A children's book review blog

Bookish Dad

Honest reviews from a guy who has read The Very Hungry Caterpillar approximately one billion times.

13 honest reviews · 7 essays · read together, at bedtime, out loud

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I Hate Children's Books That Make No Sense (My 4-Year-Old Disagrees)

One of my favorite parts of the movie "Elf".. actually scratch that. I'm a card-carrying Millennial. ALL of "Elf" is my favorite part. Do you know the part where they are introducing Buddy the Elf's dad Walter Hobbs to the viewers? They ...

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In Defense of Junie B. Jones (and Other Bad Influences)

"Oh I would never read Junie B. Jones to my kids, she's such a bad influence!" If you are a parent of a 5+ child you've probably heard this before. Luckily I didn't hear it before I first started reading the Junie B. Jones series to my k...

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How to Read a Graphic Novel Out Loud Without Losing Your Mind (or Your Voice)

Every parent wants to get their kid to love reading. Ok, not all parents (no judgement.. mostly), but I'd say it's mostly a consensus that reading is an activity worth pursuing. Video games? That one's still up in the air (I'm pro btw, a...

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Reviews Worth Starting With

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Goodnight Moon: The Book I'd Gift Every New Parent, Even Though They Already Have It

Goodnight Moon is such a classic that it's possibly the book that got me so interested in children's books in general. It's one of those books where you read it for the first time and it doesn't make a lot of sense. But there's something...

★★★★★
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The Berenstain Bears Get the Gimmies: The Gimmies Start With the Parents, and This Book Knows It

Every single dinner in our house needs to end with a dessert, and my kids will use every line in the book to get it. "Oh, but I ate my vegetables." "Oh, but I always get it." "Oh, but my little brother got one yesterday that was really b...

★★★★★
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The Berenstain Bears' Bedtime Battle: Finally, a Berenstain Bears Book Written for Me. That's the Problem.

In order to get my kids upstairs, finally, to start getting ready for bed, we'll turn it into a game, a "chase me up the stairs" kind of game where either I chase them or they chase me. From my perspective it's clearly just a really fast...

★★★★★
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The Berenstain Bears and the Bully: The One Where the Solution Is Boxing Lessons

When she was in Kindergarten, my daughter didn't like PE for one specific reason. Every time it was a PE day at school, she'd come home with a new horror story to tell of what antics a certain classmate was up to. Only going after her wh...

★★★★★
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The Berenstain Bears and the Ghost of the Forest: No Moral, Good Prank, and Mama Gets to Be the Naughty One

The idea of Papa Bear going out into the woods in the middle of the night to scare his own cubs is maybe a little over the top. It's all in good fun, apparently, but I can imagine the more real life version where this completely backfire...

★★★★★
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