around is a good one. But for me, all of that was admittedly a little boring.
What I did deeply appreciate seeing was the fact that the family featured characters of different races. Even better, it was written in both English <i>and</i> Spanish. So, while you can read the story in one language first, you can go on to read it in another immediately after. And this could be great for teaching kids two languages. You don't see books showing off multiracial families very often--or at least, I haven't--and to see this was really exciting for me. I hope to see more of it in the future.
<i>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>
A very colorful and fun children's book, sure to be enjoyed by readers of many ages. There were some good laughs from my 8 and 2-year-olds.
As a parent I can relate to this story in so many ways!
A toddler named Ivan, who is as messy an eater as they come, accidentally creates a food monster when he keeps tossing food under the high chair. His brother and sister, Benjamin and Elena, are reluctant to tell their parents about the messy monster for fear of not being believed. In the end Benjamin saves the day in a clean cut heroic act.
This book was funny and entertaining. I liked the English/Spanish translations as well. Sometimes I found the pages a bit cluttered with words, however I loved that English and Spanish were in different colors and fonts to clearly decipher each from one another.
After reading this book I need to go check under the high chair!
This was an interesting children's book about the a baby who spills lots of food under his table and it comes alive. I didn't really care for it or the voice throughout. It just didn't read as well as most children's books to me. It was okay, just didn't really appeal to me. It looks like there were many others who enjoy it though.
A brilliant little children's book, this was something a little bit different to the average children's book you read and I love the fact that it's also teaching at the same time. Fantastic book.
My son and I had a lot of fun reading this one together. I would classify it as a family story about working together and enjoying one another's strengths.Very cute and funny
This book was cute! The kids enjoyed it and I love that we are getting more bilingual books! My kids have already read it several times. I think it will be one we buy when it's released.
This is an adorable book that is fun to read to my little nephew who is going through a "throw everything!" stage when it comes to his highchair. I love the fact that this book is bilingual and I hope he picks up and learns these words. Fortunately, I have dogs and so nothing edible gets left under the highchair, but it is an interesting story for little children.