Summer Reading List

With summer coming to a close at kids prepare to go back to school soon (thank goodness Carter doesn't start until September) I figured now was a good time to publish our summer reading list. Summer is one of my favorite times for reading and this summer was even better than any other! With Carter home every day and no school, we found ourselves reading a lot more. We made multiple trips to the library each week rather than our once a week trip just to keep up with all the reading we were doing! I also pared down our learning themes and did long, stretched out learning themes rather than extensive week-long learning themes. That gave us more time for reading books outside our specific learning theme topic. This summer was also so much fun because Elise became so much more interested in reading. Up to this point she mostly just liked to sit and look at books by herself, talking and singing about the pictures on the pages. It wasn't until June that she started actually bringing me books to read to her. She will now sit beside me or in my lap to listen to multiple books in row. It is such a joy to have both kids sitting with me and listening to books at the same time! Read last year's summer list here, 2015's list here, 2014's list here, and 2013's list here. It's crazy to think this is Carter's 5th summer doing the reading program and that's when I started keeping a list of good books!

Nothing like walking by to find both your kids reading!

Our Top Reading Choices From This Summer:

• Tidy by Emily Gravett, This was such a cute book about a raccoon who loves for everything to be clean. He cleans so much, he ends up pouring concrete over the forest floor to keep it clean. Once he's done that he realizes he can't eat when there's concrete over the ground. Carter thought the book was so funny and liked pointing out where the raccoon went wrong. It was also a great book to talk about how nothing can be completely perfect and we should find happiness in the imperfection.
• Not Quite Black and White by Jonathan Ying, This book is great for teaching colors. Carter loved pointing out what in the picture was a color and telling me the name of the color. I enjoyed the book too. The illustrations were adorable.
• Sleepy Puppy by Sterling Children's, This was a favorite of Elise. She had me read it over and over and over. Each time I tried to read a different book, she'd shove this one back on top and ask me to read it again. I think she liked it so much because it had real photographs of dogs as the illustrations. Her favorite page was one where the dog was peeking around blankets to look under a bed. She laughed every time we turned to that page. It was so cute! 

  

  Elise's favorite page of the book.

• What's Wrong, Little Pookie? by Sandra Boynton, I loved this book. Sandra Boynton's books are all wonderful and Pookie is such a sweet, little character. I liked that the book broached the subject that sometimes we feel sad without really knowing why. I also liked that the mom was able to distract Pookie from being sad by talking about silly things. It was a cute book and a perfect one to pull out when your little one is feeling down.
• Bob and Flo by Rebecca Ashdown, This book was so adorable. It was about two penguins who become friends at school. It was wonderful for making predictions. It left the answer on the next page but was pretty easy to predict so it was perfect for a young child just beginning to make predictions about what would happen next. Flo had a bucket and Bob was playing with it. I had Carter predict where it was each time it disappeared and then he'd tell me what Bob was doing with it. I especially loved that instead of getting upset with Bob, Flo helped him when he needed it and then was happy to share her bucket with him.
• Follow That Bear If You Dare by Claire Freedman, I made note of this book for later use in my classroom. I think it would be a fun book to read when learning about writing nonfiction books. Although the story is fiction, the rabbit in the book is reading an informational guide with step-by-step directions on how to catch a bear. It would be a fun break from nonfiction reading and would be a great way to introduce writing step-by-step instructions. It would also be a great opportunity to critique the writing of someone else, coming up with details the guide didn't mention that would be helpful to the rabbit in his search.
• Brontorina by James Howe, This book was a sweet story about a dinosaur who wants to be a ballerina. At first she is told she is too big to be a dancer but then in the end they decide it's not that she's too big, it's that the dance studio is too small. I love the inclusion aspect of the book and Carter thought the dancing dinosaur was hilarious!
• Chowder by Peter Brown, Carter loved this book. We read it over and over and over. I also thought it was pretty cute. It had a nice story that if you don't fit in with your neighborhood friends, you may find a place you fit in somewhere else. It also was an uplifting book about not giving up. I think Carter mostly liked it because Chowder did human things like sit on the toilet and his tongue was hanging out most of the time, plus he thought Chowder being saved from falling from the tree by a pyramid of farm animals was pretty awesome. This was a cute book that I also enjoyed.
• Tiger in My Soup by Kashmira Sheth, This was another Carter favorite. He absolutely loved this book and wanted to read it over and over. He really liked that the letters in the character's soup spelled out words and wanted to point out each letter in the word and then have me tell him what the word said. Of course, the tiger was also a big hit for him. 
• Elise's other favorite books this summer were a couple of my favorites which we own. She loves Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin. It is so cute to hear her say "I love Pete a Cat" whenever she sees the book. She also loves White Rabbit's Color Book by Alan Baker, mostly because of the rabbit and also due to the fact that on one page where the rabbit is jumping in a bowl of paint, it's hiney is sticking up. She loved that!