Read Aloud Thursday

Another week, another few titles to share with you. These are some other titles we have been reading aloud together from our recent library trip.



Little Duck Lost is written by Erica Briers and is illustrated by Stephanie Boey. The story line is quite, quite similar to Where's My Mommy? which we reviewed last week. (Click on the title to read our thoughts on that one.) Little Duck's egg rolls away from the nest and when he hatches he has a little trouble locating his family.

We liked this book for a few reasons:

1. Bookworm2 loves to make quacking noises;
2. Parts of the illustration on each page spread are raised so little hands can feel the page while we're reading the story; and
3. Little Duck meets lots of animals in his great search to find home.

It's very cute, very short and very soft and beautiful. It is the epitome of a calm and peaceful read. All three of us liked this one.



Bookworm1 was incredibly suspicious of Wet Dog!, by Elsie Broach, when I first pulled it from the library bag. I did a quick sale by telling him it was about a dog, so certainly Bookworm2 (our resident dog lover) would enjoy it, making it a fun one to read with brother. The younger brother did enjoy it ("Dog! Dog!") but the older one found it much more amusing.

Here's the basic idea:

Hot day + hot dog + sources of water + people trying to get ready for a wedding + sing-song-y text = a great deal of fun (and perhaps a little chaos.)

"He was a good old dog and a hot old dog, as he lay in the noonday sun. And he dozed and he drowsed in the beating-down sun, with his long pink tongue hanging out."

Very fun book to read out loud.

Keeping up with our animal theme, we also read The Littlest Wolf, by Larry Dane Brimner.



In this book Littlest Wolf is the smallest of his brothers and sisters and finds that he isn't capable of doing all the things that they can do. His goes to his father and shares his woes. Father listens to him and helps him to see that he is "just as he should be" and that the older he gets the more he will be able to do.

I don't think either of my children caught the message, but they did think that watching Little Wolf try to roll in straight lines like his brother was awfully funny.

Lastly, a non-animal book! (Shock and awe, I know.) Tap-Dance Fever, by Pat Brisson was mommy's suggested read-aloud and I don't think it was enjoyed very much by my boys, but I thought it was cute. Every so often it's good to read something a little different, right? And besides - there are snakes in the book!



It tells the story Annabelle Applegate who cannot quit tap dancing. Her addiction to tapping has gotten so bad that she has worn holes in her mother's linoleum floor as well as in the floor boards of the local schoolhouse. She's tapped ruts in the roads that are causing accidents and the towns folk have just had it with her "tappity-tap . . . skippity-slap . . . tippity-hopping" all over the place.

Try as they might, it seems as if the towns people just cannot stop Annabelle from dancing. However, it all turns out well in the end and does, in fact, becoming profitable for the whole town!

This book is definitely different from our normal reads but I thought it was fun and no one complained too much when the book was over.

So that's where we're at this week. And now I'm off to find out what others have been reading to their children. If you'd like to gather up some ideas for read-alouds, visit Hope is in the Word.

Happy Thursday to you! (Hurray! It's almost a weekend!)