Let's Get Ready for Bed by Michael W. Smith and Mike Nawrocki (children's book review)
Bedtime is such an endearing time for my family. I love rocking the baby to sleep, scratching my girl's back before bed, reading the Bible or a story to my big boys. They get in bed, under their covers, and my husband and I kiss each of them goodnight. It's a sweet time in our house, not usually as chaotic as I've heard other families say. I'm very thankful for this time with our kids.
Each night we read out of the Bible - right now it's the Action Bible. However, we really do like to read bedtime stories, too. We read Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons just last night (all the kids were giggling! It was great!). I was really excited to see that Michael W. Smith had teamed with Mike Nawrocki (co-creator of Veggie Tales and Larry the Cucumber's voice) to write "Let's Get Ready for Bed." I was expecting something very lyrical that would be a good addition to our routine.
The book is about Eddy the bear and Lamby the sheep looking for their buddy, Sleepy Puppy. I think it starts oddly; I had to make sure I hadn't skipped a page because it seems like you've missed something. But I hadn't; they are just randomly searching for their friend at bedtime. They go watch his bedtime routine of a bath, putting on jammies, brushing his teeth, saying his prayers, reading a book, and then he realizes that he's forgotten something - a song. Then out pop his friends (who have been watching this whole time) to sing him a song.
The book does rhyme but is not really lyrical like I was hoping. I was thinking it would be more along the lines of Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson. That was a little disappointing for me but that's my personal opinion. I highly favor books that are lyrical!
The premise of the book was just odd to me. Why were these friends watching his bedtime routine? Why didn't the authors choose the perspective of Sleepy Puppy like in Just Me in the Tub by Mercer Mayer? It just was weird to me, like I said.
My final disappointment lay in the song associated with the book. On the cover it says that you can look on this website to hear the song from the book! I love when books come with songs! We have several Pete the Cat songs from the first few books that came as downloads with the book. "Let's Get Ready for Bed" did come with a song sung by Michael W. Smith even - but it wasn't the song from the book. It was "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Great song, great singer...just not what the cover promised. And you cannot download it but can listen to it on SoundCloud or on your browser. When I get a song from a book, I like to download it to my computer so I can put it on my phone to listen to later with the kids. I guess I could do the same with looking the song up on the website every time, but it's not the same.
All in all, this is a fine book. It was just not what I expected.
Disclaimer: I received this book in order to write an honest review. All opinions are my own and may not be the same as yours. Links in this review will link to AmazonSmile who gives a small portion of sales to different organizations. These links, if used to buy the book, will support Emmaus University in Haiti.
Each night we read out of the Bible - right now it's the Action Bible. However, we really do like to read bedtime stories, too. We read Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons just last night (all the kids were giggling! It was great!). I was really excited to see that Michael W. Smith had teamed with Mike Nawrocki (co-creator of Veggie Tales and Larry the Cucumber's voice) to write "Let's Get Ready for Bed." I was expecting something very lyrical that would be a good addition to our routine.
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| image via BookLook blogging program |
The book does rhyme but is not really lyrical like I was hoping. I was thinking it would be more along the lines of Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson. That was a little disappointing for me but that's my personal opinion. I highly favor books that are lyrical!
The premise of the book was just odd to me. Why were these friends watching his bedtime routine? Why didn't the authors choose the perspective of Sleepy Puppy like in Just Me in the Tub by Mercer Mayer? It just was weird to me, like I said.
My final disappointment lay in the song associated with the book. On the cover it says that you can look on this website to hear the song from the book! I love when books come with songs! We have several Pete the Cat songs from the first few books that came as downloads with the book. "Let's Get Ready for Bed" did come with a song sung by Michael W. Smith even - but it wasn't the song from the book. It was "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Great song, great singer...just not what the cover promised. And you cannot download it but can listen to it on SoundCloud or on your browser. When I get a song from a book, I like to download it to my computer so I can put it on my phone to listen to later with the kids. I guess I could do the same with looking the song up on the website every time, but it's not the same.
All in all, this is a fine book. It was just not what I expected.
Disclaimer: I received this book in order to write an honest review. All opinions are my own and may not be the same as yours. Links in this review will link to AmazonSmile who gives a small portion of sales to different organizations. These links, if used to buy the book, will support Emmaus University in Haiti.
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