Saturday, November 24, 2012

What the Kids Are Reading: First Edition

I think it is time that I admit that I'm never going to update Pumpkin and Petunia's book list again, and find a different way to periodically record the books we're enjoying. I love the idea of being able to look back and see what my girls were reading at various ages, but apparently, I don't love it enough to dig up that old post and add to it now and then.

Maybe I can instead just have an infrequent series of posts about what my kids are reading. This is the first one.

Petunia (who is 3) has a lot of really fun books right now. Her current favorite is an old one- Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown. I think it is a favorite because she loves the moon right now. She always points it out to us when she sees it, and she likes to go outside every night before bed and say good night to it.

My favorite of the books currently in heavy rotation are All the World, by Liz Garton Scanlon and Marla Frazee. The text is lyrical, and the pictures are delightful. Petunia pays close attention to the pictures, and notices different things on different nights. It was a birthday gift from one of her classmates, and that little girl's parents say she is also really drawn in by the pictures.

Another favorite is A Mammoth in the Fridge, by Michael Escoffier and Matthieu Maudet. This is a charming and funny book. It is a translation from the French, and judging from the Amazon page, it is not easily available in the US. That is a shame, because it is one that everyone in our family loves!


Pumpkin (who is 5.5) is still hooked on the Fancy Nancy series, by Jane O'Conner. She's currently reading Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth to herself. I'm a bit amazed by that. I bought it for her right before school started, and at that time, it was just a little too hard for her to read easily on her own. Now, it is no problem.

Her absolute favorite book right now, though, is one we have home from the library, Everything I Know About Pirates, by Tom Lichtenheld. It is a funny book, but I was surprised by how much she's liking it. We've only had it a little over a week, and I've already read it enough to be sort of sick of it!

I've also been trying to retrain my kids to view my Kindle Fire as something that can be used to read books, rather than just to play games and watch shows. I'm having mixed success with that, not surprisingly. They both will always take me up on the offer to read Caterpillars Don't Check Email, by Calee Lee, though. I can't really say what it is that makes them like this book the best of all of our kids' ebooks- maybe it is the fact that the illustrations are actual pictures and there is a little girl in them. Or maybe it is the fact that the premise makes them laugh. (Full disclosure: I got this book when Calee was running a free promo giveaway, and it is published by the same company that will eventually publish my children's book. But my kids don't know that!)

What are your kids reading now?

8 comments:

  1. All the World is one of my favorites of all the books we've gotten for T. I found out about it when the Tucson library purchased it as part of a gift T's grandparents made in her name. LOVE it. The pictures are amazing.

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  2. Anonymous5:40 AM

    I've been working on a post like this too! (Just in time for Christmas, eh?)
    DC2 is currently into lift the flap board books. Favorite: Where is baby's belly-button. It is probably extra flavorful as it was DC1's favorite as an infant as well.

    DC1 is also really into mysteries right now. I had not seen Nancy Clancy. He's devoured anything by Ron Roy (the A to Z mysteries guy), all our Cam Jansens and Jigsaw Jones (these take no time to read), the Buddy files, and a bunch more.

    But what really has him hooked right now and shows a transition away from mysteries is a completely engrossing fantasy series about dragons that starts with The Fire Within. I was surprised at how big the books are, especially given DC1's current predilection for super short mysteries, but he started reading one right away and could not be roused from it. We spent the way back from his aunt's with him putting the book as high as he could in order to get light from the car behind him. I'm going to have to check it out myself once he's done to see if it really is that good.

    We're still reading Anne of Green Gables to him. He's glad she's stopped talking so much now that she's at the normal school learning to be a teacher. I imagine he will not sob over the next chapter as much as I did at his age, but I'm still a bit wary.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous5:47 AM

      Hm, the internet tells me that The Fire Within is totes appropriate for my almost 6 year old, but the next books in the series may not be.

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  3. Have you seen the side-splittingly book of bunny suicides?
    http://www.amazon.com/Book-Bunny-Suicides-Andy-Riley/dp/0452285186

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  4. I just had P&P's Reading List post open the other week. :) I like when you update what your girls are enjoying, since my girls are so similarly aged.

    DD1 has really taken off in the reading-on-her-own department. She reads just about anything she can get her hands on. (Fancy Nancy is quite a fave here as well.) Our "read together" books are the American Girl historical character books, the Ramona Quimby books, and the Ivy & Bean books. Essentially, she loves stories with a brave, adventurous, curious and mischievous female main character that is aged 6-11. (If I had to describe my daughter, I'd say she's a mix of Pippi Longstocking, Ramona Quimby, and a little Anne Shirley.)

    DD2 likes Dr. Suess and Fancy Nancy. She's also been picking out chapter books when we're at the library... usually something with a fairy or princess or "fancy" girl on the cover. *shrug*

    My new favorite resource for finding new reading material (and toys) is A Mighty Girl (http://www.amightygirl.com/)

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  5. E just turned 6. Not reading on her own yet, it is just too much effort or something. When she goes to the library she picks whatever "Rainbow Fairies" book she can find. They're really formulaic, but honestly not as bad as they could be.

    We have read the Enchanted Forest series by Patricia C. Wrede together a couple times, I highly recommend it. I just finished reading her "Ballet Shoes" by Noel Streatfield, which is one I really enjoyed as a kid, and she would often choose that over a Rainbow Fairy book. I tried Pippi Longstocking on her a couple years ago and it didn't go so well, but I think she might be ready for it now.

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  6. Little Pooh (2.5) has just become obsessed with Mo Willems's Knuffle Bunny trilogy. He insists on reading them in a row again and again and again.

    Christopher Robin is loving having chapter books read to him (4.5).

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  7. We're wending our way through the Magic Tree House series. There seem to be a lot of them, so it should last for a while. Curiously, my 5.5 year old is also massively into looking at road atlas type books. He's been studying maps, making his own, and making charts representing inches of rainfall, hours of sunshine and average temperature in different locales. It's not fiction, but fascinating nonetheless.

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