We are hooked on picture books. Exhibit A: friends’ kids know that our house is the one where we read at the table. Exhibit B: when we found a bookshelf on the street and brought it home, we immediately filled all four shelves with library books.
This month I brought home a trio of penguin books: One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo (illustrated by David Small), Penguin by Polly Dunbar (of Flyaway Katie), and perhaps the most (in)famous penguin picture book of all, And Tango Makes Three.
We’re also delving into some more nonfiction with Kevin McCloskey’s “giggle and learn” books for Toon. They’re full of fun facts and great humor; we’ve enjoyed The Real Poop on Pigeons in the past, and now we have Snails Are Just My Speed! and Something’s Fishy.
She loves all of Anna Dewdney’s Llama Llama books, as well as Roly Poly Pangolin and Nelly Gnu and Daddy Too. (Funny note about Roly Poly Pangolin: she checked this out with her dad one day while I was at work, and when she asked me to read it when I got home, I thought she was just pronouncing “penguin” oddly, like Benedict Cumberbatch. Nope! Pangolins are real animals.)
We also like Pout Pout Fish a lot, and Miss Brooks Loves Books (And I Don’t), which has – let’s be fancy – an in-text citation to Shrek (the book, not the movie).
The newest books from Brendan Wenzel (Hello Hello) and Mo Willems (A Busy Creature’s Day Eating) have also been hits – the latter made my mom laugh out loud twice the first time she read it, which is no small thing.
My former co-worker suggested Neither by Airlie Anderson, which we all like. In the Land of This and That, a creature hatches which is neither this nor that. Excluded, it leaves for “elsewhere” and finds the Land of All.
Lastly, as the bedtime routine sometimes drags a little later than the grown-ups would like (first she doesn’t want to get in the bath…then she doesn’t want to get out of the bath…then she wants one more story…), we’ve been reading poems from Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends. The perfect length for a “one more” compromise, or for resetting a grumpy mood any time of the day. I like the one about the early bird and the worm; she likes “Pancakes.” Llama Llama Red Pajama and Sleep Like a Tiger by Mary Logue (illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski) are also bedtime favorites.
Previously: What we’ve read so far, two and a half
It's Okay, I Have A Book 