What My Child is Reading

One of J's favorite activities is reading books and I absolutely love cuddling him on my lap and reading. I like to link up to What My Child Is Reading blog link-up. Not only is it a great way to record the wonderful books we've read, but I've found so many new good book ideas by visiting each week. Click on the button below to see what others have been reading!

The Berenstain Bears and the Missing Dinosaur Bone by Stan and Jan Berenstain
J is fascinated by dinosaurs, especially digging for bones so when I saw this one I thought he'd like it. It is a fun little story about the museum curator finding out that the T-Rex is missing a large leg bone and the museum is opening for exhibit and they have one hour to find it. So the Berenstain bears and their hound dog Snuff are on the case. They have their detective hats and magnifying glasses and go on a hunt. They end up finding the bone buried out in the yard with paw prints all around; and the culprit their hound dog Snuff!



Goodnight, Little Monster by Helen Ketteman
J really enjoys books and stories about monsters, and I make sure to find ones that are fun and not scary. This is a great bedtime story, all about a little monster being put to bed by his mama. The book starts off with the monsters howling at the moon. Next, the little monster has a bath. He is dressed in cute little spider pajamas and has a bedtime snack of worm juice and baked beetle bread (eew!). He brushes his fangs, he has a bedtime story and then before hopping into bed they make sure no scary children are lurking underneath. The illustrations are great and very creative like a night light made out of a eyeball held in a claw. Very cute and fun monster stuff.



The Great Kapok Tree: A tale of the Amazon rain forest by Lynne Cherry
On one of the blogs I visited, a mom had a list of green books for kids. (Sorry, I can't find the link now!) The Great Kapok tree was on the list and available in our library. I think it's very important for J to be aware of what's happening in our environment and how to protect it so this book was definitely along those lines. It's a wonderful story about a man who comes into the rain forest and starts chopping down this huge, wonderful tree in the rainforest. He then gets tired and takes a nap. While he's sleeping, he's visited by all these different creatures of the forest who whisper in his ear the many different reasons why he should not chop down the tree. It was very compelling to read and I love that it ends with the man deciding to leave the tree alone and he decides to leave behind his ax in the forest.



Happy Birthday, Good Knight
This was our second book in the Good Knight series. In this book, the good knight joins up with the little dragons again. They bring him a problem that they need help to get a birthday gift but have no money. The knight tells them that the most special gifts don't come from a store, but come from our hearts and hands. He takes them to his castle to help them with their gift where they end having several misadventures like making a wreck out of trying to bake a cake; making a ruin of a hand-made card they end up gluing shut and making a mess out of a magic show they try to put on. When the knight later learns this was all for him and his birthday, he tells them they gave him the gift of laughter and they end up eating the burnt cake, opening up the stuck card and doing a little magic trick. Then the little dragons sing him happy birthday.



I Love You, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt
I was interested in this book purely because of the title. I loved the title, and I thought J would like it too. When he found it in my stack from the library, he wanted to read it right away. In fact, he had me read it several times in a row each time thoroughly enjoying it. In the book, a mom is reading her son a story. She says to him, "I love you my wonderful child." He has some questions. He proceeds to ask his mom several different silly questions with my favorite, "What if I were a super smelly skunk....to which momma says, "I'd whisper in your ear, 'I love you, Stinky Face'." As I read each of these to J, he kept laughing at how silly they were with the boy musing about being different creatures like a terrible dinosaur, a smelly swamp creature or a green alien from Mars. I notice this author has a few more books in this series so I've already put I Miss You, Stinky Face on hold.



My Brother, the Knight by Laura Driscoll
Ever since we watched the movie The Tale of Despereaux which introduced J to knights and princesses, he really enjoys books about them. This was a cute story with a boy who is just enthralled with pretending to be a knight. It is somewhat annoying to his older brother and the two agree to a bet with the boy betting that he could live like a real knight for an entire week. As you read the story, there are little boxes with educational information about what a page is, what is a coat of arms and an explanation of a lord among other things. I like the little boxes that give the teaching information. They added to the story for J.



Pedro's Burro by by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
I have had fun finding books that offer a look into different cultures and we liked this one. A boy and his father are looking for a new burro (Spanish for donkey) for their family. They go to market and really aren't sure which burro is the right one. They see tall burros, small burros, light burros and dark burros. They see a burro with a hat on that comes up to the boy and pulls on his shirt. Through the telling of their encounter with this burro they see that instead of them finding the right burro, the right burro finds them!



You Say Hola, I Say Hello by Elizabeth Zapata
I continue to introduce bits of Spanish here and there to J and found this was a great book for doing that. It takes several common words like hello, goodbye, dog, sun, moon, mommy and teaches the Spanish word by using the sentence "You Say ____ and I say _____." After reading this a few times, I noticed J randomly saying a snippet from the book like "You say adios and I say good-bye".



Here are links to a couple other fun book reading link ups: