Storybook Sunday | School Library Selections

This past week my kiddos made their first visit of the school year to the school library. You can probably tell a lot about my children as readers based on their selections.



My Kindergartener loves to read. His selection was Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

We are big fans of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? at our house. We've never read this follow up so it was a perfect choice!

What will you hear when you read this book to a preschool child?

Lots of noise!

Children will chant the rhythmic words. They'll make the sounds the animals make. And they'll pretend to be the zoo animals featured in the book-- look at the last page!

Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle are two of the most respected names in children's education and children's illustrations. This collaboration, their first since the classic Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (published more than thirty years ago and still a best-seller) shows two masters at their best.

A Redbook Children's Picture Book Award winner

The rollicking companion to Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

I've got to say - I didn't like Polar Bear, Polar Bear much at all. I loved the excitement and glee my son had as he started reading it to me: "Polar bear, polar bear, what do you hear? I hear a lion roaring in my ear." I think those might be the only pages he could fully read, though. The animals and their sounds were kind of weird. I'm not sure what a fluting flamingo or a yelping peacock really sound like. The hippopotamus was exciting. Both the word and the picture, but since the format of these books require you to read the animal name and the sound it makes before seeing the picture of the animal, there is no visual clue to help early readers.  We weren't near as excited by the end of the book. The illustrations were as wonderful as Brown Bear, but the words - not so much.

My oldest son (7), on the other hand, is not a fan of reading. He loves to be read to, but he doesn't like to read. This week he continued a trend he started at the end of the last school year and brought home a joke book: Laughs for a Living: Jokes about Doctors, Teachers, Firefighters, and Other People Who Work.

He's having a good time reading the riddles and the jokes out loud to us, but honestly, the jokes are way over his head. Adult workplace humor is a terrible idea for a kid's joke book, but it's colorful and illustrated, and at least I make a good audience.



We continued on our Magic Tree House journey this week by reading Vacation Under the Volcano. We are also in the middle of reading Day of the Dragon King. These two MTH books are better than the ones we read last week thank goodness. I was getting worried.

I was hoping I could start reading the Goosebumps books to my kids soon so I read the first one Welcome to Dead House just to see how scary it was.

Amanda and Josh Benson move into a new house in Dark Falls, where the residents are all zombies who have died while living in the same house and are preparing to make the Benson family one of them, as they need blood to survive.

This was a really great book, and I absolutely will not be reading it to my kids anytime soon. They would never sleep in their own beds again. Welcome to the Dead House was seriously a beginning horror book. Great job, R.L. Stine, for sure, but I value our sleep. I hope someday - several years from now - I will be able to read these with them. I was too old for these books when they were released so they will be new to me, as well.

Other children's books we read this past week:

100 Book Club Total: 20/100

Did you read any children's books this week? I'd love to hear what you are reading. Let me know in the comments or leave me a link.

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This post is being shared as part of Teach Mentor Text's It's Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA.

Storybook Sunday | 100 Book Club

It's a new school year, and my middle son has started Kindergarten! Our elementary school has a "100 Book Club" for the Kindergarteners each year. If they read 100 books during the school year, they get a trophy at the end of the year. Reading books isn't a problem in this house. Tracking them, however, is another issue. We didn't do a great job tracking with my oldest, especially after he passed his 100 books read, so I'm determined to not let it slip this time around.



My kids are obsessed with Magic Tree House. The series is starting to fall apart for me, but they really love it. So far this school year we've read Dolphins at Daybreak, Ghost Town at Sundown, Lions at Lunchtime, and Polar Bears Past Bedtime.

Other books we've read together:

Who Lives Here? (a super cute book, and I can't find the book cover online anywhere), Mouse and Bear (another one with a book cover issue), Clifford's Bedtime Story, A Big Hug for Little Cub, Home for a Bunny (my childhood favorite), and Star Wars: Colors.

My kids love the Star Wars: Colors book. It's definitely a winner for those looking for color books more modern and exciting. Each color is a two page spread with a character from Star Wars with phrases like "Yoda is green" or "Darth Vader is black".

100 Book Club Total: 10/100

Did you read any children's books this week? I'd love to hear what you are reading. Let me know in the comments or leave me a link.

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This post is being shared as part of Teach Mentor Text's It's Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA.

Banned Books Edition | Storybook Sunday

In honor of banned books week, I picked up a few banned books from the library to read with my kids.

In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak

My kids absolutely loved In the Night Kitchen. In the Night Kitchen was banned because the little boy in the story is entirely naked. This is what brought the most giggles and glee to my little boys. They could relate to Mickey, and it's silly for a little boy to go on an adventure without his clothes.

We also had a great discussion on whether Mickey was dreaming or not.

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

This wasn't the first time we've read Where the Wild Things Are. In fact, my 6 year old seemed like he's maybe had enough while reciting the words along with me from memory. We are going retire Where the Wild Things Are for a while.

This book has been regularly banned because the boy has horrible behavior and the mother sends him to bed without his dinner. This is apparently psychologically damaging to the children reading the story. Thankfully my kids are unscathed and have not yet required therapy from this book.

Crow Boy by Taro Yashima

Crow Boy was my favorite of the banned books we read, but only for the discussion it created with my kids about bullying. I didn't like the book itself much. I wasn't a fan of the artwork, the print was teeny tiny, the story was very odd, but the discussion with my kids was priceless.

Some other books we read this week that were not banned books:

We finished our read-aloud of the first Hank the Cowdog book. I love Hank the Cowdog so I was really happy at how well my kids took to the first book. I was hoping to find a change of pace for our next book, but they are insisting we read the second Hank the Cowdog next.

The House in the Night was a beautiful book. I can see why it is a Caldecott award winner.

I hope everyone had a chance to read a banned book last week. Either way, I'd love to hear what you read during the week. Let me know in the comments or leave me a link!

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This post is being shared as part of Teach Mentor Text's It's Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA.

The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish by Neil Gaiman | Storybook Sunday

What a weird little book.

Book Description

What if you wanted your best friend's two goldfish so much that you'd swap anything for them, even your father?

What if your mother came home and found out what you'd done?

The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish is a hilarious adventure and was the first book for younger readers from the acclaimed author and illustrator of the New York Times best-sellers The Wolves in the Walls and Coraline. Chosen as one of Newsweek magazine's Best Children's Books of the Year, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish is beloved by readers of all ages. This new edition features brand-new jacket art and an afterword by the author on the origins of this unique and wonderfully funny story.

Review

The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish is Neil Gaiman's first children's book. The main character and his little sister are playing out in the yard when a friend arrives with a goldfish bowl. Inside the bowl are too very gold goldfish. "I'll swap you for them," says the MC. He names a list of things he can swap before he has a big idea to swap his dad.

"I'll swap you my dad," I said.
"Oh-oh," said my little sister.

It's a great swap until his mom comes home. Whoops. The MC has to trade the goldfish back for his dad, but he finds out his dad has been traded again and again amongst the children.

It's a cute story, but it's kind of strange. The dad just gets passed from kid to kid. On one hand, I see the correlation to dads who sit at home and read the paper without paying much attention to the family, but there was no real need to have the dad back other than to please the mom so she would feed them their dinner. I've never been of the mind set that children's books need to teach values, but a piece of that was missing here for me even though it was told through the perspective of a child.

That being said, there was plenty to make me smile, especially the very end. I grew a little tired of all the items that were traded for their dad, but the ending was cute. This is a good book to keep an eye out for at the library.

6/10: Good Read

Storybook Sunday | Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

My kids and I started reading Charlotte's Web out loud together last week. I have always loved Charlotte's Web, and so far my kids are captivated. The possible death of a baby pig was a great hook. My kids wanted to rid the world of injustice right along with Fern. I saw Charlotte's Web was just named the number 10 best book of all time by Entertainment Weekly*. I'm not sure I would go that far, but it was nice to see it on the list. It has a lot of awesome qualities I'm happy to be revisiting.

Other Books We Read Last Week



My kids love Pete the Cat so we bought the new Pete at the Beach by James Dean. It has been a big hit at our house.



I am not a fan of Oswald. I just don't get it, but the Oswald books are actually pretty great for early reading. They have a lot of sight words so my oldest can read these with confidence. This particular book is Hooray for Fall. My kids love that there is a monster reference in this one. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

*More About the Entertainment Weekly 100 Greatest Books of All Time



I was hoping EW would have their 100 Greatest Books of All Time list online so I could share it, but they only have the top 10 list on their site so far. I also found their explanation on how they chose the top 100 books. Apparently I was not the only person wondering how on earth they picked the books the picked. They got a "landslide of mail" asking that very question. I love that they explained and even admitted "to some super-nefarious backroom dealings".

"You can’t please all the people all the time, but it turns out you can annoy a whole bunch of them."

We booknerds are an opinionated bunch.

Are you reading any kids books this week? What do you think of Entertainment Weekly's top 10 greatest books of all time?

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This post is being shared as part of Teach Mentor Text's It's Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA.

Storybook Sunday | Dr. Seuss Edition

Storybook Sunday is where I talk about what I'm reading with my kids. It's the lighter side of Book Den.

Yesterday was Dr. Seuss's birthday. We are big fans of Dr. Seuss at our house, and it has become a tradition to read all of our Dr. Seuss books during the week of his birthday. Our old daycare provider used to do this each year and it stuck!

We have several books that are not written by Dr. Seuss but are part of the Dr. Seuss library. We make sure to read those books as well.

These are the books we read during the week:



There are quite a few Dr. Seuss books we don't own. My three year old has fallen in love with The Lorax movie so I was pretty bummed this week that we don't own a copy of The Lorax book. I definitely need to remedy that!

Discussion:
Are you a fan of Dr. Seuss? What are your favorite Dr. Seuss books?