What My Child Is Reading

We read so many great books this week! I thought about saving some for next Saturday's post, but I expect we'll rack up more by then anyway...

Here are some highlights:


The illustrations in Animals Are Sleeping are gorgeous.  As the name suggests, they show various animals asleep in their habitats. The images manage to be rich and colorful and sleep-inducing at the same time.  The text is simple, with only a brief fragment of a sentence per page (the common refrain is "Shhh . . . shhh . . . the animals are sleeping").  It has become part of our bedtime books pile many nights this week.  The Bibliophile is highly amused by the phrase "catnap" on one of the pages, and overall is pleased with the whole book.  Highly recommend.  Like all Sylvan Dell Publishing books, there is an educational section in the back - which is also printable from their website; it contains a sleeping animal matching activity, in which readers guess which animal goes with different factual paragraphs below.  We haven't tried it (since we keep reading it at bedtime), but it looks fun.


Happy Birthday to Whooo? has a unique format.  The right side page contains a mock baby birth announcement, which is a riddle for the reader to guess the type of animal to which the announcement applies.  For instance, one announcement says:

Jumping With Joy
For My Baby Boy!
Born in Australia on June 2,
my baby is only 1/2 inch long
and weighs just 1/4 ounce.
Mrs. Down Under
is the happy mother.

Then the next page contains two kangaroos and a baby, with the text "A baby kangaroo grows inside its mother's pouch and is called a Joey."  It is a fun idea.  For us, the riddles didn't work.  I'm guessing my son is just a bit to young to get the idea (he's just under 3).  But we have read it multiple times anyway, just reading the left side pages (with the animal facts), and he enjoys it.  Again, I really like the illustration style (by Lisa Downey).  The educational section in the back includes information about animal families, some more animal fun facts, and an activity in which you create a 6 foot long line with chalk, and then mark the length or height of each animal mentioned in the book.


 I was excited to read this one, since we have some blackberry bushes in our backyard.  Blackberry Banquet describes how a popular blackberry bush pleases the palates of various animals, from a mouse to a squirrel to a bear.  It contains a lot of sound effects, which might amuse your child.  They weren't my favorite for reading aloud, but overall I liked the book.  It would be a fun companion read to blackberry picking (of course) or baking.  The educational section in the back includes additional information about blackberries, a blackberry smoothie recipe (yum), and an introduction to food webs.

Excerpt:
Squirrel skips into the brambles thick.
That snacking squirrel gives a great big lick.
Slurp!  mmm-mm!
Tweet!  Mmm-mm!
Squeak! Mmm-mm!

Yesterday he informed me that he didn't like this book, and that we should bring it to the library for another little boy to read.  But, upon further inquiry, that's because he doesn't like the idea that the other animals were scared of the bear.  This is NOT a scary book.  He's going through a weird scared phase lately.  Among the other victims this week: all Diego videos (why, I have no idea) and a Jumpstart canoe game, which he insists he will not be playing anymore.  "At.  All." 

I enjoyed this, as did the Bibliophile, which isn't surprising, given his love of geography.  Two-page spreads feature glimpses of the lives of children from different countries around the world.  Playful illustrations keep the mood light and fun.  It is a little long, so the Bibliophile's interest tends to wander partway through.  But, we both like it enough that I would deem it worthy of purchasing.  I think I first read about it on Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns? 



Other favs this week:

We read it in the library and liked it; he insisted on taking it home, but hasn't been wanting to read it here for some reason.








A bit advanced for him, but a cute idea, and he opted to keep it for another week rather than return it to the library.

I finally picked this up, after seeing it praised on many blogs.  I can see why; I really enjoy reading it aloud, so I keep hoping he'll pick it to read at night.  I feel like it's not really all that appealing on HIS level.  But, all evidence to the contrary, because he said he wanted to take it home (after reading it in the library), chooses it to read at night now and then, and insists he likes it.


I think I better stop there if I ever want to get this posted.  I am linking this up with What My Child is Reading and Kid Konnection.

Comment!  What have been your favorite reads this week?  Have you read any of the books in this post?  Leave a comment or, if you have a post you'd like to share, add yourself to the "blog hop."




Disclosure: We received publisher copies (at no cost) of Blackberry Banquet, Happy Birthday to Whooo?, and Animals Are Sleeping in order to write this review.  If you click on any of the links in this post and purchase anything, we may earn a small commission through our affiliate relationship with Amazon.com.