Hey all! I recently mentioned that I love books, especially children's books! And one of my favorite companies to buy them from is Usborne. Usborne is an international company and have prints from other countries and cultures. Many of their specials are books that have won awards internationally. And recently my sister-in-law became an independant consultant for them! These books are fantastic, and she sent me a few to review. I am so excited to tell you about them!!

Let me just tell you about each one.

See Inside Your Body

From Ashley: "The See Inside the Body book is one in several 'see inside' books that are designed to spark children's curiosity in a variety of different topics (Space, Ships, Science, Dinosaurs, math, planet earth, world war II, Famous Buildings, Ancient Rome, Ancient Egypt, How Things Work.) They have short paragraphs of information that are easier to remember then if they were just reading a book. There is also a similar series called look inside which are also very fun."

What we thought:
Solace (age 9): It is a simplified version of your body. Kids could learn why they should take care of their body and what's inside their body.
Ender (age 8): I think it looks like mini x-rays in color and that makes it really fun learning for kids.
Armour (age 6) I want to be a doctor when I grow up and this book helps me know what I can do when I'm a doctor.
Mom (Beckee, age undisclosed): This is a great book with "over 50 flaps to lift." The kids like to lift the flaps and it has lots of fun facts about inside the body. My husband is a radiologist (meaning the MD/doctor that reads the scans/x-rays) so his job is all about studying the body. The kids love to read about anything they feel is "about dad's work." So, this was the perfect "See Inside" book for my family! And I would note that it is really well made, so although we have read it a number of times, so far none of the flaps are wearing or ripping off .

Wipe Clean 123

From Ashley: Each page has objects to trace that help develop coordination for drawing letters and numbers. so they are practicing those motions while having fun drawing other objects.

What we thought:
Kindle (age 4): I like to write my numbers over and over in the book. And it just wipes off to do again!

Mom: We have a lot of "Wipe off" type book that are supposed to be written in then erased and re-written in. Many of them don't really erase and are not good for rewriting on. This book is so much better! Kindle was able to write and rewrite in her book over and over. She is in Pre-K this year and we do "Mommy School" for her Pre K. She has been using it to practice writien her numbers and tracing her shapes for a couple weeks now, over and over!! It is GREAT!

That's Not My Plane

From Ashley: There are tons of "that's not my...." books. Anything kids are interested in is probably there. They have other great touchy-feely books as well. Animal Hide and Seek is one of my baby's favorites. It has many fuzzy things on each page. All the chicks on a page are touchable and the cow and the puppy and the pig (not just one thing touchable per page)

What we thought:
Mom: OK, I have to tell you all that this is the favorite book of all the kids even though it is geared to the younger ones. Everest (my 18 month old) Love, LOVES this book and asks for his "plane" all the time. He will listen to this book over and over and will sit on my lap reading it for hours. We also own the "That's not my Princess" book which has been Kindle's favorite book for a number of years. I plan to buy more of the "That's Not my..." books and highly, HIGHLY recommend them!

Huckleberry Finn

From Ashley: Huckleberry Finn actually just went out of print, but we have lots of chapter books for the older kids and series books. Conspiracy 365 is one that is being made into a movie.

What we thought:
Solace: It is an easy to read book, but better for older kids (Ender adds-it makes more sense for older kids). Older kids can understand it better.
Mom: This is like an easy read version of a classic story. It is written in a way that I think my 6-year-old could read it and would like it whereas the original Huckleberry Finn might be a bit above his reading level at this point. Great way to introduce your kids to some of the classic stories.


Usborne is an international company and have prints from other countries and cultures. Many of their specials are books that have won awards internationally.

SPECIALS

Here is my favorite part of these books-that I can get these awesome books at a GREAT price (You all know I love a great deal!!) There are always Specials going on. They have internet only specials and then they have customer specials for every $40 you spend. The internet specials do count toward the $40 to get other great discounts.

Ashley says: "The one discount I am most excited about is the Encyclopedia of World History IL C/V hard cover for $16 regularly $39.99. Their encyclopedias are very colorful and well done. They also have That's Not My Dolly for $4 right now!

How to Buy these AWESOME products

If you are interested in buying these books, checking out the special or finding other awesome items from Usborne, please order from Ashley! She set up a "party" for Beckee's Deals readers to purchase through. Once you go to the website here, just click on the Beckee's Deals link then you can continue shopping from there. After you click on the party, you can find a link to the Specials on the left side of the page under the "Categories" heading.

By way of disclosure, I was provided the 4 books above free of charge for the purpose of this review. I received no other compensation for this post and as always, all opinions expressed are my own (and my kids since they helped).

I should also disclose that if you do buy through the party event I could potentially get party hosting benefits. If you want to purchase and do not want to go through the event that is not a problem, but please buy it from Ashley and help out my sister in law! That would be awesome!!