Loving These Lately: Gems from Our Home Library

Lately I’ve been so busy blogging about baby sign language that I haven’t shared any book recommendations!

children's book recommendations

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I usually share “Gems from our Recent Library Checkouts” in my “Loving These Lately” posts. We’ve been borrowing and reading away, as always, but our most recent library checkouts have been focused on a new blog series I’m working on… a 26 part series! (Ah!) I’m including just one book (the first on the list below) from my upcoming kickoff post;I’ll let you use your inferencing skills to guess the premise of my massive undertaking! 😉 The other books we’ve been coming back to daily, or hourly as the case may be, are from our personal collection:

Surf’s Up by Kwame Alexander. Sometimes I’ll overhear Preschool Bookworm mumbling “Wowie Kazowie!” or “Whoa, daddy-o!” and I know he’s reading Surf’s Up! It’s a celebration of the power of imagination and the draw of a good book; two brothers have different ideas of how to spend the day at the beach– both up for adventure, though one on the pages of a book, and one in the waves. As the bookworm brother shows his range of emotions while reading (gasping, cheering), surfer brother gets drawn in by the power of a good book.

The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney. It is easy to see why this wordless adaptation of Aesop’s fable won a Caldecott Award. The artwork is stunning! I shared quite a while ago that Preschool Bookworm was enjoying this title among other wordless books, but we had set it aside in our book rotation and it just reemerged… with a whole new appreciation by Preschool Bookworm! Formerly he was drawn in by the illustrations of the variety of animals; now he understands the plot and reacts audibly at the exciting moments! This was a favorite of my early elementary students, so it has a wide age range!

Llama Llama Hoppity Hop by Anna Dewdney. We end our bedtime routine with this book every night. One bookworm per parent, they crawl eagerly into our laps and we enjoy some controlled activity as we “hop, jump, thump/thump/thump; touch, tap, clap/clap/clap; stretch, bow, give big hugs now.” It’s a capstone to our days that guarantees laughter and hugs! It’s also included on my recommended list of Books for a Two Minute Attention Span.

Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins. This one is adorable! Cranky Bruce is “a victim of mistaken identity,” unknowingly adopted as mama to four baby goslings he had intended to make into hard-boiled goose eggs drizzled with honey-salmon sauce. Unable to bring himself to eat the little birds, he attempts to rid himself of his new brood, to no avail; his antics are hilarious while providing a nod to the demands of parenthood.