This is the first of hopefully many future installments of "The Wednesday Book Review." Several of the blogs I frequent have regular themed postings such as "Thankful Thursday," "Tirade Tuesday," "Wordless Wednesday", "Flashback Friday." Well, here's my version of this trend, minus the alliteration (although Fabulous Friday might be considered a somewhat irregular, regular installment). It is my goal to provide an informal, amateur review of either a children's book or an adult fiction or nonfiction book. My hope is that you will enjoy reading these reviews, might consult the blog when trying to buy a gift for a friend or child (why not a book?), or read the reviews before purchasing a book for yourself or your child. And, hopefully start a little dialogue about books in general...
A little history: I am an avid reader. Always have been. Hope I always will be. My summers were spent reading book after book with my brother Andrew. I would start a book in the morning and finish it at midnight that night, only to trade with my brother and start a new one the next day. In highschool I actually enjoyed the summer reading lists. I'll never forget reading Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy for the first time the summer before my Senior year. And after Sophia was born I read Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos with my free hand while I nursed. This is a good, girly book, with themes from my favorite childhood series, Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. Don't get me started on that series. Read every book. Read the books in a tree, pretending like I was Anne. Rented and then purchased the movies. Cried my eyes out when Matthew died. Still refer to people as "kindred spirits" and hope to visit Prince Edward Island in my lifetime.
As far as children's books are concerned, I am surrounded with them all day at work. Several of my assignments during graduate school required creating language and articulation lessons based on popular children's books. Children's literature is essential in language therapy. As a speech therapist I look for books with repetitive texts, rhyming, alliteration, and thematic vocabulary. I have an arsenal of books that I pull from and can recite from memory. I adore librarians and pre-school teachers because they too, find themselves quoting children's books at the strangest moments.
On this first installment of "The Wednesday Book Review," I would like to share with you Duck on a Bike by David Shannon:
Synopsis - Spirited duck gets the crazy idea to ride a bike. Readers ride with him as he greets the other barnyard animals who are not too sure about duck's hairbrained idea. That is until they see a large group of children riding around on bikes too....
My thoughts: This is a great book for teaching kids about farm animal names and sounds. I also love David Shannon's insight into their personalities. The horse is just a tad bit snobbish, the sheep loving and concerned, and the goat perpetually hungry! Kids are immediately attracted to the illustrations because they are bright and fun. There is simple, repetitive text for children to quickly memorize.
Library or Barnes and Noble?: I would definately recommend purchasing this book for your home - it's just too great!
How about you? Do you have a favorite childhood book series like Anne of Green Gables or a favorite childhood book?
4 comments:
Little House on the Prairie. Must have read them 50 times growing up. Loved them!
Ooo, ooo, me, me, call on me!!
I love children's books. They are the only books I love. Unfortunately, I am NOT an avid reader of grown up books (trauma when in early elementary, but that's another comment entirely). I thank God for Children's Lit. in college. I've always loved children and when I was introduced to the wonderful children's literature out there, I couldn't wait to share that with them.
Having taught first grade, we had many theme oriented lessons and I loved pulling out my stack of books related to that theme.
I was the teacher that bought tons of books from Scholastic. And now that I have my own children, I'm the parent that purchases tons of books from Scholastic.
We have a "library" area for the kids with a large book shelf full of books and another one upstairs. Somebody stop me!
My old favorites were stories like Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Three Little Pigs, and The Three Bears...many of these were Golden Books.
I look forward to your next "Wednesday Book Review" post. ;)
My favorites as a kid were the Encyclopedia Brown books. Sarah doesn't know I still sneak around the house looking for clues and pretending to be a gumshoe.
Can you believe that I never read The LIttle House on the Prairie books? This will definately be the first series I read with Sophia. Poor girl, just like Mamamia's kids, she doesn't have a choice - books are just a part of being in our household. Fortunately Sophia seems to like them. Mamamia, when do they start sending home those little Scholastic brochures - the kind that the print rubs off on your hand? I loved those things and the free posters too! Tony, I'm glad that you read encyclopedias growing up. The trivia is sure entertaining on dates!
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