Sarah (6) and Eggnog (5)
Dewey: There's a Cat in the Library by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter, illustrated by Steve James -- This is the true story of a kitten who was left in the book drop at the public library in Spencer, Iowa, adopted by the head librarian (Vicki Myron), and proceeded to live in the library! There are several picture books about him, this being the first. I've been to Spencer, Iowa -- the Spencer Fair was a big deal when I was a kid, and I got to go to it with my grandparents and a bunch of cousins one year when we were visiting family in Iowa. So I love that connection :-)
Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems -- We are all major Mo Willems fans here, but we hadn't read this one before! It's a silly, sly retelling of the Goldilocks story, and now Cowboy and I keep teasing our little girls about filling them up with chocolate pudding so we can eat them :-9
When a Dad Says "I Love You" by Douglas Wood, illustrated by Jennifer A. Bell -- This is a sweet, sweet book about how fathers often tell their kids they love them with actions, rather than words. But sometimes they use words too.
Lost in the End by Winter Morgan -- A Minecraft chapter book! My kids are obsessed with Minecraft right now, and Sarah picked this out and is determined to read it All By Herself. She's doing such a great job of sticking to it, and will probably finish it off by the end of the week. Her first chapter book read by herself! I'm so proud :-D
Sam (9)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain, retold by Lucia Monfried -- Pretty sure he's read this before, but all of a sudden, he's grooving on this funny classic about a man from Twain's day who time-travels back to Arthurian times. I think our recent viewing of Ivanhoe (1982) prompted him to dig this out again.
The Essential Captain America, Vol. 2 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Jim Steranko, & Friends -- I picked this up at a library book sale a while back, and when Sam was looking for something "new and different" to read, I pulled this off my own shelf for him (it was nestled up next to my 5 volumes of The Essential Wolverine). He's really loved it, so I've ordered a used copy of volume 1 for him as a surprise. Sarah really loves Cap, so I suspect she'll be trying these out before long herself.
Jars of Hope: How One Woman Helped Save 2,500 Children During the Holocaust by Jennifer Roy, illustrated by Meg Owenson -- I got this for him for school, as we're studying WWII in history and I've been trying to find some non-scary ways to discuss the Holocaust with him. Sam is very tenderhearted and has a vibrant imagination, and was upset by a tiny photo of General Eisenhower inspecting a death camp in a bio we read. This is a picture book and below his reading level, but the way it focuses on the people who helped save others from the Nazi death camps is really positive and hopeful, and helps showcase the fact that even one person can fight against atrocity. I think it also really helped him to process the idea of people killing other people just because of who or what they are. I hope so, anyway!
Aloud to All of Them
I've blogged before about how I just don't really like The Phantom Tollbooth very much. But Cowboy loves it, and Sam is just the right age to "get" and enjoy the wordplay, so Cowboy has been reading this aloud to all of them! That's a big treat, as usually it's Mommy who does the reading aloud. Sam's loving it, Sarah is kind of enjoying it, and Eggnog is barely tolerating it because she doesn't get why Sam is laughing. So Cowboy will just have to read it aloud to her again in a few years, right?
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh . . . I love "The Phantom Tollbooth"! That book was so influential for me, in shaping who I am as a person--especially my love of learning :-) Glad your kids are enjoying it!
ReplyDeleteHee! My husband feels the same way :-) I read it as an adult, which is probably why I don't.
DeleteThe only book I knew on the list was The Phantom Tollboth and I have to say, I love it! I can't remember how old I was when I read it but I"m sure I must have been in my teens. Even though it's aimed at a younger audience I was captivated by its cleverness and how different it was from most children's books. Now I'll have to go check out that post on why you DON'T like it :)
ReplyDeleteElf, my husband finished reading it aloud to the kids over the weekend, and Sam loved it so much, he's re-reading it on his own now :-)
DeleteYour son and I share a good number of things in common, I think. I tend to read new books in one day and then re-read and re-read them afterwards, which you mentioned him doing in another post. And I also tend to be very empathetic and sensitive, which is why anything dark in the real world that I can't imagine away can really bother me if I let it.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of children's books about those who saved others during WWII, our family read aloud a book on this topic a number of years ago. It's called "Twenty and Ten," by Claire Huchet Bishop, and it tells the story of twenty French children who are staying in the countryside for safety during WWII with a nun, and how they take in and hide ten Jewish children, even when the Nazis come looking for them. I don't think I'd recommend it for your son at the moment, as it can get pretty intense, but I enjoy it, because it is a beautiful story. It's also based on real events, and it seems to me to give a realistic but not dark picture of what life was like during the war.
~Marcy
Marcy -- could be! I'm a re-reader myself :-)
DeleteI'll see if my library has "Twenty and Ten" -- it sounds like I might enjoy it myself! Thanks.
We own "Twenty and Ten" and several of our children have read it and loved it. I read it to the little ten-year-old girl that I babysat before I married. She enjoyed it too.
DeleteWe love Dewey. I think we have three different versions of the story - the full book, a chapter book for tweens and a picture book for littles.
ReplyDeleteI read the full story to the children and bawled my way through the ending because I had a cat die from cancer about twenty years ago.
It's such a sweet story. Cats are awesome.
I'd like to read the adult version at some point -- so far, we've just read this and a follow-up Christmas picture book. Our library does have both the junior fiction version and the full book, so I've put them both on our to-read lists :-)
DeleteI was so excited about Dewey that I forgot to say that my dad read to my sisters and I all the time we were growing up - great memories. Lots of classics, missionary stories and new-to-us books shared.
ReplyDeleteJennifer, my mom read aloud to my brother and I for 30-60 minutes before bedtime all through my childhood and teen years. I loved it! Been trying to continue that with my kids, though I haven't been as faithful at it as I'd like, and it doesn't work to read right before bed because we Skype with grandparents every night before bed instead. So I try to do "quiet time" in the afternoon after our schoolwork is finished and read then, but it doesn't always happen.
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