I have been wanting to post for awhile about some of the books that my son and I read together, so when I found this meme I thought it would be perfect!
Author: Wanda Ga'g
Literary Awards: Newberry Award (1929)
Towards challenge: Excellence in Reading
Yes, this is an oldie but a goodie. It is a cute story about an old man who goes looking for a cat for his wife. He can't choose a cat so ends up bringing "Hundreds of cats, Thousands of cats, Millions and trillions and billions of cats" home instead. His wife is a little appalled and sensibly says that they must pick one because if they try to keep them all they will eat them out of house and home. They can't choose so they ask the cats which one of them is the prettiest. All cats think they are prettiest, so a huge squabble ensues leaving only one scrawny little cat. This cat wasn't in the fight, because he knew that he wasn't the prettiest, but after a little food and some TLC, turns out he was wrong.
My son told me he liked this book because it had a lot of cats in it. I enjoyed it for the repetition of some of the phrases, the simple pictures and what I think is the subtle message about there being beauty inside of all of us.
At my son's school they read the Monarch Nominee books every fall and then they have an election in February to choose their favorite Monarch book. We have been reading some of the Monarch books here at home also and this week have read the following two.
Author: Steve Jenkins
Literary Awards: Flicker Tale Children's Book Award for Non-fiction (2011)
I did not like this book much at all - if I was a kid, I think it would of kind of scared me and I was glad we hadn't read it before our trip to Florida last summer! It has all these animals in it that may not appear dangerous, but then goes on to tell what not to do to them or chances are you will die very quickly. Like box jellyfish and stingrays and cone shells. I didn't ask my son what he thought about it, because I didn't want him to think too hard about it! I'm not sure that this age group needs to be introduced to these animals yet and then again, maybe I am just over protective!
Author: Devin Scillian
This was a very cute book and I happen to know that it is currently my son's favorite of the Monarch nominees. The goldfish is keeping a diary that starts out with just him, alone, swimming around his fishbowl. By day four though, he starts to get some company, until he can't turn around without running into something or someone. Well, that doesn't sit too well with him and he is wishing for his solo fishbowl back again, until it actually happens. This is when the worry sets in that all of his friends need him and they won't be able to get along without him. Sort of a 'you don't know what you've got til it's gone' moment. Eventually he finds himself in a large aquarium back with all his friends. Oh, and this is written Day One, Day Two, Day Three, etc. The illustrator, Tim Bowers, also did a wonderful job with the pictures of the different sea life - very colorful and animated. I recommend this one!
