Read Alouds

Our four year old's favorite read aloud from the library this week has been A Bug, a Bear, and a Boy Go to School.  It's a cute book about the adventures of...you guessed it...a bug, a bear, and a boy.  Only one of the chapters involves school, but M thoroughly enjoyed this level 1 chapter book.  One of the special things about the book for us is that we read this short chapter book in just one sitting.  The words are fairly simple, and M could read many of them herself or anticipate what would be said.  We read this book a couple of times, and I am happy to see that author David McPhail has many books, and at least one other book about Bug, Bear, and the boy.  I'll be looking for more of McPhail's work!  I should also point out that my 2 year old sat for this entire chapter book for one of the readings, too!  That was a first!

We've really been enjoying Mo Willems.  I think it was Reading to Know who first introduced me to Mo Willems.  I thought she might be exaggerating; I didn't think these simple books could be quite so awesome.  Mo Willems and his books are incredible!  The illustrations are simple, but include great expression through body language.  The text is also simple, but hilarious!  Both of my kids laugh out loud every time we read each book, and each book is read many times!   During this library visit we chose two books from the Elephant and Piggie series.  (We've read others before.)
Can I Play Too? is awesome.  Elephant and Piggie are playing a game of when along comes a new friend Snake.  They want to include Snake, but snake has no arms, and they are playing a game of catch!  Humor is abundant in this book, and finally, finally they figure out how to play together!  My son learned a new word from this book.  BONK!  


Today I Will Fly is also a keeper.  Piggie wants to fly, but Elephant knows that pigs can't fly.  Piggie gets some help, and eventually convinces Elephant that he can fly, too.

One more thing about the Elephant and Piggie books.  I love that Elephant wears glasses!  As a child, I began wearing glasses in first grade.  Not many six year old book, television, or movie characters have glasses.  Be prepared to have your kids laugh out loud when you read Mo Willems!  You'll be cracking smiles too!

The last book I'll mention is by Cynthia Rylant.  You may recognize her name as the author of Henry and Mudge books.  She also wrote the Poppleton books, but we haven't read them yet!  She has tons of books, and I look forward to exploring them more.  This week we read Mr. Putter and Tabby Feed the Fish.  It's a sweet book about an older gentleman and his cat.  They get a fish, and this leads to many problems because of Tabby, the cat!  This was a true chapter book, and very enjoyable!


We'll be sharing these with a couple of great link ups!  Check them out!