Thunder Boomer! By: Shutta Crum Illustrated by: Carol Thompson

I was looking for a book to write about today and came across this one and thought it was perfect for this time of year.  It seems any day around here in the summer a storm can creep up and my girls will scour the skies and tell me of the ominous looking clouds and their beliefs of the threats of an approaching storm.  Some of those clouds disappear as quickly as they came and others produce a thunder boomer capable of cooling everything off with its hard rains and winds. 

This book gave me a way to explain the awful and scary thunderstorms my oldest daughter was so afraid of and still sometimes is.  This books gives some of the best descriptions of a hot day and of a storm and uses great adjectives.  You can have a lot of fun doing the sounds of the thunder and lightning and it gives me a chance to talk to the girls about how they feel when the storm comes. I explain why the storms can bare gifts for our garden like the rain but that it can also be dangerous and what we can do to protect ourselves from a bad storm.

The book Thunder Boomer has some cute humor that runs through out it as well.  We get a laugh out of the girls dads underwear being blown by the winds and the dog chasing them and of the gift you find out about that the hen is trying to protect.

For me I love a good storm as long as everyone is safe.  I am always in awe of the clouds and the lighting.  I remember as a little girl going out to my living room and looking out our bay window to see the lighting flashes because to me it made it look like day time for a split second.

Check out this great book the next time you feel a thunder boomer approaching it really is a sweet book!

Eating the Alphabet Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z By: Lois Ehlert

Eating the Alphabet is an awesome book filled with familiar and exotic fruits and vegetables. Not only do you get to introduce your children to different things to eat and try for the first time but you also get to teach the alphabet. This book includes the upper and lower case of each letter. The book is saturated with such vivid pictures with beautiful colors.

You can have a lot of fun with this book.  Have your kids pick a fruit/vegetable to try each week or test their knowledge of the foods they might be familiar with and of course teach them their letters!  We like to get this book from the "big book" section of the library and lie on the floor and explore this great book.  I love the section in the back of the book that describes every food item to give you more information if you are unfamiliar with something.  There is also a page with the tiny illustrated version of the foods and my girls love picking one and then trying to name what it is or go hunting to find where the bigger match it so they can name it for us!











Have fun reading to your children and to a book that encourages healthy eating and learning something new!

Petunia By: Roger Duvoisin

I came across this book in the library while scouring the shelves and shelves of books. I saw the cover and saw how many other books there were about Petunia and decided to give the goose book a try.  Well I am glad I did!  Kids will love this silly goose and her barnyard friends and want to read all of her adventures on Mr. Pumpkins farm. 

In this book Petunia finds a book. She recalls seeing Mr. Pumpkins son reading a book and says to herself "He who owns Books and loves them is wise" "if I take this Book with me, and love it, I will be wise too. And no one will call me a silly goose ever again."
This made Petunia proud and the more proud she became the longer her neck grew.  She kept the book with her at all times and when the other barnyard animals saw this they started to believe she was wise and started to ask her for advice and opinions on everything!  Needless to say that carrying this book doesn't make her wise and her advice to the other animals will have you laughing out loud!  Her last bit of advice comes when all the farm animals find a box in the meadow and they ask her to read what it says.  "CANDIES" she tells them and as they tear open the box eager to eat the treat the firecrackers explode leaving everyone including Petunia injured!  Petunia, injured and her pride hurt realizes that she was not any wiser.  Her neck shrunk back to its regular size and when she saw the book again she finally understood "It was not enough to carry wisdom under my wing. I must put it in my mind and in my heart. And to do that I must learn to read."









This book is delightful and being published in 1950 you almost feel transported to a simpler time.  If you enjoy this book Roger Duvoisin has many other delightful animal tales to get hooked on!  My girls get a kick out of seeing how high Petunia's neck grows "look mom it is SO long it is off the page!"  Not to mention what a great lesson this serves to children on the importance of learning to read and the knowledge you will be rewarded with afterwards! 

Olivia By: Ian Falconer

Olivia is precocious and high energy little pig.  "She is very good at wearing people out"  She has a little brother Ian who like any little sibling annoys her!  She reminds me a lot of my youngest daughter Emma.  She has to try on everything in her closet and loves being fancy, imagines herself being a ballerina, gets into trouble when she is supposed to be napping, and wears her mother out!  Olivia has a great imagination and her and her mother love each other very much!  The books illustrations are wonderful and include paintings from famous artists!  Girls will easily relate to this feisty character and the family dynamics.  There are many Olivia books if you enjoy this one and Olivia even stars in her own TV series on Nick Jr.

 Olivia even has her own website: http://www.oliviathepiglet.com/

Happy precocious piglet reading!

Bink & Gollie By: Katie DiCamillo and Alison McGhee Illustrated by: Tony Fucile

Bink & Gollie is a wonderful book that includes three chapters of the two friends adventures. 

In the first chapter: Don't You Need  a New Pair of Socks? you start to see how the two friends interact.  Bink is the little one with the blond spiky hair who gets a pair of socks at the bargain bonanza.  They are bright and multicolored long socks and Bink loves them.  Gollie does not. She is almost blinded by their brightness. Bink gets hungry and asks Gollie to make her pancakes but Gollie won't make them unless Bink removes her socks.  They come to a standstill and Bink leaves Gollies tree house and goes to make a peanut butter sandwich. The banter between the two friends is hilarious and eventually they come to a comprise. (One sock for Bink and Gollie brings her half the pancakes)

In the second Chapter P.S. I'll Be Back Soon Gollie wants to go on an adventure and after spinning the globe she decides she will trek up the Andes Mountains. Bink reads the note left on the Gollies door not to disturb her but Bink can't help but knocking anyway.  After several failed attempts to get Gollie to come out Gollie finally reaches the summit and Bink is ready with peanut butter sandwiches. 

Gollie using the absurdly bright sock as a windsock

Chapter Three Give a Fish a Home is in my opinion the most funny of the stories.  Bink gets a fish from "Mr. Fisherman" a man who talks about fish like he is talking about English Royalty.  Bink is so excited but Gollie thinks the fish is unremarkable and is very put off by it. (jealousy will do that) Gollie invites Bink for pancakes only to be annoyed she has to bring "Fred" the fish with.  Fred comes with to the movies and goes along when they roller skate.  Bink ends up falling while rollerskating and Fred's bowl goes flying!  Gollie saves the day and the fish by thinking fast and throwing him into a pond.  Bink is upset at first but then sees Gollie just needs acknowledgement that she is "the most marvelous companion of all."

Six Months Later (The sock now is a scarf)

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!