It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly blog hop co-hosted by Unleashing Readers and Teach Mentor Texts which focuses on sharing books marketed for children and young adults. It offers opportunities to share and recommend books with each other.
Another week, another stack of library books! We make good use of our library card – I can’t even begin to count how many books I’ve borrowed, just this year alone. We read a handful of books every night at bedtime, and my son doesn’t often ask for books to be repeated, so I’m always on the lookout for new stories to share with him. And as you’ll see, he can be very particular when it comes to his choice of reading material…
FOX VERSUS FOX
What an absolutely fantastic early reader! My newly-minted five year old is learning to read, and we’ve been finding that a lot of books aimed at emergent readers are just so boring. I mean, I don’t really blame them – it’s hard to craft a compelling narrative when you’ve only got a handful of words at your disposal. But when you’re used to your grown ups reading funny picture books or fascinating nonfiction with you, the transition to dry, dull readers can be jarring. This reader, on the other hand, uses its delightful illustrations to turn a very limited text into a very funny story! When a red fox meets an arctic fox, hilarity ensues, as each tries to outdo the other, to suitably madcap effect. My son was able to successfully read this on his own, which was a huge confidence boost, and the silly illustrations left him chuckling long afterwards. I’ve placed holds on all the other readers Corey R. Tabor has created, and I can’t wait to share them with my budding bookworm.
JABARI TRIES
We’re struggling with big feelings right now, especially when it comes to perfectionism. A (my son) is a gifted LEGO builder, confidently tackling sets geared towards adults, but while he’s cognitively able to figure out the instructions and decipher the correct placement of the pieces, he still has the fine motor skills of a preschooler, and the gap between what his mind wants to do and what his fingers can actually do sometimes leads to pretty epic meltdowns. We’ve been trying to instill the idea (stolen from Mark Rober, one of his favourite Youtubers) of thinking “like an engineer”, which means being able to try new things, make mistakes, learn from them, and try again. This of course is easier said than done!
In this follow up to the wildly successful JABARI JUMPS, a young boy named Jabari wants to make his toy airplane fly. He is determined to do it all by himself, without the help of his father and curious little sister, but a series of setbacks helps him learn that it’s okay to fail, and that even the brightest minds can ask for and accept help. I really loved JABARI JUMPS, and while this second entry is good, it didn’t wow me in quite the same way. It feels more didactic than JABARI JUMPS, with its message of resiliency delivered with a heavier hand. It’s fine, and I’m glad we borrowed it, but it’s not as good as its predecessor.
DOGGO AND PUPPER
I found a brand new copy of this beginner chapter book at the thrift store over the weekend, and while I wasn’t familiar with the series, I was of course familiar with Katherine Applegate. It more than lived up to my expectations. This is such an ingenious style of book – the text is very sparse, with only a sentence or two per spread, but it has a full story, divided into chapters, which is fantastic for children who are still emergent readers but who need more character development and plot in their books. The main characters, Doggo, Pupper and Cat, are a delight, and the charming illustrations compliment the limited text with great comedic effect. We’ve read it every night since buying it, and I’ve already placed holds on additional books in the series at my local library. It’s always exciting to discover a fun new series!
SHOULD I SHARE MY ICE CREAM?
I’m a children’s librarian, so of course I love Elephant & Piggie, and I’ve waited with great anticipation for the day when my kiddo would be able to start reading them on his own. This entry in the series, however, was an absolute disaster. We made it to the spread in which poor Gerald drops his ice cream cone, and that was it, my kiddo was done. Seeing Gerald’s fountain of tears upset him so profoundly that he refused to continue, and insisted that I close the book and “never read it again.” I tried to skip to the end of the story to show him that everything worked out in the end, but he would.not.budge. This book was bad. and it was not to be read from ever again. Oh well, we’ll wait a while and try it again. You just never can tell with kids – sometimes you bring home a book assuming it will become a much beloved new favourite, and it goes over like a big old lead balloon. Even children’s librarians don’t always get it right!
Here’s wishing you all a wonderful week with no dropped ice cream cones!
Oh noooo! I can see how the ice cream situation could be quite upsetting for a sensitive reader who wants only the best for our friend Gerald. I’m so sorry! That’s one of my favorite series too and I’d be bummed to have it go over like a lead balloon, but as you say, you never know how a book, even a “can’t miss” favorite, will land. Fox vs Fox sounds terrific–will be looking for that for sure. I do love an early reader that is also hilarious.
I love this post, Jane, and because I don’t have a young reader of my own, it hadn’t even dawned on me how picture books don’t have to be sparse with vocabulary or story because they’re usually read aloud by a parent—but when children transition to reading on their own, the stories get duller! That is definitely not ideal, and I’m so glad you found books like Fox vs. Fox and Doggo and Pupper that kept your son way more engaged. Also, I looked up Jabari Jumps, and the publisher’s description alone is delightful—it’s unfortunate that Jabari Tries didn’t have quite the same spark.
And that is so tricky with Should I Share My Ice Cream! I relate so much to both of y’all, in that you have this delightful series that totally makes sense to share with your son, and then your son is struck by that moment in a way that doesn’t feel right. (I feel like I had so many of those moments in childhood, where little things intended to be humorous make me sad—I actually had this last week with an ad in a magazine!)
I appreciate you sharing about what this journey of finding books for your son is like—you clearly put a lot of care into ensuring he gets to enjoy stories and feel confident as a reader! Take care, and enjoy your week!
It’s definitely been interesting navigating this reading journey with my kiddo – I confidently gave advice to families for many years as a children’s librarian, and now I’m experiencing it all from a completely different perspective! It’s honestly made me so much more empathetic as a librarian, I have a much greater understanding of what my patrons’ might be experiencing, as every child truly is unique, and no matter how much you think you know, they have a wonderful way of keeping you on your toes and challenging your expectations!
My kiddo is much more sensitive than I was as a child, which is beautiful and challenging! He has a very tender heart. <3
Corey R. Tabor has really been hitting it out of the park with his books.
They’re all so good!!
Oh no, I’m so sorry that the ice cream scenario caused sadness! 🙁 Hopefully, they can try it again and make it through in the future.
I do find that if we reread a book it can a bit less upsetting the second time around, once he knows that everything will be ok in the end, but getting him to agree to get past the upsetting part can be a challenge. 😅 Life with a highly sensitive kiddo. 😅