Visit Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts to see what they've been reading, along with others who post their favorites.
Thanks to Candlewick for the following books. The giveaway is at the end and I'm sharing the others as terrific gift possibilities. I hope you find some ideas for special gifts this season!
Meet Hillary, a multi-colored sheep whose wool supplied Santa with the makings for a sweater. He says it's just getting too cold on that all-night ride. Readers first get a taste of the "companion sheep" in Hillary's flock. There are the sweet ones, like Marian who loves hugs or Liz, "who loved reading. Anytime, anywhere." Then there is Brian, the sour one, always making remarks that aren't good, maybe especially to Hillary who loves lists and Christmas! Each one is uniquely characterized, including a startling friend. The sheep's owner, Farmer Jimmy, seems caring and always happy to be with his sheep. He eats jelly beans by the pocketful, loves tractors and the sheep. A real adventure happens to Hillary, and along the way Ryan Tubridy sneaks in some outrageous "sheepy" puns, adds a few pages of riddles at the end for more fun. For example, one chapter title is "Are Ewe Ready for This?" and another is "Fare Thee Wool". It's a chapter book for beginners who will have fun with it. Chris Judge adds to the humor with a few illustrations once in a while.
I'm not sure our lakes and ponds are thick enough, but we've just had a big snow and people are out sledding and cross-country skiing this week. Here in this book, Sarah Sullivan poetically describes a marvelous day out on the pond, learning, warming up in the snack-bar hut, back out again. It's an all-day happy adventure shown by illustrator Madeline Valentine with diverse people of all ages in a beautiful winter setting. They're doing a very favorite thing - ice skating. "Good friends gliding in a row./Holding on and letting go." Then, "Couples waltz./Children Race./Happy people./Happy place." Of course, the day ends with bath to warm up the toes, and a surprise ending, that beautifully illustrated nighttime pond, now inhabited by "others". Such a nice book that will both introduce the fun of skating or the good memories of past times.
Take any young child along Alphabet Street and they will love visiting all the shops, like Alphie's Bakery and Super Toys, or discovering what's inside King's Laundromat and that store with the interesting name, Yackety Zach's! (It's a Beauty Shop.) To see inside all one needs to do is to "lift the flap". That's where the Alphabet hides. A is for Alphie's Bakery, but inside, "B is for Bear, who is baking some bread." It's a color-filled fun journey Inzela P. Arrhenius creates in the illustrations as many kinds of animals take this ABC trip written by Jonathan Emmett.
I suspect readers only need to see the cover of Matt Tavares' new story of a favorite Christmas character to want to read it. A young reindeer named Dasher lived and worked with his family for J.P. Finnegan's Traveling Circus and Menagerie and he loved the story his mother told of her early life where it was always cold and snowy. There you only had to look up to see the North Star. Where they were was warm and that star seemed so far away. With night scenes that seem to jingle with magic (like that cover), readers learn just how Dasher met Santa and ended up helping deliver toys one Christmas with Santa's horse, Silverbell. You'll need to find the book to discover what's next, but it holds my favorite line, spoken by Dasher: "You're not going to believe this part." This will become a Christmas favorite, I'm sure!
Thanks to Candlewick for the following books. The giveaway is at the end and I'm sharing the others as terrific gift possibilities. I hope you find some ideas for special gifts this season!
Meet Hillary, a multi-colored sheep whose wool supplied Santa with the makings for a sweater. He says it's just getting too cold on that all-night ride. Readers first get a taste of the "companion sheep" in Hillary's flock. There are the sweet ones, like Marian who loves hugs or Liz, "who loved reading. Anytime, anywhere." Then there is Brian, the sour one, always making remarks that aren't good, maybe especially to Hillary who loves lists and Christmas! Each one is uniquely characterized, including a startling friend. The sheep's owner, Farmer Jimmy, seems caring and always happy to be with his sheep. He eats jelly beans by the pocketful, loves tractors and the sheep. A real adventure happens to Hillary, and along the way Ryan Tubridy sneaks in some outrageous "sheepy" puns, adds a few pages of riddles at the end for more fun. For example, one chapter title is "Are Ewe Ready for This?" and another is "Fare Thee Wool". It's a chapter book for beginners who will have fun with it. Chris Judge adds to the humor with a few illustrations once in a while.
I'm not sure our lakes and ponds are thick enough, but we've just had a big snow and people are out sledding and cross-country skiing this week. Here in this book, Sarah Sullivan poetically describes a marvelous day out on the pond, learning, warming up in the snack-bar hut, back out again. It's an all-day happy adventure shown by illustrator Madeline Valentine with diverse people of all ages in a beautiful winter setting. They're doing a very favorite thing - ice skating. "Good friends gliding in a row./Holding on and letting go." Then, "Couples waltz./Children Race./Happy people./Happy place." Of course, the day ends with bath to warm up the toes, and a surprise ending, that beautifully illustrated nighttime pond, now inhabited by "others". Such a nice book that will both introduce the fun of skating or the good memories of past times.
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| Here's a peek inside 'Alphabet Street'! |
I suspect readers only need to see the cover of Matt Tavares' new story of a favorite Christmas character to want to read it. A young reindeer named Dasher lived and worked with his family for J.P. Finnegan's Traveling Circus and Menagerie and he loved the story his mother told of her early life where it was always cold and snowy. There you only had to look up to see the North Star. Where they were was warm and that star seemed so far away. With night scenes that seem to jingle with magic (like that cover), readers learn just how Dasher met Santa and ended up helping deliver toys one Christmas with Santa's horse, Silverbell. You'll need to find the book to discover what's next, but it holds my favorite line, spoken by Dasher: "You're not going to believe this part." This will become a Christmas favorite, I'm sure!