Some Past Favorite Books

Some of these are REALLY old.  I've mostly been remembering to take pics on my iPhone lately and so I've nearly forgotten to post these.  So these were some of my/our favorites.

This was a great one about the importance of being kind to others, and especially when bullying goes on in school.

"Families" are so undefined nowadays and I think it's good for kids to see that diversity is normal.  I loved that this book made that a casual thing to understand with animal characters.  Will and Sophie loved how protective this mother cat was of her little chick.

I didn't even know there was a Gruffalo's Child until the kids mentioned that our babysitter borrowed it for them awhile back.  We LOVE (and own) The Gruffalo and this sequel to that is very cute too.  We love the books and movies alike.

These are back from winter time and some of our favorite snow/snowmen themed books.  Will also read them in school coincidentally too.

A favorite from the Valentine's season.

A favorite from Christmas time.  (Sorry for the random order.)  We also liked Diary of a Wombat.

Celebrating the 100th day of school, we read this book.  LOVE, love, love Nancy Elizabeth Wallace.  Will had a bunch of festive activities for the 100th of school too.

This was months ago too so I don't remember the specifics of this book but I know we loved it.  We'll have to re-borrow so I can refresh my memory.  ;-)

If I remember correctly, this was a favorite of Sophie's.  :)

January is the season of oranges!  I love reading to my children about the appropriate "season" of the our foods and where/how/when they're grown.

I love the Gus books for early reader practice.  Sophie doesn't have the patience for sounding words out, but I still try it with her every so often.

Sibling read-alouds.  Love. 

Please disregard Sophie's attire - that's her "dress up swimsuit".

These were recent and I've already posted them.  Sophie's going to start karate soon so we loved reading the karate girl book.  And I also love anything that casually talks about the fun and importance of an active lifestyle.

Just back from the library one day.  Reading outside while daddy works on the deck.

Adorable book that both kids loved recently.  Their favorite part was when they named the surfboard Dave and talked to it like a dog:  "Stay.  Good boy."  They laughed every time.

Ahh, Pete the Cat.  For us, these are behind only Mo Willems as a favorite series of character(s).  Both kids LOVE.  But Sophie is particularly ADORING of them.  This was her #1 favorite for many weeks.

Have you heard of this story?  If not, go to You Tube and search Christian the Lion.  There are lots of videos of varying length but it's an amazing story and I will be very surprised if you're not teary at the end of it.  So sweet and touching.  The book's good too, but the videos show the climax of the story so much better.  Very emotional.  I can't even imagine...

Again, both kids loved this but particularly Sophie.  She requested this one daily for weeks.  My kids are very curious about bullies lately. 

When Will lost his tooth, Nana sent this book home for us to read about all the traditions around the world when children lose their teeth.  It's long and hard to read as a story to kids, but interesting when you have the time.

A loaner and recommendation from my boss.  It's about a whole town who stopped reading books and started using them for functional purposes as a physical thing.  Nobody knew how to read anymore, their town had fallen to shambles and everyone was inside (completely anti-social) watching TV all day long.  It's a bit long-ish but not too bad and I love the message.  It seemed to really resonate with my "screen time" obsessed kiddos.  They're limited with screen time and that really bothers them sometimes.  Plus, I just love most of Patricia Polacco's books.  She's the author of Thunder Cake, for example.