MommaReads

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this magazine! We have outgrown it at our house, but I would HIGHLY recommend it if you have a child between the ages of 2 and 5, I would suggest you get a subscription ASAP. It has poems, hidden picture puzzles, short stories (both fiction and non-fiction), finger plays, riddles, simple crafts and recipes, and my boys’ favorite feature, Silly Pictures. (A picture with things happening in it that shouldn’t be happening…like a dinner scene with a dog and a cat sitting at the table, a woman wearing earmuffs at the table, etc.)

Another installation in the “I Need a Book for My Boy Who Is Ready for Chapter Book Series”. We recently discovered these at the library and what we like about them is that there are A LOT of them which is great for kids this age. If they can find a series that they really like they will stick with it and read and read and read until they have read through the whole series. These books have short chapters, there are pictures sprinkled throughout the book (about one per chapter) and this series covers just about any sport you can think of and there are books that are geared more towards boys (football, BMX, skateboarding) and ones geared more towards girls (gymnastics, volleyball).

We recently discovered this series at the library. Last month I had said that I was going to be reviewing books that would be appropriate for young boys who are ready to move onto chapter books since that is the biggest question I get at MommaReads. Of course, these books are appropriate for girls to read, too, I just don’t get asked about books for girls that often, or ever, really. The Secret Agent Dingledorf Series is appropriate for kids at this level because the chapters are short, there are a few pictures sprinkled in here and there and I love this series because each book has a lesson to be learned or a moral. For example, in The Case of the Chewable Worms, the moral of the story is that we should help others whenever possible. These books are also a big draw for kids because the kids in this series are spies and you are going to be hard pressed to find a young boy do doesn’t think being a spy is just a little bit cool.

A little girl imagines what her garden would be like if she had her own garden. She would have jelly bean bushes, she would be able to change the colors of the flowers just by thinking about it, there would be no weeds and all the rabbits in the garden would be chocolate rabbits.

This is a cute rhyming book about the seasons a garden goes through starting with planting in the spring, things growing and getting picked in the summer, harvesting pumpkins in the fall and the blanket of snow covering the garden in the winter.

This is SUCH a great book…so much vocabulary and pictures to discuss. It is a non-fiction text with a short sentence or two on each page with great pictures that accompany the pics. Some of the great words that you might want to discuss with your child include: annual, perennial, bulb and tuber. We have had a family garden almost every year for the past five or six years, so this would be a great book for us to read to help us to learn even more. Don’t have a garden? This book might make you want to have one. 🙂

We are smack in the middle of baseball season around here, so it didn’t surprise me when I saw that our youngest had totally ransacked the baseball section of the library shelves. This was my absolute favorite of the bunch. The illustrations are adorable and the story is interlaced with baseball facts. Super cute and fun to read!

I have to admit that this is not my favorite series, but when kids start reading on their own they get to pick what they want to read (not what mom wants to read to them) and this was a favorite at our house for a while. This series follows Geronimo Stilton, who is a mouse, his crazy mouse family and all of the adventures they go on. I think one of the things that my oldest liked about this series, besides all of the adventures, is the mouse lingo. For example, they live in New Mouse City. They travel to the Mousific Ocean…you get the idea. (In my opinion all of that mouse lingo gets real old, real fast, but the kids love it.) I will admit that the stories are very creative, they are great for those kids who are ready for chapter books, they have some illustrations (that are in color) throughout the book and I know I heard some giggles coming from our son as he was reading them. He will still pick one up every now and again and re-read it or if a new one comes out he will check it out from the library. They are also available on CD if you want to listen to them in car.

If you have a child who loves sports then you need to check out Matt Christopher. He has written fiction books on every sport from baseball to skateboarding to ice hockey to soccer. Since this blog is dedicated to younger readers, it is important to note that he has books that are geared more for the 6-8 year old group and then others that are geared more for the 9-12 year old group. The books that are for the younger set are easier to read and have illustrations every few pages. Also, the books for the older kids do cover some topics that may not be appropriate for the younger set, nothing horrible, but maybe things they just aren’t dealing with socially at school yet…things like that.

Even though Easter was yesterday, it’s still the Easter season and a great time to continue to read Easter stories. (Especially since all the Easter books at the library will be available again.) 🙂 This rhyming story takes readers from Mary discovering Jesus’ empty tomb and ends with Thomas touching Jesus’ wounds. This book may not be available at the library, but this and many other great books are available at Arch Books.