This book has cute rhymes and a very quick, fun-to-read story. All the best elements! And I just think it's so clever-- it's about an elephant-helicopter who flies around saving animals on the Savannah. What's not to love?
This one is by the same author (actually, he wrote this one before Elecopter, I think), and it's also cute and fun and rhymes well. It gets knocked down a notch because it refers to flatulence, and I hate stuff like that, even if my kids think it's hilarious. (My neighbor once babysat my kids for me and was surprised that they didn't know the f-word. Not the swear word, the other one which I refuse to use (or type). She asked if this was a bad word for Mormons and Craig had to reassure her that no, it's not, I'm just really weird. Yeah, well.) I guess this one probably loses another point because I also hate monkeys. But since this one is a monkey truck, it's somewhat forgivable. Somewhat...
I find this book utterly charming. The story is about a snail who longs to travel, so a kind humpback whale allows her to hitch a ride on his tail and they see the world together. There is one illustration of glaciers is frankly beautiful, but mostly I just like the story. And, of course, I love whales, so that makes it even better, in my mind.
This book is a little longer, and quite frankly it has a pretty creepy premise (a skeleton comes barging into a kid's house, and then is climbing the stairs up to his room!) but I just love the rhythm of it and the ending is great! This is one of those books that's just kind of fun to read out loud! And Colton isn't scared of it, so chances are your kid will enjoy it, too.
No rhymes here, but saying the name Reginald von Hoobie Doobie out loud makes me laugh every time. And the line, "She just didn't care." might be my new motto for everything.
And since this book is by Mo Willems, we may as well admit that we, like everybody else with kids this age, are in love with the...
There are a LOT of these and I haven't found one yet that I didn't like. My favorite is probably Can I Play Too? wherein Elephant and Piggy try to figure out how to include a snake in their game of catch. Something about them politely pointing out that the snake lacks arms is just hilarious to me... And honestly, it feels true to life, too. Haven't we all had those moments where we're trying to talk about something that makes someone else feel "other" to us, but we terrified of offending them by pointing out that we noticed? (And, more and more, any conversation like that seems to be completely taboo, which sort of makes me sad.)
This one picks up with the nursery rhyme, "To market, to market, to buy a fat pig" and continues on as the woman keeps buying more and more animals that take over her house. It's funny and don't worry, the animals don't get eaten at the end, so it won't traumatize your child!
This another short, sweet, & rhyming story. My only complaint is that I sometimes find myself wanting to slip into some sort of Japanese accent, but that ends up sounding super racist. So I don't do that, even though the text really does lend itself to that sort of thing.
Unlike most of the books in this list, this book does NOT rhyme. Instead, it has beautiful illustrations of drips of paint, torn and bent paper, and other "mistakes" being turned into fun and imaginative doodles and such. My kids love pulling the paper apart and seeing what the artist has done, and it really is colorful and fun to look at, too.
This book is a touch longer, but the rhymes are so fun-- my only problem is that I end up trying to read it so fast that I find myself gasping for breath. But I love stanzas like this:
Along comes a squid
Quite a slender squiggly sight
She is squirmy, she is squelchy
She is slightly impolite
How do you not end up saying that at top speed??? There are a bunch of other Pout-Pout Fish books, too, but we've never read any of them, so I don't know if the series kept up its awesomeness or not... I just requested them all from the library, so I'll let you know!
These are by the same author and illustrator and have similar themes and are similarly adorable. In Waking Beauty (my favorite), the prince has just discovered Sleeping Beauty, and the fairies are begging him to wake her up, but he doesn't know how. Rather than kissing her, he tries things like jumping on her bed and dumping water on her. In Falling for Rapunzel, it's Rapunzel who is confused, not ever quite hearing correctly what the prince is asking her to throw down from her tower. Instead of her silky tresses, she throws down silky dresses and a variety of other objects, nailing the poor prince every time until he finally gives up on her. Both books are happily reminiscent of Rocky & Bullwinkle's "Fractured Fairytales," and have perfect rhyming couplets.
So there you go! Go read with your kids! And tell me what your current favorites are!!!
2 comments:
I, too, enjoy the Elephant and Piggy books. But Ryan hates them. He finds the prose difficult and awkward to read, feeling like it doesn't flow well at all. He much prefers when Mal asks him to read Dr. Seuss, which is also well-loved in our house. "What Was I Scared Of?" is a particular favorite, with Ryan and I especially enjoying the line "I said and said and said those words. I said them, but I lied them." Creepy Carrots is a cute story that Mal adores. He just got Rosie Revere, Engineer and loves it, as do I; I think I'll get him the others in the series. The Golden Snail by Graeme Base is excellent. I also enjoy reading him The Dark by Lemony Snicket.
We just got can I play too this weekend and have been reading it over and over. And Lizzie will read it to the kids with all the voices, so that's a win for me. We've had the rapunzel and beauty books since Lizzie was little and they're my go-to books for a quick, lighthearted read. Plus the prince has underwear on his head. We are blessed to live in an age with such fun books for the kids. And matching illustrations.
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