The girls had their own favourites this month. E. fell in love with Dr. Seuss (again) and L. rediscovered Spot’s stories. Here comes this month’s list with short reviews.
Colour coding: E.’s favourite, L.’s favourite, both girls loved it
E. (6)
My name is not Isabella by Jennifer Fosberry
This is a book about a little girl who turns herself into famous and great women throughout history, from Rosa Parks to Marie Curie. She is brave, great, clever and loveable.
Nine Ducks Nine by Sarah Hayes
It’s a witty book about ducks teaching a fox a lesson, directing him to fall into the river in a tricky way.
The peace book by Todd Parr
At first I though E. will love this book, but finally Little L. asked me to read it many times. The illustrations are really simple and very colourful. The idea of peace is really nicely explained in a simple way. There’s a lot to talk about on the basis of the book even with older children. Mommy,’s favourite too.
Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss
Both kids enjoyed this book, like all Dr. Seuss’ books. Surprisingly, Little L. was patient enough to listen to it all the way through. E. likes reading it by herself. Again a lot of rhyming pairs, funny and eye-catching illustration. A great classic.
Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss
This month this book was E.’s favourite. She loves the funny sounds, the more and more complicated story and structures, word games, the rhymes plus the funny and unexpected ending. It’s more difficult to read for her because the spelling is challenging and the words sound similar to each other. Still, she read it out loud few times.
Little Red Riding Hood (Usborne Young Reader)
My daughter is still not a big fan of classic fairy tales. We read it 2-3 times but she wasn’t much impressed.
Chicken Licken (First readers)
Repeating all the names of the animals throughout the story many, many time makes even adult readers smile.
L. (2y 5m)
Tractors (DK)
Surprisingly the tractor shaped book wasn’t a big hit with Little L although there are lots of big pictures of tractors and their parts and what they do on the farm.
The very noisy night by Diana Hendry
Little L was a little afraid of this book I guess. But E. enjoyed it, mainly the illustrations. Her favourite picture is whan Little Mouse goes into Big Mouse’s bed finally and Big Mouse has hardly any room left in bed. Again there are a lot of things to talk about in this book. The illustrations are really detailed and I can highly recommend this book if your little one is scared of the noises at night.
Little Mole’s adventure from Spring to Winter
This was E’. favourite book when she was about L.’s age. Both in English and in Hungarian (I have to emphasize here for my Hungarian fellow moms that Varró Dániel’s translation is absolutely fantastic). However, Little L. was unimpressed. E. was still fascinated by it, not to mention the fact that Daddy still knows some parts by heart.
Spot’s garden by Eric Hill
Though it isn’t a lift-the-flap book, Little L. really enjoyed accompanying Spot through planting his own garden. Probably our planting sessions had a great effect on her, what’s more she loves all the spring and planting songs.
Spot says goodnight by Eric Hill
A must-have bedtime story. Simple pictures, simple story, a lot of repetition. What else do we need to help the language sink in.
What can you see Spot? by Eric Hill
Spot goes and explores his surroundings. The illustrations serve a great basis to talk about animals, plants, parks and what we can see in different places. When we go out for a walk we imitate that we are Spot and look for thins that he also sees in this book.
Show me your Smile! A visit to the dentist by Christine Ricci
As far as I could judge this book is NOT for a 2-and-a-half-year old, but L. fell in love with it and she’s been asking me to read it 3-4 time a week. My guess why she likes it so much is that it’s interactive. Dora asks her questions and she answers them, She needs to find the X-ray photo of her teeth and the crayons she wants to colour with. So she feels she is part of the story. Though I’m not sure how much she understands it.