Letters We Live By

The Story Starts Here! This is a great book we found at the library last week! If you'll notice, that's not the front cover! It's the back cover, because that is where Little Wolf wants to start the book. If you look at the front cover, this is what you see: This mischievous wolf wants to start the story at the end of the book. Why? Just because! He doesn't feel like being particularly conventional about anything today, though his parents frequently have something to say about that.  This is a funny little story that doesn't particularly have a point, with Little Wolf doing things differently just because he can, but it is just the right humor for a preschooler. Some parents might be disappointed by the lack of a real story, but this book is still fun to read, and definitely worth checking out at the library if you don't want to commit to owning it.

Dragons Love Tacos! I love this book! It's just plain silly. E loves yelling at the dragons not to eat the tacos at the appropriate moment, and I appreciate the droll humor the author employs. It's just my brand of sarcasm. There isn't a very complicated story here. The story is told through a narrator, who talks to a boy and his dog about dragons and how much they love tacos. And parties. Dragons love parties, too. But, what dragons DON'T like is spicy salsa, so whatever you do, don't give them spicy salsa. Take a wild guess what ends up happening...? Now, this book got some bad reviews on Amazon because "the story line was dull and boring" and "the lack of underlying message disappointed [her]." But come on, it's a silly book, and it's okay if your kids read something that's just plain fun sometimes. These people have no sense of fun, and you should ignore them.

Does your little one just love dancing? Mine does too! All she wants to do is dance around our living room. If you ask E, she'll tell you that she loves ballet more than anything except ice cream and even more than Mommy and Daddy! If I were going to buy books about dancing, these would be them!    I'm a Ballerina! (Little Golden Book) I love Little Golden Books! This book for little ballerinas comes with cute illustrations and is also pretty instructive! The little girl goes to her dance class, and we get to watch as she warms up and then shows us different dance positions and moves. The Only Boy in Ballet Class I hope this book will help both boys and girls who want to dance! This book is about a little boy who just LOVES to dance. However, not everyone understands him, and he's often bullied for being in ballet. The book shows how he uses the skills he learns in ballet class in more arenas than just dance. Hopefully, this book will help boys who lo...

I feel like the reintroduction of Belle's sisters adds something to the telling of Beauty and the Beast. Much better to deal with jealous sisters than a psychopathic potential lover. Find it here on Redbubble!  Beauty and the Beast

This is Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid! This tale is a bit more sad than the Disney version, as most stories are, but still very beautiful! Find it here on Redbubble!  The Little Mermaid

This book is one that both my three year old AND my one year old love! E likes it because she gets to laugh at the silly sheep and say "Kerplunk!" and "Splat!" along with the book. C loves it mainly because of the holes in the pages and how she can grab them and turn the pages and look through. Plus, she loves sheep and says "Baa!" throughout the book. Not only do my kids love this book, but I love it too! The verses in the book are so catchy, and it's just plain fun to read out loud. The book has five silly sheep who get covered in different colors of paint in a variety of silly ways, The kids get to learn colors, and the pictures depict a variety of farm chores, so you can talk about those too if you want. Great board book! Definitely one of our most-read books!

E's favorite book this week is The Snow Beast , by Chris Judge. We have read this book at least 7 times since we checked it out at the library four days ago!  It has a simple story with simple illustrations, and the jokes are perfect for a three year old. The Beast wakes up one morning to find that not only are all of his tools gone, but all the villagers' tools are gone too. When they blame the mysterious Snow Beast, the Beast goes on a quest to find him and get their tools back.

We checked out Strega Nona's Harvest from the library! We already have a couple books by Tomie dePaola, and we love the illustrations and simple stories. Strega Nona is a classic, and this book in the series is not disappointing! In Italian, Strega Nona roughly translates to Grandma Witch. Not the dark magic kind of witch, but more like an herbalist with home remedies. The book is laced with lots of Italian vocabulary, exposing littles to a new language. Just a quick pronunciation guide for reading this book: Italian is similar to Spanish in that all vowels are uniform. A=ah, E=eh, I=ee, O=oh, U=oo, and none of them are ever silent. The only tricky consonant is C. The letter C followed by A O or U makes a K sound. Followed by I or E, it makes a CH sound. So, the word CARCIOFO (which means asparagus) is pronounced kar-chee-OH-foh. And if you see a CH in a word, it makes a hard K sound, like in zucchini (even if there's more than one C!).  This book even teach...

I love this one! Currently, E wants to be Tinker Bell for Halloween, but we'll see how long that lasts! Peter Pan is one of the books that I'm looking forward to reading with the kiddos, but they're definitely way too young for chapter books right now. Soon though! Find it here on Redbubble!  Tinker Bell

This is a great little book for exposing youngsters to new cultures,and it's part of a series where lots of different Disney characters visit places around the world. Mickey and Donald learn that there's something interesting to do everywhere you go, and that even if it's not what you expected, you can make any vacation a fun and memorable one. I like the idea of teaching my kids that different is good, and that there's value in every culture and point of view even if it's different from their own. This story starts out with Mickey ad Donald going on vacation to England, but Donald doesn't realize that this in not a tropical island. Donald is disappointed and grumpy, even though Mickey's friend, Sir Reginald, tries to tell him that there are lots on interesting things to do in England. However, a ghostly nighttime visitor convinces Donald and Mickey that islands don't have to have hot sandy beaches to be fun!

Last night for bedtime story, E read Peter Rabbit for the first time! Her favorite part was when Peter jumped into the watering can and got all wet. Silly Peter! Beatrix Potter is a classic author, and I'm so excited to start introducing her fun stories and cute illustrations to my kids. E, who is 3 right now, is the perfect age to start these. She has just the right attention span, plus the ability to start understanding some of the simple morals (like "listen to your mother!" 😂). My site on Redbubble has Beatrix Potter's original illustrations, available on many different products! Beatrix Potter and more!

A fun little image, with the text from a version of Snow White that I magically can't find anymore! This one is one of my favorites! I like how the story frequently calls her "Little Snow." Here it is on Redbubble!   Snow White's Apple