Lucky Day at The Library
Did you ever have a really lucky day at the library? When you come home with something you’d never even heard of but it ended up being a special little treasure?
A few weeks ago we went to check out the area library in our new neighborhood, and came away with tons of books for the boys (like 30 - at this library they have no limit!) I just picked up everything I saw that I thought would be fun for Sam, mostly, many of which I had never seen before. When we got home and started reading them we discovered two new favorites.
We love this one. At the end of the first reading both Hubby and I said, “What a great book!” The story is wonderful, about a small snail who saves the day despite her size, after being shown the big, big world by her friend, the whale. There is a nice underlying eco-theme, and in the end the community comes together to save the whale. Besides that, it’s written in a totally fun rhyme scheme that makes it a pleasure to read, and the illustrations are lovely.
If you sat down with a child, had them tell you a story in which their imagination is the limit, and wrote down everything they said, you’d probably come up with something like Jimmy Zangwow’s Out-Of-This-World Moon-Pie Adventure. It’s a great story about a boy who flies on his home-made jalopy in search of moon-pies (because his mom won’t give him one before dinner), which starts him off on a terrific adventure through the galaxy. What really sets this book apart, however, is the art. OMG! It’s beautiful. You just have to see it. Really, really beautiful, and really like nothing I have quite seen before in a children’s book.
I know, it sounds like I’m writing a review, but I actually just wanted to share these two great books because we have really been enjoying them. If you feel like reading a book review, however, let me send you on over to Mama Speaks, where I have a review up of another book I really enjoyed (but for adults - moms, specifically) and thoroughly recommend, The Stay-At-Home Survival Guide.
They look fun!
I have no idea if my library has a limit or not. I just know that if you rack up a fine because you don’t return your library books for 3 months, they freeze your account. BUt they do take you right back with no questions so long as you pay your fine.
Ooh, I will have to check those out, esp. The Snail and the Whale. We have a couple of other Donaldson/Scheffler titles that we LOVE: “The Gruffalo” and “The Gruffalo’s Child.” Look for them next time you go!
Those sound great. Thanks for the tips. Even as a librarian I find going to the library with my kids overwhelming — there’s just so much to choose from.
We, too, like The Gruffalo! We’re also huge fans of Charlie & Lola, Fancy Nancy, anything by Eric Carle, Jan Brett.
Our latest treasures have been “One monkey too many” and “Dear Daisy, get well soon”
we got the snail and the whale from the library before — it is SOOOO cute!!! my kids loved it! that author has another book, ‘charlie cooks favorite book’ that is pretty cute too.
we also love slippers the dog books
I may just have to check into both of the above via the library’s uber convenient online reserve tool!
More books for our reading list, thank you! I need to find the SAHM survival guide too.
We haven’t been to the library in awhile but I do know about discovering those lucky finds there. I randomly picked some books one day and Shorty loved them. We’re now big fans of Kevin Lewis. I recommend “Chugga Chugga Choo-Choo” and “My Truck is Stuck” for your two little men. Shorty also loves Mem Fox’s “Where’s the Green Sheep” which would probably be a good fit for Robbie but maybe a little too young for Sam.