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Review: Carnie Vore

Last year children's Author Athena Phillips wrote and published her first book, Herbie's Happy Birthday which is amazing and now she is back with a second book called Carnie Vore Helps With Chores. 

In this book, we are introduced to Herbie's cousin Carnie, an adorable little dinosaur who enjoys helping out around the house. Athena "wrote this book to encourage children to be more of a helper in the world." It definitely does that. I'm going to share my thoughts on it.



The cover of the book is absolutely beautiful. It's bright and colourful and I love the purple theme of the room. Purple is my favourite colour so of course I do! The title is written in big font and block letters which makes it easy for children to read. It is a very attractive cover that I think people will be drawn to when they are looking in a library or bookshop.

The story follows a day in the life of Carnie. We get to see what she does each day, from waking up, playing, doing work and going to bed which is great. The large and bold font is easy to read and it is good that each page only has one or two sentences because children might be overwhelmed by two many words on the page. Every sentence ends with a rhyme. "Carnie Vore the Dinosaur woke up one sunny day. She hopped out of her bed, ready to go play." Rhyming teachers children how language works and helps them notice and work with the sounds within words. When children are familiar with a rhyming book, they learn to anticipate the rhyming word which prepares them to make predictions when they read. That is an important reading skill.

Children can relate to Carnie, because in the story she sees Herbie and her friend Mouse waiting for her and she would rather play with them then do chores. I think all children are like that. I like the method the grandmother uses to get Carnie to help her. She turns putting toys away into a little game by saying. "How many toys can you put in this bin?" As well as cleaning, Carnie also learns to count as she puts her toys away. She also learns about colours when her grandmother tells her to put clothes into a dark pile and light pile. So there are lots of other skills children can learn while helping with chores. Parents can learn and use that to get their own children interested in contributing to their households. Carnie's last chore was to bake muffins. She's learning cooking skills and I think that is a great way to finish off chores for the day, by baking something delicious to share with family and friends. It is a small reward for helping out and Carnie may have worked up an appetite doing all those chores.

Carnie is a sweet little girl who enjoys helping around the house. She shows kids that it is good to do chores and they can be fun. This book encourages them to help their families and others and become kind people. That's what everyone should be, helpful and kind to each other.

The illustrations by Meredith Mills are beautiful. Congratulations to Meredith and Athena on another wonderful book! I highly recommend that anyone with children purchases a copy. Parents, teachers, friends, anyone, get on it!

Carnie Vore Helps With Chores is available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

Athena Phillips is a wonderful author who has made me want to write even more and got me interested in the process of writing and publishing a book. I already have a few ideas for a childre's book I would like to write.


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