Cover Image: The Thingity-Jig

The Thingity-Jig

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Member Reviews

**Thank you to the author and publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review**

This was such a precious book! A bear finds a dumpster and rescues some of the items from it and builds a play contraption. Bear tries to get his friends to help him with the "thingity-jig" in the middle of the night. They say no because they are sleeping, and Bear respects them. I like the book’s emphasis on creativity, recycling, and problem-solving. Definitely a great read aloud to add to the classroom!

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When it comes to picture books, the ultimate question is "what's the point". What are we expecting kids to take away from this story? I'm not sure that the messaging here will be clear to a kid. I suppose the bear is making do, not letting the friends' lack of engagement get it down. I just don't know that it will land with kids.

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The Thingity-Jig was such an enjoyable read. My students loved it just as much as I did! They (and I) loved the whimsical drawings and descriptions of Bear’s contraptions. The language was simple enough for young students to understand, but the alliteration and figurative language would also capture the attention of older students. I will definitely be sharing this with students in future years!

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Bear can't sleep, so he wanders into town to look around and finds a thingity-jig. Of course, my granddaughter informed me that it is a couch grandma. Bear bounces on it and has so much fun that he wants to take it back to the forest, but it is too heavy. He tries to get his friends to help, but they're all sleeping and don't want to be bothered. Using ingenuity and found items, he builds a contraption to get the couch home. The illustrations are wonderful with their humorous images and the dark hues depicting night. The vocabulary is creative and fun. "The Thingity-Jig was a springy thing. A bouncy thing. A sit-on-it, hop-on-it, jump-on-it thing." Of course the theme of creativity, perseverance, and helping others are all evident in the story. The ending wraps things up perfectly and it made for a delightful bedtime story.

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This book is so lovely! It would be a great conversation starter for discussion about perseverance and friendship. It is well written, beautifully illustrated, and I will definitely be adding it to my classroom library!

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Loved this! The illustrations are EVERYTHING! I immediately followed the illustrator on Instagram! Such a sweet, creative book!

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Title: The Thingity-Jig
Author: Kathleen Doherty
Illustrator: Kristyna Litten
Genre: Children’s Book
Pages: 20
Publication Date: 4/1/2021

The Thingity-Jig is a children’s book about a bear that finds a dumpster and rescues some of the items from it. He manages to take these items home and build a play contraption. He’s done with the contraption at daybreak when all his friends are waking up. They all have a great time on the thingity-jig.

The illustrations are gorgeous with a beautiful palette. The story is simple – targeted at ages 3 to 7. I think the words used in it would sound great read aloud like “thingity-jig” and “bingity, bing boing,” and many other onomatopoeias. I like the book’s emphasis on creativity and problem-solving. I also like the subtle messages in this book about recycling items into treasures and about his friends having boundaries. Bear tries to get his friends to help him with the thingity-jig in the middle of the night and they say no because they are sleeping. He respects this boundary.

I would recommend this book for the small humans in your life or for a classroom library. It would be fun to read aloud, beautiful illustrations, and some great messages about creativity, problem-solving, recycling, and respecting boundaries.

ARC provided to me by Peachtree Publishing Company, via Net Galley, in exchange for an honest review.

#TheThingityJig #NetGalley

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Ahhhhh. This book was so much fun. The word play is awesome and the kids at story time are going to love it. Bear wants his thingity Jig, but has to build as Pushy-Poppity and other fun contraptions to get it home. I love the illustrations, and would hang any one of them on my wall.

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My Thoughts
Another STEAM-based children’s book! I love that there are so many of these available! Here are my pros and cons for The Thingity-Jig:

Pros
1. The illustrations by Kristyna Litten are fun and adorable.
2. The little bear is quite clever and inventive in this story! He wanders out at night and finds an old couch (the thingity-jig) and he wants to take it back to his home to play with, but he can’t carry it himself and his friends just want to sleep. So, he invents new contraptions to help him get the job done by himself.
3. The names for the contraptions are silly and fun! Kids will love reading these silly words. I highly recommend that adults and/or kids read it out loud.
4. There is an adorable surprise ending.

Cons
None.

Summary
This is a great book all-around! It reinforces creativity and inventiveness, promotes perseverance and ambition, and it will also make you smile! That is pretty much a perfect children’s book in my opinion.

Written for reading ages 4 to 8 (grade level 1 to 2).

Thank you NetGalley and Peachtree Publishing Company for providing an ebook, which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

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The illustrations are very whimsical and add to the readers understanding of Bear’s contraptions. The alliterations and word sounds would make this a good read aloud. And Bear’s creativity could make this a great STEAM tie in. There are also moments that could be good conversations starters like how we name things.

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What a sweet super cute children's book! This book is about a very determined bear. The bear leaves his sleeping friends to go on an adventure at night, only to discover a "thingity-jig" aka a couch! He is so fascinated by this bouncy thing that he is determined to bring it back to his home where his friends are so that they can all play on it. Except, it is too big and heavy for him to do it alone and none of his sleepy friends want to wake up and do it so the bear decides to be creative and take matters in his own "paws".
Really cute story with really nice illustrations. I enjoyed this one and can see young readers 2-5 loving it too!

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The Thingity-Jig is my new favorite book! It is a joyful, readful, inventive thing that bounces and sways and turns reading to play. Perfectly-paced with tasty prose and warmed with wonderful, whimsical scenes.

A delight to read and a marvelous feast for the eyes—get ready for The Thingity-Jig to enter heavy rotation for reading time.

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This book is clever, funny, full of delightful rhymes and illustrations. I really enjoyed the whole thing. It's a message in having the determination to get things done!

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Little bear can't sleep and he is on a mission to explore the nearby city. After some city fun and searching he finds a couch that is simply amazing. His new goal is to get that couch back home to his friends. Funny stuff ensues!!! Cute and memorable story for STEM in younger kids.

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The Thingity-Jig has a simple but charming story - Bear, who can't sleep and wants to play, discovers a cool new bouncy toy, but has to find a way to bring it home himself while all his friends sleep. The language is clear and easy to follow, while still fun in its playful use of onomatopoeic words like "bingity-bing-boing." The illustrations are soft and adorable, in a chalky texture and palette that emphasizes first the night and then the morning setting. The result is a sweet and fun book I can easily imagine reading aloud over and over with little kids.

Thank you to NetGalley and Peachtree Publishing Company for the advance review copy!

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Thanks to NetGalley for access to this ARC! "The Thingity-Jig" is such an endearing and fun read! Delightful storyline and illustrations. Enjoyed following the journey of Bear and all the wonderful inventions along the way!

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The Thingity-Jig is a sweet picture book focused on perseverance, creativity and STEAM. The pictures delightfully support the story of Bear who has found a surprising, bouncy and wonderful . . . thingity-jig. Bear is so excited to share his newfound treasure with his friends, but he just doesn't know how to get it home to the woods. Thus ensues Bear's creative and hilarious endeavor to find a way to get his thingity-jig home.

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I loved this book! Not only were the illustrations done so well but it will have your little engineers coming up with ideas for their own thingity-jigs!! I think books like this are fantastic to have a part of your libraries & its a great way to inspire & ignite our imaginations to look outside the box. I would absolutely buy a copy of this one for my kiddos!! It was an easy to read book & an easy book for littles to follow along as well.

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“Thingity-Jig” is a cute picture book that explores problem solving and creativity. Bear is determined to get his “thingity-jig” home, and has to apply some ingenuity to do so. This is a pretty simple story, but has a nice flow that’s fun for a read-aloud. The illustrations are eye-catching and complement the story well. This is a good read for ages 5+, especially for little engineers

Thank you to NetGalley, Kathleen Doherty (author) and Kristyna Litten (Illustrator) for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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I love a good silly word picture book that I know will enchant children as much as it is fun for adults to read. This book hit all those boxes, and had a super sweet ending. Very fun!

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