Yesterday I shared with you my girls’ growing interest in the country lifestyle and all things equine. Before Christmas I had scoured homeschooling forums and websites trying to find fun yet educational gifts to help foster this passion. You can imagine my joy when I stumbled upon the Circle C Beginnings series of early reader chapter books about a six-year-old girl named Andi, her baby horse Taffy, and her family and friends on the Circle C Ranch in 1874.
These books serve as a wonderful precursor to “meatier” historical books like the Little House series. We started Little House in the Big Woods a couple years ago but I think Mira was too young to really appreciate it. Then we stumbled upon the My First Little House books and ALL of us adored them. They were the perfect segue into the unfamiliar time period of the late 19th century. Andi and Taffy’s series is yet another collection to utilize in easing young children into a new historical adventure. It’s kid-friendly text and charming illustrations will capture the hearts (and attention span) of young readers. And did I mention that kids can grow with Andi and Taffy? Circle C Adventures is a set of chapter books geared for older children (or makes a perfect family read aloud). I love knowing that my girls can “hang around” with Andi for awhile.
Mira finished the third book in her series this week. On one hand I’m bummed that she’s whipping through them so quickly, but on the other hand I’m satisfied this was money well spent. She’s so excited to read them and regularly comes to give me updates. The books have various life-situations occur that allow me to prompt meaningful dialogue about character traits and the morals to the story.
Another added bonus to this series is the adorable collection of matching paper dolls. My heart skipped a beat when I saw these. I contacted the author, Susan K. Marlow, and asked if I could purchase extra sheets of Andi and Taffy because I knew one set would simply not be enough for my girls to play with together; yet I didn’t want to have three sets of everything. Susan was extremely helpful and thankfully had a couple extra Andi sheets so I was able to avert that disaster.
One side note- the paper dolls are shipped out on glossy card-stock sheets ready to be cut. Be warned- there is a lot of cutting. A tedious amount of cutting in all honesty; but then again, they were only $7.99. I suppose in order to get them pre-cut you would have to pay a ridiculous amount of money because it is quite a bit of work.
-But sooooo worth it. The card-stock isn’t flimsy and the clothes use Velcro to stick on and not those annoying flip-over tabs that never hold anything in place. With the Velcro the clothes actually stay securely on while my girls are playing with them. I added an additional step to my set-up and used a utility knife to slice along the inner rims of the hats so my girls can actually place them on the dolls’ heads.
My girls play with these dolls for looooong stretches of time. It’s been WONDERFUL!
The Circle C Beginnings website has a wealth of additional resources to enhance your reading experience — beautiful coloring pages, activity guides, lap books, online puzzles, etc. I highly recommend checking it out and seeing what they have to offer.
OH! And one more thing– 
Susan K. Marlow has generously donated an autographed copy of Andi’s Pony Trouble (Book 1) to give to one of my readers. Enter the Rafflecopter widget below for your chance to win!!
Good Luck!
I like all of the chapter books and there are some nice activities that go with it for free on their website.
I love the paper dolls
i like the lap books
I like the coloring pages available
I like the paper dolls and chapter books.
Beyond the chapter books and paper dolls that my daughter would LOVE. I love the coloring pages and activities on the website.
I really like the paper dolls! I used to have similar ones when I was growing up and they were so fun! Thanks for the giveaway
My girls would love this! We are a country family with a horse, I like lots about this, the illustrations, the characters and all the other things with it as well.
I loved the chapter books and the lap books and the free coloring pages. My daughter would love the pony stories and illustrations.
Love the paper dolls!
I love the free coloring pages! On several occassions my son has gotton bored with the coloring books we have at home. Now I can print off some new pictures for him to color and it wont break the bank! I love it!
Love chapter books and coloring pages!!
Thanks, Kristen, for your lovely review. I enjoyed reading all of your excited readers’ comments about the website, the freebies, and the paper dolls. About your question (in your email) about the chance of any more Little Andi books, well . . . my contract was for 4 with an option for 4 more, and they picked up the option for 2 more . . . so that means there is always a chance they would want two more without having to go through the entire submission process. When I have completed my contract for the new boys series I’m writing right now, I might give them a little nudge. With over 10,000 copies of the first book, Pony Trouble, in print in just two years, I think they might be open to giving Andi and Taffy a couple more “rides.” You never know.
I like all of the chapter books!
http://www.andiandtaffy.com/Books.html
I liked the activities that you can download.
These books look great. My daughter is learning to read and i can see her really liking these stories. I love that there are activities and paper dolls to go along with them! Wonderful product!
The free coloring pages are awesome!
I like the chapter books. Looks like they would be great!
I love the paper dolls!
I like that the books have a girl the same age as my daughter (that way she can really get into the stories and imagine herself as the main character). I also like that there are supplement activities (coloring pages, vocabulary, mazes, puzzles, etc) to go with each book that are FREE!
Loving the paper dolls!
I really like the coloring pages section!
love the paper dolls.. I used to have some when I was younger.
I like the free activities page.
Love that they have free activities on the website.
My girls would love these books. I especially love the paper dolls.
I love the paper dolls. This would really get kids to interact and want to read. Thanks
lap books
I, myself, love the paper dolls. My daughter didn’t care for them, but as a young girl, I loved playing paper dolls. My daughter would love the coloring pages a lot.
i like the activity and coloring pages that you can download
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