What My Kids Are Reading 4/14/17
This was a great reading week, both for the kids reading to themselves and each other. Here were the favorites this week!
The 6-Year-Old
From the publisher: “Dragons love tacos. They love chicken tacos, beef tacos, great big tacos, and teeny tiny tacos. So if you want to lure a bunch of dragons to your party, you should definitely serve tacos. Buckets and buckets of tacos. Unfortunately, where there are tacos, there is also salsa. And if a dragon accidentally eats spicy salsa . . . oh, boy. You’re in red-hot trouble.”
We all love Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri. Their books are funny, engaging, and have the best illustrations. Dragons Love Tacos is my kid’s favorite of them all, and lucky for him the sequel, Dragons Love Tacos 2: The Sequel, comes out May 2!
From the publisher: “Beginning with just five fish and continuing into flights of fancy, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish celebrates how much fun imagination can be. From the can-opening Zans to the boxing Gox to the winking Yink who drinks pink ink, the silly rhymes and colorful cast of characters create an entertaining approach to reading that will have every child giggling from morning to night: “Today is gone. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.” ”
This is such a classic that I almost forgot we had it until my 6-year-old pulled it out. Even with the silly, made-up words, it’s easy enough for him to sound almost everything out, and he laughs every time he reads it. I loved seeing this book through his eyes!
The 8-Year-Old
From the publisher: “Victor Starspeeder is psyched to be starting school at the Jedi Academy. His sister, Christina does not share an enthusiasm for Victor’s newfound educational path. She’s horrified that her annoying baby brother will be there to cramp her style. While Victor means well, his excess energy leads him to spend a lot of time in detention with the little, green sage, Yoda. Yoda wants to channel Victor’s talents, so he makes the young Padawan join the drama club. Victor is not pleased. “Learn to control your anger, you must! Successfully manage their emotions, a good Jedi can. Box step and jazz hands … hee hee … young Padawan will!” Victor will have to make new friends, get on his sister’s good side, learn to use the force, and hope the year’s drama club performance (“Wookiee Side Story”? “Annie Get Your Lightsaber”?) goes off without a hitch!”
Star Wars? Graphic novel? This is right up my 8-year-old’s alley! The Jedi Academy books are written in a more comic book style, with journal entries and news articles added in as the “novel” part. My son loves reading about new characters in the Star Wars world, and the characters being close to his age put him right in the action.
From the publisher: “Greg Heffley is in big trouble. School property has been damaged, and Greg is the prime suspect. But the crazy thing is, he’s innocent. Or at least sort of. The authorities are closing in, but when a surprise blizzard hits, the Heffley family is trapped indoors. Greg knows that when the snow melts he’s going to have to face the music, but could any punishment be worse than being stuck inside with your family for the holidays?”
More Wimpy Kid this week! This is the third time my 8-year-old has read this book, and he’s still not tired of it! I hope Jeff Kinney never stops writing these books. (This one was also made into a movie in 2016!)
What We’re Reading Together
From the publisher: “Ada Ríos grew up in Cateura, a small town in Paraguay built on a landfill. She dreamed of playing the violin, but with little money for anything but the bare essentials, it was never an option…until a music teacher named Favio Chávez arrived. He wanted to give the children of Cateura something special, so he made them instruments out of materials found in the trash. It was a crazy idea, but one that would leave Ada—and her town—forever changed. Now, the Recycled Orchestra plays venues around the world, spreading their message of hope and innovation.”
We are finishing up Matilda and starting Ada’s Violin. This is a beautiful book, and a Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee. (I’m sure it will be nominated for more awards.) It’s an inspirational story, full of sadness and hope, and a great way to show kids that you don’t need a lot of stuff to be successful. (I’ll include a longer review in my TBA review series!)
Texas Bluebonnet Award 2017-2018
The Texas Bluebonnet Award nominees for 2017-2018 are here! (They were actually here in November, but I’m just now getting around to them . . .) The Texas Bluebonnet Award (click HERE for the official website) is one of my favorites because kids vote for the winner. Each year, a selection committee chooses 20 books based on suggestions from librarians, kids, parents, and teachers, and the official list is announced at the Texas Book Festival in Austin. Throughout the year, eligible students in grades 3-6 must read (if they want to vote) at least 5 books, and then they vote for their favorite! Last year’s winner was Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson.
If you want to check out the Bluebonnet Award website, it is HERE. Even if you’re not in Texas, you might get some good ideas for your or your kid’s next book. If you go HERE, you can see book trailers for each nominee, or go to the Texas Bluebonnet Award YouTube channel.
I love this award for two reasons. One, anything that encourages and rewards authors, especially authors of quality children’s books, is worth supporting. Two, this award encourages reading for kids. I volunteer at my kids’ school library, and every year I’ve managed to be there when the wonderful librarian announces the books to a few classes and shows them the book trailers. The kids are incredibly enthusiastic, many of them vowing to read all 20 books, and more than a few jumping up and down with excitement. If you didn’t know what was going on, you might think the librarian had announced that summer had come early this year and class was cancelled. All kids should be that excited about reading!
My goal is to fit in the 20 books by the end of the summer. Some of the books are shorter picture books, some are longer chapter novels, and all of them look interesting. I’ll post mini reviews here of each book as I read them. If you want to keep up with my reviews of these books, just select the Texas Bluebonnet Award category from the dropdown menu over on the right!
2016 Winner–Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson
2017-2018 Nominees
–Ada’s Violin by Susan Hood
–The Best Man by Richard Peck
–Follow the Moon Home: A Tale of One Idea, Twenty Kids, and a Hundred Sea Turtles by Philippe Cousteau and Deborah Hopkinson
–The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
–The Great Pet Escape by Victoria Jamieson
–The Great Shelby Holmes by Elizabeth Eulberg
–In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse by Joseph Marshall
–The Key to Extraordinary by Natalie Lloyd
–The Last Kids on Earth by Max Brallier
–Little Cat’s Luck by Marion Dane Bauer
–Lola Levine: Drama Queen by Monica Brown
–The Magnificent Mya Tibbs: Spirit Week Showdown by Crystal Allen
–Maybe a Fox by Kathi Appelt and Allison McGhee
–The Princess and the Warrior by Duncan Tonatiuh
–Soar by Joan Bauer
–Some Kind of Courage by Dan Gemeinhart
–The Storyteller by Evan Turk
–Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes
–Unidentified Suburban Objects by Mike Jung
–Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions by Chris Barton
[Top]Review: A Court of Mist and Fury
This is the second book in the Sarah J. Maas trilogy that began with A Court of Thorns and Roses. (Click HERE to read my review.) If you haven’t read the first one and plan to, stop reading now! There will be a few little spoilers in this review.
Feyre, having survived Amarantha and Under the Mountain, has paid a huge price to save Tamlin’s life, as well as the lives of the entire Fae realm. Although she is now High Fae herself and has some strong faerie powers (although she has no idea how strong yet), she cannot forget what she had to do to save her new people. She also has her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the Night Court, to contend with. By the end of the novel, Feyre must decide what, and who, she wants, and if she is willing to harness her new powers to save the world again.
Even though I had been told that this book was even better than the first, I was hesitant, because sequels are just never as good. (Unless you’re Harry Potter.) I’m so glad I was wrong. Like A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury is slow to start, but after 100 pages or so (a drop in the bucket of an almost 700-page book) I couldn’t put it down. Just like the first book, I think this one is incorrectly categorized as YA, and if you like fantasy novels you’ll love this one. There are some formulaic plots going on here, but it doesn’t bother me. (We know we’re supposed to be rooting for Rhysand over Tamlin, we kind of know where it’s going end up, we just don’t know why. This novel really explores the why.) Formulas are fine if they’re done well, and Maas does a great job once again.
We get a lot more character development with Feyre, and a lot more with Rhysand. However, what’s different here from most other novels like this is that while we do have character development for both the female and male leads, their development is not dependent on each other. Whatever Feyre chooses to do with her powers and her future, you know she’s going to be making that decision by herself and for herself. Feyre is definitely not a princess in need of saving, and this book shows exactly why and how she can save herself, and not in an implausible way. This is what Disney princesses should be. (Without all the sexy bits.)
If you haven’t read this one, start now! The third book in the trilogy, A Court of Wings and Ruin, comes out May 2!
Parenting Review: 1-2-3 Magic
I know, this isn’t exactly the type of non-fiction book review you’d expect to see on a book review blog. But I really enjoyed reading it, and it has changed my parenting game, so I wanted to leave a brief review here. Our pediatrician recommended this book a few years ago, and I filed it away one my mental to-be-read shelf. A few months ago, another pediatrician friend raved about it, and that sealed the deal. (When she said this book was required reading for her entire residency class, I knew I had to read it too.) “1-2-3 Magic” is simple and effecting, and really reduces stress for parents and kids.
The premise of the method is simple. So simple you might think you’re already doing it. Count stop behaviors.
That’s it.
I mean, there’s more. But the basic idea is to only count stop behaviors. (Things you want your child to stop doing.)
If you have kids, I’m almost positive you’ve used the, “If you don’t do XYZ by the time I get to three . . . one . . . two . . . two and a half . . . three!” And then . . . nothing happens most of the time. The kid doesn’t do what you want or stop what you want them to stop, and most of us don’t really have a great follow through. I’ve had several friends without kids catch me doing that, and when they ask if counting to three really works, I always had to say, “No, not really.” “1-2-3 Magic” plays on that counting theme, and it actually works.
When your child is doing something you want them to STOP, say, “That’s one.” If they continue, you say, “That’s two.” If they stop, great! Move on! If they don’t, it’s, “That’s three, go take five,” and they go take a five-minute break in their room or wherever you choose, or they give up whatever it is they’ve been misusing. And that’s it. Really.
There are no long explanations of why what they’re doing is wrong, why you don’t appreciate it, the history of all children everywhere, etc. That’s my downfall; I always want to over explain things to my kids, and all they hear is, “blah, blah, blah.” The most you really have to say is, “We don’t do that, that’s three, go take five.”
The first couple of weeks were a little rough as my kids got used to the new counting method, but now I rarely get past two before they stop. They know what to expect, I have a follow-through plan, and we are all way less stressed out. I don’t get frustrated when they’re misbehaving, because a simple plan is already in place, and if they actually make it to the third count, their anger at getting a time out (and it’s not really a time out) is short-lived because they know at the end of the five or ten minutes, the whole thing is finished and they’re not going to get a long speech from me about the golden rule.
It. Is. Magic.
There are a ton of great ideas in this book, including some about using positive reinforcement for start behavior (things you DO want your child to do, such as getting ready for school in a timely fashion), but the modified counting method is the main event.
You can definitely read this book in a few days, even just one day if you have the time. I read the e-book and then bought the paperback version, and I would recommend just buying or borrowing the paperback. The e-book version seemed to leave out quite a bit, and it’s nice to be able to flip back and forth in the real version.
Do you have any parenting books you love? Let me know!
[Top]What My Kids Are Reading 4/7/17
Welcome to What My Kids Are Reading! Each week I’ll let you know what my kids have been reading and loving, as well as what I have been reading to them. It sometimes seems as though their interests change every week, but that just keeps their book choices interesting! Hopefully this will helpful to some of you looking to pick up some new books for your kids. Let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions!
The 8-Year-Old
From the publisher: “Greg Heffley’s on a losing streak. His best friend, Rowley Jefferson, has ditched him, and finding new friends in middle school is proving to be a tough task. To change his fortunes, Greg decides to take a leap of faith and turn his decisions over to chance. Will a roll of the dice turn things around, or is Greg’s life destined to be just another hard-luck story?”
Jeff Kinney certainly has hit on a winner with the Wimpy Kid series. My 8-year-old loves the series, and he breezed through book 8 of this series this week. He is constantly telling me the funny parts, laughing out loud while reading, and talking about the characters. This book and series is definitely a winner!
From the publisher: “Max Crumbly is about to face the scariest place he’s ever been: South Ridge Middle School. There’s a lot that’s great about his new school, but there’s also one big problem—Doug, the school bully whose hobby is stuffing Max in his locker. If only Max could be like the hero in his favorite comics. Unfortunately, Max’s uncanny, almost superhuman ability to smell pizza from a block away won’t exactly save any lives or foil bad guys. But that doesn’t mean Max won’t do his best to be the hero his school needs!”
This is a new series from the author of the Dork Diaries. My son just started this yesterday, and so far he likes it. Some of the concepts might be a bit over his head, so we may set it aside for a year or so, but I don’t think it’s inappropriate. My 8-year-old loves to read funny books about slightly older kids, so this is right in his wheelhouse.
The 5-Year-Old
From the book flap: “Is there such a thing as too much birthday? Poor Sister is overwhelmed by her big, noisy sixth-birthday party. Her sympathetic parents help her realize the true importance of having a birthday in this humorous exercise in moderation for cubs–and parents.”
My 5-year-old just learned to read this year, and lately he’s been taking on bigger reading challenges, such as my beloved Berenstain Bears books. I have passed them all on to my kids, and instead of me reading them, my 5-year-old wants to try and read them himself. Any Berenstain Bears books are fantastic, but I’m partial to the ones published in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. (My 8-year-old doesn’t mind listening in when I read them out loud either!)
This might seem like a simple book, and it is, but to a new reader it’s awesome when they can sound out all the words on their own! I’ve read this one to my kids for years, and my 5-year-old can read it to me now. It makes him laugh, and he likes seeing what the silly monkeys will do next!
What We’re Reading Together
I love reading to my kids, and they won’t let me get away with not reading to them, even if it’s already way past their bedtime. This week we have been reading one of my all-time favorite childhood books: Matilda. Roald Dahl was a master storyteller, and really understood what kids want to read and what they think is funny. He didn’t try to spare them unpleasant moments, instead cushioning them with a funny bit involving the unpleasant things. My kids, especially my 8-year-old, have been loving this one. Matilda is funny and shows kids that they can have power too, even if the adults around them don’t always understand.
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