It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date, and adapted by Kellee at Unleashing Readers and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts with a children’s/YA focus. The Sunday Post is hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer. These weekly roundups are a great way to discover new blogs and bloggers, share some of the titles you’ve been enjoying, and add to your ever-growing to-read list.
Happy Monday, friends! We’re back after a bit of a holiday break with some great new-to-me books I can’t wait to share with everyone.
First of all, did you catch my review of The Shadow in the Moon for Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2019? Go on over and check it out – it’s a great story of the Mid-Autumn or Moon Festival celebrated by people across Asian and around the world.
Oh, and have you checked out Jbrary’s list of their favourite storytime books of 2018? You might spot a familiar book about rainy day fun splash its way onto the list! Jbrary has been doing their favorites list for several years and its a great resource if you’re looking to refresh your storytime collection.
Now, on to this week’s books!
I’ve been looking for new books to add to my babytime roster, and I recently came across this charmer of a book that follows a diverse group of babies as they reach different milestones in their lives, like crawling, grabbing, rolling and smiling. In addition to the diverse babies and families represented in the illustrations, I really appreciated the depiction of hands-on dads, which I feel accurately represents a lot of today’s families, in which dads are more involved and active in their children’s lives than perhaps ever before. Not everything is about mama – papa deserves his share of the spotlight, too! I wish there was a bit more physical diversity in the book – how awesome would it be to have a loving parent or sibling in a wheelchair or with a prosthetic limb represented in a baby book! As well, I would give my eye teeth for more baby books with mixed families, as many of the babies in my programs have parents who come from two or more different cultures, countries and/or backgrounds. Still, it’s a great start. Simple text, lovely illustrations, great baby book.
Oh no, there’s a ravenous monster in the woods, and he’s eating everything in sight! This is a very fun book (though it might actually be a bit scary for some little readers, since you really do almost end up in the monster’s toothy maw at one point), and it could work for a small storytime group, but because some of the illustrations are a bit small, it could work even better as a lap read.
We’re going to make vegetable soup! This is a beautifully simple book that introduces children to all sorts of different brightly colored and healthy vegetables, and shows in child-friendly detail how to make a delicious pot of nutritious soup (it even comes complete with a recipe at the back of the book so you can make your own). Visually striking illustrations are paired with minimal text, making this a great choice for a large group storytime – not only can kids call out the names of the vegetables on each page, you can also talk about other things that match each colour, for a great interactive experience. Just don’t read it too close to lunch time, or you’ll be hungry!
Hope everyone’s year has started off well, and have a great week, everyone!
I’m definitely heading over to check out The Shadow in the Moon. And you have some other cute titles here, too! I bet my daughter will love Beware the Monster. Thank you for the shares. Also, I had trouble getting your link-up to work, so I had to visit your blog by typing in the address, myself. I recommend double-checking the URL (on unleashinglearners or teachmentortexts) and editing it when you can. Have a wonderful reading week, Jane!
All Color Soup and Shadow in the Moon (and the others too!) look like books I am going to add to my TBR..
I adore moon books, will definitely check on The Shadow in The Moon, Jane. Thanks for that list, too, all new to me, except for yours, of course. Every color soup looks great for cooking fun!
Beware the Monster looks like fun for those kids who enjoy a little scare!
I wish I had more time because The Shadow in the Moon is at our library!
Baby’s Firsts looks delightful Jane. One of the reasons I love to read books about animals with my grandchildren is because we can turn the parent animal into daddy or mommy!