Monday, September 3, 2012

Books We Enjoy

The girls love me to read books to them.  I often wonder if they will ever get sick of me reading books to them.  It is past bedtime as I write this. This morning I read them 2 chapters of Peter Pan.  After we came back from the pool, I read them 2 more chapters.  After dinner I read 8 pictures books to them.  Catherine is asleep, but Sabrina keeps bringing me more books from her room to read to her. 

After 3 sessions of reading today, probably totaling at least 2 hours, she still wants more!  So, I am always looking for book ideas from other bloggers and friends.  Some are misses and we don't enjoy them, but some are hits!  Here are some that I got this week which we loved:

This cute story by Amy Krouse Rosenthal is, basically, life from the spoon's perspective.  Poor spoon feels sorry for himself, thinking all the other utensils have better lives.  But, all the other utensils are jealous of spoon's unique traits.  Also by the same author and illustrator is:
This is another cute story, focusing on the partnership of two chopsticks.  One of the pair gets broken and needs to recover.  When the healthy chopstick tries to make it solo, he learns how much he needs his partner.

Our library has finally gotten in Silverlicious, from the Pinkalicious series.
We own and love Pinkalicious and have read from the library Purpilicious and Goldilicious many times.  Silverlicious is about the girl (Pinkalicious) losing a tooth.  She thinks she has lost her sweet tooth and has trouble getting a response from the tooth fairy.  Very cute; very girly.

Dog Loves Books is great because it has a cute pet for a main character and has a lot of suspense. 
I just learned that this book is part of a series, so I will try to get some more.  This is a little easy for Catherine to read, but she needs to read a high volume of material below her reading level to try to increase her fluency and speed.

I wish I had known about Alaska's Three Pigs when we studied Alaska.  This book retells the story of the three pigs, but there is a lot to learn about Alaska.  The book explains how they build igloos, what the "midnight sun" is, how dog sleds work, etc.  Instead of a wolf huffing and puffing, a grizzly bear does the mean deed.

This was also a good book to teach the children that the same story can be told in different cultures, settings, etc.

The last book which we got out this week and I loved (we also get a bunch that we either don't like or are lukewarm about) is a science one, What's It Like to be A Fish:
This book is an easy reader, educational book about fish.  We learned what fins do, why fish have gills, why humans have lungs, why big fish eat little fish, and other basic, yet interesting, facts about fish.  Sabrina was particularly enamored by the food chain discussion.  She could not believe that bigger fish ate medium sized fish, who then ate little fish.  I keep forgetting that my girls are not born knowing everything I know!

No comments: