Picture Book Round-up: Reading Here and There

 Picture Book Roundups are simply an overview of what my kids and I have been reading together. These are not books that were sent to me for review. They are books my children and I discovered at the library, a bookstore, a yard sale, or on our bookshelf at home. Some might be old, some might be new. Some we might love, some we might hate. We read whatever strikes our fancy. The only kickback I get from reviewing these books here is my Amazon Associates fees if you purchase through the links on my blog.


Summer is a time when I get lazy and spare time seems somewhat elusive. Why is that? aren't I supposed to have all this extra time in the summer? The kids stay up later, we spend lots of time wearing ourselves out at the pool... I struggle to keep up with library reading logs and such. I always have high hopes, we start off well... and then summer happens.

So our reading has been pretty random. Just whatever strikes our fancy. Here are a few things we picked up at the library:

I have seen so many cute activity ideas for making styrofoam boats, or milk jug boats, and then putting them on a "river" made with tin foil and water. I want to try that this summer with my kids. This story would be fun to use with that. Wish it would work with my Literacy Launchpad kids, but sounds like it would likely be logistically impossible to pull off that activity with them. 

We love All You Need for a Snowman, so this one was a hit in our house too. Read it and then create your own beach on paper, in a sandbox... wherever! Use the book to create a list of all the things you'll need!

Adorable story about a girl who goes to great lengths to keep her duck friends from heading south for the winter and leaving her lonely. The ducks are just the cutest things, especially at the end when you see how Lenore helps them stay warm. Would love to create some adorable ducks for a bulletin board with my students. We might use this one in our curriculum next winter!

I checked this one out from the library so my littlest one would have a book he could "read" to me for his summer reading hours. Wordless picture books are perfect for that. I love hearing him create the words based on the illustrations! This is a fun one that tells a definitive tale, but leaves plenty of room to throw in your own creative interpretations too!

A charming book about a little girl having trouble finding the right outfit to wear. Everything is either too itchy, too feathery, too zippery, too purpley... Such fun text! And you could have all kinds of fun letting your kids be little designers themselves with collage materials and such. This books lends itself well to all kinds of fun ideas for extension activities!

Cute illustrations. My boys liked it because it had a monster in it. I wasn't over the moon for this one; I didn't really GET it. It was kind of weird for me. 

This is my new pirate story that I'll be using in Literacy Launchpad when we do our adventure unit. Love the illustrations. Loved the story itself. It was charming and fun, and I know I would enjoy reading this one aloud with my students like I did with my kids at home.