My favorite part of summer is when summer reading with the Boys & Girls Club starts. It was much easier to select books to read when my daughter was the same age as the kids who attend the camps, but now that I have a high schooler, I have to do a little more research.
I was called out by one of the kids last year for always reading Dragons Love Tacos, and you can't blame me, Adam Rubin is an excellent children's author! And Dragons Love Tacos is hilarious! Plus with it's own sequel, it's an easy pick for one day's worth of reading.
So I took to the internet to find some books this summer, that were not Dragons Love Tacos or Secret Pizza Party, another Adam Rubin classic. I did find a newer Adam Rubin book, but I'm not sure if it will make the cut for the list of books read this summer. I also didn't realize that I apparently reserved all of the children's books in the library, but that's ok.
Now, there are less weeks in summer reading this week, and I'm wondering if it's due to lack of volunteers. Trust me, if I could, I would be there every day. Alas, I read on Tuesday mornings, and there are only 3 of those this summer.
My mom, a retired kindergarten teacher, was the audience for my trial run. I needed a second opinion on if the books would work for a large group of varying ages, if they were too long for the young attention spans, if they were too lesson-y or just enough lesson-y while still being fun, and if they were just plain fun and enjoyable. Here are the two books that made the cut for the first week of my summer reading adventure:
Escargot. Ok, the fact that this book begins a series of various books involving our adorable little snail makes me want to just get all of them to read this summer. We follow our friend Escargot on a journey to the salad at the end of the book. The banter is cute and funny and the pictures make you really feel what Escargot is feeling. I give this books all the stars and the kids LOVED it too. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spoon. This book is the first in a trio, and Chopsticks and Straw are in the running to be read this summer. Probably on our next reading day, if I'm honest. This is my second favorite of the three. It's lesson-y enough, but written in a way that you can still laugh a lot while reading it. Spoon is a happy little spoon that loves life, but lately he is feeling like he isn't quite special. He thinks that Knife can do super cool things like cut and spread, and Chopsticks are exotic, and everyone takes Fork everywhere. But then he's reminded by his mom that his friends can't dive head first into a bowl of ice cream, and that he can do things that his friends can't. It's a cute book that reminds kids that we all have different skills and strengths, and all of us are special. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I made the fun mistake of letting the kids help me read this one. We went around and everyone who wanted to got to read a sentence until I realized I was losing the group and took back over. While it was a cool way to interact with the kids, I might not do that again so we can get through books with less chaos.
I go back in two weeks, and we'll see if I go with Chopsticks and Straw, or just one of those and another fun one.
Comments
Post a Comment