Story Time Monday

Kindergarten. It's a big subject around our house lately and it starts in 3 weeks. I've been trying to check out books at the library every week that will help my 5 year old prepare. He has a lot of questions and these books are really helpful.

When you go to kindergarten, by James Howe is one of my favorites. The pictures are a little dated, and totally take me back, but they are actual pictures, not illustrations, which I think are helpful. It discusses great topics and allows me to have great discussions with my 5 year old about some of the things he is scared of or excited about.

Rosemary Wells writes some great great books about kindergarten. Two of my favorite books by her are My Kindergarten and Ready to Read. The books are fun and offer learning opportunities at the same time. I like that we can pick them up, read a few pages, put them down and then later continue where we left off. I've always checked these books out at that library, but I have really considered buying them for my collection they are so great!

This last book I am on the lookout for. Kindergarten Rocks. I want to find it at the library because it looks like such a fun book.

One last book we really love, and isn't necessary about kindergarten, Hey! I'm Reading, by Betty Miles. It's a fun introduction to sounds, processes and reading. I love it because it teaches but doesn't seem like work. We love to look at it and read parts of it and at the end of the book it has a few pages kids can learn to read all on their own.

Story Time Monday

We've read a lot of different chapter books to the kids at bedtime but one of our favorites are The Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osborne.

The boys love them, they have adventure and mystery but aren't too scary either. I like them for numerous reasons. We can finish one in about 3 nights, it helps the boys work on their listening comprehension skills and they learn about history as well. I have a few of these books on CD that I play in the car, which is also a bonus!

Geronimo Stilton and Junie B. Jones rank pretty high up there around our house too, although I know as soon as they find out about Captain Underpants he will rule!

Story Time Monday

We love a good food book at my house. We love reading about making food, playing with food, building with food.


How Are You Peeling is one of our new favorite food books. It's fun to see the crazy faces, but at the same time learn some new vocabulary for emotions and feelings that have from time to time. Each page is filled with crazy fruits or vegetables. Their faces are made from a simple exacto knife, fruits, vegetables and beans or beet juice for the face. I absolutely love seeing the imagination of this artist!


How can we talk about food books and not talk about Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs? This is one of my childhood favorites and now is one of my boys favorite books as well. We laugh and laugh when the giant pancakes land on the school and love finding the noodle-head man in the pictures. My two year old loves to walk around saying "tomato tornado" after each time we read this book. Sine it typically rains a lot where we live I love to joke with the kids and randomly yell, "WATCH OUT for the noodles(pancakes/broccoli/beans, etc.)" when we run to our car or are outside. They love it. The sequel, Pickles to Pittsburgh, is not one of my favorites, but worth a check out at the library.

Each time we talk about food this book, Take Me Out of the Bathtub, is going to get quoted. The book is full of fun silly songs and one of our favorites is Food Fight. Seriously, one of the lines in the song says, "got carrots in my underwear!" Talk about full of giggles! We love it!

Summertime Book Swap

I am so excited, because between the last year of my husbands med-school crazy schedule and adding a new baby to our family I wasn't able to participate or hold any swaps, but not that we've settled I am ready to roll!

Introducing:

The Summertime Book Swap!

Who: anyone - blogger or non blogger

What: book swap, new, used, magazine, fiction or non, anything goes! I'm going to make things interesting and say there is a price limit of $15, that way if you find something you really love for $14.95 it can go, but no one goes overboard. Find a used bookstore, I can't wait to visit mine again!

When: Sign up now until July 31

How: Email me: wadeanddebbi (at) gmail (dot) com. Include your mailing address and just for fun little bit about your self

August 1st, I will send you an email you the contact information of the person you will send your swap loot too!


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A big THANK YOU to my friend Kristen, who is fantastic and made my blog look cute! I love it, she is so creative! I believe her blog is private, but if you want to leave her a comment, I'm sure she will appreciate it!

Story Time Monday

At our house we love story time - whether it be at the library, bedtime, random times on the couch or on our bellies on the living room floor. Each Monday morning I am going to be posting a special Story Time Monday book that we enjoy. I might post ideas or activities that we have used while reading this book, funny stories about reading it or just a family favorite that we can't get enough of.

I hope you enjoy.

Story Time Monday

I'm Not Cute
Jonathan Allen


Baby owl is convinced that he is not cute and that he is not small. He is a huge and scary hunting machine. How much cuter can a book for little toddlers get?

My two year old and I love to cuddle up and read this book together. We like to pretend that we have huge and silent hunting wings. We like to use our hands and make great big see in the dark eyes. And at the end I like to give him a great big hug and pose the question, is he cute, or not cute? He always replies, "No mama, I'm Noah."

Mr. Darcy's Daughter

Mr. Darcy's Daughter
Rebecca Ann Collins
5 Stars


After a few months I am finally able to sit down and write a review for this book, in fact, over the past few months I've read it twice. I love it. The fifth book in this series, Mr. Darcy's Daughter continues by following Cassandra, Cassy, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth's daughter. I love Cassy and her strong personality. She is headstrong, intelligent and dependable.

In the book Cassy is faced with many challenges and comes out the heroine of the book with charm and class. While her brother Julian is struggling with his own family and work Cassy becomes responsible for many of the tasks of running the Pemberly estate. Later in the book she becomes fully responsible for raising Julian's son to become the heir of the estate. Romance is in bloom with Cassy's daughter when the family is introduced to a new young American. Mystery is also involved in this book and Cassy's son Darcy takes part of solving the crime.

I enjoyed the second half of the book and felt it moved fast. The mystery was a new twist to the series and I thought it added a fun addition to the storyline. My only regret is not rereading the previous four books in the series before reading this book so I could be refreshed with many of the characters and families.

I recommend these books to any Jane Austen or Pride and Prejudice lover. This series is hands down the best Pride and Prejudice sequel I have found.

The Choice

The Choice,
Nicholas Sparks
3 Stars

This was not my favorite Nicholas Sparks book. Usually I grab his books when I don't have a lot of time to read and I just want something light and easy. Sure, this book was quick and easy, and as usual, a bit predicable. I was disappointed with the end. I know with Nicholas Sparks how things will end, there will be a happy and sad part - this book was no exception. I want to know the percentage of people who wake up after being in a comatose state for so long? I have a good friend who's mother never did. I wonder what she would think of this book, I would hope she would never read it. I know a book is just a book and we all love happy endings, this one just bothered me. It's probably just me. I'll still read Nicholas Sparks.

Fablehaven

Fablehaven

Brandon Mull

4 Stars

This series follows Kendra and Seth to their grandfather's estate where they find a magical world full of all sorts of mystical creatures, good and bad.

I've been meaning to get to this series for a while and finally got around to reading it. I think it was a fun series, perfect for younger readers. One of my 10 year old nephews is reading the series right now and he loves it - something I would totally expect after finishing this first book.

While the last 50 pages of the book were really interesting and hard to put down, there were parts of the middle that were a little slow for me and I skimmed a lot more than I usually do.

I have to admit that when I finished the book and read the preview for the second book I couldn't wait to get my copy and start reading. I'm hoping the second book will not let me down.

I don't rank this book above Harry Potter, A Great and Terrible Beauty, or even Twilight, but I do think is was a fun magical book and I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

Each Little Bird That Sings

Each Little Bird That Sings
Deborah Wiles
5 Stars

A dear friend sent me this book when I had my baby a few months ago. She said that she loved this book - along with all other books by Deborah Wiles, and that when I got time she knew I would enjoy it too. I finally got to it and she was so right, I loved it!

Comfort Snowberger is ten years old and her family owns the town funeral home, she attends each and every funeral, so she thinks she knows everything there is to know about death. The story is a pre-teen book (9-12 year olds) and full of ten year old wit and wisdom. I loved it and laughed out loud at parts!

The plot of the story revolves around the funeral of Comforts Great-great-aunt Florentine. Comfort is asked to help with her younger and very annoying cousin Peach all while she is having trouble with her best friend Declaration.

The book takes a turn at the very end and Comfort learns a lesson on what is really important to her, who she is and her family. I believe one of my favorite parts of the entire book is the passage below. In a world like we live in now - this turned into a great message for pre-teens, or any age, to read.

"You did the right thing even when, somewhere deep inside you, you didn't want to. Because you knew, somewhere even deeper, that it was the right thing to do."