LOVE IT - VALUABLE LESSON LEARNED!!
584950
No, this is not the same Everything has to be Purple book like Pinkalicious!  I think that is great.  My 4 yr old LOVES this book, especially when I do all the "mean girl" sarcastic voices.  I do not agree with the other reviewer that no lesson is learned.  A VERY VALUABLE LESSON is LEARNED!!  You CANNOT change others, but you can learn to LOVE what you LOVE and not conform to others!!  In the end, she makes a Wonderful New Friend!!  Does my 4 year old get all that?  Probably not yet, but it is one of her favorite books and one day she will remember!!
2739081
I love this book! We are in the process of learning new habits in our family, especially that of being kind to each other.  We read the book as a family several times, and now when I catch the children being a little unkind, I ask them if I need to "read them the book."  Of course, they say no:-)  However, I have seen my 11-year old daughter reading it several times, and if it's out in the open where the children can see it, each of them will pick it up and read it.  This is a wonderful book to teach an amazing life lesson.
2354830
Was struggling to get my 3 yr-old to use a potty, so took advise from a friend and looked up boot camp methods. Came across this book, tried it, LOVED it! I tweaked very slightly with minor details, to fit our situation, but kept to the method and theories. My eldest was 80% trained by lunchtime on day 1, 100% by day 3.

2 years later, I tried it with my 2-yr-old -a child with a completely different personality and set of challenges! Once again, the method worked - 90% trained by end of day 1.

I love how the book also covers different situations when things don't go according to plan, and that the author is always willing to offer help and suggestions - we had regression issues a couple of months later, which she quickly helped us conquer via her Facebook Page.

LOVED this book... and so does my wallet!!
1535102
I LOVE IT!!!!! You could learn some things from this book; it teaches about overcoming your fears, standing up for yourself, getting out of your comfort zone and achieving what you are most passionate about. Don't let others live your life for you, and don't let fear of the unknown drive you or else you will miss out on some great adventures and opportunities. There are other things I've learned, but you can read the book for yourself and see what you got out of it. Plus, Sarah and I are so alike so I had a great time connecting with her. I laughed out loud throughout the whole book. It just made me happy. I'm saving this book on my "Books for Rainy Days" list because I totally see myself reading it over again :D
2408385
I loved this book! It teaches a great lesson about letting go of negative feelings, even after a really bad day. It was thoughtful and sweet. It ran a little longer than I imagined it would ( I didn't notice the number of pages) but it kept the attention of a 6-7 year old. Super cute book, I would highly recommend for any parent / child, especially those parents of short fused children or children with a hard time focusing.
3737209
easy to read, fun, easy to understand = LOVE IT!
3548863
Very quick to read and makes an important lesson easy to understand.  I highly recommend this book for young and old alike.  It's not just valuable for business but the lesson contained will improve any relationship in your life.  Makes a great gift and I plan to give a few away to my business friends and teenage daughter and her friends too.  If the young ones can start out life following the principle of giving as outlined in the book, they will be very, very successful and happy too.
2729390
This book is a parable and it does an excellent job of telling a story and teaching a way of thinking. It is designed to teach a valuble life lesson. When I was a teacher about 5 years ago, teaching in a H-E-L-L hole of a program for emotionally disturbed Jr. High students, my school's administration had every teacher in the school read FISH! This book really made a positive difference at our campus, and this book's lessons really stuck with me. I mean, heck, at least I wasn't having to sell and toss fish around every day for very low pay. But, as time passed, the lessons of this book grew more and more as I experienced a horrible family legal problems, and the death of my father. I saw others in my family struggle so much with the situation, but for me, I chose my attitude about the situation, and own my emotions, and did not blame my emotions on the terrible situation I was wrapped up in. Flash forward to present time: I sell Real Estate. Any sales job is mostly about attitude and constantly picking yourself up from rejection. This book helped me so much with past problems, that I decided to purchase several copies to share with my brokerage's fellow agents. In this market, it is so hard to keep a positive attitude, but with the help of this book, we are doing better, and working for a properous future. I highly recommend this book to anyone working on being a positive force. It will especially help you learn how to not be sucked down into other's world of negitive-ville. I highly recommend this book.
2885899
Potty training three children seemed like an overwhelming task for me, so I decided to do a great deal of research.  I bought many books, and planned out my stratagy....  did I want to train them one at a time, or all at once?  When I read Teri Crane's book, I really liked the approach and the idea of a party.  Some of the other approaches I had researched had some negative strategies, and I loved how positive this apporaoch is.  Because I had to have three parties, I did not decorate as much as the book suggested, and my treats were not at all theme related, but I was still VERY successful.

My kids had shown no interest in going potty and after their third birthday I decided that enough was enough.  I planned their parties for three differnt days, a couple days apart so I had enough time to reinforce.  I loved the one on one bonding time I had with each child, and they LOVED the party aspect!!!  All three of my children really LOVED teaching the doll, and celebrated each success!!!
My one daughter was trained before nap time.  She turned to me during the doll training stage and said, "Mommy, I have to go potty."  From that point on she was trained.  She has had a few accidents(maybe 3 or 4) since, and it has been a month.  My son was trained in a day, just as the book states, and he is a very stubborn child.  He was so proud of himself, and he also very rarely has an accident.  My third child was in a power struggle with me over actually going potty, she would sit and "try" but not actually go on the potty.  She held in her urine for over four hours despite me feeding her beverage after beverage.  I emailed teri is exhaustion and desperation, and she immediately CALLED me at home.  She made sure that she knew all of the facts of my struggle, and gave me STEP - BY - STEP instructions on how to get the power back from my daughter.  She calmed my fears and gave great advice!  My daughter was completely pee trained in a few days. The author was so helpful, I felt like she was a good friend who called to help me plan out my strategy.  The author, Teri Crane, also called a few days later to see how the plan was working, and then called to check in on the day of the BIG reward.  She is still helping me as now we are working on poop training my daughter, who has been having difficulty due to medical issues.  I RAVE about this book and the author to everyone I meet.  I HIGHLY recomend this book - the idea is great, the author really knows her stuff and is extremely HELPFUL!  Potty traing multiples was simple when you use this book!
2450040
I received a copy of Zen Pig to review. "Zen Pig" is such a great book full of valuable lessons. My daughters love the book and have made it a permanent part of our nightly bedtime routine. The illustrations are beautiful. "Zen Pig" puts valuable life lessons about compassion, gratitude, and more in an easy and fun to read rhyme. I can't wait to see more from Mark Brown and "Zen Pig"!
2337643
A lot of instances where I realized that we need something to hold one kid to while we get the other kid out of the car seat.
I have seen the product and some photos, I was a doubter and did not believe that this could work on my kids but glad I was wrong and man this does work. My kid usually does not follow an instruction which takes him away from fun but this has been something that he likes doing.
My kid also asks my wife to hang on and touch the parking magnet and wait for daddy to say "all clear" before we move away from the vehicle (like the Croods)- very cute but I was impressed.

I purchased 2 and look forward to buy 2 more when they have some deal/discount to have them on both the sides of our vehicles so both our kids can stay close to us while we load and unload groceries, kids etc.

Pros:
Safety of your child, parking lot discipline and around cars
Colorful and fun tasks to work with like count the fish, find an alphabet etc.
The palm print itself keeps my son busy as he tries to match his palm and fingers
The magnet stays on with usual daily usage, I haven;t tried driving through heavy downpour or car wash to test it but wish the seller/manufacturer could test and update the results

No Cons but will update more after further usage and testing:)

We love this product and recommend this to all families with toddlers.
2358701
I love this book, as it offers mature lessons that I value but haven't seen in other picture books at this level.  The main character is resourceful and finds a way to earn the money to do what he wants most -to rent a bike.  He learns that riding a bike takes practice, and he applies himself to the task.  In time, he earns the bike stall owner's trust, and ultimately, forgiveness.  And in forgiveness, the owner apprentices the boy and teaches him to build his own bike.  I like to see the boy asking forgiveness and for a chance to make amends by working off a debt.  These lessons seem to be from another era, but they are lessons that will resonate for most parents.  My three year old son is awakening to the question, "How do I get what I want in this world of adults?" and the lessons here clearly resonate with him.  I highly recommend this book.
761425
Loved this book as a pre adolescent so much so that I purchased it for my niece and nephew! Amazing life lesson on money and its value for any child. Looking back, I learned from this book while being told one of my favorite stories to date!!
1758393
This books' advice and strategy seems like simple and obvious common sense AFTER you read the book and start using the techniques... but BEFORE I read the book I was doing everything the author describes as wrong and paying the price by witnessing my beloved son throw multiple tantrums each day. The practices outlined in this book have worked very well for my 3 year old son & it has really helped our family get through each day.  He has truly improved at least 60%, I still see occasional outbursts but they are much shorter, milder and are now only occasional.  I would recommend this book to ANY parent, even if their child is already 'delightful.'  I agree with the other reviewers that the authors discussions on drugs may seem heavy-handed, but this is a critical topic since many people are giving their children psychotropic drugs for simple unruly behavior and tantrums (excluding children that have very serious problems) - what could be more heavy-handed than that!  I'm glad someone feels strongly abut it besides the drug companies who have a financial interest in selling their product. But read the book and decide for yourself.
381138
Love this book.  Great lesson for kids and adults not to judge a person by their cover!
3256245
My Daughters Love this book! We sit & read it while sitting in the Doctor's office, at taekwondo, at bedtime! She loves reading this book & enjoyed sharing it w/her friends at a bday party! We love reading in our household so when we can find a good fun book for all of us to read we tend to read it over & over again! Thanks for writing such a great uplifting story for her to read & learn a valuable lesson!

My middle daughter read it to another lil girl in the waiting room while at the doctors the other day & she absolutely loved it as well & her mom bought it on the spot! Again Great story! looking forward to reading more!
2121361
If you are looking for a successful reading program that's affordable, easy, and fun to use, then The Reading Lesson is a must have!

I bought the complete Reading Lesson set for my four year old twin daughters.  By age three, we'd managed to teach them the alphabet and letter sounds; however, I didn't know where to begin to teach them to read.  I had read several other books on the subject, but they just weren't what I needed. Either I did not finish the book because it was too confusing or if I did manage to complete the book, I'd have no idea how to implement what I'd just read.  With the Reading Lesson, getting started was literally as easy as opening the book to Lesson One.  Everything I needed to know to teach my daughters to read was explained in a clear and concise way, with no additional prep work needed on my part.  What a timesaver !!

In the beginning, I started out slowly using the book and the letter sounds VHS, which was just what we needed at the time.  Since The Reading Lesson COMBINES phonics with sight words (which I love), I feel like my daughters are truly learning how to read and decipher words for themselves; they are not simply memorizing words, except for articles, irregularly spelled words, etc. Each lesson provides lots of review opportunities, as well as cute illustrations which my twins love to color after our lesson is completed.  Now that we are a little further into the book, I adapted our lessons to include guided reading activities and writing activities using the Writing Lesson CD.  Since Montcastle Company offers so many other products to supplement The Reading Program book, the possibilities are endless.  With a little creativity , this program will be able to grow with my two daughters for many years.

The Reading Lesson is absolutely one of the best investments that I've made in my children's education.  At age four and a half, they are able to sound out small words and read some leveled readers, but more importantly we are having fun as a family.  This is our special time together, and we treasure it.  The girls actually ASK for their reading lesson every day and are so disappointed  on days when we are forced to miss it.  They eagerly show everyone what the are learning and even use our manual to "teach" their stuffed animals how to read.  Wathching my daughters have fun with learning and knowing that I'm instilling a love of reading in them at the same time is priceless.