Parent Child Reading

Pumpkin Faces

Halloween is only a few weeks away now!  My kids are very excited, so my husband pulled out the Halloween decorations and books this weekend.  We found a much read and beloved book in the Halloween box:  Pumpkin Faces,written by Emma Rose, and illustrated by Judith Moffatt!

The simple text along with the fabulous GLOW IN THE DARK pictures make for a fabulous read!  Just charge up the pages with a light, and you're ready to go. Each page has only a few words(i.e.: silly face, mean face, etc.) that describe the pumpkin face. It is a fun book to read both with the lights on and the lights off. 

 

Judith Moffatt, the illustrator, told me that while this book (and some of her other glow-in-the dark books) is out of print, it can still be found at Amazon.com or through her.  Her contact information is on her website.

Check out Ms. Moffatt's website:   

http://www.judithmoffatt.com/OLD%20index.html

for more information about her, her full listing of book titles, as well as some crafts that you can make with your child.  She gives clear directions with pictures.

What unique Halloween books do you read with your child?  What makes the book special? 

Letters in Nature

When Megan and I were walking at a local botanical garden, I took this picture.  It is fun and sometimes quite easy to find letters in the world around you.  When I asked Megan what letter she saw, she immediately said, "X!".

Tana Hoban was a children's book author/illustrator with fabulous books that use mostly photos to illustrate all sorts of concepts.  Signs, symbols, shapes, opposites, prepositions,letters, etc. are all illustrated in her books using photos.

                                       

She has dozens of fabulous books for you to take a look at with your child.  She died in 2006 at the age of 88, but she sure left a wonderful legacy for children throughout the world!

The next time you take a walk with your child, try finding letters in the world around you.  And, if you like to take pictures, take some pictures too!  If you get REALLY ambitious, you could even make an alphabet book for your child out of the pictures you took!

Lois Ehlert

Lois Ehlert is one of my favorite picture book authors/illustrators.  I think she does an astounding job with her books.  I like many features of her books:

• bright, bold, illustrations- many of which are collages
• word labels by pictures
• very large, bold print- ideal for tracking, or running your fingers, under the words as you read
• many of her books have scientific information at the end that tells more about the topic of the story

For a little while I will be highlighting two of her harvest/autumn books: 

Growing Vegetable Soup

Leaf Man

For in-depth book reviews of Leaf Man and another one of her Autumn books, Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf, check out a recent posting at the BooksForKids blog.  The blog Open Wide, Look Inside recently published both an excellent review for Growing Vegetable Soup as well as links to other sites with extension activities to go along with this book. 

On this blog, I will be talking about some read-aloud ideas using these two books.

A few years ago, I got to meet Lois Ehlert in person and hear her talk about the making of Leaf Man.  She said that when she was making the book, she had all of her relatives and friends gather the leaves that she used in the illustrations of her book. The illustrations are composed of fall leaves.  For a long time, she intently studied all of the leaves she saw as potential parts of illustrations!

Lois Ehlert is such a favorite of mine, and I believe has such excellent books for young children, that I am sure you will be learning about more of her books over time.  If you want to hear a video interview of her talking about her early interest in art and her books, check out this Reading Rockets link:  http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/ehlert. 

What are some of your favorite Lois Ehlert books?