Saturday, January 29, 2011

Books of the Week – January 29, 2011


We’ve been reading so many great books lately!  There’s nothing quite like snuggling up in a warm blanket and reading away winter afternoons, is there?  We have a date on the couch each afternoon at 3:30 and M does not let me forget about it, ever. :) 

The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver, by Thornton W. Burgess is one of our top favorites of Burgess’ animal stories (these are chapter books, and I wrote more about the series here).  There is so much fun, adventure, and real learning in this little book, it’s amazing.  The work of Paddy the beaver is really fascinating!  So we checked out two more books about beavers - Beaver at Long Pond, by William T. George; and Beaver at Long Pond, by Jim Arnosky.  Both are excellent!

Animal Tales, (sorry, I can’t seem to find any link for this one) also by Burgess, is a collection of very short stories about his animal characters.  These are fun little stories, and each has a lot of nice illustrations, something the longer ones are short on.  Since we’ve now finished all the longer Burgess stories that we own, this little book gave us our “Green Forest” (where all the animals live) fix for a while.  I plan to order the other stories as soon as possible.

Bartholomew and the Oobleck, by Dr. Seuss was a new one for M (although we have made oobleck before).  I enjoyed it, but I’m not sure what M thought of it – he just said it was long.  Which it is. :)  To make oobleck… use 1 part liquid starch to 1 part white glue – mix it together gradually until it forms a rubbery, non-sticky ball (add green food coloring if you want it to match the book).  Lots of slimey, gooey fun. :)

Carl’s Snowy Afternoon, by Alexandra Day is a sweet and charming book.  It has hardly any words, but the pictures tell a story that almost every child has thought of – a big dog who is a best friend and does things like letting you ride on his back and sled down a hill with him.  I love Carl.  M loves Carl.  I so wish we had a dog just like Carl!  And I just found out that this is just one in a series of books about Carl – yay!  We’ll be checking more of these out for sure.  This is a book that non-readers will love since they can simply look at the beautiful illustrations and tell the story on their own.  I’d say this book is the hit of the week.

Although, this book is a probably a tie for hit of the week:  A Child’s Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson.  I’ve been wanting to introduce real poetry – something more than nursery rhymes – to M for a while now, but had completely forgotten about this sweet book.  Oh. my. goodness.  You have to check out this book – it is full of poems about childhood, and they are something children can really understand and relate to.  It’s a bit dated, and some of it is not very politically correct, but we love it.

For more reviews of children’s books, check out Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

Have a beautiful day! :)
 

7 comments:

  1. My mom has the Oobleck story on a LP record, and my son started listening to it at her place. I wasn't sure he understood the story without pictures, until he noticed that the Oobleck in the picture on the record jacket was yellow, and got my mom to colour over it with a green sharpie!

    With him, I find that long stories need to be heard several time before the comprehension starts to sink in. One of his favourites right now is "The Pirate Cruncher", and it is very long, with a bit of a subtle plot. So maybe read the Oobleck a few more times, and see what M thinks after hearing it 4 or 5 times.

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  2. I love the Carl books! My family even had a dog named after Carl =)

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  3. Beaver Pond/Moose Pond looks good. We love nature-type books and actually saw a beaver in a pond at a nature center last year. The Tractor Counting book is lots of fun too.

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  4. Interesting that the Carl book was so popular. We got one of the other ones in the series, the one with the baby, and it didn't go over at all well in our house.

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  5. Thanks for joining WMCIR again! Ironically, we also have Carl book from the library right now, and I can't wait what Anna will think about it. Burgess series sound lovely. We haven't tried Oobleck yet - for some reason Anna didn't care for illustrations and refused the book.

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  6. Just put a hold on Carl--I hadn't heard of it before. Even though mine are reading, they still like wordless books.

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  7. What fun books you found! I too love curling up in blankets reading a pile of books! Love that M doesn't let you forget!

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