What My Child Is Reading–More Picture Books

We continued to read books for a Picture Books month this week. We had some great library finds too, since daughter always craves new books, but I will focus again on the books from our own library. I actually introduced three out of four of them this week out of my “stash for the future”.

Around the World with Mouk is obviously the “travel the world” book. It’s gorgeously illustrated by a French author/illustrator Marc Boutavant who has a very distinct style. He also illustrated one of our favorite books by Mary Ann Hoberman – All Kinds of Families. Every spread takes the readers into a different place with great variety of details – local food, local games, local animals, etc. I made a mistake reading all book in one evening – it took more than an hour. A journey over a number of days would be a much better idea and could be done with younger children as well.

We read Snow in Jerusalem by Deborah Da Costa for a pet theme together with a couple of other pet books from the library. As you could guess, the story is set in Jerusalem and split between the Orhodox Jews’ Quarter and Arab Quarter where a street cat befriends two boys with very different backgrounds. Eventually they meet and realize that even though they have differences, they do have something in common. It’s a better story for kids over 4, since the story is rather long.

We read Stone Soup retold by Ann McGovern for “Folk and Fairy Tales” day. I also gave Anna a thick book of classic fairy tales that I got at the library book sale. She read it but didn’t comment or ask questions – she is not really into fantasy world at this moment. However, she really enjoyed Stone Soup. Interestingly, I recall Russian version of the same folk tale where the soldier made soup out of an ax.

I scored big during the last Library Book Sale by getting about a dozen brand new Magic School Bus paperbacks at 25 cents each. Anna loves these books, and I finally let her have them all (by her request) for “school” theme. She quickly read through them but now “studies” her favorites in more detail during her rest times. I always find one or two of them in her bed as well.