What My Kids are Reading #2

Time again to share some of the books my kids have been enjoying lately.

Sarah (5) and Tootie (3)

Rhoda's Rock Hunt by Molly Beth Griffin, illustrated by Jennifer A. Bell -- a little girl goes on a long hiking and camping trip with her aunt and uncle, collecting so many rocks along the way that she eventually can't carry them all.  It's a nice way of explaining that sometimes we have to let go of things in order to get on with our lives.  Sam actually liked this one better than the girls, and read it over and over himself.

Toe Shoe Mouse by Jan Carr, illustrated by Jennifer A. Bell -- a sweet little story of a mouse who finds a home and a friend at a theater.

Rescue Bunnies by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Scott Menchin -- a new firefighter bunny tries really hard to be helpful but keeps complicating things instead.  Then she ends up rescuing a giraffe.  I laugh over this one because the bunnies say a lot of movie quotes as dialog, like, "You can't handle the truth!" and "I'm the king of the world!"

The Cowboy ABC by Chris Demarest -- A is for Appaloosa, B is for Buckaroo, and so on.  The illustrations are lovely, and mostly I got this one for myself because I love cowboys.  At first none of the kids wanted to read it, but then I started to read it to Tootie during school instead of just our read-some-books time, and all of a sudden she loved it.

Sam (7)

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, adapted by Ronne Randall -- this is part of the "Illustrated Classics for Children" collection, which you can find at Barnes & Noble, and I think I saw some at Books-a-Million too.  They have gorgeous full-page, full-color illustrations, and are easier to read yet than the "Great Illustrated Classics," so kind of a nice bridge to those.  They usually run about $6 each, but sometimes (especially around Christmas) they go on sale for 2 for $10 or even 2 for $8, which is when I bought a whole bunch.  They keep adding titles, too.  Sam's really moved beyond these in reading ability, but we have a whole bunch of them and he still reads them quite a bit.  He's going through a pirate phase right now, and wants to be a pirate for Halloween, so that's probably why he pulled this out.

The Champions of Appledore by Romayne Dawnay -- Sam says this one is funny, and read it at least three times before we took it back to the library on Saturday.

A Journey to the New World:  The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple by Kathryn Lasky -- I made him read this for school, as we're studying the early colonists right now.  He said it was "okay," but then I caught him reading it a second time later on, so maybe he liked it better than he was letting on.