the kids are picking away

It's time for all of us book loving peeps to share what our kids' are reading these days by linking up at 5 Minutes for Books' Kids' Picks.  I love when I visit others' posts and discover those new-to-us books that I just can't wait to look for during our next library visit.

This won't be that kind of post, unfortunately.

What my kids are picking these days are the among the most popular and most well-known and most of-course-those-are-fabulous-books-that-we've-ALREADY-read-a-gazillion-bajillion-times kinds of books.  Don't believe me?  Take a look:

JAM, the almost double-digited first born is apparently focused on the number five right now, since he's reading both The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Book 5) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix (Book 5).  He has previously read all of the PJ books, but picked up this one from his school library to read once again and take the Accelerated Reader test.  I haven't read the PJ series, but I can imagine that there are plenty of parallels between these two stories of boys who discover they are so much more than they first thought.  I'm so glad he's happened upon these little known gems of books.

Then there are the newly-turned 4 year old Red and 2 year old Pudge, who for the most part get read to at the same times during the day.  Their love for one particular author, who Red now believes is her best friend, has especially influenced their book choices in the last week or so.  I'm not trying to complain, but our city's public library is currently closed for renovations, as it will be for the next SIX MONTHS.  (Breathe, Mama, breathe.)  Thankfully, the county has a really fantastic online system in which we can still put anything on hold that we'd like, and the library has commandeered a teeny tiny room in the community center which will still be open during the library's regular hours for pick-ups and returns.  After that Saturday's fun times with Mo, I quickly put a whole bunch of his books on hold- basically every book that the system had, excluding the ones we already own in our collection.  This has made for many a reading of Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale and Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity in the last week.  We were fortunate enough to borrow the books that include the CD with Mo, Cheryl and Trixie Willems telling the story-- that is one fun and funny family, I tell ya!  And keeping with the Mo theme, the kids are adoring the new series he has released- Cat the Cat.  We've got Cat the Cat, Who is That? and Let's Say Hi to Friends Who Fly! checked out right now.  These early readers are even easier to read than his Elephant & Piggie series, and I'm loving that Red is starting to recognize letters and simple words as we read these together.  And seriously, even with just a few words and simple illustrations, he manages to still be so darn funny.

So, surprise, surprise.  Here are six books that you've most likely never even heard of, but trust me when I say that they're all excellent reads.  What about you?  Tell us what your kids are reading these days over at 5 Minutes for Books!


Happy reading,