MommaReads

It’s the first night of Chanukah and a boy is playing with his brand new dreidel when it flies out the door, down the stairs, through the city, into the country and out to sea. Family, neighbors and other community members join in the chase, but his dreidel ends up as a twinkling star in the sky, so they head back home to sing, dance and eat latkes. I love the rhyming in this book and the story is cute but I LOVE the illustrations!!!

A family gets ready for a HUGE family gathering for Hanukkah. As expected, chaos ensues. The dog knocks over the menorah, Aunt Myra spills all the applesauce and Grandpa Dave hides the dreidel and ends up teaching the kids how to play poker and blackjack instead. Through all of the chaos of the Hanukkah season and with all of the company they have in their house, in the end, another miracle has happened…the family is “quiet and calm and all getting along”. This is a cute rhyming book that will entertain children and adults alike.

I love Karma Wilson and I especially love all of her Bear stories. This one is no exception. Bear is not feeling well, so his friends do everything they can to help him feel better. They get him some herbs, they make some tea, they sing him lullabies…and it works. Bear wakes from his nap feeling great, but then his friends start not feeling well and it’s Bear’s turn to help out his friends.

A simple rhyming tale introducing the youngest of readers to the traditions of Hanukkah…candles, stories, latkes, songs, gifts and dreidels. The illustrations in this book are warm and inviting and gives the reader a sense of the importance of family and togetherness that surrounds this holiday.

Sid is walking to school one day when a funny feeling comes over him. He is so overcome by the feeling that his paws lift off the ground and he starts to fly. He is very excited when he gets to school and he tells his friends that he flew to school. No one believes him, not even his teacher, and Sid ends up having a very long day. When he gets home his dad notices that Sid is not being himself. When Sid explains that he is sad because dogs don’t fly, his dad has a little secret for him…it turns out Sid’s dad does and so does Sid.

Baby Ted does not want to go to bed, but his father patiently helps Ted get ready for bed while Ted is also pretending to be a crocodile, a duck, a frog, a penguin and a few other critters. I love the playfulness and patience the father in this story exhibits with his child. It is a good reminder to all parents that sometimes the work of getting them to bed can be fun and playful, too.

Little Chick goes exploring around the farm one day and comes home to his mom to tell her all of the different animal sounds he heard that day. This is the PERFECT book for the toddler set. It has animals, animal sounds AND it rhymes!

This book reminds me so much of my own Thanksgivings growing up…the food, the family, the games with cousins after all the eating and the togetherness. I also love the compassion and patience this book teaches all of us when one of the youngest family members gets in the way and the turkey ends up in the fish tank. Cute story…and it rhymes!

The title of this book sums up its content pretty well. It’s a cute rhyming tale of Boynton’s classic characters getting ready for bed and doing probably the same things your little ones do before they go to bed…taking a bath, brushing their teeth, picking out the pajamas. This is, as you may have guessed, a great bedtime book to help reinforce those nightly routines.

A rhyming Thai lullaby where a mother tries to keep all of the creatures quiet…from a mosquito to a cat to a monkey to a water buffalo to an elephant…so that her baby can sleep. All is quiet in the end and baby isn’t the only one who’s asleep.