Candy and the Cankersaur

It's a day of firsts for me!  For the first time, I used my iPad mini to read an ebook.  I'm also trying a feature I've never participated in before, called Kid Konnection.

Published in 2012, Candy and the Cankersaur is an ebook for children by Jason Sandberg. I don't usually read ebooks, but when the author invited me to take a look at his book, I decided to read it because the book is not currently available in print form.






Although money cannot buy happiness, it can buy you a sensational pet.  A young, well-to-do girl named Candy gets a pet dinosaur from her father, Mister Wellington, who only wants to make his daughter happy.  When the Cankersaurus Rex arrives at the Wellington mansion by helicopter from the Island that Time Forgot, Candy is thrilled.  She names her new pet Cank, and attempts to teach him not to bite.  Chucky, Candy's best friend and neighbor, becomes jealous and asks his (rather matronly-looking) mother if he can also have a dinosaur as a pet.  She tells him in no uncertain terms that he cannot--dinosaurs are extinct, after all.  Crestfallen, Chucky decides to take matters into his own hands. Wearing his signature sailor suit, Chucky kidnaps Cank, and eventually leaves him at a circus.

This book is adorable! Candy and the Cankersaur seems to be the right length for young children, 28 pages, with a few lines of text on each page.  There's some drama and tension in the story, enough to capture and hold the interest of children.  The author thinks that this picture book would work well as a bedtime story for children ages 3-6, and as a read-alone book for children ages 6-9.

The drawings are fabulous!  I loved how this book looked on my iPad mini. While I was reading it I marveled over how wonderful the pictures looked. The pages fit beautifully on the screen.  The colors of the cartoons are pleasing and the illustrations have the perfect amount of detail, neither too much nor too little.  After I read this book, I wished that my young nephews lived closer so that I could share the book with them on my iPad mini (maybe I'm not completely old-school if I can picture reading to them in this way).

With this book Jason Sandberg pays homage to author Syd Hoff, who wrote the book Danny and the Dinosaur (notice the similar titles and the pet dinosaurs).  I know kids are fascinated by dinosaurs and that many kids would probably like to have them as pets. (When I was a child, I longed to have a chimpanzee as a pet, but that's a story for another day.) 

I'm sure this book would stimulate the imaginations of young children.  As a child I loved looking at picture books, and I still remember the impact they had on me. I wanted to stare at the pictures for as long as possible, as if that would somehow enable me to enter the world on the pages.  This book would have a similar effect on children, I think.  It's simply charming.

Kid Connection is a fun feature hosted by Booking Mama each Saturday.  If you'd like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post related to children's books (picture, middle grade, or young adult), please stop by Booking Mama and add your post to the Mister Linky.

Your comments are welcomed.

Wondrous Words Wednesday: Brave New Words

Word up!  I'm having too much fun.  I enjoy the time I spend with words, playing Words with Friends, doing the jumble in the newspaper, thinking about words.  Sometimes, my love of words actually shortens my reading time.  At nighttime, I might elect to play a few rounds of Words with Friends (I have about 15 games going right now), and before I know it, it's too late to pick up my current book--that happened to me last night.  Consequently, once again, my words this week are not from books, but from my 365 New Words-a-Year calendar, a steady source of brave new words.


1. balneology: the science of the therapeutic use of baths

At the end of the season, the girls' cross-country team took a field trip to the spa that uses balneology to treat sore and injured muscles.

Gellért pool, courtesy of Wikipedia

Doesn't this look inviting?  Pictured is the effervescent pool in the "Spa City" of Budapest, Hungary.  The Gellért Spa and Baths complex there features thermal baths, small pools of water from local mineral hot springs.  I've enjoyed visiting hot springs in the U.S. as well as Mexico.  Although the word "balneology" has existed for only about 130 years, the healing powers of mineral baths have been touted since ancient times.



2. mahatma: a person revered for high-mindedness, wisdom, and selflessness; a person of great prestige in a field or profession

The gentle teacher was seen as a mahatma, who inspired students to strive for excellence and to love learning.

Gandhi, courtesy of Wikipedia

I'll remember how to spell this word through syllabification: ma-hat-ma.  This word is an adaptation of the Sanskrit word mahatman, which means great-souled. As an uncapitalized English noun, "mahatma" can refer to any great person.  In India, it's meant as a title of love and respect.  When the word is capitalized, it refers to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the venerated leader who helped guide India to independence in 1947.  He's known as "Mahatma Gandhi" or just "the Mahatma", but not surprisingly, Gandhi was humble and didn't refer to himself in this manner.




3. sub rosa: in confidence; secretly

In Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, the girls often met sub rosa because they were not supposed to read and discuss books.

Sub rosa simply means "under the rose" in New Latin.  Since ancient times, the rose has been associated with secrecy and confidentiality.  In Greek mythology, Cupid gave a rose to Harpocrates, the god of silence, to keep him from speaking about Venus' indiscretions.  Another example of this association is that roses have often been placed over confessionals, intended as symbols that indicate confidentiality.  However, should you receive a bouquet of roses from a romantic partner, do not assume that the roses mean that your relationship is to be kept secret; more likely, your sweetie doesn't know about the connection between roses and secrets. ;)


Hosted by Kathy from BermudaOnion's Weblog, Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme that caters to those who enjoy discovering words.  What new words have you encountered recently?