Bookies

The kids love to go to the library and I DO like to take the boys, but Caroline just grabs books off the shelf and runs amok, so in Thornton I didn't get to go very much if I wanted to go without her.  Here, Joe is readily available so we've already been to the library twice and found some new favorites.  They're such favorites I just wanted to post them, in case you guys are looking for good kid reads.

Rhyming can shoot a book from "cute" to "favorite" because it's much more fun to read, remember (good for "reading" with your eyes closed because you're so tired), and for the kids to remember and "read" along with.  "Edwina" not only rhymes, it has a good moral and an adorable ending.

"Piggies" rhymes but might not be my favorite because the pictures are lightly colored and, to me, look washed out, but the kids love it and the story is cute. Caroline drags this book around and wants you to read it every time she sees you sit down.

"Fast Food" is the 2nd Saxton Freymann book we've checked out, he does hilarious things with produce!  This one rhymes so, of course, I love it, but we also loved "Food for Thought," which incorperated shapes, numbers, colors, and opposites (but no rhyming), so it was more educational for the kids.  Looking on Amazon, he has LOTS of books, so we'll be checking all those out!

"Dino-Pedia," for any dinosaur lover out there.  It has a few things I love that I haven't found in other dinosaur books.  No, it doesn't rhyme...  BUT it breaks the book nicely into sections: 1. A dino overview for all us lame-o's who can't remember the difference between a saurischian and ornithischians (lizard-hipped and bird-hipped dinosaurs), or whether the Jurrasic or the Triassic came first; 2. Discovering dinosaurs, which covers dino habits and habitats in a general way; 3. an entire section on meat eaters, highlighting the most famous; 4. an entire section on plant eaters, highlighting the most famous; and finally 5. a dinosaur dictionary, which lists every dinosaur ever discovered - there are over 1,000, with about 20 new discoveries every year! No wonder I can never remember them all.  I appreciated all the info, but I REALLY appreciated the awesome illustrations - it makes it seem like every dinosaur is the BEST dinosaur. We'll probably renew this book until the library won't allow us to, then just buy it for ourselves, it's VERY good.  Duh - that's why I added it to my list!

Finally, I DID agree to read book 5 of Harry Potter to Patrick.  So far so good - and we're pretty far! Page 385.  It's much less action and much more teenage angst than I had remembered (I remembered I disliked the last 2 books more for that reason) so there's been more questions like "why is Harry so angry all the time?"

Harry Potter has actually helped us talk to Patrick about the recent tragedy in Aurora.  We have already had numerous discussions on choices and consequences, our spirits being created as good but having the agency to choose for ourselves, and that bad choices do not necessarily make you a bad person but you can repent (like Snape).  Then discussions about how many bad choices make a person a "bad" person, or is there such a thing? How bad is "bad"? And of course I don't have the answers because Heavenly Father will figure that all our in the end, not me, but isn't it good to have such big conversations so early on?  I was glad we'd already discussed all this because as Joe was reading the news to me I was having a hard time controlling my emotions, but Patrick was asking what was going on and why. THANK GOODNESS I didn't have to answer, I just started "well, sometimes people make choices..." and he took it from there and explained it to US.  It's one of those times I'm grateful it's not our choice to ultimately mete out justice, and that no matter WHAT crazy things happen we can be together again so even tragedies here on earth have a happy ending in Heaven. I know that's all WAAAAAY off topic of kids books, but I think it's important that books not only entertain, they TEACH.  And what could be more important than teaching our kids eternal truths even in difficult situations? Not much.  There's my soap box, I'll step down now and you can go jog yourself to the nearest library for all the good stuff I listed up top.