Between another round of sore throats and some wonderfully warm weather—leading the boys outside, the mud and warmth beckoning—we’ve be doing a lot less reading. Here’s what we’ve read over the past couple of weeks: Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon is about an impossibly small girl who is picked on at her new school, and how she copes admirably. The whole story is being told to her grandmother, who says she knew Molly Lou would do just fine…and when you turn the page you discover grandma is also impossibly small. Cute story,...

Here’s what we read this past week, in addition to finally finishing the A to Z mystery, The Lucky Lottery. Hover over the image for title and author. Ask Mr. Bear is a classic older book about a little boy who asks various animals what he should give his mother for her birthday. The chicken offers an egg, the cow milk, etc. but the boy says Mom already has eggs, milk, etc. One animal suggests the boy go ask the Mr. Bear, which the boy must do solo as (it is presumed) the...

Did your family participate? Here’s what we did for Earth hour this year: - Read Common Ground by Molly Bang shortly before lights out - Munched on homemade apple crisp (still warm from the oven) and soy ice cream, with tea to drink, by candlelight - Freaked Gareth out with Daegan merely mentioning ‘spooky stories”. I tried to be funny by talking about 4 ghosts—a Mommy, Daddy and two little boy ghosts who were sitting around their table drinking tea and having ice cream and apple crisp. Gareth laughed at first, but then got freaked...

Here’s what we read this past week. Hover over images for title and authors. Old Turtle and the Broken Truth was a story that grabbed Daegan. In this story, a ‘truth’ falls from the sky (like a meteor) and is found by animals and then people. The truth is broken and has writing on it: “You are loved.” At first, this truth is well-received, but in time it causes bad feelings and wars and much destruction, so much so that in time everyone believes conflict between groups of people is the way of...

Here’s what we read this past week. Hover over the images for title and author. My Big Dinosaur Book is an excellent board book for the very young dinosaur fan, with realistic pictures. The dinosaurs are grouped according to visual characteristics. The Trouble With Dragons is a tale of dragons who foul their planet, but learn to reduce, reuse and recycle before it is too late. Fairly well done, and it took only a couple leading questions from me for Daegan (age 6) to realize the book was really sending a message about...

Inspired by the wordless book Flotsam, which the children have now “read” countless times, Jim took some photos of the boys last night and turned them into ‘infinite pictures.’ The boys were thrilled with their pics, and have copies in their rooms. Here they are:

Here’s what the boys and I read a couple weeks back, when Jim was away (and we were sick, and winter was roaring on outside—i.e., lots of reading!) In addition to these, we finished the chapter book, Lady Lollipop, which I highly recommend. Hover over the images for title and author. My Aunt Came Back is your better-than-average rhyming board book, about the various things a girl gets from her world-traveling aunt. The child gets no souvenir on her aunt’s final journey—she gets to accompany her on her travels instead. ...

We finished both books in the Canadian Flyer Adventures series from last week, and read or started the following. As usual, hover over the image for full title and author. The Gruffalo is an engaging tale in which a mouse describes a (supposedly imaginary) ‘gruffalo’ to outwit various enemies that want to eat him. But then the mouse meets a real gruffalo, with surprising results. Daegan (age 6 1/2) got the humour, but the book served only to scare Gareth (age 4). The Three Little Javelinas is a southwest adaptation of the Three Little Pigs...

We started a number of chapter books last week among the picture books. As usual, hover over the picture for title and author. A Swim Through the Sea is a better-than-average alphabet book, with detailed and realistic illustrations of sea life. Curious George’s Dinosaur Discovery is my boys’ favourite title in the series. George goes on a dinosaur dig, where he makes his usual mess of things, but the ensuing rockslide reveals hidden dinosaur bones. The book ends with the new “Georgeosaurus” on display at the natural history museum.  The Three Little Wolves and the Big...

We did much less reading than usual last week, for a couple reasons. First, the library system was offline ALL WEEK while they upgraded / changed computer systems. Oy! What a headache! You could check books out in person, and return them as well…but that was it! No online access to the library catalog (not even for library employees at work!), no putting things on hold to be picked up later. I was in serious withdrawal! :-) And second, both Jim and I fell ill last week, and read-alouds with a sore throat just aren’t fun. :-( So...