Five Rubber Duckies is a book in my house that gets read often. It is just as popular with Will (my one year old) as with Madison (my 4 year old). Will enjoys the books for several reasons. First, he likes the duckies. The pages aren’t like normal book pages; they are half pages with ducks on top. The pages are thick cardboard, so even if he chews on them (and he has), they will not get wrecked. He also can’t rip them. Madison likes this book because we can work on her math skills. As you turn each page, there are two lines which rhyme. It is a story about duckies, and as you turn the page, we lose a ducky (have no fear — they don’t need foreclosure help, they are just busy doing other things).  It is a cute story and ends with 1 rubber ducky being left with a clean baby.  My kids completely adore this book and I highly recommend it!

I took Madison to Burger King yesterday, and we went through the drive thru.  Burger King has a new product or two that they added to their menu.  You now can order apple fries or macaroni and cheese with your kids meal.  I thought this was great since I really don’t like getting Madison french fries.  Needless to say, I was a little surprised when I saw my receipt and found out that they charged me extra for the apple fries.  Of course, the huge sign in front of the drive thru did not state that. You know, I am not asking for it to be on sale or anything. However, I would have liked to see something on that sign letting me know that the apple fries were going to be 49 cents more. The other thing that irritated me was that, for free, McDonalds gives you way more apples.  Needless to say, we won’t be frequenting Burger King any time soon.

As you all know, I love reviewing kids books and kids toys on here.  With having a 4 year old and a 1 year old, I have great product testers, and I really get to see how products hold up.  That being said, at my house, we have been playing with the Nana Star books and plushies, and we have a winner at my house.

Before I go to far into the books, I need to give you a little background on how Nana Star came about (and I got a little teary-eyed myself when I found this all out).  The authors of this series of books are Elizabeth Sills and Elena Patrice.  The illustrator is Linda Saker.  The original creator of Nana Star is Elizabeth Owens (Elizabeth and Elena’s grandmother and Linda’s mother).  She had a grandson named Vance  that she made up Moonman and Nana Star for.  When he moved away, she often sent him hand made cards with her characters, so he always knew she was with him.  Unfortunately, Vance now “dances with the stars“, but she has allowed us into her fantasy world, so our children can have that sense of belonging too.

The first thing I have to do is warn you. You need to read the Nana Star book first. Trust me, it all makes more sense if you do (**blush** won’t tell you how I figured that out). This is a truly entertaining book. Not only can I read it to my kids, there is a CD that comes with it.  When you listen to the CD, make sure you get comfortable.  They have really awesome background music behind the narrator.  There is also an additional song on there.  Madison was singing along after the first time listening to the songs.

The other really cool thing that they do with these books is that they have a Nana Star’s Little Twinkles Club.  On purpose, they have a spellling mistake in the book.  You are able to write them and tell them what the mistake was, and you can then join the Twinkles Club!  This is such a cute idea to engage their little readers.

The second book we read and listened to was Nana Star and the Moonman. Now, in the first book, we learned that a little star fell out of the sky was looking for her Nana. Now, the second book is the start of the journey the little girl (Nana Star) takes to help the little star get home. I truly can see this being an awesome series of books. As an adult, I’m wondering what happens next.  The other nice thing is that the CDs that come with the books are held by a pocket that is attached to the book.  You don’t have to worry about losing the CDs.

Now, I highly recommend these books.  Madison was engaged with them.  The thing I noticed and loved about the books themselves (besides the CD pocket) was that the paper is a thicker paper.  It does not rip easily which is a huge problem normally in my house.  You also get a bookmark with each book.  Amazingly, we don’t actually own any bookmarks, so it is a welcome addition in our house.  I also like that I am not the only one who thinks these products are great.  They have gotten numerous awards including Mr. Dad Seal of Approval and Great Dad Recommends Awards, Nominated by Mom’s Choice Award® for Most Inspirational Story, and iParenting Media Award for Excellent Products of 2007.

Not only did we try out the books, we even had some fun with the plushies that they offer.  Now, I’ll be honest, I didn’t quite know what to expect.  I really am not good with measurements and figuring out how big things really are.  However, this Moonman was quite a bit larger than I expected!

Now, if you push on Moonman’s belly, his head lights up and it plays a lullaby (which you can kinda tell with my picture of Will and Moonman).  Will likes walking around with him (and let me add that is kissing him not biting him in the second picture!).

Now, this Nana Star plushy is a huge hit with both kids.  Its cute, easy to carry, and even has bloomers on under the skirt (yes, I checked).  Madison immediately made the connection between the doll and the books.  She talks about Nana Star quite often now.  You can also tell that this is not a small doll either.

If you need a great children’s gift, this is the way to go.  The books are for 3-7 years olds and they have such a postivie message.  In some of the books to come, they will learn about good manners and courtesy, friendship and fun, and giving and sharing just to name a few.  Now, if you’d like to win a copy of these books and plushies for yourself, they are running an awesome contest.  All you need to do is comment on their Got Lemons post and tell a story about how you turned lemons into lemonade.  The best story they get by July 7th will win you a copy of the books and they will also donate a copy of the books to your favorite school, childcare center, library, children’s hospital, or doctor’s office.  How awesome is that?

Madison and I have been reading both the Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten and Let’s Get Ready For First Grade.  These books are great.  Even with Madison only being four, we are able to do activities out of both of these books.  The first thing I love is that we can write with our felt tip pens on these books and then erase when we are done with the activities.  The activities are also very age appropriate.  We are able to do some of the activities, because they worked on them in preschool.  However, there are a lot of things we will be working towards.  In the kindergaren book, there is a list of skills that we should be working on with Madison like knowing our address and phone number, taking turns, and recognizing your left and right.  Now, Madison knows a bunch of things on that list.  However, there is a good chunk of things she doesn’t (like knowing her left and right).  There are a lot of skills in these books that we will be working on all summer, so she’s set for preschool again in the fall.  I’m glad we have a fun way to work on them.

Another show that we like to watch at our house is Little Bill. This is another show we watch on Noggin. Little Bill is 5, so Madison completely relates to him. The show is based on Bill Cosby’s book series, and he works with a panel of educational experts too! As an adult watching the show, you really get a feel for how a child sees the world. My daughter gets to learn that she really can make a difference. There definitely is an emphasis on family. You get to see Little Bill work his way through things such as what to do when you are snowed in to learning how to do a somersault.  You will often hear Little Bill saying “Hello Friend!”. This was inspired by the Hello Friend/Ennis William Cosby Foundation. This foundation was established in memory of Ennis William Cosby, the son of the Bill Cosby.

Your son or daughter won’t learn the ABCs watching this show. However, they will learn about self esteem, dealing with conflicts, and developing social skills. It also won’t bore you to tears.