Munchkin Monday – Our most recent library haul

We go to the public library pretty often. I almost wrote “a lot” in all caps, but then that seemed to be a little too much. We do go, though, every two to three weeks, on average. The kids love it, and we actually have two community branches within 10 minutes of home; we get to switch it up a bit! So, I thought I’d share what we picked up last time we visited the library. As you can see, I haven’t managed to read all of them. Try as I might to get the kids to read all the books we check out, they wind up having favorites and some get ignored. I’ve commented on those books the kids or I found to be particularly good or interesting. By the way–all of these books are hyperlinked to their Amazon pages in case you want to check them out for yourselves; I can’t seem to figure out at the moment how to change the text color to make that more prominent. Enjoy!

Little Pookie by Sandra Boynton

A Birthday for Frances by Russell Hoban  (I haven’t read this.) (UPDATE – I have now. I liked it – it had a good message about not being jealous when it’s your sibling’s birthday. It was a bit advanced for my kids, though.)

Don’t Get Lost! by Pat Hutchins

Stella, Star of the Sea (Stella and Sam) by Marie-Louise Gay  — I really enjoy this one. I can sort of relate to Stella as the big sister (and now, as Mom) being asked SO MANY QUESTIONS. I felt compelled, though, to tell my kids which of Stella’s many explanations to her younger brother are just wrong. Now they point it out to me, which makes me proud. I can’t have my kids going around saying starfish are stars from the sky that learned how to swim. 🙂

Annie’s Ark by Leslie Harker (I haven’t read this, either. That needs to change.)(UPDATE: I read this, too. It’s a great adaptation of the Biblical Noah’s Ark, with Annie as Noah’s granddaughter, with him on the Ark.)

A Thanksgiving Turkey by Julian Scheer

Tallulah’s Solo by Marilyn Singer — My four-year-old likes Tallulah a lot; this is the second Tallulah book we’ve borrowed recently. She doesn’t seem to want to read the actual story too often, but it’s the sort of thing she will just bring up out of the blue weeks down the road. I think it’s because she finds ballet intriguing.

Serious Farm by Tim Egan — We REALLY like this one, kids and parents alike. It’s a silly story about a farmer whose animals leave because he’s too serious, and the illustrations (check out the animals’ eyes!) are perfect! I can’t help but enjoy the larger lesson-learned here more than anything else: “‘Well that’s no way to solve a problem,’ said Farmer Fred. ‘You don’t just leave…And, besides, we’re a family.”

Put Me in the Zoo (I can read it all by myself’ Beginner Books) by Robert Lopshire — If we owned this book, I think we’d read it over and over and over and over. The kids just love it.

Goldilocks Returns by Lisa Campbell Ernst — This is a great story about Goldilocks returning to “fix” what she messed up at the bears’ cottage- 50 years later! The kids love it, even though they don’t know the original Goldilocks story well enough (or at all?) to understand what’s going on. This is another one with perfect illustrations; I’m beginning to wonder if they’re just better when the author is also the illustrator.

I Know a Rhino by Charles Fuge — This is about a little girl and her stuffed animals. It’s fun, and the kids seem to really enjoy it.

Well, that’s what I have for today. Have you read any of these? As always, let me know what you think!