I haven't reviewed children's books in a while and we've been reading a ton of them. I let my kids pick whatever they want at the library and last week was the first week we reached the max limit for checking out books. 50! I guess when 4 of us are book lovers it was bound to happen.
Here is a list of some recent favorites: (The books in bold are highly recommended.)
I'm Bored by Michael Ian Black. Funny story about a girl who's bored. She runs into a potato who says kids are boring and she tries to tell the potato all the fun things that kids do. The potato is not impressed. Made me laugh, reminded me of all the times my kids claim "I'm Bored!".
The Library by Sarah Stewart. I may have loved this book more than the kids but just because I relate to the girl in the story. A girl loved books and kept buying books until her house was filled with books and she had no more room. So she turned her house into a library to loan out her books to share with everyone.
What the Ladybug Heard by Julia Donaldson. Clever book about a ladybug who overheard some robber's plan to steal the cow on the farm. Ladybug comes up with a plan to throw the robber's off. The book was pleasing to my kids and they liked the cunningness of the plan.
No Such Thing by Jackie French Koller OMG, my favorite book! Such a cute story about a boy who's afraid of monsters under his bed, and a monster who's afraid of a boy on top of his bed. My 6 year old and 3 year old LOVED this book. The ending leaves you hanging which left my 6 year old questioning why the author didn't write what happens next.
Little Cub by Olivier Dunrea. A great book that touches a little on adoption. It's about an old bear who's lonely and has no one to hang out with and teach stuff too. And a young bear who is scared and has no one to teach him how to do things. One day the two run into each other and the old bear takes the young bear in and he's not lonely anymore, the little cub is not scared and the old bear teaches the cub everything he wanted to learn.
The Frazzle Family Finds A Way by Ann Bonwill. Funny book about a family who is forgetful and how they come up with a way to remember things.
Anh's Anger by Gail Silver. My 6 year old still deals with tantrums, by recommendation I picked up this book. It has not helped her with her tantrums, BUT my 3 year old has taken to this story and quotes the book when she gets angry. He speaks of how anger is a monster and you need to calm yourself to get it to go away. I was really impressed how my 3 year old really understood this book.
Timothy and the Strong Pajamas by Viviane Schwarz. My 3 year old is into super heros and super powers, this book was a great read in that the boy in the book had super powers from his pajamas.
A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead. This was such a heartwarming story. This zookeeper took care of the animals day after day. One day he didn't show up because he was sick so all of the animals came to his house to take care of him. Such a great story, loved it!
Cloudette by Tim Lichtenheld. Cute story, this cloud was tiny and found ways to be happy in the world but she really wanted to do something more. One day she gets her chance. I thought it was such a creative story.
Chapter books:
I'm on the search for chapter books that are challenging enough for my 6 year old 1st grader (soon to be 2nd grader), but still easy enough for her to read on her own. She loves to read before going to sleep and will read into the night after we leave her room. The problem with finding challenging books is that the plot gets more complicated or not interesting to her age so I've gone through a lot of different books. Here are some favorites of my daughter's. (Her choices, not mine.)
Princess Posey series by Stephanie Greene
Daisy Dawson series by Steve Voake and Jessica Meserve
Roscoe Riley Rules series by Katherine Applegate and Brian Biggs
Gooney Bird Greene series by Lois Lowry (these books are a little bit harder so we take turns reading it.)
Uh-Oh Cleo books by Jessica Harper and Jon Berkeley. (Just finished book 1 and she seemed to enjoy it.)
We've tried: Cam Jansen series, Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew series which she didn't like.
I have picked up a whole bunch of new books from the library to read this summer so more may be added to this list.
