Chrysanthemum By: Kevin Henkes

When this little mouse was born she was named Chrysanthemum by her parents because it was absolutely perfect just like her.  As she grew she learned a lot and loved her name...until she started school that is.  All the other mice had common names and they giggled at hers.  They teased it was too long, and she was named after a flower! Chrysanthemum wilted and when she got home her parents comforted her and assured her that it was still a beautiful name and made her feel better time after time.

But it became hard for her to go to school until one day when the music teacher Mrs. Twinkle arrived. Everyone admired Mrs. Twinkle and she told the class she was named after the flower Delphinium and when she had her new baby she was considering the name Chrysanthemum. Chrysanthemum couldn't have been more happy and all of the sudden all the girls wanted flower names too.  "Chrysanthemum did not think her name was absolutely perfect. She knew it!"  The Epilogue to the book is so funny the girl that always picks on Chrysanthemum forgets her lines in the play and Chrysanthemum gets a good giggle out of it and Mrs. Twinkle has a baby that she names Chrysanthemum.

This book will give parents an opportunity to talk with your kids about the importance of knowing who you are and sticking to what you know is right in your heart.  All kids at one point will be picked on but it shows how one persons courage to stick up for someone who needs it can make a very big difference.  It doesn't have to be a teacher it can be a courageous friend who stands up for you but what is important is to teach our children the power that lies within.  It also is a great chance to talk with kids to show them that all children are different in someway but all parents think that our little ones are "absolutely perfect!"

Growing Vegetable Soup By: Lois Ehlert

Growing Vegetable Soup is a wonderful and informative book about what it takes and looks like to grow a garden.  We like to borrow the "BIG BOOKS" version aka the super sized version of the book.  My girls like to compare what we grow to what they see in the book.  All the tools used in the garden are shown and labeled as well as the variances in shapes and sizes of the different vegetable seeds. As the book progresses the pages show you how a plant really looks like as it grows, blossoms, and produces something yummy to eat.  The simple text makes it an easy read and each page gives you plenty to talk about.  Eventually the harvest takes place and the soup is made. "At last it's time to eat it all up! It was the best soup ever...and we can grow it again next year."

What a great book!  I love how it opens up the discussion on the importance of gardening and how much work it takes to get healthy food to the table.  So if you have a garden or want the little ones to learn more about where their food comes from this is the perfect book!  We are a family who loves our veggies; Isabela's favorite vegetable is onions and Emma's favorite vegetable is cherry tomatoes!

Sleepy Little Yoga By: Rebecca Whitford By: Martina Selway

Sleepy Little Yoga is a great way to introduce your little ones to the discipline of Yoga.  My girls love to read this book before bed at night.  We get out our mats and start our poses.  The book keeps it simple for kids and has them mimic animals with their poses.  They definitely relate to it and they think it is so much fun.  This book is a perfect way to get the kiddos ready for bed and have a little fun doing it!  It is wonderful to incorporate a healthy habit for their little bodies before bed.  Don't forget grownups to get down and do it with them while you are reading them this book!
Happy bedtime Yoga reading!

First Tomato A Voyage To The Bunny Planet By: Rosemary Wells

A little bunny name Claire is having a bad day where nothing seems to go right.  But while waiting for her bus in the snowy cold she closes her eyes and "Far beyond the moon and stars, Twenty light-years south of Mars, Spins the gently Bunny Planet And the Bunny Queen is Janet."  Janet tells Claire to go through a door for the "day that should have been."  Claire is transported to the summer and hears her mother telling her to pick her some beans, peas and a ripe tomato.  She finds a big, red, ripe tomato and "It smells of rain and steamy earth and hot June sun." She gives it to her mother and then watches her mother cook.  "I've made you First Tomato soup because I love you so." 

 As I read this book to my girls it makes me long for those tiny yellow flowers on my lush green tomato plants to produce some wonderful fruit for the taking!  I can picture Emma eating all of our grape tomatoes before anyone even gets one!

We love this book and I love asking the girls what their perfect day would be if they were transported to Bunny Planet.  Emy always says "being in the garden with my momma" (melt my heart) and last time Isy said "us getting to cook together".  My favorite illustration in this book is when Claire is looking at her mother cooking.  You can see the admiration in her eyes and the love for her mother with that one picture.

If you enjoy this tale there are two other bunny planet books from Rosemary Wells worth checking out too!

Alice the Fairy By: David Shannon

 
Meet Alice, she is a temporary fairy not a permanent one because "you have to pass a lot of tests to be a permanent fairy." This is a silly book and girls will flock to it and will fall in love with this precocious character Alice. This tale of a little girl who has "wings" and can fly, has a magic wand, and blanket can do all sorts of fairy like things.  She still needs practice though for things like making her dog float on the ceiling (it seems she hasn't gotten the right magic words down.), and making her clothes float into the closet.  Alice the Fairy has to be careful too because the wicked duchess (her mom) often poisons broccoli "and should never be eaten."


This book is never short on humor and my girls love it!  David Shannon is a great
author and illustrator and seems to know exactly what the kids will love!  My daughter Isabela received this book for Christmas when she was two and memorized it almost immediately.  I remember her quoting the last page of the book "I'll probably be a temporary fairy forever."

"One time my mom made cookies for my dad. So I turned them into mine."

  

Max & Ruby Beach Day! By: Rosemary Wells

Max & Ruby Beach Day is a fun read for anyone headed to the beach with their kiddos! My family and I just got back from our beach vacation, and as we sat in the sand we giggled at remembering this book we read months back. Ruby is always telling her little brother Max exactly what to do but Max somehow always sees the bigger picture that Ruby is missing while she is "leading" them. Pick up this great read and find out what happens as Max and Ruby build their sandcastle and find out how Max ends up saving the day for them! Did I mention that this is a great easy read for first time readers and anyone who enjoys the Max & Ruby Series?! To a simple but delightful read!

Princess Peepers By: Pam Calvert illustrated By: Tuesday Mourning

Princess Peepers is a delightful tale of a princess who loves to wear all different kinds of eye glasses. But when she attends the Royal Academy for Perfect Princesses she is made fun of for wearing glasses. She decides to get rid of all of them and show the other princesses she doesn't need her glasses and then she will be just like them.  Princess Peepers goes on a blurry journey filled with wrong turns, talking to animals thinking they are people, and when she gets dressed for the ball to meet the Prince that night she ends up looking rather silly complete with a boot on her head!  Then while Princess Peepers practices her dance moves she falls out of the castle tower and lands on what she thinks is a horse. It is actually the Prince and he wears glasses too!!! After that she decides she does need her glasses to see and when her and the Prince put on their glasses "It was love at first sight." It then shows all the girls who poked fun at Princess Peepers wearing glasses too. (Which are now in style!)

Since getting this book from the Library my little one Emma hasn't put it down! She loves picking the glasses she would wear and what a great lesson for them to learn. It is okay to be different and sometimes different is cool and stylish!

Hear is to cool shades and reading in style!

Should I Share My Ice Cream? By: Mo Willems

Mo Willems is definitely one of my favorite children's authors!. His great sense of humor embodies all of his work. All of his children's book in my opinion are hilarious and will impress the adults just as much as the kids.

The Piggie and Elephant books are about two best friends. Piggie and Elephant are very different from each other but seem to compliment each other well. In Should I share my ice cream Elephant who has gotten an ice cream cone faces a dilemma: Should he gobble the delicious sweet treat now or share this goody with his very best friend?! Watching Elephant try to decide whether or not to share is so funny and then doesn't the ice cream go and melt before he can come to a conclusion. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" But here comes Piggie with her very own ice cream cone to share with her best friend.  She'll never realize the struggle Elephant has gone through!

This book really shows the emotions that go along with sharing and being selfless. It is a human response to want to keep something for your own. This book is a perfect time to break out the silly and really act out all of Elephants emotions. Do your kids a favor and get this gut buster of a book...if not for them, than for you!

Happy reading!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom By: Bill Martin Jr. And John Archambault Illustrated by: Lois Ehlert

 

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a fun way to get your kids to learn the alphabet! The letters from A-Z are pictured on a full page spread with both the big and little letters. It is a great way to introduce kids who might know their upper case letters to the lower case ones they aren't familiar with. 

 

 The story reads almost like a song and has all the little lower case letters climbing up the coconut tree until the coconut tree can't hold any more and they all fall out!   "Skit skat skoodle doot, Flip flop flee. Everybody running to the coconut tree. Mamas and papas and uncles, and aunts hug their little dears, then dust their pants." That part is my girls favorite!  They love the silliness of it all! All the little letters some bruised and with lost teeth get up and leave but as the full moon comes out "a" gets out of bed and climbs up the tree taunting "Dare double dare, you can't catch me."  

This book now is just as fun to read as it was the first time! This will become a favorite for sure and parents use it as a fun learning tool! Here is to learning while reading and having fun doing it!!

Me Too! By: Mercer Mayer

"Me too" comes out of my youngest daughter's mouth quite often as I am sure it does any younger siblings.  In this little critter book the little sister always spoils the fun by saying "me too" and tagging along when the big brother just wants to do big kid stuff and play with his friends.  We love this book in our house and my oldest daughter Isabela likes to read the pages and Emma likes to shout "Me too!".  We always get a good giggle with this book because it captures how both siblings feel as life happens to them.

"I went hiking with my friends and my little sister said, "Me too!" I had to carry her because she got tired."  How funny and how true!
"When I went fishing she said, "Me too!" Then she caught the biggest fish."
It ends happily though with the little sister sharing her candy cane with her big brother.  Those are the moments as parents we love!

Here is to a fantastic read and to siblings young and old!

Sisters Written & Illustrated by: David McPhail

This book was given to me by a great friend when I was pregnant with my second daughter. I remember I would sit with my big belly heavy on my legs with Isabela barely over a year old herself and read this to her almost everyday before her sister arrived. I had it displayed on a shelf in her soon to be new sisters room and she loved picking it up and rocking on the chair with me as I read it to her. This was one of the first books Isabela memorized and it was a great introduction to what she was in store for for years to come! This book showcases the love between two sisters and the fun they have together and the fun they have at each others expenses. This book is so true when it lists the things they both like and the things that make them different and their unique selves.
The illustrations are darling and I love reading this story with my girls even now because it reminds us all how special they are to each other! "But the way they were most alike was the most special way of all. Because, you see, they loved each other so very much."

Think about this book next time you have a pregnant friend who will have two girls or if you have a girlie twosome you already know, they really will enjoy it!

There's Somthing in My Attic By: Mercer Mayer

From the author of the Little Critter books is a tale of a feisty little girl who hears a nightmare in her attic.  She tells her parents but they say it is probably just mice.  She isn't going to let that stop her from finding out what is behind that noise even if she is a little scared.  With her cowboy hat and boots on and her lasso and flashlight in hand she heads up to the attic to find out what is going on.  To her surprise she finds her toys she thought were lost and a big monsterly looking creature holding her new teddy bear.  He sneaks away and she lassos him and tries to get back the teddy bear but he is too strong for her! The nightmare looks frightened and he desperately holds on to the teddy bear.  She runs to show her parents what she has caught..."But nightmares are very tricky, and sometimes they just slip away."

This book is a great teaching tool for kids who might be afraid of the "noises" they hear at night or the monsters they fear are lurking in their room.  It shows them how being brave makes you the boss of the situation.   It also is a funny book that the kids will get a laugh from!  Imagine chasing down a "nightmare" you captured that is more frightened than you are and having it slip away when you wake up your parents!

Here is to brave bedtime reading!  Enjoy!

The Going To Bed Book By: Sandra Boynton

The Going to Bed Book is a really silly way to send your little sleepy heads to bed!  This board book is loved by my girls.  All the animals on the ship are getting ready for bed and they do a lot of the same rituals my girls do but after they brush their teeth "And when the moon is on the rise, they all go up...to exercise!"  Isy and Emy love that part!
But when the moon is high in the sky they are all in bed being "rocked" to sleep by the sea.  This is a really fun book that can easily become apart of your bedtime ritual.

Here is link to the authors website :
http://www.sandraboynton.com/sboynton/Introduction.html

She really has a lot of great children's books to read and they are never short on silliness!