Many of you are familiar with my reading habit. I consume books the way I consume coffee. Right now I’m on a quest to set a land-speed record for how fast I can finish the entire Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. Those are the books the series True Blood is based on and OH MAH GAWD they are like the book equivalent of crack. They’re murder mysteries, with lots of sex and vampires. Awesome. Totally awesome.
Anyway, I also read a lot to C. Not vampire porn mystery books, mind you. I read him excellent literature. And I want to tell you about some of his favorite books. And I’d love to hear about your kids’ favorites because I’m always looking for something to change it up a little Otherwise we’d be reading nothing but Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things that Go every night until C is 18. Speaking of…
1) Cars and Trucks and Things That Go by Richard Scarry. I go this book as a gift from my oldest and dearest friend at my baby shower. She has two little boys of her own and this book was a favorite of her oldest at the time I was pregnant. If you’re not familiar with the work of Richard Scarry, it’s really wonderful. He draws animals having adventures with whimsy and humor. This book tracks the Pig family as they’re going on a picnic – a very far away picnic since they pass through several different climates on their way to get there. And all along the way they see vehicles including diggers, fire trucks, carrot cars, race cars, pickle cars, and snowplows. As a fun bonus, you can hunt for a little character named Goldbug on each, oversized page. It’s really delightful and will occupy a child for longer than the average book.
2) The Matzoh Ball Boy by Lisa Schulman. We all remember the Gingerbread Man. Well, meet the Matzoh Ball Man, a boy made by a lonely bubbe who’s all alone on Passover. Not that she’s complaining mind you. This book is a fun retelling of a classic story with a Yiddish twist and some gentle humor that will strike a chord with anyone who’s ever joked about their Jewish grandmothers. This book is wordier than the stories we usually read to C so it took him a little while to warm up to it but once he got into it, it was an every-night book. At least until I had to return it to the library. I may need to go borrow it again because he’s been asking for it ever since he saw me eating some matzoh ball soup for lunch recently.
#) Good-Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathman. This book is delightful. Unlike the gabby Matzoh Ball Boy, Gorilla never says a word as he steals Joe the Zookeeper’s keys and follows him around releasing all the other animals. The pictures are all bright and the art is reminiscent of watercolor paintings. C loves naming all the animals and he’s too young to share his mother’s alarm that the lion is being let out of his cage despite what appear to be human bones littering the floor. C loves looking for the moon in every picture and he LOVES the page where all the animals say good-night in the dark after sneaking into the Zookeeper’s house. This may be because my husband does funny voices for all the animals. His voices are so good, that C used to take the book from me when we got to the page and hand it over to Daddy. Who did not major in theatre and is really nowhere near as qualified to do character voices as I am. Just sayin’.
Now it’s your turn! Tell me what your children’s favorite books are! I’d love to exchange titles and authors because we’re always looking for new, fun stories around here!
We read Richard Scarry’s “What Do People Do All Day?” a LOT. Also, “Lego Star Wars: A Visual Dictionary,” although that one doesn’t really have much of a plot.
Llama, Llama Red Pajama by Anne Dewdney (spelling??), my sons all time my fav! Great book for bedtime, Where the Wild Things are and the Knot Fairy (my daughter’s fav).
Professor Wormbog in Search for the Zipperump-a-zoo by Mercer Mayer and The Fourteen Bears in Summer and Winter by by Evelyn Scott. Both books were favorites of mine and my siblings when we were little, so much so that my sister spent the better part of a summer finding enough copies of each to give all eight of us for Christmas one year. All four of my kids love these books. Fun stories with beautiful illustrations that a child can spend hours enjoying.
Dana loves the Mercer Mayer books (adventures of Little Critter). I’m So Mad is one of her favorites. Also starting on the Doreen Cronin books. She wrote Click Clack Moo which is one of my all time favorite books. But we are reading Bounce and Stretch right now–more for her age than the others.
We also had a field day A few months back with the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems but she is off of them for now.
my three year old and I read Go Dog Go by Dr. Seuss 47 times a day. When my brother was little we read The pale Green pants with no one inside them by Dr. Seuss every day. When my 14 year old was little we read encyclopedia brown books and at the ripe old age of 8 I had to read “freakonomics” to him… We just read “Numbers” by Rachel Ward. My 14 year old is blind so I read aloud to him a lot. Love love love reading books with my children.
let’s see… Papaya is currently a big fan of “Oh the Thinks You Can Think,” “Hop on Pop” and “Mr Brown Can Moo, Can You” — all Dr. Seuss books. In fact, we’ve read them so often that she thinks that she can read them. Well, at least she has memorized a lot of them. But we’ve also amassed a collection of Skippy Jon Jones books — adventures about an imaginative little Siamese kitten who likes to pretend he’s a Chihuahua.
I’m reading The Little friend by Donna Tartt. I’m reading that because I’ve finished all of my “crack” books including Sookie Stackhouse and the Stieg Larsson trilogy. Those books should almost be illegal.
I don’t read to my kids as much as I should (do I have to mention that there are 6 of them I’m running round after?)
but they have some favourites nonetheless….Where’s my cow? by Terry Pratchett (I like doing the noises too, so I’m sure that helps!)
and any of the vehicle books by Tony Mitton and Ant Parker Dazzling DIggers, Roaring Rockets, Falshing Fire Engines…. I like these coz there’s not too many words, but there are great descriptive phrases, and at the back they show all the things on a vehicle that little boys love – “piston: this is a strong pump that makes parts of the digger move about”
also anything by Julia Donaldson – again, great active story, easy to read rhyme with a great rhythm, and gorgeous pics.
:OD
My 3 year old and I love all of the following:
Edward and the Pirates,
How I Became A Pirate (sensing a theme here yet?),
All of the Llama Llama books (there are 3 now),
Chameleon’s Crazy Colors,
Anything by Iza Trapini,
Anything with Clifford The Big Red Dog (dang am I getting sick of that dog), and
The Adventure (A Rip Squeek Book). The pictures in all of the Rip Squeek books are amazing. Thanks to all for the suggestions, I’m totally buying the Terry Pratchett right NOW!