Sunday 25 August 2013

'Today I Am' Book Review X GIVEAWAY!

Kaitlin loves reading, so when we received the 'Today I Am' book written and illustrated by Mies van Hout I couldn't wait to introduce it to her.

'Today I Am' is the second English translation of the award winning Dutch children's book "Vrolijk" by Mies van Hout. First published on June 2011 in Netherlands, the book has since garnered many accolades including being nominated for the prestigious Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis (German Children’s Literature Award) 2013.

"Vrolijk" is such a well-received book that it has been translated into German, Italian, French and Basque and there are even plans to have it translated to Bahasa Indonesia, Mandarin, Thai, Tagalog and Vietnamese.

Filled with pages of beautiful illustrations, it's no wonder that Kaitlin enjoyed this book about emotions. "Today I Am" is actually targeted at kids aged two to seven years old. However if you ask me, I find that with such a story, no matter how young or old, everyone will surely enjoy flipping through this book.

 


Daddy Li read the book to Kaitlin and she immediately took a liking to it. He also took the opportunity to act out the different kinds of emotions, and needless to say Kaitlin was pretty amused. Here's an example of how he portrayed the emotions to her!


I liked how the book wasn't wordy at all and the illustrations were colourful and clear. This makes the book great for reading to toddlers like Kaitlin who have a short attention span and are at an age where visuals play a big role.


Kaitlin enjoyed the story so much that after we read it to her, she decided to just flip through it herself!


I personally find that teaching children about emotional awareness plays quite an important role in raising happy and healthy children, and "Today I Am" does help in teaching that. For example, it helps kids learn about what is it that they are feeling, the different kinds of emotions there are and even how emotions can be expressed on paper. Often, we find ourselves telling people that we are "okay", "happy" or "sad", but really there are more emotions than that like "carefree, "frustrated" and "jealous".


Besides that, I find that "Today I Am" which features 20 common emotions and feelings will come in handy as a fun and useful way of broadening Kaitlin's vocabulary.

As an extension of the book, there's a "Today I Am" e-book iPad app that allows children to read on the go.


On top of that, they can also record their daily emotions and discover new words. If you're interested, you can download it over here.


*** Giveaway Closed! ****


Now, all good things should be shared...so here's a special WORLDWIDE GIVEAWAY for all Hello Little Sunshine readers! Courtesy of Fish Book Co. I've got five books to giveaway. Here's what you have to do to win:

1. Like Hello Little Sunshine's Facebook page
2. Leave a comment on this post with your name, email address and Facebook account name

Winner will be picked randomly. Giveaway closes on 10 September 2013. Remember it's a worldwide giveaway, so readers residing outside of Singapore you can join in as well!



***UPDATE!***
Thank you to all who participated in the giveaway! Here are the winners:



Congratulations to Yvonne Lim, Jackie, Jasmine, Kylie and Adeline! I will be emailing all of you soon to get more details, so do check your email inbox/spam folder.

For those who did not win, there will be more giveaways soon, so do remember to check back every now and then, and giveaways aside, of course I do hope that you'll continue to read and support Hello Little Sunshine :)

14 comments:

  1. Me want to win for my boys! :) You have my details on FB yah? :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Liked your FB page some time ago already!
    Adeline Tan / growingwiththetans@gmail.com / Adeline Tan

    ReplyDelete
  3. Me want!! :)
    Estella / sooddlydreamlike@gmail.com / Estella Goh

    ReplyDelete
  4. I want to win the book for Natalie cos it's the perfect time to intro emotions to her now:)
    Jackie / piggypandaluvsbb@gmail.com / Jac XoJon

    ReplyDelete
  5. just liked your fb page! thank you for organising this... my details are as below
    jasmine / proof_bromide@yahoo.com.sg / Jasmine Chua

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Trying my luck here :)
    Yvonne Chang/ yitkwee@gmail.com/ Yvonne Chang

    ReplyDelete
  7. Would love to win this, given that I truly believe that children should be allowed to learn and express their feelings at a young age!

    Nadia/ itchyfingersme@outlook.com/ Nadia Efron

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hope I can win this for my girl!

    Karen Lim / cryst_2012@yahoo.com.sg / infinite2012

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yes pls. Yvonne Lim / von0212@gmail.com / tarevon

    ReplyDelete
  10. Name:Kylie,
    email: cre8tone@yahoo.com
    fb: cre8tone / kylie wenn

    ReplyDelete
  11. I am praying hard to get this gift for my 20 months boy :)

    Jeff Teoh / ssteoh1981@yahoo.com / Jeff Teoh

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Beverly,

    Thank you for sharing this wonderful book with your readers. It would be a perfect gift for Joachim; I think presently, he only knows 2 emotions by name; happy and angry.

    Yours Sincerely,
    Joan, joancp2@yahoo.com, Joan Lee

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi hi.. thanks for sharing this book. I am already your FB fan.

    Winnie / toddlymummy@gmail.com / Winnie Lee

    ReplyDelete