Book Review: Hugo & The Moment of Truth

Katie February 19, 2014 0 Comments

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial. Hugo the Happy Starfish is back in “The Moment of Truth”.  After waking up late, Hugo heads off to where he is supposed to be and tries to act like nothing has happened.  Except once people start asking him why he was late, he starts making up all sorts of stories.  Then he ends up sneaking a piece of candy without asking permission and when he is confronted about it, he lies again! Once he does confess, he thinks he is off the hook because eventually he told the truth.  But his friend Charisma explains that it doesn’t really count if you don’t tell the truth until after you have been found out.  She tells him that telling the truth is important and that if he just told her he liked the candy, she probably would have given him a piece!  Hugo learned a very important lesson about telling the truth and integrity.

This is another great story with a great lesson from Hugo the Happy Starfish.  Lying doesn’t achieve anything except make your friends lose their trust in you.  Something that everyone should learn about!

About the Book

Come on a sea adventure with HUGO THE HAPPY STARFISH as he finds out that HAPPINESS begins withINTEGRITY.

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH (THE ISLAND OF INTEGRITY) contains a great educational lesson about learning to do the right thing. It explains what trust is all about, how it is built and how important it is for a friendship.

On the ISLAND OF INTEGRITY Hugo learns that that it is better to be honest in the first place and what the consequences can follow dishonesty, lying and stealing.

Hugo is a little starfish whose home is at the bottom of the wide ocean. He longs to visit the real world, and one day he decides to go and find it. Hugo’s journey to happiness isn’t quite as straightforward as he hopes though. He is sent to a series of different islands where he is taught important character lessons.
By the end of his journey, Hugo has visited fourteen islands, made many more friends, and, most importantly, learned how to be a better starfish.

‘HUGO THE HAPPY STARFISH – ISLAND ADVENTURES’ is packed with life lessons for kids, showing them the importance of appreciation, patience, tolerance and optimism amongst others.

Teaching children life skills can be tricky, but with this exciting book your kids will come across some of the most important lessons there are to be learned. Like Hugo, their journey to the real world will be full of character lessons along the way.

In Hugo, children, parents, and educators will discover a lovable and engaging role model with whom they can identify.

The story consists of 28 gorgeous illustrations showing a colorful and magical underwater world.

Children will laugh at the delightful characters, hold their breaths in suspense and love to read this story over and over.

The book is suitable as a read aloud book for preschoolers or a self-read book for older children.

The book comes with a number of worksheets which are downloadable at no cost on our website.
The book is offered in two editions (a version with Spanish introductory vocabulary and an English only version) as well as in different languages such as German, Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese.

There are more HUGO THE HAPPY STARFISH stories waiting to be discovered. Make sure to read THE LAST BULLY and THE SECRET TO HAPPINESS, THE MAGIC OF THE MOMENT, ONE STEP AT ATIME and many more.

Through his adventures, Hugo learns many valuable lessons of character, life skills, and ecological alertness – all amid the backdrop of a magical underwater world and mystical islands.
The stories were developed in conjunction with the author’s teaching experience at an International Baccalaureate® School and they support the different learner profiles and attitudes of the IB PYP curriculum.

Get your copy today and be sure to look out for more quality Kindle Books published by HAPPY LANGUAGE KIDS PUBLICATIONS!

www.MyStarfish.org

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Book Review: It Happened in Wisconsin

Katie February 19, 2014 0 Comments

It Happened in Wisconsin is the story of the Racine Robins. They are a baseball team during the Great Depression in the late 1930s.  The team is pretty good, but their baseball season gets side tracked a bit due to a snowstorm.  The players mentions that it shouldn’t be snowing during baseball season.  (Funny, because just last year there were games postponed due to snow in the MLB and that was a bit of a rarity!)  The team is forced to stop driving and find a hotel to crash at.  Once at the hotel, things with the team begin to fall apart.

All of the characters have their own personalities and dreams and while the baseball was being played they seemed to be getting along but while they are stuck in the hotel, there are temptations all around.  Some of them are missing their loves back home, others are finding new loves in the hotel.

I was expecting this book to have a bit more baseball in it than it did – the majority of the book was them at this hotel due to the storm. The story also seemed to bounce around a bit – but I think that is the “fault” of the narrator who is looking back on everything that happened rather than telling it as it happened. While it makes for a bit of bouncing – it is reminiscent of if you were talking to someone who is elderly about their stories of the past.

I received a free e-copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

2013 Winner — Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award — General Fiction

In an America ravaged by the Great Depression, a talented but ragtag baseball team sets out to change the world. Barnstorming the back roads and dusty ballparks of the Midwest, the Racine Robins rally fans to the populist cause, raising money for soup kitchens and strike funds even as they thrill small-town crowds and dazzle opponents on the field. Yet winning the hearts and minds of the people turns out to be easier for the players than facing the twin seductions of love and money, conflicting desires that threaten to derail everything they are fighting to achieve.

After a sudden April snowstorm forces the Robins to find shelter in the Rockefeller hotel, the team begins to pull apart. Tensions mount—one player falls in love for the first time—and old friendships threaten to unravel as the men face temptations and ambition. Can this tough, tight-knit group stay true to its great cause when dreams and longing come knocking?