Last week during BlogHer, I had a chance to visit one of my favorite bookstores: the Scholastic flagship store. It’s colorful, full of classic and new children’s books, and it’s freaking huge. I actually tweeted that I wanted to live there. Thankfully many of my friends agreed.
Scholastic invited some bloggers for breakfast to learn about their new offerings. (More about that later.) Afterwards, they gave us a gift certificate to shop in their store. I know I’m not speaking alone, when I saw I spent much more than the gift certificate we received. I was completely overwhelmed by all the books in the store, especially since our local Borders closed. We no longer have a close or easy to get to bookstore near us.
As I waited in line to pay for my books, Monica of Wired Momma gave a glowing review of Orange Princess Has a Ball, Book 4 in the Perfect Princess series by Alyssa Crowne annd Charlotte Alder. I’ve been looking for some beginning chapter books for Sophia and these seem to have a little more substance than some other books she had chosen. Monica held my place in line while I ran to grab a copy of the book.
Christina, the main character of Orange Princess Has a Ball, is Korean American. She wants to dress up as a princess for her school’s fall ball. Her grandmother sews a beautiful Korean princess dress, but it’s not the puffy sleeved, full skirted dress that Christina dreamed of. Add an annoying little brother and Sophia could totally relate to Christina. The book raises great themes in a manner any little girl can relate to: lying, multiculturalism, princesses and more.
I’m really glad that I also bought Perfectly Princess #2: Purple Princess Wins the Prize. Not only does it feature a dark skinned girl on the cover, she even has big curly hair like Sophia! I also like that the pages in each book are colored to correspond to each girl’s favorite color. We’re only two chapters into book #2, but Sophia is already hooked!
We’ll be adding the rest of the Perfectly Princess series to our collection. I like that in each book, the girls are very real girls who just happens to like princesses. They have different personalities, interests and cultures. I’m actually excited to read these books with Sophia.
While I have your attention, check out Scholastic’s new eReading app Storia. You can download it to your PC or your iPad. Best thing is, it’s completely free and when you register, you receive 5 new e-books. I set up separate bookshelves for Sophia and Jaxson. As they read the books, comprehension games pop up to reinforce their reading skills. Try it out!
Scholastic fed me breakfast and caffeinated me while I learned about their new products. They also let me loose in their store with a gift certificate. I spent much more than what I was given. They also gave me a bag of books on the way out. I was not required to blog about any of this and all opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.