Even More.... Picture Books

Because.... I'm caught up (ish) on current books to review until I read something else.... and I don't feel like digging through the backlog of books I never reviewed.

So yeah.

Picture books.

Cockatoo, Too by Bethanie Deeney Murguia
Cute illustrations with minimal text.
Don't let the lack of variation in the text fool you into thinking it's easy to read aloud, though.... 'cause not so much, lol.

Won Ton
Won Ton and Chopstick
by Lee Wardlaw
Both told in haiku, the first tells the story of a cat being chosen at the shelter and taken home-- all from the cat's point of view.
The second is also told by the cat but involves a new pet, a puppy, joining the family.
These are so so fun and if you haven't tried them you really need to.

Even Monsters Need to Sleep
by Lisa Wheeler
Very similar to MeiMei's beloved Sleep Black Bear Sleep, but maybe not quite as well executed?  I don't know... I have mixed feelings there.  But the illustrations are Chris Van Dusen, which is always a good thing.  And overall they're really cute.

Life on Mars
by Jon Agee
This is a major LuLu favrorite at the moment.  And it really is fun.
The text maybe isn't amazing, but the real story is happening in the pictures, so don't let the text fool you.  Also don't skip the last page (there's not more text, but again, it's about the pictures).

LuLu's Current Fravorites

I did not spell it wrong, that's how she says it.

How to Eat an Airplane by Peter Pearson
This one is getting a fair amount of bedtime story action lately.  It's hilarious.  If you've got kids who are fans of the ridiculous, you must try this one.

Samson The Piranha Who Went to Dinner by Tadgh Bentley
Speaking of ridiculous-- this one's great.  I won't spoil the twist, but look carefully at the illustrations on the final page.

Plant the Tiny Seed by Christie Matheson
I think I've already reviewed this one, but I'm doing LuLu's fravorites and this one definitely qualifies!  She LOVES the interactive style and pretty much has the text memorized.

Good Night, Good Night by Carin Berger
Pretty sure I've already talked about this one too (it's a Pixie favorite) but it's been picked so much by LuLu lately it had to be on the list.  Shockingly, I'm not actually tired of it yet,

And finally, drumroll please.....

Announcing what is (based on giggle-o-meter) LuLu's current FRAVORITE:

The Princess and the Frogs by Veronica Bartles
illustrated by Sara Palacios
Oh my gosh, you guys.  If you haven't read this one YOU MUST and I do mean MUST go find it and read it.  What a hilarious take on the princess and the frog.  So cute.
(My only whine, because I'm OCD and once I saw this I couldn't unsee it, you know? Her "favorite green dress" seems to change.  Doesn't look the same towards the end as at the beginning.  Nit picky, yes.  Bugging me, also yes.)

So if you have a 4-ish (or any age really) you simply must try these!  They are LuLu approved.

New Favorites

Good Night! Good Night!
by Carin Berger

Oh my gosh.  The cuteness.

I love the illustrations and I find the text not only amusing, but fun to read aloud.

(And let me tell you, as a mom who loves books and reading but doesn't always actually love to read aloud.... fun to read aloud is a big deal.)

This is Pixie's FAVORITE right now.  Hands down.  She asks for it at bedtime EVERY SINGLE NIGHT.  I think the older kids are getting tired of it, lol.

But Pixie is devoted.  In fact, though she has long been a child of few words, she does in fact say "Goodnight Goodnight".

LuLu also enjoys this one, though she's not as obsessed.

Highly recommended.


Plant the Tiny Seed
by Christie Matheson

Companion to Tap the Magic Tree (and apparently Touch the Brightest Star, though I'm not familiar with that one), this is a great interactive picture book.

Both Pixie and LuLu enjoy the interactive aspect.  Heck, I think MeiMei does too, so this clearly has a wider appeal than some picture books.

We definitely recommend this one.

Wordless.... Monday: Party Edition

Christmas Gift Guide Little Person Edition

And by "Little Person" I mean like this little person:

who, while adorable, might still be inclined to... shall we say "mishandle" real books.

That's right, we're talking about BOARD BOOKS today.

Specifically these ones:

I don't know for sure what it is about these Alphaprints books (we own several) but both my little girls are OBSESSED.

They are totally cute, with textured pictures made from fingerprints and random everyday items.  Mostly these books are of the simple ABC, Colors, 123, etc variety, though I see on Amazon that they also have a Ho, Ho, Ho and a Gobble Gobble version, which possibly bears investigation.

Anyway, the only places I've seen these are Amazon and Costco, but they are a great choice for toddlers (and even preschoolers if my turning-four-year-old is any indication).

The Storybook Knight by Helen and Thomas Docherty

5 stars
received for review

From the same folks that did The Snatchabook (if you haven't read that one, go do it), this is a sweet story about a knight who just doesn't see why knights have to fight.  He'd rather sit and read thank you very much.

Another instant favorite around here.  LuLu especially loves it.

An awesome choice for holiday shopping!

Here's some more info:

Storybook Knight landing page: http://books.sourcebooks.com/the-storybook-knight-join/ 
Join Leo’s Storybook Knights, pledge your allegiance and receive a certificate of membership, and download and share Twitter, Facebook and blog images.

Download an educator or activity kit: http://books.sourcebooks.com/the-storybook-knight/

Rafflecopter: Enter for a chance to win an original sketch of Leo and Ned by illustrator Thomas Docherty!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Max at Night by Ed Vere

5 stars

received for review

Oh Max.  We love Max.  You remember him from Max the Brave, right?  If you didn't check that one out you'd better go do that.  Now.  I'll wait.  ;)

Now Max is back and it's bedtime, but Max can't find Moon to say goodnight.

Cute cute book.  LuLu is in LOVE.  This one was an instant favorite.

Keep Max (both books) on your radar for your holiday shopping this year!

More info below:

Max at Night landing page: http://books.sourcebooks.com/maxatnight/

Download the activity kit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx4ZhGcf82dneVdyYlBJUzdNMUk/view?pref=2&pli=1

Rafflecopter: Enter for a chance to win an original sketch by author and illustrator Ed Vere and a copy of Max at Night!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Bathtime For Chickies by Janee Trasler

5 stars
received for review

(This is a LuLu approved review)

Oh my how we still love the chickies!

This was a "read it again?" as soon as we finished.... both times.... and she would probably have continued asking if I hadn't distracted her.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's pretty darn funny, but 3 times in a row is starting to hit my limit with even my favorite board books.

This one is more akin to Bedtime for Chickies, with the other animals (parental animals? guardian animals? whatever you want to call them) insisting in turn that the chickies need a bath.

The illustrations are great and the text is fun.

Highly recommended for the toddler/preschool crowd. :D

May the FOURTH Be with You

Chronicle Books sent us a cool activity kit for our May the 4th party this year!!  How awesome is that?

It had this great poster:

And this fun new book-- each page is like a little comic.  It was a HUGE hit.

It also had stickers, activities to copy, pins... ridiculously cool.

SO-- it needed to be an awesome party.  We put it together and celebrated with Alyson's crew (of Eat, Read, and Be Mommy).

We needed light sabers.... (these were a "hit" [pun so very intended] but they make an insane squeaky sound when they hit each other, so there was actually less fighting than anticipated, lol).

And blasters.... (which were actually pretty much a flop-- didn't work well AT ALL).

(Playing with the blasters)

Here are 6 of the 7 padawans.... LuLu kept wandering off.

(Epic light saber battling)

The activity that was the biggest hit, though, was rescuing the poor soldiers frozen in carbonite.  Each of the padawans had a tray with "carbonite" (baking soda mixed with just enough water to pack it) and a bowl of vinegar....

along with some cool Star Wars ice "cubes"....

and they were off and "saving" the poor plastic army men.  

My kids play with vinegar and baking soda on a regular basis (gotta love cheap entertainment) but this was LuLu's first time.  She'd pour a bit of vinegar and look up at me exclaiming "WOW!"  It was pretty cute.

And of course you can't have a party without food-- here's our tie fighter and ewok snack.

The kids read the book in between activities and overall we all had a blast!! (Ironically, excepting the part with the blasters... wouldn't do that bit again probably....)

HUGE thanks to Chronicle Books!!  

Wordless Wednesday

 

Meet Pixie!

Weighing in at a tiny 6 lbs 14 oz, Pixie ended up being a much more apropos nickname than I realized it would be, lol.

We're doing well and I'm already finding my post-baby reading groove. :)

Just for giggles, here's a quick look at the older monkeys as babies:

I have cookie-cutter children, what can I say.  :)

In other news, school starts in a few days, hooray!  I need to post some more Summer Reading updates for sure... Or a wrap-up at any rate.

Chickies-- Summer Reading Saturday LuLu Edition

Oh my gosh, the love that girl has for these chickie boardbooks!  (We received them for review)

Bedtime for Chickies
by Janee Trasler

"It's bedtime for chickies, it's bedtime for sheep.  It's bedtime for pig and cow, let's all go to..."
*page turn*
"Cheep cheep cheep.  We can't sleep.  We're thirsty."

Everyone in my house has this memorized.  LuLu brings it to someone to read multiple times a day.

While not actually my favorite, it is cute and can be fun to read.
(And the pictures are hilarious.)

Dinnertime Chickies

"We can't eat this, it's too drippy.  We want something chocolate-chippy."
"Just one pint-sized peewee peck? You might like it you should check."
*page turn*
"Mmmmmmm.  Pass the meatballs, pass the peas, pass the macaroni please!"

THIS one is my favorite.  It cracks me up.  And has a good message to boot-- the chickies end up liking everything they try.

Pretty sure everyone has this one memorized too... LuLu's on quite the kick.


There is a third one-- Potty Time Chickies or something, which we also received, but I'm not that into potty training books... and this one was just kind of... weird.  Funny as an adult, but weird thinking about reading it with a child.... and there were a couple of "let's not give the kids any ideas" type moments.

Bottom line-- Bedtime and Dinnertime are highly recommended for the ages 1-4 ish set.  :)

Wordless Wednesday: Just a Bit Late...

Wordless Wednesday, Spaghetti Monster

Happy Pioneer Day!

From my little pioneers....

(Poor Mister, boys didn't wear bonnets... and Mommy isn't talented enough to make anything else.)

(What's Pioneer Day?  In Utah we celebrate the LDS pioneers entering the Salt Lake valley and declaring that "This is the place" on July 24, 1847.)

Summer Reading Saturdays-- Update

Wow, sorry for the radio silence.  June was a CRAZY month. C R A Z Y

But we did read.  Not as much as we'd hoped, maybe, but we did read.

Boo: read about 34 hours in June.  Maybe more, but it's actually harder to keep track when they read all the time.

Mister: read about 20 hours, so he's right on target.

MeiMei: did we say 10 hours?  Can I take it back? lol.  So the whole "read to her" thing... yeah, not so much.  However she has probably "read" a good 3-5 hours, so that counts for something, right?

LuLu: um, yeah.  She just wants to eat the books.

Me: Sigh.  I read quite a bit in June, 13 books.  Not a huge month for me, maybe, but a lot better than I've been doing recently.  Unfortunately, it means I'm still about 20 books behind on my goal for the year.  Oh well.

In other news, Boo and Mister already finished the Barnes and Noble summer reading challenge, and everyone is either mostly or entirely done with the library summer reading program, so that's not too shabby. :)

Meet LuLu

Yes, I know, it's been hard to miss LuLu.

But how can you resist this face?

Well, okay, maybe you can resist that face.  How about this one?

My little almost-6-months-old monkey.

Who's trying to crawl.  Heaven help us.

She loves books too, though.

She has a fabric version of Goodnight Moon that she likes to eat. ;)

But she also likes it when Mister reads it to her.

So that's all of the "little habitues" so to speak.  Book-loving little monkeys.  I guess we're doing something right.

Wordless Wednesday- Happy [belated] Easter

Wordless Wednesday- Little Bunny LuLu

(Darn thing posted early.... oh well.)

One Big Day

My girls on their big day!!  Boo was baptized (learn more about baptism in the LDS church) and LuLu was blessed (kind of like christening?  learn more about baby blessings- scroll down a little in that link) all in one event.

 Boo showing off her special new dress...

LuLu with the doll she got for Christmas... in their matching dresses.

 Aren't these little boots adorable?!?!  If only they'd have fit a bit better... but her feet are sooooo long!

Aren't we all cute?