Cover Image: Aya and Papaya Learn to Imagine

Aya and Papaya Learn to Imagine

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Member Reviews

I have to say the cover of this book reminds me of Mr. Rodgers so much. This is a cute story of sibling love between Aya and her big brother Faz. Aya is home and wants to go outside and play with her best friend her doll Papaya. Unfortunately for her it is raining and they have to play indoors. She does not know what to do and her brother helps her to use her imagination and she learns how to have fun indoors. Full of good ideas for rainy days to keep children occupied. I am all for encouraging children to use their imagination. Great book to read to young ones on a rainy day.

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I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have enjoyed the Aya and Papaya books. The characters are cute and the pictures are always very bright. The stories are all very relatable for kids. 3.5

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I thought that this book was lovely and full of ideas on how to have fun indoors when it is raining outside.
My daughter is called Ava so when we read the book together it is Ava instead of Aya that we read (the font does make it look very similar) and she loves it even more.
I loved the images, it is very easy to read and follow and my daughter loved it.
It is 5 stars from me - very highly recommended

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Aya, her doll Papaya and her family are back in this new adventure. It is raining and Aya is bored. There is nothing to do because she can't go outside. When she is lamenting that there is nothing to do, her big brother Faz arrives home and announces that after he cleans up he will play with Aya and Papaya. With his help, Aya uses her imagination and they find all sorts of things to do and have a lot of fun. This is a cute book about imagining, family and being to open to suggestions from others. I have been reading this series to my grandchildren and they love spending time with Aya and her family. The illustrations are very child friendly with large, colourful images. My one question about this one is that in previous books, Aya sure had a good imagination, yet in this one, it seems to have vanished. The grandchildren didn't seem to take any notice though. A cute story and a fun series for family libraries.

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Aya and Papaya Learn To Imagine is a lovely book about Aya who decides there is nothing to do in the rain until her brother comes home to help her use her imagination. This is a great story and I particularly liked seeing all the imaginative things they came up with but at times I did find the story a little repetitive. The illustrations in the book are beautiful and so full of colour, the illustrations even made the rain look appealing! We really enjoyed this book and would read more of this kind in the future!

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<em>Aya and Papaya Learn to Imagine </em>by MQ is a book that I was actually really excited to request. I haven't seen many children's books that feature an older sibling taking the time to play with their younger one and it was so much fun to see that dynamic. The story begins with young Aya who wants to play outside, but soon learns she can't because it's a rainy day. And instead of leaving his sister at a loss for what to do with her day, her older brother helps her imagine up some fun.

Overall, I think this book does a better job at showing sibling dynamics than it does promoting imagination, and that's largely due to how fast paced it is. Aya is completely thrown when she realizes she has to play inside and doesn't quite know what to do until her brother shows her all the fun she can find in a variety of make-believe games they proceed to play together. Never once does it really go into any depth with the sort of games they imagine.

The artwork is simple, but cute. It's colorful and engaging and follows Aya's journey with the rainy day and then with all the adventures she imagines with her brother, concluding with a family dinner. The cover is a really great depiction of what you'll find throughout the novel.

I enjoyed Aya's rainy day story, though I don't think I'd go out of my way to get this book for anyone. It's cute and while I <em>love</em> the sibling dynamic, the story is ultimately quite forgettable and even I had to reread it in order to write this review.

<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>

Review to go live on blog on 08/30/19.

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A cute book with a lesson my daughter is growing to need. At 2.5 years old, my daughters imagination is just starting to take off. This would be a great book to read to her to introduce her to the idea of imagination and keeping herself busy. It would also "normalize" it and give her an example of other kids imagining play. Positive peer pressure, if you will! I also love that the dolly plays a roll in this book.

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a wonderfully illustrated book. The characters are brought to life off the pages.
Aya wants to play outside but its raining. Her big brother Faz shows her how to use her imagination to play inside and have fun. She enjoys herself that much she doesn't realise its stopped raining.

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Aya and Papaya Learn to Imagine was a cute read. I loved the brother-sister dynamic in the story; I think it was almost unnecessary to have Papaya in it at all since the importance of the sibling relationship was so much more integral in the book. The content was great, and the illustrations were spot on. Overall a great book for any child.

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Aya and Papaya Learn to Imagine by MQ. Troubador Publishing Ltd. Matador. Children's Fiction. Publication date: 28 July 2019. 5 Stars.

This is a super-fun series of picture books! Join Aya, her doll Papaya and her big brother Faz in this cute family oriented story about rainy days that can be joyfully transformed through use of your active child’s imagination. Highly recommend!

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Aya and Papaya learn to imagine. A book about a sweet little girl and her dolly who have to learn how to use imagination on a wet a rainy day.

This is an adorable story. I loved the colors and the images. The ideas Aya and her big brother Faz came up with were so fun and kept them so busy they didn’t even notice when the rain stopped.

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This is the second book I've read in the AYA and PAPAYA series. This time, the topic is imagination. Unfortunately, I just read Jonathan D. Voss's beautiful Imagine That, which addresses the same subject matter in a far more magical and engaging way. It's not that there's anything inherently wrong with AYA and PAPAYA Learn to Imagine; it's just not at the same level of storytelling and illustration.

On a rainy day, after "splish splashing" in puddles, Aya thinks she's run out of things to do. Her older brother, Faz, tells her to think of things they can do, but Aya draws a blank. So Faz tells her to use her imagination.

I think this is where the book's biggest weakness is for me. Here, imagination is used mainly to come up with activities to do... not necessarily for imaginative play (although it does play a role there, too). As a result, the story seems too simple. Which would I rather read about: a child imagining herself in the role of dragon-slayer... or a child using her imagination to realize that she and her brother can dance to music in the living room?

The writing is simple and to the point... most of the time. At times, the prose can get a little clunky and/or confusing:

She could see the rain falling gently on the grass from the clouds.

What is this cloud grass of which the book speaks? (Perhaps it would've been clearer to say: She could see the rain falling gently from the clouds onto the grass.)

The illustrations are par for the course for this series. They bold and colourful, but also fairly simple. I did like seeing Papaya (Aya's doll) dressed up in her matching raincoat; that was pretty cute.

Overall, this is just an average book for me. I think I might've liked it better had I not just read Imagine That. The two recent releases are both about imagination and rainy days, so they're bound to be compared by readers who read both books. Unfortunately, AYA and PAPAYA Learn to Imagine just doesn't measure up.

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