Fall Reading List

I was going back through my drafts to add some information to my winter reading list and realized I have started our winter book list but never posted our fall list, whoops! So here are our favorite books from the fall. I started our winter book list in December so these really are all books we read in the fall. Check out our fall reading list from 2015 (last year) here, 2014 here, and our list from 2013 here.

 

Our Top Reading Choices From This Fall:

• Bailey at the Museum by Harry Bliss, Carter absolutely loved this book. He wanted to read it every time we sat down to read. It reminded me a lot of Curious George because Bailey the dog was curious and making mistakes just like George. I think that may have been part of the reason why Carter liked it so much. He also loved the speech bubbles in the pictures and would point to them asking me to read them again. 
• Giraffe Meets Bird by Rebecca Bender, Carter really enjoyed this one and picked it out to read every time we sat down to read books. I liked that it showed the perspective of both the giraffe and the bird. By doing that it also showed that it's okay to not always agree with your friends or get along, but you can still be friends. I've noticed Carter has been liking books lately that show the main characters struggling or displaying negative emotions. I think it's because he can relate to it and he feels better that he can't always control his emotions like he'd like to.
• Rules of the House by Mac Barnett, I didn't particularly like this book very much but Carter loved it so I'm adding it to the list. I'm not really sure what it was about the book, but he would grab it and retell it as he flipped through the pages pretty much every morning. I'm not sure if it was because it was repetitive in a way that it was easy to remember the words or if it was because the older sister was always pinching her younger brother, haha! It was so cute to hear him read it by retelling so I loved that about it. It may have also been a favorite because it was kind of scary without really scaring him. I just didn't like that in the end they tricked the monsters rather than apologizing and fixing their mistakes. I felt like the book could have had a better message.
• Turtle's Penguin Day by Valeri Gorbachev, In this book a turtle learns about penguins and loves it so much he dresses like a penguin and takes his book to school to share with his class. Carter loved this one I think in large part due to Turtle's love for learning and curiosity about animals. I really liked that Turtle's teacher took his interest in animals and used it as a way to engage her class in learning. It is such a powerful learning experience to engage students in learning about things they are interested in and allowing them to lead the learning. Inquiry-based learning is difficult at times in our current education system, but it is so rewarding.
• Yeti Turn Out the Light! by Greg Long and Chris Edmundson, We had read this quite a few times before. Each time we see it at the library Carter wants to check it out. I don't think I had ever put it on a favorite books list so I added it to this one. It is such a cute story of Yeti getting scared over shadows he sees at night. It shows how our imaginations can turn such sweet and harmless objects into something scary.
• Pirates Don't Change Diapers by Melinda Long, Carter absolutely loved this book. It had the humor of poop and diapers along with pirates. Ever since Carter was a pirate for Halloween last year he has really liked reading books about pirates, I know part of it is my pirate voice I read with, haha! He thought it was hilarious that they tried putting diapers on the dog and the cat. He would sit and look at that picture forever and kept wanting to go back to it.
• Too Small for My Big Bed by Amber Stewart, This was another book I think Carter really enjoyed because he could relate to the character. The child tiger in the book is named Piper and he kept talking about Piper long after we had returned this book to the library. Piper is afraid to sleep in bed by himself and wants to sleep with his mom. I love that the mom is very patient with him and what she says to him. At the end Piper isn't afraid to sleep in bed by himself. Carter could definitely relate to this book as he had difficulty sleeping in bed by himself once he transitioned to a big boy bed and would often times wake in the middle of the night and come into our room just like Piper in the book. Carter was very proud to say he was a big boy and slept in his bed by himself as we read the book.