Book Review: Backpack Explorer: Beach Walk
Katie 
Backpack Explorer: Beach Walk is all about taking a beach adventure! It starts out with suggesting things you should bring in your backpack – like this book and something to write with, some toys, sunscreen, etc. The back of the book has 12 stickers that look like patches so when you find something at the beach that matches one of the “I See It!” stickers, you can stick it in the book! There are tips for going to the beach and some fun games you can play at the beach. As someone who grew up near the beach, I always kind of took it for granted and never looked for any of these fun items. Maybe I’ll have to go on an adventure this summer and make up for lost time!
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. This book will be released April 16 from Storey Publishing.
About the Book
Backpack Explorer: Beach Walk is packed with prompts and activities, including 12 interactive field guides (for shells, jellyfish, and more), sensory scavenger hunts, science experiments such as a Stick Sundial, games, and simple projects including food chain match-ups and driftwood fish. Equipped with a real magnifying glass, stickers, and a beach log for recording shoreline sightings and adventures, this book is the perfect takealong for any beach adventure.
This is a great book for a beginning reading that goes over everything that Kat Makes! It is a very short book but has a lot of great content. Easy read. Great for new readers.
Kahlo’s Koalas is a 1,2,3 count with me book. Each number is represented by a different artist and a different animal done in the style or likeness of that artist. It counts from 1-10 and has really great illustrations in the style of some very famous artists. At the end of the book it features each artist and says how each artist would have painted the animals if they had the chance to. Really fun to look at!
As someone who is currently attempting online dating and failing miserably, I had to see that I was not alone. This book is made up of a bunch of bizarre and funny responses from guys who matched on Tinder. Unfortunately the blog that this book is based from no longer seems to exist which is a shame because I am sure that it would have brought me lots of laughs because if there is one thing that online dating has taught me it is that GUYS ARE WEIRD. So, so, so weird. (And a lot don’t check their typos and end up asking you lots of things about their… duck.) In fact I may just end up writing my own book (or at least a blog) about my adventures in not-dating. (Just have to find the free time between this blog (which im failing at updating, im aware), working, traveling, and grad school…)
I like reading books about baseball, but there really isn’t too much about the game itself that end up being new or interesting. However, this book took something I already know something about and expanded on it in a way that was new and exciting. Each chapter is about a different type of pitch that can be done in the game of baseball. Throughout each chapter, the author talks to some of the pitchers who excelled at and were known for that pitch as well as some of the hitters who faced them. This was really interesting and the different types of pitches and what you can do with them is not something I usually think or read about, so I liked that this book gave me some more insight. The author also did his homework and it was really great to see how many pitchers and hitters he was able to include in each chapter.
Oh No is a collection of comics about being a disappointment or being disappointed. Every panel ends in the character saying “Oh no” after something happens – or doesn’t happen, as it were. It made me laugh many times, and the illustrations are just perfect for the subject matter I think. And I could relate to a lot of the comics as well.
We’re Not Sixteen anymore is a book about what happens when a 60ish widow starts using dating apps/sites to try and start dating again. I was curious to see if there are the same problems with trying to date at 60 as trying to date in your mid-30s. Becky certainly ended up going on a lot more dates than I have, but a lot of the struggles and problems she had with the guys were the same. We actually each had an incident at the Cheesecake Factory – though I will say that hers turned out a lot better than mine. (She ended up with her guy – mine walked away at the sight of me never to be heard from again.)
Know Yourself is a book of questions. Each page poses a question for yourself – like what is your favorite room in the house? What do you think about before you go to sleep? I tried to see which questions I was able to come up with answer for right away, which one I had to think about, and which answer I wasn’t very happy with to try and figure out more about myself and maybe what bad habits I have and should attempt to change. (And I probably should have kept track of how many answers had something to do with Hanson. Geez. LOL)