children's books

The last time I shared what Little Miss and I were reading, or going to read, I shared a couple of books we hadn’t read yet so today I thought I’d let you know what we thought of the books.

First up was Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle

Little Miss loved this book so much that we had to read it three times in a row. We may even read it a couple of more times before we take it back to the library later this week.

She also loved Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson. We read this one three times, with her doing the voices of the animals and me reading the narration a couple of the times. This is a truly adorable book, and we might even buy a copy to add to our collection.

Neither of us really liked the book Eat Like A Bear by April Pulley Sayre (incidentally it was interesting to see the last name Sayre, as that is the name of the town I first lived in when I married The Husband). This was a conservation book and it was just … well, odd. We didn’t enjoy it and only read it once and then put it back in the bag to go back to the library.

I picked Sachiko Means Happiness by Kimiko Sakai up at a book sale and I decided to put that one aside because it deals with Alzheimer’s in a grandparent and I really didn’t like the way it was written.

We did not get a chance to start Match Wits with Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of Black Peter and The Gloria Scott by Murray Shaw but I may try to read that this week. I renewed it from the library, so we have it for another couple of weeks.

I also renewed Spirit of the West by Jahnna N. Malcom, which is a chapter book, because we are using it for history and are learning a lot about the Nez Perce tribe, which I didn’t even know anything about before reading this book. I have used it as a jumping-off point to videos about the Nez Perce so we can learn even more about them and their life in Washington and Oregon before they were driven off their land by white settlers. This tribe was well known for their work with the Appaloosa horse breed, which the white settlers eventually decided they wanted to take from them, sadly.

We have not got to Little Town in the Ozarks by Roger Lea MacBride and I don’t know if we will or not because we have been reading Spirit of the West and the Imagination Station books and Little Miss has been listening to Fortunately the Milk each night before bed.

I have placed four books on hold at the library and have just been told they are available for us to pick up.

Snowmen at Night by Caralyn (sic) Buehner

Monarch Butterflies by Ann Hobbie

The Squirrels Who Squabbled by Rachel Bright

The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig

And

What The Dinosaurs Did Last Night by Refe Tuma

I will keep you updated on what we think about these latest books as well.

What have your littles or grand-littles been reading lately? Anything good?!

I’m starting a new monthly (or bi-monthly, I haven’t decided which) feature today called Little Miss’s Reading Corner where I will discuss books she and I have either read together or are reading now.

Up today are the Fly Guy books by Tedd Arnold.

Tedd Arnold is someone we found out about when The Boy (my internet nickname for my teenager) was a kid because Tedd was born about 30 minutes away from where we lived at the time and was the guest author at a couple of local library events.

He also held a book signing at a local comic shop my husband used to go to.

Tedd was born in Elmira, N.Y. but from a search on the interwebs, I learned he now lives in Florida, or Land of the Free, as my family calls it. Tedd is the writer and illustrator for his books and is an award winning children’s author. According to his Wikapedia page, “Tedd’s first book, No Jumping on the Bed! was an IRA-CBC Children’s Choice book and was also selected as a Parents Magazine 50 All-Time Best Children’s Book. He is a three-time winner of the ALA’s Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor for Hi! Fly Guy and for I Spy Fly Guy, and Noodleheads See the Future.”

He has written and illustrated 19 Fly Guy books. The books are simple chapter reads for younger ages and follow the friendship of Fly Guy, a talking fly, and a boy named Buzz.

We do not own all of the Fly Guy books. I think we own maybe 10 of them, so we have some catching up to do. We also own two other of Tedd’s book, Parts, and More Parts.

Parts is a hilariously gross book that The Boy liked more than Little Miss does. It’s about how our fingernails peel or dead skin falls off, boogers fly out, etc. and adults joke that parts of our bodies are coming off and how a young boy interprets these references as scenes of horror. It really makes a parent think about how literal kids can be and how we have to be careful how we word things while also helping the child realize that when a parent asks if a child lost part of their brain when they sneezed, they are joking and not being literal.

More Parts, obviously, is about more gross stuff our bodies do.

Anyhow, back to Fly Guy.

Fly Guy calls Buzz, Buzzzzzzz and says a lot of things with that zzzz sound at the end like a fly would say in real life. What? You’ve never heard flies talk to you? Oh. Never mind then.

The books are full of fun adventures, silliness, and in Tedd fashion, a little bit of gross. They are geared toward boys or girls but some boys might prefer the ick factor a little more than the girls do. These books are not overtly icky but sometimes some icky stuff with garbage or dirt happens because we are talking about the life of a fly here.

The books are written with simple words and would be considered early readers.

Because Little Miss enjoys the books so much (they are the first ones she read out loud to me two years ago when she really started picking up reading… you know back when I thought I was failing her as a homeschooling parent and then she started reading texts over my shoulder and I realized she’d picked up a lot more than I thought) I bought her a stuffed Fly Guy for Christmas last year. I thought she’d be excited. Instead, she screamed and said, “ew! A stuffed fly! Why would you think I’d want that?”

So poor Fly Guy was relegated to the bottom of one of her toy boxes.

Tedd has written over 100 children’s books so if Fly Guy isn’t your cup of tea, I’m sure you’ll find something else he’s written that you or your child will enjoy.

The Boy and I read No More Jumping on the Bed years ago and loved that one too. I need to get that and No More Water in the Tub for Little Miss next.

To read more about Tedd and his books, check out the Scholastic site HERE.

Or watch this video I found with him: