Hello, readers, and welcome to 2018! What a year 2017 was for our little (big?) family. There were days that had me reeling, but all the hard parts were tied to rich blessings. Some of you may know what I’m talking about when I say I’m coming out of a long newborn fog (baby Lydia is 10 months but I guess new-mother-fatigue is compounded by the number of children). Homeschooling is great but takes time and mental energy. All that to say, I took an unplanned blogging break for the last 3 months and missed it quite a lot, but at least I didn’t take a break from feeding everyone lunch or washing clothes, you know? I’m hopeful 2018 will be a great year of reading and writing.
So now, back to the reading and sharing of books!
Every kid and his or her mother needs a slew of silly books to get them through these cold winter days. The stir crazy is at an all time high here. So today I’m sharing our latest favorite silly picture books in hopes that they might lighten the spirits in your home as well.
We’re all crazy about Nobody Likes a Goblin, especially six-year-old Isaac and three-year-old Violet. It has a fable, Hobbit-ish feel to it (or maybe it does just to us because The Hobbit was Dad’s read-aloud to the kids book in the Fall), and the characters that could be ghoulish simply end up being cute and endearing. The illustrations are surprisingly detailed for a cartoon-looking book and give you a feel that everything is actually moving in front of you. The characters and the setting give so much scope for the imagination. Ben Hatke is the author/illustrator of Julia’s House of Lost Creatures, which we also adore for all the same reasons we love Nobody Likes a Goblin. Basically, we’re Hatke fans here.
We’re also giggling at Sleeping Cinderella and Other Princess Mix-Ups. This rhyming story about traditional fairy tale princesses who get fed up and walk out of their respective tales into another princess’s is a classic “grass is always greener” story with a twist. I particularly sympathize with Cinderella’s plot line of being too tired to go to a ball and wanting to trade places with Sleeping Beauty. Sign me up for that one. Honestly, we all laugh at this book! It is an added bonus that it’s a friendly reminder that nobody’s life is perfect. And in the end, each princess figures out a way to make her real life work better instead of abandoning it. It’s silly, unrealistic, but fun and a bit philosophical (or maybe that’s just for me…).
Tiger Can’t Sleep has been in the toddler class at our church for a few years and my kids want to read it every single week. Again, I sympathize with the poor kid who just wants to go to sleep but can’t because the pesky tiger who lives in his closet has way too much energy. Did a mother of a toddler write this book?? The silliness doesn’t stop with the ending, which is the best kind of book when you’re two or three. =)
That wraps up our favorite picture books of this week! We are going to the library today to hopefully stock up on more fun books to get us through the coldest week we’ve seen in years. I hope you and yours stay warm and enjoy some fun books together this winter, as well!