Guardian Angel Publishing Review

Guardian Angel Publishing offers an interesting selection of childrens books geared at ages 0-12.  They are unique in that they offer their books not only in print form, but also as an e-book on cd and as instant download e-book.

Here are the books we received to review:

Earthquake by Susan J. Berger This book about Earthquakes empowers your kids with information and preparedness. What causes earthquakes? Can we predict them? How are earthquakes measured? How do we prepare for them? There are lots of fun factoids and a few experiments. (Learn how to make your own seiche.) What was the biggest earthquake? Find out here.

I can definitely see making this book into a lapbook or notebook in the future.  Although it’s geared towards kids ages 6-9, I think it would be a great resource for all ages.  Munchkin enjoyed the factoids and illustrations in this book.  This book is packed with information, but it is presented in an way that isn’t overwhelming.  Our highlight? Learning about earthquake safety and what we need to make an earthquake preparation kit.  (We’re use to hurricanes, so this was helpful for us.)

Hamster Holidays by Cynthia Reeg  A troupe of hamsters celebrate a year of hare-brained holidays in their unique hamster style. The book highlights nouns and adjectives on each page, as well as exploring opposites. Activity pages include scrambled words, match-up and crossword puzzles—plus much more. Grammar becomes fun and games with hamster helpers.

I’m always looking for different ways to reinforce grammar concepts for Munchkin.  This book is a fun way to incorporate grammar review into your day.  The nouns in the book are highlighted in blue while the adjectives are highlighted in red.  It includes fun activity pages for the kids.  Munchkin loved the illustrations and said that it didn’t even feel like she was doing school work with this type of review!  The suggested ages for this book are 5-12.  I plan on checking out the additional books in this pet grammar parade series.

Maybe We Are Flamingos by Safari Sue Thurman  Flora and Fernando are the wrong color for flamingos. They wonder what they could be until they discover becoming pink can take a year, and staying pink is due to their diet. At last relieved, they draw funny pictures of how they might look if they ate broccoli or blueberries.

This is a cute book about the importance of not judging ourselves/others based upon what is on the outside, but rather by what is on the inside.  Once Flora and Fernando figure this out, they are able to have some fun creating “what if we ate…” pictures.  We enjoyed the illustrations and storyline in this book.  While this particular book was well below Munchkin’s reading level, she think my nieces (1st and pre-K) would have a lot of fun reading it.  The suggested ages for this book are 3-9.

The Sum of our Parts: No Bones about It by Bill Kirk  Learning the bones in the human body can be a challenge for anyone. Using this clever learning tool in rhyme may be just what you’ve been looking for, no bones about it. You’ll be amazed at how fast you will be able to learn them from head to toe. Study the bones, find fun factoids, take the quiz, discover the mystery bones.

The information contained in this book is great and is presented in an easy to digest format.  We enjoyed all of the factoids.  Unfortunately, Munchkin did not like the illustrations; she said they were creepy.  Due to this fact, I needed to read her the book without her looking at the illustrations.  Some kids may enjoy the illustrations, but it was not a good fit for our family.  The suggested ages for this book are 8-13.

Stubby’s Destiny by Dixie Phillips  An inspirational story about a defeated donkey, Stubby, who feels he was born wrong. He was just about to give up when divine destiny tapped him on the shoulder. He was chosen to carry the King of Kings upon his back. “Stubby’s Destiny” will bring hope to hurting children who feel their situation is hopeless.

We all have unique, God-given talents and gifts even though we may not be able to see them at different times in our lives.  God has a purpose for each of us.  This book could help children find value in what the Lord has chosen for their lives. While this book was below Munchkin’s reading level, she enjoyed the story and illustrations.  She thinks that younger kids would enjoy it even more.

Our overall impressions:

We received the e-book format for all of these books.  I can see some advantages to the e-book form especially in the science & grammar related books.  We were able to print out the different activities and specific pages as we wanted to use them.  This would also be great if you couldn’t find or get the books that you needed on a subject, or you needed something last minute.  For the regular storybooks, we personally would prefer the printed form of the book.  Munchkin likes to curl up and read her books in bed or on the window seat.

Guardian Angel has a good selection of books that are well written with nice illustrations.  They are coming out with a dvd format on some of the books.  (Munchkin would have loved that when she was younger.)  They are also an eco friendly company; they only print out books as they are ordered.  You can learn more about that here.

All e-books that we reviewed are available for purchase for $5.00.  Prices vary from $9.95 – $11.95 for the cd books, print books, and dvds.

Guardian Angel Publishing also offers several free e-books on their website.  Here are just a couple:

• Hope the Angelfish: A Vision in Darkness
• Pathway of Pastor Prickly Pete

You’ll want to check out the rest of their freebies including musical e-books and coloring pages here.