MommaReads

This is a very cute tale about a house full of napping people and napping animals and how it all falls apart because of a flea. The illustrations in this book are ideal for a child sitting on a parent’s lap listening to the story. Each page gives the child something new to look at and it’s fun to see where the animals are in each picture and to see what they are doing. Our favorite animal to watch is the mouse.

Our boys love to read in bed, in the car and on the couch…so why not read in the bathtub, too!!! We read this book a zillion times when the boys were little. There are several Little Einstein bathtub books, but I think this one was their favorite because every time the book said “Mimi” I would say their name instead. What child doesn’t like a book about them? 🙂

We stumbled upon this book at the library. It is a cumulative tale like The House that Jack Built, but this book talks about the soil and the seeds and the rain and the seedlings and the plants and on and on and on until Jack has a garden. I am a sucker for cumulative tales because the kids can begin to “read” the story with you fairly quickly, but the thing I love most about this book are the illustrations. There is so much to talk about and see on each page. For those kids who love to look at the pictures while mom and dad are reading, this one is a winner.

It’s been a long time since I have read this book, but I still remember it very well…it has been seared into my brain I have read it so many times. It is a very cute book about animals and the sounds they make, or in some cases, don’t make. To top it all off it has adorable illustrations AND it rhymes.

I wish I could remember who told me about this book because I would thank them over and over again. It is such a fun book to read out loud. I didn’t know about this book when our oldest was young enough to enjoy it, but we definitely made up for it with our youngest. It’s the kind of book that gets stuck in your head and you will catch your kids (or yourself) marching around the house to the rhythm of the words in the book…one hand, two hands, drumming on a drum, dum ditty, dum ditty, dum, dum, dum. Enjoy!

I miss the days of getting to read sweet, sweet stories like this one with a toddler on my lap. This story is great for many ages though because it includes animals, opportunities to learn colors, repetition and simple text. The illustrations are sweet as well and definitely help a beginning reader figure out unknown words as does the repetition. So, instead of reading it with a toddler on my lap, I guess I will just listen with a kindergartner on my lap.

This book made its way into our house before our oldest was born. I started reading it to him every night before he was born and then at bedtime after he was born. It is a sweet and perfect bedtime story with illustrations that are as warm and cuddly as the story.

If you saw the copy of this book at our house you would know that is has been read-A LOT!  It is worn and torn, but oh, we love it so.  It is just a fun romp of a read.  It repeats enough so that the kids can start to participate fairly quickly and the illustrations are hilarious.  Every time you read the book you see something in one of the pictures that you didn’t see before.  You are sure to get a giggle or two with this gem.

I used to be a preschool teacher and one of the interview questions I had was to name my favorite children’s book.  In that split second when you have to come up with a coherent answer I came up with Margaret Wise Brown’s The Big Red Barn.  I think the reason I fell in love with this book, besides the sweet and simple story,  is the cadence of the words, the rhyme and the ease with which children can learn the story and start to “read” it themselves because of its simplicity.  Less is more with this book.  It’s not a showstopper…it is a quiet classic.