One book that I picked up three weeks ago is Jim Trelease's book The Read-Aloud Handbook. What an inspirational book!! I would highly recommend it to every parent, grandparent, nanny, babysitter, teacher - well, anyone who cares for kids! Trelease not only gives advice on the importance of and how to read aloud to children. He also gives book reviews and recommendations for specific age groups.
I've taken a list of recommendations from Trelease's book and started checking them out at our local public library. Thank goodness our library does not have a limit as to how many books a patron can check out at a time. :) I also gathered a few books that just interested me or had been recommended by friends.
Bye Bye Baby by Janet and Allan Ahlberg is one that we need to put on our wish list for Ellie's home library. I had requested this book from another library and the day I had to pick it up was the day after I delivered Maggie. It wasn't a pleasant day to say the least. But as Nick and I were driving home from the library I opened it up and read aloud the first page:
"There was once a baby who had no mommy. This baby lived in a little house all by himself. He fed himself and bathed himself. He even changed his own diaper. It was very sad."I ended up reading the entire book out loud and we both were just laughing at the hilarious antics of this poor baby. It has a very delightful ending. I imagine anyone who picks up Bye Bye Baby will not be disappointed!
A nanny friend of mine recommended The Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson and illustrated by Jane Chapman. (Jim Trelease encourages parents to read the names of authors and illustrators every time a book is read... so I'm learning to do that. It has a great advantage which I'll explain in another post.) I really like reading children's books that rhyme because it usually holds Ellie's attention well. The illustrations in The Bear Snores On are so adorable! It is easy for me to imagine myself sitting amongst the forest animals sipping tea and eating popcorn, until... Well, you'll just have to check it out and see what happens. ;) We're definitely going to be checking out more books from this series! I love to bake! Being in the kitchen just fills me with endorphins from head to toe. But I'm also accident prone... ;p Hattie is accident prone too. Can you imagine how Hattie's baking accident could cause this wedding calamity?
The wind chimes were silent, the judge had to squint, the musicians could not play a note, the groom had no socks, the usher no ring, the flower girl cried for her shoes, the sky was dark on the faraway side, the bouquet of roses was missing a bud, and there wasn't a kiss for the bride.
"We can't have a wedding without a kiss," said the judge. The bride only cried.
Check out: Hattie Baked a Wedding Cake by Toby Speed and illustrated by Cathi Hepworth. What a fun-filled, nonsense read-aloud book for kids! It will bring a smile to your face. If Ellie were a bit older, I would mix up some cake batter with her and read this book while waiting for it to bake.
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