Spring Reading

This spring the kids were finally back in school but doing distance learning on Wednesdays. Since their school day was so much longer with added time to make up for starting the year later (in hopes our Covid numbers would go down so we could start the year in person) we didn't get home until 4:30-4:45 each school day. I wanted them to have plenty of time to play and just relax after a long school day and everything was rushed, especially when they needed to take a bath, so there were many days we skipped read aloud time. Carter always reads in bed to help him unwind and fall asleep, but we weren't sitting down and reading together. Every Wednesday we ended our distance learning day with at least a 30 minute read aloud time so many of these books are from that time. 

Our Favorites:

• Scruff by Alice Bowsher- Carter picked this book out at the library and loved it. It was so cute to read it after he told me all about it. I expected it to be longer due to the length of the story he told me. He added in all these details to the story with the pictures. There weren't very many words. I think he liked the fact that the man and the dog looked similar more than anything.

• Patrick's Polka Dot Tights by Kristen McCurry- Carter picked this one out at the library and loved it. I also liked that Patrick's dad was the one who bought him more tights. It was like an updated version of William's Doll where the dad was supportive instead of refusing to buy him what he wanted.

• Harriet, You'll Drive Me Wild! by Mem Fox- We had read this one before but this time Elise really loved it and wanted to read it over and over. We read it on a Wednesday distance learning day where I had been patient all day and then lost it at the end of the day and yelled. This was the perfect book to read and then talk through what had happened. It also made me feel so much better, being reminded that I'm not the only mom who occasionally loses my patience and yells.

• Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena- I loved this one. It was so descriptive and made for a great mentor text.

• The Giant Jumperee by Julia Donaldson and Helen Oxenbury- This may have been on a previous list because I remember Carter really liked it when he was younger. Elise was obsessed with this book. I read it to her once and then she read it, remembering almost all the details. We read it at least once a day the entire time we had it from the library. Elise didn't want to return it either so we re-checked it out and then ordered it for her as a surprise. Carter got tired of listening to it, but Elise couldn't get enough!

• The Tale of the Mandarin Duck by Bette Midler- This was such a neat book. I loved that it was told like a fable but was about a true story. Carter thought it was the coolest thing ever and would ask people if they had ever heard of the famous mandarin duck. 

• A Family Is a Family Is a Family by Sara O'Leary- I loved that this book showed so many different kinds of families. What was really neat was that as I read the book, neither Carter nor Elise even commented or questioned the pictures of families in the book. To them they were all families, they just looked different than ours. I thought this book may start a conversation but the only question Carter had was why someone would think a child wasn't someone's real child. So we talked about foster and adoptive parents a bit (that's what the page was discussing) and how the parents and children most often don't look alike. This would be a great one to read in class.