Thursday, April 30, 2009

Book Basket ~ Rain, Rain and Kids' Choices

For the final week of April, I chose to check out books about rain ~ you know, "April showers bring May flowers" ~ you gotta read about rain in April, right?

So here's a listing of our Rain (and other weather-related) books:
  • Flash, Crash, Rumble and Roll by Franklyn Branley
  • The Storm Book by Charlotte Zolotow: I love this author's way with words...this book tells the story of a rainstorm. This book is quite unique in that there is a 2-page spread of just words (no illustrations) followed by a 2-page spread of of illustrations (with no words). I loved how this encouraged my kids and I to create pictures in our heads while reading, and then to search out what we read about in the illustrations that followed.
  • Rainstorm by Barbara Lehman: this is a wordless book ~ only illustrations are used to tell the story of a little boy who is stuck inside alone on a rainy day. At first my 5-year old was not at all interested in this wordless book. But after "reading" it to her and my 2-year old, I later found her "reading" it to herself, and later to the 2-year old :)
  • Thundercake by Patricia Polacco: We love Patricia Polacco books around here. In this book, Polacco tells the story of how her Babushka (Grandmother) helped calm her fear of thunder and lightening by turning a stormy day into a baking day. (Note: Many of Polacco's books are taken from stories of her own childhood.)
  • Peter Spier's Rain: this is another wordless book about the adventures that a brother and sister have while taking a walk on a rainy day.

We also checked out some books that had nothing to do with our theme:

  • Melvin Might? by Jon Scieszka: part of a new series of books entitled "Jon Scieszka's Trucktown" ~ my 2-year old pulled this one off the shelf as we were heading to check our books out, it had a very colorful cover with a mixer truck flying through the air ~ I guess it was just too irresisitable for my truck-loving little guy! Cute story about a mixer who overcomes his tendency to worry in order to help a friend.
  • Emma Kate by Patricia Polacco: A cute story about a girl and her (very large) imaginary friend.
  • Appelemando's Dreams by Patricia Polacco
  • Fancy Nancy's Favorite Fancy Words by Jane O'Connor: Fancy Nancy is one of my 5yo daughter's favorite characters right now.
  • Fancy Nancy at the Museum by Jane O'Connor: Another of my 5yo dd's picks. I do like how this author introduces us to lots of "fancy" words in her stories ~ it makes our everyday conversation a bit more interesting :)
The following books are in my 7yo's "to read" pile:

We went by the library's drive-through window last night and picked up a new batch of books for next week ~ we're looking forward to reading about gardens. Plus, I got a couple of books that I've seen reviewed on some other book basket posts :)

To see what others are reading ~ check out The Happy Housewife's new book basket series!

5 comments:

Amanda said...

I did not know there was a Fancy Nancy at the museum. We will have to look for that. And we are doing wild ponies/horses this week. I need to find The Boxcar Children: The Mystery of the Wild Ponies

Anonymous said...

I had never heard of Fancy Nancy and I love your "theme" idea! So I guess in May we'll have to read about Flowers! and Mothers!

Amy said...

I didn't know about Fancy Nancy! We'll have to get one of those next week.

And we SHOULD have been reading about rain this week... we've gotten a LOT of it!!!

Sherry @ Lamp Unto My Feet said...

My son absolutely loves Encyclopedia Brown! He is getting a little old for them, but still loves them the same

The Happy Housewife said...

You convinced me, I am checking out The Storm Book. I'll let you know when we read it!
Toni
http://thehappyhousewife.com

 

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