MommaReads

My six-year old was particularly drawn to this book, so I thought I would share it with you. The snow people are getting ready to throw a party as they do every year when it snows on the first day of winter. They dress the trees with lights, set out their picnic supplies…there are even snow people who bring their instruments so everyone can have some music to dance to. I think my child’s favorite part of the book is when they show what the snow people eat…snowballs, chunks of ice…he thought that was pretty funny. 🙂 This is a cute book for a wintery day.

We love Karma Wilson and we especially love Karma Wilson’s Bear books. Bear has snuggled in for the winter, but his friends really want him to get up for Christmas. His forest friends do finally manage to wake him up so he can participate in the festivities. They go get and decorate a tree and sing songs until all of Bear’s friends fall asleep. While everyone naps, Bear stays up and bakes and wraps so that all of his friends wake up the next morning to some Christmas surprises. All of that celebrating eventually wears Bear out and he heads back to sleep. Super cute story that rhymes and the illustrations are great, too.

This is a great Christmas book for the preschool and under set. It’s simple, it rhymes and it explains the Christmas story in a very basic way. The book introduces children to the donkey, the ram, the ox, the shepherds, the wise men, Mary, and baby Jesus. The illustrations in this book are fantastic as well. This is a perfect first Christmas book.

Mrs. Wishy-Washy decides it’s time to wash the animals, but the animals have other ideas…it’s too cold to take a bath. When they protest she decides to go to town, but tells them they need to wash themselves while she’s gone or there will be no presents for them this year. So the animals get the brilliant idea to take a bath in Mrs. Wishy-Washy’s nice warm house. Mrs. Wishy-Washy returns from town and sees the absolute mess they have made, but it’s that time of year, so she forgives them and they all enjoy opening up presents and eating cookies together in Mrs. Wishy-Washy’s warm living room.

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!!!

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.

Baby is crying and mama is tired, so the rest of the family tells mama to go to bed…they’ll take care of baby. Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt, Uncle and Big Sister all think they know the trick to get Baby to stop crying, but every time they try something, Baby just ends up crying. It turns out that Brother knows what Baby wants. Baby falls asleep all night long and after all the work they put into getting Baby to sleep, the rest of the family falls asleep, too.

This is a very cute book written from the viewpoint of a new baby. The baby describes the things it likes to do during the day, where it likes to go, what makes it cry and what makes it happy. The baby talks about ALL the times of day it likes to eat and all the things it likes to look at. I love this book because it really does describe the day in the life of a baby…all of the feedings and late nights and all the things parents do with their baby during the day. I also like this book because it shows the mom nursing the baby in several illustrations and it also shows the dad giving the baby a bottle…it’s an equal opportunity baby. 🙂 This would be a GREAT book for siblings who are expecting a little baby brother or sister soon.

Kitten sees the full moon and thinks it’s a big bowl of milk. She tries to lick it, but only ends up with a mouth full of bugs. She tries to jump up and grab it, but only ends up tumbling down the stairs. She even sees its reflection in a pond and ends up just being a wet (and still hungry) kitten. She drags herself back home and guess what’s sitting on the front porch for her. Yep, that’s right…a big bowl of milk.