Author: Katie

Favorite Books of 2011

Favorite New Authors:

Sarah Dessen
Sarah Addison Allen

Favorite Children’s Audio Books:

The Pain and the Great One series by Judy Blume
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Favorite Chapter Book Read-Alouds:

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald
Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter

Blake would say Harry Potter, but that was a hard and long read-aloud and not MY favorite.

Favorite Picture Books:

Hooray for Amanda and her Alligator! by Mo Willems (pretty much anything by him is great)
The Paper Bag Princess by Robert N. Munsch
“I’m not Santa!” by Jonathan Allen

Favorite Fantasy Novel:

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Favorite Romance:

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Favorite Classic:

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Previous Favorites: 2010, 2009

RecoMonday: Olivier Dunrea’s Gosling Books

Recently I’ve read some of Olivier Dunrea’s gosling books to Isaac, which I used to read to Blake when he was little.

This one is my favorite. Ollie yells at Gertie & Gossie that he wants boots and once he finally gets some boots, he yells that they are too hot. Isaac and I started quoting the lines to each other in the car the other day and he thought it was so funny. The older boys started joining in as well. “These boots are too hot!!”

Classic.

RecoMonday: Author – Kevin Henkes

Lately Clark has been into Kevin Henkes’ books. We own a few of them, and I recently purchased this one.

He is obsessed with it and wanted to copy Lilly by putting band-aids all over himself to show how brave he is.


(we ran out of band-aids so he added some stickers)

Then we checked this book out at the library…and now he has to walk backwards with his eyes closed to show how brave he is.

I love it when my children copy things from books. It becomes this special family joke.

Favorite Books of 2010

Well 2010 is over and this baby still hasn’t arrived. Isaac arrived 17 days early and was over 8 pounds so I got my hopes up about this baby coming early as well. No such luck. I was dilated 2 cm two weeks ago and today I’m just 3 cm dilated. She’s due on Saturday so we’ll see if she can make it by her due date.

In the meantime, I thought I’d post my favorite books of the year.

Children’s Recommendations:

Best Audio Book:

Best Memoir:

Best “Fluff” Series:

Best Young Adult:

Most Anticipated:

Best Classic:

Best Fantasy Series:

Last Year’s Favorites: 2009

National Library Week

If you read this blog regularly you know that our family LOVES the library. I have cards to 2 different libraries and go to each one at least once a week. Well, this week is National Library Week and I want to help honor libraries!

Our local library is currently having some financial restraints so I am going to donate a dollar to our library for each comment I get on this entry. Please show some love to the library by making a comment!

And here are a few lists you can comment on if you want. The people at Fuse #8 recently took a poll and came up with the Top 100 Children’s Novels and Top 100 Picture Books.

I’m happy to note that I’ve already read Blake 2 of the top 10 Children’s novels – Charlotte’s Web and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. He really enjoyed both of them and I’m about to start A Wrinkle in Time with him.

Top 10 Children’s Novels

#1 Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
#2 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
#3 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
#4 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
#5 From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg
#6 Holes by Louis Sachar
#7 The Giver by Lois Lowry
#8 The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
#9 Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
#10 The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster


(curl up with your kids this week and read some books!)

I’ve also read the top 10 picture books to my boys. Their favorites are: Where the Wild Things Are, Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Harold and the Purple Crayon, and Knuffle Bunny.

Top 10 Picture Books

#1: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (1963)
#2: Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown (1947)
#3: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (1979)
#4: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (1962)
#5: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems (2003)
#6: Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (1941)
#7: Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson (1955)
#8: Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans (1939)
#9: Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag (1928)
#10: Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems (2004)

What are some of your favorite children’s novels or picture books?