Reading My Library

Progress Report - March 2011

2011-03-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

My last progress report was in October so I'm thinkin' it's time for an update!

Goal set for reading all of the children's picture books in our library:

Monday, September 28, 2009. I'm over a year in now, and have realized that real life (three kids age 4 and under) does not set you up well for completing challenges quickly. We're just plodding along and this project will take me much longer than I originally anticipated. But I think that's ok! Having kids is a greater blessing than having a completed project!

Progress as of today's date:

I've read (according to the last name of the author) through the "A" section and am into the "Bu" section.

Total number of picture books read:

By my count, 948.

Average number of times I go to the library during the week:

Zero! I go once every two weeks. When I started this challenge, I was going to the library twice a week. Time and additional children have obviously changed things!

Average number of books checked out per visit:

I started reading more books IN the library and bringing home the books that I think we will really enjoy and that I will want to spend the time writing about. On average I would say I'm probably bringing home about 20 books a trip.

Favorite New-to-Me author I've discovered so far:

I think I shall leave it with Paulette Bourgeois, who was mentioned as my favorite on the last report. She penned the Franklin the Turtle books which we really have enjoyed to the point of adding some of her books to our home library.

Total amount of fines due so far:

I've lost count because I lost my library card and so we've been using my husband's card! (How incredibly bad is that?!) I'm going to guess we're somewhere in the range of $7 in fines, mostly because we've checked out videos that weren't returned in time and not due to books being forgotten. We can check out books for 4 weeks at our library, but videos for 2. This consistently throws me off and gets me in trouble!

And that, folks, is where I'm at!

Read Aloud Thursday - Eve Bunting

2011-03-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

To wrap up our perusal of Eve Bunting books, here are some additional titles we've been reading through.

I think I'd be a little remiss if I didn't mention Our Library, don'tcha think?

In this particular story, Raccoon and his friends are shocked to discover from their favorite library, Miss Goose, that their library is going to close. The library is sadly in need of repairs but there is no money to take care of these things and so they are going to have to shut their doors. This saddens the animals friends and spurs them onto action to raise money to take care of things like the roof and new paint. Several times over the friends rally around their library to support it and keep it open and functioning.

If you love your library, you will love this book.

Hurry! Hurry! is a good (and simple) spring-time tale, especially for toddlers. Chicken is running through the barnyard yelling for all of the animals to "HURRY! HURRY!" With only two words of exclamations per page (her pleas for the animals to hurry and their individual responses) this is a great book for kids age 1-3. What are the animals all hurrying to see?

Well, you don't expect me to spoil the book for you now, do you!?

I thought My Backpack would be a bigger hit with the boys than it turned out to be. In this story, Grandma sends a little boy a backpack so that he can "fill it with important stuff." The little boy goes around the house collecting things his family deems to be important (like brother's catcher's mitt and father's glasses) and heads outside to play. The family, of course, goes hunting for their missing items and discover them in the possession of the boy. All is forgiven and the more important thing is placed inside the backpack -- the boy! (His father ends up giving him a fun piggy back ride.)

Again, I thought this one would be more of a hit but I think the concept just went right over their heads. At any rate, no one responded to this book.

All in all, we had some hits and misses with the stack I brought home. Regardless, it's always fun to read through new titles and get a feel for what's out there!

Are you reading aloud with your kids this week? Hop on over to Hope is in the Word and share what you are reading, as well as find out what others are diving into these days. Thanks, as always, to Amy for hosting!

A Sampling of Bunting Books

2011-03-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

I told you all that Eve Bunting was a rather prolific writer! She's offering plenty of blog fodder this week. Here are some additional titles to be aware of:

I put this book on my Amazon wishlist in hopes of someday adding it to our home holiday book collection. (Love the library but it's hard to wrangle holiday titles away in time to be read in season sometimes! I've started building our own home holiday collection so that we're never out of reading sources when special events and occasions roll around!)

In A Turkey for Thanksgiving Mrs. Moose is moaning because "everyone has a turkey" for Thanksgiving but the Moose family. Mr. Moose promises to bring home a turkey for dinner and he goes off in search of one, taking all of their fellow animal friends and Thanksgiving guests along. They do find a very fat turkey who, not surprisingly, does not want to join the group for dinner! Of course, as it turns out, Mr. and Mrs. Moose have no intention of putting the turkey ON the table. They just wanted a turkey as a guest to sit AT the table. A cute book to be sure.

Pop's Bridge is a fun and fascinating introduction to the history of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. This story follows two fictional families whose fathers play a part in building the bridge. It's dangerous and exciting job, filled with care, excitement and imagination. Bunting includes factual information in telling her tale. Definitely a title to remember for history purposes.

Jumping back to another holiday title, we picked up Who Was Born This Special Day? in which each of the animals in the barn/stable are asked if they were born "this special day." Not I, they each in turn give answer. So who WAS born this special day?

Was it the child?
The child who lies in the manger bed,
the shine of the star high overhead?
Clouds filled with angels shimmering bright,
singing of joy this dear, holy night.
Who was born this special day?
It was the child.

We're randomly jumping about here, aren't we? On to the Sunflower House which is a really fun book for the summertime. A boy plants some tall-growing sunflowers and gets to play in the "house" that they create as they grow. He spends a wonderful summer underneath the blossoms and then, after sunflower season has passed, he collects the seeds which will be replanted so that there will be "sunflowers everywhere" the following year. Very fun story!

Enjoy!

My Red Balloon, by Eve Bunting

2011-03-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

My Red Balloon is the perfect companion book to The Father's Are Coming Home, by Margaret Wise Brown. (Linked to my review.) I had to mention this one as well.

In this story a little boy is waiting for his father to return from his Naval cruise. He promises his father that he will be able to spot him by the red balloon that he'll be carrying. This red balloon is very precious to the boy because it is the object which will connect him with his father, who he has not seen in some time.

A very touching story, obviously, and heart-felt. I know a friend who will love this and I post this for her - as well as a reminder to the rest of us that freedom isn't cheap and it doesn't come for free. Freedom involves sacrifice, like it or not. Any book that gives a nod to the armed forces of America gets a nod from me as well.

List of Picture Books by Eve Bunting

2011-03-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

(This list discovered on the Fantastic Fiction website.)

The Two Giants (1971)
A Gift for Lonny (1973)
Box, Fox, Ox, and the Peacock (1974)
We Need a Bigger Zoo! (1974)
Lady's Girl (1974)
The Once-a-year Day (1974)
Say It Fast (1974)
Barney the Beard (1975)
The Day of the Dinosaurs (1975)
Death of a Dinosaur (1975)
The Dinosaur Trap (1975)
Escape from Tyrannosaurus (1975)
The Demon (1976)
The Ghost (1976)
The Tongue of the Ocean (1976)
The Creature of Cranberry Cove (1976)
Winter's Coming (1977)
The Big Cheese (1977)
Magic and the Night River (1978)
The Robot People (1978)
The Big Red Barn (1979)
Demetrius and the Golden Goblet (1980)
The Empty Window (1980)
St. Patrick's Day in the Morning (1980)
Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust (1980)
The Skate Patrol (1980)
The Spook Birds (1981)
Goose Dinner (1981)
The Skate Patrol Rides Again (1982)
The Happy Funeral (1982)
The Skate Patrol and the Mystery Writer (1982)
The Valentine Bears (1983)
Clancy's Coat (1984)
Maggie the Freak (1984)
Jane Martin, Dog Detective (1984)
Monkey in the Middle (1984)
The Mother's Day Mice (1986)
Scary, Scary Halloween (1986)
Ghost's Hour, Spook's Hour (1987)
Happy Birthday, Dear Duck (1988)
How Many Days to America?: A Thanksgiving Story (1988)
No Nap (1989)
The Wednesday Surprise (1989)
The Wall (1990)
In the Haunted House (1990)
Fly away Home (1991)
A Perfect Father's Day (1991)
A Turkey for Thanksgiving (1991)
Night Tree (1991)
Ride When You're Ready (1992)
The Wild Horses (1992)
Summer Wheels (1992)
Our Teacher's Having a Baby (1992)
The Day Before Christmas (1992)
Someday a Tree (1993)
Red fox Running (1993)
A Day's Work (1994)
Smoky Night (1994)
Sunshine Home (1994)
The Man Who Could Call Down Owls (1994)
Flower Garden (1994)
Night of the Gargoyles (1994)
Once Upon a Time (1995)
Dandelions (1995)
Cheyenne Again (1995)
Going Home (1996)
Train to Somewhere (1996)
Market Day (1996)
Sunflower House (1996)
I Don't Want to Go to Camp (1996)
Secret Place (1996)
The Blue and the Gray (1996)
Ducky (1997)
Your Move (1997)
I am the Mummy Heb-Nefert (1997)
Trouble on the T-ball Team (1997)
My Backpack (1997)
The Pumpkin Fair (1997)
Some Frog! (1997)
Twinnies (1997)
Moonstick: The Seasons of the Sioux (1997)
December (1997)
So Far from the Sea (1998)
I Have an Olive Tree (1999)
Butterfly House (1999)
Rudi's Pond (1999)
A Picnic in October (1999)
Can You Do This, Old Badger? (2000)
I Like the Way You Are (2000)
Swan in Love (2000)
Doll Baby (2000)
The Memory String (2000)
Dreaming of America: An Ellis Island Story (2000)
Who Was Born This Special Day? (2000) (with Leonid Gore)
Riding the Tiger (2001)
The Days of Summer (2001)
Jin Woo (2001)
Little Badger, Terror of the Seven Seas (2001)
Gleam and Glow (2001)
Peepers (2001)
Too Many Monsters (2001)
One Candle (2002)
Little Badger's Just-About Birthday (2002)
The Bones of Fred McFee (2002)
Girls: A to Z (2002)
Anna's Table (2003)
Little Bear's Little Boat (2003)
Whales Passing (2003)
I Love You, Too! (2004)
My Special Day at Third Street School (2004)
My Red Balloon (2005)
My Robot (2006)
Pop's Bridge (2006)
One Green Apple (2006)
Our Library (2006)
My Mom's Wedding (2006)
That's What Leprechauns Do (2006)
Baby Can (2007)
Hurry! Hurry! (2007)
The Baby Shower (2007)
Emma's Turtle (2007)
You Were Loved Before You Were Born (2008) (with Karen Barbour)
Mouse Island (2008)
Walking To School (2008)
Will It Be a Baby Brother? (2010)
Christmas Cricket (2010)
We Were There: A Nativity Story (2010)
Finn McCool and the Great Fish (2010)
Green Shamrocks (2011)
Hey Diddle Diddle (2011)
My Dog Jack Is Fat (2011)
Tweak Tweak (2011)

She has also written many novels, a play, a few chapter books as well as some non-fiction works. To see a complete list of Eve Bunting Books, click on the link!

Bookworm1's Favorite Bunting Books

2011-03-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

There were so many Bunting books upon our library bookshelves that I didn't even bother bringing all of them home. I filled up my back chalk full of her books and then read a ton of them while I was at the library itself. I confess I'm kind of on Bunting overload. The ones I did bring home, I brought home because I thought they'd be particular hits with my boys. Bookworm1 (age 4) enjoyed the following:

Mouse Island tells of Mouse who lives alone on an island. He's not necessarily lonely - at first. But then he starts thinking that it might be nice to have someone to do something with. One day a storm blows through and there is a shipwreck off the coast. Mouse spies something in the water that needs some rescuing and he bravely brings it shore. It turns out it is a cat! Due to the fact that Mouse rescued Cat, Cat agrees not to eat Mouse. As you might guess, they end up becoming friends and enjoy one another's company.

Little Badger's Just-About Birthday is very cutely illustrated by LeUyen Pham which made this book particularly fun for mommy to read as well. (I do love cute and cuddly looking animals - I confess it!) In this book Old Badger wakes up Little Badger with a just-about birthday gift of a "big, bristly, dry-as-dirt pinecone" for them to play with together. Little Badger is excited to celebrate his "just-about" birthday with his friends, celebrating the fact that he was born just about this particular (and unnamed) time of year.

As it turns out, all of his friends are celebrating their "just-about" birthdays as well! Why, it's even Old Badger's just-about birthday. Why? Because it's spring, of course! This is never mentioned and so Bookworm1 didn't quite catch on. But it's a cute story and definitely one to add to the line up if you are reading/studying seasons of the year.

There is a series of Badger Books including Can You Do This, Old Badger? and Little Badger, Terror of the Seven Seas. If you like one title - check out the others!

If you know of Bookworm1's love of sea creatures, you can feign shock and surprise over the fact that he enjoyed Whales Passing. The illustrations in this book are beautifully done by Lambert Davis who lends a certain majestic feel to these Orca whales.

In this story a boy and his dad are whale watching on the coast. This book generally explains how whales migrate. The father and son speculate on how the whales communicate with one another and they watch them surface and spout. Not much I can say about this book, really, except that if your child is a lover of ocean animals - check this book out!

A Perfect Father's Day, by Eve Bunting

2011-03-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

Mothers and fathers will get a kick out of A Perfect Father's Day. The idea behind the book will fly right over the children's heads, which is exactly as it should be.

For Father's Day Susie is going to take her father out for the day on the town. He offers to drive. She chooses the restaurant. He offers to pay. She decides they'll go celebrate his day and play at the park. He tags along with her, pushing her on the swing and climbing on the playground equipment. On their way home, she tells him about the "surprise Father's Day cake" which Mommy is making at home. He acts surprised.

NOT surprisingly, my kids didn't get the humor which Bunting pokes at Susie's attempts to celebrate her father. However, any one who has either been a kid or a parent will understand that the message of this book is not about the special gifts we might give to fathers and mothers on their special holidays, but it's about spending time and sacrificing for the ones that you love.

A simple message, told in tongue-and-cheek fashion that is sure to be a hit.

Baby Can, by Eve Bunting

2011-03-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

This was one of those books that just hits close to home about now! Baby Can, by Eve Bunting, was a perfect fit for us.

A new baby enters the home in this story, with an older brother watching on. The parents are excited by all of baby's developments. "Look! Baby can smile! Baby can roll over!" etc., etc. The older brother proves that he can do everything too!

The parents in this story are very affirming to both boys and it's a cute, lovable story in which family ties are emphasized and children's accomplishments heralded from the rooftops. Bookworm1 laughed when baby learned to burp. (Ahem.) Bookworm2 was fascinated by everything baby.

Six thumbs up in this case!

Bu-

2011-03-03T12:38:00.001-08:00

Annnd we've reached a shelf full of books by Eve Bunting. Prolific writer, she is! More to come next week. We've been enjoying more than one read, courtesy of our local library.

See you soon!

Read Aloud Thursday

2011-02-17T06:00:00.000-08:00

Back to a bit of randomness in our Read-Aloud Thursday posts. Here are some titles from the library book shelves that we enjoyed thoroughly these past few weeks:

Both the bookworms (ages 2 and 4) connected with Things I Like, by Anthony Browne. It's a perfect book for toddlers as it opens up discussions about what it is that each individual likes. In the case of our little monkey in the story here, he likes playing with toys, dressing up, building sandcastles, having a bath, hearing a bedtime story and the list goes on from there. The things he likes are some of the same things both my boys like so we had fun reading it and making up our own lists as we went along. Cute book. Easy, simple, straight forward.

The Big Sneeze, by Ruth Brown was another favorite of ours. Again, it's a very simple story with very few words on the page.

"One hot afternoon, the farmer and his animals were dozing in the barn. The only sound was the buzz-buzz of a lazy fly."

The lazy fly ends up landing on the farmer's nose which sets of a chain reaction which creates a bit of chaos in the barn. So much for a lazy afternoon nap! Cute book, funny ending. Highly recommended.

Lastly, for this week we enjoyed the following Christmas title (that I now seriously want to add to our home library and, in fact, threw it onto my Amazon wishlist so that I'll remember it):

Small Camel Follows the Star, by Rachel W.N. Brown is kind of like Small One (linked to my review) except for that it is about a camel instead of a donkey.

Small camel is the newest little camel in Balthazar's corral. His feet were too big for his skinny legs. He had a very small hump. But he had big beautiful eyes and long eyelashes.
"I love you," whispered his mama. "You will grow up to be strong. You will carry heavy loads to faraway places. Balthazar will be proud of you."

If you know the story of the wisemen following the star to Jesus, then you can guess at the role Small Camel eventually plays. Illustrated by Giuliano Ferri, this book is a feast. Ferri receives extra bonus points for illustrating Jesus as more of toddler than a baby.

Absolutely adorable story in every way and definitely one that I would like to remember to pull out again during the Christmas season.

That's what we have to share this week. What have you? Be sure to check out Hope is in the Word to see what others are reading aloud with their children these days!

Babar the Elephant

2011-02-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we made a trip to the library and drove ourselves into the Bru section of books which takes us straight to Babar the Elephant, created by Jean de Brunhoff.

I had read these books when I was little but had no memory or recollection of the stories themselves. I wasn't really thinking much of them other than a "trip down memory lane" when I started reading them to Bookworm1 and discovered that an evil hunter killed Babar's mother. Bookworm1 has been reacting to sad scenarios lately so I was a bit sorry I hadn't skimmed it first. Instead we talked it through on the fly and seem to have come through unscathed. (We will not be watching Bambi anytime soon though!)

In all honesty, I think Babar is kinda weird. The stories are just...different both from the perspective of time and place. Times have changed and Babar's original stories are far more blunt in their talk of cannibals and savages than I think we would naturally gravitate towards today. But, I can accept that because the first book was published in 1931 and the world was a different place. (It should be noted though that the mermaids in Babar and Zephir do not have sea shells to help cover themselves. Thankfully I caught that one before we started reading the story together!)

There are a LOT of Babar books. The first seven books were penned by Jean de Brunhoff and then after his death in 1937, his son took up the pen and produced additional Babar stories. You can definitely tell a difference in the stories, but they are all still interesting and more unique than anything we've read to date. Definitely interesting. Turns out Bookworm1 really enjoys reading about this King of the Elephants and so we made the most of our time with him, sifting through certain of the titles together.

Because I think Babar is quite the familiar character, I won't launch into a description of him. Instead I'll just provide the list of Babar books and titles as can be discovered on Wikipedia. But first I thought this was an interesting criticism that was listed on Wikipedia concerning the books:

Some writers, notably Herbert R. Kohl and Vivian Paley, have argued that, although superficially delightful, the stories are politically and morally offensive and can be seen as a justification for colonialism. Others argue that the French civilisation described in the early books had already been destroyed by the Great War and the books were originally an exercise in nostalgia for pre-1914 France. Ariel Dorfman’s The Empire’s Old Clothes is another highly critical view, in which he concludes, "In imagining the independence of the land of the elephants, Jean de Brunhoff anticipates, more than a decade before history forced Europe to put it into practice, the theory of neocolonialism." Adam Gopnik has a different point of view. In Freeing the Elephants he writes that it "is not an unconscious expression of the French colonial imagination; it is a self-conscious comedy about the French colonial imagination and its close relation to the French domestic imagination. The gist ... is explicit and intelligent: the lure of the city, of civilization, of style and order and bourgeois living is real, for elephants as for humans." He concludes that the satisfaction derived from Babar is based on the knowledge that "while it is a very good thing to be an elephant, still, the life of an elephant is dangerous, wild, and painful. It is therefore a safer thing to be an elephant in a house near a park.

So it would seem that Babar does not come without a bit of controversy. Although I speculate the youngest readers among us would not catch on.

Without further ado, here is the list:

Jean de Brunhoff's Babar books, and the titles of the English translations, were:

Histoire de Babar (1931) — The Story of Babar
Le Voyage de Babar (1932) — The Travels of Babar, or Babar's Travels
Le Roi Babar (1933) — Babar the King
L'ABC de Babar (1934) — A.B.C. of Babar
Les vacances de Zéphir (1936) — Zephir's Holidays, Zephir's Vacation, or Babar and Zephir
Babar en famille (1938) — Babar and His Children, or Babar at Home
Babar et le père Noël (1941) — Babar and Father Christmas

Laurent de Brunhoff's books (selected list):

Babar et ce coquin d'Arthur (1948) — Babar's Cousin: That Rascal Arthur
Pique-nique chez Babar (1949) — Babar's Picnic
Babar dans l'Île aux oiseaux (1952) — Babar's Visit to Bird Island
Babar au cirque (1952) — Babar and the Circus
La fête à Celesteville (1954) — Babar's Fair
Babar et le professeur Girafon (1956) — Babar and the Professor
Le château de Babar (1961) — Babar's Castle
Je parle anglais avec Babar (1963) — Babar's English Lessons (published as French Lessons in English)
Babar Comes to America (1965)
Je parle allemand avec Babar (1966) — Babar's German Lessons
Je parle espagnol avec Babar (1966) — Babar's Spanish Lessons
Babar Loses His Crown (1967)
Babar Vists another Planet (1972)
Babar and the Wully-Wully (1975)
Babar Learns to Cook (1978)
Babar and the Ghost (1981)
Babar's ABC (1983)
Babar's Counting Book (1986)
Babar's Little Girl (1987)
Babar's Little Circus Star (1988)
Babar's Rescue (1993)
Le Musée de Babar (2002) — Babar's Museum
Babar Goes to School (2003)
Babar's Museum of Art (2003)
Babar's Book of Color (2004)
Babar's Busy Year (2005)
Babar's World Tour (2005)
Babar's Yoga for Elephants (2006)
Babar's USA (2008)

Our library had the large majority of these titles so we have become quite familiar with this famous elephant. I don't think he'll rank as one of our favorite characters of all time. (Certainly not mine. Again with the death of his mother, the listing of cannibals, and general oddities.) But it's interesting to read through the books and see how Babar has evolved and changed over the years.

There is a cartoon series based on the books as well which we have not seen. If anyone has any insight on those, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.

Valentine's Day Picture Books

2011-02-11T09:38:00.000-08:00

Usually I don't think to pick up V-Day books (or any holiday books, really) at the library until we're right on the holiday, at which point most are checked out. This year I managed to snag a few V-Day books which are listed below.

Silly Tilly's Valentine is an awfully cute story about a mole named Tilly. She has a dreadful time remembering things and is easily sidetracked by ideas and activities. At the beginning of the book we find her baking cupcakes when she receives a call from her friend Mr. Bunny who is asking if she remembers what this particular day is. "Oh dear," she sighs, "I forgot to remember." That seems to be her running refrain. Of course, it's Valentine's Day and, of course, she is baking Valentine's Day cupcakes. But she is sidetracked by the idea of snow falling, along with "colorful snowflakes" (i.e, Valentine hearts which have flown out of her mailbox.) This is a funny and agreeable story. It is innocent fun and we really enjoyed it.

Bookworm1 (age 4) particularly enjoyed Little Mouse's Big Valentinewhich is apparently no longer in print. (So I hope our library holds on to their copy!) This book tells the story of Little Mouse who makes a gigantic Valentine that is so big that no one is interested in receiving it. Little Mouse goes on a hunt trying to find someone who might be interested in this creation and finally comes across another little girl mouse. He decides to give it to her but she suggests that they cut it down to size. So they do and suddenly there are a lot of Valentines for all of Little Mouse's friends.

We've been reading some of our own Valentine's Day books from our home library, but these are two we managed to snag in time to enjoy this season. I'd be inclined to add Silly Tilly to our collection for future reading purposes and will definitely keep an eye out for it. This year, I'm glad to have discovered it.

I know there are quite a few of you sharing your Valentine's Day book finds this season. If you have links you'd like to share, leave 'um in the comment section!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Western Themed Childrens Books, Part III

2011-01-26T06:00:00.000-08:00

If you missed it earlier, you can view our list of Western Themed Picture Books that we have been pulling forth from the library book shelves. I've been pulling the best from our stacks and highlighting them here for anyone else who is looking for fun cowboy/cowgirl reads! You can check out Part I or Part II by following the links.

It should be noted that I am not including this titles in my reading count towards the Reading My Library Challenge. This is a side project that we're working on.

This week we'll add some books to our list that talk about two important animals on the western frontier. Can you guess what they are?

Why, cows and horses, of course!

Now, this first title, admittedly, does not really go along with our "wild west" theme but I HAD to pick it up and read it because it talks about the ponies on Assateague Island (East Coast horses!)

Having just recently read Misty of Chicoteague, by Marguerite Henry (linked to my review over at Reading to Know) I was curious to see what this picture book was about. Add to the fact that Jim Arnosky is both the author and illustrator, I figured it would be hard to go wrong with this title.

As the title suggests, the ponies in this book are wild and free and so we see them running in the water, eating grass under the shade of trees and lying on the sand. It's a beautiful book and certainly one to pick up in conjunction with Misty if you take the time to read that one.

Traveling back out west, we picked up a copy of From Foal to Horse, by Robin Nelson, which is a "Start to Finish" book.

Simple text with simple terms makes this book a great introduction to the world of horses for toddlers especially. We learn basic things about how a horse grows and what it is called in various stages of life. You learn things such as when the horse starts to try standing up, how it drinks its mother's milk, and then gradually begins to eat grass. As I said - very simple and very basic. Perfect for where we are at.

As far as an informational book about horses, this is the best we found in our (admittedly rather hurried) search on our last visit.

With cows we were a bit more successful, finding three titles that we really enjoyed.

In the Cattle Yard, by Patricia M. Stockland is rather the cousin to From Foal to Horse. The difference is that In the Cattle Yard is illustrated by Todd Ouren making it feel more like a picture book story. This worked well in our favor. You get the same basic information about calves and cows in this book which was great for us.

Next up we read Cows, by Rachael Bell which is part of a series of books on farm animals. This book has more information in it about cows, and talks about the different types of cows you might see, a little about Longhorn cattle, cattle farms and how cows are transported around. There is an average of 5 sentences per page spread and full-color photographs.

Highly recommended if you are looking for a good way to teach a toddler about cows.

Sixteen Cows, by Lisa Wheeler was one we picked up for the fun of it - and I am so glad we did! This is a picture book with rhyming text. It tells the story of Cowboy Gene "who was long and lean" and Cowgirl Sue who "was smart and true." Each of these individuals own 8 cows which are located on ranches right next to each other. Separated by a fence, Cowboy Gene and Cowgirl Sue maintain their own heads of cattle.

One day a tornado rips through the area removing the fence that separates their two ranches and suddenly the cows co-mingling. Cowboy Gene and Cowboy Sue are having a terrible time managing their cattle but this ends up working in their favor. They realize that cooperation will be essential if they are to herd these animals around.

Come that fall, those two cowpokes exchanged their wedding vows.
Who served as honored bridesmaids? No less than sixteen cows!

Super duper cute. Highly recommended!

Are there any books on cows and horses that you would recommend? (Particularly horses?) Please let me know and we'll check them out!

Play Rhymes, by Marc Brown

2011-01-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

No doubt you recognize the name Marc Brown if you are any kind of reader of children's books. Even if you do not recognize the author's name, surely you have heard of his most famous character - Arthur.

What I didn't know is that Brown also collected and illustrated a series of action rhymes for children as well. If you are a parent of an infant or toddler, these books will be of special interest to you as they are a great way to interact with your young reader and play with songs and rhymes. Brown writes of these books:

"I was reintroduced to hand rhymes through my son Tucker when he was in nursery school, and they stirred up memories of hand rhymes I had known when I was young. I thought that doing a book of hand rhymes would be a good way to introduce children to the feeling of poetry. Initially I collected about three hundred fifty rhymes. After whittling down the selection, I devised the accompanying hand movements."

Each book in this series involves a collection of rhymes and illustrated accompanying actions for you to do alongside your child/young reader.

The following three titles are available in this special series:

Play Rhymes includes: John Brown's Baby, Do Your Ears Hang Low, The Crocodile, My Bicycle, Animals, Wheels on the Bus and others.

In the acknowledgment section of Finger Rhymes, Brown writes:

"I am indebted to the Flint Public Library, in Flint, Michigan, for sharing its extensive collection of finger rhymes, from which my son Tucker and I selected our favorites."

He sounds like a faithful and loyal library user!

Rhymes include: There Was a Little Turtle, Where Is Thumbkin?, The Baby Mice, Clap Your Hands, Ten Little Candles, The Eensy, Weensy Spider and others.

Hand Rhymes include: My Book, Two Little Monkeys, Here is the Beehive, Little Bunny, Quack! Quack! Quack!, The Caterpillar, The Church and others.

ALL of the above books include Marc Brown's recognizable illustrations and are a joy to look through. Both of my little bookworms got a kick out of these books and we were glad to have found them hiding amidst the Arthur books.

If you get a chance - check them out! They are sure to entertain.

The Fathers Are Coming Home, by Margaret Wise Brown

2011-01-21T06:00:00.000-08:00

As soon as I saw the cover art on this book, I knew I would like it and want to highlight it. The Fathers are Coming Home tells the story of all kinds of fathers who come home in the evening.

For example: the fish father swims home to his fish children, the daddy longlegs goes home to his little daddy longlegs, the snail father "creeps slowly home to his little snails." But the best part of the book comes at the very end - with the sailor father comes home to his little boy.

The illustrations by Stephen Savage are simple and bold. Of course, the sailor depicted reminds me of the World War II era. However, I can't help but read this book and think about my modern day friends who bid their fathers farewell for a time so that their daddies can go to work defending our country and its liberties. I saw this book and thought about a dear friend of mine in particular who is preparing for her husband to leave on another cruise. Her sacrifice and his cannot and should not be overlooked. We so quickly and easily take for granted what it costs to maintain freedom in this glorious U.S. of A. This book, in its simple way, helps to remind us.

I absolutely loved this book and highly recommend it.

I also highly recommend being grateful to the men and women who faithfully serve and sacrifice so that we can be free. Not only them - but their families who give up time and life with their beloved family members. For us. And for a cause that is bigger than any one individual. Thank you, sailors and other members of the armed forces for your work!

Read Aloud Thursday - Margaret Brown

2011-01-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

In keeping with our Margaret Brown theme this week, here are a few additional titles of her that we read through.

(I don't know if you can see it from this image, but the cover art has the price printed on the top right hand corner. $0.89 for a brand new Golden Book. Oh glorious thought, hmm?)

Mister Dog seems to stick in Bookworm1's mind for some reason. He has referenced it a few times in conversations since reading it.

It tells the story of The Dog Who Belonged to Himself. In other words, he has no master and no set of rules he must follow. He lives in his own house, sleeps in his own bed, goes where he wants and when he wants and is generally autonomous. One day he meets a boy who belongs to himself and invites the boy to come and stay in the house with him - which the boy agrees to.

Personally, I find the story rather odd and walked away feeling like it subtly argues against authority figures by making something seem fun that actually isn't. Can't say it's a favorite but apparently Bookworm1 enjoyed it.

Big Red Barn was enjoyed by all, and I didn't notice until afterward that this newly illustrated edition is illustrated by none other than Felicia Bond! Therefore you may safely assume that mommy, in particular, enjoyed the pictures! This book is simple enough, giving the reader a tour of the barn yard and introduction to all of the animals. You get to mimic a bunch of barnyard animal sounds and it's all good fun.

We highly recommend this one.

The Good Little Bad Little Pig is rather fun to read outloud. It's just fun to say goodlittlebadlittlepig really fast over and over again. I thought it gave the story a rhyming feel to it, but it confused Bookworm1 a great deal and I had to explain what it meant a few times. He still looked at the book curiously as if he didn't really understand.

The crux of the story is this: there is a little boy who wants a pet pig. He doesn't want a pig that is altogether good, nor does he want a pig that is altogether bad. He wants him to be both a little good and a little bad all at the same time. If you think about it, that's a highly reasonable request of a pet! As you might surmise, he does indeed receive his requested pet pig and the pig fits the bill. He is both bad and good. And did I mention you get to repeat the phrase goodlittlebadlittlepig quite often?

It's cute.

I suppose we're a mixed bag for this Read Aloud Thursday in terms of our feelings towards the books we picked up. Ahh, but it is what it is.

Curious to see what everyone else is reading aloud this week! Visit Hope is in the Word to discover who and what else is being read!

The Dirty Little Boy, by Margaret Wise Brown

2011-01-19T06:00:00.000-08:00

Today I've just gotta tell you about one of the Margaret Wise Brown books that we brought home from the library that I did not particularly care for.

The Dirty Little Boy tells the story of a little boy who "came to his big round mother and [he] said: "Mother, I am one dirty little boy. I have jam on my face and chocolate on my knee." He continues on in his description of filth and concludes, "I think I want to take a bath."

Then his big round mother replies that she's busy and suggests to him that he should go and find out how the animals bathe and keep clean.

"Run along, and see how the animals take their baths and that way you'll learn how to get clean."

So he, clearly being an obedient child, goes off and discovers how birds, pigs, horses and cats 'get clean.' In the learning he becomes dirtier and dirtier and finally returns home to his 'big round mother.' (Can you tell what description I dislike?)

She scowls at him because he returns home dirtier than he left.

"How is that you didn't find out how little boys take a bath?" she asks.

I wanted to scream at her. DUH! Her impatience and annoyance led to him licking mud off of himself and doing other disgusting things in his attempt to become clean.

And she turned on the water and grabbed him by the back of his neck and put him right into the big soapy tub. "I guess it's your mother who will have to show you how to get clean."

To me this book was all about one annoyed mother who couldn't take the time to care for her son. So she sends him out into the world with a wing and a useless prayer and somehow expects him to find his own solution. Then he returns, dirtier than when she last saw him and she is annoyed. Surely the person she should be most annoyed with is herself!

I didn't really care for the whole grabbing him by the back of the neck bit either but that might be my more modern day sensibilities. At any rate, it seems brash and unkind and I did not care for the mother figure in this book one iota!

It's not often that I pick out books I dislike to discuss here, but some just really rub me the wrong way and this is one of those titles. So I'm labeling it as such.

I do not recommend it and I don't like it - be she big and round or svelte and sophisticated. It's her heart attitude that really gets to me. She's not exactly the type of mother I aspire to be, that's for sure and certain!

The Noisy Books, by Margaret Wise Brown

2011-01-18T06:00:00.000-08:00

Margaret Wise Brown wrote a series of stories for her "Noisy" book series. Following a little dog named Muffin who has an exceptional sense of hearing, Brown explores the sounds of the world around us.

Muffin has a fine tuned sense of hearing which enables him to hear even the quietest of sounds and he is always off exploring to find out what these sounds might be. Each book in the series calls for interaction on the part of the readers. What is Muffin actually hearing? Can he hear fish swimming in the sea? Can he hear a man beginning a thought?

Following themes for each book, Muffin discovers sounds in the country, sounds in the city, sounds by the seashore and sounds indoors and out. Each title follows the same general story telling pattern: Muffin is introduced and the reader is then given a description of something that might make a particular noise. Of course, making sounds is a part of reading these books which just adds to the fun.

Here is a complete list of the Noisy books:

The City Noisy Book
The Country Noisy Book
The Indoor Noisy Book
The Quiet Noisy Book
The Seashore Noisy Book
The Summer Noisy Book
The Winter Noisy Book

And here are images of the cover art on most to help you identify them:

Our library had all but the City, Indoor and Summer Noisy books. I cannot find the images for the City or Summer Noisy books online.

It was fun to read through this series. Bookworm1 (age 4) rather enjoyed them although they weren't our Most Favorite Reads Ever. Cute and fun for thematic units but not entirely memorable in my humble opinion. You, of course, are free to your own! Anyway, they are worth a peek and so we present them to you!

Margaret Wise Brown

2011-01-17T06:00:00.000-08:00

We own a few Margaret Wise Brown books and I was vaguely familiar with her style. What I did not realize was exactly how prolific a writer Brown was until I hit the "Bro" section of the library and discovered two sections of books by this one woman! (I guess I'd compare her with Jan Brett in terms of how much she produced and the variety which spilled forth from her pen.)

Whenever I see a long list of titles out of any particular author or illustrator, I like to get to know them a least a little bit better. Gleaning information online - primarily from this Margaret Wise Brown website - I discovered the following things about her:

* She was born in 1910 and died suddenly at the age of 42 in 1952 of an embolism. (I had to look up what that was, exactly.)

* At the time of her death she was engaged to be married to "Pebbles" Rockafeller. Before becoming engaged to ol' Pebbles though, she apparently carried on a number of relationships with various men, including the then Prince of Spain. I wouldn't say that she was exactly old-fashioned about relationships.

* Her parents divorced when she was younger and she had a very difficult relationship with both.

* She seemed very much to have enjoyed "the good life." She enjoyed tossing money about for the sake of entertaining both herself and her friends. With her first royalty check, she purchased an entire flower cart's supply of flowers and threw a big party for her friends.

* At the time she began her writing career, the primary source of stories for children was fairy tales and fables. Margaret believed that children would be interested in reading about young people just like themselves - stories set in a more contemporary setting. This approach to storytelling was termed the "here and now" philosophy. Brown was a great proponent of it and wrote hundreds and hundreds of contemporary stories.

* She wrote so many books, in fact, that she created several nom de plumes so that people would not become weary of seeing the name Margaret Wise Brown. Apparently she worked with six different publishers to produce her works and wrote under the following names, including her own: Golden MacDonald, Juniper Sage, Kaintuck Brown and Timothy Hay.

* Brown argued fiercely for royalities and against flat fees and payments, both for herself and for her illustrators.

* She never had children of her own. It is speculated that she didn't altogether enjoy the company of children, although they were her target audience.

* Brown did, however, assign the rights of royalties to several of her books - including Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny, to Albert Clarke. Albert was the son of a neighbor and was 9 years old when Brown died.

* At the time of her death, Brown left behind 70 unpublished manuscripts. Her sister, Roberta Brown Rauch, tried unsuccessfully to sell the manuscripts and ended up putting them in a trunk. These manuscripts were rediscovered in 1991 and since then there has been a push to have them published.

I can't say I'm very fond of her personal and private life. I find it somewhat amazing, actually, that she wrote for children. In some ways, it just seems a little - odd. She didn't seem the overly responsible type who would be the kind of steady role model you'd want for your child. Certainly she had an amazing career though and was a very curious character in her own right. I suppose she had a knack and the library shelves are quite loaded down with her efforts!

This week I'll be highlighting some of her titles that were unfamiliar to me and perhaps to you also. Then again, I just sat up and took notice of her and I'm guessing you might know a thing or two more than myself!

For more information on Brown, check out these sources:

Margaret Wise Brown website
Margaret Wise Brown Wikipedia source
Margaret Wise Brown fanpage

Read Aloud Thursday

2011-01-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

Another week, another few titles to share with you. These are some other titles we have been reading aloud together from our recent library trip.

Little Duck Lost is written by Erica Briers and is illustrated by Stephanie Boey. The story line is quite, quite similar to Where's My Mommy? which we reviewed last week. (Click on the title to read our thoughts on that one.) Little Duck's egg rolls away from the nest and when he hatches he has a little trouble locating his family.

We liked this book for a few reasons:

Bookworm2 loves to make quacking noises;
Parts of the illustration on each page spread are raised so little hands can feel the page while we're reading the story; and
Little Duck meets lots of animals in his great search to find home.

It's very cute, very short and very soft and beautiful. It is the epitome of a calm and peaceful read. All three of us liked this one.

Bookworm1 was incredibly suspicious of Wet Dog!, by Elsie Broach, when I first pulled it from the library bag. I did a quick sale by telling him it was about a dog, so certainly Bookworm2 (our resident dog lover) would enjoy it, making it a fun one to read with brother. The younger brother did enjoy it ("Dog! Dog!") but the older one found it much more amusing.

Here's the basic idea:

Hot day + hot dog + sources of water + people trying to get ready for a wedding + sing-song-y text = a great deal of fun (and perhaps a little chaos.)

"He was a good old dog and a hot old dog, as he lay in the noonday sun. And he dozed and he drowsed in the beating-down sun, with his long pink tongue hanging out."

Very fun book to read out loud.

Keeping up with our animal theme, we also read The Littlest Wolf, by Larry Dane Brimner.

In this book Littlest Wolf is the smallest of his brothers and sisters and finds that he isn't capable of doing all the things that they can do. His goes to his father and shares his woes. Father listens to him and helps him to see that he is "just as he should be" and that the older he gets the more he will be able to do.

I don't think either of my children caught the message, but they did think that watching Little Wolf try to roll in straight lines like his brother was awfully funny.

Lastly, a non-animal book! (Shock and awe, I know.) Tap-Dance Fever, by Pat Brisson was mommy's suggested read-aloud and I don't think it was enjoyed very much by my boys, but I thought it was cute. Every so often it's good to read something a little different, right? And besides - there are snakes in the book!

It tells the story Annabelle Applegate who cannot quit tap dancing. Her addiction to tapping has gotten so bad that she has worn holes in her mother's linoleum floor as well as in the floor boards of the local schoolhouse. She's tapped ruts in the roads that are causing accidents and the towns folk have just had it with her "tappity-tap . . . skippity-slap . . . tippity-hopping" all over the place.

Try as they might, it seems as if the towns people just cannot stop Annabelle from dancing. However, it all turns out well in the end and does, in fact, becoming profitable for the whole town!

This book is definitely different from our normal reads but I thought it was fun and no one complained too much when the book was over.

So that's where we're at this week. And now I'm off to find out what others have been reading to their children. If you'd like to gather up some ideas for read-alouds, visit Hope is in the Word.

Happy Thursday to you! (Hurray! It's almost a weekend!)

Western Themed Children's Books, Part II

2011-01-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I shared a few western themed children's picture books with you and today I'm back to share some additional titles that landed in our library book bag this past week. As I mentioned, we're currently doing a western-themed unit study and so we've been on the prowl for good cowpoke reads. Here are a few more that we found.

Nell Nugget and the Cow Caper, by Judith Ross Enderle and Stephanie Gordon Tessler is the story about a brave cowgirl named Nell.

Nell Nugget lives on the Bar None Ranch, way out west, with her horse, Pay Dirt and her little dog, Dust. She owns forty-nine cows and cares for them all by herself. One day she discovers that one of her cows is missing! Then she discovers that the cow is not just missing - it has been stolen by Nasty Galoot, the "worst rustlin' robber in the West, the baddest bad man anywhere."

Nell loves her cattle though and she is braver than brave. She rescues her cow and catches the baddest bad man, leaving him in quite the predicament where the sheriff can take over. Cute story. I like this one.

I've talked about the Billy and Blaze series by C.W. Anderson before so I'll not say much more this go around. If you click on that link it'll take you to my post wherein I highlighted the series.

We picked up the first title, Billy and Blaze, again for a re-read.

I Want To Be A Cowboy is another non-fiction read that was a recommended reading source in the thematic unit book which we are using. I was glad to find a copy at our local library! This book is perfect for pre-school aged kids. It uses real-life photographs of cowboys in action and provides about 4-5 sentences of information per page spread. It's a nice beginners introduction to the world of cowboys and I'm glad to have found it to use in our studies!

Now, if you are going to talk about the west you have to add in some songs to go along with it, right? Check out She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain by Jonathan Emmett and Deborah Allwright.

We are introduced to a cactus who is strumming a guitar and singing this familiar tune. On each page you see little animals, such as prairie dogs and owls, etc., strumming banjos and singing along. The only difference in this version is that the "she" that is coming 'round the mountain is a little girl in pigtail braids wearing pink pajamas and who dances across the rooftops. It's rather a silly little cowgirl song book that I think is rather cute and creative. I think her hat might be taller than she is.

And what is the western prairie without a discussion of prairie dogs?

Prairie Dogs, by Emery Bernhard and illustrated by Durga Bernhard is a nice non-fiction book full of interesting facts about the prairie dog. Although the book opens in story fashion, it is more factual in its presentation, giving out all kinds of information about this curious animals. As you read along this book you also bump into various other prairie animals such as the bison, the black-footed ferret and the prairie rattlesnake.

This book is rather long for a toddler to read, but I think it would be good for ages 5 and up. We're going to give it a go (even at age 4) because I think Bookworm1 can handle it. We'll just glean what we can and call it good.

We read this book last week and Bookworm1 LOVED it! Every single little bit of it! We learned a lot and he has a new fascination with prairie dogs!

A more simple read though might be Peeking Prairie Dogs which is a short 29-page book with full colored photographs and averages three sentences per page spread. I picked this one up as well because I think it will hold both of my boys' attention.

So there you have it, folks. I might pop back in a time or two with more western themed books as we move along but this is where we're starting off. Do you have any titles along these themes that you really like and would recommend to myself and others? Leave me a note and I'll look it up!

In the meantime, happy reading!

Western Themed Children's Books, Part I

2011-01-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

One of the things that is driving me to the library these days is our decision to start in on some pre-school studies through the use of a thematic unit. On our latest forage to the library, I was specifically hunting for some western/prairie/cowboy themed books. Here are a few that we found:

Yippee-Yay!: A Book About Cowboys and Cowgirls was a recommended resource that was listed in our thematic unit book. Written and illustrated by Gail Gibbons, we found this in the non-fiction section and it really does a marvelous job at explaining what life was like in the Old West, why cowboys wear the clothes that they do, the tools of the cowboy trade and shows maps of cattle trails. (It tells you about a whole lot more than that, but there's your basic overview!)

Although this one is filled with information, it reads well to pre-schoolers because the entire book is illustrated. It comes off looking like your regular picture book which I think is fantastic!

Cowboy Camp, by Tammi Sauer is one that we had read before but I knew we would want to read again for our studies. This one is a picture book and tells the story a young boy named Avery who doesn't exactly fit in very well at Cowboy Camp. "Whoever heard of a cowboy named Avery?" He doesn't even like beans!

However, when the villainous Black Bart comes to put a stop to Cowboy Camp, it's Avery who saves the day. He is able to successfully convince Black Bart that they were not at Cowboy Camp. Being that Avery has kinda failed at being a cowboy and therefore fails every test Black Bart puts to him, the villain leaves and the camp is saved!

Very cute story in my opinion!

Texas Rangers: Legendary Lawmen, by Michael P. Spradlin I picked up as a nod to my Texas-based sister-in-law. (Are you proud of me, or what, J?!)

Illustrated by Roxie Munro, this one may be a bit over our heads at the moment, but I still think it's worth a read and we'll get what we can out of it. It helps that it is presented in picture book form.

This book takes you through "The Beginning" explaining the origins of the Texas Ranger and concludes by telling you where they are today. (No, no, . . . no Chuck Norris here!) You can learn about the first Texas Ranger, John Coffee Hays as well as some of the bad guys that the Rangers have taken to task.

Lastly, I can't say I'm overly fond of this next one but I'll toss it out here for you anyway. Bronco Busters tells the story of three tough and rough cowboys who think that they are the meanest baddest bronco busters around. A small little cowboy sits watching them on three consecutive days, as the three Bronco Busters see who can tame a wild bronco.

As you might guess, not a single of the three men can bust this particular horse but after they leave the small cowboy comes out and with a soft voice and some apples and sugar lumps, he manages to enjoy a ride out on the prairie.

This book probably rubs me the wrong way a bit because of the arrogance and pride of the Bronco Busting Trio. I dislike that the adults in the story were so despicable but the child was the perfect angel. I don't know. Again, it's not bad but it just wasn't my favorite from the finds.

Have any of you read this one? Love to hear your thoughts on it if you have!

Stay tuned tomorrow for some additional reads that we picked up on the same western-theme!

Where's My Mommy? by Jo Brown

2011-01-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

Two books loved by Bookworm2 (age 20 months) from this past library run:

Where's My Mommy?, by Jo Brown. You'll find it a similar read to Are You My Mother? and yet, it has a more cartoon-y feel to it. Furthermore, each of the animals which baby alligator is posing the question to runs through a series of antics that only they can do. Baby Alligator can't make the same sounds as the money and the elephant and he can't roll in the grass like the tiger. All he can do is SNAP! (And given the amount of times the alligator says "SNAP!" in this book, my 20 month old kept a grin on his face and giggled quite a bit.

Cute book for sure. Another book, also by Jo Brown, that we found was Hoppity Skip Little Chick.

In this book, Little Chick hatches before any of his brothers and sisters do and so his mama can't go out and play with him. She has to continue sitting on the eggs that remain. She sends Little Chick out to the barn yard to make friends and he has fun hopping and skipping in a cute rhyming fashion. At the end of the book Little Chick races home to show and tell his mama all of the things he learned that day and he discovers quite a few new playmates awaiting his company! Very cute.

Both of my boys liked this, but I would say that they are more geared towards ages 18-24 months. Extremely appealing with lots of animals sounds -- you really can't go wrong!

Read Aloud Thursday

2011-01-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

Ahh, it feels good to be back to Read Aloud Thursdays hosted by Amy at Hope is in the Word.

We've been reading a lot over the past few months, we just haven't been around here to talk about it! At any rate, we made a trip to the library before Christmas and brought home a whole stash of books that we've been reading away with. Here are some of those titles:

What's the Time, Grandma Wolf? held up for multiple re-reads. (MULTIPLE RE-READS, I tell you!) Written and illustrated by Ken Brown, this book tells the story of a pack of forest animals who have been warned to stay away from the big bad wolf.

"She's big and she's bad, she's old and she's hairy. Best leave her alone, she's mean and she's SCARY!"

Or is she?

The animals slowly creep up on her and you start to wonder if she's going to eat them or not. Does she? Well, it's a surprise so I can't tell you. At any rate, this version of a Big Bad Wolfs story completely delighted both mother and son. Highly recommended!!!

The Flyaway Kite is one we read and I instantly added to my Amazon wishlist. However, it's somewhat doubtful we'll ever own it as it is now out-of-print and the used sellers seem to recognize the value of it! (I'll have to keep my eyes out for it at local used bookstores! OR we'll just have to nab it from the library every now and again. I hope they hold on to this one for a loooong while!)

I was keeping up with this Reading My Library Challenge but Bookworm1 backtracked us a bit by exploring parts of the "B" section we had already been through. However! We had not read this particular title, so it must not have been around when we were in the "Bj's" before. Written by Steve Bjorkman, this book tells the story of a kite who loves playing with this boy. He loves his looks and how free he feels flying through the air on the string which is attached to the boy. However, one day he realizes that he is attached. And he feels a little too proud and cocky and wishes that he could break free from the boy. Sadly, he decides to make an escape but soon discovers that life on a string left him feeling more powerful and free than when he was on his own, being driven and tossed by the wind in some pretty unusual and awful directions.

The book reads as a parable and as I got to the end of it, on the last page you can read Psalm 139:7-10. I have to say that it was extraordinarily nice to find this book and I'm so glad Bookworm1 pulled it from the shelves and asked me to give it a look-see. Thumbs up!

Lastly, another book that Bookworm1 discovered and pulled from the non-fiction shelf was A Killer Whale's World, by Caroline Arnold. (Any guesses as to why my boy would have been attracted to THIS title, hmmm?) Follow the adventures of a young calf from birth through a year in this marvelously told story filled with scientific facts. I like the fact that in the back of the book there is a glossary of terms, along with a list of other books that you might find at the library that would be a good match to this one.

Lovely book and apparently there is a Caroline Arnold Animal series which also includes: A Panda's World, A Penguin's World, and A Zebra's World. I can't imagine but that they are all worthy reads.

These are just some of the books that we located and read this past week! Looking forward to seeing what you have to share.

QUIET!, by Paul Bright

2011-01-04T06:00:00.000-08:00

Some books you just know you are going to like simply by looking at the cover. The cover art just jumps out at you and half explains the book in the process and you know you've found a winner. That was true of Quiet!, written by Paul Bright and illustrated by Guy Parker-Reese.

The storyline is basic and familiar to all mothers everywhere. Mama Lion cannot get her young cub to fall asleep because there is so much noise in the jungle. She asks Papa Lion for some help. He lets out a loud ROAR and lets all of the animals know that the first one of them to make a noise that would wake his son will be promptly eaten.

The animals lapse into silence. For a time. There is some chattering of monkeys, some laughing from a hyena (no one knows why he's laughing) and some splashing from a local hippopotamus. Papa lion is ready to eat them all up, but Mama keeps holding him back, assuring him that despite the little bursts of noise, baby is still asleep.

Meanwhile, Papa is getting hungrier and hungrier. He starts to wish that baby would wake up so that Papa could go find a little food. Not too much longer and the jungle is rocked by a wild noise that ends up waking baby and the wrath of Mama. However, laughter soon ensues once they realize that it's PAPA lion's stomach growling.

Any mother who has ever tried to silence the world around her to have her child fall asleep (mostly so that she can have a little reprieve!) will love this book. Every child who has been asked to keep it down will understand the book. But mostly, any child who loves jungle animals and likes to be amused will enjoy this read. Again, the illustrations are a delight and had my son snickering along.

This book held up for multiple re-reads around this parts and was enjoyed by all.

We highly recommend it.