What My Child Is Reading

Reading-wise, this has been the week of "why."  Or, should I say, "tell you why....!"  Although the Bibliophile knows the difference between "you" and "me"/"I" when asked, he tends to just use "you" for all of them.  So, as we read books lately - especially chapter books but picture books too - every single line of the book is followed by him saying, "tell you why it says [insert text]!"  Although in my mind, I am thinking "agh!!!!!" after the 20th "why," I am trying with Herculean strength to hide my impatience and humor him, because I am glad that he is making an effort to comprehend what we read.  I was rewarded for my patience when we finished the first book on this list, and I asked him what he liked about it:

"You like that Mama explained what all the words meant."

Read to Tiger

We picked this up because the Bibliophile chose tigers as his focus animal this week.  It was a nice choice - perfect for his level of comprehension, with some fun sound effects.  A little boy is trying to read, but he keeps getting disturbed by the tiger behind his couch, who chomps bubblegum, practices karate kicks, pretends he is a bear, and even lifts the couch right off the ground to look for a misplaced whistle.  The boy's insistence that the tiger keep quiet, and the tiger's continual "ooops!," followed by an apology, are just repetitive enough to delight toddlers, without quite driving parental readers nutty.  At the conclusion of the book, tiger catches a glimpse of the reading material, and snuggles up next to the boy, who can finally read his book ". . . to Tiger."  Very cute -- recommended!

Elmer's Special Day


As intended, we are continuing to make our way through the Elmer books at the library.  This is our third one.  In this one, the other animals in the forest (who are at first quite perturbed at the amount of noise coming from the annual Elmer's Day parade in which all of the elephants decorate themselves in bright colors) are invited to join in the fun. 

As we were leaving the library, the Bibliophile exclaimed with glee, "Look what I found!!  Clifford's First Snow Day and Clifford's Sports Day!!" with a huge triumphant smile.  So of course we had to take them with us.  I think I have heard some parents say that they don't care for the Clifford books, but we enjoy them well enough (probably the fact that we don't own a TV and so only know Clifford in literary form helps).


Clifford's First Snow Day
Clifford experiences many of winter's fun delights for the first time -- sledding, snowman building, ice skating, etc.  It will be fun to revisit this one when winter comes.



Clifford's Sports Day
Clifford is invited to Sports Day at Emily Elizabeth's school, and tries activities like sack races, jumping hurdles, and tumbling.  In the end, he saves a boy racing to catch a baseball from getting hit by a car, making Clifford the hero of the day.

Look at the Baby.  This is one for the very smallest bibliophiles.  It was another one that he grabbed off the library shelf and insisted he wanted to take home.  Large, close-up images of various baby body parts fill two page spreads, with text like "Look at the baby's nose" and "Look at the baby's toes."  He would have loved this when he was an infant (and still enjoys browsing it now).

And one more Disney cars themed chapter book -- The Rookie.  We did a chapter before nap- and bedtime, complete with 8,000 "why" questions.  This one tells the story of how Lightening McQueen came to be a champion racecar.

We also read (and loved!) Beethoven's Wig (see our review here).


I am linking this post up with What My Child is Reading.


Comment: What have your children been reading this week?  Is this "why" thing when reading a phase, or can I expect this now until he's 18? 

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