Fall Reading List

I know it's not quite officially winter yet but I figured since we are into December I'd go ahead and post our favorite books from the fall. We came across some really great books this fall. We kept up going to the library at least once a week. We discovered that the library right by our house had revamped their storytime with a stay and play time after books and songs so we started going to it every week. Carter loved it and Elise did too! Every once in a while we'd stop by a different library for storytime or just to check out books. I love that when we've read all the books in our bag Carter starts requesting to go to the library! Check out our reading list from last fall here and our list from 2013 here.

Our Top Reading Choices From This Fall:

• Baby Bedtime by Mem Fox & Emma Quay, I immediately loved this book. The characters were adorable elephants. There were actions on each page that as I read the words I would do to both Elise and Carter. Little mister loved it and would turn his head and ask me to whisper in his ear again when we got to that page. I would whisper "I love you," then he'd turn and whisper, "I love you too." It was the sweetest. This would be a great book for Elise's book shelf.
• No Matter What by Emma Dodd, This book reminded me of one of Dodd's other books, I Am Small. It was so sweet and I loved that the message was that the adult elephant loves the baby no matter what. It is such an important thing for our children to understand. Of course, I loved that the animals she chose for the book were elephants. I'm thinking this is a perfect first birthday present for Elise since Carter got I Am Small as a first birthday present! I also wrote it down as a book to read when we are talking about opposites since each set of pages shows opposite actions or feelings for the baby elephant.
• Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems, As always when it comes to Mo Willems books, this one was very witty and had me laughing along as we read it. I liked how it poked fun at the original Goldilocks story. Carter absolutely loved it and had me read it so many times I couldn't even guess the count. On one of the last pages the small dinosaur is crying because Goldilocks got away. Carter would always have me stop there and would talk about how the baby dino was sad and why was he crying?! It cracked me up because he was worried about the dinosaur crying rather than feeling relieved that Goldilocks got away.
• Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin, This was a book I had in my classroom but I didn't remember much about it. In the story dragons don't like spicy foods and if they eat something spicy they breathe fire. Carter enjoyed the book and would ask for the dragon book as one of his book choices each night before going to bed. This book makes the list mostly because Ty liked it so much. He read it over and over to Carter and enjoyed the fact that dragons breathe fire because of spicy food.
• Daisy Gets Lost by Chris Raschka, Carter has really gotten into wordless picture books. He really enjoys looking at the pictures and telling me the story. This one was a favorite because it had a dog and a squirrel as main characters. I would make the animals make sounds showing surprise, frustration, or fear and Carter thought it was hilarious. He asked for this book to be read over and over.
• Splat! starring the Vole Brothers by Roslyn Schwartz, This book was so funny. It had both Carter and me laughing. I liked that the book was mostly comprised of sound words with most of the story being left to the reader to interpret the pictures. We used the book to talk about emotions as well as how the characters could have reacted differently. It was a very cute book which lends itself to multiple teaching points
• That Pup! by Lindsay Barrett George, This one was a favorite of Carter's because it showcased a dog and a squirrel, two of his favorites! I loved the simple text and how well it lended itself to making predictions. We enjoyed looking for the squirrel on each page and finding her watching the dog. One page showed all the acorns, some green and some brown. We counted them and talked about the colors. It would be a great book to read and then have acorns for kids to practice addition, subtraction, and patterns looking at the book to make up their own problems. I would love to use this book in the fall in math tubs when I'm back in the classroom. I also liked that at the end it showed the dog and squirrel putting the acorns back which was a perfect way to help readers retell the story.
• Vincent and the Night by Adele Enersen,Carter initially didn't want to read this book because he called it a baby book and said he wanted to leave it for daddy to read to sissy. When we got through all of our library books he decided to go ahead and read it and he absolutely loved it! I'm not sure exactly what it was about the book, but I think it may have had a little bit to do with Vincent being naughty and that he wasn't going to bed. Carter loved to read the page where Vincent was described as naughty. We read the book 4 times in a row the first time we read it and then he wanted to read it multiple times after that. I even found him sitting in a chair reading it to himself and was shocked how close he was to reading it word for word. It would also be a great book for babies since there are photographs of a baby and the pictures are mostly black and white. I'm excited to read it to Elise when she can have time to really look closely at the pictures!
• Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rowlinson, This book is so sweet. We read it last year during our fall theme but Carter didn't make it through the whole book. This year it was his absolute favorite during that library haul and asked for it over and over. He'd say he wanted to read the fox book and then once he remembered the fox's name after multiple readings, he'd ask for Fletcher. The last page of the book shows the tree in winter and you can touch raised up icicles which he also loved.
• Oh No, George! by Chris Haughton, One thing we've been working on as we read books is predicting what will happen next. Carter loved this book because he was able to easily predict what would happen. He also loved that George was naughty even though he wanted to be good. I think he really connected with the character!