Sunday, April 10, 2011

Horatio Humble Beats the Big D

Horatio Humble Beats the Big D


Book information:


Horatio Humble Beats the Big D – dyslexia

(A rhyming picture book)

Print ISBN: 978-1-61633-101-6; 1616331011


eBook ISBN: 978-1-61633-102-3; 161633102X



Blurb:

As a teacher’s aide, I discovered that many children, especially boys, have dyslexia or other types of learning disabilities. I wrote this PB with those problems in mind.

Horatio is a smart boy who can’t read. The thought of special Ed. freaks him out. “NO WAY!” But go he does, and surprising results follow .

This is fun to read. It shows that dyslexic kids CAN learn to read. It also encourages parents to diagnose early and find help. A parent/teacher guide offers clues, plus helpful links to more informative websites.



Review:

Horatio Humble Beats the Big “D” is a humbling rhyming picture book about a tough topic. The “Big D” turns out to be Dyslexia, which is a common learning disability involving reading.

Author Margot Finke tells the tale with witty rhyme and illuminating words. In the picture book, Horatio runs into reading problems such as words clumping “into frightening herds” and his tongue jumbling “words without success”. This is just a sample of the wonderful mosaic of words Margot Finke presents in the story.

As a reader, I couldn’t help but get caught up in the emotions with Horatio as he dreaded the looming parent-teacher conference, learned what Dyslexia is and unwillingly attended “special class”.

Margot Finke handled the rhyming well in this smooth reading picture book. I barely noticed the rhyme as I rooted for Horatio to overcome the “Big D”. Horatio is a character I won’t soon forget.

I fully recommend this book for any child battling the “Big D”, but also for all children who can identify with reading problems. In addition to this wonderful story, more information and resources are listed at the end of the book on Dyslexia. As a parent and a teacher, I find this book a great addition to the bookshelf.



Where to get Horatio Humble Beats the Big “D”:

Amazon
GAP Page
Target
Autographed copies (BUY My Books)


More information on the book:

Reviews

Trailer

7 comments:

Carolyn Howard-Johnson said...

Jennifer, so glad you featured this today. I've had some dyslexia in my family and wish I'd had a book like this to help me then. The good news is that there is so much that can be done and understanding what that is helps the entire family unit. BTW, my son has an amazing career. His dylexia taught him perserverance and courage.

Best,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Blogging writers' resources at Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites pick www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com

Carolyn Howard-Johnson said...

I don't think my last try took. This will be shorter. Wish I had this book when I was struggling with dyslexia as a parent. I think the disease gave my son two great qualities--perserverance and courage.
Best,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Blogging writers' resources at Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites pick www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com

Magdalena Ball said...

What a lovely idea for a book, and your review captured it well Jen. There's such a broad spectrum to learning and few children sit squarely in the centre of it. It sounds like Margot finke has done a good job of encouraging children and parents to recognise the particular issues that they might have and on ways of working with them instead of against them.

Jennifer Gladen said...

Carolyn, I'm glad to hear of your son's success! This book was perfect all around.

Magdelena, thanks for the complement and comment.

Unknown said...

A wonderful interview on such a pivotal topic. Congratulations to you both! This is a marvelous book for any school to have in its library, and I hope it gets to lots of them.

The Pen and Ink Blogspot said...

This is great. My son had lots of trouble learning to read and so did I. Neither of us were dyslexic but we have friends that are. I am heading over to GAP to buy the book

Magic Carpet of 16x Books said...

Hi there all you lovely commenters. Thanks you so much for your kind words. It IS my hope that teachers and parents find Horatio helpful, and that it encourages kids and parents to work at learning to read. They CAN do it!!

And thank you Jen for helping me do just that.

Margot’s Magic Carpet
Kids Books With a WOW Factor!
http://perfectmagiccarpet.blogspot.com/

Blog Archive

Children's Author

Analytics