What My Children Are Reading, June 4, 2009 edition

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in last's week's first "What My Children Are Reading" meme. It was great to see what everyone's kids are reading.

This week, in addition to reading Good Night, Gorilla a million times, my two-year-old daughter and I read these books. You'll probably notice an animal theme. She's totally into animals right now.

Have You Ever Tickled a Tiger? by Betsy Snyder

This is a brand new and super-cute touch-and-feel board book featuring a bunch of different animals with touch and feel patches on their bodies. Kids can tickle a furry tiger's, a scaly armadillo, a walrus, and more.

This book just arrived from Random House this week, and I think we've read it about 20 times already. My daughter loves to say "goochie-goochie-goo" when she's tickling the animals. The coolest thing is that the book introduces kids to animals they may not have ever heard of. Rhyming couplets on each spread, paired with Betsy Synder's adorable illustrations, make this a book I'd recommend to anyone with a baby or toddler or anyone who's looking for a gift for a kid in that in that age range.

ISBN: 978-0375843969 | Random House Books for Young Readers | May 2009 | Source: review copy from publisher

We're All in the Same Boat by Zachary Shapiro, illustrated by Jack E. Davis

Like any cruise, the pairs of animals are excited when they set out on Noah's Ark, but after a few days of around-the-clock rain, they get a little testy. The book goes through the alphabet of animals, using alliteration to describe their state of mind: grumpy giraffes, hysterical hyenas, zoned-out zebras, and so on. Finally, Noah himself gets testy and proclaims, "We're all in the same boat!" We see a quick change in the animals' attitudes as Shapiro cycles through the alphabet again: the kangaroos play kickball, the foxes tell fables, etc.

This is not your typical alphabet book. Kids learn the alphabet and many adjectives and verbs through an entertaining story, but what really makes this book a winner are Jack E. Davis's hilarious illustrations. Every time we read it, I notice something new in the details and chuckle at some of the animals' facial expressions.

My daughter is beginning to recognize some letters of the alphabet and has a great time identifying animals, objects, and letters as we read along.

ISBN: 978-0399243936 | Putnam Juvenile | January 2009 | Source: Review copy from publisher

Paws, Claws, Hands, and Feet by Kimberly Hutmacher, illustrated by Sherry Rogers

In this fantasy story, two kids, a girl and a boy, wake up in the middle of the night and take a journey around the world, visiting a lot of animal habitats: the jungle, the Savannah, the arctic, and the outback. Their bed magically takes them from place to place, and they meet tons of animals along the way.

I'm the first to admit that I'm not a fan of rhyming picture books, but this one works and flows nicely. The plethora of animals, habitats, and action verbs along the way make it a great book for learning purposes, but kids won't even realize they're learning. As with all of Sylvan Dell's books, a section in the back features activities and resources for further learning. In our house, my daughter is fascinated by all of Sherry Rogers's animal illustrations, and she loves to see where the bed is going to land next.

ISBN: 978-1934359884 | Sylvan Dell Publishing | February 2009 | Source: Review copy from publisher

So, that's what we've been reading this week? What have your kids been reading? Leave your link in Mr. Linky below. If you don't have a blog, I'd still love to hear what you're reading with your kids in the comments section.

If you're leaving a link, please link back to the post that talks about what your kids are reading instead of your main URL so others can find it easily. I'd love to hear from even more people today, so please spread the word.

Have a great week reading!