Reading to my kids is enjoyable on so many different levels.When I grab a book off the shelf at the library, if I'm not immediately interested I will at least give it a flip through to see if anything hooks me. Today Carolyn was pulling books and books off the shelf and handing them to me. One was called When Will I Read? by Miriam Cohen. Looked cute (I recognized the illustration style by Lillian Hoban from other fun books we've read), so I did a flip through and stopped for a second at a page that read:
Anna Maria said, "Oh, this is a bad baby. He needs to be washed." And she began to wash her baby very hard.
It's a keeper. Into the bag.
Of course when we got home I pulled that one out first thing and started reading to whoever would listen. There are a few very random sections in the book and I'm not entirely sure why they are in the story, except to be amusing to me. The quote above is from the right page. The left page (so read this next one then go back and read the first) reads:
Anna Maria was reading to her baby in the doll corner. She could really read. "Quiet," she said. "I'm reading to you." But her baby would not be quiet.
Anna Maria is smiling while she washes her baby. VERY HARD.
Another book we checked out today is called Little Pea. It is about a pea family. Little Pea doesn't want to eat his candy for dinner, but finally does so he can have his dessert - spinach! Now that's just clever.
There is this really cute series about two hippos named George and Martha. They are short simple stories about friendship, but there is a definite hilarity and deep wisdom to them that I like. Sort of Frog and Toadish. We checked one out one time and I was reading away to the kids. We got to this story where Martha is taking a bath. George walks by her window and stops to watch. Martha looks up and sees him, she chews him out for a minute ("there is such a thing as privacy"), then George sheepishly walks away. WHAT?
I feel bad for those of you that don't have children that might feel foolish checking out some of these great recommendations. We would be happy to have them ready if you want to come look at them yourself.
There's another one by the author of Little Pea called "Little Hoot" about a little owl that wants to go to bed early, but his parents tell him that owls must stay up late. Sariah has it in her library bag. I haven't gotten to it yet, but I can't wait!
ReplyDeleteP.S. This is a surprise, so don't tell :) Sariah told me that her favorite book is Little Pea, so I got it for her birthday and I'm also making her a t-shirt of the cover of the book!
So, what's appealing about the book "When Will I Read?" I don't like mistreatment of babies, even when they are dolls.
ReplyDeleteI think we've read "Little Hoot." Sounds familiar. Funny to see the other side of things.
ReplyDeleteThe basic idea of "When Will I Read?" is that we learn to read bit by bit, and then suddenly without hardly realizing, we're really reading. Like I said in the post, there are just some really random sections in that book. Anna Maria isn't mentioned in the entire rest of the book except those two pages. On the two pages before, George reads the words under each picture in his favorite book, and someone else tells him he just remembered it. The teacher tells them that's how reading begins. Turn the page, and there's Anna Maria and her doll. In the picture the washcloth isn't hardly touching the doll. So if you read it with a really nice voice it doesn't seem bad at all.