With Star Ship Reviews, our goal is to bring attention to some of the wonderful independent authors and illustrators out there. For this week's entry, we'll be looking at "Ten Little Sandpipers" Written by Kim Ann and Illustrated by Nejla Shojaie.
Ten Little Sandpipers Kim Ann
The Artists:
Kim Ann is a bestselling author whose award-winning books help children develop a love of reading. Since 2019, she has published 16 picture books along with 10 other titles, including translations and affirmation books, selling more than 100,000+ books and e-books worldwide.
Her popular titles include Ruby the Rainbow Witch®, Goldy the Puppy®, and the Go On Vacation book series. She also has STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and SEL (Social Emotional Learning) titles, including Ten Little Sandpipers, the new title Ten Little Starfish, and Ninja School Rules.
Kim is known for taking her work on the road - engaging in numerous local events, visiting schools and libraries, and even national expos.
Always looking for new ways to market and grow her brand, Kim looks forward to continuing to bring tales of adventure to many more young readers.
Nejla Shojaie is an illustrator. She has loved to draw since she was a child. She loves working and living her life as an illustrator and creating children’s illustrations. She likes traveling, reading, watching movies and enjoys listening to music, especially when she’s drawing.
The Story:
"Ten little sandpipers are playing on the beach, running in and out of the waves. But as the sun sets, what will happen to the little birds? Come along on a fun adventure as we count the little sandpipers one to ten."
The Review:
I really enjoyed reading Ten Little Sandpipers. I feel that Kim was able to add a lot of really fun elements to an educational topic!
The first ten pages focus on adding Sandpipers into the equation, one by one. They explore the beach together and engage in various activities until we reach ten and then we find the Sandpipers resting in front of a cozy sunset. The following page gives a bunch of fun facts about Sandpipers and after that, there's a mini scavenger hunt with a list of five items for the reader to spot on the page. Lastly, the final page encourages the reader to go back to the beginning of the book to see if they can spot all of the crabs throughout the pages and there's even a QR code to scan which lets you download the song for a sing-along! Overall I think it's a great book to get early readers excited about learning how to count.
The illustrations in the book are really well done. Each Sandpiper is just as cute as the last and the beach backgrounds were very thoughtfully laid out.
The Mini Interview:
To wrap things up, we've asked Kim to answer three quick questions for us!
What was your inspiration for the story?
One early morning I was sitting on the beach here in California watching my daughter Kayla surf. There was a little sandpiper running back and forth toward the water. I watched him for a while and then continued watching my daughter surf. A while later I looked back and there were now three sandpipers running back and forth. In that moment I thought, this would make a really cute counting book!
What was your favorite book growing up?
My all time favorite book was called The Wednesday Witch. By today's standards it would probably be considered an early chapter book. I could not get enough of that book. I think in some ways it inspired me to write my Ruby the Rainbow Witch book series.
What piece of advice would you give to aspiring children’s authors?
Don't cut corners and don't give up! It takes a lot to be successful in this industry. Have a great book, a great editor, and a wonderful illustrator.
The Links:
If you'd like to grab your own copy of the book, it can be purchased here:
And don't forget to sign up for the Star Ship Press newsletter:
You'll get some free eBooks and updates on all of our new titles!
Cheers,
-JE
info@starshippress.ca
Comments