August Kids' Picks - Reading

This summer I instituted a new rule for library visits. I told the kids they each had to pick 1 new book they'd never read each time we went to the library. Here are some of what we discovered. Some were new to all of us, some were new to the kids, all are books they wanted to read again.

Family Favorites:
Spoon! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Scott Magoon. This book was an delightful surprise. At the beginning of the book, Spoon is "blue & bent out of shape". He's lamenting all the things his friends, Knife, Fork, and Chopsticks can do that he can't do. But, his mom reminds him of the things he can do. As the story progresses we find that Knife, Fork and Chopsticks are jealous of Spoon because of all the fun he has. the illustrations are delightfully simple. Hubby and I loved the little things that showed up throughout the story - Mom reads spoon a story about his great-grandmother who fellin love with a dish and ran off; Spoon's pillow is a sugar packet. Lots of funny delightful surprises in this book. The kids were requesting to read this book every day we had it from the library. Definitely a must read.

Among the Odds & Evens by Priscilla Turner. In this story X and Y crash land their Aerocycle in the "Kingdom of Wontoo". At first they are quite puzzled by the differences they notice in residents of this new land. The evens are orderly and predictable, but the odds dress peculiarly. As the story continues X and Y discover that two even parents always have even children, but two odd parents always have even children as well. X and Y find this behavior to be puzzling. This would be an excellent book for teachers and homeschoolers as they introduce odd and even numbers and especially when teaching the rules of adding odd and even numbers.

Joseph (age 7) recommends:
The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash by Trinka Hakes Noble & Steven Kellogg. This funny book takes you through one crazy mixed up field trip to a farm. Mom asks her daughter how the trip went and the daughter replies, "boring, kind of dull, until the cow started crying." "A cow...crying?" "Yeah, you see, a haystack fell on her." The trip gets crazier and funnier as you progress backward through the day's events and discover how one funny event caused another fnny event which caused another, all because Jimmy brought his boa constrictor on the field trip. Joseph loved the silly chain of events events and their explanations. I loved the magnificent illustrations as the opportunity to talk about cause and effect in a very funny setting.

Cora (age 5) recommends:
Miss Bindergarten Gets Reeady for Kindergarten by Joseph Slate. This has become a classic book for children entering kindergarten. The story progresses through the preparations of students (animals) and teacher, Miss Bindergarten (a dog) as they prepare for kindergarten. Cora loved watching the various students and the teacher go through the various tasks of getting ready for school. I loved the way the book reinforced the letters of the alphabet - each animal's name starts with the same letter as the kind of animal (Adam an alligator, Christopher a cat, etc.). The rhyming text just adds another wonderful layer to the book.

Goldilicious by Victoria Kann This is the latest in the series of Pinkalicious books. Cora came home from preschool talking about Pinkalicious, so we went looking at the library and first discovered "Purplelicious" and then found the first book, "Pinkalicious". All of these are wonderful girly girl books. In this most recent book Pinkalicious has an imaginary unicorn named "Goldilicous."

You can find these books at your local library or under, "I Recommend" in my sidebar.

For more children's book recommendations visit 5 Minutes for Books.