Colorful Children's Books Keep Children Happy And Engaged

Children's books and toddlers books are some of the most colorful items that grace the front windows of bookstores. This is an age when a majority of the population worldwide has decided to go for everything other than books as mode of learning and entertainment. Book lovers worldwide are frowned upon as bookworms. All this happens despite people knowing that books are the best source of learning and knowledge. We believe, when someone buys books for their toddlers and children, they are possibly giving them the best gifts possible. Children's books and toddlers books are full of color and life and they make everyone happy and educate at the same time.
Buying the best children's books and toddlers books is easy. They can be found in all book stores and kid stores. The advantage with toddlers and children is that almost everything is new for them. As a result, colorful children's books and toddlers books keep them happy and engaged. As it is, toddlers and children keep their parents on their toes. Attractive children's books and toddlers' books keep toddlers and children engaged for long periods of time and let the parents catch up on some much needed rest.
It is a fact that children's books and toddlers' books bring learning and happiness to everyone. Toddlers and children learn by going through the colorful pages that depict words, colorful characters and more. There are many parents who read stories to their toddlers and children before the young ones hit the bed. If parents had to read from some drab book containing rows and columns of text, they themselves would likely fall asleep. The pictures and the colors on children's books and toddlers' books keep them interesting to all. They paint the pictures of the stories in the books and captivate everyone's attention. Many smile, remembering the old times, when Mom and Dad read to us and the shared pictures in books, with fondness and happiness.
The modern children's books and toddlers books come with cds that use narration to explain the content of the books. So, the children see colorful images of characters and hear the words to maximize interest and attention. The learning gets reinforced and fortified. Parents always enjoy spending time with their kids and sharing the best books while helping their children's minds grow and learn.
The best children's books and toddlers' books available in the market ensure that the kids learn while they play. They have the ability to keep children hooked for hours. Using children's books and toddlers' books to enable kids to learn is the best way to help them learn. With an expansive range available in various languages and containing stories and pictures from around the world, children's books and toddlers' books are a sure shot way for parents and kids to learn from each other.
Through children's books and toddlers' books, parents get to spend quality time with their kids, helping create bonds that can remain strong for ever. It has been observed that kids learn language faster and do better in school if books are introduced early in their life. Both children and their parents get to enjoy the color, stories and characters of the books brought into their lives.

My Reading Goals For 2012

I can not believe another year is about to come to a close. 2011 has been a year of many milestones for me. On the blogging front it was my second full year of blogging and it found me far surpassing my goal of reading 80 books, reading the most books I've ever read in one year, with 97 books total read! I also got to make it to the Book Blogger Convention in New York for the first time which was wonderful to get to enjoy meeting a bunch of other book bloggers and trade stories. On a more personal front, I turned 30 this year which was a big milestone for me and I celebrated that by going to Bali. I also got engaged to the love of my life, Rob, and we will be enjoying planning a fun wedding next year which I am really looking forward to!
So, now, without further ado, here are my reading stats for 2011:
In total I read: 97 Books!
Most Books Read in One Month: March, April, May, July, and August all tie for 9 titles each!
Total Number of A and B rated books: 74 (woohoo!)
Total Number of C, D, and F rated books: 23
Total number of pages read: 26,144 (1,801 more than last year!)
I am pleased with the above because this means I really achieved my goals from last year. One of the big ones was to continue to get to know myself as a reader. This blog and keeping a reading journal was supposed to help me better pick out the books that I love over and over again. Seeing that I enjoyed 76% of the books I read this year as compared to 68% last year means I am definitely improving my hit rate!
My other goal for this last year was to have fun with blogging and I most certainly did, and I have you to thank for that!
My Reading Goals for 2012. I can pretty much guarantee that with planning a wedding I won't be able to read as many books as I did in 2011. However, what I do hope is that I have continued success with the books that I read being books that I love. I want to be able to share books that are wonderful with you and to make the time that I do have for reading as enjoyable as possible.
Additionally, I hope to focus on the genres that I know I love and have always brought me enjoyment: women's fiction and historical fiction.

The Cobra by Frederick Forsyth

Those who remember the earlier works of the writer Frederick Forsyth will be keenly anticipating The Cobra. Those who haven't read him for a long time may afford to approach the book as a new reader. Though his reputation for writing page turners (so exciting in fact you would stay up late to find out what happened next) would definitely affect your judgment positively when you take a decision whether to read The Cobra or not.
Everything at His Disposal
At the same time, it must be said The Cobra is different from the earlier novels from Frederick Forsyth. The concept of the book is the first reason. The Cobra is the nickname of the retired CIA operative who is entrusted a task by the US president to destroy the drug cartels of the world. Cobra asks for carte blanche to accomplish the task (which means he doesn't believe the task is impossible). Men, money, resources – he has everything at his disposal.
First Stage Belongs To Preparation
He spends one year for the preparation of the task. For the readers, however, it means nothing exciting (no action) takes place in the first half of the book. Although the readers are aware the drug cartels are utterly ruthless and that they engage in plenty of violence, the book doesn't turn out to be that scary after all. The book is fairly detailed when it talks about the preparation stage, you would enjoy every detail given in the first stage of The Cobra.
Twists Are There In The Cobra
Those used to this genre of writing expect twists and you will find them here too (though you cannot confine the book to the thriller genre only). The climax is really surprising and you don't really know anything when you reach the end and you reach there unexpectedly. The Frederick Forsyth book will just fascinate you if you like to see details and keep track of all you have read. Several wheels have been put in motion in one go, and it takes work to keep track of them all. There is a handy list of the characters given in the book and you may need to refer to them time to time unless you have a great memory.
Is It Completely Fiction?
Remember, everything is not going to be obvious from the first page itself, you need to figure out many things as you read The Cobra. If you lose track of what some of the characters are doing there, there is a gist of the paragraph given which will help you find it out. Overall it is an international intriguing thriller and you never know which part is fiction and what has come from real life events.

Strange Tales Of Liaozhai Is A Well-Known Collection Of Short Stories

Strange Tales of Liaozhai is a well-known collection of short stories written by Pu Songlin (1640-1715 AD) of the Qing Dynasty. The work is called “the No.1 book about vixen spirits and ghosts“. The study of the author was named “Liaozhai“ (literally meaning “amake-do studio“), hence the name of the book. It is said that Pu Songlin ran a teahouse outside his home, offering tea free of charge to passers-by, from whom he gathered material for the novel in return.
In the Ming Dynasty, there was a pair of brothers in Shanxi, Wang Chongwen and Wang Chongwu. Chongwen became a scholar when he was young and he thought he could make rapid advancement in his career, but he failed time by time. In order to begin his official career, he turned to ghosts in hopes of good destiny. At night, Chongwen met a beautiful woman named Meiniang, who claimed to be the daughter of the education official and flee here to find her father after being forced to get married by her stepmother. Hearing this, Chongwen was very happy and hid Meiniang in the study, considering that he could take her to find her father as he took the imperial examination. But it turned out that Meiniang was actually an evil ghost with a painted skin. Chongwen slept with Meiniang, who drank his blood and fished out his heart. Thanks to Chongwu’s master, who arrived after being invited by Chongwu and killed the evil ghost through hardships and difficulties. Finally, Chongwen was back from the death and started a new life.
Strange Tales of Liaozhai contains a total of 491 short stories, all of which are fascinating and colorful, with vivid character portrayal. A lot of the stories are about the worlds of human beings, ghosts and spirits. The most well-known stories include Xiao Qian, Xi Fangping, The Cricket and The Painted Skin etc. These stories are extremely popular and widely spread.
Through the stories of vixen spirits and ghosts, Strange Tales of Liaozhai indirectly reflects the social contradictions and people's thoughts and wishes of the 17th century China. Since the 19th century, the work has been translated into a dozen or so languages, becoming spiritual wealth shared by all people in the world. It’s also been adapted into numerous movies and TV series.

Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix

When the book Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix came out, everyone was asking the same question – will the book live up to the expectations created by the media hype? The first book had already become a literary legend. More importantly, was it possible to enjoy the book even if the readers hadn't read through numerous pages of previous books? Thankfully, the answer was – YES!
The Habit of Reading Was Back In Vogue
The previous book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire came out about three years ago accompanied with huge uproar of universal praise. The launch of Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix was really important in the history of reading, since the public libraries just lost their source of funding and the teenagers were gradually moving towards video games and movies. Parents were lamenting that kids were losing the art of reading. Suddenly all the kids were found partying around the idea of reading a book. That's not all; even their parents joined the fun.
Keenly Awaited
This is the fifth book of the series which was eagerly awaited due to the cliff hanger ending of the previous book. The ending of the fourth book created anticipation, due to return of Lord Voldemort to human form so he could rebuild his army. He was determined he would only allow the pure blood wizards to exist. The fourth book was darker and compelling. It only ensured the Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix was even greater in stature and in terms of the story.
Harry Is Not Flawless
The portrayal of Harry Potter in the movies tends towards obnoxiousness because he is treated as a symbol of perfection. In the books, he has never been flawless, in fact he also throws tantrums and he has been wrong in several cases. He feels abnormally awkward around the girls, though his flaws only improve the quality of the book. The readers feel that Harry is a character just like them and it only makes him more popular than ever.
The Government Doesn't Believe Harry
The followers of Voldemort are known as the Death Eaters and those who are fighting against them are known as The Order of the Phoenix. The government, however, doesn't believe what Harry is saying (about the return of Voldemort) as they think Harry is only trying to attract attention. The Ministry of Magic takes over the school and starts destroying all the real learning processes by inserting too many rules and censorship in the learning process. Overall, the book Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix is much more intense and it's a creditable achievement for J K Rowling to maintain her sense of humour in such a book.