The Adventures of Zoe and Alex:
The Disappearing River
About the Book:
Title: The Adventures of Zoe and Alex: The Disappearing River | Authors: David Mitten and Gail Mitten | Publisher: MakeThinkers | Pages: 106 | Genre: Children's Action Adventure
Book Description:
Help Zoe & Alex as they journey through magical hidden lands with invisible creatures to find the disappearing river!
The MakeThinkers Team - an MIT graduate with two children, and his mom, a highly experienced, elementary school teacher - created this adventure story with fun challenges and creative activities to help children unlock their natural creativity & powerful critical thinking skills.
Read ten exciting chapters. Answer the fun challenges. Do the creative activities.
Lexile Measurement: 730L
Each chapter takes less than 15 minutes to complete. It's perfect for parents to read to their children and for older children to read by themselves.
Zoe Flynn and Alex Everhart live on Harriet street, in a quiet town near NYC. They are best friends and enthusiastic adventurers. When they find a magnificent, golden colored wooden box in the attic, their lives change forever! Inside the box are the Enchanted Sweaks of Yellowfield which take them on a fantastic journey through magical hidden lands with invisible creatures to find the disappearing river.
Amanda's Review:
I liked it because it had lots of fun riddles that you had to figure out. They gave you three clues to help you. They gave you little projects that you could do if you wanted. The stories were interesting with things like magical glasses and magical creatures.
My Review:
I did not read this book, but only had a peek at it, because Amanda (age 9) was motivated to read this story without me. That is proof that it's a fun story. She even read some of the riddles to me, which I enjoyed trying to figure out for myself! What really impressed me was that the authors have a passion to create books that get kids thinking while, at the same time, enjoying the adventures of Zoe and Alex.
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About the Authors:
David was born in South Africa and he has lived in the US for almost 20 years. He is an avid cross-training fan, a voracious reader, loves learning new languages, and playing chess. David holds three degrees, including an MS from UT Austin and an MBA from MIT. He is a lifelong learner with interests in finance, human health, robotics and the future of education. He's also a highly experienced investor who enjoys solving problems. When he isn't busy sharing MakeThinkers with parents and educators across the world, David can be found spending time with his family, playing soccer with his two lovely daughters or strumming the guitar.
Gail is a superb elementary school educator with over 40 years of dedicated experience. She uses this extensive background to ensure that all our content is designed to maximize one goal — to help children unlock their natural creativity and powerful critical thinking skills while having fun. When she isn't busy creating delightful content with David at MakeThinkers, Gail enjoys spending time with her six grandchildren in New Jersey and continues to teach. She is also passionate about competing in walking races, crossword puzzles and gourmet cooking.
About MakeThinkers:
MakeThinkers grew out of my need to spend more quality time with my children in an impactful way. Using bedtime storytelling we were off to a good start. Its benefits were well known and widely published. Yet, it lacked that extra something. I'm sure you know about the eventual boredom that sets in with repetitive storytelling. Couldn't we use this time better? I set out to design and build a better experience.
During my time as a fellow at MIT, I began blending original storytelling with imaginative mental challenges. The goal was to combine creativity with critical thinking while forming a strong bond with my children. And, of course, short enough for me to complete in less than fifteen minutes.
I continued to experiment and tried many variations. I even asked some of my professors and friends around the world to try it out with their children. Finally, it happened! I hit the right combination.
My wife and I noticed that our family loved this new type of bedtime storytelling! Our children constantly yearned for more adventures and they were excited to solve the challenges at the end of each story! We also saw how they were beginning to mix creative thinking with logical reasoning. The way they solved problems blew our minds. On top of it all, we could also see them gaining confidence, patience, and focus. Naturally, we had a blast watching them flourish and our bond strengthened while having fun!
After experiencing this success, I had to share it with everyone. So, I started working with my mom to make it happen. She is a caring, passionate and highly accomplished elementary school educator. I grew up watching her teach and witnessing the smart ways she encouraged students to think. (Not to mention me - thanks mom!) She was a perfect fit to build out this vision.
Together we aim to take storytelling to a whole different level. We have made this entire activity straightforward and enjoyable for anyone to do. Our mission is simple: unlock the natural creativity and critical thinking skills in every child.
Through our first series, 'The Adventures of Zoe & Alex', we have put this mission into action.
We are thrilled to have you join us on this exciting journey. Get ready for a fantastic ride!
Remember, Great Parents MakeThinkers.
Disclosure: We received a free digital copy of this book and this is our honest review.
