Dr. Bookworm

Dr. Bookworm features children's book reviews from a pediatrician's point of view. We also host read-alongs of favorite books.

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Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

Let's Cook a Treat

Dec 4

Dec 4 Let's Cook a Treat

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

Book Review, Dr.Bookworm Book Rec

Every so often, Mini Me will check out a cookbook. For a very long time. We're terrible about hoarding our books and keeping them too long. This time around we've been hoarding Let's Cook a Treat: A Step by Step Guide, which is from the DK family of books.

I don't normally post our crafting or cooking processes because I don't come up with new recipes or craft ideas. I tend to do a mish-mash of craft ideas I've heard of, unless I'm problem-solving a costume. But since the holiday season is coming up, I'll tell you that this book was great for baking with a 7 year old!

Featured Fridays: St. Joseph's Perinatal Comfort Care Program

Dec 1

Dec 1 Featured Fridays: St. Joseph's Perinatal Comfort Care Program

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

Featured Fridays

Featured Fridays: I'm featuring a non-profit organization every Friday for the nine Fridays leading up to what would have been Macy's ninth birthday.

I didn't know the logistics of what it would be like to give birth to a baby who may or may not survive the birthing process. Enter the St. Joseph's Perinatal Comfort Care Program.

First Pages: Zita the Spacegirl

Nov 30

Nov 30 First Pages: Zita the Spacegirl

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

"'Finders Keepers! Hee Hee!'

'Grabbing my notebook out of my hands isn't finders keepers. Zita?'

'This wasn't here yesterday."

'It looks like a meteoroid.'"

First Pages: The School for Good and Evil

Nov 29

Nov 29 First Pages: The School for Good and Evil

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

"Sophie had waited all her life to be kidnapped. But tonight, all the other children of Gavaldon writhed in their beds. If the School Master took them, they'd never return."

Thankful and Gratitude notes

Nov 27

Nov 27 Thankful and Gratitude notes

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

Doctorly Musings, Creative Endeavors

On the way home from our Thanksgiving celebration with the family, I realized that we forgot to say what we are thankful for. Traditionally we write what we are thankful for anonymously and then place them all in a bag. The gratitude notes are then read out loud.

Since we forgot, the four of us stated our thank yous in the car.

First Pages: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Nov 25

Nov 25 First Pages: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

First Pages, Creative Endeavors

"Far away from here, following the Jade River, there was once a black mountain that cut into the sky like a jagged piece of rough metal. The villagers called it Fruitless Mountain because nothing grew on it and birds and animals did not rest there."

Special Delivery Book Anniversary and Selfish Holidays

Nov 22

Nov 22 Special Delivery Book Anniversary and Selfish Holidays

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

Doctorly Musings

Celebrating the 5 year book anniversary of Special Delivery:

What's Special Delivery? It's a children's book that I wrote when Mini Me was two years old and I was pregnant with Macy, my daughter who lived only briefly. One sleepless night I couldn't get these words out of my head as we were figuring out how to tell Mini Me that her sister was likely going to die.

Eventually, for Macy's funeral, we had five books printed at a local shop. And then, in 2012, we received a grant from Sappi Ideas That Matter to have the book published so that we could distribute them to other families, free of cost.

First Pages: The Fault in Our Stars

Nov 17

Nov 17 First Pages: The Fault in Our Stars

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

First Pages, Creative Endeavors

"Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death."

Unicorns versus Goats

Nov 14

Nov 14 Unicorns versus Goats

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

Dr.Bookworm Book Rec, Book Review

I'm keeping with the unicorn theme for the next few book recommendations, thus locking in my other moniker as Dr. Unicorn/the Unicorn doctor. :D This time we're talking about Bob Shea's Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great in which a unicorn takes on a goat in a fight. Sort of.

First Pages: If I Stay

Nov 13

Nov 13 First Pages: If I Stay

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

First Pages, Creative Endeavors

"Everyone thinks it was because of the snow. And in a way, I suppose that's true."

Uni the Unicorn and the Dream Come True

Nov 9

Nov 9 Uni the Unicorn and the Dream Come True

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

Dr.Bookworm Book Rec

I had NO idea that there was going to be a sequel to Uni the Unicorn, especially as Amy Krouse Rosenthal passed away last Spring. However, I do know that the picture book publishing process is a long one and she likely finished this book several years ago. Having said that, I can't help but think that this is Rosenthal's swan song, and what a beautiful one it is.

First Pages: Book Scavenger

Nov 8

Nov 8 First Pages: Book Scavenger

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

First Pages, Creative Endeavors

"Garrison Griswold whistled his way down Market Street, silver hair bobbing atop his head like a pigeon wing. He tapped his trademark walking stick, striped in Bayside Press colors, to the beat of his tune."

Mother of Dragons

Nov 7

Nov 7 Mother of Dragons

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

Creative Endeavors, Doctorly Musings

Common Welsh Green Dragon from Harry Potter, Tsunami Dragon from Wings of Fire, and Mother of Dragons, not really from Game of Thrones :D

First Pages: The Hunger Games

Nov 6

Nov 6 First Pages: The Hunger Games

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

First Pages, Creative Endeavors

"When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim's warmth but finding only the rough canvas of the mattress. She must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother. Of course, she did. This is the day of the reaping."

First Pages: The Strange Case of Origami Yoda

Nov 5

Nov 5 First Pages: The Strange Case of Origami Yoda

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

First Pages, Creative Endeavors

"The big question is: Is Origami Yoda real?

Well, of course he's real. I mean he's a real finger paper made out of a real piece of paper."

First Pages: Everything, Everything

Nov 4

Nov 4 First Pages: Everything, Everything

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

First Pages, Creative Endeavors

"I've read many more books than you. It doesn't matter how many you've read. I've read more. Believe me. I've had the time."

First Pages: Eleanor & Park

Nov 3

Nov 3 First Pages: Eleanor & Park

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

First Pages, Creative Endeavors

First Pages: Eleanor & Park

"XTC was no good for drowning out the morons at the back of the bus."

First Pages: Twilight

Nov 2

Nov 2 First Pages: Twilight

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

Creative Endeavors, First Pages

As promised, Stephenie Meyer's Twilight is the second book in our first pages study session this month in honor of National Novel Writing Month. Why? Again because both the Harry Potter series and The Twilight Saga were instrumental in changing the face of children's book publishing.

"I'd never given much thought to how I would die--though I'd had reason enough in the last few months--but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this."

First Pages: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Nov 1

Nov 1 First Pages: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

First Pages, Creative Endeavors

First Lines: In the years I've participated in National Novel Writing Month in the past, I was part of a large group of women writers who would send messages of encouragement during the month. One of the first posts was inevitably "First Lines" in which we would share the first lines of the novel we were working on. I thought it would be fun to dissect and discover the First Lines/First Pages of some of the best YA/middle grade novels.

The first? Harry Potter, of course.

The Hate U Give Read-Along, Part 2

Oct 24

Oct 24 The Hate U Give Read-Along, Part 2

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng

Epic Read-Along

For this part of the discussion of The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, I want to talk about family. Last post, I talked about the strong sense of community that Thomas wrote about. The center of it all is the Carter family. I mention it in our part one discussion, but I think this strong sense of community and family really comes into fruition in the second half of the novel.