The RAHK Report for 4/8/18

• The Happy Hollisters by Jerry West
  This ebook was free for Kindle one day so I downloaded it to my phone thinking I would just read it myself for fun. But then Miss Muffet (4 years, 4 months) and I had to wait in the car for a few minutes on our way to New York, and I started reading it aloud to her just to keep her entertained for a few minutes. She was so taken with the story, and so drawn into the suspense of solving the mystery that we ended up finishing the whole thing in about two days once we got home. Some of the sequels are on Open Library, so we'll probably check those out soon. This was her first exposure to the mystery genre, and to the concept of cliffhangers, and it was a success. (We're also still reading More Milly-Molly-Mandy together.)
• Little Dog Lost by Rene Guillot, illustrated by Wallace Tripp
  This is Miss Muffet's current independent read. It's a bit of a challenge, and it has been introducing her to lots of great new vocabulary words, which is part of the point. I haven't read it yet myself, but she tends to like animal stories and seems to be enjoying it. 
• First Thousand Words In Latin
  Since we attend a Latin Mass sometimes, and because we want to teach the girls some Gregorian chant, we are starting to learn a little bit about Latin pronunciation. This book has a lot of words in it that we are not likely to need to know for those purposes, but Miss Muffet enjoys languages and likes to work on trying to pronounce every word she can. In the meantime, we are actually all learning to chant the Stabat Mater and Regina Caeli.
  
  

• Katie and the Sunflowers by James Mayhew
  We bought this book with Miss Muffet in mind, at least for now, but Bo Peep (2.5 years) is the one who asked to hear it this week. I don't know that she really understood exactly what was happening, but she sat contentedly in my lap and stared at the pictures with rapt attention. None of the sequels can really compare to the excellent first book, Katie's Picture Show, but this one was okay.
• To Hilda for Helping by Margot Zemach and I'll Fix Anthony by Judith Viorst, illustrated by Arnold Lobel
  I grabbed these two books from the shelf at random without realizing they complemented each other perfectly! To Hilda for Helping about the youngest of three daughters who is given a medal made by her father in recognition of her help setting the table each night. One of Hilda's older sisters doesn't care a bit about the medal, but the other is extremely jealous. When her sister tries to spoil Hilda's enjoyment of her prize by describing a potential situation in which the medal would be lost forever, Hilda simply rejects the idea and predicts a future in which she comes out on top. I'll Fix Anthony is about a little brother's fantasy involving all the ways he will get back at his older brother for all the ways he has wronged him. When he's six, the narrator promises, he'll "fix" Anthony. These books are both so true to the emotions kids experience when they have difficulty getting along with their siblings. Bo Peep and Miss Muffet get along really well, but they definitely recognized something in these stories that made them laugh along with the younger sibling characters. I'm also happy to report that neither came away with the idea that revenge is a good thing. I think they picked up on the fact that these are books about using imagination to combat anger and not actual handbooks for giving older siblings their comeuppance.
• Easter by Jan Pienkowski
  This is the King James translation of the Easter story, accompanied by silhouette illustrations. We read it aloud at the dinner table on Easter, and it was fine, but there was no glorious image of the Resurrection to be seen, which made it kind of a let-down.
  
  

• Where Are Baby's Easter Eggs? by Karen Katz
  Bo Peep was delighted to see this book again after months of it being packed away in our spring book box, and she has been trying to share it with Jumping Joan (5 months) for days. Jumping Joan is not quite as into it as Bo Peep would like; she'd rather have a larger book to push out in front of her as she practices trying to get up on all fours.
• In the Rain by Elizabeth Spurr, illustrated by Manelle Oliphant
  Peachtree Publishers sent us a review copy of this book, and both Bo Peep and Jumping Joan like to listen to it over and over again. Bo Peep also likes In the Snow, an earlier book from the same series.