It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly blog hop co-hosted by Unleashing Readers and Teach Mentor Texts which focuses on sharing books marketed for children and young adults. It offers opportunities to share and recommend books with each other.
My son brought home a miserable chest cold, only a few days after returning to school after spring break. He quickly bounced back to his normal energetic self, but the rest of us have been dragging our feet and coughing like aged coal miners.
Thankfully we were able to have a fun weekend in the sun the week before we were all infected! We visited a wonderful children’s bookstore, Vancouver Kidsbooks, in search of my newest book, Bunny Loves Beans. The website said that there were two copies in stock, so off we went to our old college-era stomping grounds to see if we couldn’t catch a peek of my book in the wild.
Well, not only did they have two copies in stock, they were on display at the end of a shelf!
Just look at that cover! I hadn’t laid eyes on a finished copy of the book before this, and it was such a thrill to finally hold a copy in my hands.The photographs are so colorful and adorable – I’ve seen digital versions, but there’s nothing quite like seeing them in person.
Now, on to what we’ve been reading recently.
Ash and Pikachu’s Adventures: We couldn’t leave Vancouver Kidsbooks empty handed, so we decided to pick up a collection of Pokemon-themed short stories for our Pikachu-loving kiddo. We’ve been reading a story a night at bedtime, and we’re really enjoying it!
LEGO City – Fire Truck to the Rescue: A’s other great love is LEGO, and since he’s starting to read, I’ve been bringing home as many LEGO-themed readers as the library has to offer. It’s so exciting as a parent to watch his growing sense of self-confidence as he recognizes sight words and slowly works out unfamiliar ones. I don’t have a lot to say about most of the readers I borrow, except to say that I can’t recommend the library enough if you have a budding reader at home – I regularly come home with stacks of books, and it would cost a small fortune if I had to purchase them. While I am passionate about supporting local independent bookstores like Vancouver Kidsbooks and Kinder Books, I am very aware that the cost of living crisis many of us are experiencing makes it difficult to spend money on non-essential items, no matter how much we may want to. Libraries are incredible resources, and if you’re at all able to take advantage of all they have to offer, I highly recommend checking them out!
Kit and Kaboodle Ride a Rollercoaster: We love these Puzzle Readers from Highlights! We’ve borrowed all the Kit and Kaboodle books from our local library several times already, and I’ve suggested that our local library purchase other titles from this series, because they’re really great for puzzle-loving emergent readers! If your kids like search-and-find books, definitely check out the Highlights Puzzle Readers early readers, they’re lots of fun.
Not the most exciting week of reading, perhaps, but given that we all look and sound like zombies (except for our energetic preschooler, of course), it’s understandable! Hope everyone is staying healthy and well!
Hi Jane, hope you all are better very soon! How wonderful to see your book “in the wild”, as you wrote. I don’t read many books like you shared, so I’m happy to read what you think about them. We received a lot of those kinds of books in the used bookstore where I work, so it helps me to know how special they are to young readers! Thanks!
I’m definitely learning as I go with my kiddo – I’ve never paid much attention to these early readers before, I’ve always been more interested in picture books, so I’ve been exploring this new section of the library! I’ve realized now how important these books are, because they’re such an important tool for emergent readers, and the best ones are both rooted in the current science around learning to read AND know how to keep kids interested!
Congratulations on the newest book! It’s amazing how grown up your littler person now is! I plan to take my granddaughter shopping at Kidsbooks this weekend so she can pick out a birthday book for herself.
That’s an awesome gift! We definitely had to do some negotiating to get the kiddo out of the store without buying everything he saw. 😀
Oh gosh, I’m so sorry y’all ended up sick this week—I’m glad your son healed up fast, but that is no fun that the rest of y’all are still feeling unwell! It’s so wonderful that you got to see your newest book on display in a store—that must have felt so validating and exciting! And the bookstore itself sounds amazing—I’ve never actually been to a bookstore just for kids’ books, and I suspect I would love it. Thanks so much for the wonderful post and sharing about what you and your son have been reading—enjoy your week, Jane!
We are so lucky here in the greater Vancouver area (as we call the big clump of smaller cities that surround Vancouver) – we have two amazing kids bookstores that are just bursting with wonderful, carefully curated stuff, we’re really spoiled for choice! I love visiting them as much as my kiddo – maybe even more so. 😉
How lovely to go to a bookstore and find that they have specially displayed your book! That has to be a wonderful feeling!!