Trumpet of the Swan - E.B. White

I feel like there is never enough time to read alone before bed with my 4.5-year-old (we often can do this only after reading a few shorter books with his younger sisters) - so it takes us awhile to get through chapter books, but we really enjoyed Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White.  I'd never read this one as a kid, so it was fun to discover a new well-known story together.  Trumpet of the Swan tells the story of trumpeter swan, Louis, who is born unable to make any sound.  Concerned that he will never be able to woo his potential mate, Louis's father breaks into a music store and steals a trumpet for him.  With the sometimes help of his human bird-loving friend, Sam Beaver, Louis masters his trumpet and also learns to write.  I got a lot of "can a swan really do that?" questions during our readings - which were legitimate since the books is otherwise incredibly realistic in its descriptions of nature and animals.  This is a beautiful book for reading aloud, with some wonderful descriptive passages about observing animals and the changing seasons.  Often, I thought maybe Ben wasn't taking it all in, but he would check-in once in awhile and ask about a word, or tell me that he liked the way something was said, so I think he was getting into the rhythm of the book.  We have White's Stuart Little on the shelf which is much shorter, so we may turn to that next...or I may give Ben a break from my choice and let him enjoy a few superhero stories before we turn back to the "good stuff."

Sometimes you just have to laugh...

Every day life can be quite stressful - given my work and current events, it's easy to get bogged down in the negative.  When I have free time and want to unwind, I find that I tend toward the mindless - sitcoms on TV, comedies for movies...and whenever a well-known comedian comes out with a book, I try my best to put it on the list.  Here are a few of the ones I've read in relatively recent past:

No matter how bad her books get, I just can't quit Chelsea Handler.  Her most recent, Uganda Be Kidding Me, focuses on her travels around the world with her closest friends.  This book is horrible.  In chapter after chapter Chelsea gets drunk, is rude to her friends, makes some international faux pas, and then gets drunk again.  I didn't find much of it funny (and I do find her generally pretty funny) and feel like it's one of those situations where she really just thinks talking about how wasted she was is all she needs to get a laugh.  This was incredibly disappointing.  That being said, yes, I will read her next book when it comes out.

I love Amy Poehler.  I thought she was fabulous on SNL's Weekend Update, and after an iffy first-season, I became a true fan of Parks and Rec.  She seems like the kind of person I'd want to be friends with in real life, so I was eager to read her book, Yes Please.  Overall, I liked this book, but I wouldn't necessarily call if "funny."  I more appreciated her frank discussion of what it was like to be a working mom - the stress it put on her marriage (which ultimately ended in a divorce) and her emphasis on the help she receives from her nannies.  She is straight-forward and real, and to the extent there is humor, it kind of comes from a just a general shared vision of the world around us.  For people who are already fans, I would recommend this, but I don't see this winning over any new fans.

I'm not sure if this book is supposed to be funny.  Does Lena Dunham put herself out there as funny?  Or is it just that she is totally "real" about her generation in a way that just seems completely ridiculous so I feel like it's supposed to be funny?  I am not a fan of Lena Dunham's work.  I find Girls to be completely baffling, and do not (thankfully) know a single woman who behaves or speaks in the way the female characters on her show do.  That being said, Dunham has clearly gained incredible success in an industry in which she is not the typically successful (looking?) person.  And so I read Not That Kind of Girl in an attempt to gain better insight into this strange world in which she lives.  I thought this book was actually well-written - but it certainly did not endear me to Dunham.  She came across as a privileged spoiled-brat who created drama around her because her life was otherwise too boring.  I know there has been much made of the strange relationship she seems to have with her sister (including accusations of molestation), and I admit I was a bit taken aback by it all and wondered if she was exaggerating for some sort of perverse effect.  Whatever the case, it didn't really work for me.  I think Dunham is a bit clueless in many respects, but she is making it work in a world that doesn't think she has any right doing so - and that in and of itself is pretty impressive.

The Books of William Steig

Ben's watercolor: created during Literacy Group

I love when people introduce me to new authors.  I love it even more when those people are my own kids.  Four afternoons a week, the kids in his preschool class heading off to kindergarten next year (including him), get together for what they call "Literacy Group."  In Literacy Group, a teacher reads books to them while they draw or paint, and have discussions about what they're reading.

On Mondays, they have tea-time during Literacy Group.  The kids in the group all happen to be boys, and while I know it shouldn't matter, I do get a kick out of just seeing these crazy active boys all sitting around a table together, enjoying a book and each other's company in such a civilized fashion (the teachers take photographs so we can better visualize this experience).

While the group has moved on to Steig's chapter book, Dominic, they started off the school year exploring the picture books of William Steig.  Steig was a prolific children's book author, so it's crazy to me that I don't recall ever reading any of his books.  Of course, the one that we are all familiar with (though may not have realized was a book) is Shrek.  Every day for a couple weeks, Ben came home and told me about a new book - he really seemed engaged by everything.  He would ask me if I had read something, and when I said, "No," he'd emphatically tell me to "look it up!"  He retold me the stories and asked me questions I wasn't quite sure of the answers to - given that I hadn't read any of the books!  So, I decided I better go to the library and check out a stack.  Here's a sampling of the ones I brought home and we read together:

Zeke Pippin - this story about a pig who finds a magic harmonica (after it falls off the back of a garbage truck) is Ben's favorite of the bunch.  I laughed when Zeke brought the harmonica home and cleaned it with his toothbrush and his father's Schnapps.  After he believes his family is not adequately appreciating his talents, he heads out into the world on a musical adventure.

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble - this is my favorite of the Steig books we have read together.  Sylvester is a donkey who happens upon a red pebble.  When he touches it, he discovers he is granted his every wish.  An ill-advised wish, however, leaves him in the lurch.  As a kid (and as an adult), I often thought about what my three wishes would be (can I wish for more wishes?), so this story really spoke to me - and is a cautionary tale about what happens when you want for too much, and forget to be grateful for what you already have.

Amos and Boris - features a small mouse who befriends a blue whale.  This continued for us an on-going conversation we've been having about the differences between mammals and amphibians/reptiles.  It also includes a tidal wave which is one of Ben's favorite natural disasters.

Brave Irene - a dressmaker's daughter braves the elements to get a gown to a duchess in time.  She faces numerous dangers along the way.  Ben was not as keen on this book which he considered "a little scary."  But despite this, he excitedly told me about all the bad things Irene had to overcome.

Toby, What are You? - in this silly book, Toby acts things out and asks his parents to guess what he is.  Great inspiration for a game of charades.

Doctor De Soto - a mouse dentist is tested when a fox shows up with a toothache.  This book actually made me realize that I have read Steig before.  I first borrowed this book about three years ago when Ben was approaching his first dental appointment and I was looking for books to ease the strangeness of the visit.

Which Would You Rather Be? - asks the questions we've all wanted to know the answers to: would you rather be thunder or lightening?  A stick or a stone?  An interactive book that gets kids talking, and also inspired Literacy Group to learn one of Ben's now favorite songs:  El Condor Pasa by Simon & Garfunkel - and consequently inspired us to listen and learn more songs by S&G and Paul Simon.  I mean, what kid wouldn't love to sing The 59th Street Bridge Song?

There are over thirty more Steig children's books to choose from, so I anticipate that our interest in him will span the year.  Ben gets a kick out of reminding me that, "you don't really know these books, right Mom?  You know because I told you, right?"  My daughters are also quite curious and have taken to "stealing" our Steig library books and hiding them in their room so they can read what the big kids are reading.  I can't wait to see what else Literacy Group introduces us to throughout the year!

Ben's Chapter Book Pick: Fantastic Mr. Fox

While I do allow my children to pick out the books they want to read, every once in awhile, I still like to force some on them.  After a summer of chapter books about superheroes and Geronimo Stilton, I took back control, and foisted another Roald Dahl pick on Ben.  This time, the choice was Fantastic Mr. Fox.  I read this book back in elementary school, and vividly remember a description of one of the farmer's in the book having ear wax so bad that dead bugs were stuck in it.  I think of it every time I clean my ears!

The plot of this book is very straight-forward - simple for a four-year-old to understand and follow.  Mr. Fox has kept his family fed by stealing food every day from three rich local farmers.  When they wise-up to his shenanigans, they make a plan of their own to smoke Mr. Fox out of his hole and shoot him.  The chase is on, and the question is whether Mr. Fox can outsmart the greedy men, or whether he will meet his end.

As with a few other Dahl books, there is a moral dilemma here - does Mr. Fox have the right to steal food that isn't his?  Shouldn't he be punished?  But, without stealing, his family will presumably go hungry - and don't these farmers already have too much?  But, aside from the bigger picture, there is a lot of fun to be had with the descriptions and characters in this book.  It's short, so it took us about three nights to read, but throughout each reading, we would stop and talk about what we thought would happen next, whether we thought Mr. Fox would be able to escape, and what he was going to do if he did.

All in all, this was a very fun book to read out loud.  As with other Dahl books, there is some name-calling that I may have censored a bit, but for the most part, we told the story as-is.  Made me excited to move on soon to The B.F.G. and The Witches!

Unfortunate Pick of the Week: Bad Kitty

My girls love animals, so often when I'm at the library, I judge books by their covers and choose ones that feature animals - particularly dogs and cats.  So, I recently picked up Bad Kitty.  I often don't read the books before I bring them home because I don't want to judge the stories for my kids (especially since I am often surprised by what they find interesting/amusing)...but this was definitely a mistake in this instance.  Bad Kitty is an ABC book - about a kitty who becomes angry or happy depending on what A-Z foods are being brought home.  All in all, it's a fine book - and there are actually a ton of fun picturs that the kids love to talk about which is nice.  But the book is LONG - and it doesn't have much of a story - it's just going through the alphabet over and over again.

I read it once and thought, "I should return this..."  Then the next day I caught my husband in the middle of reading it to Alice.  He looked at me and said, "This is a LONG book" and later informed me of a way he found to just skip a lot of it and still get the basic story.  I tried that method at bedtime, but the kids kept interrupting me to "remind" me of the things I was "forgetting" to read.

I am torn.  I find this book tedious.  But my kids  LOVE it. I think they like the idea of a cat doing things it isn't supposed to do - and laughing at the messes that the cat makes.  And it's not as if the book is negative or has anything "bad" in it that is really objectionable.  I just find it boring.  And so the dilemma - return it and just tell the kids it was due...or suck it up and provide my kids with the silly laughter and enjoyment of it for reasons I can't understand.  I know I'll keep it around for a few days, but I'm not entirely happy about it.

And I'm really not happy about the fact that apparently this is an entire series of books!!  Please don't tell my kids!!

Pick of the Week: Rainstorm

Rainstorm by Barbara Lehman: This wordless picture book tells the story of a lonely little boy in a great big house.  On a rainy day, he discovers a key that unlocks a whole new world for him.  I've written about wordless books before, and how great I think they are in terms of engaging kids - letting them tell the story, making sure they're observing what characters are doing, thinking ahead, and considering what might happen next.  This book is no different - but has the added benefit of getting the kids to talk about their feelings, and the difference that having people in our lives can make.  All three of my kids love this one.  Sometimes, I try to avoid the wordless books - frankly because they require so much more work to tell the story and ask questions - but they are a great reminder that I should be interacting with our books more in general.  A great read for a rainy day!

A Favorite from Alice: Tumble Bumble

Tumble Bumble is a short little rhyming tale about a pack of animals bumping into each other and eventually settling in to a nap together.  Very cute for kids who like animals and simple counting books.