Some Summer Reading Recommendations

Hello friends!  I hope that you haven't given up on me!  I dearly love this blog, but my free time is scarce these days.  Despite a busy schedule, we haven't slowed down on our visits to the library.  The kids are working away at three summer reading programs.  Three!  That makes for weekly trips to three libraries and lots of story times.  I did make the executive decision that we will have books checked out from only one library at any given time.  I mistakenly returned 8 books from Library A to Library B, and spent days tearing through the house trying to find them before realizing what I'd done.

Last week, we borrowed 40 picture books and 2 chapter books from the library.  One of the children's librarians was following us up the stairs to the second floor.  She gushed with pleasure over our 4 bulging book bags - especially Baby Brother's little bag holding his precious Sesame Street and train stories.  Good habits start young, people.  Little Brother is growing into a stronger reader.  If I have plenty of books at his reading level available, he will curl up to read all on his own.  Big Sister tore through most of the 40 picture books in the first three days.  She's also devouring the stacks of World and Friend magazines her grandmother passed onto her recently.  If only we could keep up on her multiplication skills as easily as we do her reading level!

Here are a few books the kids and I would like to recommend you pick up this summer:

Yoko Learns to Read by Rosemary Wells.

We love us a Yoko story, and I've been a Rosemary Wells fan since I read Hazel's Amazing Mother in grade school.  Little Brother was super excited to find this one, because it was included on his kindergarten reading list.  He loved it.

Zachary Zormer : Shape Transformer by Joanne A. Reisburg



This book was so fun to read with Big Sister.  It was the perfect balance of educational and entertaining.  We read it at bedtime and couldn't wait for morning to come so that we could try making our own amazing shapes.

LMNO Peas by Keith Baker
 

I don't know why it's taken us so long to get to this one.  This was likely Little Brother's favorite of the bunch, and it is definitely one that I will be adding to our home library.  Charming and fun - fantastic illustrations - and it turned out to be a good read along story for Little Brother and a parent.  He and Dad were already well into the book when I came in the room, but it was delightful to listen to them finish the last few pages aloud.

Kimonos by Annelore Parot was a hit with the whole family.  
 

It was such a visually engaging book.  Big Sis picked it out on her own and couldn't wait to share it with me after she's read it through once.  Little brother happened on us and couldn't wait for his turn.  The two of them read it again together before we returned it.

Violet the Pilot by Steve Breen was my personal favorite.
 
It has the sort of illustrations I could pour over all day long, and the story was so satisfying to me.  We picked it up at our local library from the display of superhero stories they set out to promote the summer reading program - it was a delightful surprise.

Baby Brother (who's so close to his third birthday that he hardly qualifies as any sort of baby) whole-heartedly endorses The Monster at the end of this Book by Jon Stone.  


Mom thinks it's because she does a killer Grover impression and really hams it up.  Baby Brother is in stitches by the third page.  Dad has the fancy app version of Another monster at the end of this Book on his iPhone, but we've enjoyed the traditional book form just as much as we have the electronic one.

There are more yet to come, but someone is still awake and may need another bedtime story.  Until later . . .