New Year, New Library Love

Happy new year to you all! We are just beginning to take down all our Christmas decorations here, and similarily, our book selections are less seasonal too.  Life and library runs are returning to "normal" (i.e. the kids are trying to grab all their familiar books while Mom is trying to force encourage the reading of new books). I'd like to think though that there were more winners than losers in this bunch - winners, of course, meaning "those books that were not thrown aside immediately by the kids after the first read."

First up: A Kiss for Little Bear and Penguin Problems
How cute are these books?! I used to have a Little Bear treasury growing up, and I remember loving them. This story wasn't included in the treasury though, but once I started reading it to the kids it was like being reunited with an old friend. I love that. Plus the skunks in Little Bear were darling and even made the wee girl giggle with their kissing antics. Definite recommend.

Penguin Problems also makes the wee girl laugh but I'm torn. I love reading it - I get to use all my funny voices - but it's about a penguin who does nothing but complain all the time, and that just makes me slightly hesitant to recommend it to others. But maybe I shouldn't be so worried? (The part about how all the penguins look the same is just too funny.) Totally preview this one in the library first.

Next: Dig! and Blankie
These are the little dude's current favorites. He loves all things "digger" but I don't like that most books that contain "diggers" are just pictures with one word next to them. (Maybe I've been looking in the wrong place for these kind of books?) There's actually a story that goes along with this book, so even though the text is a tad repetitive, this was still a great book to add to our pile.

On Blankie: Leslie Patricelli's art is what makes all her books so fun. This one is no exception. Little dude's favorite part seems to be when I say "Super Blankie!" *shrug*

Every Cowgirl Needs Dancing Boots and (a repeat) Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa: Spring Babies
Two things: first, I succeeded in getting out of the library without bringing *all* of the Cowgirl Kate books home with us! (Yay!) Second, I just found out that "Every Cowgirl" is actually a series of its own, so this may be the new "thing". We'll see...

The story for why we got these books is the real reason why I'm happy to share them - we were listening to Grammy's favorite radio station, Classical KDFC (go ahead and give them a listen!) when Aaron Copland's Rodeo: Hoedown came on. When the song was done the little girl really wanted to listen to it again... and again... and again... (it's been on non-stop repeat now for a few days). But when I told her the name of the song was called "Hoedown" she didn't know what that was. Library books to the rescue!! At first I wasn't sure that the first book was going to cut it, but it actually turned out to be a great story about how to make a new friend. It's really endearing. A definite recommend. And you can read my (brief) thoughts about Cowgirl Kate here.

And now commences the books that Mom sneaked into the pile...

Once Upon a Northern Night

It was the illustrations that grabbed me for this one, and when I got home I realized why: the illustrator is the same one who did Migrant (a book that we read over the summer for the Read the World bookclub). I loved that book. This one is also lovely and perfect for bedtime reading. But now to *my* favorite...

Du Iz Tak?

At first I thought that this book was in another language... and it is! Just not one that anyone will recognize because the author made it up. 

It's so creative! I love a story where I have to pay attention to the pictures as much as the kids do so I can understand the story better. It's like getting to be a kid again. So I'll need to read it through a few more times before bringing this one to the kids. However, I won't need any practice on how to read this page:

BOOBY VOOBECK!! 😝

And finally, for myself:

The Inquisitor's Tale (or The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog)

Already I'm making changes to my 2017 Reading Challenge: this one is replacing the one listed for "Book chosen for its cover". The gold embossing caught my eye and for whatever reason the dog drew me in. Then I read this review on Goodreads and I was sold. I hope it lives up to the hype.

Alicia at Sweeping Up Joy has some more new year's recommendations for you too! Do *you* have any for me? Do share! and thanks, in advance.

A 7QT Summer Reading Edition

Most folks like to post about their summer reading before it happens. As in, "Look at all these lovely books that I'm going to read this summer!" Those are awesome people. I'm happy if I'm able to look back on the season and say, "Hey look! I read something this summer!"

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But of course... having some guided inspiration never hurts when one is creating a to-read book list - especially if it's for the kiddos. So I was excited to stumble across Jamie C Martin's book: Give Your Child the World.

Amazon was out of stock for 10 days after you guys bought up ALL the copies of #giveyourchildtheworld 😍 But they finally have more - so go snag them now at 42% off: amzn.to/1OeVyWy (And thank you! ❤️)

A photo posted by Jamie C Martin (@jamie_cmartin) on Jul 10, 2016 at 7:03am PDT

It's a reference book with lists organized by age group and geographical region. To launch her book she and another blogger, Sarah MacKenzie (of Read Aloud Revival fame) are running a online/virtual book club where the only "responsibility" is to read one book from the region for the week. I jumped at joining the book club because:

1. This is the kind of responsibility I can handle!
2. It guarantees that I will have at least 1 book every week to read to the Spitfire that is not Maisy-related. #winning

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Multi-cultural week

So, when I said jump you may have thought I was just being all writer-y and stuff. (Cause I's is good at being writer-y). But no, I was so excited to get on board that even though I didn't yet have GYCTW, I looked on Instagram to see what other people were checking out, and then drove 20 miles to the only library that had these books... On the day before the library would be closed for a 3-day holiday weekend... 3 hours before closing time. No really. I wanted the books and I wanted to get started NOW.  It was the "Maps" book that I knew the wee girl would love, and I was right. She is very much into maps these days. She likes to draw maps leading people to dragon caves and she likes to look at maps and show people where Grammy and Poppy live...
"And this is Michigan." (She says as she points to Africa) "Grammy and Poppy live here."
(Yeah. We're still working on it...)
We had to return that book yesterday because it was due and someone else had reserved it (I'm guessing a fellow GYCTW-er), and for the first time the Spitfire almost refused to give it to the librarian. I guess we know what's on her birthday gift list this year...

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Africa week

This week was kind of a bust. I still didn't have GYCTW and Instagram wasn't being helpful. I found these 2 books on my own, and I thought they were awesome. But the only one I could get the little girl to sit through was "Imani's Moon". It was a sweet story of a little girl who gets teased by the other girls in the village for being small, but then she "rises" to do a very big thing. It has that magical element of literature that the author of Love in the Time of Cholera is also known for... what's that called again? (See. I'm very writer-y). Anyway. good book. And I loved the illustrations in "For You Are a Kenyan Child" but I couldn't get the Spitfire to read it. I'll try again another day...

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Europe week

Ah, Europe week... a.k.a. the week I caved and got a book with Maisy in it. I think the Spitfire was beginning to suspect that I was trying to #givemychildtheworld or something, so she started being very obstinate about her reading material. But I also lucked out with finding City Cat - cause if a book is not about maps, or Maisy, then it will still be read if it has a cat in it! This story is about a cat who follows an Italian family on their vacation around Europe. The illustrations are perfect, and while the prose is a little less-than perfect, we still really enjoyed it. Actually, I double-lucked out with this one because not only did City Cat have a cat in it, it also has a map of Europe in it! #winningagain

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Our #giveyourchildtheworld picks for North America week! Glad "ABC of Canada" was available as an eBook, or none of our selections would have been from @jamie_cmartin 's excellent book. A suggestion though? Future editions should definitely include "Migrant" by Maxine Trottier - a gorgeous book about a low German speaking, Mennonite migrant worker family that travel between Mexico and Canada each year. The story is told from the viewpoint of the youngest daughter who likens her life to that of different animals she sees... Very wistful and poetic... It's broadened my world as well!

A photo posted by Sara Rooney (@rooney.sara) on Jul 21, 2016 at 3:53pm PDT

Oddly, this week North America only includes Canada and the United States?? And even though I finally had a copy of GYCTW in my hands, absolutely none of the books in her list were available at our local library (though if I wanted to drive 10 miles south I could get most of them! #nothin'doin'). ABC of Canada was available as an ebook though. I also feel like I might have a golden touch with picking books on a whim, because I picked up Migrant and I have absolutely loved it. (The jury is still out for the Spitfire. At this point, though, what would you expect? #gottalovethatgirl #andhashtags #alwaysthehashtags )

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And that's it so far! Next week is Middle East Week, followed by Asia Week, Latin America Week, and Australia/Oceania/Polar Regions Week. These upcoming weeks are the most exciting for me, so I'll be sure to make some reservations at the library and save myself some gas money.

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As for myself? I'm still firmly situated in my non-fiction/memoir camp. It's cozy here. I like it. Here's what I'm reading/have read/will read:

Maybe I should say "have read, am reading, may read"?

What I find particularly awesome about this, is while grabbing the pictures of these books off Goodreads, I found this:

Look at that! AHEAD of schedule! #thatsafirst #oki'mdonewiththehashtags #promise

What about you? What are you reading this summer (to yourself... to your kids)?

Check out other good blogs to read over at This Ain't the Lyceum, and leave your recommendation there (if not here).