Review by CWillingham -- The Barnyard Buddies STOP for P...

[CWillingham]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Barnyard Buddies STOP for Peace" by Julie Penshorn.]

---

4 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

The Barnyard Buddies STOP for Peace written by Julie Penshorn is a cute children's story book about a few select barnyard animals who get stuck in the rain because one horse, King, is taking up all of the room under the barn roof. The animals become angry as they struggle to stay warm while being soaked in the rain. A peacemaking owl, Mrs. McCloud, comes in and teaches the animals the steps for "STOP" to help them calm down and solve their problem in a peaceful manner.

This book is great! After reading it for myself, I felt the need to read it to my children as well to get a child's perspective, and they loved it! They were really drawn to the illustrations done by Jorry Keith. The author includes a helpful guide for parents and educators at the end of the book with a website listed to help with other issues beyond what is in this book as well as a list of other books. As an extra there is an exercise for children to complete to help them with step two of Mrs. McCloud's strategy, by writting down their problem and telling how it makes them feel using an I-Message, which includes an example to follow.

There is another portion that talks about a Mentor Program for The Barnyard Buddies STOP for Peace. It goes into detail about training the group, the ages of the mentors, Peace Literacy, which is what this book is, and transportation. It mentions mentor sessions in the classroom and what happens in both sessions as well as a follow up afterwards. To top it off, the author includes a cute song that goes along with the steps in the book so children have a fun way to remember what to do the next time something upsets them.

This is a great way to capture young minds and teach them important life lessons about understanding their feelings and how to solve their problems without conflict. I look forward to seeing these books on book store shelves so I can purchase them for my children, and also in all elementary schools.

I am rating this book a 4 out of 4 stars! I think this is a fantastic learning tool for children and the song makes it even better! I would recommend this book to anyone with young children whithin the ages of 2 to 9, also to all elementary school teachers and educators!

******
The Barnyard Buddies STOP for Peace
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Smashwords

Like CWillingham's review? Post a comment saying so!

[JessNWheeler]

This book sends a really important message to young readers. Peaceful problem-solving must be clearly taught and children love fables. Great review! Thanks!

[melissy370]

Good subject for a children's book. Sounds like the author put a lot of thought into creating it. Thanks for the review.

[DancingLady]

What a great book! I hope it can help lots of parents and teachers as they guide their young ones in the process of learning self-control and conflict resolution. It's certainly not an easy task for anyone.

[Festus]

It is an insightful review, however, if the content were sufficiently dissected, the review would have scored much above average. Animal stories do not always strike attraction despite their strong allegorical focus as in case of Orwell's Animal Farm. With critical reflection, not a few salient issues will be unraveled in this work.