September 28 | Currently Reading

Last week I posted by reviews for the following books:

The Voyage of Turtle Rex by Kyle Cyrus {My Review}
Stink: The Incredible Shrinking Kid by Megan McDonald {My Review}

Last week we read Katherine Applegate's Crenshaw, Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express, and The Show-And-Tell War by Janice Lee Smith.

What about you? What books are you reading this week? Let me know in the comments or leave me a link.

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This post is being shared as part of Teach Mentor Text and Unleashing Reader's It's Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA.

Book Review | Stink: The Incredible Shrinking Kid by Megan McDonald

Stink: The Incredible Shrinking Kid is the first book in the Stink series by Megan McDonald.

Shrink, shrank, shrunk!

Every morning, Judy Moody measures Stink and it's always the same: three feet, eight inches tall. Stink feels like even the class newt is growing faster than he is. Then, one day, the ruler reads — can it be? — three feet, seven and three quarters inches! Is Stink shrinking? He tries everything to look like he’s growing, but wearing up-and-down stripes and spiking his hair aren't fooling anyone into thinking he's taller. If only he could ask James Madison — Stink's hero, and the shortest person ever to serve as President of the United States.

In Stink's first solo adventure, his special style comes through loud and strong — enhanced by a series of comic strips, drawn by Stink himself, which are sprinkled throughout the book. From "The Adventures of Stink in SHRINK MONSTER" to "The Adventures of Stink in NEWT IN SHINING ARMOR," these very funny, homespun sagas reflect the familiar voice of a kid who pictures himself with super powers to deal with the travails of everyday life — including the occasional teasing of a bossy big sister!

Stink is Judy Moody's little brother. I've never read any of the Judy Moody books. Is she always that rude and hateful?

And why is James Moody called Stink? It might have been mentioned in the Judy Moody books, but I'm clueless. Does he stink?

Stink: The Incredible Shrinking Kid is book one of a series, but I feel like I'm missing some pieces.

This book is loaded with facts. On one hand, that's great because who doesn't love learning something new? On the other hand, info dump. The kids probably love it so I'm not knocking it.

What I am knocking is that bratty sister Judy Moody. If you don't want spoilers, here is where you get off the train.

Spoilers ahead.

Stink tells Judy Moody that newts are poisonous to frogs (more facts!), and yet she still puts his class pet newt in with their pet frog. Of course the frog licks the newt. If you are wondering if the frog dies, we don't know. We are too busy at that point reading about Judy Moody grinding the newt up in the garbage disposal.

The class pet newt.

What kind of book did I just read?

Stink is sad so he does homework because homework always makes him feel better.

What?

Lots and lots of facts about James Madison.

The end.

Overall, Stink was actually a decent read, but I'd be OK if the rest of the series stayed put at the library.

5/10: Decent Read

Have you read any of the Stink series? What about Judy Moody? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Book Review | The Voyage of Turtle Rex by Kyle Cyrus

The Voyage of Turtle Rex is a picture book written and illustrated by Kyle Cyrus.

Book Description

Sploosh! Fizz! Swish! The prehistoric ocean is a dangerous place for a baby sea turtle. But after she emerges from her egg, the treacherous waters are her goal. Swimming through the swirling waves and dodging larger sea creatures, she finds a resting place deep below. There she waits, until she grows into the majestic sea turtle that returns to the sand to lay her eggs and begin the cycle again.

This journey of a small creature in the oceanic world of the dinosaurs is a perfect mix of scientific integrity and dramatic storytelling.

Book Review

"Deep in the dunes of a long-ago shore, the leathery shell of a turtle egg tore."

I always love full color, full spread picture books. The Voyage of Turtle Rex has really great artwork. It's pretty dark and even menacing for a picture book, but that's more my cup of tea (and my 6 year old's really) so we loved it.

The Voyage of Turtle Rex is about the life of an Archelon sea turtle and the different dinosaurs she would have encountered along her journey.

This is a great book for kids who love dinosaurs. From the first pages, the sea turtle is on the beach with land dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus Rex. Once she makes it into the ocean she encounters dinosaurs like Mosasaur and Plesiosaur. It's a pretty epic tale that finds her back on the beach laying eggs and showcasing the circle of life.

"A primeval beach was a spine-tingling sight. She hid in the sand. She waited for night . . ."

As moving of a tale as it is, The Voyage of Turtle Rex is also kind of a downer. All of the featured animals are now extinct, and the sea turtles themselves are headed that way thanks to man. It's a realistic view and awareness is important, but it sure can bring down story time.

Even though you might get bummed a bit, The Voyage of Turtle Rex is a great picture book with lots of facts about sea turtles and lots of different dinosaurs to meet along the way. Kyle Cyrus has written and illustrated several other picture books that are definitely going on our to be read list (including Tadpole Rex which looks quite similar to this one).

7/10: Recommended Read

September 21 | Currently Reading

My poor kiddos have been sick with strep. We didn't get to spend as much time reading as we normally would have, but we did manage to read a few things.

Last week we read The Voyage of Turtle Rex. I will have a review up tomorrow for that one. We also read Stink: The Incredible Shrinking Kid. I wasn't a big fan of Stink, but I'll put up a review for that one, as well.

My oldest has discovered the A to Z Mysteries books. I'm glad this will give him plenty of reading material. He read The Empty Envelope and is now reading The X'ed-out X-ray.

We are still making our way through Charlotte's Web. Hopefully we will have more time this week to finish reading it.

What about you? What books are you reading this week? Let me know in the comments or leave me a link.

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This post is being shared as part of Teach Mentor Text and Unleashing Reader's It's Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA.

New School Year | Currently Reading

The new school year (for my kids) is underway which means I'm once again swamped with copious amounts of children's books. I did a terrible job tracking what we read last year, but that just means I'll have to try harder this year.

We've been into the Captain Underpants series lately. And by we, I mean my kids. I thought the first one was pretty great, but I'm humoring them with the rest of the series since they seem to really dig it.

The Adventures of Captain Underpants (Captain Underpants #1) by Dav Pilkey
Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets (Captain Underpants #2) by Dav Pilkey
Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space and the Subsequent Assault of the Equally Evil Lunchroom Zombie Nerds (Captain Underpants #3)
by Dav Pilkey
Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers (Captain Underpants #10) by Dav Pilkey

We also started reading the Eerie Elementary series. We read the first one (The School Is Alive!), and we will definitely read more of the series.

This week we are reading Charlotte's Web, Stink: The Incredible Shrinking Kid, and The Voyage of Turtle Rex.

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This post is being shared as part of Teach Mentor Text's It's Monday! What Are You Reading? From Picture Books to YA.

Book Review | Froggy's Best Christmas

Froggy's Best Christmas is a picture book written by Jonathan London and illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz.

Book Description

Froggy has never celebrated Christmas; usually he's taking his long winter's nap. But not this year!

Froggy's best friend, Max the beaver, wakes him up to join the fun.

Soon, Froggy's gotten into the swing of things: finding a tree, wrapping presents, singing carols, and enjoying a holiday feast.

Join Froggy as he celebrates his very first, and very best, Christmas!

Book Review

Every year Froggy sleeps through Christmas, but this year Max decides to wake him up and give him a present!

"Wow!" said Froggy. "This is my first Christmas present!"
"This is your first Christmas!" said Max. "You always sleep through it!"

And since

"Christmas," Max said, "is about friends."

they decide to wake up Matthew the turtle and Travis the bear as well. The four friends pick out the perfect Christmas tree together and bring it home.

"Christmas," said Max when they got there, "is about friends... and family, too."

There was no hibernating in the woods that Christmas! The animals jam-packed all of the best Christmas traditions into one Christmas day.

The story ends with Santa Owl which was odd and out of the blue to me, but my kids thought it made perfect sense: THEY ARE ALL ANIMALS IN THIS BOOK. I guess it really is that simple.

Overall it was a cute Christmas read highlighting the fun traditions of the holiday and the joys of being with friends and family.

8/10: Great Read

Book Review | Santa Duck by David Milgrim

Santa Duck is a picture book written and illustrated by David Milgrim.

Book Description

Nicholas Duck loves Christmas, and he is happy to try on the new Santa hat that's mysteriously delivered to his house. But when his friends see him and immediately launch into their Christmas lists, he doesn't know what to do . . . until he runs into Santa himself.

I read a lot of Christmas books. My 7 year old brings home at least one Christmas book a week the entire year with the exception of one or two Halloween books that pull him away from all things Christmas. I can say without hesitation: there are a lot of strange Christmas books out there. The Christmas books that usually fall short for me are the ones that suffer from being too original.

David Milgrim's Santa Duck manages to blend cute Christmas traditions with an original story.

In Santa Duck, Nicholas Duck sets out to find Santa before it's too late to submit his Christmas wishlist. As he's heading out he finds a present on his doorstep. "Whoa, baby!" Thus begins the hilarious dialogue in Milgrim's illustrations.

The present contains a Santa coat and hat. At first, Nicholas is very happy to have been given such a wonderful gift.

As Nicholas goes in search of Santa, every animal he sees believes him to be Santa Duck. He becomes increasingly frustrated as each animal recites their long Christmas wishlists.

The genius of this book is the dialogue bubbles between the animals. I wasn't a huge fan of the storyline between Nicholas and Santa. I wanted there to be more of a point as to why Nicholas was chosen to help Santa gather Christmas lists, but the humor amongst the animals more than made up for it. My kids and I had a lot of laughs. Santa Duck also embraces the idea that getting great gifts is awesome.

Even though I categorize Santa Duck with some of the other strange Christmas books we've read, I recommend it for the laughs alone. It's a fun read.

7/10: Recommended Read