MommaReads

If you have a young football fan in your house, then this book might be right up your alley. Written by three members of the famous football family, the Mannings, this book depicts a typical weekend at their house when the boys were growing up. No matter where they were or what they were doing, they always found time for a friendly game of family football.

Such a beautiful book that celebrates the relationships that children have with all of their relatives…from their great-grandparents to their moms to their pets and everyone in between.

Henrietta’s two older sisters do such a good job of convincing her that she is a chicken that Henrietta decides she really IS a chicken and goes to find a chicken farm to live on. Her sisters get in trouble when Mom and Dad find out what happened and the older sisters are put in charge of getting Henrietta back home. It turns out that being a chicken is a lot of fun and one of the older sisters decides she wants to be a chicken, too. A cute story that shows how teasing a sibling can get WAY out of hand.

*There are a couple of instances of name calling (dumbhead) that can easily be skipped or changed into another word as you are reading it to your child.

I found this book at the library and chose it because of the family theme going on here at MommaReads. I didn’t really know what it was about, but was incredibly delighted to find out it’s about Emily Dickinson and her nephew who takes one of her poems to school one day and ends up getting in a fight with one of his classmates about it. There are so many great messages in this book: like solving problems with words and how telling the truth is important, no matter how difficult it might be.

A young boy visits his grandmother and learns about the history of his family going back 300 years. This book did a great job of showing how things were different in each generation in a way that children could understand. There is also a section in the back that gives more detailed information, but still written in a way that children can relate to.

This is a very sweet and simple book with very little text. The illustrations are warm and inviting. This is a board book…so it’s either great for little ones to chew on or a great way for an adult to talk with little ones about the pictures in the book to help broaden their vocabulary…mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, grandfather and baby.

Sarah and Grandpa work together to plant and care for their garden. One day, later in the summer, Grandma invites Sarah over for lunch made out of their garden.

A photo essay that shows so many of the special ways that grandparents love their grandkids and a tribute to all the perks of being a grandparent and being a grandchild. This would be a great book to spark a discussion with your own children about what makes their grandparents special. This would also make a great gift for a new grandparent.

A beautiful story of a mother and father waiting for their adopted child and all of the love, joy and late nights that come with becoming parents for the first time.

This book is a counting book as well as a book about families. The beautiful illustrations depict families of various shapes and sizes working together. As the numbers get larger (the books starts counting by tens after a while and goes up to 100) the author introduces the idea of neighborhoods, schools and teams being “families” working together towards a common goal. A great way to talk about communities and families and how even though they aren’t the same they do have some similarities.