MommaReads

This series is another one of my favorites. It involves three characters: Dink, Josh and Ruth Rose who solve mysteries together. I love these three characters because they are smart, they persevere, they follow clues and they use teamwork to solve the mysteries they encounter in each of the books in this series. These books have just the right amount of humor in them so that both adults and kids can enjoy the stories and they also have a few pictures sprinkled in here and there which kids at this reading level really look for. It’s kind of like Encyclopedia Brown for the next generation.

I have people ask me quite often about beginning chapter books for boys that are appropriate for the early elementary years. There are so many great ones out there and Jack Stalwart is one of my all-time favorites. Jack is a secret agent/spy who travels the globe looking for his older brother Max who is missing while also fighting crime along the way. Why do I love these books so much? There aren’t a lot of books out there for this age group that are in the spy/secret agent genre, it is a great way to get kids excited about and learning about geography since he visits a different location in every book, it’s a series-kids get sucked into series and don’t want to stop reading until they have read them all, it has pictures sprinkled in here and there which is great for kids this age and it has short chapters. They are also great read alouds as well, so you can read them to your child, your child can read them to you, you can take turns or, if they are ready, they can read them on their own.

This is my new favorite book! Edward loves to read…books, cereal boxes, seed catalogs…you name it, he likes to read it, but his favorite is adventure stories. Well, one night while he is asleep he wakes up to find pirates surrounding his bed. They have come to get the pirate book Edward has been reading because they think it might tell them where their treasure is buried. Edward would happily give it to them, but it’s a library book…they will just have to wait until he turns it in. After some begging and pleading from the pirates, Edward decides that they can read it right there in his room. He gives them the book, and they huddle over it for a while and then confess that none of them can read, so Edward reads it to them. Not only is this story adorable, but the illustrations…all of the pirates huddled around Edward’s bed as he reads to them…are priceless. LOVE it!

This is my last Passover book review for this year. Most of the books have touched on getting ready for Passover as well as the Seder dinner. This book focuses mostly on the Seder dinner, the food that is eaten and some of the history behind the Seder meal. This is a great book for introducing Passover to a young child. My youngest has enjoyed all of these books and he has learned a lot about what Passover is and some of the traditions that go along with it.

A lift-the-flap book for Passover…perfect for little ones! What will they find under the flaps? They’ll find a Seder meal, plagues, food for the hungry, afikomen and the answers to the four questions.

The bright illustrations and simple story follows a young boy and his family getting ready for and celebrating Passover. There is also a longer, more detailed, section at the back of the book for adults that explains what Passover is.

My youngest son loved this book. We found several books about Passover at the library and this is one of his favorites. We don’t celebrate Passover, but after reading this book he had a much better understanding of it. This book follows a family from preparing for Passover by getting everything out of the closet, to using a feather to sweep out the bits of leavened bread, to all of the food and cooking, to the stories and questions to the children looking for the afikommen. I love the illustrations in this book, too.

Bethany House Publishers recently sent me some books to review here on MommaReads. I was super excited to read them because I was hoping they would be a good stepping stone into “the birds and the bees” talk that is inevitable. What I really like about Jim Burns’ series in that there are different books for different ages. I have God Made Your Body for ages 3-5 and How God Makes Babies for ages 6-9. The first one talks about how everyone is made differently…different hair color, eye color, etc. It also talks about how boys have penises and girls have vaginas and introduces the concept of an egg and sperm and uses the term “making love”. The main message of this book is that each person is unique and special.

The second book talks about everything the first book talks about including safe touching and who should/shouldn’t be allowed to touch our “private parts”. As far as how babies are made, this book discusses how a husband and wife (note: not a man and a woman) make a baby is that the husband puts his penis inside the wife’s vagina. The book also goes on to say that “that might sound icky to you, but that’s okay” and goes on to assure kids that it’s a beautiful thing for married grown-ups.
This book also talks about how babies come out of a mom’s vagina and that babies are a lot of work. It also includes some pictures of cell’s dividing in the early stages of pregnancy and also a sonogram picture.
Both books are very well written.

Have we shared them with our kids yet? No, we haven’t made that leap yet, but I am glad to know that I will have a little help when we are ready.

Little Mouse is a little jealous of the other animals. Daddy Frog can jump really high to bring his little frogs the juiciest bugs and Mama Rabbit can dig deep, deep burrows to keep her babies safe. But what can Mama Mouse do that’s so special? She can do a lot of things, but what she can do best is always love her Little Mouse with all her heart.

Hannah is so excited to meet her new baby sister. She has picked out a name for her, made a pillow for her with the baby’s name on it and even decided that her new little baby sister is going to have red hair. Imagine her surprise when she finds out that her new baby sister is actually a new baby brother. All it takes is a trip to the hospital and holding that sweet baby in her arms to help Hannah realize that baby brothers are pretty neat, too.