friday's five

Happy Friday! Since we're coming off of eight days of relaxation, I'm facing the reality of unpacking and reorganizing instead of a long weekend's worth of sitting around, but that's okay. I'll just keep the memories of swimming in the "Emerald Bay" close and that will help. For this week's round-up of picture books, I'm showcasing five books that we have in Scholastic soft cover format and were among the pile of books we packed for our trip. I've read each of these at least once (but more likely two or three or four times!) in the last few days, and the children enjoyed them again and again.

1. I Stink by Kate and Jim McMullan-- Pudge has had a fascination with garbage and recycling trucks for quite a while now, and this book has been a favorite for a long time. I remember feeling odd about the way it's written the first time I read it aloud, because it is a bit different than most storybooks, but now I'm quite comfortable finding my gruff truck voice and it makes for an enthusiastic read!

2. I Love My Little Storybook by Anita Jeram-- Oh, this is just a lovely little book about the joys that reading can bring. The illustrations are soft and gentle, matching the text perfectly. With a few loose references to familiar fairy tale characters, this captures the feeling of literary bliss beautifully. While both children enjoy this one, Red in particular seeks it out on her own to look at-- slowly turning the pages and thoughtfully looking at all of the pictures.

3. Big Truck, Little Truck by Jan Carr and illustrated by Ivan Bates-- Guess who adores this one the most? I like the "coming of age" description of this book on Amazon. I'm not sure I would have come up with that on my own, but it does make sense-- Little Truck is left on his own for a short time while Big Truck is in the shop, and he must try to manage on his own, remembering all the advice he's received from Big Truck. It's sweet and it's about vehicles... could it get any better?

4. Strega Nona Takes a Vacation by Tomie dePaola-- Hey, you know what's awesome? Reading about our beloved Strega Nona vacationing in a little cottage at the beach... while staying at a little cottage at the beach yourself! Yup, we identified with Strega Nona's getaway and that made our reading experience even more fun. This book is a bit simpler than the other Strega Nona stories, with just a little conflict in the hands of Big Anthony and Bambalona, but it's still as entertaining as the others.

5. Inch by Inch: The Garden Song by David Mallett and illustrated by Ora Eitan-- This is a book that simply cannot be read, it must be sung, even if you have as terrible a voice as mine. I'm a fan of the folk-song-turned-picture-book genre, and this one is pitch perfect. With the growing season in full force now, this is a fabulous book to read with your children after working in the garden together!

Now that we're back home, a trip to the library is in order tomorrow morning, so our new book supply will soon be replenished. Yay!

Reading away,