MommaReads

This story is a fun twist on Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Aloo-ki loses her dog sled team on an ice floe and as she is trying to search for them she stumbles across the biggest igloo she has ever seen. It happens to be the igloo of three polars bears who just left to give their breakfast time to cool. The illustrations on the side give the child insight as to what is happening in other parts of the story and also helps the child make predictions…a great reading strategy that every child needs in their “reading toolbox.”

We are taking a one day break from Jan Brett because so many of our friends across the country are having a snow day today. This seemed like the perfect book. Bear is headed up the mountain. Badger asks him why he is going up the mountain and he just replies “Because it’s the perfect day for it.” All of Bear’s friends think they know why he is going up the mountain. To get some honeycomb? To snowball someone? Looking for treasure? Your children will have a blast trying to figure out what bear is going to do once he gets to the top. (Hint: The cover of the book kind of gives it away.) 🙂

As our children become more familiar with the world, they are able to make connections in books to the things they know around them. This is a great book for practicing those connections because even though this story takes place in Africa and its star characters are three dassies and an eagle, it won’t take your child long to figure out that this story sounds a lot like another story they know that has three little pigs and a big bad wolf.

Berlioz and his friends are due to play their instruments in the village square for a ball, but his bass has a weird buzzing sound in it and then their wagon gets stuck in a hole and the mule who is pulling it won’t budge. Various animals stop and try to help, but no one seems to be able to get that mule to go. Berlioz and his friends get their instruments ready so that once they get to the square (if they ever do) they will be ready. As Berlioz is tuning his instrument, out comes a bee (which was where all that buzzing was coming from), which stings the mule on his backside and off they go to the village square where they arrive just in time.

Mei Mei has six of the happiest hens in China. She takes great care with them and sells their eggs at the market. One of the hens, Diasy, is not very happy though because the other hens are picking on her. Daisy has quite an adventure when she finally gets tired of the other hens and ends up getting swept down the river. In order to survive her adventure she has to learn how to stick up for herself which helps when she finally ends up back home with those other bossy chickens.

This story is told from the perspective of Noah’s grandson who is helping get the animals on board and helping to take care of them while they are on their 40 day voyage. The illustrations on the sides show the outlines of various animals that are on the ark. Your child might have a fun time trying to guess what each of the animals are while you are reading the story.

A little break from our winter/Christmas-themed books….I found out about this book from a friend of a friend. She was raving about it so I had to check it out. This is a super cute board book that is perfect for the three and under set. It rhymes and it has animals…what’s not to like? 🙂 The little girl in the story talks about all of the animals she plays with…she and the rhino have tea, she plays in the dirt with the pig, she and the ape sing along to a tape to stay in shape, she and the giraffe blow bubbles in the bath, etc. This would be a great book to include with a baby shower gift.

This is a great Christmas book for the preschool and under set. It’s simple, it rhymes and it explains the Christmas story in a very basic way. The book introduces children to the donkey, the ram, the ox, the shepherds, the wise men, Mary, and baby Jesus. The illustrations in this book are fantastic as well. This is a perfect first Christmas book.

Mrs. Wishy-Washy decides it’s time to wash the animals, but the animals have other ideas…it’s too cold to take a bath. When they protest she decides to go to town, but tells them they need to wash themselves while she’s gone or there will be no presents for them this year. So the animals get the brilliant idea to take a bath in Mrs. Wishy-Washy’s nice warm house. Mrs. Wishy-Washy returns from town and sees the absolute mess they have made, but it’s that time of year, so she forgives them and they all enjoy opening up presents and eating cookies together in Mrs. Wishy-Washy’s warm living room.

I LOVE this book! It is SO sweet! Amos McGee works at the zoo. He is never late and he has a routine with the animals that he never misses. He plays chess with the elephant, he runs races with the tortoise, he reads books with owl and so on. When, one day, he doesn’t show up, the animals aren’t quite sure what to do with themselves, so they hop on the city bus and go to visit Amos who is sick in bed. The animals take care of him and reciprocate all of the niceness that he shows to them each day. This book will leave you smiling, or at least it did me.