Today I’m not writing about classic literature, so dismiss that notion right now, okay? 
I’m writing about a couple of fun and quirky short chapter books that Louise and I have really enjoyed reading together. We’ve been doing shared/paired reading (or whatever it’s called in the world o’ reading education) in which I read a page and she reads a page, taking it time about (as my Granny would say). The wonderful thing about these little stories is that the chapters are only three to five very short pages each, making the catching of a new reader’s breath very convenient. The book itself is very small in format–about 8″ x 5″, just perfect for six year old hands. While these haven’t been our usual read-alouds, neither in subject matter nor in the way we’ve read them, I think they deserve a place on my list of short chapter books for the youngest listeners.
When it’s light, stay out of sight; if you’re spied, better hide; never meet with human feet.
However, Maybelle has a hard time actually keeping the rules because of her involvement with her flea-friend Henry and her desire to taste the delicacies at the various dinner parties and teas the Peabodys host. In Maybelle in the Soup, Maybelle ends up being spied at a dinner party, and as a result the Peabodys have their home exterminated. 
Do I love these stories? Honestly, no. While I wouldn’t consider them twaddle, I just don’t personally enjoy thinking about cockroaches and fleas. However, again I do think they’re worthy of note as beginning chapter books. They’re full of what I’d almost consider gross-out humor, but it stops short of being really gross and is just kind of. . .sweet, in a buggy sort of way. There’s dialogue and action and lots of comic book-esque onomatopoeia: ZIP! BONK! Louise gets a kick out of stories and is always eager for one more chapter, and we can knock out one of these short chapter books in a couple of sittings. These books have provided lots of enjoyment and motivation for my emerging reader, and for that I give them a two thumbs up. (Henry Holt, 2007 & 2008)
Using our time wisely while Lulu has her piano lesson
What stories do you read to your children out of love for your children, not the stories?
My girls were quite taken in by this story and usually begged for just one more chapter each time our read-aloud session came to an end. They also drew several comparisons between it and another Newbery winner, 
Another Medieval read-aloud we have shared in the past few weeks is Castle by David Macaulay. Winner of a 1978 Caldecott honor, Castle is the fictional tale of the building of a castle in Wales. More informational than plot-driven, this black-and-white picture book gives a detailed description of how the castle is built from below ground and up. Obviously, David Macaulay‘s line drawings are amazing. I honestly think this one might best be read individually so that the reader can sit and soak up the description, flip back to the glossary to learn the meaning of a technical term or two, and study the drawings. As it was we read it over several days, stopping when I felt my brain couldn’t take any more description (or the DLM demanded my attention, or both). I do not visualize things easily, so perhaps I am playing to my own weakness here; Louise actually recognized the word portcullis (and not just the word, but what it
Lincoln and His Boys by Rosemary Wells (yes, of Max and Ruby fame) is a short chapter book that my girls and I devoured in one lunchtime sitting. Divided into three vignettes and written from the perspective of first Willie, then Willie and Tad, and finally Tad alone, this beautifully written story paints a picture of Lincoln as the loving and devoted father he was. The story begins with Willie and and his father traveling to Chicago to the courthouse in June of 1859. It is on this trip that Lincoln announces to Willie that yes, he is running for president. In this chapter we see Lincoln’s easy way with people, as well as some of his idiosyncrasies. The second portion, written from both Tad and Willie’s perspectives, deals with the time immediately following Lincoln’s election to president and the Lincolns’ subsequent move to Washington, D.C. Part of this chapter takes place in the train on the way to D.C.; the other takes place in the White House. We get to see what the Lincoln’s family life might’ve been like, including the relationship between Tad and Willie’s older brother, Robert, and the rest of the family. Willie dies at the beginning of the last section, so it’s told from Tad’s perspective. We see the Lincolns’ deep, deep grief, both individual and corporate. Of course, President Lincoln’s grief is two-pronged; grief over his son and grief over the nation. The book ends with the ending of the Civil War, with Tad by his father’s side. I’ve made this book sound very somber and serious, and there are a great many somber episodes in the story; however, mostly this book paints Lincoln as a doting, jovial father. In the author note at the end of the book, Wells states that “Lincoln’s life may be more thoroughly documented than any other person’s in history” and that every single thing that happens in this story is factual, though the dialogue and cicumstances may be invented. I know that the character of Lincoln has been mythologized down through time, but I think this book portrays him as an imperfect man with some idiosyncrasies and flaws, but one with pure motives who loved his family and his country. I have to mention the illustrations by P.J. Lynch; they are lovely color portraits that look very old-fashioned and depict a warmth in the relationships of the Lincolns. We loved this story. Highly Recommended. (Candlewick, 2009)
Books about George Washington aren’t quite as easy to come by as ones about Lincoln, but I found a good one in Big George by Anne Rockwell. This story focuses on Washington’s personality and character as the subtitle, How a Shy Boy Became President, indicates. Of course, there are plenty of details of how he actually became president, too. We really, really like this one. One of my favorite parts is how Rockwell points out several times that Washington had a bad temper but learned to control it. This isn’t done in a moralizing way, but rather it makes him seem like a real person. The illustrations in this story, done in gouache and pencil by Matt Phelan, are very expressive, with the slightly messy and muted look that I love. This is an excellent picture biography of Washington’s growing up and adult years. We’ve read 
First, this is no “dumbed down” version of the story. We encountered words like parsimony and mendicancy and imputation in the first paragraph. I was pleased to be able to hear the narrator’s voice in this story, instead of 
I have a soft spot in my heart for anything by Patricia Polacco, although I will concede that perhaps her very detailed stories are more ”just the right book at just the right time for just the right child” kind of reads. Her newest offering, Bun Bun Button, is for a younger audience I think than most of her other books that I’ve read. However, for my six year old and me, this delightful, tender story was a snuggle-on-the-couch together kind of book that just hit the spot. It’s the story of a preschooler named Paige who stays with her gramma most days after preschool. Paige Darling and Gramma do all sorts of fun things together: bake sand cookies, make up the beds, feed the pets, and snuggle together for special story time in the Big Blue Chair. When Paige realizes that all the pets have special toys Gramma made just for them, she requests a handmade toy of her own. Gramma obliges by making Paige a lovey she names Bun Bun Button, a rabbit with a special “ear pocket” just right for Paige to hide her finger in when she holds Bun Bun up to her face. This story goes from super sweet to exciting when when Paige decides to tie Bun Bun Button to a helium balloon. I won’t ruin the ending, but suffice it to say that as Gramma often says, “We’re Darlings, and we Darlings have always been lucky!” I think the reason why I like this one so much is that Lulu has her own beloved Bunny, and although she is too sophisticated to enjoy a story like this right now, I am not. (You can see a picture of Lulu’s Bunny and Louise’s Bear in 
The first book is super sweet, and this next one is super silly, in the best possible way! Look Out, Jack! The Giant Is Back! by Tom Birdseye is just plain fun. It’s the rest of the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. After Jack escapes the giant, he and his mother flee to America, taking with them the goose that lays the golden eggs and the singing harp. They settle down on a “nice little farm in the mountains of North Carolina” and are happy there until the giant finds them! The giant has now changed his tune from “fee fi fo fum” to
I serendepitously happened upon a few fun books about Groundhog Day last week at the library, and I thought I’d share them here at Hope Is the Word. February 2nd usually comes comes and goes without much thought from me about these furry little mammals, but it is a fun tradition, and I was happy to share these books with my girls. The Secret of the First One Up by Iris Hiskey Arno is my favorite. In this sweet book, a little girl groundhog named Lila learns about Groundhog Day after her Uncle Wilbur challenges her to be the first one to go Above Ground after a winter’s nap. Renee Graef of 
I picked The Really Awful Musicians by John Manders up out the new books bin at our of our libraries thinking it looked like fun, and I was right. What I didn’t anticipate is how nicely this one would dovetail with our history studies! Yes, that’s right, this comical-looking picture book is actually based on something that really happened. Well, sort of. The story itself is somewhat fantastical, with a talking horse and some hyperbole, but the backstory is there. The picture book bit is the story of Piffaro, a young pipe and drum player, who flees his home when the king outlaws all music because it’s so bad (as in poorly played, not morally deficient). The musicians play well individually, but together, they aren’t . . . together. In a fit of exasperation, the king decrees that all musicians who stick around and are caught will be fed to the crocodiles living in the castle moat! As Piffaro runs for his life, he collects several other musicians: a contrabass player, a harpist, a mandolin player, and a sackbut player. The format of the book makes it a fun one to read and share, and Manders‘ illustrations are cartoonish (you can see examples 
Snow isn’t something we get much of around here (except
Press Here by Hervé Tullet is a conceptual picture book that made quite a splash in the book bloggy world. It’s an interactive picture book, though not in the way one might expect: instead of pull tabs and pop-ups (that spell premature death for a library book), this book simply begs to be touched–pressed, rubbed, shaken, tilted. This might be called a story-less picture book; instead, when the reader or listener follows the directions printed on one page, the result is seen on the next. For example, the first page reads, “PRESS HERE AND TURN THE PAGE.” Above the text is a lone, yellow swirl of color. Turning the page (not, of course, before PRESSING HERE) reveals that the single dot has turned into two. And so on. Yes, it’s fun and unexpected. My girls like it, but I’m going to admit a prejudice here: this one reminds me a little too much of all the technological gizmos we have constantly begging for our attention, when what 
I was really excited to get my hands on Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? by Susan A. Shea to use with our science studies. Back several months ago now I was looking for nonfiction picture books to use for a science lesson about determining whether things are living or nonliving. When I saw this title on the Cybils site, I thought it would be a perfect fit for our lesson. Alas, no library in our area had it then and neither did Amazon. When it was finally in stock at Amazon, I ordered it, thinking we could use it as a sort of review of that lesson. This book actually didn’t live up to the expectations that I had of it, but as it turns out, they were probably false expectations to begin with. This isn’t so much a science-y picture book (although it is that just a little) as it is a fun-with-words picture book. Here are the words from one of the opening spreads:
I have also read I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen, though I didn’t manage to write up a review when I actually had it in my possession. Like the other two books above, I like it, but not quite as much as almost everyone else seems to. It just doesn’t have what I like most in a picture book–beautiful, lavish illustrations and a compelling story line. It is humorous, even slightly sarcastic, and for that reason I think many children (maybe especially those who don’t like the type of book I like) will enjoy it. Like 
I’ve reviewed already is Me. . . Jane by Patrick McDonnell
The Book of Indians by Holling C. Holling probably isn’t politically correct, so I’m risking something by even posting about it. 
I realize that books like this one, published in 1935, are often viewed as full of stereotypes and offensive to modern audiences. I am by no means an expert on this subject, but I found nothing that seemed offensive and no broad generalizations about Native Americans whatsoever in this part nonfiction, part fiction book. The book cover over on the left (linked to Amazon) is sort of hard to see, so I’ll include another book cover that I also found on Amazon here:
