Top Five Fridays - Eric Carle

There are so many wonderful classic picture books out there. There’s too many to realistically try to cover. I also try to stay away from well known, well loved classic reads but it’s not because I don't also love those. It’s just that I assume that everyone is already familiar them.

But, I thought it would be fun to do a little series that I've titled 'Top Five Fridays'. I'd like to feature a well established children's book author on Fridays for awhile. Then share my top five favorite books of theirs'. Yep, I'm a list maker girl!

First up I'd like to start with the children's books of Eric Carle. Eric Carle's picture books are often geared for the youngest of readers and the illustrations are truly works of art. I often like to feature his books and illustrations during our 'art' time talks with my two preschoolers. Here are my top five favorite Eric Carle's books:



1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar





2. The Very Busy Spider









3. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?







4. The Very Clumsy Click Beetle






5. The Tiny Seed







So what 'five' Eric Carle books make your list?

Recommended reads for Father's Day

I wanted to share some good Father's Days reads and since we've got preschoolers and it’s what I'm reading these days they're picture books!


First is Just Me and My Dad by Mercer Mayer. I grew up reading Mercer Mayer and love sharing these simple, sweet stories with my little ones. They are written from a child's eye perspective and are just a fun, endearing read. I love Mercer Mayer illustrations, there's always little animals that show up on each page like the mouse and spider duo in these Little Critter series that are fun to look for and spot.


Next check out What Daddies Do Best (What Mommies Do Best) by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by Lynn Musinger. Its a two in one book with one read starting in the front or is it the back with a story about Daddies and anyway then you flip it over and upside down and around and its a story about Mommies. I think that that's pretty clear, right? It’s a great simple read highlighting all the little things and times we cherish with our kids and they cherish with us. Each page is colorfully illustrated with animal parents and their kids.

Hope everyone has a wonderful upcoming Father's Day!

Summer Reading - Seven Hungry Babies

Seven Hungry Babies by Candace Fleming and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin, is a hit in our house. It's a fun summer read as baby birds hatch from their eggs and are of course VERY HUNGRY. Lucky for them Mamma Bird is ready and waiting to feed them, one by one by one by one...Until exhausted Mamma Bird has seven full sleeping chicks and ready to relax herself. But of course, there's no chance of that as the babies awake, ready for more food. But don't worry this is one smart Mamma Bird!

This book had us giggling and counting up the sleeping chicks versus the chicks still needing fed. It's a great read to introduce early math concepts of counting, adding and subtracting. Cartoon illustrations accompany the text and are vibrant and fun. They will definitely hold your little one's attention.

My First Little House Picture Books

I'd be willing to wager you, or your kids grew up reading and watching the Little House on the Prairie series like I did. The My First Little House Book series is a great introduction for the littlest readers to Laura Ingalls Wilder, Ma, Pa, and her sisters Mary and Carrie. I am always looking for editions of great literature written for my preschoolers’ age levels. It's a wonderful way to get them off to a solid start of reading classics. The more they read classic literature at their level the more confident, familiar and comfortable they will be to someday take on the hardest of books.

These stories are sure to delight your little ones as much as they may have delighted you and are accompanied with beautiful full-page illustrations. They are adapted from the writings of Laura Ingalls Wilder and illustrated by Renee Graef.

This particular series is a great way to excite their interest not just in literature but in history as they learn all about the pioneer way of life. There are currently 14 books in this series including Summertime in the Big Woods, Sugar Snow, Winter Days in the Big Woods, Going West, A Little House on the Prairie, A Little House Birthday, Going to Town, Prairie Day, County Fair, Dance at Grandpa's, Deer in the Woods, Winter on the Farm, Christmas in the Big Woods and A Farmer Boy Birthday.

There is even an A Little House Picture Book Treasury book with a collection of six stories.

Buttons!

I did it! I created my own blog buttons! Be sure to grab one if you like, you can get them from my sidebar.




I'm really happy with the way they turned out! Clearly inspired by the super cute background I got from Shabbyblogs.com. Check out their new summer backgrounds at: http://www.shabbyblogs.com/ . I also followed their great tutorial at this link.

Summer Reading - The Curious Garden

I've shared in a previous post how I love to theme read with my kids and even do unit studies here and there on various topics. Well one thing I do with this is read books that are seasonal. Yup, that concept can even be applied to children's books. I've been busily, in my head anyway, compiling a great list of seasonal reads for each one and hope to start creating/sharing an actual list here.

With all the buzz on the blogs about gardening I thought this next book would be a great start to my recommendations for seasonal summer reading.


The Curious Garden by Peter Brown makes a great summer read. As a gardener myself, I really appreciate this story of a young boy Liam that lives in a pretty drab world where no plants or trees grow. He's not like others, he likes to be outside, he likes to explore even in the dreary city where he lives. One day he makes a discovery. Hidden away he finds a small garden struggling to grow. He tries to save it through trial and error, as any gardener at heart would do, and finally success. The garden grows as does the interest in gardening and a city is transformed.

The illustrations are imaginative and detailed. Your young ones will delight to watch as the garden grows, wanders and sprouts up in unexpected places.

Classic book of the month - June 2010

There are so many classic children's picture books out there that I wanted to add to my slowly growing list of favorite books. But I'm hesitant to because I know lots of people are already very familiar with these books. So, I've decided that I might try to post one classic book review a month.

This was an overwhelming task, so many to choose from and which should be first...so I decided to go with one that we currently are enjoying from our local library. It's Petunia by Robert Duvousin and was first published in 1950. I grew up reading this book and am now enjoying sharing it with my kids. Even better our library had a copy that came on cd. I highly recommend checking out books on cd from time to time. We've started getting 2-3 of them each time we go to the library.

Petunia is a silly goose that is until she discovers a book. With the book tucked under her wing she becomes prouder and prouder of what a wise goose she must be, after all she does have a book now. After offering up misguided advice and the farmyard narrowly escaping disaster Petunia learns a lesson in where true wisdom comes.

We checked this book out because I'm following my own suggestion and going through a character trait a week from the God's Little Boys/Girls books by Elizabeth George. Use this link or just scroll down a post or two. We're not following in order to the traits as they go in the book. First, because I have a boy and girl and am trying to merge the lessons from each into relatable ones and second, I wanted to start with the first lesson from the book of Proverbs itself. That God's little boys and girls are wise. Petunia fits this study perfectly and has made a great supplementary read to our focus on wisdom this week.

I hope you share this classic with your little ones!