Books I Read in March & Recent Kids Books

I did some major slacking on book reading last month; I only got through two - reviews are at the end of this post.  I blame this on the appeal of Jax Teller and our addiction to Sons Of Anarchy.  We burned through season four, leaving little time for anything else in our free time.  But now we have to wait for season five to air this summer, or appear on Netflix, so I've already read one book and started another for April.

Anyhoo!  I've found a lot of great children's books from blogs; Little Blue Truck became a classic for both of my kids thanks to Emily at the Style Lush Blog and I love Everyday Reading's posts on books for the younger set.  I always star them in my Google reader (yes, I'm still deciding on whether to switch to Feedly or Blog Lovin) and pull up the posts whenever I'm at the library - which is to say, at least once or twice week.

So here's what we're reading 'round these parts, with the exception of all the nonfiction that my 6 year old mainly reads these days.  Sometimes we'll get on a streak of books about the solar system, construction vehicles or various animals, but he almost always wants books about marine life; we've had octopus, squid, whale, and starfish phases to name a few.  Right now we're on a shark kick (with books about Nurse Sharks and Bull Sharks this week).  If you're looking for nice little short books about such subjects for your young one, let me know.  Otherwise, here are the fun stories I've been reading with both kiddos (age 3 and 6).

1. The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog by Mo Willems - My daughter is a huge fan of this book and all other books about the pigeon and his shenanigans.  If you have kids in your life and no Mo Willems, you need to get some, stat.  The Elephant and Piggie books are great for my 6 year old, who's starting to read on his own now.  All of his books are entertaining for kids and adults alike.

2. C is for Coco by Sloane Tanen - This was one of my sons favorites and now my daughter loves it as well.  Plus, I'm a sucker for books that rhyme.  

3. Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard - This was a find through Everyday Reading and both kids get a kick out of it, as do I.

4. Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dwedney - I didn't discover Llama books until last fall and I was kind of sad that my boy missed out on them until now.  These sweet books chronicle predicaments that most toddlers find themselves in and my girl loves them; I love that they rhyme and that when she's having a fit I can say "No more llama drama!" and she'll usually stop and laugh.

5. Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin - My son did a song and dance number to this book with his pre-K class well over a year ago and just brought it home from his school library the other day.  He still has a soft spot for it and has now introduced this classic character to his little sister.  I think it's got a great message for all, "Just keep walkin' along and singin' your song."  We're slowly working our way through all the Pete the Cat books.

6. Wild About You by Judy Sierra - Again, I really love books that rhyme and this one's got such a sweet message about the love we have for our kids as parents and that families can come in all shapes and sizes.

7. Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems - Yes, another Willems book; it's hilarious and we all love it and read it almost daily, so I had to include it. 

8. Minerva Louise by Janet Morgan Stoeke - I first discovered Minerva when browsing for Christmas books from the library and OH MY GOD, Minerva Louise on Christmas Eve is the best kids Christmas book ever!  So now we're enjoying more of Minerva's silly antics.

9. The Napping House by Audrey Wood - This is one of my daughter's favorites before bed and even though it's gets so repetitive to read, I just love the gorgeous illustrations and the way they convey a rainy and sleepy day as it turns to a bright and exuberant one.




The Likeness by Tana French

This book had a really unique premise and started off tense and thrilling. I was glad to follow more of Cassie Maddox and her story after tearing through 'In The Woods.' But, somewhere along the way, it lost steam for me. I guess I didn't care enough about the victim to really want to know who killed her, and I didn't much care for any of the suspects, so I didn't want to know much more about them. Meh.



The Magicians by Lev Grossman

So my husband read this and thought it was entertaining - sort of like a gritty mashup of Harry Potter and the Chronicles Narnia, and how things would be if magic really existed in the modern world. I was sad to say that I didn't agree with him. Most people's negative reviews on this book have to do with the misanthropic main character being just so unlikable; I would agree with this, but I don't have a problem with unlikable characters in books (like Gone Girl), as long as there's a plot. It didn't seem like there was one here, at least not that I could find - it's just a long description of interesting events. There were some fun and creative bits, but on the whole, I wouldn't recommend.