Birthday for Cow!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COW!!!!!

If you look inside the front cover of A Birthday for Cow!, by Jan Thomas, today is indeed Cow's birthday (It's also Sari Long's birthday. Happy Birthday, Sari).

This is another of Maya's new favorites. We read through this one once or twice, then Maya turns back to the beginning and reads to us, careful to turn the pages correctly. Because of the nature of the book, she yells out her version of what we say when we read it and bounces up and down and side to side.

The reason for this animation is that almost every sentence in the book is a bold, red, all-caps exclamation. Pig and Mouse begin to prepare a cake for Cow's birthday. Duck is aghast. "Cake?!"

Duck makes several pleas to include "A TURNIP!" But Mouse and Pig don't agree.

Eventually Cow appears, and you can guess what she is happiest to see. But don't worry, there's a cake for Mouse and Pig to enjoy. Duck and Cow walk off into the sunset proclaiming the glories of turnips.

May I say again how much I love the way Maya interacts with books these days. She can tell if I try to skip a page, and she turns back to the missed one. She comments in her own way to the things she sees on the page.

Oh, and if you have some time, you should do a Google search for the title. I can't believe some of the other images.

Katie Loves the Kittens

Ok, I slowed down there for a bit again, but I'll try to get a couple in this week. I've lost a little fire since I lost our camera. We'll get another one soon. Have to before Maya wears her new Halloween costume.

Maya is making so much ground in her interaction with books, and let me tell you, it multiplies the pleasure for me as well. She reacts to particular images on the page and responds to what we are reading. We have a couple new favorites home from the library that Maya brings to us over and over.

One is Katie Loves the Kittens, by John Himmelman. Katie loves Sue Ann's new pets, three tiny kittens. Only problem is, when she tries to play with them ("AROOOOO"), she scares them. Sue Ann scolds Katie, and Katie feels so bad about scaring the poor little kittens.

When Katie tries to control herself, she shivers visibly with excitement. After three failures, Katie falls asleep and wakes to find she has three new friends.

It's a sweet story with so many visual treats, like when Katie is trying to contain herself. My favorite is Katie trying to lick Sue Ann's face when she is being scolded. Patty's is the end page image of the kitten batting at Katie's rapidly wagging tail.

As we read, Maya tries to Arrooooo, she 'meeew's along with the kittens, and she helps Sue ann say, "No, no, no." She's breaking my heart, that one.

One of our readers just had a new little boy, and when I asked about board books, he said,"We've got a couple." I think a couple is far too few. How about a board book share, like the mom's groups do meal shares. If anyone would like to donate a book, go to my profile and email me. We'll come up with a plan.