Week 11: A week of treasures!

Our Weekly Progress: 
I was delighted with some of the books we read this week! Four different books with 5 stars each! I guess it's either feast or famine. Emma is really starting to enjoy our story time. She'll sit and look at the pictures as I read three or four books in a row. That's good, because we've hardly even made a dent in the first row at our library. :)   

Our Weekly Favorite:

Title: Monster Chefs

Author: Brian & Liam Anderson 

Illustrator: Brian Anderson

Rating: 5 stars 

Summary: 
"The horribly horrible monster king summoned his four equally horrible chefs. 

'I am tired of eating only eyeballs and ketchup,' roared the king.
'Find me something new to eat or you will find yourselves on my menu!'

Trembling with fear, they each set off in a different direction to look for something truly scrumptious. But what, besides eyeballs and ketchup, could a monster king possibly want to eat? A rabbit? A fish? A snake? What one finally brings back may change dinnertime in the kingdom forever." 

Why I Loved it: 

• The book was whimsical and silly, but still had a very solid plot. 
• The story kept me guessing right up until the end. I won't give anything away, but I thought the ending was clever and very amusing.
• The illustrations of the monsters were wonderful!  The bold, full color pages really make the book feel modern, and the unique storyline is so much fun. I would love to add this one to Emma's personal library. 

Other Books We Read This Week:

Title: Mockingbird

Author: Allan Ahlberg

Illustrator: Paul Howard

Rating: 5 stars

Allan Ahlberg wrote this book, and I LOVE it!!! The story can be sung to the tune of Mockingbird, and we sang it several times while we had the book checked out. By now I've memorized it, and I still sing the song to Emma as a lullaby. She loves it! Good job, Allan Ahlberg. Thanks for surprising us with this one. :) 

Title: The Tale of the Turnip

Author: Brian Alderson

Illustrator: Fritz Wegner

Rating: 5 stars

This book was hilarious! I read it twice in a row, and laughed the whole time. 

Title: Blackboard Bear

Author/Illustrator: Martha Alexander

Rating: 5 stars

This book had me laughing out loud! It might not teach kids the best lesson- The boy in this book basically invented a bear that could eat the kids who were mean to him.  I thought it was hilarious, though!

Title: Back to Front and Upside Down!

Author/Illustrator: Claire Alexander 

Rating: 4 stars

This book tells the story of a student who has trouble learning how to write, and has ask his teacher for help. At first, I thought that this book was sharing a really important lesson about perseverance and not giving up, until I realized that the book only spans the period of 1 day.  I would have loved if it took the characters a year to learn and they still hadn't given up- it would have been much more realistic. Still a good book, though. 

Title: And My Mean, Old Mother Will be Sorry, Blackboard Bear

Author/Illustrator: Martha Alexander 

Rating: 2 stars

As a sequel, this one fell a bit flat.  I would say to stick with the original, and not bother with this one.  

Title: Maggie's Whopper

Author: Sally Hobart Alexander

Illustrator: Deborah Kogan Ray

Rating: 2 stars 

This book reminded me of a story that someone was making up as they went along. It really wasn't bad, but not something I would go out of my way to read again. 

Title: When Wishes Were Horses

Author: Sharon Harl Addy

Illustrator: Brad Sneed

Rating: 1 star

I thought this book was a little bit nonsensical, and didn't seem to have much of a point. You probably know by now how I feel about books without points! 

Title: Here a Face, There a Face

Author/Photographer: Arlene Alda

Rating: 1 star

This is kind of a fun idea for a book.  Kind of. But the pictures weren't amazing, and the captions really weren't amazing. It seemed a bit dated. 

Title: Quiet in the Garden

Author/Illustrator: Aliki

Rating: 1 star

I thought this book was repetitive and dull.