What We're Reading

I'm super excited to tell you about something new (new to us) that we're reading! When we select books at the library, they're mostly picture books. Some are longer than others. But because Will is learning to sound out basic words, we often choose "early reader" books, which are super short and simple. So this new book is a nice change of pace for both of us because it's a little more advanced reading. I'd heard about this series via other blogs online and my sister later informed me that she reads this series aloud to her 2nd graders. Kids love it!
It's the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne and we started with book #1: Dinosaurs Before Dark.
Wow! Our first chapter book! There are 10 chapters in each book and about 5 or so pages per chapter. This a great introduction to: chapters, table of contents, page numbers, etc. I decided to just go with the flow and gauge Will's interest. Maybe we'd read one chapter at a time... maybe 2... maybe just a couple pages. Thankfully, the topic is on dinosaurs... something he's been very interested in lately. Sorry for the blurry photo, but here's a sample page with an illustration:

... although many of the pages look like this:

Will just sat very quietly as I read. He didn't ask a million questions like he sometimes does with picture books. He didn't try to turn the pages too soon in hopes of getting to an illustrated page. When there were no pictures, he would just watch my face as I read and I would do my best to be as animated as possible. In short, he LOVED IT! And I am so excited to continue on with the series.

When I first started writing this post, we were halfway through the book, reading two to three chapters at a time. Will would have gladly sat and listened to the whole thing in one day, but I tried to spread it out. We finished in four days.

The story is about two little kids - brother and sister - named Jack and Annie. They stumble upon a magic tree house that is filled with books. After browsing through them briefly, Jack made a wish to visit the time of the dinosaurs, and suddenly the wind picked up and the tree house starts spinning. It lands safely in the oak tree, but a different oak tree... and Jack and Annie find themselves having traveled back in times to the land of dinosaurs. Will already knew many of the names of the dinosaurs, but it was interesting to learn new vocabulary words such as Pteranodon and Cretaceous (as in the geological period). Or to learn that triceratops were plant-eating dinosaurs and that all dinosaurs hatched from eggs, which were carefully protected by the mothers.

The next book in the series is called The Knight at Dawn. I wonder if his interest will be as great in a book about medieval times?...

Before moving on to other books in our most recent reading list, here is a book that I borrowed for myself: The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule. It just has lots of great ideas on how to live a more creative family life, inexpensively. Amanda is also the author of a fabulous blog, which you can find the link to if borrow this book. (P.S. - she's also searchable.)

Moving on to a new author spotlight: Maryann Cocca-Leffler. We ordered her book "Let It Fall" from Will's Scholastic order in September and then did a search on lots of her other cute titles. (I can't wait till Sophie's a little bigger to borrow "Princess K.I.M. and the Lie That Grew" - looks like a funny one, but wouldn't interest Will.)

Here is the rest of our book list:
1) Bravery Soup by Maryann Cocca-Leffler is about a raccoon who is afraid of everything, but learns that he is braver than he thinks after his venture into the scary unknown to retrieve the secret ingredient for bravery soup.

2) Jack's Talent also by Maryann Cocca-Leffler. All the other students in Jack's class are introducing themselves to the teacher by telling her what their special talent is. Poor Jack feels he doesn't have any special talent to share, until the teacher points one out to him that he'd never considered. Very cute.

3) The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall. A book about how the apple tree grows and changes through the seasons to produce the wonderful fruit that we use to make apple pie. Did you know that apples are first a flower blossom on the tree before they grow into apples?

4) Picking Apples by Margaret McNamara. We borrowed this book shortly after our trip to the apple orchard, but I'm really not a huge fan of this one. Michael seems like a big grouch to me and it's just not very interesting.

5) It's N! by Oona Gaarder-Juntti. Another letter book that was on display at the library. We borrowed this one because we enjoyed "It's W!" so much. They're a great resource for explaining letter sounds and how they may appear at the beginning, middle or end of a word. I really like these.

6) In a Pickle by Richard Scarry. This was in the brand new books section. I'm not the biggest fan of the Busytown books, but we own one and both Will and Sophie love it. So I thought we'd borrow another. It wasn't all that highly requested.

7) Dora's Perfect Pumpkin. An easy, ready-to-read book.

8) Thomas & Friends Railway Adventures - 5 Early Readers. Another one from the brand new shelf. Will had a few favorites in this book - there were five stories -that he requested a lot.

9) 3,2,1 Go! by Sarah Schuette is a ridiculously simple book that Will picked out himself. It is a counting book, but it's too basic for him. He just likes the vehicle pictures.

10) I'm a T.Rex! by Dennis Shealy and Brian Biggs. Did I mention he's into dinosaurs lately? :)

Okay, it took me so long to post this that we've already returned all these and have a new set to read. Sophie came with us on our latest trip to the library. Stay tuned for a couple pictures of her visit in the next reading post.