We are starting to get back on track with our reading, made it to the library, and got theme related books! I will review those, and just list out our “pleasure” reading.

We had a couple of hold out books from our O is for Ocean week . We read

1) Mr. Seahorse By Eric Carle – Eric Carle is one of our favorite authors, and this book didn’t disappoint. Cricket loved the see through pages that camouflaged some of the animals. It was also interesting how all the different daddy fish carried their eggs.
2) Sea Animals By Elisabeth Lambilly-bresson – This book, like Octopuses from last week, was educational and factual in a way that was perfect for my little one. Each page spread presented a new animal and a factual tid-bit about the animal.

Here are our choices for the letter P week:

1. Penguins By The Cousteau Society – This book was factual, easy to read, and included true pictures. However, it was a little dry.
2. Tacky and the Emperor Penguin by Helen Lester- First the positives: the actual story was decent; the illustrations enhanced the story; and Cricket enjoyed it. Negatively, it began with a long list of names with the assumption that you would know who was who. There are other books about Tacky the penguin, and I assume that is why.
3. Penguin Pete by Marcus Pfister – Cricket immediately thought that the penguins looked like chicks, and it was hard to convince her otherwise. She did like the story though, and I liked that it was about someone little that persevered until he could do what everyone else was doing. 
4. A Penguin Pup for Pinkerton by Steven Kellogg –  I don’t think either of us were impressed here. The story didn’t flow well, and the pictures were busy and convoluted. It just wasn’t out cup of tea. 
5. A Tale of Two Pandas by: Adrienne Kennaway –  Cricket really enjoyed the story of this book, and I like that it featured a red panda and a giant panda. After all our panda activities Cricket said she liked the red panda better than the giant panda, because of it’s long tail. 
6. Giant Panda by Edana Eckart – This book was ok. I’m finding it harder and harder to find a factual and interesting book that is on Cricket’s reading level. She did love the pictures though, especially the one of the baby panda cub (she actually said awww when I turned to that page). 
7. A Baby Panda is Born (All Aboard Science Reader) by Kristin Ostby -We found an AWESOME factual book here. This book was about a specific panda born in captivity, and it flowed with an actual story. They even managed to pull in information about pandas in the wild in a way that worked. It was educational and enjoyable. Cricket really liked it. The drawings were also high quality, but I was a little surprised that actual pictures weren’t used.
8. How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long –  This book is written from the perspective of a little boy who becomes a pirate for a day. I like that he addresses the pros and cons of being a pirate, and chooses not to be a pirate. Cricket loves playing pirate, and adored this book. By the way, I think the illustrations are fabulous!
9. Purplicious by Elizabeth Kann –  I didn’t really care for the negativity and bullying in this book, that for the most part when unaddressed. Cricket liked the beginning and the end, where they were painting. I’m going to have to find her a better “painting” story though, any suggestions?

This was our pleasure reading list:

1. Wonder Pets Save the Dolphin/Save the Elephant adapted by Ruth Koeppel
2. Beauty and the Beast
3. Pirate Girl by Cornelia Funke
4. Thomas and the School Trip by Rev. W. Awdry

 That makes 50 books total so far for 2011 (1/8 of my goal complete).

 

We are starting to get back on track with our reading, made it to the library, and got theme related books! I will review those, and just list out our “pleasure” reading. Honestly we actually read quite a bit more, but Cricket is on recycle mode. We read several of these multiple times, and we re-read several from our previous lists.

This week we were studying the letter Oo and our primary focus was the Ocean. We read

1) Orange Pear Apple Bear By Emily Gravett – This book is going on my wish list! This is a fabulously illustrated easy reader at it’s best. There are only 5 words in the entire book, but the way the words are introduced, rearranged, and played with keep the book enjoyable and not tedious. I think this is definitely for the learning to read stage though.
2) Octopuses By Carol Lindeen – This book was educational and factual in a way that was perfect for my little one. It is so hard to find a book like this without overwhelming amounts of text or other shortfalls. We both liked that all the images were actual pictures and Cricket was able to follow all of the text. My one complaint is that the text didn’t really flow, and headers seemed randomly inserted.
3) Underwater Counting: Even Numbers by Jerry Pallotta – This book seemed great at first, but it ended up just not being for us. Cricket liked the pictures and was all for the counting. We BOTH had a really hard time finding all the fish we were suppose to count though, and it got worse the higher the numbers got. This became frustrating to her, because she absolutely wanted to count 16 Parrotfish or 20 Trumpetfish if that was what the page said to do. This was frustrating to me, because my girl was actually wanting to count and count correctly at that. I will say that the content of the book was good, and the images were pretty (though hard to count).

This was our pleasure reading list:

1. 101 Dalmations Snow Puppies by Barbara Bazaldua
2. Meet Diego by Leslie Valdes
3. Diego Saves the Wolf Pup
4. Put me in the Zoo by Robert Lopshire
5. Amelia Bedelia’s First Valentine by Herman Parish – See review here
6. A Sweetheart for Valentine by Lorna Balian
7. Mulan A Little Golden Book by Gina Ingoglia
8. Dumbo A Little Golden Book by Teddy Slater
9. Rapunzel
10. Sleeping Beauty A Little Golden Book by Michael Teitelbaum
11. Duck (Purse book) by Mary Gruetzke

 That makes 35 books total so far for 2011.