Taylor Swifts new album on repeat, reading the boys some new kids books I got advanced copies of, and the sun is shining….a happy Friday in my book! ☀️📚🎶

These books were so cute! I can’t wait to show my daughter the bug book as she’s been really interested in ladybugs lately. The Happy Stories for Animal Lovers was absolutely adorable! It was full of such beautiful illustrations and fun facts about animals. The Pond and the Park was a really adorable story about friendships. Respect the Insect book was very interesting to my son who has been hesitant with flies coming inside. Hee hee. He always really enjoyed Little People Big Dreams about Stan Lee and comics. My daughter is going to love Gabriel’s Toothfairy Tale as she’s been waiting anxiously for her tooth to fall out. Torla and Smorla was a really cute book my younger song loved. The Bison and the Butterfly was precious! Add these books to your kids summer TBR lists for summer reading programs. Thank you @netgalley for these advance copies!

The Bison and the Butterly by Alice Hemming comes out August 5

Happy Stories for Animal Lovers by Leisa-Stewart Sharpe comes out July 1

Little People Big Dreams Stan Lee by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara comes out July 1

Gabriel’s Tooth Fairy Tale by Sharon Leya comes out February 27

The Children’s Book of Wildlife Watching by Dan Rouse comes out May 13

Torla and Smorla and the Lower Than Average Cloud by Kes Gray comes out July 8

The Pond and the Park by Flo Fielding comes out May 13

Respect the Insect by Jules Howard comes out July 8

What a fun interactive book for little ones! I cannot wait to see a physical finished copy since it has some flaps to lift. Funny and fun, with bright colors, and wonderful characters!

This was a lovely book following two giraffe friends as one helps another navigate through the savannah while their head is stuck in a cloud. It has adorable pictures and nice repetition that would engage any child. I am curious to see how the lift-the-flap aspect will be in the physical book as the proof was a bit difficult to imagine. Something that I enjoyed about this book is that it can lead to fun activities with children around the importance of following directions. It also emphasized the idea of trust within friendships.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is an adorable book. The pictures are wonderful and so is the story!

What a fun story with charming illustrations about a taller than normal giraffe, Torla, and his friend Smorla, a smaller than normal giraffe. When Torla gets his head stuck in a cloud that eventually rains on him, Smorla helps him navigate their walk without incident. An important tale about friendship and the ability to give compassion and support.

We love Kes Gray books in our house and I'm sure we'll be adding this one to our collection when my daughter is a little bigger.

A very tall giraffe gets a cloud stuck on their head and a small giraffe has to help them over obstacles. The detail of the pictures is fantastic, definitely ones children will like.

It's hard with a digital copy to see how the flaps work (there are up flaps, single page flaps and both pages open flaps, I think). It'll be good to see the real thing!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced ebook copy in exchange for an honest review.

In true Kes Grey style, another book that is brilliantly simple yet hugely funny and entertaining. This will make a fabulous read aloud.

A lovely picture book that highlights the importance of being kind and helpful to others. It's clever and funny and I can see this being loved by children. This needs to be enjoyed a physical copy, however, as the lifting the flap nature of the book wasn't successful in electronic format.

This book is super cute!
(Although, admittedly it's a little weird to read a "lift the flap" book in digital format... so I'd recommend finding the paper version once it's published.)
The story focuses on two giraffes - one smaller and one taller - and there are a lot of rhyming words involved. Our taller giraffe cannot see because her head is stuck in a cloud, but our smaller friend helps guide her on their walk. (A trust exercise indeed!) Eventually, the cloud begins to rain, and then dissipates so the taller giraffe can see again.
My pre-schooler has asked me to read it again several times already. Sure to be a hit.

What is not to love about Kes Gray books. My kids loved this story so much
It is engaging and bright with brilliant illustrations.

This one will definitely be going into our collection on release day.

To start with, the illustrations in this book are INCREDIBLE!

Torla is a taller-than-average giraffe and she is friends with Smorla, the smaller-than-average giraffe. As they go for a walk together, Torla's head gets stuck in a lower-than-average cloud and she can't see where she is going. No fear though, her friend Smorla leads the way for her.

It's sad that Torla doesn't get to see all of the things they pass: lazier than average lions (so cute), crocodiles doing yoga, hippos playing games, these illustrations seriously are just gorgeous.

My daughter loved this book and we will definitely be buying this one to add to our shelves.

Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC. All thoughts are my own.

The format alone can perk the interest of children in reading this book. I really like the story and a sort of silly redundancy of the words that feels like tongue twisty. Love the dialogue and how the author nailed the lesson on trust and friendship with the story of two giraffes, Torla and Smorla. The art is great too!

Adorable story about two giraffes and one who gets her head stuck in a cloud. Can the smaller-than-average giraffe help her taller-than-average friend navigate around all sorts of obstacles?

There is nothing than average about this book. My initial thoughts were that I was going to loathe tis book for the play on words that would be confusing for children starting out on their reading journeys. I worried about the common sounding pronunciation that drop phonic sounds and the general spelling of words. But here's a prime example of why you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

The story is well thought out. Torla and Smorla are used as names only with the actual words, 'taller,' and 'smaller' being used appropriately. The illustrations are cute, the tall pages are clever, and the use of blank space is fabulous. I really enjoyed the book and can find no fault in it. For the more inquisitive child, it could potentially invite conversations about height, diversity, as well as give them some advanced vocabulary.