Books to Make You Laugh

I know there are a TON of books out there that put a smile on your face and make you chuckle.  Here are a few that have made my son laugh out loud the last few weeks.

Don't Push the Button by Bill Cotter

Meet Larry the purple monster.  Inside Larry's book there is a button and YOU MUST NOT PUSH THE BUTTON.  Larry tells us several times that we should not even think about pushing the button but temptation gets the best of us and when no one is looking we push the button!  Suddenly Larry changes from purple to yellow.  When the button is pushed again in hopes to turn Larry back to purple he turns yellow polka dot!  The book goes on, the button gets pushed and something silly happens to Larry.  Finally, Larry gets back to normal but it was so fun we have to push the button one last time!  It is so fun to read this aloud and let kids push the button while you are reading.  It is sure to elicit some laughs!

Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton

An elephant, moose, bear and turkey are the stars of this silly story by Sandra Boynton.  The animals are showing off different articles of clothing.  First, they show off their blue hat, green hat, yellow hat and oops! Turkey is standing in his hat! With each article of clothing (shirts, pants, coat, socks and shoes) Elephant, Moose and Bear are wearing the clothes correctly but Turkey is always being silly.  At the end of the book Turkey is fully dressed correctly, ready to jump in the pool... OOPS! Children love to see the silly ways that Turkey wears his clothes, proving that turkeys really are turkeys!

We Are in a Book by Mo Willems

Elephant and Piggie are back at it and this time they realize they are in a book.  They cannot believe it.  After reveling at how cool it is that they are in a book being read by a reader Piggie has an idea.  She tells Gerald that she can make the reader say a word, if they read out loud.  Gerald thinks this is a great idea.  Piggie says, "Banana" and her and Gerald both lose it, laughing hysterically.  The pages are filled with hahahah and heeeheeeheee.  Piggie and Gerald even have tears in their eyes.  Piggie and Gerald's laughs are contagious.  You will soon find yourself laughing right along with them!

What books make you chuckle?

Happy Reading!
Laura

International Literacy Day

How great is it to have an entire day devoted to reading and literacy?  Last year I shared a book about reading with you all for International Literacy Day (see that post here).  So I think I will do the same this year!  This one just happens to be written by my favorite author and includes two of my favorite literary characters!

Gerald and Piggie go on yet another adventure in We Are in a Book! by Mo Willems.  This time the two friends realize that they are in a book and are being read.  They love it!  It is so cool that they are being read they chant it, "We are being read!  We are in a book!"  Then Piggie realizes that they can make the reader say different words, but only if the reader reads out loud.  Piggie makes the readers say, "banana" and Gerald and Piggie are overcome with laughter.  Banana is so funny to the two of them! Heeheehee Hahaha!  Then Gerald realizes that soon the book will end and he goes from laughing to crying.  He tells the reader that he, "has more to give.  More words... more bananas!"  Luckily, Piggie once again saves the day by asking the reader to, "Please read us again."

My son got his own copy of this book for completing the 1,000 books before kindergarten challenge from the Louisville Free Public Library.  For more information about this program you can click here.

You don't have to read a book about reading today, but at least read something in honor of International Literacy Day!

Happy Reading!
Laura

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Ice Cream.... YUM!

I don't know about you but when I think of summer, ice cream almost ALWAYS comes to mind.  There is something about that cool, sweet treat on a warm day that can make you forget all about how hot it is.

If you are an ice cream lover, like me, then you probably already knew that yesterday, July 20, was National Ice Cream Day!  If for some reason you missed it, don't worry Ronald Reagan designated the entire month of July National Ice Cream Month- so you still have 10 days to celebrate and enjoy.

I have a couple of suggestions of how to enjoy the last 10 days of National Ice Cream Month.  First, if you are in the Louisville Area, try out some of these local ice cream treats.  I am sure that they are all AMAZING!

Then, you need to have an ice cream themed read aloud.  Although there are several high quality books about ice cream for this occasion I am going to recommend Should I Share My Ice Cream?  by Mo Willems.

Should I Share My Ice Cream? is an Elephant and Piggie book, that will speak straight to any ice cream lovers' heart.  Gerald the elephant loves ice cream (what elephant doesn't right?) and is so excited when the ice cream man shows up that he buys a cone.  As he is preparing to devour his cone he remembers his best friend, Piggie and wonders if he should share his ice cream with her. Then the ever indecisive Gerald goes back and forth between sharing his ice cream and not sharing his ice cream until... his ice cream melts and drops on the floor.  He is beside himself with sadness.  Not only can he not share his ice cream with Piggie, but he can't even eat any ice cream.  In the words of Gerald he, "blew it." Piggie shows up and saves the day with another ice cream cone for the two to share, teaching us there is nothing better than sharing a yummy ice cream cone with your best friend on a hot day!

I hope you enjoy the rest of ice cream month as much as I will!

Happy Reading!
Laura

Geisel Honor Books

The Geisel Honor Books are all books that are written for early readers.  What is neat about this year's honors is that all the books hit different spot on the spectrum of "early reader"

First on the spectrum is the book Ball by Mary Sullivan.  This book is written for your earliest readers because there is only one word in the entire book... you guessed it ball.  Most of the story is told through the humorous pictures and the punctuation included with the word ball.  Ball is the story of a dog who loves to play ball.  As soon as he wakes up he has is ball and is begging his little girl to throw the ball.  When she has to go to school he is left alone and has no one to play catch with.  He tries mom, the baby and the cat but no one wants to play.  He takes a nap and dreams of catching the ball.  Then finally the little girl gets home from school and they can play ball again.  What is neat about this book is that anyone can read it because all it says is ball!  My 21 month old loves this book and will bring it to us saying, "ball."

The next book on the spectrum is ironically also about a ball.  A Big Guy Took My Ball by Mo Willems.  Willems is no stranger to writing award winning book, but he really knocked it out of the park with this one.  This book is for an early reader who has great knowledge of sight words and can use some other decoding strategies to figure out harder words, most first graders could probably read this by the middle of the year.  In this Elephant and Piggie book Piggie was playing with a big ball when a big guy came and took it.  Gerald wants to play the hero so he decides to go and get Piggie's ball back.  Then he sees the big guy and he is BIG.  Gerald gets scared and does not get the ball back for Piggie.  While Piggie and Gerald and talking about how BIG this BIG guy is they hear a loud voice say, "EXCUSE ME."  It's the big guy.  It turns out the ball belonged to the big guy and he is sad because no one ever wants to play with him.  Elephant and Piggie make the BIG GUY feel better by offering to play with him.  This book not only teachers the concept of big and small but also about how to make others who are different feel welcomed.  You will find out very quickly that if you read this one out loud children will love it and will be laughing out loud!

The Geisel Honor book on the spectrum is Penny and Her Marble by Kevin Henkes.  This book is a short beginner chapter books, your child should be able to read this on his or her own by then end of first grade or beginning of second.  You can see what a big difference there is between A Big Guy Took My Ball and Penny and Her Marble, children really develop in their reading during first grade.

In Penny and Her Marble Henkes takes Penny on yet another adventures (this is the third book so far in the Penny series).  This time Penny is taking a walk and finds a marble in her neighbor's yard.  She picks the pretty blue marble up and takes it home.  Once she is home she feels guilty for taking the marble, thinking that it might belong to her neighbor.  She could not eat dinner, she couldn't even eat dessert!  That night Penny had bad dreams about the marble.  The next morning she decided to take the marble and put it back in her neighbors yard.  Just as she was turning around to go home her neighbor stopped her.  Penny's neighbor wanted her to have the marble!  Penny was so excited to get to keep the pretty, blue marble!

Hope you enjoy all of these great early readers!

Happy Reading!
Laura

Cookies!

Happy National Cookie Day!  Lucky for us Cookie Day comes in the midst of the holidays when we are often baking away anyways! Don't forget about the power of reading a loud a recipe and baking with your child.  It is another type of reading and interacting that is just as important as cuddling up
with a good book.

This week my son and I made our favorite chocolate chip cookies.  I found our favorite recipe on a blog that I read Apple a Day.  The recipe is super easy, super quick and super yummy.  If you are looking for a new chocolate chip cookie recipe visit Kelsey's blog by clicking the link above.  You are in for a real treat!

While the cookies are baking why not pass the time by reading some yummy books about cookies!?

We cannot have National Cookie Day without If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laura Numeroff.

This is the classic tale of "If you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk."  Each item that the mouse is given reminds him of something else that he wants, until the story ends with him asking for another cookie.  Kids love hearing all of the requests from them mouse and sometimes even try to guess what he will ask for next. 

When finished with this book, grab a cookie to "taste test" and reading The Duckling Gets A Cookie by Mo Willems. 

The pigeon is at it again.  He has asked for puppies, to stay up late and to drive the bus.  Now he wants a cookie and the duckling has one.  In this book the pigeon begs and begs the duckling for the cookie.  Telling him how much he loves cookies and how he never gets what he wants.  The duckling eventually give the cookie (with nuts) to the pigeon and politely asks for another cookie (with no nuts). If your kids like the pigeon books they will love reading this one while snacking on their cookies!

What is your favorite cookie recipe?

Happy Reading!

Laura

Elephant and Piggie

If you are looking for a gift for a 5-7 year old look no further than the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems.  There are over 20 books in the series, 5 of which have either won or been honored with the Theodore Seuss Geisel Award.  This award is given to books that are for beginning readers.  Today I am going to share with you the newest Elephant and Piggie book I'm a Frog!

In I'm a Frog! Piggie is pretending to be a frog, it has Gerald very distraught until he realizes that Piggie is only pretending.  Piggie has to explain to Gerald what pretending is, and she wants him to pretend to be a frog.  They get in a "yes, you can, no, I can't" argument until Gerald finally tells Piggie he is pretending to be a cow.

Like in all of the Elephant and Piggie books, Willems uses speech bubbles and very few words to tell his story.  It is a great way for beginning readers to practice reading with expression and smoothness.  Even if you child does not want to read they story they will LOVE listening to Piggie and Gerald's adventures!

For more Elephant and Piggie fun visit Mo Willems webpage The Pigeon Presents.

Hope this helps mark someone off your shopping list!

Happy Reading!
Laura

Leonardo and the Terrible Monster

It's October first which officially makes it the month of witches, ghost, monsters and all things Halloween.  While I will be sharing some of my absolute favorite Halloween stories to read aloud this month I first want to share with you a story about a not so scary monster named Leonardo.

Leonardo the Terrible Monster is by my all time favorite children's author Mo Willems.  It is the sweet story of a monster, who at first you think is going to be terribly mean and nasty but, soon find out he is just not very good at being a monster. 

Leonardo just wishes for the chance to "scare the tuna salad" out of someone, so he finds the most scaredy cat boy in the whole world- Sam.  When Leonard sneaks up on Sam and scares him Sam starts to cry.  Leonardo is so proud of himself but then he realizes that Sam is crying because of the terrible day that he has had.  At that moment Leonardo discovers that "instead of being a terrible monster, he could be a wonderful friend."

Not only does this book have a sweet message but kids think it is funny.  They like how Mo Willems write Sam's entire bad day on one page with not punctuation so it has be to read all in one breath and how he uses dialogue to move the story along.  When you read this book out loud make it even more fun by coming up with a voice for Sam and Leonardo.

Start out October by reading Leonardo the Terrible Monster to show kids that monsters are not always mean and scary!

Happy Reading!

Laura