Letters We Live By

First 100 Animals! Both of my kiddos have LOVED this book! If you're looking to get a book for a baby, this is the one for you. The book is very simple. It's just a book with pictures of the animals and their names underneath. We got the board book for E when she was maybe 6 months old, and even then she was fascinated by the pictures. It's been a family favorite ever since! The board book is a standard small size, but the full size book is rather huge! Without it right next to me, I'd guess it's about 12x12 inches. It makes for some pretty good looking pictures that are easy to see and easier for us to read with both kids at the same time. What's great about a book that's this simple is that there is a variety of ways to use and read it. Right now I'm reading this both with my 1.5 year old, C, and my 3.5 year old, E.  C particularly loves the page that has farm animals on it. She is infatuated with the cow and the sheep, and she love...

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.

Here's a short synopsis of Ready Player One, with NO spoilers (you're welcome). Along with that, is a short, very basic review of the movie. I'm no pro, but I do love books and movies! Ready Player One is set in a dystopian not-too-distant future. Life in 2044 is not awesome. Society has collapsed into war, the environment has been ruined, the economy has tanked, people are starving, but there is is one shining beacon amidst all the chaos and poverty: the Oasis. The Oasis, created by technological genius, James Halliday, is the ultimate virtual reality video game. Players are immersed in a completely different world, even attending virtual school there and buying virtual real estate and businesses. Meet our hero, Wade Watts. Or, as he's known in the Oasis, Parzival. He's a high school senior from Chicago, who is also a die-hard Gunter.  Now, let's back things up five years. James Halliday has just died, and upon his death a video is released to...

Let me preface this by saying that I am a HUGE Brandon Sanderson fan! I don't think I've met a single one of his books that I haven't liked. If you're looking for a fantasy author who keeps things clean, Sanderson is your guy! I can rest easy knowing that if my kids ever pick up a Sanderson book, they'll never run across anything explicit. This series is called The Stormlight Archive, and the style of this series is called epic fantasy. It is meant to be high fantasy, and so the books are long, and the series is longer! The point of view jumps from character to character, and there are lots of characters. One thing you need to know about Sanderson's writing in this series is that each book begins with introductory chapters before jumping in with the main character. So, if you're confused with the first chapter or three, hang on, things will settle down. He also has short "interludes" between parts of the book, with characters you probably ha...

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!

First, my husband and I are huge fans of audiobooks, so most of the books we read are in that format these days. This is one of the most recent ones. The title pretty much explains the book: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business . If there are any bad habits in your life you'd like to break, from fingernail biting to eating unhealthily, this book is the book for you.  I didn't really have anything in mind when I read it. My husband started it before I did and said it was interesting, so I joined in. Now that I've read it, I can think of several bad habits I can get rid of, and I can also think of a few good habits I'd like to start. This book explains how even though you might have failed at starting a new habit in the past, such as exercising ( ahem ), tweaking a few behaviors can help you succeed in the future. And that's one of the nice things about the book: what you're changing is your  behavior , not just your  at...

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...

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!