Friday, July 18, 2014

The Adventures of Prince Iggy Series by Aldo Flynn



Prince Iggy and the Kingdom of Naysayer is an imaginative, magical epic fantasy adventure for young readers. It is so entertaining and comical that I, a 35 year old adult, sat down and read it all in one sitting.

Prince Iggy and the Kingdom of Naysayer delivers a message about bullying and believing in yourself without beating you over the head with it. When we meet Iggy at the beginning of the story he is a hopeless, bullied orphan with no friends. As the story moves on he learns that he is more than what others says about him and he begins to develop self confidence.

Prince Iggy and the Kingdom of Naysayer will delight your kids, keep them interested and even cause them to laugh out loud. The only reason that I’m giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is because the author uses two curse words (Not the worse ones, but unnecessary in my opinion) in the story and as a parent I think parents should know what their child is reading. If your child is younger than 12, you should read with your child so that you can discuss the language and the bullying, that goes on in the book, at times the bullying is hardcore.

This book was so enjoyable and ended at a cliffhanger that I immediately read the next one cover to cover in one sitting. I HAD to know what happened to Iggy.



Prince Iggy & the Tower of Decisions is a great sequel to the first book. The author delivers another fun-filled, action packed adventure. Once again, I read the book cover to cover in one sitting. The author is so good with cliffhangers. 

In this sequel Prince Iggy goes an adventure in the sky, gets to meet a star and lets go of self doubt and some things from his past.

This book is also full of some important lessons as well. Iggy must overcome the self-doubt that is causing him anxiety. The author is really good at capturing these pre-adolescent emotions that all kids go through.
 I can’t wait to read the third one and find out what happens to Prince Iggy.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

From My Bookshelf to Yours: Buttons the Brave Blue Kitten by Kristina Sargent, MSW


Meet Kristina Sargent. She is an Early Childhood Mental Health Therapist. She works with young children and their families in both an outpatient and school based setting. She also has an undergraduate degree in art and creative writing. Buttons the Brave Blue Kitten is the first book that she has written and illustrated.  Kristina states that she intended this book to help children develop empathy and give adults the skills to reinforce its development. Click Here to visit Kristina's blog.

Buttons the Brave Blue Kitten




I LOVED this book! It is a precious story about a little blue cat who not only learns how to identify his feelings but to identify how others feel (empathy). He shares with his grandma that he is afraid to go to his 1st day of school and they come up with a super special way to say goodbye.




I am a children and adolescent therapist and plan to use this book with my little clients to help them learn about empathy and practice identifying others' feelings. It is written in child friendly language and the illustrations are adorable. I recommend this book for parents, teachers and counselors. 

On Ms. Sargent's website there are worksheets that you can use after you read the story. I have placed the links here to make them quickly and easily accessible to you.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FREE PRINTABLE COLORING ACTIVITY of Buttons' faces above.

Click HERE for the printable feelings cube shown below.
Kristina's furry-feelings-printable-activity-for-children


To order Buttons the Brave Blue Kitten  Click Here or go to Amazon