the small protagonist

favourite books for heroes small & new chosen by a former book buyer turned mama & blogger

[smallprotagonistbooks]

My smallest protagonist is closing in on 2 years old and is the busiest bee in our house. Books HAVE to be interactive and tactile with things leaping off the page to keep him interested.

Wind-Up Busy Car by @usborne_canada literally drives on each page! This charming book of roads features four scenes with little things to spot on every page. Big chunky pages are easy for little hands to turn. And the little wind-up car is magical every time (without being too noisy or scary, which the battery operated ones are for our little protagonist).

A special book with extra magic. (Psst, hey @usborne_canada please bring these back!) 📚

[smallprotagonistbooks]

What are we currently reading? A favourite in our house right now is @usborne_canada’s Little Lift & Look Garden.

Their Little Lift & Look series is sized small for wee hands, and the flaps are big gatefolds, easy for tiny fingers to enjoy.

Our smallest protagonist has a love for spotting bees in all our books and declaring “buzzzzz” with delight, so garden is a popular title on our shelf. 🐝

Little Lift and Look titles are designed perfectly for busy toddlers with details to spot, simple text, high contrast colours and tough page construction for their curious tug and tear philosophy on exploration 😜📚.

[smallprotagonistbooks]

My Small Protagonist is learning to read. The jump from picture books to readers has been a wild one. Suddenly I have all new priorities when choosing our reading material - so much so that I lost sight of the most important criteria of all: reading has to be an invitation to play. It’s how kids learn.

Happily this @scholasticcda series, by one of our favourite picture book authors aaron blabey (Thelma the Unicorn, Pig the Pug) was the perfect leap towards reading.

The premise? A band of former bad guys on a mission to become the good guys - if only just one of their ill conceived rescue schemes could go right! Hilarious and big-hearted, this comedy series has enough poops and farts to delight your kindie smalls while being chalk-full of nod-and-wink references to every action movie the bigs have ever seen. Plus, amazing puns. (At one point a hyper intelligent velociraptor rides a segway through the story’s segway. *chefs kiss*)

A simple, comic-style format has a mix of sentences and words your small can sound-out with your help and some big bolded stuff they can read themselves.

We love these books so much that we are on our second re-read of this series and eagerly anticipating book 13’s release in July 2021!

[smallprotagonistbooks]

Today it is my delight to review Not Me by Elise Gravel - English via Scholastic Canada. This is one of those picture books that as soon you as look at the cover, you know it’s going to be fun and hilarious. The facial expressions, the bold, colourful text, perfectly designed for a jolly read-aloud, the plot twists! My five year old and I have been enjoying it on repeat.

Recommended for ages 4+up and all parents everywhere. Grandparents too, because you never forget, the Not Me.

See the full post with read-along video at my newly re-launched site! https://www.thesmallprotagonist.ca/ And join my mailing list there to be the first to hear of my upcoming "book boxes" :)

[smallprotagonistbooks]

Next up from our @dkbookscanada Halloween Line Up is: Creak Squeak Halloween

This amazing lift the flap book with sounds is filled with spooky delights and big flaps perfect for little hands. The sounds are triggered by light making this a super fun book to pair with a flashlight in the dark!

Great for preschool aged smalls (and those early reader kindies too thanks to the fun rhymes) and a blast for the smallest of smalls as my 1.5 year old smallest protagonist joyed in every flap (check out the video!).

A great addition to your library 🎃👻

#kidsbookswelove #kidsbookstagram #kidsbookstagrammer #kidsbooksreview #halloweenbooks

[smallprotagonistbooks]

Next up in our @dkbookscanada Halloween Line Up is: Haunted House

We love this haunted house shaped book full of musical spooky sounds! Friendly for smalls ages toddler and up this book delighted both my protagonists aged 5 and 1.5! 🎃👻

The sounds are triggered by light so enjoy this book with a flashlight at nighttime too!

Such a unique Halloween book for your collection. 📚

#kidsbookstagram #kidsbookstagrammer #kidsbookreview #kidsbookswelove #halloweenbooks

[smallprotagonistbooks]

We have some spooky titles today from DK Books in anticipation of Halloween! 🎃👻

- LEGO Halloween Ideas

- Creak Squeak Halloween

- Haunted House

Let’s start with LEGO Halloween Ideas! Packed with Halloween ideas and fun LEGO games and puzzles to play, this funsize book also comes with a spooky scene to build with your small.

We had a lot of fun picking our favourite pages and assembling our spooky scene with skeleton! 💀

#kidsbookswelove #kidsbookstagram #kidsbookstagrammer #kidsbookreviews #halloweenbooks

[smallprotagonistbooks]

Help Your Kids With Computer Science by DK Books was wildly out of my knowledge zone! I wasn’t sure what to expect from a topic I’ve never studied.

This book was super cool and so interesting. I loved that it opened with a two page guide of “how to use this book” with a visual guide of what all the dialogue boxes mean. Love the small reference boxes in this series that shows where the topic you’re reading about shows up in other parts of the book.

I also really appreciated the visuals here on everything from computer languages and hardware to the problem solving used to work in this field.

My bonus blog call out is this page showing all the connected things throughout your home.

IT partners bonus blog call out is this explanation of the famous Boolean logic!

Available from DK Books here: https://www.dk.com/ca/search/help%20your%20kids%20with/

Or Indigo, Chapters and Coles here: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/home/search/?keywords=help%20your%20kids%20with#internal=1

#kidsbookblogger #kidsbookreview #kidsnonfiction #helpyourkidswith #musicforkids #kidsreference

[smallprotagonistbooks]

Help Your Kids With Music by DK Books was a delight for this old pianist to sift through.

I definitely want to teach my smalls about the piano, but like anything you’ve known for a long time, it’s hard to know where to start. The layout of this book shows the building blocks of music in such a simple, logical straight forward way.

So many aha’s for me reading this and remembering. Music is such a rich language, filled with character and feeling yet founded in surprisingly mathematical principles.

For old students like me or brand new grownups, this book is a wonderful guide and rich resource for help.

Bonus blog call out: a page that names all the sections of the orchestra! *swoon*

Available from DK Books here: https://www.dk.com/ca/search/help%20your%20kids%20with/

Or Indigo, Chapters and Coles here: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/home/search/?keywords=help%20your%20kids%20with#internal=1

#kidsbookblogger #kidsbookreview #kidsnonfiction #helpyourkidswith #musicforkids #kidsreference

[smallprotagonistbooks]

The 2020 school year is in session and however your smalls are learning, us grown-ups want to keep up and feel helpful when needed!

That’s why I LOVED getting my hands on a few titles from this excellent series by DK Books

There are loads of subjects available and these handy, easily searchable encyclopedias are perfectly designed for learning, looking up, checking in and helping out!

I’ve reviewed math because: it’s math and we all dread getting to a unit we can’t quite remember.

Then I picked out an area of expertise for each of us grownups! My partner is in IT and I’ve played piano since I was 9 years old.

These guides each start at the very beginner level and progress through. Honestly, helpful from the beginning of your smalls school journey and onward. We shall be coming to these helpful books for many years to come.

Swipe through for Help Your Kids With Math!

We loved the visually compelling and simple layout of this book. All sections include a reference box to other areas of the book that cover the same subject.

I wouldn’t have dreamed anyone could write down complex multiplication or long division in a way that made sense just by looking but the clever use of bold and gray is so helpful here.

Had to visit my old friend Pythagorean’s Theorem again and included a view on volumes too as the visuals are so simple and useful. I finished searching this book confident I could quickly re-learn each school unit and help my kids with their work!

Available from DK Books here: https://www.dk.com/ca/search/help%20your%20kids%20with/

Or Indigo, Chapters and Coles here: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/home/search/?keywords=help%20your%20kids%20with#internal=1

#kidsbookblog #kidsbookreviews #kidsnonfiction #helpyourkidswith #educationalkidsbooks

[smallprotagonistbooks]

Our first “vlog” complete with opening title! Hope you enjoy!

[smallprotagonistbooks]

It’s #FamilyLiteracyDay so I’ve snuck out of Mat Leave to do a little appreciation post for our favourite books!  We were inspired by my Small Protagonist’s school inviting kids to dress up as their favourite book character today. First Up:  Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems via Hachette Books. We love the pigeon so much at our house that on this special day we though he should be allowed to ride the bus.

Second Up:  Hubert’s Hair-raising Adventure by Bill Peet.  A classic from Mama Protagonist’s childhood.  Please join us in splitting a seam to this rhyming classic.  (via @raincoastbooks & HMH Kids) And finally, drumroll, Dragon’s Love Taco’s 1 & 2 by Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri via Penguin Random House (hardcover) and Scholastic Canada (softcover bookclub version). Happy Family Literacy Day from the Protagonist Clan & we hope you enjoy some quality reading with your smalls!  See you back on the regular soon!

[smallprotagonistbooks]

Today we have paired up with DK Canada to bring you two parenting books both by UK based author/children’s food expert Annabel Karmel:  First Meals & Baby’s First Year and a chance to win the set!  See the post for details below! First Meals is divided into informative sections covering everything from baby’s first tastes to meals for early childhood.  Annabel Karmel happily follows the World Health Organizations guidelines for what order to introduce solids to your baby, something I watch out for personally as the mother of a son who began life with a very sensitive gut.  

I was impressed with the introduction to each section as it talked about developmentally where babies, toddlers and children are, what there play and priorities are and how this affects their eating.  Her calm, practical reassurance to get through things like “the beige phase” was refreshing.   The real challenge however, and the reason we review very few kids cookbooks on the blog, was trying a recipe with my small protagonist.  You see, his Mama (me) is a lifetime fussy eater and though my four year old is yards ahead of me, he still qualifies as a “picky eater”.  Our house is a no sauce, no dips, no food touching, no cheese (!) domain.  We headed to the “fun foods” section of this book and the whole family got involved making “chicken nuggets” whose filling had apples and whose coating includes crushed potato chips!  We had a blast letting our small chef add the ingredients and use fun cookie cutter shapes to make the nuggets.  There’s a lot to be said, if you have the time and patience, for letting your child participate in preparing food.  Ours happily tried (and liked!) his creation.  Thumbs up from this tough audience! A really thorough, helpful book for navigating each phase of childhood eating.  

Baby’s First Year is a sweet, whimsically decorated milestone book to capture all the special moments in baby’s first year.  Furnished with lovely touches like envelopes to save locks of hair, we love that the it’s divided by month with room for a monthly photo of baby as they grow.  A charming gift for new parents.   We recommend both these books a shower gifts for new parents.  A lovely set to start you off on your parenting journey with confidence and care.

Comment below on my Facebook or Instagram Post (all entries can be in one comment) :

 - Your favourite kitchen meal or treat to prepare with your small(s) (1 entry)

 - Tag an expecting friend (1 entry for you AND for them)

 - The first food your little one(s) ever tasted (1 entry)

I’ll keep this contest running until Friday, March 1st at 10pm and announce the winner (from random draw) on Monday, March 4th!  Good luck everyone!

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Today’s adorable tiny finger-puppet #boardbooks are:  Baby Orca Finger Puppet Book & Baby Piglet Finger Puppet Book from @raincoastbooks & illustrated by Yu-Hsuan Huang. This sweet series includes a permanent finger puppet in each book for interactive reading and play.  Simple text follows a day in the life of these cute baby animals.  

I’m chuffed these two books are releasing together in mid-March because it let me photograph: orca & piglet super friends!  How cute do they look together?  So cute. There is truly one of these books for everyone’s favourite animal or super friend combo!  A delightful treat in your small’s library and an irresistible gift for babies new or toddling.  Recommended newborn +up (bonus: 3 & 4 year olds love these too!)

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Todays #boardbooks are babys first Colors & babys first 123 from DK Books Canada.  This brightly coloured duo with raised textures and a mix of photographic and illustrative elements are ideally designed for baby & toddlers developing sight and touch.  High contrast and lively (we do love a good rainbow here at the blog) they are a great “grow with me” addition to your library and sweet to add to a shower gift too!  DK makes sturdy, quality books to last and these are no exception.  They are ready to endure years of little hands!

Recommended newborn +up.

[smallprotagonistbooks]

Today’s #boardbook feels perfect for a snow day:  Pigs in a Blanket by Hans Wilhelm, illustrated by Erica Salcedo, via @raincoastbooks.  This charming book of rhyme features “blanket flaps” little hands can open to help three pigs start their day.  A lively day of fun and silly antics makes for a fun read-aloud with busy illustrations chalk-full of things to spot!

Bonus blog call-out:  these pigs do everything together regardless of gender and it’s so nice to see activities like tu-tu wearing ballet normalized for everyone!  A book requested on repeat at our house.  Recommended 2.5+up.

[smallprotagonistbooks]

Are you looking for this year’s Valentine’s Book to share with your small that will live on as a sweet, timeless classic?  This deLIGHTful board book, I Love You, Little One from DK Canada, will charm you and your babe. Featuring a cover with a light up moon and a gorgeous colour palette of animals telling their little ones how much they love them, this sweet little book is the perfect gift to parents & smalls.  Cuddle up for a bedtime of moon gazing with animals around the world, on land and sea. We love the animal choices, silhouette artwork and expressions of love on each page.  A book easily read to your baby, your toddler, your small child...just an excellent addition to the library.  Wonderful shower gift too!  Recommended newborn+up, for adoring parents & their smalls near and far.