However, when I saw the options of books that were available, my face couldn’t contain the smile. The available books are divided into special occasions and age groups, so there is something for everyone.

As soon I saw the book, “The Monster at the End of this Book” I knew that was the book I wanted to do.  It had been my daughter’s favorite book when she was a child and this book was going to be for her son, Keegan. I could already picture myself reading it to Keegan over and over as I had his mom.

My initial contact with the company representative came in the way of  an email offereing my choice of 3 books to review in Keegan’s age category. The one that I wanted was not among the three and my enthusiasm ebbed a little. I wrote to my contact, Lauren, and she immediately replied that I could do the book of my choice and she would have a voucher issued for that book. 

In fact, every time I had a question, Lauren responded immediately. She was an excellent representative of the company. Once I had my book ordered, it arrived within 2 weeks and is every bit as wonderful as I imagined. 

The entire process was very simple and took less than 15 minutes to complete. I chose a book, uploaded the picture of my choice and typed in the text I wanted on the front page. You can choose the color of the text as well as the size.

The book arrived and it is a hardcover keepsake, the pages were glossy, thick paper that are 8.5 X 11 in size.  It is truly going to be a book that will be enjoyed time and time again and I would highly recommend this company. This recommendation comes not only for their product and prompt customer service, but for the memories that will come from using their product.

Now, I’ve got a book to go read to a very special grandson!

Written by Perri, a homeschooling mom of 6 kids - 2 that are grown and out of the house and 4 younger ones who help wreck and clean the house. Perri also has two precious grandchildren. She spends a lot of time doing ministries with her church, volunteering in the community and baking a mean cheesecake. She blogs about her family’s life at My Life in Bits & Pieces.

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The first thing I noticed and loved about this book was the 500 beautiful color photographs. You could literally spend hours just looking at the photos. There are a multitude of styles photographed, from rustic to modern; each one full of ideas. You can’t help but feel immediately inspired once you open the book.

The Home Book is essentially divided into three parts. “Understand Your Home” teaches you how to work with or improve your home’s existing architecture and layout. “Elements of Design” gives you decorating concept advice on color, texture and pattern. “Room by Room” goes into furnishings, finishes and those minor details that complete a room.

Throughout its 464 pages, you will also find insider advice on design, decorating tips on all rooms (including indoor-outdoor rooms), walk through sample design projects, layout tips and more.

The Home Book retails for around $40.00, which isn’t bad considering its huge size and quality. It’s one of those books you can put on the coffee table, and pick up over and over again for new ideas. It would also make a great housewarming or Christmas gift!

Overall, I love The Home Book and recommend it for those suffering from bland design like me. It is seriously packed full of information and photos that can help any size house or room. Now that I’m all inspired and energized, it’s time for me to get to work!

Written by Amy, who is a SAHM of two boys, 10 months and 8 years, and has been married for 10 years. She owns Surprises by Amy, a business that creates custom baby gifts, and founded Mom Spark in July 2008. When Amy isn’t wrangling the kids or cooking for her husband, she enjoys selling on eBay, reading, writing, blogging (of course), listening to music and buying anything retro.

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Personally, I like looking through O Magazine but this was overloaded with information. The content was good and definitely interesting, but I can’t take a 366 page magazine. It was overwhelming. For long-time Oprah fans, this may be just what they wanted. I’m a sideline watcher of her show and not a follower. Certain topics interest me, but many don’t. This would make a great gift for someone who is a loyal fan.

by Emily

As much as I adore Oprah and all the glory she brings with her media empire, I have to scratch my head to figure out what the latest Big Book Of Happiness is all about. If you already watch Oprah on her syndicated daily show and subscribe to her monthly magazine you will find this book repetitive. How many times can you read about the same people and their motivational stories?

I initially thought this was a coffee table book with beautiful photography images showcasing all things Happy, but I was wrong. This big book is not really meant for just skimming the pictures, and it is more of a bound version of the magazine, minus the commercial advertising. I am sure this will be a best seller for those who worship Oprah, but I am not recommending this for anyone else.

by Helene

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A Friend Like Henry was written by a mother of an autistic boy. The mother is a nurse and at times uses medical terminology throughout the book, that I am not sure the general public would understand. The story started off slowly with a lengthy description of her problems regarding infertility. Eventually she conceives and gives birth to her son, Dale. The book chronicles him growing up to about the age of five.

At this point is when Dale gets his dog, Henry, who is named after one of the cars on the Thomas the Train children’s show. The boy is obsessed with Thomas the Train and the story is very slow moving. I have an interest in Autism and have worked with autistic children, but don’t believe the story could hold the interest of many individuals.

The book serves as a thank you to all of the individuals who help Dale reach his maximum potential. Teachers, nurses and therapists are pointed out if they did something right and or wrong. Overall, I found the book mediocre.

I like to read in bed and love when I can’t put a book down. This book put me to sleep and took twice as long to read it as it should have. I would not recommend it to others.

Written by Perri, a homeschooling mom of 6 kids - 2 that are grown and out of the house and 4 younger ones who help wreck and clean the house. Perri also has two precious grandchildren. She spends a lot of time doing ministries with her church, volunteering in the community and baking a mean cheesecake. She blogs about her family’s life at My Life in Bits & Pieces.

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It is based on the premise of the author inheriting a house and garden from her grandmother and the many magical adventures that take place in the garden. Upon her morning walk one day, she sees what she thinks is a moth trapped in a spider web, however, upon closer inspection she finds it to be a tiny winged horse.

Not your typical children’s book, there are sections devoted to several different foals, telling a bit about the foal and always ending with a poem. This book is not only about the fairy foals, but about friendship, adventure and the magical things that can happen if you just look for them.

My 9 year old loved this book. She sat down to start reading it and didn’t close it until she was done. Then she looked at me and with a satisfied sigh, said, “I wish that wasn’t the end. I loved this book.” High praise indeed.

Written by Perri, a homeschooling mom of 6 kids - 2 that are grown and out of the house and 4 younger ones who help wreck and clean the house. Perri also has two precious grandchildren. She spends a lot of time doing ministries with her church, volunteering in the community and baking a mean cheesecake. She blogs about her family’s life at My Life in Bits & Pieces.

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Audible Kids is a site that provides digital spoken audio information and entertainment, and specializes in the spoken experience by providing digital audio editions of children’s books.

They have a dizzying array of books for all ages, even for a former teacher. There are books that have been awarded various medals like the Caldecott and Newbery, favorites (Where the Wild Things Are, Arthur stories by Marc Brown, Beverly Cleary books) and classics (Make Way for Ducklings, Charlotte’s Web, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).

Anyone can create an account to search for a book in the vast library of audio books. Various ways of searching include typing the title or author into the search field, clicking on criteria (age, grade, running time, price, publication date, and award winning books) on the left hand side of the browser, or locating books narrated by a certain person or from a specific publisher through an advanced search.

I spent forever browsing the various children’s books available through Audible Kids. The site was extremely easy to use and I really fell in love with the Wish List feature that allowed me to browse for titles, listen to audio, and then save titles of books I wanted to purchase in the future. All of the books that I saved in my Wish List were stored in my Profile at the top right of the screen.

I found the audio previews to be very helpful. They are available for each book on the Audible Kids site. The previews are helpful since they are long enough to give a user a good idea of the reader’s tone and the pace of the story. Audible Kids also tells you the listening time of every story on their site.

Audible Kids audio downloads range in price, but tend to be very affordable. Prices begin at $0.99 for single children’s picture books. Chapter books, such as Ramona Quimby, Age 8 is $12.95. Collections are priced higher. I love the idea of collections written by the same author or including the same characters. To view the stories included in collections such as Frog and Toad ($12.95) and The Cat in the Hat and other Dr. Seuss Favorites ($13.95), users click on the “more” button located. Other collections, like the Jan Brett Trio ($1.95) and Robert McCloskey for Young Children ($9.95), includes thumbnail pictures of the titles included with the download.

Some audio downloads are even free due to Audible Kids partnership with Reading is Fundamental, Inc. (RIF). RIF provides free audio downloads to ensure that all children can access books to help them discover the pleasure of reading. There are currently nine titles available for free and include: Brothers Grimm’s Rapunzel, Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart, Rudyard Kipling’s Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, Hans Christian Anderson’s The Emperor’s New Clothes, and more!

The super simple checkout process makes this site even more of a dream to use. Add books to your cart, click check out, bill purchases to your credit card, and go to the My Downloads to download each title you just purchased. If you use a Mac, your Audible Kids books will download directly to iTunes where you can listen to your audiobooks and transfer them to an iPod. PC users have to install the download software. Audiobooks you purchase from Audible Kids are always available on your “My Downloads” page.

I’ve made several purchases of single children’s books (Make Way for Ducklings and Corduroy), collections including Frog and Toad Audio Selection and The Cat in the Hat and other Dr. Seuss Favorites, while also taking advantage of 2 RIF free downloads (Rikki Tikki Tavi and The Emperor’s New Clothes) and have been incredibly pleased.

My two children (4 and almost 2) love listening to stories in the car. They never complain about not having a hard copy of the book since they enjoy visualizing pictures as they listen to the stories being read. I enjoy listening to our downloads from Audible Kids since they are a nice departure from having to listen to the same songs over and over again. Some of my favorite stories are those from the The Cat in the Hat and other Dr. Seuss Favorites collection where the stories are read by stars like Kelsey Grammar, John Cleese, Billy Crystal and Dustin Hoffman. I see myself downloading many more stories from Audible Kids to put on our iPods for summer car trips and long plane flights.

Huge props to Audible Kids for providing fabulous content through an easy to use interface!

Written by Leticia, a part time working multitasking mama who loves spending time with her husband and two children, exotic vacations, and cooking great meals. Leticia writes about technology products and technology issues affecting children through her blog, Tech Savvy Mama.

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Enter to win by visiting The Fairy Chronicles and telling us which book would interest you or the young lady in your family the most. Leave a comment HERE by Monday, May 19, 2008.

You can receive a second entry by blogging about the contest (linking to it) or adding us to your blogroll. Just e-mail us with a live link or let us know you have it posted on your site. You do not need a blog to enter, just leave us your e-mail address so that we may contact you. As always, it is Props & Pans policy NOT to distribute any information you give us (including your e-mail). Thanks for entering!

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Carly was the lucky recipient of The Fairy Chronicles for her reading enjoyment. And enjoy them she did. Each of these delightful books is around 120 pages and she read them all in 3 days. The girls of The Fairy Chronicles go on dangerous adventures to protect nature and solve problems. Each fairy has a special magical power that help them help Mother Nature. Carly said as she read the books, she imagined herself “in fairy mode” and could just imagine herself in the story working along side the fairies.

Carly was not frightened by anything in the books and she thoroughly enjoyed them. The author is extremely descriptive in her writing and Carly was able to recall all the small details about things she had read. As I showed her the website and we looked through the Fairy Handbook section, I was amazed at how much she had retained from her reading. I could ask her about anything in the handbook and she could tell me all I wanted to know and more.

This series of books are quite reasonably priced and to date there are 8 of them available for young child to read. I think they would be quite suitable for young girls ages 7 - 12. The newest adventure Cinnabar and the Island of Shadows, continues the tradition of the previous 7 Fairy Chronicles, which tells stories about wonderful 9 year old girls who are secretly fairies themselves.

Written by Perri, a homeschooling mom of 6 kids - 2 that are grown and out of the house and 4 younger ones who help wreck and clean the house. Perri also has two precious grandchildren. She spends a lot of time doing ministries with her church, volunteering in the community and baking a mean cheesecake. She blogs about her family’s life at My Life in Bits & Pieces.

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In the first chapter Diane discusses the questions we should be asking ourselves as mothers, that will help us decide whether or not to return to work. Chapter three includes practice interview questions, while chapter six deals with the emotional side of returning to work. Each chapter holds great information as well as important tools to help a working mother not only cope, but make the transition back to a work environment a bit easier for everyone.

If you are a mother trying to decide if returning to work is right for you, give this book a try. I think you will be as pleasantly surprised. Read the excerpt below and then pick up a copy for yourself or someone you know.

Why do you want to go back to work? It seems like a simple question, but there a lot of things to consider. Is it out of financial necessity? Divorce? Empty nest? Do you want a career or a job?

Take a closer look at your motivation by answering the following questions. Be honest as you write your answers and add any thoughts or comments you may have along the way. It’s natural to have a mix of feelings and emotions as you consider a change this encompassing. Writing will help you sort through your thoughts to make a better decision.

Written by Laura, chauffeur to five beautiful children ages 9-18, freelance writer, amateur photographer, wife of 14 years and so not politically correct. Come visit her at Work At Home Mom to Five.

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I have the photos, the albums and the creativity. What I don’t have is the time, energy or financial resources to buy all the cutters, grommets, mattes, embellishments, tools and papers needed to create the beautiful scrapbooks I dream about. Even if I had the boat loads of cash where would I store all the supplies and projects so that I could devote all of my spare time to bettering my kids memories of childhood? I doubt that I could handle the chaos that would happen if I even tried it, so my blog has been an attempt at a substitute for my lack of scrapbooking. That has changed.

I discovered a mother-owned, online digital scrapbooking service called How Fast They Grow that gives you templates and allows you to upload your photos, drag and drop them into the pages. You can even journal a story or paragraph and look like you are a professional. It is so easy. There are no more excuses. I was able to crank out a 12 page baby book for Charlotte during her nap time. The company prints the pages and ships them to you and they are ready to be placed in a standard 12×12 leather scrapbook. This site is totally user friendly and in my own defense, idiot proof. The adorable templates allow you to custom design your pages with minimal effort. You can select unique backgrounds or more whimsical patterned papers. The pages arrive on heavy card stock in about a week. The quality is spectacular and the circus animals are no longer in danger of being brought to school.

How Fast They Grow is offering Props & Pans readers a discount. When you visit their site use the code “TRIPLETS” to save 20% for the next three weeks. This makes each completed page only $6.00 and to me that is a bargain.

Written by Helene, who is a “fly by the seat of her pants” mom with 6 kids, well really 7 if you count her husband. She is a die-hard bargain shopper, designer-clad domestic diva who writes reviews to maintain a sense of sanity and unleash her creative side. You can also keep up with their busy family at their blog.

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