Category Archives: Children’s books

Children's books

Recommended Reads: Mo Willems

October 26, 2011 – 7:40 am

I’ve been going through the kids’ books and, as much as it pains me to get rid of some of their first books, I found quite a few that I must recommend to folk with younger children.

Mo Willems is one of my favorite authors of children’s books. Willems once worked for Sesame Street as a writer and illustrator, winning 6 Emmy’s for his work. He has a great imagination and it shows in his lovable characters and amusing stories.

I believe our first peek into the wonderful world of Willems was the book Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale, a story of what happens when Trixie can’t find her beloved stuffed rabbit after a trip to the laundromat. The characters are illustrated but the backgrounds are pictures of a real New York neighborhood.Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!- The tables are turned as your child has to tell the pigeon, “no,” as he begs to drive the bus using explanations that sound pretty familiar to parents. Just once around the block? I’ll be your best friend. The subsequent Pigeon adventures (The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!, Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!, and more) are an amusing read for any child. Look out for the Pigeon in all of Willem’s books. He hides in backgrounds and inner covers. My kids loved to see who could spot him first.

Read more:

Have you read any of Willem’s work? Do you have a favorite author for the preschool set?

Permalink | Comment (0)
Children's books

What We’re Reading Wednesday: Douglas Florian

April 6, 2011 – 7:27 am

We recently discovered the works of Douglas Florian. He writes children’s books of poetry on different topics and has quickly become a favorite in our house.   So far we have read Dinothesaurus, Mammalabilia, and Laugh-eteria, and I plan on finding everything else Florian has written and illustrated.
The poems are hilariously punny and the kids have quite a few of them memorized. (I’ll have to wait for Wesley to get up to share the ibex poem.)

Edit: He’s up now.

The daring ibex risk their necks
On scary, airy mountain treks
Each one must climb with skill complex,
Or else become an exibex.

The illustrations, “painted in gouache on primed brown paper bags,” are amusing and eye-catching. These are great books with tons of re-readability.

Tags , , | Permalink | Comment (0)
Children's books Education Health Humor Library books Parenting

Caution: Your Kids Might Just End Up Just Like Their Parents

February 25, 2011 – 7:05 am

We’ve been having a problem with Wesley lately: He will stay up to all hours reading when he’s supposed to be asleep. Yay for reading, of course, but the biggest problems are the aftereffects. He sleeps in the next morning and spends the rest of the day arguing and complaining.

We have tried everything to make him stop. I took away his TV privileges, which seemed pretty silly. “Keep reading and you’ll never watch TV again! That’ll teach you!” We gave him half an hour of reading every night before bed if he would just please stop when it was over. We took his lamp away and he turned on his room light. We started patrolling the hallway more regularly (German Shepherds, searchlights, concertina wire…we go all out), and he started reading by the streetlight. Tonight I came upstairs and heard some rustling. I stepped into his room and gave him my best mommy-guilt eyebrow. He sadly lifted up his pillow to reveal two books hidden underneath like it was his meth stash.

This is a case of the nut not falling far from the tree. I used to and still do stay up way too late reading books. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series was my biggest problem last year. I read each one in 2 days and I was not fun to live with. I imagine. I’m not really sure. It’s all kind of a blur. I know I have a problem because it doesn’t even take a particularly good book to keep me up, hence the recent spate of Jack Reacher novels.

Wednesday night, while I was up reading The Dog Listener, he clandestinely stayed up reading The Lightning Thief. Thursday morning we were both grouchy. After much grousing about his math lessons (the day before he was learning long division and all of a sudden subtraction is “too hard”), I gave up and called school off for the day. We cuddled up on the couch and went back to reading. Now I’m an enabler.

.

Tags , , , | Permalink | Comments (8)
Children's books

Get Your Kids Into Sci-Fi Early

December 9, 2010 – 11:24 pm

College Humor has Five Sci-Fi Children’s Books and they are awesome. If they were real, I’d buy every one of them for myself my kids.

Check out the rest here.

Via

Permalink | Comments (2)
Children's books Education Humor

Excerpt from last week’s book

November 19, 2010 – 7:34 am

But now, my dears, we think you might
Be wondering–is it really right
That every single bit of blame
And all the scolding and the shame
Should fall upon Veruca Salt?
Is she the only one at fault?
For though she’s spoiled, and dreadfully so,
A girl can’t spoil herself, you know.
Who spoiled her, then? Ah, who indeed?
Who pandered to her every need?
Who turned her into such a brat?
Who are the culprits? Who did that?
Alas! You needn’t look so far
To find out who these sinners are.
They are (and this is very sad)
Her loving parent MUM and DAD.
And that is why we’re glad they fell
Into the garbage chute as well.

-Oompa Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Permalink | Comment (0)
Children's books Family

“Break” means something else in his language

October 20, 2010 – 11:47 pm

Wesley is on fall break this week but he just won’t stop learning. He got on Khan Academy today and learned how to add with carrying. Huge thanks to Jenn, who told me about Freely Educate where I found Khan Academy. It’s a great site with instructional videos and exercises.

Later we had a sparring contest with math problems. I’d make one up for him and, if he got it right, he’d invent one for me. I was showing him that now that he knew how to carry, he could add anything. He’s a competitive booger and tried hard to get each problem right so he’d have another chance to stump me. He got 2,156+5,435 right and he gave me 7,009,771×11,009,771. He said, “That’s multiplying, Mom,” just in case I didn’t notice. It took me a few minutes, but I worked it out and got Mom to check it on her calculator. I was right, too. Ha! I’m enjoying it while it lasts because I have a feeling that it won’t be too long before he surpasses me in math.

He also read a Little Bear book to Gracie  this evening while I combed out her hair and then went to bed and needed “just a little more” reading time until he managed to finish Your Mother Was a Neanderthal in one go.

If you think I’m bragging, then you’re very perceptive. I’m tickled to death that he wants to learn and nothing can stop him. So proud. *sniff*

pic by reway2007

Permalink | Comments (4)
Books Children's books Library books

Book of the Week

July 16, 2010 – 3:15 pm

100 Best Books for Children: A Parent’s Guide to Making the Right Choices for Your Young Reader, Toddler to Preteen, by Anita Silvey   I picked this book up from the library because I feel like I have exhausted the list of children’s books that I read when I was younger.

I really like that this book gave a summary of each book on the list, a mini-biography of the author and a background story.  The book is also divided into age groups so I could determine which books would be appropriate for my kids. I checked this book out at our local library, but I liked it so much that I bought it at Amazon, so I could have it around for future reference.

Permalink | Comment (0)
Adults Birds Books Children's books Cooking Crafts Gardening Library books

What We’re Reading

June 26, 2010 – 1:12 am

Book of the Week:
The Family Kitchen GardenThe Family Kitchen Garden: How to Plant, Grow, and Cook Together, by Karen Liebreich, Jutta Wagner, and Annette Wendland           

This book has all the information you need to start or expand a family garden. The first section is an introduction to gardening that lays out the basic necessities for a garden the whole family can enjoy. The next section has a chapter for each month and lists what to plant, what to harvest, and what get ready. Nearly every month has a recipe for what’s in season and a craft. My favorites are the recipe for do-it-yourself fruit roll-ups and the instructions for building a ladybug/lacewing nesting house.

Other books we’ve enjoyed this week…

Permalink | Comment (0)
Children's books Library books

Book Review: My Father’s Dragon

June 14, 2010 – 1:00 am

My Father’s Dragon, by Ruth Stiles Gannett, illustrated by Ruth Chrisman Gannett, A Newberry Honor Book 

This book is a very fun read. It is a story about a boy who goes to rescue a dragon from Wild Island. He runs into the various animal residents of Wild Island and has to use his brain and the contents of his backpack to outwit them. Maybe it is because I was raised on Tolkein, but I am very partial to books with maps inside the cover. The kids really enjoyed the silly story in each chapter and liked going over the map and reminding me of what happened and where. There are also two sequels, Elmer and the Dragon and The Dragons of Blueland, that we will be checking out soon.

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Permalink | Comment (0)