The Lorax ~ Dr. Seuss

Many of the Dr. Seuss books we own are the ones that carry some sort of important message—Oh The Places You’ll Go, The Sneetches, The Butter Battle Book, etc. and of course, The Lorax. In the last year our family has made a great effort to reduce our carbon footprint, and to teach Bee the importance of taking care of the Earth. Bee received The Lorax as a gift from her uncle for her birthday, and tonight as we read it we once again discussed renewable resources, power, etc. Such concepts can be so overwhelming to a young child, but The Lorax really gave me a good discussion point as she could see what happened when there was no longer shade, the air became polluted, etc.

Mouse Tales ~ Arnold Lobel

This book was a gift from Bee’s grandparents, and the individual tales inside of it are very cute. We read her favorite one tonight, “Very Tall Mouse and Very Short Mouse”. Lobel focuses on the different perspectives that each mouse has due to being either very tall or very short. Bee told me her favorite part is when “they use teamwork in the end and Very Tall Mouse helps Very Short Mouse see the beautiful rainbow.”

Try and Stick With It ~ Cheri J. Meiners

Here’s another book from the Learning to Get Along series that we read tonight. I decided to pull out Try and Stick With It because lately Bee gives up on many things out of frustration. Simple things like getting dressed, which I know she can do, involve many shouts and whines of, “But it’s too hard!” The moment she does something wrong, she gives up (okay, she’s a bit of a perfectionist, like her mother). This book emphasizes the challenge and the learning experience of trying something new—it reinforced what I have been telling her—that the more you try to do something, the better you get at it. After finishing this book, Bee declared that maybe she’d try to put her socks on herself tomorrow—and if you knew what a battle in our house that one thing has been, you’d know I’m looking forward to tomorrow morning!

The Tale of Peter Rabbit ~ Beatrix Potter

Every now and then I admit, I try to sway Bee’s book choice for the day to something more “classic.” While I enjoy all of the books we’re reading and discovering at our library and bookstore, I also am trying to introduce her to books that were a part of my childhood. Growing up we had an entire treasury of Beatrix Potter books. I don’t have the same for her, but we bought her The Tale of Peter Rabbit for Easter and it has been sitting on her shelf for months just waiting to be read. Tonight it took no coaxing for her to choose “the book about the bunny.” As we read she just kept saying over and over, “Oh no, he’s a bad, bad bunny!” which made me laugh, of course.

Goodnight, Moon ~ Margaret Wise Brown

Okay now, how many of us can recite this book by heart? For a long time, Goodnight Moon was THE bedtime book for Bee. There was only one, and this was it… until she started asking for other books, and I was happy to oblige (while at the same time sad that a tradition was ending). We were reorganizing Bee’s bookshelves tonight (sadly “retiring” some of her board books to make room for new books that will come at Christmastime), and she begged me to read Goodnight Moon to her. Snuggling up with her as we read (and I should note—although she was close to three when we stopped reading it together and she wasn’t very verbal then—she still amazed me with how she knew most of the pages word-for-word), it made me nostalgic. And Bee was delighted to spot The Runaway Bunny sitting atop of the bookcase on one of the pages!

Just Grandma and Me ~ Mercer Mayer

Grandma and Papa are paying us a visit soon, and so I thought I’d pull out Just Grandma and Me to read with Bee tonight. It’s all about Little Critter spending his day with Grandma at the beach, where he tries to be on his best behavior and be helpful. Hopefully when Grandma and Papa arrive, Bee will be in the same sort of mood!

Duck on a Bike ~ David Shannon

Now here’s a book by David Shannon that Bee enjoyed! Duck on a Bike is about a duck that steals a kid’s bike and pedals around the farm while all the other animals make comments. Not much of interest for me, but for Bee? Well, a duck is the best… and a duck on a bike? That’s FUNNY! She laughed her way through this book, while I just laughed at her (because I couldn’t help but think, “Really? That was funny?”). Shannon obviously did a good job of satisfying his target audience!

A Bad Case of Stripes ~ David Shannon

I should have known that Bee would NOT be a fan of this book! I was surprised when she picked out A Bad Case of Stripes at the library, but I wasn’t about to argue! Bee has this phobia to do with changing… the book Pinkalicious scares her (when the girl turns pink), she won’t watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory because of the part where Violet turns into a blueberry, we have to skip the part in Monsters Vs. Aliens where Susan becomes Ginormica… you get the point. David Shannon set out to write a book for youngsters about not caring what others think about them—I’m sure he had no idea a phobia like Bee’s existed! While the book might be a good one, we couldn’t get past the part where Camilla turned red, white, and blue like the colors of the American flag during the Pledge of Allegiance…

Llama Llama Misses Mama ~ Anna Dewdney

We read Llama Llama Red Pajama a while ago, but I didn’t realize that it was part of a series! Today at the bookstore we spotted Llama Llama Misses Mama, and Bee just had to have me read it to her! Llama Llama heads off to his first day of school and is very nervous. Friends and teachers try to engage him, but he is too preoccupied with his Mama being gone to enjoy himself. Finally, after some tears, he is convinced that she will return, and actually begins to participate—just as Mama shows up! Bee didn’t have transition issues with Kindergarten because she had been in full-time daycare since she was two, but I think this would be an excellent book to read with any child who is just starting school. When I asked Bee if she misses me when she’s at school she just shrugged and said, “No, I’m too busy.” Gee, thanks!

A side note: Here we are just two months into our little project and two-and-a-half months into Kindergarten, and Bee is really starting to recognize more sight words! See, like, the, and, etc. I am curious how much of the reading will be done by her by the time we get to the end of this 365-day journey!

Museum ABC ~ The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This beautiful book was gifted to us by Bee’s adoring auntie, who works in a museum herself! The premises is no different than other A-B-C books, but what makes this book truly outstanding is the pages filled with art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. On each page is a letter and a word, and on the opposing page are four pieces of art depicting that word. “B is for Boat.” “C is for Cat.” Bee loves to point out all the differences on the pages (“that cat has green eyes, that one has black and white fur, etc.”) and at the same time is getting a lesson in how different art can be! What I love as well is that in the back of the book, every work of art used is referenced, in case I want to look it up and show Bee the larger version.