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Usborne Books–with a giveaway!

The giveaway with this post has now ended. Congratulations, Justine!

Today I’m thrilled to feature a post by Lynn, from Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile. Lynn’s blog is an excellent source of information on books for early childhood – and I especially enjoy reading the Bibliophile’s opinions of the books!

Lynn from Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile here! I am the oft-frazzled, book-loving mom to a rambunctious four year old and toddling one year old. I spend most of my day picking things up, and asking people to please not do things. I have been on a blogging hiatus for a few months, but my recent foray into Usborne Books has inspired me to rejoin the community of book-loving “mommy bloggers” that I am blessed to count as friends.

This week Mama Smiles is hosting a virtual Usborne e-show, and you’re invited! Come and browse (feel free to stay in your pajamas; we won’t tell anyone), pick out a few favorite titles, and share them with those you love!

To kick off the e-show, I am sharing the most popular Usborne book in our house this week: How Big is a Million. A million is a very big number. But exactly how big? Pipkin the penguin wants to know just that. Come with him on a journey of discovery and you can see for yourself. Pipkin travels around, encountering a group of 10, 100, and 1,000 items, until he finally gives up and heads home. In the end, his mother points him toward the sky to see a million tiny stars – all on a very large poster kept in a pocket at the rear of the book. It is a wonderful tool for allowing children to visualize the abstract idea of a big number. Our four year old’s reaction? He loved it! The book also captured the attention of a group of kids his age at a recent playgroup. The poster has a definite “wow” factor. We’ve read the book over and over again. Incidentally, this was a big surprise to me, because our boy has a quirky dislike of “more and more of things,” which has caused many a book to make a quick exit from our house. The poster may have the tendency to get a bit tattered if we keep up with this level of wear and tear. It would be much gentler on it to take it out of its pocket and tape it up for awhile, rather than to keep folding and unfolding it.

Here is what he had to say about it: Do you like this book? Yes! I read it all the time. What do you like about it? Just that the penguin is asking really big questions, maybe, or I think because of the poster with a million stars at the end. Do you want to read more books like that? Yes!

Our next purchase? How Big Was a Dinosaur.

Another hit from our most recent Usborne home party was There’s a Mouse About the House. What so impressed me about the book was that all of the children, from 18 months old to four years old, were scrambling to read it. In fact, when the books were packed away, a two year-old shouted “mouse!” and pointed toward the boxes. He scared me for a minute there! I ordered a copy, as did his mom. We can’t wait to get our hands on ours this week. The unique feature of the book is that it contains a small cardboard mouse in a pocket on the front cover; children slip the mouse through a slot on each page and around the page as they read. It adds a fun element to keep kids interested, but also has a number of educational benefits:

  • holding the mouse is like holding a pencil, so it teaches fine motor skills.
  • Following the dotted line encourages early writing skills.
  • The mouse always moves from left to right, which is important to early reading skills.
  • The child learns to turn one page at a time. If they turn a few pages at once, the mouse won’t be there.

Very clever! This is one of Usborne’s best selling books, and I can see why.

Give Away

This week, we will be giving away one copy of EITHER How Big is a Million or There’s a Mouse About the House to one random comment on this post. To enter (first entry is mandatory): 1) Go and visit the Mama Smiles Usborne e-show and come back and comment on a title you would love to own. For additional entries, you can: 2) like our Usborne facebook page and comment to let us know (there will be a give away there soon too!). 3) Follow Mama Smiles and comment to let us know. 4) Follow Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile and comment to let us know. That’s four possible entries per person. U.S. only please. Winner will be chosen on February 25. You can learn more about becoming an Usborne book consultant here. Happy shopping!

MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

39 thoughts on “Usborne Books–with a giveaway!”

  1. One of the things I love about the mouse book – they are tracing the shapes they will use when they write.
    Good luck with your shows!
    Also smitten by Usborne Books,
    Maria

  2. Both of the books in the giveaway sound great, and I don’t easily get excited by kids’ books since many of them just aren’t so good!

    The Gingerbread Man would be a great book for my son. He’s only 2.5 but he’s expressing an interest in letters and I think it would be a good training book for him to use in the next year or so!

    Thanks for the giveaway :-)

  3. I would love the Big book of Dinosaurs. I haven’t been to an Usborne party in awhile and my girls would also be ready for How big is a million and there’s a mouse about the house! Such great books.

  4. I know I said it before, but I absolutely adore Usborne books. We own a lot of them, and we get even more in the library. How Big Is A Million was the one we got from our library, and Anna liked it a lot. One title that I consider adding to our own book collection is The First Book of Art.

  5. Im a new follower of mama smiles ( I found you on pinterest) and love what I’m reading. My daughter loves books so I’m always looking for new books to open her up too! The book I’d like to win is ” there’s a mouse about the house”

  6. My niece is 4 yrs old and loves all the books I give her. She would love either book that is being given away.

  7. The non-artist in me says that I need “I Can Draw Animals” by R. Gibson.
    Oh, and thanks for all of the ideas you’ve inspired. I’ve been working on storytime themes for our library’s preschool storytime and “There’s a mouse about the house” sounds like a great theme…hopefully the library has a copy. “How Big is a million?” would work great with our summer reading program whick is “Dream Big…Read”.

    1. Ticia, I’m going to be ordering a few of those for gifts soon for little boys too! I already know at least three people who would love them for birthdays. :)

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