Posted on by Maureen

Mr. Grumpy’s Outing by John Burningham

We have been enjoying our summer. We’ve been swimming at the lake, swimming at the pool, and doing lots and lots of reading. I have also tied screen time to workbook pages, and I signed my girls up for Kumon. Kumon is a tutoring program originally based in Japan, and it places emphasis on repetition to ensure mastery of a subject. They offer math and reading programs, ranging from basic preschool skills to high school. My oldest girl is going into second grade, and she is a dynamo reader. She could use a little boost in math to make sure that she has her addition facts down before she goes back to school. Likewise, my younger girls are going to Kindergarten in the fall, and one of them could use some help with letters and letter sounds, so I signed her up for reading. The other twin is pretty well rounded, but I didn’t want her to feel left out, so I signed her up for math.

One of the benefits of the reading program is that it allows the student to bring home a book after every session. We were sent home with Mr. Grumpy’s Outing, a picture book written and illustrated by John Burningham. Read more

Posted on by Maureen

The Dark by Lemony Snicket and illustrated by Jon Klassen

I found The Dark at my town library. I hadn’t heard anything about it, but how could I pass up a picture book written by Lemony Snicket and illustrated by Jon Klassen? I’ll admit that I never read the entire Unfortunate Events series, but Snicket’s The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming is a favorite holiday story of mine, and I think I Want My Hat Back is a modern classic.

The Dark is a story about Laszlo, a little boy who is afraid of the dark. They mostly keep away from each other, and the dark stays in the basement. But when Laszlo’s nightlight goes out, the dark comes to visit. The dark talks to him, and guides him into the basement. Laszlo learns that he doesn’t have to be afraid of the dark. Read more

Posted on by Maureen

This Plus That: Life’s Little Equations by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

I found This Plus That: Life’s Little Equations at our town library. As a leafed though it, I thought that my daughters would like it, so I brought it home. We have another book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal called Cookies: Bite Size Life Lessons, and the girls have enjoyed that one. This Plus That was illustrated by Jen Corace.

The story is composed of a series of equations. The book combines English with math in ways that are quite clever: Read more

Posted on by Maureen

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt

I first found out about The Day the Crayons Quit when it was featured in an Amazon email. I immediately headed over to my library network website and made a request. This is the best thing ever. I can request any book in the system, and they will send that book to my town library. Best of all, there’s no cost for this service! I can’t tell you how many thousands of dollars we have saved by using the library network. Plus, I already have a book storage problem, so anything that I can do to not add to the problem is a plus in everyone’s book. Read more

Posted on by Maureen

The Pigeon Needs a Bath by Mo Willems

My girls love Mo Willems books. We own almost everything that he has written, and we especially love the Pigeon character. If you have an older toddler, a preschooler, or a child in the early years of elementary school, chances are that s/he would love the fast-talkin Pigeon.

Today was a very exciting day at our house. I pre-ordered The Pigeon Needs a Bath at the beginning of the year, and today was the day that the book arrived. We have already read it several times, and the girls have declared that it is a hit. Read more

Posted on by Maureen · 2 Comments

The Octonauts Books by Meomi

Before I had children, I knew everything there was about raising children. Seven years into the game, I’m realizing that I know nothing, John Snow about children. In the midst of my child rearing expert period, I declared that my children were not going to read television books. I thought they were a lower form of literature, and such books would never darken my doorway.

Like many of the things that I did not plan to do regarding children, the book snobbery went right out the window. We have many books featuring beloved television characters. Are they the most well written books? No, many of them don’t even have an author listed, which leads me to believe that they were either ghost written or authored by a robot. Or maybe ghostwritten by a robot.

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Posted on by Maureen

Not Your Typical Dragon by Dan Bar-el

My oldest daughter is almost seven years old, and she is in the first grade. She has a sweet little best friend, and I have struck up a friendship with the girl’s mother. We have a lot in common: our oldest daughters are only a month apart and were born in the same hospital and delivered by the same doctor. Her son and my twins are also the same age, and will start kindergarten together in a few months.

My friend and I both love the Scholastic book club flier that our girls get each month, and she was the one who told me about Not Your Typical Dragon, and how her children just loved it. I hadn’t ordered it when it appeared in the flier, so when I saw it amongst the picture books at the Book Fair, I definitely did a little happy dance.

Not Your Typical Dragon is a picture book written by Dan Bar-el and illustrated by Tim Bowers. This is the story of Crispin, a dragon who is about to turn seven years old. In dragon culture, this is the age at which dragons are endowed with the ability to breathe fire. Disaster strikes when Crispin is poised to light the candles on his cake with fire breath: whipped cream comes out of Crispin’s mouth instead of fire! Read more

Posted on by Maureen

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown

I just brought home Mr. Tiger Goes Wild from the library. This is our second time checking out this book. My girls love when I read it to them, and I have a particular love for it as well. I do think that when this book is released in paperback, we will be picking up our own copy.

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild is a picture book written and illustrated by Peter Brown. The titular Mr. Tiger lives in a drab city that would make Charles Dickens depressed. Everything in the city is grey, and all of the anthropomorphic animals are very proper. In one picture, we even see a horse scolding little animals by telling them not to act like wild animals! Read more

Posted on by Maureen

Here Comes The Easter Cat

As soon as I saw Here Comes The Easter Cat featured in an email from Amazon.com, I knew I had to track down a copy. I was able to request one through the library network, and it arrived a few days later.

Here Comes The Easter Cat has an interesting format: the narrator is conducting an interview with a churlish cat, and the reader gets a front row seat to the show. At first, the cat is dismissive of the Easter Bunny’s efforts, and decides that he can do better than that old bunny. Cat gets himself a motorcycle so that he can go faster than the Easter Bunny, and he gets himself a sparkly suit (to outshine the Easter Bunny’s fine vest). Cat is determined to upstage the Easter Bunny, but when the Bunny arrives, what will happen? Will there be an epic showdown or will we see Cat’s empathetic side?

The illustrations are charming. They are relatively simple sketches, but what makes them truly interesting is the presentation. Cat doesn’t talk, so when he has something to say, he holds up a signboard with a picture on it. My girls quickly got the joke when Cat makes a face and holds up a signboard with hearts on it in response to the question, “The Easter Bunny? What about him?”

My girls loved this book, and their love for this book grows with every reading. Bex and Snickers cackle so much that Alligator yells at them for laughing too loudly and making too much noise.

We have to return this book to the library in a couple of weeks, and I think we are going to have to get our own copy. If you’d like to get a copy, please follow this link.

Here Comes the Easter Cat