This December, we read and enjoyed a couple of Christmas books this season with a similar theme–destroying a Christmas play. Both books focus on abhorent characters who display an offensive behavior or two or three, but while this will attract your young reader’s attention, he/she will absorb the overall positive lesson behind the tale.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever–By Barbara Robinson
Though [...]
Imagine—celebrating thirteen days of Halloween instead of just one…As of this writing, there are precisely thirteen days remaining until All Hallows Eve, making this the perfect day to review The 13 Days of Halloween By Carol Greene, Illustrated by Tim Raglin
In this revision of the Christmas standard, The Twelve Days of Christmas, a charming ghoul showers [...]
We’ve got lots of books going — or we are about to get them going–at our house. Nothing escapes the necessity of multi-tasking in our wacky world, does it? Not even the relaxing practice of reading.
I can only imagine that Logan, our 5th grader, must have picked up the habit from me. I always [...]
When talking reading with other parents of boys, something like this crops up in nearly every conversation: “Stevie used to love to read, but now he hates it,” OR “I just cannot get my boys to read…”
Reading is not a gender specific activity, but I do think that parents play a role in making it [...]
A staple book that seems to get more attention in the summer at our house is The Book of Cards for Kids by Gail MacColl.
This book, which I highly recommend, is your guide to every card game you can imagine, from the classics like Gin and Crazy Eights to the more obscure and fun Smudge, Frogs [...]
Good Dog Carl
Toddlers–and their reading partners– love Carl, the even-keeled Rotweiler that is charged with minding the baby in several of these beautifully illustrated picture books, including Carl’s Afternoon in the Park, and our family favorite, Good Dog, Carl.
The books have very few words, but the story is brilliantly told through the paintings of Alexandra Day, who incidentally owns a Rotweiler by [...]
My ten-year-old and my husband are currently reading Swindle
by Gordan Korman. Logan reviews this as ” an awesome book,” and “the best book I’ve ever read.”
The swindle: Griffin Bing finds a rare Babe Ruth baseball card, but doesn’t realize just how rare…and is quickly duped into selling it to ruthless card-shop owner. Griffin enlists a [...]