New reads

We came across a few new books while volunteering set up our fellowship tag sale and I wanted to share, because they are all already hits with Emma. 

The Kapok Tree.. Which I remembered as soon as I saw the cover. It was read to my 1st grade class during a field trip to the local library. Emma loves all the animals that visit the sleeping man, pleading with him not to cut down their tree. 

What an awesome story! It starts out with the a seed that by chance lands in a suitable place to grow and is overlooked by animals that may have eaten it. It grows for 200 years, changing shape and  residents who have made homes inside it, then eventually falls with a gust of wind. Still it is home to different animals. At the end we see all the new cactuses surrounding it, maybe ones started from its own seeds. Beautiful illustrations, a variety of animals (some new faces for us, haven't talked much about Dessert life yet!) and a good introduction to life cycles for young Emma. 

I couldn't resist bringing this home! It's never too early to read Black Beauty to York child, is it?! I loved the movie when I was young (and to be honest probably when I was 'too old' to be loving it but I was horse crazy and the movie was so endearing and not at all tacky..) but I never had the pleasure of reading the story myself, getting to know the characters through Sewell's words, using the descriptions to create my own imagery. Anyway since we're all for books and not so much for television and movies here I knew I had to share this with Emma. It's our new read-aloud snuggle-up chapter book since we finished Charlotte's Web. I love to stop after each chapter and talk about the characters and hearing what Emma thinks- about plucky little Merrylegs becoming friends with Black Beauty; that because of her upbringing, Ginger isn't friendly but still works hard and softens up with gentle treatment. With one read Emma knows what a crupper is and that she wouldn't hold still while being fitted with one (she is pretending to be a horse.) We are really enjoying this book so far!

I can tell Emma is going to be a book worm when she's a little bigger. What joy to be getting lost in literature! 

Favorite books at two(-wenty five months)

Emma loves reading books together and flipping through her favorites on her own. Our favorite stories and daily reads are any of the Little Bear stories, Poems to Read to the Very Young and Jamberry were both favorites of mine as a child, many golden books such as The Color Kittens, any farm related book, and Lost and Found. 

Little Bear was something I enjoyed when I was little but I had the televised version. The familiar characters and stories are especially dear to me and the relatable subjects get Emma's attention. Emma's favorite story from our Little Bear book is Birthday Soup where he makes soup and serves his three friends, believing his mother forgot it was his birthday. Of course she surprises him with a cake! 

 Like in this story, a game Emma plays is serving three friends (also Hen, Goose, and Cat) but she makes pizza. In a similar way to Patrick creating our Sunday pizza Emma stretches out some play dough, puts it on a pan made from a jar lid and rushes it to her oven. She turns all the knobs around, darts back to the table and sits with her friends. 

Waits a while. Then bursts out, "it's READY!!" And runs back to her kitchen to take out a fresh pizza. Sometimes she asks me to make party hats for her guests! This is another thing she sees in one the Little Bear stories. 

I'm in love with illustrations by Eloise Wilkin, especially her angelic children. This is such a wonderful collection of poems to read aloud and recite through the day- all about animals, events or the bits of magic childhood has in store. I love that Emma can fill in any blank I throw her way as I read her the lines. She really has them all memorized, as do I. 

An easy beat to repeat, I hear Emma mumbling lines while she plays. The pictures are so colorful and imaginative, it would be hard not to love this book! Although, it did get Emma worried that a bear was going to eat all of our delicious berries mentioned in that earlier post.

The Color kittens get Emma thinking about colors, or sometimes colors gets her thinking about these two color kittens, Brush and Hush. They have buckets and buckets and buckets of color to splash around with; with these colors they would make all the colors in the world. Those are a couple of her favorite lines to recite but her favorite part about this book is when the excited kittens begin pouncing. This is where Emma learned to jump and lift both her feet, landing on her bum. 

When starting Lost and Found, Emma dashes off to her stuffy basket and digs through until she find her Penguin, which is actually a pelican. She shows the toy pictures as we read through the book.  

Emma also received a subscription to Ranger Rick Jr. magazine and she already loves it! We must have read one story about a turtle 100 times and it became the subject of her play for three days. Getting new magazines in he mail is going to be exciting for her, and I'm looking forward to what the next one will bring to us. Thanks to Emma's MiMi for this great gift!