At last- the books I've been meaning to post about!
When I spotted A Pipkin of Pepper by Helen Cooper at the library, I grabbed it right away because CJ and I just loved the first book in the series, Pumpkin Soup . The books tell the story of a cat, squirrel and duck who usually live together peacefully and love to make pumpkin soup. In both books, the duck gets contrary ideas in his head, and trouble ensues. In A Pipkin of Pepper, he decides that their soup would be even better with some pepper. The cat and squirrel vehemently disagree, and there's an adventure in the big city as well. I love everything about these books- the animals, the language, and their illustrations.
Also by Helen Cooper, Toy Tales is a very simple chapter book. Each chapter tells the story of one of Timothy's toys- a bear, frog, duck, and pig. Each tale has a gentle lesson to be learned- for example, the bear accidentally gets thrown in the washing machine, and he's afraid Timothy won't love him because he doesn't look the same. Timothy is surprised at the change in Bear's appearance, but he loves him just the same and soon has him covered in chocolate cupcake. CJ has asked for this book repeatedly, I'm going to buy this one- it gets five stars in our book!
The Grumpy Morning by Pamela Duncan Edwards tells the story of a barnyard full of grumpy animals. They're grumpy because the farmer has overslept, and all of them need something critically important- the cat needs cuddles, the goat needs oats, and the pig needs slop, among other things. At last, the farmer wakes up and calmly takes care of everyone. Peace returns to the barnyard! This a fun, cute book- be sure and do like CJ does and find the little owl on each page!
CJ loves trains, so when I saw The Goodnight Train by June Sobel I had to check it out. The illustrations by Laura Huliska-Beith are just as important as the text- some of my favorites included smoke coming from the train in the shape of a car, ice cream cone, and an elephant on a skateboard! The text is rhyming, and it's great for sound effects with lines like, "Cars sway on the wooden track. Wheels go click. Wheels go clack. Glide across a plain so flat. Gently toss this way and that. Clickety- clack! Clickety-clack! Clickety-clack!" Eventually the train comes home so it can go to sleep. This is a great bedtime book whether or not you child is in love with trains!
I got Dem Bones by Bob Barner for CJ because she loves all things related to Halloween, and this book has lots of skeletons playing musical instruments. It's also a fun way to learn about the different bones in the body and the names of the instruments the skeletons are playing. CJ has always loved books that we can sing, and this one did not disappoint. The information is presented in such a fun way she doesn't even realize she's learning, and that's something like magic in my opinion.
When Steph at Montessori Free Fall mentioned Our Nest by Reeve Lindbergh, I knew CJ would like it- we love to watch birds. The story opens with a child in bed reading a story with mom, "Snuggled in bed, You're all safe and warm, Like a bird in a nest in a tree." The goes on to show a cat and her kittens, a chipmunk, and a harbor among many other things before it makes the gentle point that the universe is the nest for everything, and because of that, we're all connected. This is a lovely book- I might have to buy this one too.
When Mom and Kiddo blogged about The Magic Rabbit by Annette LeBlanc Cate, I was pleasantly surprised to see that our library had a copy. Her description of the book and the illustration on the cover piqued my interest, and I wondered wht CJ would think about it. She thoroughly enjoyed the story of the rabbit who gets separated from his best friend, the magician, in the big city. The black-and-white drawings lend themselves to the bleakness the rabbit and magician feel when darkness falls and they're still separated. Rabbit's nose saves the day, as does a train of magic yellow stars. Wonderful.
We recently got the preschool curriculum from Moving Beyond the Page for CJ, and we're currently working on our first unit with Freight Train by Donald Crews (remember what I said about trains?!). We're both having a lot of fun with it, and I have a post in the works about train books now. Stay tuned!