Summer Reading List

Carter's love of reading has really taken off! This summer we read every morning and often times multiple other times during the day. Every night we'd read 2 books before bed and often times went through over 30 books in one day! It was hard to keep up with new library books to feed Carter's growing appetite for reading. We went to the library at least once a week, sometimes 2 or 3 times. Carter has his favorite libraries to visit and if we go to the one closest to our house he will request to go to a different library. Unfortunately I have it set for all of our requested items to go to that library since it is only a quarter-mile from our house so he just has to suck it up at times! It was so much fun to read with both kids and to see Elise go from only looking at pictures in books that were black and white to focusing on all books. Of course her favorite books are ones with simple pictures that have large shapes in one color. Both kids completed the summer reading program. It was Elise's first medal and award, but it was Carter's 3rd! He did the reading program for the first time when he was 6 months old. We started our summer reading list during the second summer of the reading program 2 years ago. Read our reading list from our second year of the summer reading program here and our list from last summer here.

Reading with my 2 favorite reading buddies!

Our Top Reading Choices From This Summer:

• Guess What?-Fruit by Yusuke Yonezu, This book was so cute.  It showed what appeared to be a fruit on each page but then you'd open the flap to see what animal it really was.  Carter loved opening the flap to tell me what animal was shown.  This was one of his favorites to read to me or to his sister.  It was a board book so the flaps were nice and sturdy!
• ZooZical by Judy Sierra, Not only did I get to read this book over and over, but Carter wanted to keep it for so long that I had to re-check it.  We get to keep books for 2 weeks so that normally doesn't happen.  This summer we've been going to the library multiple times a week.  Each time I tried to turn this book in, Carter would see it and stick it back in our bag.  Normally when he finds a book he likes that much I get tired of reading it toward the end, but I didn't with this one.  It was so cute and it was also fun to sing the little snippets of songs in the book.  We've read Wild About Books which is set in the same zoo as this book but didn't like it nearly as much.  I even heard Ty chuckle from another room when he was listening to me read this book to Carter.  It's that cute!
• Kisses for Daddy by Frances Watts & David Legge, I picked this book out for our fathers learning theme the week before Father's Day.  Ty read the book with Carter and tried out all the different kinds of kisses listed in the book.  Carter absolutely loved it!
• Babyberry Pie by Heather Vogel Frederick, This book was so cute with the steps they did to get ready for bed being compared to preparing a pie.  Carter loved it when I acted the book out on him and even suggested I add sugar to his knees.
• Around the World: A Follow-The-Trail Book by Katie Haworth, This book was so cool. Carter loved putting his finger in the cut out trail and sliding it along. It was great for some practice with fine motor skills. Each page showed a different habitat such as ocean, desert, and mountain and would be great for discussing different kinds of animal homes as well as introducing geography. I thought it would be fun to make copies of the pages and then have Carter cut along the trails to practice using scissors.
• Up Close by Gay Wegerif, This book was great for both kids. Carter really enjoyed guessing what animal was going to be on the next page and Elise liked the simple pictures with a solid background and just one or two colors. She would stare at the illustrations. I really liked that the pictures were all made of shapes. We talked about what shapes we saw and counted the number of certain shapes on a page. It would be a great book for older kids to give them pattern blocks or shapes cut out of paper and have them try to recreate the pictures. It would also be a great book to use as an introduction to observation. Showing the differences between looking at the whole picture and looking closely at just part of the picture. Then you could try it with different objects using a magnifying glass to see what more you notice when you look at something up close.
• All In A Day by Cynthia Rylant, I absolutely loved this book. The message was perfect. It would be a perfect book when your little one is feeling down in the dumps, is going through a tough time, or just because. It's a great reminder to make the most of what we have and I want to buy it just to read every once in a while to really remind myself to treasure each day.
• This Little Chick by John Lawrence,Carter loved this book. The chick went to see different animals and then would talk like them. It would tell what animal the chick saw before it told what he said. Carter loved guessing what the chick said before we turned the page.
• Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton, You have to love Sandra Boynton. She writes the cutest children's books! This is arguably my favorite book of hers. Carter and I were downright belly laughing as we saw how the turkey was wearing the clothing incorrectly. Another great thing about this book was that it was simple with most of the words obvious from the pictures so Carter could read it. He was so proud reading the book to his uncies!
• A Mother for Choco by Keiko Kasza, This book was so sweet and opened a dialogue for us to talk about why some children don't look like their parents. When we got to the end of the book where mother bear took Choco home to be her son, Carter said, "She's not his mommy, she's a bear." So we talked about what she'd done for Choco on each page and I asked him if that was being a good mommy. He said yes so we talked about how bear was a good mommy for Choco even though they didn't look alike. Carter was the sweetest and said, "You're a good mommy, too!" Then he asked where Choco's mommy was and we were able to talk about why sometimes mommies can't take care of their babies. It was such a great teaching point and I will definitely read it to him again to help him be open to differences in other families. 
• Round Like a Ball! by Lisa Campbell Ernst, As we read this book I started getting that excited feeling that bubbles up into my chest when I'm thinking of teaching point after teaching point the book could be used to introduce. Moments like that are when I miss teaching. Before I would've taken the book straight to class the next day to read and use as an introduction into thinking skills. Luckily I have this blog to record great books like that so I can remember them when I am back in the classroom. The book could be used to discuss ways to describe an object. Students could use an object of their own to create a similar book, seeing how many different ways they could describe their object. It could also be used to discuss how background knowledge causes people to come to different conclusions. For example, the cat guessed it was a fish bowl while the boy guessed it was a gumball. The book is also most obviously a great one for Earth Day. You could read it and then discuss different facts about the Earth mentioned in the book.