Summer Reading

One thing that helped us get through the shutdown and things not re-opening in the summer was the kids' love of reading. There were so many chunks of time spent with them either happily reading together or each looking at their own books at the same time. Reading has definitely helped keep us all sane over here, myself more so than any of us! I keep thinking of Jhumpa Lahiri's quote, "That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet." I realized that's why reading has helped me so much, it allows me to "travel" when travel is not an option. The summer reading program through our public library started later this year due to the libraries being closed the entire month of May. We LOVE the summer reading program and were so glad they still did the program, just starting it a month later than usual. We had some new reads and a resurgence in other favorites. Pete the Cat got a lot of reads this summer as well as Pig the Pug which continues to be Elise's favorite. The Bad Guys and Dog Man books are read on the daily. Carter can't wait for the newest Dog Man book to drop September 1st. We went ahead and pre-ordered it so it will arrive the day it comes out. When I ordered Carter the complete set of Bad Guys through a book order and he made it through all 9 books in a matter of days, I was a little disappointed and felt like I'd wasted money buying them instead of just getting them through the library. But he has read all the books over and over and over again. Elise also likes to read them and they are a top pick to read to Oma and Opa over FaceTime in the evening, so I'm super glad we ordered them! Carter is really into Captain Underpants now that he can comfortably read them on his own. His reading ability has just sky rocketed lately where he can read so many chapter books without any help!

Top Picks from the Summer:

• The Return of Thelma the Unicorn by Aaron Blabey- When the library reopened to where you could put books on hold and pick them up curbside, we put this one on hold. The kids were so excited about it we walked to the library just to pick this one up. Then they wanted to sit on the bench outside the library and read it right away. For a while I was reading the kids both the Thelma the Unicorn books every day. Sometimes Carter read them to Elise too which was cute. We are excited for another Thelma the Unicorn book to hopefully we written!

• Who Would Win? Book Series by Jerry Pallotta- Carter must have read some of these at school because when he earned a reward to choose any book to buy he wanted, he wanted to get one of these. Elise was really interested in them too. She would tell people all about who was vs in her book and who won, it was cute! Carter really liked that the book went into so many details about the animals before describing who the author thought would win.

• Ook and Gluk series by Dav Pilkey- Carter loves anything Dav Pilkey writes and this book was no exception. He loves the Ook and Gluk books.

• Rot, the Cutest in the World by Ben Clanton- We watched a Facebook Live with Ben Clanton and he talked about potatoes being one of his favorite things to draw. We decided to put this book on hold and the kids loved it, Elise especially. She loved that the judges thought Rot was cute because they were so ugly themselves.

• Nibbles the Dinosaur Guide by Emma Yarlett- The kids love Dragon Post by Emma Yarlett so I thought I'd get them a Nibbles book to see if they liked it as much. They absolutely LOVED this book! Carter read it multiple times a day for the first week after we got it. He begged me to buy him the other Nibbles books so we sold some of their toys they don't play with anymore to get the other 2 Nibbles books.  
  

•  Big Nate Graphic Novels and Comic Compilations by Lincoln Peirce- I dropped some cucumbers off at a friend's house and her neighbor was having a garage sale and I saw books so I stopped. Carter loves graphic novels so I picked up the 2 of these I saw. He liked them so much he wanted more so I got a whole bunch from the library. He's been reading them non-stop!
  

• Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot series by Dav Pilkey- Carter wanted to read these books because Dav Pilkey is his favorite author. He read them and liked them but Elise was the one who loved them, she liked that she was able to read them by reading the pictures. There aren't as many pictures as some of his other books so it's easier to read the pictures as all the action is in the pictures.
  

• Who am I? An Animal Guessing Game by Steve Jenkins- This book was awesome and Elise loved it. I want to order it for Wyatt because I think he would really like it.

• Do Not Lick This Book: It's Full of Germs by Idan Ben-Barak and Julian Frost- This was in a children's book grab bag we got from the library. The kids absolutely loved it. I think part of the reason they liked it so much was we have talked a lot about germs, thanks to what we're living through right now!

• The Dumb Bunnies Go to the Zoo by Dav Pilkey- Really the kids like all the dumb bunnies book but this was a huge favorite. Carter read it over and over.

• The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger- When we signed up for the summer reading program we chose to get personalized book recommendations sent to my email. This one was recommended for Carter so we got it and Carter loved it. We read it aloud at night with Oma and Opa. Oma made us an origami Yoda and sent it to us. There are more books in the series and we're excited to start the next one, Darth Paper Strikes Back!