No Time For Flash Cards

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Lego City Book Review & Giveaway from Scholastic

Every month I get the pleasure of getting a sneak peek at the books that will be included in the Scholastic Book Club flyers that kids look forward to every month. Even better I get to choose one to share with my kids and with a reader! I know when I was a kid I poured over these like I did the Sears Wishbook, circling the books I wanted, and begging my parents for more to read. Nothing has changed I still love pouring over the book pics in each book club flyer. Last month I chose a It’s Christmas , David! by David Shannon but this month I decided to choose something geared for a slightly older audience.

 

Lego City Scholastic Reader Pack including LEGO City: 3, 2, 1, Liftoff! (Level 1) and LEGO City: All Hands on Deck! (Level 1) fit the bill. I know many of your kids are getting to the age where they are reading more independently and I have a hard time finding kids that don’t like Lego. My son has many of these books already and we’ve been really impressed. I was no less impressed with these two. I especially like the guide at the back of all the Scholastic readers that let parents and teachers see the suggested grade level,  guided reading level, Lexile level and word count.

LEGO City: 3, 2, 1, Liftoff! (Level 1) by Sonia Sander is a story about getting a space crew ready and into space. I admit I actually learned a few facts from this and so did my son. The word count is 227 words so for beginning readers it’s not too long but not so short it’s boring. The author keeps the reader engaged with simple sentences but avoids talking down to the reader in the process.  My son likes this book and because of it we’ve been focusing more on punctuation like the role of exclamation marks which are liberally used through this book. My one complaint is the lack of female mini figures. My daughter loves to have my son read her these books ( they are reading them as I type) and I wish she’d be able to see more women in the pictures too.

LEGO City: All Hands on Deck! (Level 1) by Marlyn Easton is another Lego City themed book. If you have any of the Lego City building sets it’s likely you’ll recognize a few in the illustrations. My son loved seeing ones he recognized and loved telling me which of his friends have this set or that.  I think being able to relate to a book via favorite toys is actually really positive. Some parents will be apprehensive about books that sprang from a toy franchise but at this age when many children ( boys especially) start showing less interest in books , it can be a great tool. My son loves to read but loves reading these books even more and I am all for it! This story is even simpler following a group of sailors that save a windsurfer from disaster on the water. It’s also shorter than the previous with only 160 words which is great to build children’s confidence in reading which is also key to keeping interest high. MY one complaint is the complete lack of girls in this book. I know the audience is boys but by not including a single girl the audience of girls will drop even more.

Even better than getting to read and keep these books is that I get to give both away to one lucky reader!

All you have to do is leave a comment and tell me the last book you read with your kids ( or if you are kid free the last book you read yourself).
I will choose a winner using random.org and notify the winner via email. The contest closes January 9th at 8pm PST.

Disclosure: I was not paid for this review although I did get to choose the books I received free to keep and giveaway. All opinions are mine.

Comments closed at 8pm PST any comments made after that are not valid- we have another Scholastic Book Giveaway in a few weeks!

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158 Comments

  1. Kristina says

    I love those Scholastic book club flyers so much. I can only bring them home a few times a year because I tend to go a bit crazy ordering too many books. My son absolutely adores Legos right now, so he would enjoy these books.

    Tonight we read All By Myself by Mercer Mayer before bedtime. Fun giveaway!

  3. Angela says

    I have just happened upon your site while looking for some more gross motor ideas to try with my 7 year old son, and all I can say is: Where have you been all my life??!!!!! 🙂 I’ve spent a good deal of time tonight filtering through more stuff that just doesn’t quite help me bridge the gap between theoretical and on the ground, until I stumble onto your blog and it feels like you’ve peeled open my brain and inserted the bits that were missing. (Well, some of them anyways.) Thank You!
    One might say that Lego is popular at our house (if one was prone to understatement) We went to great lengths to get the Lego Ideas book for our guy for Christmas. We managed to track it down (even though it’s sold out everywhere) and it was a big hit! I’m so pleased that Lego is putting out good books these days. It can be hard to find good reading materials for boys…
    We’ve just finished My Father’s Dragon. I think it’s out of print, but we were able to get it online, and it’s a very fun read!
    Thanks so much for your great ideas, and for making life at my house seem a little less lonely…

  7. Andie d says

    Junie B Jones. Boss of lunch. It’s not my favorite series but my daughter can read them to me!

  8. Aaryn says

    We read all the time at our house and my boys love those Legos books! My 3-year-old requests Stick Man by Julia Donaldson almost every night and we’re reading Little House on the Prairie to my 5-year-old.

  10. Karen says

    We had the pleasure of listening to our 6 year old read us “Hot Dog” last night! Love hearing him learning to read 🙂

  11. Cathy R says

    Let’s see – I read to my girls last night (as opposed to my son who would REALLY like the legos) and we finished Ready Freddy At the Firehouse (or its called something like that!)

  12. kt says

    I do so very much enjoy the Scholastic Book Club flyers. 🙂 Last night we read a Piggie and Gerald book by Mo Willems. Thanks for the opportunity.

  13. Stacey says

    Love Scholastic! And my kids love Lego Books! I have been reading chapters from The Little House on the Prairie to my 8 and 4 year olds. The book I’m reading from was a gift from my grandparents on my 8th birthday, so it’s pretty special. They are actually enjoying the book more than I thought they would.

  15. Wendy says

    Last night we looked at James Christensen’s book on creativity. I read several nursery rhymes that are on his beautiful Mother Goose print, and we talked about Shakespeare (but I didn’t READ any Shakespeare). 🙂

  18. Alice S says

    I’ve been reading the Magic Treehouse books to my oldest kids. We just read “Mummies in the Morning.”

  20. Becca says

    I read Zen Shorts by Jon Muth to my two and four year old last night, then my husband read them Crazy Hair by Neil Gaiman.

  24. Katie says

    I read a Snoopy and Woodstock book he got for Christmas. I forget the name… “where’s woodstock.” its a cute little book with very few redeeming qualities, so of course he loves it 🙂

    we love the lego books. He loves to try to build the things in the books after we read them.

  25. Anne O'Reilly says

    My son and I just read “Big Truck and Little Truck,” a cute book from the library.

  26. Sara S says

    My kids are big Mo Willems fans. The last book we read was I Love My New Toy, from Willems’ Elephant and Piggie series

  29. Melanie Tanner says

    Yesterday our new Nook Tablet arrived in the mail. We read a National Geographic Kids magazine on it and then Charlie Brown’s Christmas. Then my daughter chose an Olivia book to read just before bedtime. We always go to the Scholastic book sale’s when they come to town. Best deals ever!

  30. Anne B says

    All the LEGO my son has are from the City collection. I like that they are more versatile than the specialized collections. He just got the space shuttle for Christmas, so he’d love the 3-2-1 Blastoff book. Aside from the bedtime Bible stories, we last read Curious George Visits a Chocolate Factory.

  31. heather ballengee chandler says

    Great giveaway. I am finding it interesting to see what others are reading to their kids.
    We last read “Grandpa Grumpy’s Family”

  33. Dawn says

    We read A Snack for Mack! My son is just starting to read and he loves Lego! I hope we win! Thanks!

  35. Jennifer C says

    It was an easy reader, from scholastic and it was just last night. BUT I have no idea what the title was, the main character was Gus!

  37. Kathy says

    Trouble with Trolls by Jan Brett

    We love duplos around here since I haven’t allowed legos in yet
    with a one yr old in the house

  38. Mandi says

    My son loves all of the Lego City books. We can’t wait to check out All Hands On Deck. Thanks for sharing!

  42. TMV says

    We just introduced our boys to the “little legos,” as they call them. We have not read any of these books. The last book we read was “Go, Go, Go.”

  43. Kathryn says

    My son loves Legos. We read a chapter in a Magic Treehouse book this morning–Day of the Dragon King.

  44. Jen says

    We love Lego books! In fact, we just checked some out at the library … the last book we read together, though, was a Winnie the Pooh book.

  45. AmyD says

    Before naptime, my daughter chose to read “Ella Bella Ballerina and Cinderella” by James Meyhew, “Batman: Meet the Superheroes”, and “L is for Library”. Quite a diverse selection of books if I do say so myself!

  46. Robyn D says

    Yesterday I read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom with Alex and Happy Birthday Bad Kitty with Nicholas. We have a couple of the Lego City books, we love them!

  49. pat says

    Just 5 min ago … how many bugs in a box by David A Carter . It’s my 4 year olds faviorite pop up book!

  51. Gina M. says

    The last books we read were “A Chair For My Mother” and “Curious George and the Snowy Day” both cute books. My son would love to have these Lego City books. 🙂

  54. Tiffnie says

    My son just read “The King’s Ring” to me this morning. We all read “Hiccupotumus” last night — one of our favorites.

  55. Emma says

    I love looking at book catalogs – I often have to tear them up so the kids and I can all have our own pages to look at. Book sets end up being cheaper through scholastic (eg. Rainbow Magic Fairies), however “hot picks” (like the Lego building book last month) are sometimes more expensive than Amazon. We usually buy a few from the catalog & then my “b list” books (the ones I don’t end up buying b/c I think they’re better as “one off reads”) end up as my library browsing list. Many scholastic authors are usually established authors who already have a good collection at the library. This week’s library pick included books about snow (thanks to yesterday’s flurries in Virginia) – we’ll see what the kids Think of “Now it is Winter” by Eileen Spinelli. My daughter & I are almost finished with the Katie Kazoo’s On Thin Ice and the new pick should be a good book for us to read together (rather than having me be the only one who is decoding the text).

  56. Lauren Fretwell says

    My son is addicted to Legos. He would love these! The last book we read Moose Stays Awake.

  58. Janel says

    Funny enough, the last book I read with my son was “All Hands on Deck”, but the one we have is from the library, and I know my son would be thrilled to have his very own copy to keep.

  59. Ruth says

    The last book I read with my kids was “Numbah One Day of Christmas” We spent Christmas in Hawaii and the Hawaiin version of The Twelve Days of Christmas was playing on the radio a lot and my kids loved it. We were able to find a kids book of the song there to bring home and add to our Christmas book collection. It’s really cute!

  61. Barbara says

    last night we read jabawalkie with my 3 yaer old and my 11 year old and me are reading the hunger games( well hes done Im behind )

  63. Alicia says

    We went to the library today. My son and I read Curious George’s A Winters Nap and my daughter and I read My Big Animal Book (even though we had that book at home!) Thanks for the contest and the book review!

  64. Vicki says

    We are reading Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Cleary. My kiddo is a lego fanatic, and he would LOVE these books!

  65. Amber :) says

    Oh, I hear ya on the book orders! I think I get just as excited…or maybe more…as my four year old when he brings them home from pre-school! Books are so fun and it brings back great memories looking through book orders! …The last book I read with my four year old is Clifford: a graduation party. Thanks for all your amazing posts! My kids and I have so much fun doing all the art projects & other fun things you share!!

  66. Kara says

    Before nap today we read “All the Water in the World” and “Winnie the Pooh Happy New Year” from our library stack.

  70. Jennifer Hodges says

    We read Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel before bed tonight with my 3 and 4 year old. My 4 year old is just now starting to show signs he is ready to read so we would love to get these books!

  74. Heather says

    My son loves the space City Legos and would love a Lego City 321 book. We read every afternoon and at bedtime. This afternoon we were reading some of the other Lego City books like Calling all Cars. We also read Put me in the Zoo, Goodnight Gorilla and Kiki (some dollar store book about a cat named Kiki). Thanks for a great website!

  75. Shelly says

    We read “Berenstein Bears a case of the Gimmies” before bed tonight. My almost 5 year old LOVES to borrow these Lego books from the library. Crossing my fingers for a win since we are having a Lego themed birthday party for him in a few weeks!

  77. Martina says

    We read Roald Dahl’s BFG to our nearly 6 year old and she read a chapter of the Usborne Early Reader version of “Gullivers Travels” to us. Going through a post-Christmas Lego obsession at the moment, so the books would be perfect!

  79. Carrie says

    All three of my little ones love books. Yesterday we were reading through some Sesame Street alphabet books and also Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs. LOVE that book.

  81. Erin says

    We are finishing the Harry Potter series with the Deathly Hallows. But first, for little bro’, we’re reading The Trumpet of the Swan.

  82. desirae says

    My son LOVES legos, so this book would be a real treat! Last night we read “May I have a cookies please?” and “cooking with the cat”

  83. Jennifer Hutchinson says

    I adore Scholastic flyers that get sent home with my kids! They are priced very well and the ease of placing my order online andhaving it shipped to my child’s classroom is really too easy for words!
    My girls love to have me read to them, anything really not just children’s books! My boys are are the age where they like to read alone, and that is okay too!
    The last book I read my kids was Yoon and the Christmas Mitten (by Helen Recorvits)!

    Would love to win these books, my 10yr old would think I was a HERO!
    Thanks for the chance,
    Jen @ hutchinsonherd.blogspot.com/

  87. Kirstine says

    We read 1-2 books every night before bed. Tonight we read a Clifford Book. We do a countdown to Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas too. We love legos and this would be perfect.

    Thanks for all that you do!

  90. Susan says

    My son is almost 5 and has started reading level-1 books. Today with a little help from my side he read “Pooh Loves Honey” .

  92. alexandra says

    We read Bumblebee Boy tonight, by the same authors as Ladybug Girl. It was very cute and my superhero-smitten boys loved it!

  94. Amy E. says

    We read Skippyjon Jones before bed tonight (for the 1,257th time!). We would love some new reading material, and my son goes bananas over everything Lego!

  96. Jennie says

    I just read a Fancy Nancy book to my girls at bedtime, Fancy Nancy Sees Stars. Even my two year old likes those. Thanks for the chance to win!

  97. Josephine says

    I read ‘Food Fight’ by Carol Diggory Shields & my son and I have poured over the latest Lego club jr magazine!

  102. Melissa says

    I love your site! Scholastic book club flyers are the best, and I have such a weakness when it comes to purchasing books for my four-year old son. The last books that I read with him were, “Chester” by Melanie Watt, and a few BOB books that he read to me!

  103. Shelley says

    We just read Clifford The Big Red Dog.
    I loved your comment about poring over the Scholastic catalog. That’s a favorite school memory of mine and was very excited when my son started bringing them home from preschool.

  104. Rachel says

    My kids and I would love a Lego book! Tonight, my 5 yr old read “Franklin Goes to School” to me, I read “Too Pickley!” to my 4 yr old, and “Snowmen at Christmas” to my 2 yr old. Thanks!

  106. Drina M. says

    My daughter requested Cold Winters Day before bed tonight. We would be so happy to win some new books for our collection…

  112. Emily says

    We read a few poems from ‘Where the Sidewalk Ends’ every night before bed. My 6-year-old loves it (and so do I).

  113. Valerie says

    I just finished reading my son “Polar Bears Past Bedtime” last night. I have been reading him a chapter every night at bedtime.

  116. Amber Layton says

    We have been reading our Lego star wars book every night since Santa brought it. He spotted it at the school book fair and didn’t stop talking about it, and now won’t let it go. Cute that a five year old knows more about Star Wars than me!
    We also read my daughters favorite book, The barn yard dance. It always makes her smile!

  117. Lori says

    with our LEGO sets i dealt with the lack of women characters by ordering several female hairpieces from the shop.lego.com pick-a-brick. then we had lady firefighters, lady construction workers, and lady cops! 🙂

  120. Keitha says

    I love the Scholastic Book flyers, too. I still circle all the books I would like for my 5-year-old when he brings home his flyer from kindergarten each month. The last book we read was “That’s What Friends Are For” by Valeri Gorbachev.

  121. Mara says

    My daughter loves the lego books and she enjoys reading them. Tonight we read “June Jam” in the Calendar Mystery series – another purchase from Scholastic.

  122. Melissa S says

    My son is just learning to read and loves legos. The last book I read to my children was Pinkalicious which we got from scholastic books.

  125. LeeAnn P. says

    Last book I read to my kids was a chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone just before they went to bed tonight!
    murphykatt[at]yahoo[dot]com

  128. Jessica says

    How did I almost miss this??!! Last book I read to Alexander was It’s Christmas David! by David Shannon. Seriously that kid is funny. And Alexander loves the page with David running down the street naked! However, it’s time to retire the Christmas books. And we are huge into Legos right now. And mom needs a break. Mom needs a change 🙂

  129. Erin says

    The last book we read was The Monster at the End of this Book…..that was my favorite book as a kid!

  131. Wendy says

    We’re still into our Christmas books – the gingerbread pirate is the current favorite 🙂

  132. Melanie says

    It’s funny I just stumbled across this because the last book we read was actually a Lego City book- the one about construction. My son loves it.

  134. Larissa says

    We would love to win these 🙂

    Tonight, my boys and I read The monster at the end of this book and Another monster at the end of this book.

  137. Hadyn says

    The last book we read tonight before bed was Night of the Ninjas of the Magic Treehouse series. My 5-1/2 yo has had me read every one to him, and now we’re trying to get his 4 yo brother interested in longer-attention-span books. So far, he’s loved “Midnight on the Moon” because he loves anything related to outer space. He also loves to play ninjas, so the MTH series is perfect – they cover so many interests, times and places.

    (okay, random.org! pick my sons and me! por favor)

  138. Tiffany says

    My three boys would love these books!! Thanks for the giveaway 🙂 Tonight we read The Mitten before bed!!

  139. Julee says

    My 3 yo grandson loves Legos and helps his daddy build some of the large, more complicated sets. They just finished the Millenium Falcon. He loves books too. The last book I read was “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?” to my 2 week old granddaughter 🙂

  141. Stacey says

    No joke, the last book I read with my son was, the LEGO: Calling All Cars, book! My son, Kaleb, is in Grade one and is struggling to read. He has had no interest in it at all. I let him choose some books from the Scholastic book order and he chose two LEGO books (none of the above)….he is OBSESSED with LEGO everything. I am so please that he is finally starting to WANT to read now! He is trying so hard to read these LEGO books and he especially gets a kick out of the pictures. 🙂

  142. Katrina H says

    My son and I just finished Bad Kitty Meets the Baby, my middle daughter has requested Puff the Magic Dragon every night for the last week, and i I just read Polar Bear, Polar Bear to my youngest daughter.

  143. nikki says

    We last read some Winnie the Pooh books together 🙂 .
    My two boys would LOVE some Lego books!

  144. Brandi says

    love scholastic! we read Thomas Goes To Breakfast, Curious George phonics reader & Highlights magazine at bedtime tonight!

  149. Jacquie B says

    Hush Little Polar Bear was the last book we read before going to bed. My daughter just started preschool so we are just setting to get Scholastic Flyers! Nice memory!

  151. colleen says

    My 5 year old son. Charlie, really enjoys the Lego City books and I am surprised by how much I don’t mind them either. The biggest pleasure for me, of course, is hearing him reading on his own. Tonight (again) we read Charlie’s Christmas book: Robert Idaho’s pop-up CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

  154. Melissa says

    My boys are Lego maniacs! They love the Lego City books that we already have. These look awesome! Last book we read…Christmas may be over, but my boys are still having me read The Polar Express to them. They love it!

  156. Jac says

    Thank you for the giveaway. In fact, we just finished reading “What is toothpaste made of?” tonight.

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