Summertime Books for the Kiddos

We are back from our trip to the ocean where we spent a good part of our time being tourists visiting gift shops, playing on the beach burying ourselves (mostly Alex) in sand, running in and out of ice cold ocean water (mostly Sammy), eating watermelon and ice-cream, drinking Italian sodas, swimming in the pool, listening to firecrackers pop, watching magnificent firework displays. Later this week, if time permits, I hope to bring you images from our trip, but until then, I have books to share with you.

We've been hitting the library each week bringing home as many books as our tired Volvo can carry. Each week we are delighted to find a few titles that have a slightly different take on the traditional. The Library Gingerbread Man goes along much as the original story does, but instead this Gingerbread Man emerges from the pages of a book instead of an oven. He jumps along the stacks running into all sorts of characters. When the Gingerbread Man runs past a Thesaurus the Thesaurus demands, "Stop! Cease! Halt! Freeze! Stay!" The Gingerbread Man responds as we would expect, "... you can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man." The Gingerbread Man continues running, escaping a Robot, Jesse Owens, and many more characters from the various sections of the library. You'll have to read the story to find out if the Gingerbread Man is outsmarted by the fox.

Rapunzel and the Seven Dwarfs: A Maynard Moose Tale is just about as quirky as any story I've ever read. I'm a bit of an oddball so I instantly fell in love with this bizarre tale. The first time I read it to my girls they both agreed that they didn't care for it, but after only a few hours they were begging to hear it again, and then again, and then again. It is hilarious! The story is told by Maynard Moose who uses Moose vocabulary and a voice that is just as wacky as the story. Rapunzel is 'Punzel' and the handsome prince is 'chubified' and therefore can't climb the tower to rescue her. There are 8 or 9 seven dwarfs and a poison watermelon. It's all very exciting and very comical and I can't wait to read more Moose Tales! Oh, and there's a handy dictionary at the start of the book to help you with the Moose language.