Monday, February 27, 2012

Just Plain 'Ole Good Books

For me, music and books have a lot in common.  Music has always helped soothe my soul regardless of the emotions running through it.  Music gives me permission to cry, lift my hands in praise, scream at the top of my voice in anger, or dance.  Music is comfort.

I feel the same way about books.  Only books give me permission to step outside of whatever is going in in my life and live the life of another.  Doesn't matter if it is a wand yielding fourth year, a tiny mouse with huge ears desperate to find love, or a girl fighting for her life in an arena.  Books, if only for a moment, allow me to forget what is now and live as someone else.  Books are comfort.

These book are just "good 'ole books" that I own (sometimes more than one copy) and have in my classroom library.  Every time I get a new book in one of these series you would think that Santa himself were making a visit to the classroom.  I love it...
 David Shannon write some of the best children's books.  He is both the author and illustrator of his books.  His books are funny and have a good message.
 Girls and boys alike love these books.  As far as I know there are two books in this series.  Kind of like movie sequels, the first one is the best.  David Shannon is the illustrator.

 A good friend of mine introduced me to this series a few years ago.  It is now one of my favorites.  There are four books in this series.  When Miss Smith reads from her storybook the characters come to life.  I'd like to think I'm a little like this character.

 A lot of girls LOVE these books. Other books in this series include Silverlicious, Goldilicious, and Purplicious.
 ONE OF MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITES!!!!!!!  I decided to use a quote from Amazon's "book description" to tell more about these books.  "Make room for SkippyjonJones, a Siamese kittenboy who can't resign himself to being an ordinary cat. Having a time-out in his room, he resorts to his imagination. Taking on the superhero persona of the great Spanish sword fighter Skippito, he has the adventure of his life, and readers are invited along. Zany, wild, and over-the-top, this utterly original book truly begs to be read aloud."  I couldn't have said it better myself.  These books will leave you and your kids laughing out loud!!!
 Another one of my favorites!!!!!  (I know, I say that about every other book.)  The first Splat the Cat book I read was "Love, Splat."  I was hooked the first time I opened the pages and saw the fuzzy haired cat whose best friend is a mouse name Seymour.  Another book that is a must for all home libraries.

 This series of nonfiction books are really great.  They tell the lives of real men and women and how they impacted our world.  I just got the book "Who Was Dr. Seuss?" from the book fair a few weeks ago.


 If your son (or daughter!) doesn't like to read, you might try this nonfiction series.  I first got one of these books in a discount bin at Walmart several years ago.  It has grown to be one of the favorites of boys in my class.  I just added another one of these books to my classroom library and the boys fight over who gets to read it next.

**All images are from  www.amazon.com

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