In my opinion, DVDs can be a hit or a miss. It is so hard to know ahead of time whether the storyline is going to be good, and have valuable lessons, or if my son is going to be scared of the show and refuse to watch it. My three-year-old son is scared of so many things right now. I have to really monitor what I read to him, and what he watches because he has nightmares about it at night and can’t get himself calmed down enough to go back to sleep. I try to stick with what I know to be good, and Thomas is one of those things!

“Rescue on the Rails” was a huge hit in my house. If you take fire trucks, and combine them with trains and planes, what little boy wouldn’t be in love!?!? The life lesson of teamwork in this show was a huge bonus. The fire truck tries to do things on his own, and realizes he needs the others help. At the age of three, my son needs all the help he can get with learning how to play and work with others. I hear, “I want to do it by myself” many times throughout the day. Now, I can reiterate the lesson taught in this show! I find myself asking, “Remember how the trains had to work together and let other people help them?” Love it!

If your son or daughter enjoys Thomas, you have to check this dvd out. It is a fun and adventurous episode. My boys loved it!

Krista
Sr. Review Crew

Six severed arms are discovered, arranged in a mysterious circle and buried in a clearing in the woods. Five of them appear to belong to missing girls between the ages of eight and eighteen. The sixth is yet to be identified. Worse still, the girls’ bodies, alive or dead, are nowhere to be found.

Lead investigators Mila Vasquez, a celebrated profiler, and Goran Gavila, an eerily prescient criminologist, dive into the case. They’re confident they’ve got the right suspect in their sights until they discover no link between him and any of the kidnappings except the first. The evidence in the case of the second missing child points in a vastly different direction, creating more questions than it answers.

Vasquez and Gavila begin to wonder if they’ve been brought in to take the fall in a near-hopeless case. Is it all coincidence? Or is a copycat criminal at work? Obsessed with a case that becomes more tangled and intense as they unravel the layers of evil, Gavila and Vasquez find that their lives are increasingly in each other’s hands.

My Thoughts

I enjoy suspense thrillers and seem to have grown very fond of criminal books that deal with the lone cop…well, The Whisperer seems to incorporate a lot of the things I love about criminal and suspense books. There were a few times that it was a tad tough to read because the crimes pertained to children but I was so drawn in and fascinated with the investigators and level of insanity that they were dealing with that it was book I read in one short day.

I was kept to the edge of my seat through the entire book…and especially as the connection between Mila Vasquez and the missing kids is brought to a deeper and more clearer connection then one would have imagined.

If you don’t like reading stories about crimes against kids…then this is not the book for you. Generally I don’t either but I felt that the author did an impeccable job at offering you information that was needed for the story line without going overboard on the details that would make you cringe.

Overall…I thought The Whisperer was a fantastic book and thoroughly enjoyed it. Maybe not your light hearted beach book but definitely your page turning thriller.

Christine
The IE Mommy

A young accident victim wakes up in hospital and can’t remember who he is. Why does he have nothing in common with his family? Why does he despise the person he was supposed to be? Why has his best friend disappeared without a trace? Is somebody after him? His family can offer no solutions. His girlfriend is strangely aloof and he cannot shake off a feeling that the answers will prove more unpleasant than his amnesia. Somehow he must find out as it seems time is running out. Paula Vince has woven elements of secrecy and suspense with her trademark warmth and compassion. Best Forgotten is an inspirational masterpiece you won’t forget.

My Thoughts

This is one of the most intriguing books I’ve read in a long time!  Finally a truly original plotline that was not only well written but so captivating story that I had trouble putting it down!  It was so refreshing to read something I didn’t feel like I had read before or had a pretty good idea where it was going.  There’s nothing worse than a predictable book and this was nothing of the sort!

Courtney Lockwood wakes up in a hospital bed with no memory of how he got there and worse yet, no memory of who he is.  It doesn’t take long for the Detective to figure out that the young accident victim is the son of Margot Lockwood, a prominent business woman in the community well known for her magazine.  Courtney has no choice but to go home with her and his sister Norah that also lives with them, even though they are effectively strangers to him. It is decided by his Mother and her fiancé Roger that his step daughter Jasmine, who is Courtney’s girlfriend, will stay with him during the day to try to help him regain his memory.  Courtney quickly discovers that he was a trouble maker, not well liked and by no means successful.  The more he learns about his former self, the happier he is to not remember that person and the more determined to change and leave the past behind him.

Unfortunately, the past has not forgotten him.  A feeling of foreboding comes over him in the hospital and will not let him go.  This coupled with the fact that his best friend went missing the same night as his accident, leaves him unsettled. As it usually does, the past eventually catches up with him.  Was he involved with his best friend’s disappearance?  What does Jasmine know that she’s not telling him?  Will his memory return before his past catches up with his present?  Or is it all, best forgotten?

This was a great, suspenseful read and so much different than it started out to be!  I wasn’t expecting a mystery along with the drama of a young man with amnesia.  Vince expertly blends her plotlines and makes it all come together in one unforgettable ending!

Lindsey
Review Crew

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookCrash.com book review program, which requires an honest, though not necessarily positive, review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s CFR Title 16, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

DreamWorks Pictures’ “War Horse,” director Steven Spielberg’s epic adventure, is a tale of loyalty, hope and tenacity set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War. “War Horse” begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets—British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter—before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man’s Land.

The First World War is experienced through the journey of this horse—an odyssey of joy and sorrow, passionate friendship and high adventure. “War Horse” is one of the great stories of friendship and war— a successful book, it was turned into a hugely successful international theatrical hit that is currently on Broadway. It now comes to screen in an epic adaptation by one of the great directors in film history.

My Thoughts

War Horse is the story of keeping your promises.  This story tells the life lesson on how through love and destruction you have to keep moving forward. The story begins with Ted Narracott sacrificing his farm to purchase a beautiful thoroughbred colt. He saw something in the horse that no one else did, except for his son. His son Albert names the horse Joey and trains the thoroughbred to work in an attempt to raise the money needed to save their farm. When their crops are flooded, the father is forced to sell Joey to Captain Nicholls in the Calvary. The horse manages to live through World War 1 miraculously and against the odds.

This famous novel was turned into a dramatic movie with the direction of Steven Spielberg and Dream Works Production Company. This story has been reproduced as a novel, children’s stories, as a play and now as a movie. The movie was filmed in England and the scenery is breathtaking.

The story has many parallels about the cost of caring for one another. That is the theme throughout the movie, no matter how things turn out you always keep your promise to take care of others and see them through as best as you can. Each inner story didn’t always end positively, it was World War I there were many lives lost.

I recommend the movie. This is a Steven Spielberg movie however there were several scenes where the computer generated images were not very believable in the war scenes. The acting in a few scenes seemed staged; however emotion is evoked throughout the movie. In fact at one point I grabbed the arm of the person sitting next to me as a result of the dramatic scene.  I liked the movie because every relationship represented was showing one taking care of another. This message is spoken between humans and the animals. It is World War I and yet despite horrible odds Albert and Joey go through the gates together.

Terri

Imagine your child morphing into a coloring book character and starring in a story with a Disney Princess or Spider-Man with Crayola Story Studio or turning an iPad into an interactive coloring book with the Crayola ColorStudio HD app and Crayola iMarker digital drawing tool. When kids unwrap one of these high-tech Crayola gifts this holiday, they’ll have fun, new ways to express all that inspires them!

• For the child who craves action and adventure, Crayola Story Studio: Spider-Man lets kids upload a photo and transform themselves into a superhero that stars with Spider-Man in personalized comic book they create and color. A free access code inside the kit unlocks the Story Studio application at Crayola.com/storystudio. Kids can choose a super power, story-line, and one of six villains to battle alongside Spider-Man in their own web-slinging adventure. When they finish their story, they can save it, share it or print and color it. The kit includes paper, glossy cover sheets for printing comic book-style covers, binding strips and 15 Twistables® colored pencils to create three complete books.
• For the child who loves fairytales and wonderment, Story Studio: Disney Princesses lets kids star in a fairytale with a Disney Princess. Crayola Story Studio™: Disney Princess lets kids create fairytales starring them and a Disney Princess! Kids upload a photo to transform themselves into a character, then create a story with their character and a Disney Princess! Story Studio includes everything kids need to create personalized storybooks and unlimited coloring pages – just print, color and bind the pages. They can choose storylines from Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, the Little Mermaid, Tangled, Sleeping Beauty, and Princess and the Frog. With the free on-line access code that comes inside, Pip-Squeaks® markers and glitter glue, blank sheets and binding strips, kids create three complete story books!
• For the child who likes creative adventures, the Story Studio Adventure Maker: Cars 2 lets kids join the pages of a story with Lightning McQueen, Mator and the Cars 2 characters form Disney Pixar. The set includes 10 Pip-Squeak Skinnies markers, 3 Pip Squeak broad line markers, 2 Pip-Squeak glitter glue tubes, 30 story sheets, 6 glossy cover sheets and 3 comic binding strips to make three complete story books.

At $9.99 for each kit, Crayola Story Studio proves that high-tech doesn’t have to mean high cost!

Remember how cool it was to receive the Crayola 64 Box with the built-in sharper as a holiday gift when you were growing up? Just imagine how excited your kids will be to turn an iPad into an interactive coloring book using burnt sienna, carnation pink and a rainbow of Crayola colors from the Crayola digital 64 Box! The Crayola ColorStudio HD app and iMarker let kids’ imaginations run wild as they color moving, animated scenes that come alive with music, sound effects and hidden surprises. The app is free on iTunes App Store with the purchase of the iMarker for $29.99 at Toys R Us, Best Buy, the Apple Store and www.griffintechnology.com.

• Kids can select from 64 colors in the digital Crayola 64 Box and then use the iMarker to create the look of Crayola crayons, markers, paints and colored pencils as the stylus interacts with an iPad. The digital coloring pages respond with movement and sound as the pages come alive as kids color.
• Animated images stop moving on the screen so kids can easily color them in without going outside of the lines, so objects look picture perfect when they start moving again. Tidy up your page with an eraser function or an “undo” arrow that removes larger areas of color.
• In addition, kids can save their work in a gallery to be emailed, printed or uploaded to Facebook (mom’s account, and with her permission and help of course!), and also free draw, play interactive games and create their own customized coloring pages they can print and color off-line.

Recommended for children ages 3+, the Crayola iMarker includes, a set of AA batteries, and free download of the ColorStudio HD app.

My Thoughts

I am not a techie person. I have a lot of friends that are and my husband is…but me? Well, not so much. I’m also  not an instructions person…if there are too many instructions I would rather just leave it. I’m a visual learner so it’s much easier for me to “see” what I need to do rather then “read” what I need to do.

I am very happy to say that the Crayola iMarker was not technologically challenging nor were there a 100 pages to read. I fell in love from the moment I opened the box. The iMarker is my ultimate favorite and I was tempted to keep it all to myself…but I didn’t. My girls loved it.  It’s a great idea and perfect for when you have to run errands, wait in the doctor’s office or just want to have fun.  Simply download  the Crayola ColorStudio HD app. Super easy. Put the battery in your iMarker and start to draw. Seriously…it’s that simple. The Crayola ColorStudio HD app has many different pages to color and various coloring tools such as crayons, colored pencils and markers.  The app includes an email option as well so that Grandma (or someone special) can receive a the very cool page your child will create.  Definitely one of the hits of the Holiday Season!

The Crayola Story Studio were a blast.  A bit more labor intensive as you have to register at the Crayola website and then create your character…but over all it was fun and we had a great time creating characters that looked like us. The Crayola Story Studio is available in Fairy Tale, Comic and Adventure themes.

Even though there were a few more steps it was still a very easy and quick program to get started using. Simply log on to www.crayola.com/storystudio, register, enter your code and viola! You are ready to start. You can upload a photo of yourself to incorporate into the story line of either of the themes. If you don’t want to use your  own photo you can always “create” a person for your story line. Once the person is created you can alter their features including skin color, clothing, facial structure and the color of their hair.

Once you’ve created your person, you can choose a story line and then ultimately print it all out and you have an adorable and fun color book…complete with matching binding strips so you can create a “real” book.

Lots of fun awaits your child with the amazing Holiday Technology from Crayola!

Christine
The IE Mommy

GIVEAWAY

One Reader will Win the following Crayola Products

(1) Crayola Story Studio Comic Maker: Spider-Man

(1) Crayola Story Studio Fairy Tale Maker: Disney Princesses

(1) Crayola Story Studio Adventure Maker: Disney/Pixar Cars

(1) Crayola iMarker to use with the ColorStudio HD app for iPad

(1) Free download of the ColorStudio HD app.

This is only open to my readers that do at least two of the following:

• Friend me on Facebook

• Follow me on Twitter

• Friend me on Google Friend Connect

If you are not at least two of those…then get on over there and do it then come back and enter.

MANDATORY ENTRIES:

1. Tell me what ways you follow the IE Mommy – Needs to be at least two of the ones mentioned above – (1 entry PER WAY YOU FOLLOW)
2. TWITTER - Follow the IE Mommy and Crayola on Twitter - Tweet: RT –Enter to WIN a Crayola Technology Holiday Giftpack @iemommy @crayola #MyBlogSpark http://www.theiemommy.com/2011/12/23/crayola-technology (first tweet mandatory)
3. Like the Crayola Facebook page about this giveaway (leave the FB comment link here in our comment section)
   

EXTRA ENTRIES:

1. TWITTER - Follow the IE Mommy and Crayola on Twitter - Tweet: RT –Enter to WIN a Crayola Technology Holiday Giftpack @iemommy @crayola #MyBlogSpark http://www.theiemommy.com/2011/12/23/crayola-technology (One Entry, per tweet, per day)
   
2. Enter one of my other contests… or leave a comment on another post. = 1 entry per contest and/or post
3. Leave a comment about this giveaway on your Facebook wall. Leave the link in the comment section.
4. Post this giveaway on your blog or website. Leave me the link in the comment section.

Giveaway Closes –  January 3rd

“The Crayola High Tech Holiday prize pack, product information and prize pack for giveaway have been provided by Crayola through MyBlogSpark”.