Winter Reading

We still go to the library at least once a week and the librarians all know us. One time I had two bags with me and they were shocked when they saw me only turn in 10 books, saying normally you all have way more than that! I assured them we had a whole other bag under the stroller. When we go we usually check out 20-50 books. The limit is 50 and sometimes we have to put books back. If we only make it to the library once a week we end up reading our books 3-4 times over! Favorite books are read more than that and each set of books means a new favorite book for Carter! I'm so excited that Elise has started crawling over to grab books and will sit turning the pages like she's reading (with board and bath books). Check out our reading list from last winter here and our list from 2014 here.

Our Top Reading Choices From This Fall:

• The Cow Loves Cookies by Karma Wilson, This book was so cute! Carter cracked me up as we read it because he said, "Why's the cow eating cookies? Them are for Santa!"
• Nose to Toes, You Are Yummy! by Tim Harrington, This book was a song with actions for different body parts. We always enjoy books that are songs and Carter loved doing the actions along with the book.
• Take Me to Your BBQ by Kathy Duval and Adam McCauley, This was the last book Jeremy read to Carter before his accident and Carter loved it. He had us read it over and over and over. The book had a great rhyme and rhythm to it and Carter really enjoyed the aliens in the book.
• Ruby in Her Own Time by Jonathan Emmett, This book was so great. Ruby is slower to do things than her siblings but then at the end she can fly higher and farther than any of them. I loved the message that it really doesn't matter if it takes someone a little longer to start doing something. This would be a great book to read to a child who is feeling frustrated that they aren't keeping up with their peers.
• Soon by Timothy Knapman, This book initially got my attention because it had elephants as the main character and the artwork was beautiful. Then we read it and Carter loved it. It was so much fun to act out the different animals the elephants encountered and mother elephant's reactions to them. Then we went on a hike later and walked to the top of a hill like the elephants did which was fun.
• Hiccupotamus by Steve Smallman, This book was almost like a song because it had such a great rhythm to it! Carter loved talking about the different sounds each animal contributed to the song and he absolutely loved the page where the hippo emerged from the water!
• Honey I Love by Eloise Greenfield, This is a poem I used to read in my class each year when we did our writing unit on poetry. I used it from a book of poems and had no idea it had been made into a picture book! The poem has a lot of figurative language which Carter enjoyed and thought was funny, especially when she said "a flying pool" when talking about a hose. He also loved that the poem had such a nice rhythm and was almost like singing a song.
• Bravery Soup by Maryann Cocca Leffler, This book would be great for discussing bravery in a classroom or to help a child who is afraid of something. It has a great message that being brave doesn't mean you aren't scared, it means that you tried anyway! I loved this book and Carter really liked it too. He loves talking about being brave and was mentioning the other day how a boy on the playground was brave for climbing up the ladder.