Month: March 2015

The Bookshelf–Books for Babies by Baby Brynn

Another short list of a few of my favorite books!

   I Love You, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt and Cyd Moore:  The classic question: “Mama, what if I were a super smelly skunk and I smelled so bad that my name was Stinky Face.  Would you still love me then?”  Answer?  Resounding yes!  Reminiscent of Margaret Wise Brown’s The Runaway Bunny, this book is written and illustrated with a modern reader in mind.  Green aliens from Mars, giant scary apes, slimy swamp monsters, all there to test a mother’s love.  I love this book in part because Mama makes up all kinds of goofy sound effects for each creature–her alien voice and smelly skunk “pee-u!” are my favorites!

   From Head to Toe Board Book by Eric Carle:  A book about body parts and how they move, all mimicking different animals.  I’m not quite old enough to do the actions in this book (kick my legs like a donkey, shrug my shoulders like a buffalo), but I love watching Mama do them!  She’s crazy.  She helps me do some of the actions, and I love it!  Great fun!

   Doggies (Boynton on Board) by Sandra Boynton:  Woof!  Yap yap!  Ar-roof!  Counting, dogs, and barking.  What could be better?  I love this book because of all of the great sound effects.  Watch out for that cat at the end though–he’s feisty!

  Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (Chicka Chicka Book, A) by John Archambault and Bill Martin, Jr. and Lois Ehlert: “Chicka chicka boom boom!  Will there be enough room?”  Without a doubt, the best alphabet book on the planet!  Rhyme and rhythm meet the alphabet in a coconut tree.  My favorite part is when all of the letters fall out of the tree and end up in a big jumbled pile.  I like trying to find the “b” for my name!  Mama likes to trace the letters as she reads and she loves bouncing me on her legs to the rhythm.  No other alphabet book even comes close!

  Where’s Peter? (Peter Rabbit) by Beatrix Potter: Yes, it’s a touchy-feely book, and yes, it has flaps to lift, but this book also has the golden trifecta: rhythm, rhyme, and repetition.  This book is my favorite of my touch and feel books because the pieces to touch are so big.  It’s hard for my tiny, uncoordinated hands to touch small pieces of textured fabrics, and it’s even harder to touch textures that are set into the page like velvet, so this book is a huge hit with me.  Best page?  Squirrel Nutkin–his bushy tail is huge!

Hope you found something new to read with your little one!

Happy reading!

–Brynn (blog co-author, age 9 months)

Clicking on the book will take you to Amazon.com, and if you decide to buy the book, a portion of your purchase comes back to me.  I, in turn, will use the profits to purchase books for our local library or for a children’s literacy project.

 

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The Bookshelf: A Wordless Wonder, A Leaping Peep, A Stuck Duck, and A Silly Songster

Hi!  It’s Luke (age three and a half).

Every once in awhile, Mama and I do very well at the library. We come home with several books that I end up really enjoying. Three weeks ago was one of those trips, and here are four books that I have been requesting over and over again since then.  Enjoy!

   The Farmer and the Clown by Marla Frazee: If you haven’t read any books by Marla Frazee yet, then let this one be your first and you will be hooked.  It’s a wordless picture book about a little clown boy who falls from his clown train car and ends up staying with a sour, lonely farmer.  The farmer wants to make the sad, lost little clown happy, so he does all kinds of things for the boy that seem quite out of character.  By the end of the book when the clown is reunited with his funny family, both the farmer and the boy are happy.  Not only is the message a good one, but the illustrations are beautiful.  If you like this book (Frazee’s most recent), try Boot and Shoe next–it’s one of my all-time favorite books!

   Peep!: A Little Book About Taking a Leap by Maria van Lieshout:  Recently, I’ve had to take some huge leaps out of my comfort zone, and this book helped me feel a lot better about them.  It’s about a little chick who has to screw up his courage to take a huge leap off of a curb in order to follow his mother and sisters.  Despite a few (very accurate and humorous) attempts at avoidance and with some encouragement from his mama and siblings, he finally takes the leap.  “I DID IT!” he shouts.  Since reading this book, “I DID IT!” has become my mantra.  Very simple text and spare illustrations make this book easy to read and digest.

   One Duck Stuck by Phyllis Root and Jane Chapman:  A counting book with jaunty rhythm, rhyme, and repetition that keep me engaged and tapping along with the beat!  A poor duck gets stuck in the muck, down by the deep green marsh, and he pleads for help from his fellow marsh dwellers who cheerfully answer the call.  Skunks, fish, moose, dragonflies–all work together to push an unlikely stick closer and closer to the stuck duck’s free foot.  I LOVE this book!  If you are looking for a 1-10 counting book, check out this one!

   The Baby Beebee Bird by Diane Redfield Massie and Steven Kellogg:  Bee bee bobbi bobbi!  Bee bee bobbi bobbi!  The call of the baby bee bee bird will be lodged in your head for days after reading this book.  A new arrival at the zoo, the baby beebee bird, keeps the other residents up all night long with his singing.  As day breaks and the bird decides to finally take a nap, the other animals plot their revenge.  They gang up on the baby and chorus their own “bee bee bobbis!” all day long.  The baby bee bee bird can’t sleep, of course, so when night falls, everyone finally gets some rest. Not only is this book funny for kids because we love books with animal sounds and other strange sounds in them, but adults will also enjoy the parallels with their own comical efforts to wrestle babies (and toddlers and preschoolers) into a normal sleep schedule.  A great book!

Hope you enjoy these books!  I certainly did!

Happy reading!

–Luke (blog co-author, age 3.5)

Clicking on the book will take you to Amazon.com, and if you decide to buy the book, a portion of your purchase comes back to me.  I, in turn, will use the profits to purchase books for our local library or for a children’s literacy project.

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The Bookshelf: Brynn’s Debut Post

Hello, blog world!  I’m Brynn, I’m eight months old, and this is my first book blog.  Woo!

In the past few weeks, I’ve really begun to understand why books are better read than chewed.  I’ll actually read several books in a row now, and I definitely have favorites.  You know, the ones that I nearly fall off of Mama’s lap lunging for?  The ones that I refuse to release after reading?  The ones that I know lines from already and look intently at the person reciting them?  These are my current favorites:

  Barnyard Dance! (Boynton on Board) by Sandra Boynton: “Stomp your feet!  Clap your hands! Everybody ready for a barnyard dance!”  I LOVE this here book!  Mama gets her legs movin’ up and down, her feet swingin’ in circles, and her mouth makin’ the funniest darn animal noises, all while I’m balanced precariously on her lap.  It’s just a tad bit alarmin’, but I’ve learned to enjoy it.  A lot.  Catchy rhyme and rhythm are the best things about this book.

  Peekaboo Dress Up (Touch-And-Feel Action Flap Book):  Mama is usually not a huge fan of gimmicky books, but I certainly am.  This books has things to touch, too, but my favorite part of the book is the peekaboo flaps.  Mama reads, “Where has the baby gone?  Is she behind the jungle cushion?” and then she sloooooowly lifts the flap, building anticipation to a fever pitch as I lean forward…and forward…and forward until she grabs me to keep me from toppling over.  Every page is like that.  And the babies in their costumes are SO cute!  Well, maybe not quite as cute as me…

   My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss: Mama thinks that this book is really well done, but I think this book is just plain fun!  It’s all about moods and colors and how everyone has good and bad days.  The art is both beautiful and beautifully wedded to the text.  My favorite color is yellow: “Then comes a yellow day and weeeeeeeeee I’m a busy, buzzy bee!”  I also have a lot of fun wacking the page when it says, “Then comes a mixed up day and WHAM! I don’t know who or what I am!”  It’s great!

   Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin and James Dean:  This book is probably too old for me, but I don’t care.  I love that CAT!  He’s blue, for goodness sake!  That’s crazy!  I especially love trying to pet his curly tail and trying to grab the yellow bird that appears on most pages.  For a book about colors, it’s pretty fantastic.  Plus, it has a nice life lesson at the end: “No matter what you step in, keep walking along and singing your song…because it’s all good!”

   Pajama Time! (Boynton on Board) by Sandra Boynton:  “Pajammy to the left.  Pajammy to the right.  Jamma jamma jamma jamma P! J!”  The alpha and omega of this post: the forever amazing Sandra Boynton.  There are some colors and qualities (fuzzy vs. not) thrown into this book to lend it some substance, but really, it’s mostly about the rhyme and rhythm.  Catchy, catchy!  Mama and I dance our way through this book every other night.  Definitely makes going to sleep a lot of fun!

Writing this post was pretty cool!  I hope you enjoyed reading my debut, and I can’t wait to get going on the next one!

Happy Reading!

–Brynn (blog co-author, age 8 months)

Clicking on the book will take you to Amazon.com, and if you decide to buy the book, a portion of your purchase comes back to me.  I, in turn, will use the profits to purchase books for our local library or for a children’s literacy project.

 

 

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