What We're Reading @ 226

Reading is one of my favorite things.  We don't only read to our children before bed, but throughout the day.  Especially on rainy, cold days.  Sometimes they just wander over to the book corner when its quiet and other times we pop popcorn, make tea and bring a big stack of books down to a blanket on the floor.  You know, like a reading picnic.

I'll find any excuse to escape to my room to read and I really want to pass that on to my kids.  A good book is the cheapest and most fulfilling adventure.  And, in my mind, you can never be bored if you love to read.  Like, ever...so long as you have a library card.

Kids books can have me mesmerized for hours.  They make up the majority of the gifts that I get for other kids (and my kids) and Amazon.com can have me reading summaries and reviews for way too long, deciding what our next book will be.  So, in case you're in a reading rut, I'm going to regularly put a few recommendations here to help out.  Please feel free to leave your own recommendations in the comments.

This is a hilarious book by Oliver Jeffers, whom I love.  And whose most famous/popular book is probably I Want My Hat Back, which is a pretty great one.   This Moose Belongs to Me is all about a little boy named Wilfred who finds a moose, and therefore thinks the moose belongs to him.  He teaches him rules and they go everywhere together, until the moose gets lost/wanders off.  The boy and the moose have to reach a compromise.  And while hilarious, it's a great lesson about healthy relationships, ownership and the compromises we make to get there.

The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch is one of my all-time favorite classics.  It sort of comes as a surprise because his other book is so terrifying (and yet so popular, how?) that I had to remove it from our shelves.  But this one couldn't be more different.  It's about a sassy young princess whose prince gets kidnapped by a fierce dragon.  She embarks on a voyage to rescue the prince and by the time she's there, she is a ragged and dirty mess, having outsmarted the dragon.  The prince is critical of her appearance and unsupportive of her heroic arrival.  Essentially, she says...peace out, I don't need you.  I love the not so subtle moral.

Happy Reading!