Quack Quack by Louise Rupnik

I thought it would be fun to review Uriah's favorite book!  Quack Quack is a touch and feel book for babies, and Uriah absolutely loves it!

There are photographs of various animals in this book with little patches for baby to feel.  Uriah doesn't just feel these patches.  He bites them.  I guess this book is Uriah approved!  This is the only book that he'll sit all the way through.  He loves it!  He's not quite 14 months and I try to read a few books to him every day, but he usually gets bored halfway through the book.  

This is a good one for little babies because it's not too long and they like patting (or biting!) the animals in the book.

The Monster Princess

Tonight we tried something the girls picked out from the library yesterday.  The Monster Princess, by D.J. MacHale, ended up in my bag from the new picture book section.  

Did you ever wish to be a princess?  Lala, the Rugabee, did.  A Rugabee is a type of monster that lives underground and collects a special kind of nut.  But Lala, a very talented and popular Rugabee, wanted to be a princess and live above ground and dance!

One day, she ventures into the castle and finds the princesses' room, where she tries on their dresses.  At first they are afraid, but they end up ridiculing her in public, which really hurts Lala's feelings.

When I opened this book and realized it was a rhyming book, I silently groaned to myself.  I am not a fan of rhyming books.  I've never really liked poetry (sorry, Mom, it's true, but I'll still recite poetry for your birthday) so rhyming books usually have a groan-inducing eyeball-rolling effect on me.  But The Monster Princess was actually not obnoxious rhyming, so it's one I could read again!  Most rhyming books aren't very cleaver and they try too hard.  I didn't feel like that with The Monster Princess.  The girls enjoyed reading it with me, so I officially declare that The Monster Princess will be renewed 3 weeks from now!  Unless, of course, somebody has a hold on it already.

The Very Fairy Princess

Another picture book that we've recently checked out and read together as a family is The Very Fairy Princess by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton.

Honestly?  Not my favorite.  It was pretty cute, but a little boring, to me anyway.  BUT the kids really enjoyed it, and that's who I'm reading for, right?  Well, to be totally honest, when I read to the kids, I want something that I enjoy and my kids enjoy.  I'm glad this was a library book because I was looking forward to not having to read it anymore!

The book is all about being a fairy princess, and how you need to "let your sparkle out."  She goes over all the qualities of a fairy princess ("Fairy princesses are very supportive" for example, when she gives encouragement to her friend).  It's a good message.

But the fact of it is, I read books to be entertaining and not to teach my kids life lessons.  As the mom, I teach them life lessons while they're living their life, not while they're reading a book for entertainment.  If there are morals in the story, I want them to not be detrimental to the plot of the book. There really was not much of a plot, which was why this book was so boring.

But, because my own daughters want to be fairy princesses themselves, I ended up reading it over and over (and over and over...).

Interrupting Chicken

I decided I'll start posting picture books that I read to my kids as well.  Rose really loves picture books.  Here is a fun one that we found recently.  Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein.

Interrupting Chicken is a fun book for kids (I'd recommend ages 3 and older).  Both Lacy and Rose love when I read this aloud.  It won a Caldecott award and is fully deserving of it!  Such a fun read.  

Chicken enjoys getting a story every night from her papa.  Unfortunately, she gets a little too involved in the book and keeps interrupting Papa as she reads!  Finally, there are no more stories to read and Chicken creates her own bedtime story for her papa.  

Rose says:  "Funny.  Her father reads her a story.  The kid knows how to read."

Lacy says:  "I think the book is cute and funny and really silly.  The most thing I like about it is there's a chicken, and I like chickens.  They are so cute when they hatch!"