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See How You Eat Coach 80/20 diet rule app

Health & Fitness and Lifestyle

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Say NO to calorie counting. Say YES to permanent balance. #nodiet The easiest way to track how you...

DrumJam

Music and Entertainment

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DrumJam is a whole new world of percussion and drums for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Designed...

Haley Mathiot (9 KP) rated Knitting with Gigi in Books

Apr 27, 2018

Knitting with Gigi is an awesome kid’s book for any child (or adult!) who wants to learn to knit. There are good instructions and wonderful illustrations to help learn the basic cast-on (starting), knit stitch, decreasing (making it a different shape), and bind-off (ending). Some knitting books are very difficult to learn how to knit from, but the instructions in Knitting with Gigi are very clear. 8 kid-friendly projects make up the second half of the book, all of them easy to follow and perfect for a beginner.

Gigi also has a website where kids can join the “Gigi’s kindness corps” and knit for those in need. Her website also includes videos of instructions to get to “the next step” so to speak. The videos explain the purl stitch, different cast-on methods, and techniques of finishing. By the time a young knitter has finished the projects in the book and watched and learned the information in the videos, they will be ready to go further into the knitting world.

I want to point out a wonderful thing that Gigi (who speaks in verse) has said: “Practice makes perfect will never apply. We all make mistakes, no matter how hard we try. So be of good cheer and do not despair. With time and some care you’ll have something to wear.” Every young knitter should hear this—and experienced ones, too!

The only thing I wish this book had touched on (but didn’t mention) is gauge. Gauge is important because everyone knits differently (example: I knit loose with wool and tight with double pointed needles, so my hat or mittens or whatever else I made might not fit, even if i followed the instructions 100%) so sometimes yarn or needle changes have to be made to make sure things fit. The patterns in the book were not dependent on gauge, (which is probably why it wasn’t brought up) but it is still an important thing for any knitter to learn.

Recommendation: boys and girls ages 6+. Adults could learn to knit with their kids with this book too!

**Thank you to Martingale and Company for providing my review copy!**

Kudos

Night Reader Reviews (683 KP) rated The Ballad of Sandy McNab in Books

Jan 9, 2020

The Ballad of Sandy McNab by Colin Mackenzie is an interesting childrens book with a very different art style. The back of the book claims that this book will be available as a childrens song (I have not looked for it as of yet). The way the book flows definitely lends itself to being a song.

A little green crab is minding his own business in his home when a shark shows up. The shark tries to trick the crab into going outside by asking him to come out and play. When the crab refuses the shark breaks in and tries to attack him. The little crab is quicker than the shark and pinches it until the shark leaves. With the shark gone the little crab can live peacefully again.

It is hard to pick out just one thing as my favorite when I think the entire book is great. The little crab pinching the sharks nose made me smile and a whale swallowing the shark was an ironic twist I was not expecting. As for what I did not like, its not exactly a complaint this time but more of something that people should be aware of when getting a book (or anything really) that is not from their country. On two pages there was a word that just felt wrong to me. One was barmy which given the context I believe means stupid. The other was nippers which I believe to be claws. While this is not a problem with this book people (like myself) should be prepared for language differences.

Parents will enjoy reading this short book to their children and may find that is is difficult to read it without singing it or adding emphasis on the verbal patterns. Also as children get older this is a book that they will still enjoy reading themselves. I give this childrens book a 4 out of 4 rating like so many others. The story is not overly long or detailed and the author clearly took time to structure a story around the rhymes. It keeps a steady rhythm that is frequently hard to accomplish. The story itself is cute with a crab besting a much larger opponent.

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