The RAHK Report for 2/3/18

The Read-at-Home Kids report is a weekly summary of what my three daughters have been reading. Here's this past week's reading list. 

• The Wonderful Farm by Marcel Ayme, illustrated by Maurice Sendak
  We have just one chapter left in this book. I am really looking forward to writing a glowing review, as I and Miss Muffet (4 years, 2 months) and even Bo Peep (2 years, 4 months) to some extent, have really enjoyed it. It's unlike any other animal story I've ever read, and I think it will be a tough act to follow. 
• Ladybug magazine, February 2018
  Miss Muffet's newest issue of Ladybug came this week, and she was thrilled as always to receive it. She can pretty much read the entire thing independently, but she decided she wanted to take turns reading it aloud with me, so that's what we did. I was pleased to find a Beatrice Schenk de Regniers poem in there, as well as an action rhyme she actually wanted to do, and a few games and activities for her to do on her own. 
• Sam the Minuteman by Nathaniel Benchley, illustrated by Arnold Lobel
  Miss Muffet is going through easy readers at an ever-faster pace. I gave her this one after nap time yesterday and she determined that it was about "shooting soldiers." She'll be reading more Nathaniel Benchley over the weekend.
  

• Oh, What a Busy Day by Gyo Fujikawa
• Gyo Fujikawa's A to Z Picture Book
• A Child's Book of Poems, illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa
  So determined is Bo Peep to read the works of Gyo Fujikawa that she destroyed a metal book end and nearly injured herself climbing up on the desk to get them.  She is especially fond of Oh What a Busy Day! which she likes to sit and look at by herself, chattering away about what the kids in the pictures are doing. She had less patience for the A to Z Picture Book, mostly because I wanted to try to teach her something about the alphabet and she just wanted to turn the pages. She liked the artwork in A Child's Book of Poems well enough, but she became frustrated when she realized that most of the poems were not set to music, even though "Over the River and Through the Wood" was in there and could be sung. Overall, though, she is a Fujikawa fan.
• There's a Nightmare in My Closet by Mercer Mayer 
• The Witch Who Lives Down the Hall by Donna Guthrie, illustrated by Amy Schwartz
  Bo Peep has been interested in these books (which were mine as a child) on and off for months. This was definitely an "on" week as she kept bringing them to me over and over again, asking me to label obscure objects in the illustrations (e.g., the knob of a dresser drawer) and to make sure she had the exact correct wording of the books' titles. I have started keeping these books out where she can see them, because otherwise she empties every book basket in her frenzy to find them.
  
  
  
• One Red Sun by Ezra Jack Keats
  I showed this book to Jumping Joan (3.5 months) this week, and she seemed interested in the bright colors. I don't think it was much of a hit with the older two girls, since I went to add it to the baby's Goodreads shelf and found that it had never been on my Goodreads at all! Bo Peep also sat with us when this book was out and she liked being able to "read" it to her sister. 
• Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle
  Bo Peep suggested reading Polar Bear, Polar Bear to Jumping Joan, but it wasn't the hit she was expecting. I think it's more of a toddler favorite. 
• All Falling Down by Margaret Bloy Graham and Gene Zion
  I grabbed this from the shelf to read to Jumping Joan just to expose her to something different that happened to be handy. She looked very intently at the illustrations, but it was the big girls who dropped everything and came over to listen. I'll probably pull this one out again in the coming weeks; maybe we'll tie it into a gravity lesson. 
• Blue on Blue by Dianne White and Beth Krommes
  I took this out for Jumping Joan as well because I thought the patterns of the illustrations might appeal to her, but she looked at me while I was reading instead of the pictures. Miss Muffet liked this when she was a little older, and Bo Peep never really got into it, so we'll see what happens in a few months. 

Finally, we ended the week with some picture books on video. I borrowed the video adaptations of Groundhog Day by Gail Gibbons and Go To Sleep, Groundhog! by Judy Cox and Paul Meisel from the library via Hoopla and we watched them over breakfast in celebration of Groundhog Day yesterday. In the afternoon, we watched an old episode of Reading Rainbow featuring an animated version of Robert Louis Stevenson's My Shadow illustrated by Ted Rand.