Mister Lemur’s Train of Thought – iBook Review and Giveaway of Signed Book and CD

Mister Lemur’s Train of Thought by Mister Lemur is an iBook and is also available as a hardcover print book. Mister Lemur is the pen name of Jen and Hans Hartvickson. The book won the 2011 Gold medal for Children’s Poetry from the Moonbeam Children’s book awards. It is aimed at children from 1st grade up, and is a substantial collection of short rhyming stories. It has optional narration with word highlighting as it is read. It contains no adverts, social media links or in-app purchases.

I first came across this ibook last May and my son (then 8 years old) and I spent a lot of time last summer reading the collection together. We’d each take turns reading a poem out loud and then talk and laugh about them. There was plenty of material to keep us occupied as the collection includes 66 poems and is over 150 pages long. The poems range from half a dozen lines to several pages long, and each tells it own story. Often the authors take an everyday occurrence and turn it around to look at it from a different perspective. Above all the stories are just fun to read and encourage the child to use their imagination to see where it will take them.

The collection starts “Come and ride the train of thought it doesn’t matter where. To ride you simply close your eyes or pick a spot and stare. Sometimes you’ll be the engineer, sometimes you’re on the ride, and on this train you’ll be amazed at whom you’ll sit beside, You’ll sit with former presidents, you’ll fly with astronauts, you’ll venture with magicians as you travel through your thoughts…” The collection covers all sorts of topics from a dog playing baseball, through a bungee jumping cow to making lunch for the queen. The one thing they all have in common is they are fun, creative and imaginative, and make you look at things in a slightly different light. The focus is very much on the writing, but the iBook does also include colorful illustrations. The book is also useful for increasing a child’s vocabulary as it includes words and phrases that may be unfamiliar such as phylum, coalesce, domestically inclined and insurrection, and it has footnotes explaining their meaning. My son and I have really enjoyed reading these poems together, and he enjoys them so much he has been re-reading them in the hardcover book.

As this book is available as an iBook and not an app, it does not have the interactive features apps typically have, but it does have some extras not found in all iBooks. It has optional narration with word highlighting as it is read. It also includes 2 songs by the Scheming Lemurs “Come and Join the Body Band” and “Nature Police”, both of which are also poems in the book. It also includes a search feature so that if you want to find a poem containing a particular word e.g. oppossum, you can search the book for it. Another useful feature is if you highlight a word you can search Wikipedia or the web for a definition of the word. The book has an index page listing all the stories, and thumbnail navigation.

Although the poems were written for children, I thoroughly enjoyed reading them too. This iBook is an incredibly good deal at the price, as there are many hours of reading here. Highly recommended, a well-written, creative, funny collection of short stories told in rhyme that will appeal to all ages. Children from first grade up will enjoy reading them, but younger children will also enjoy listening to them.

Mister Lemur's Train of Thought by Mister Lemur Category: Children's Fiction, Books, Children & Teens, Fiction & Literature, Poetry Requirements: Compatible with Size: 0 MB

$2.99USD

This book is available for download on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iBooks and on your computer with iTunes. Books must be read on an iOS device. The book is also available as a hardcover book from Mister Lemur’s website or Amazon.com, it contains the same collection of stories, but the illustrations are in black and white instead of color. Adventures in your Head is  a collection of 12 of the poems from Train of Thought turned into songs and recorded by the Scheming Lemurs, it is available as a CD from Mister Lemur’s website or in iTunes, and my children have been enjoying listening to it, 2 of these tracks are included in the iBook. If you enjoy Train of Thought you may also want to check out The Santa Claus Alarm and It will take a Lot of us to Lift a Hippopotamus - which are picture books / iBooks by the same author.

I was lucky enough to meet Jen in person recently when she did an author visit at my son’s school, which the children thoroughly enjoyed. Jen has kindly given us a signed hardcover copy of “Train of Thought” and a CD “Adventures in Your Head” to giveaway to one lucky reader.

Giveaway

If you would like to win a Mister Lemur Bundle – a signed Hardcover book of Train of Thought and a CD of Adventures in my Head, please enter via the widget below. Winners will be emailed and must contact The iMums within 48 hours to claim their prize. This giveaway is open to the USA only, and an valid US mailing address is required to claim the prize. Please ensure you have read and understand our Terms & Conditions. Good luck!

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Mary

Mary is originally from England but now lives in California with her husband and three children, an 8 year old boy and 5 year old boy/girl twins. Mary and her family love soccer, camping, hiking and playing with their iPad which is also used for therapy for their daughters Apraxia (speech disorder).

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You can email me direct at mary(at)theimums.com