What we're currently reading: Pie by Sarah Weeks. A fantastic story so far about friendship, family and pie. And it doesn't hurt that there's a different pie recipe at the end of each chapter! It turns out that the recipes came from all over the country and Sarah made all of the fourteen pies in the book. Her favorite was cherry, with buttermilk as a close second.
I loved the bedtime story that @bonjour_mes_amies shared yesterday, and I thought I would share one of our recent bedtime reads. Ira Sleeps Over by Bernard Waber was one that I loved reading as a kid and one that I’m so excited to share with Avery and Nate. I remember my favorite part of the story being when Ira hopped the fence over to Reggie’s house next door for the sleepover. As a kid, I think I loved the idea of having good friends living nearby. Happy weekend, all.
What cozy stories has everyone been settling down before nodding off this week?
#littlelitbookseries is all about poetry this month.
The New Kid on the Block belongs to a five-part anthology of poetry by Jack Prelutsky, the nation's first Children's Poet Laureate, and is illustrated by James Stevenson. It is filled with Jack Prelutsky's ingenious wordplay, outlandish ideas and hilarious characters. The beauty of poetry is that it is full of rich language and rare words that are so important for kid to learn, but are delivered in engaging ways that resonate with them. And we know that what kids enjoy tends to stay with them. Everyone needs at least one Jack Prelutsky book in their library for rainy days (and sunny ones!).
For a thoughtful collection of poetry, check out #littlelitbookseries on Instagram.
We’re back at it again—today is #littlelitbookseries, the poetry edition. Having taken a poetics course years ago at the University of Barcelona, I am in awe of the linguistic artistry that is poetry. It is truly an art form.
Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic poem The Swing was published awhile back as a board book and was illustrated by the incomparable Julie Morstad. Her pictures have an enchanting beauty and litheness about them, and maybe that’s why they embody the wonder of childhood so deftly.
Wander over to these dreamy accounts and check out their poetic picks for #littlelitbookseries on Instagram.
The Giant Jam Sandwich is one of my favorite stories of all time. When I was working as an SLP, I used it to teach kids how to retell the important elements of a story. The residents of Itching Down have a huge annoying problem on their hands—four million wasps invading their town. Bap the Baker devises a plan to trap the wasps in the most enormous strawberry jam sandwich ever made in history. My favorite part is when the townspeople bake the bread using fifty cookers in an old cavernous brick mill. A hilarious story of sweet ingenuity by John Vernon Lord and Janet Burroway.