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Dora’s Big Birthday Adventure Review and Giveaway {CLOSED}

By Nicole Anderson, on August 15th, 2010
Dora is 10 years old today!  Celebrate with us and be sure to watch Dora’s Big Birthday Adventure prime time on Nick!  Be sure to check your listings when it will be airing in your area.  We will be watching Dora’s Big Birthday Adventure tomorrow night (August 15)!
To make Dora’s Birthday even more fun, I get to tell you all about 10 new Dora books brought to you by Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing!
When we first received our new Dora books from Simon & Schuster, I didn’t give them to my kids right away.  To get in the spirit of Dora’s Birthday, I created a “map” with clues so they could go out and find them!  They had a lot of fun and it was great watching their imaginations go to work.  When they walked around our pool, they of course asked where the crocodiles were because “crocodile lake” couldn’t be without them.  When they got to their next destination, they called it “playpark” (their swingset).  They had a lot of fun with it and we thought it was great!  They were very surprised and really excited with what they found waiting for them!
 
Dora’s Big Birthday Adventure got my kids (especially our son) wanting to watch Dora’s Big Birthday Adventure and they are looking forward to it.  This book is the story everyone is about to see on TV!  Dora and Boots are inside the “Magic Storybook” where they have been on lots of adventures but now it’s time to go home because Dora’s family are waiting to celebrate her birthday.  But then a big gust of wind carries them both off to Wizzle World.
The storybook wasn’t working and they couldn’t jump back out of the book.  Dora and Boots have helped the Wizzles before from the mean witch so they would be sure to help them get home.  In Dora’s Big Birthday Adventure, she and boots have to take the wishing crystal to the Wishing Wizzle to get them back home.  Of course along the way, they will need the help from Map and Backpack along the way.  Throughout the story, our kids got to meet old friends that Dora and Boots have helped before such as the Snow Princess, the Pirate Piggies, and even some new friends such as a magical unicorn!  Will Dora and Boots be able to make it home and escape the Mean Witch again to make it home for her birthday party?
Dora and the Birthday Wish Adventure starts with Dora and Boots reading a book about the Birthday Wizzle.  Of course he lived in Wizzle World and he could make all birthday wished come true.  It was the Birthday Wizzle’s birthday and when he went to make his own wish come true, his wishing wand was blown out of the book!  Dora and Boots got hi wand and they went off to return his wand to him before his candles blow out so he can make his wish so into the storybook they went to go to Wizzle World!  Map tells them they have to get to Wizzle Mountain but along the way, they will meet friends that they will have to gant their birthday wishes for since they have the wishing wand.  They make it through unicorn forest and the twin dragon’s cave to grant their wishes.  Maybe Dora and boots can get help from their new friends to make it to Wizzle Mountain in time!
 
In Flowers for Mami Unicorn, Isa and Dora are planting some very impressive flower seeds.  I wish I had some of these for my flower garden!  Anyway, they have umbrella flower seeds, butterfly flower seeds, beanstalk flower seeds, and even unicorn flower seeds!  After they planted their flowers, a rainbow came out and so did a unicorn.  The unicorn wants to take some Unicorn flowers back to his Mami (mommy) but he didn’t know how to get back to the rainbow.  Dora and Isa helps him!  Map tells them where to go!  They come across Boots and Tico playing soccer and the rain was coming.  They plant umbrella flowers so they can play in the rain.  Not only do these flowers look pretty cool as my son says, they grow really quickly!  Isa and Dora help other friends with their unique flowers along the way including the Grumpy Old Troll (that lives under the bridge…)!
Super Babies’ Dream Adventure feature Dora and her twin baby brother and sister.  This book is the story she tells to her brother and sister before they go to sleep.  Her bedtime story is about a dream fairy that makes happy dreams come true for all babies.  One day the babies didn’t get their nap dreams and they discovered that none of the other babies did either which meant that the dream fairy must be missing.  As usual, Map tells them where they need to go so the super babies head off to Dream Castle to wake up the dream fairy.  Along the way, the Super babies help a giant baby and even baby dragons.  They need to hurry to Dream Castle to wake up the dream fairy so all the babies can get their naps!
These four books are great for kids in the first grade in my opinion.  There are full paragraphs on each page and the illustrations are just like watching Dora on TV!  There are a few new Spanish words to learn in each book and all the stories have the same format as the show!  These books are also wonderful for your kids’ imaginations!  They are also interactive with Dora asking the reader questions like she does in the show getting them involved in the story.
Both of these titles are unique books.  In Dora’s Princess Party, Dora is going inside her book to find all her princess friends but her page is missing pieces.  This is what makes these books so fun because your kids literally help Dora this time.  Included in this book are over 65 reusable stickers that you use on the pages!  To get started, your kids get to find the stickers that look like puzzle pieces and place them in the correct spots to reveal to Dora where she must go.  She goes to Crystal Kingdom, Magic Snowy Forest, Mermaid Kingdom, and Fairy Tale Land.  On each page, Dora will ask you to find certain stickers to place on the pages!  Explore each land with Dora so she can get all her princess friends to the princess party!
Dora’s Pirate Treasure Hunt is the same kind of book that includes more than 50 reusuable stickers that you can use in the book.  Dora takes your kids on an adventure with pirate piggies, mermaids and monkeys at the Monkey Cave to search for the treasure!  Again, Dora will tell the readers that the piggies need to be dressed as pirates etc., so your kids get to dress them up with the stickers!  They can also create their own scenes and even get to decorate Map to look like a treaure map!  Help the mermaids along the way to get to the treasure.
The pages in these books aren’t paper pages.  They are glossy pages and are somewhat like board pages.  My kids have used and reused all the stickers about a hundred times and they still work great!  The text of the story is great for a first grader to read and again, we love that these books are also interactive and as always, your kids get to learn a few Spanish words!  They absolutely love them and we also think these are really great for imagination and make them feel like they get to create their own illustrations!
 
So Many Bananas! is a story about Boots finding a wishing machine.  Since Boots is a monkey, of course he wishes for bananas.  Every time that Boots says “bananas”, he gets more of them!  After he says “bananas a few too many times, there ends up being way too many of them.  Boots needs to wish for no more bananas but the wishing machine becomes broken!  They need to take the wishing machine to Roberto the Robot’s abuelo to fix it so Map tells them how to get to the Workshop!  Maybe along the way they can get rid of some of these bananas!
Let’s Read with Dora is a collection of 6 storybooks!  It includes Just Like Dora!, I Love My Mami!, Dora and the Rainbow Kite Festival, Dora’s First Trip, The Puppy Twins, and Dora’s Sleepover.  Just Like Dora is a simple story about doing what Dora does.  “Splash in the water, just like me.”  Or slide down a slide, swing on the vines, etc. until they reach the Ice Cream Party.  I Love My Mami is a story about everything that Dora and her Mami does together.  In Dora and the Rainbow Kite Festival, Dora and Boots saves a kite when it’s stuck in a tree.  They have to make it to the Kite Festival before the rainbow goes away.  Map tells them where to go and Backpack helps along the way.
The other three stories follow the same format with Map and Backpack.  Dora’s First Trip is about her first time exploring and that was when she meets Boots, Swiper the Fox, the Fiesta Trio (little bugs that sing and dance along the screen when you watch Dora on TV), then they help the Fiesta Trio find their lost instruments and meet more friends including Benny and Isa.  Dora and Boots take her puppy to the Double Dog House for a party for her puppy and his twin sister in The Puppy Twins.  In Dora’s Sleepover, she and Boots are having a sleepover in Boots’ tree house.  She asks for your help packing and then they take the trip to the tree house but they have to watch out for Swiper!
Our 4 year old son really loves these books because they are Pre-Level 1 and Level 1 stories which makes them really easy to read.  They only have about five to fifteen words on each page and some of the stories even includes tiny pictures above certain words to make learning some of them easier.  Most of the stories follow the same format of the show while a couple others are just simple stories.  Again, there are a few Spanish words to learn in them and they are a lot of fun to read.  He really enjoys sitting down and reading a book especially these ones because they make reading fun and easy to learn!  These books are definitely great for readers just learning to read.
   
Happy Birthday Dora is a board book.  Dora and Boots come home after their adventure to a party celebrating Dora’s Birthday.  Everyone is there including everyone in Dora’s family, Isa, Benny, the storybook Piggies, Tico, The Grumpy Old Troll, and even Swiper!  They dance and sing, there is a pinata, birthday cake, singing, and then Dora gives everyone including the reader a birthday hug!
Dora’s 10 Best Adventures feature 10 great Dora books all in one!  This book includes Dora’s Backpack, Dora Climbs Star Mountain, Dora Saves Mermaid Kingdom, Dora Saves the Snow Princess, Dora Saves Crystal Kingsom, Dora’s Fairy Tale Adventure, Dora’s Pirate Adventure, Dora’s World Adventure, At the Carnival, and The Birthday Dance Party.  All of these stories follow the same format of the show like most other Dora books do.  Each time you come to another story, the title page looks like the cover of a different book with a full illustration.  I love how the title pages appear in this book! 
Our little guy loves the board book.  He likes turning the pages and he knows Dora pretty well because he already liked watching her.  The collection book is great for our older kids.  The text of all the stories in this one are full paragraphs which again, I think a first grader should be able to read them just fine.  We really like this book because sometimes our daughter will read aloud to her brother while they look at the pictures together and sometimes mommy or daddy will read to them.  These stories are based off episodes from Dora the Explorer and I have seen most of them myself.  I am very pleased that these stories follow along with the episodes really well!
Our kids love all these great books.  All these Dora books are illustrated like the show.  It’s almost like the show was literally placed in a book.  They are all fun to read and even though our daughter is 9 years old and has pretty much grown out of watching Dora, she still enjoys reading them.  Of course there is no question whether or not our 4 year old son loves them!  This is a great way to celebrate Dora’s Big Birthday Adventure.  Have a reading party with your kids….reading is Fantastico!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DORA!
The product was sent to me for free by the company for my use and review. I was not paid to write my review and my opinions are 100% my own.
Buy It:  Visit Simon & Schuster Kids to buy your new Dora books today!  You may also find them at other book stores.
 
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