MommaReads

Ann Estelle is all ready to go trick-or-treating and so is her friend, Michael. Ann Estelle is a Fairy Queen with a long lacy skirt, glittery wings and a wand. Michael is a pirate with black boots a sword and an eye patch. Ann Estelle’s father takes them out trick-or-treating on a dark and kind of spooky night where they learn that you have to be scared a little in order to show how brave and courageous you can be. The illustrations in this books are a delight, too! It is by Mary Engelbreit after all.

Helen and her dog end up in a top secret “witches only” grocery store where dogs aren’t allowed while trying to return a Free Broom coupon to a lady who dropped it on the street. Very cute story.

Poor Jeb’s pumpkin patch is going to get ambushed by a bunch of crows right before Halloween. He comes up with a very clever plan to save his pumpkin patch and there is a little twist at the end, too.
Very cute.

This is a great website geared towards babies through preschoolers. It has finger plays, songs, lullabies, stories, nursery rhymes and games which are all great pre-reading activities. This is a fun, high-quality website to explore with your little one.

The little boy in this silly, but heart-warming tale, wants to know if his mama would still love him if he was a big scary ape? Of course, she tells him she would still love him and she would take care of him and comb him to make sure he didn’t have any tangles. What is I was a smelly skunK? Yep, she would still love him and sprinkle him with a sweet-smelling powder. What if he was an alligator? Yep. A dinosaur? A swamp creature? A green alien? Yep, yep and yep. The mother lets the little boys know that no matter what, she will love him and take care of him. Very touching book that will also get some giggles. The illustrations are a hoot, too.

As you might have already guessed, this is a fun rhyming book about Mrs. McNosh’s squash that gets a little out of hand. As soon as she plants the seed in her garden, it starts to grow and quickly becomes so big that she’s not quite sure what to do with it. She does come up with a silly solution though that both her and her dog enjoy. Such a fun book to read aloud. 🙂

This is one of my all-time favorite reading websites for kids because not only is it high quality and interactive, it also covers everything from those kids who are just beginning to know their letters and letter sounds all the way to those kids who are beginning readers. I also like that once the children get to the beginning readers section, there are both fiction and non-fiction texts, Chinese fables, Greek myths, folk tales and plays. It also has a function where children can click on an icon if they come across a word they don’t know and it will say the word for them.

Okay, this isn’t a book, but it DOES have to do with reading, so…

I LOVE these things. They are great for beginning readers who are learning to read three-letter words with short vowel sounds. There are two links below. One link is for a way to buy one and the other is a worksheet children can use to practice writing the words they make. Enjoy!

from Let’s Explore

Okay, I know these aren’t technically books, but they are a great way for early readers to get some fun practice. These are similar to the Mad Libs you may be used to, but they are a little more user friendly for our younger friends. These have four lists of words: verbs, adjectives, nouns and misc. Each category has a symbol by it so children can easily tell which type of word goes in each blank. The super awesome part is that most of the words are words the early readers will know or they are words that they can probably figure out with a little help. For example, I bought one today and there are color words in the misc. column. Some words found in the nouns column include: ham, map, pizza, boat and tree. The adjectives column has words like: sad, sick, nice, wild and ugly. The verbs column has words like: sing, clap, burp, fart (yes, fart), cry, skip and run. There are definitely some harder words, but that’s why the parents are there. This is such a great way to build reading confidence in a fun and non-traditional way.

A book that is a good reminder that even a day that starts out bad can turn around to be a good day. Little yellow bird loses his favorite tail feather, but later on forgets about it and ends up flying higher than he has ever flown before. Little white dog gets tangled up in his leash, but works himself free and runs through the dandelions. Little brown squirrel drops an acorn, but later on finds the biggest acorn ever. The illustrations are charming and the text is simple and sweet.