Official Review: My Bright Journal by Irina Negovan

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bookowlie
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Official Review: My Bright Journal by Irina Negovan

Post by bookowlie »

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "My Bright Journal" by Irina Negovan.]
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3 out of 4 stars
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Sometimes it’s nice to have your kids put the technological gadgets aside, and spend time on traditional, creative activities. My Bright Journal by Irina Negovan is an interactive children’s book designed to stimulate a child’s imagination. There are numerous pages scattered throughout the book that are formatted like a field journal. Each “field” journal page contains a scientific fact, a topic for discussion, field and picture notes about things that happened that day, and a section to list specific thoughts of gratitude. There is even a section to record opinions about the foods the child ate that day.

The book is made of high-quality paper and has the look and feel of a keepsake journal. In addition to the daily journal pages, the book is full of interesting activities such as puzzles, recipes, drawing pages with prompts, and crafts. The projects are meant to be shared with a parent as a way to spend quality family time.

Many of the activities are certainly inventive. My favorite prompt in the book is to draw a family for the monster kid. The monster kid is an exceptionally fun picture and I think children would love drawing the monster kid’s parents and siblings. However, kids often have writing and drawing prompts during class and for homework, so I don’t know if they would enjoy doing these types of activities in their spare time. I gave a few of the project pages to my nephew to complete. He loved the puzzles and the origami craft, but he wasn’t too interested in completing the field journal pages. He did, however, like the science facts listed on the field journal pages - butterflies have taste buds in their feet and snails have 25,000 teeth!

My children are a little older than the target age group (5-10) for this book. Still, I showed the pages to one of my boys; his main comment was that the writing and drawing prompts reminded him of schoolwork he had when he was younger. From kindergarten through second grade, my children were given a blank journal each school year where they were told to draw a picture and/or write a few sentences based on a prompt given by the teacher. I can’t imagine they would have wanted to do more of the same at home after completing their schoolwork.

The animal egg carton and origami crafts brought back wonderful memories. Both kids and parents will love making these cute items which are easy and fun to do. I think parents could suggest a visit to the library to look for children’s books with these animals as the main characters. Although the recipes looked tasty, some of them seemed a bit cumbersome to prepare. Simpler recipes would have been a better choice, especially for busy moms.

Some of the instructions are not easy for a child to understand – for example, draw a sluggish dog, determine if an object is angular, etc. Even though a parent would be there to explain the instructions, I think children gain confidence if they are able to comprehend the instructions without assistance. There is also a page titled “Places I Want to Go” with a map of the world. The problem is that the map doesn’t include the names of the countries or continents. This would just confuse children, and parents would need to find a map that actually displays the names of the places.

I give this book a rating of 3 out of 4 stars. While the activities are interesting, some of the projects are similar to school assignments and not something a child might want to do in their spare time. Still, I would recommend this book to children ages 5-10 as it contains a variety of fun, thought-provoking activities that can stimulate a child’s mind and provide quality family time. By the way, the weirdest food I ever ate as a child was calamari, so that would have been my choice to draw on the “Weirdest Food” page. Of course, it eventually became one of my favorite foods.

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Post by gali »

Sounds like a nice book for kids. The writing and drawing prompts you mentioned remind me of schoolwork as well. Odd that the map doesn’t include the names of the countries or continents. Great review as always! :)
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Post by kandscreeley »

I saw this one. I thought it sounded fun. I can see how a child would think it was like schoolwork though. Another great review! Thanks!
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Post by Sarah Immanuel »

I give it 3 out of 4. But it would do best for children. Very interesting.
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Post by bookowlie »

Thanks everyone for the nice feedback. Despite the issues I mentioned, the book is full of creative and fun projects. There is something for everyone's interests.
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Post by Mercelle »

Sounds like a book children would love. It could also be useful as a keepsake.
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Post by KlareAllison »

Children's books are some of my favourite reading stuffs. Irina Negovan's My Bright Journal will likely make it to my TBR list. I enjoyed the review.
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Post by bookowlie »

Thanks Mercy Bolo and KlareAllison! One of the most interesting parts of the book are the random science facts on the field journal pages.
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Post by MrsCatInTheHat »

This sounds like it could be a fun book for kids. Maybe more in the summer, when they are out of school? I love that you asked your own child for his input.
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Post by Amagine »

This definitely sounds like an interesting concept for children but it's regrettable that some of the activities remind them of schoolwork. When children come home from school the last thing they want to do is more work. Perhaps, like you said, this book would work well as a family activity and discussion subject.

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Post by bookowlie »

Thanks Amagine. The science facts are definitely worth sharing with the rest of the family. Here's a fun one - giraffes clean their ears with an 18-inch long tongue. What a visual!

-- 16 Oct 2017, 13:54 --
CatInTheHat wrote:This sounds like it could be a fun book for kids. Maybe more in the summer, when they are out of school? I love that you asked your own child for his input.
Thanks CatintheHat! I can see this book being a better fit for summer vacation, as you suggested, or children that are either homeschooled or have yet to start school. My kids were very eager to do educational computer games and educational activity books before they entered kindergarten.
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Post by Perfect Ndlovu »

This book is amazing. My children loves this story .Thank you so much
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Post by bookowlie »

Thanks Perfect Ndlovu and welcome to the forums! One odd thing I just noticed about the book is that the author's name is not displayed on the cover. Also, there is no inside title page with an author listed. The only place the author's name is shown is on a small line under the copyright that says "Idea and design by Irina Negovan." I don't think I have ever seen a book that doesn't have the author's name on the cover!
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Post by Kat Kennedy »

This sounds awesome. I'm always looking for something to get my grandchildren to journal and this looks like it.
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Post by Jr Artemis »

Epic review,I like that kind of book with perfect review,Thanks alot
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