Book Basket

This week I reserved books about gardens for our book basket. I'm a theme gal, remember? And since "April showers bring May flowers" I thought that the first week of May was an excellent time to read about gardens ~ flower gardens, vegie gardens...

Up first are some of our favorite garden reads:

Princess Chamomile's Garden by Hiawyn Oram: cute story about a princess who draws up plans for her own garden ~ and then sets to work to create this special garden, with the help of some friends.

In My Garden: A Counting Book by Ward Schumaker: picture book that's perfect for preschoolers ~ counts things in the garden from one to ten, then by tens to fifty ~ and ends with a surprising number.

Zinnia's Flower Garden by Monica Wellington: charming little picture book about all of the things that Zinnia has to do to prepare, plant, and harvest her flower garden. Great non-fiction choice, simple enough for preschoolers, yet lots of info included so that even my 7yo learned some new things.

Whose Garden is it? by Mary Ann Hoberman: everyone insists that the garden is theirs ~ from the gardener who plants it, to the rabbit who dines off of it, to the bumble bee that pollinates it, to the rain who nourishes it...and the list goes on. I liked how this story weaves a lot of information about all of the different things that are involved in the life of a garden.

In the Garden: Who's Been Here? by Lindsay Barrett George ~ we borrowed this one from the library a couple of years ago, and we loved it so much that I purchased it (for a bargain price, of course!)...My kids absolutely loved this book ~ in this book, a brother and sister use clues left by visitors to their garden to determine who's been here. This book is a great read-aloud to add to any science or nature study of gardens. There are also other similar books by this author that we own & enjoy: At the Pond: Who's Been Here?, In the Snow: Who's Been Here?, In the Woods: Who's Been Here?.

This was actually just a partial listing of all of the garden books that we are reading, next week I'll share some more finds...

Fun Reads:

Jamberry by Bruce Degen: This was a book that I saw in a number of other book basket posts. All three of my kiddos (7,5,2) loved this book. Great illustrations and wonderful rhyming words.

Smash! Crash! (Trucktown Series) by Jon Scieszka: We really enjoyed the first book that we read from this Trucktown Series...however, this one disappointed me. It was about two trucks that like to "Smash Crash" ~ translation, they like to make big messes. The book begins with the two trucks smashing and crashing a construction zone, they pretty much make a huge mess of the cones and other materials and then run away. They then proceed to "smash crash" other places, sometimes creating a big mess, and other times creating something fun for someone else. Throughout the whole book there was a loud voice calling for them, and I guess they figured that the person (or maybe truck) that the voice was coming from would scold them for all of their smashing and crashing (this was my thought) ~ but when the truck with the voice finally caught up with them they were actually rewarded...nothing was ever said about their bad behavior...not really a lesson I want my kids learning. The illustrations in this book are very appealing to my 2yo, but I'm not sure we'll be reading any more books from this series.

Commander Toad and the Intergalactic Spy by Jane Yolen: This is a chapter book series that follows Commander Toad and his crew aboard the Star Warts spaceship. This book made me laugh out loud ~ I kid you not! I read it one night before bed, and I honestly laughed out loud a number of times...First published in 1986, this book would be a great read for a child who's ready for chapter books. I finished it in about 20 minutes, my 7yo read it in about 30 minutes. The characters are silly and funny; and the story line keeps your attention (and my attention :)). BTW, the illustrator for the book is Bruce Degen, the author of Jamberry, mentioned above.

Commander Toad in Space by Jane Yolen: another great book in the Commander Toad series ~ I believe this may actually be the first book in the series. I will definitely be reserving more of these books for my ds7.

I've found so many ideas for books to add to my library reserve list from this book basket series. Be sure to head over to The Happy Housewife to read about all of the interesting books that others are reading!

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:

• Encyclopedia Brown Tracks Them Down
  
• Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Disgusting Sneakers
  
• Encyclopedia Solves Them All
  
• The Boxcar Children: The Mystery of the Wild Ponies
  

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!

Book Basket ~ Birds

I'm definitely a theme gal when it comes to checking books out of the library ~ and this month our theme has been birds with a bit of springtime thrown in...



This list does not include all of the books that we checked out this past month, it only includes the books that I will keep on my list as worthy of checking out again :)

• Robin's Home
  
• The Restless Robin ~ we loved this book, see my review post
  
• My Spring Robin ~ the simplicity of Anne Rockwell's books are great for my preschoolers
  
• The Little Lost Robin ~ very sweet picture book about friendship
  
• Daisy Comes Home ~ we always enjoy reading books by Jan Brett
  
• How Mama Brought the Spring

Check out The Happy Housewife's Book Basket series for more book recommendations.

The Restless Robin

Our nature study topic for this month is birds. Everytime we begin to study a new topic, one of the first things I do is load up our shelves with books about that topic. First I go through our own bookshelves and pull out all of the books that we own about our topic ~ I like to include fiction and non-fiction, picture books and chapter books.

Once I scour our shelves, I go onto our library's online catalog and do a basic search for children's books about our topic. I quickly glance over the book descriptions and choose about 15-20 to reserve. These get added to our library book basket and I read them to the kids throughout the month.

Yesterday my daughter's read-aloud choice was The Restless Robin by Marjorie Flack. This book was originally published in 1937 ~ and it's definitely a keeper.

It begins with Mr. Cock Robin leaving his winter home in the State of Georgia to head north for the spring. Mr. Robin travels through South Carolina, North Carolina, Washington D.C., Maryland, and on until he finally reaches his intended destination in the State of New Hampshire. We are able to follow Mr. Robin's travels on a map included in the illustrations ~ my kids especially loved it when Mr. Robin passed through our home state of Maryland :)

Once he reaches his destination, he considers many different trees before deciding where to settle down. After choosing his home, he waits for Mrs. Robin to return ~ and once she does they build their nest. Mrs. Robin soon has a nest full of eggs and the story continues as their babies hatch and grow. I really appreciate how the author weaves a charming little story while sharing many facts about birds and their habits.

Our favorite part of the book is at the end when the little boy robin "Buffy" (who cannot fly yet), is stuck in a lilac bush awaiting rescue - he is "peep peeping" very loudly, calling for help, when other birds respond to his cries with their own unique bird calls: an Oriole and then a Chickadee begin to chatter, followed by a Thrasher, a Peabody bird, a Black-throated Green Warbler, a Bluebird, a Song Sparrow, a Flicker and finally a Meadowlark. They all sing their songs to the scared little robin ~ and the best part is that the words and the music of each of their songs is included in the illustrations (now if only I could read music :0)

This book has been a wonderful addition to our bird study and one that I definitely would love to add to our home library. However, it might take a bit of searching to find a copy because it appears that it is out of print :(