Monday reading and a shout-out to Sandra Boynton

I only managed to keep track of nine new books that we read together this week. There might have been more, but sometimes it is challenging to keep track of these things. However, these 9 have brought us to 102 unique books read so far in 2014! What can I say, my girls love books. I wonder where they get that from 🙂

While I was reading Little Pookie and Happy Hippo, Angry Duck with E it got me to thinking about how much we enjoy Sandra Boynton. J wasn’t overly enamored with her books, but they have been a constant source of enjoyment with E. Since we read two this week that we have never read before, I thought it might be a nice time to give Sandra Boynton a little love.

Sandra Boynton does a wonderful job of using great illustration and fun rhymes to talk about a wide variety of topics. Her books are fun for parent and child and are a great addition to any collection. These are our favorites:

Moo Baa, La La La – Little kids are always practicing their animal sounds, but in this book, the three singing pigs try to shake things up a bit. I’ve always had a soft spot for the end of the book when it says “It’s quiet now, what do you say?”

Blue Hat, Green Hat – For months I think that this was E’s favorite book. It is the tale of a silly moose who can’t seem to put his clothes on correctly. When he finally gets them all on, he jumps into a pool fully dressed. A very silly way to learn colors and items of clothing. This is also a really great book for kids to easily memorize and “read” by themselves.

Opposites – A fun take on the classic opposites book. This one differs from the rest of that genre by having such fun illustrations.

But not the Hippopotamus – This is a wonderful rhyming book, but it is also a book about feeling left out. The hippo doesn’t feel like she can join in on any fun because her name doesn’t rhyme with anything. For example, “A hog and a frog do a dance in the bog, but not the hippopotamus.” In the end, they all ask her to “join the lot of us” so she does, “but not the armadillo.”

Happy Hippo, Angry Duck – As the cover says, this is a book about moods and asks the child how they are feeling today. Are you as happy as a hippo, or as angry as a duck. Perhaps you are as worried as a rabbit, or as contented as a frog. It goes through a variety of emotions, often using some big words that my 3 year old has to ask me about, and then explains that if today isn’t such a great day for you, that you have friends who will try to make it better and that moods change day to day. I’m often not a big fan about “feeling” books, but this one handles them in a marvelous way.

Little Pookie –  This is a counting book about motherly love toward a child. The mother pig tells Pookie 10 things that she knows about him. It is just such a sweet book that it makes me smile. Bonus points for item number 11 – “You like reading books. And oh! I do, too!”

Thank you to Anne-Marie at Child Led Chaos for this fun way of keeping track of the books that we read. To check out what others are reading or to add your name to the list, check out her blog.