12. You are my Cupcake

12. You are my Cupcake by Joyce Wan

Want a book where all you do is compliment your little one by calling him or her a "honey roasted peanut?" This is the book for you!

As someone who calls their baby sometimes cutesy (like: Jenny Bean), sometimes questionable (like: my little Poop Stain) nicknames, this book is right up my alley. With every page you get to cuddle and snuggle your baby. The illustrations are big, bright, and bold, making them pretty appealing for baby. Each graphic is raised up slightly and/or gritty with sparkles, making it interesting for baby to explore with their hands as well.

9-11 Easter Edition

9. Meet the Easter Beagle! adapted by Tina Gallo. Illustrated by Vicki Scott. Based on the characters created by Charles M. Schulz
10. Llama Llama Easter Egg by Anna Dewdney
11. Five Little Bunnies by Harper Collins Publishers. Illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

Happy Easter from Jenny Bean!

Welcome to our very special Easter Edition of Reading Books to my Daughter.

Easter is my absolute favorite holiday. Not for religious reasons. My mom and I went to church regularly when I started in middle school, but we don't really go anymore. I grew up going to a Lutheran church camp every summer since I was 18, but I'm not not uber religious. I can respect religiou people and their beliefs, but I'm more agnostic then anything else.

ANYWAY, like I said, I love Easter. I love hunting for eggs. I love the food. I love being around my family. I love how everyone gets so excited. I love that my dad and Auntie Liz get very, very creative with hiding the big money egg. There are no bad memories associate with Easter. When we started having them at my parents house, my grandma would always come over early to help my dad cook. I'd fill Easter eggs with her, and I really liked hanging out with her one-on-one. It didn't happen very often. She's gone now, but I constantly get reminded of her everyday, but get very nostalgic when the Easter season comes along.

So I had to get Jenny (her full name is Jeanette, which was my grandma's name) Easter books!

Meet the Easter Beagle! is Jenny's first introduction to Peanuts. I love Peanuts. My mom loves Peanuts. Jenny will love Peanuts too, damnit! If you've seen the Peanuts Easter Special, you know this story. Everyone thinks Linus is insane because he tells stories about the Easter Beagle, reminiscent of his stories about the Great Pumpkin. Peppermint Patty is upset because Marcie cooked all the eggs she was going to color for Easter. When I first read this, I thought she hard-boiled them, and was confused as to why Peppermint Patty was so pissed. But then I realized, she probably scrambled them and at them all. Anyway, Linus is all like, "Hey, NBD, just wait for the Easter Beagle." Of course the kids think he's crazy, but low and behold, the Easter Beagle saves the day. Well, except for Charlie Brown. He always gets jipped.

Llama Llama Easter Egg is one of the shorter Llama Llama board books. Dewdney has longer picture books, and then created these very short board books as well. Each page has 5 or less words, which will be great for when Jenny starts recognizing sight words and reading. I've already expressed my love of the Llama Llama series, so it's pretty obvious that I love this book. Baby Llama wakes up Easter morning. He gets chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, and searches for Easter eggs. He finds a robin's nest with bright blue eggs. His Easter surprise is the birth of a baby robin. It's really very sweet... I used to find robin eggs all the time at Omi's house, so I know the joy and excitement when you find REAL blue eggs in nature. Thank goodness Llama didn't mistake the robin eggs for Easter eggs... what a demented twist...

Five Little Bunnies is cute Easter finger play with illustrations. Dan Yaccarino is a pretty well-known author and illustrator. The bunnies are cute, bold, and colorful. It's fun for older kids to find all of the Easter eggs, to count all the bunnies, and to practice their colors. All of the bunnies hide the eggs, then watch a handful of children find them and eat the sweet, sweet insides. I have a favorite illustration. It's of a little boy thoroughly enjoying what looks to be a peep, with a smaller blue boy in the background pointing into his mouth. I don't know if he's meant to be thinking, searching, or indicating to everyone where to put their goodies. Insert sweets here. It's super cute and Jenny was pretty interested in all of the bold colors and different shapes. Good solid choice for a 4 month old.

I hope everyone who has made it this far has a very Happy Easter! And if you don't celebrate, have an absolutely amazing Sunday!

Goodwill Book Haul #1

Goodwill is dangerous.

99 cents for children's books. And I love it because it's always a mystery as to what will be on the shelf. I will, from now on, only buy books for Jenny 2nd hand. Library book sales, Goodwill stores, thrift shops, garage sales, you name it! I got 9 books for under $9.

1. Curious George at the Parade by Margret & H.A. Rey
2. Curious George's Dream by Margret & H.A. Rey
3. Curious George Goes to a Movie by Margret & H.A. Rey
4. Curious George in the Snow by Margret & H.A. Rey
5. Curious George goes to a Chocolate Factory by Margret & H.A. Rey

All 5 Curious George books don't even feel or look like they've been opened. Even the binding cracked when I looked inside of them. I'm particularly excited for #5 because that's where I met my husband, at a chocolate store.

6. You are my Cupcake by Joyce Wan

I've seen this one at Target many times, and I've always been sooooo tempted. It's probably the cutest book ever. But I'll wait to tell you why.

7. The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka. Illustrated by Lane Smith
8. Llama Llama Misses Mama by Anna Dewdney
9. How do Dinosaurs say I Love You by Jane Yolen. Illustrated by Mark Teague

So I'm pretty excited to add these to Jenny's bookshelf. Really good, solid book choices!

8. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

8. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault. Illustrated by Louis Ehlert.

I do not recall reading this book as a kid, or having it read to me as a kid. It was not a staple on my bookshelf. I liked it, but it's definitely not an instant favorite of mine.

Basically all the letters of the alphabet climb up a coconut tree. Then all the letters fall out of a coconut tree. Then the letter A climbs back up a coconut tree. The end.

I think this book will be better for Jenny when she's learning her letters, but until then, I might just leave it on the shelf. I don't have nostalgia goggles on when I read this book.

I do like the illustrations though. The bold and bright colors really appeal to kids, and there is a great contrast between the letters and the coconut tree. It'll be easy for Jenny to pick out the letters from the background, which will be GREAT when we start learning our alphabet. I also like when the letters get personalities after falling out of the tree. It sounds terrible, but when the letters get hurt is when the story really picks up. "Skinned-knee D" has a bandage on. "Stubbed-toe E" is swollen. "Patched-up F" has a bandaid. And when G is "all out of breath," it's laying on its back. It's amusing, and it's when the book really gets interesting. This will sound terrible, but it's like, back in the late '90s, when you'd be watching Titanic on 2 VHS tapes, and you'd skip the first tape because the ship doesn't sink until the second tape. Let's be real, when the ship hits that iceberg is when that movie really picks up. Same can be said for this book, only replace "hitting an iceberg" with "falling out of a tree."

7. Look at Me!

7. Look at Me! Disney Baby by Marcy Kelman. Illustrated by Jerod Maruyama

I would like to start this post off by saying that Jenny loved this book. The first time I showed it to her, she actually squealed with excitement. She's nearly 4 months old now, and she's finally getting excited about her reflection, so all the bright colors and the fun house mirror on every page really evoked something in her.

Every page features a Disney character and an emotion or action that they encourage baby to do as well. For example, Mickey is smiling, Goofy is making a silly face, and Dumbo is yawning. The illustrations are super cute, bold, and very colorful. It's no wonder Jenny loves it.

And I love it because the mirrors in this book aren't flat. So when I say fun house reflection, I mean it. It's hilarious... and I had to snap some photos of Jenny looking at the cover.

Shout out to Lauren, who bought this one for Jenny. We absolutely adore it.