Read Aloud Thursday

Do you guys ever find yourselves checking books out and realizing once you get home with them that they are a little on the young side for your children?  I did that on one of my recent trips to the library.  It seems that I cannot reconcile myself to the fact that I have a five year old and an almost four year old.  Where does the time go?  Sigh.

Even though my girls wanted to dismiss How Big Is a Pig as a baby book, they still sat through it and studied the illustrations, so I suppose this makes it appropriate for preschoolers down.  The concept behind this book, written and illustrated by Clare Beaton, is to set up contrasts between groups of farm animals.   Each page contains a rhyming couplet and ends with the question, “How big is a pig?”  This is a great preschool book because it offers ample opportunity to look at contrasts and to count animals, etc.  What I like most about this book, though, are the illustrations.  According to the publication information in the book, “the illustrations were prepared in felt with brain, beads, and sequins.”  The result are very tactile, interesting pictures that almost look quilted.  I give this one a Highly Recommended for the younger set, and if you can convince your kindergartener who is learning to read to give this one a try (I couldn’t), it might even pass for an early reader.  🙂

This next book is pure silliness with lots of kid appeal.  No More Water in the Tub! by Tedd Arnold is the highly entertaining story of a boy named William whose brother overfills the bathtub, thus sending William and the tub out the door and down the steps in his apartment building, collecting neighbors as he goes.  The fun of this one is the “House That Jack  Built” style repetition which always ends with a new passenger on this flood of bathwater, and the new passenger always rides on something interesting.  For example, “Sue and Vern clung to a fern” while “Uncle Nash sat in the trash.”  My girls LOVE this.  Tedd Arnold’s illustrations are just as bright, colorful, and fun as you would expect.  This is one fun read-aloud!

This last one kind of surprised me–I didn’t know if Lulu and Louise would go for it at all.  However, we had read another version of Rapunzel already, and they really liked it, so I thought we’d give it a try.   According to the author notes, Paul O. Zelinsky’s Rapunzel is a hybrid of the Grimm’s fairy tale and earlier versions, with more details than I remembered.  Rapunzel’s parents appear in this story, as does the sorceress, the prince, and Rapunzel and the prince’s children.  I honestly think the reason this book appeals so much to Lulu is because it begins with Rapunzel’s mother’s pregnancy, and in the story both she and later Rapunzel give birth.  Of course, there is nothing detailed about the circumstances or the process, but Lulu is very interested in this right now (which is, of course, another post for another day).  However, the illustrations alone in this book make it worth more than a glance.  Paul O. Zelinsky created this portraits in the style of Renaissance art, and they are gorgeous.  This book even won the Caldecott award!  If your children enjoy fairy tales (and even if they don’t!), this one is not to be missed.

Whew!  I started with the youngest audiences and ended with a book that is entirely appropriate for even the oldest listener! How’s that for random?  😉

How about your family?  What have you been enjoying reading together as a family?  Click below to enter a link to your blog, or just leave a comment if you aren’t a blogger.  We’d still love to hear about your read alouds!  (I’m trying out a MckLinky today, after a long absence of Mister Linky.  We’ll see how it goes.  WordPress just doesn’t love these extra little bloggy hickey-dos.)

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Have a terrific Read Aloud Thursday!