Duck on a Bike

 Duck on a Bike by David Shannon
5
I normally don't care for books by this author. No, let's clarify, I don't care for his "xx David" books, so I've not read any others by him. Until this one--which I didn't realize was by him until after I read it, which is a good thing otherwise, I might not have found this wonderful book.

This is a silly book about a duck riding a bike past all the other animals around the barnyard saying hi to all the other animals. What I really like is that only the duck talks. When the other animals respond to duck's hello, all they say is their sound, but then the author writes "but what he really though was...." Duck also gets more and more daring on the bike which is cute.

The cute part is the end, after Duck says hello to the animals, a bunch of kids on bikes ride to the farmhouse, leave their bikes, and presumable go play with whatever child lives here. Now, all the animals get a turn to ride a bike. The last page with "The End" on it has duck looking at a tractor. I can't help but prompt Ian to speculate what would happen next. But I wonder if he would have figured it out on his own? Oh well.
Great book, though silly, cute.

Game: Mancala

Game: Mancala
4
The age range for this well-known traditional game is 6 years and up. Ian is just 4, and he is able to play a short version of this. The first time I gave it to him, he just played with the pebbles and the holes, but I told him we could play it later. The next time, we played a version of the game so we could just practice what it meant to pick up a pile and distribute them one in each hole down the line. The next time, he wanted to play for real. I was skeptical, but he did great. We actually made it through almost a whole game, so as he acquires a longer attention span, we'll be able to play more and more. I love games like this where young children can play, but it's also actually fun for adults, too. I can definitely see us playing this more as he gets older. But this is a lifelong game-I hope we'll still be playing it when he's a teenager and even into adulthood.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

 Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle
5
As you might be able to see from the picture above, this has been well loved. I think we got this as a shower gift before Ian was born. He loved turning pages, and sometimes we would only be able to read a couple words on each page because he so quickly wanted to turn another page. Now, Colin is at that stage. For some reason, kids are drawn to this. Colin goes and gets this book more than any other, brings it to me and starts grunting, which when interpreted means, "Up, Read please". We often added the animal sounds to it and sometimes the ASL signs (I had to look them up). A well loved classic in our house!

Firefighter Ted

 Firefighter Ted by Andrea Beaty and Pascal Lemaitre
3
Ian likes this book more than I do. It's a cute, but silly book of a young boy who pretends to be a firefighter all day. At breakfast, he sprayed whipping cream on slightly burnt toast-that was funny. But at the school science fair, the principals pants really did catch on fire, so Firefighter Ted clipped his suspenders to get the pants off. Guess girls don't think losing your pants or seeing underware is as funny as boys do. Anyway, the end of the book leads us to believe there will be others in the series with different occupations.

Game: My First Brainbox

Game: My First Brainbox by Mindware
5
This is a wonderful memory game. This is the only one that is made for preschoolers and young elementary. There are many other versions including history and such that would be for probably age 8 and up. This game consists of many cardboard cards with pictures on one side and questions on the other. Also a timer and dice. The rules say look at the timer for 10 seconds (the timer) and then roll the dice. The other player asks you whichever number you roll-a question about the picture.

However, we alter the directions and don't use the timer or dice. Ian looks at the picture until he's done, then I start asking the questions-usually all of them. Some are easy: what color is the ____?; Some are harder: Is the man on the train wearing a tie?. This is so much fun, I look forward to using the other, older games in the future. This is a game for all ages, as even an adult would sometimes have trouble with these questions.

As shown below, some pictures are scenes, some are just a group of things.

The questions for Camping are:                                         The Questions for Toolbox are:
1. How many fish can you see?                                         1. Is the toolbox opened or closed?
2. Has the boy caught a fish?                                             2. How many tools can you see?
3. Is the boy wearing a hat?                                              3. Are there any nails in the picture?
4. How many tents are there?                                           4. Is the hammer inside our outside the box?
5. Is the fish blue?                                                            5. Does the screwdriver have a red handle?
6. Can you see the sun?                                                    6. Is the toolbox blue or green?

Frog and Toad Together

 Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel
4
This is one of those learning to read books that's a great story for reading aloud to those kids who are not yet learning to read. Frog and Toad go on many adventures together and this is just one of the books. The book is broken into "chapters", but they are each a different story. The stories are slightly silly sometimes-what else do you expect with a frog and a toad acting like people-but not too bad. I like reading it to Ian and he loves hearing it.

Boo Hoo Bird

 Boo Hoo Bird by Jeremy Tankard
4
This is the story of a bird who gets hit on the head by a ball and won't stop crying. Reminds me of Ian who gets a scratch on his leg and limps all day long. The bird cries and each of his friends try something different to make him feel better, but it doesn't work, so they start crying because they are sad, too. This finally stops bird from crying-when he realizes his friends are feeling helpless. I got it as a lesson to Ian-hasn't helped much, but maybe in the future. A cute story with a great lesson.

The Napping House

 The Napping House by Audrey Wood
3
Again, we have this in the board book version, but it comes in paperback, too. This is a build upon story htat starts with a granny sleeping in the bed, adds a boy, a dog and so on, until a flee bites the mouse at the top and everyone wakes up. Silly and cute it's a great book.

We're Going on a Bear Hunt

 We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Helen Oxenbury & Michael Rosen
3
We have the board book version, but it comes in paperback also. A cute book about a family going on a bear hunt through the wavy grass, water, etc. It's told in rhyme since it's also a song/chant. It has lots of repetition and varies black and white pages with the color pages of the sounds of each element. It's only slightly scary, and didn't seem to bother Ian who gets scared of many things.

Blue Hat, Green Hat

 Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton
5
One of my favorites by Boynton, though most of hers are great! These silly animals are teaching the turkey how to get dressed. While we learn colors (and clothing items) the turkey keeps putting them on the wrong part of him. When he finally gets it right, it's to go swimming, so it turns out he's got it wrong anyway. Very cute, very silly! (Board Book)

Freight Train

 Freight Train by Donald Crews
5
A simple train book gives the name of each type of car while introducing colors. The train then goes through a tunnel across a trestle and into the night. A nice book for the toddler age.

Three Cheers for Tacky

 Three Cheers for Tacky by Helen Lester
4
Silly Tacky, he tries his best to be like the other penguins, but he has his own style. There are many Tacky the Penguin books, this one is about Tacky and his friends entering a cheer contest. Tacky never get's it right, but the day of the contest, it turns out that Tacky's silliness keeps the audience laughing and so he's the star of the show, just being himself. A funny self confidence book.

Cookies Week

 Cookies Week by Cindy Ward
4
A cute little book introducing the days of the week. Only a few words on each page, so for the younger crowd. Cookie the cat makes a different mess each day of the week.  Such a silly cat.

Thirteen

 Thirteen by Remy Charlip
0
This book was on a recommended math books list.  But I was disapointed. Each of 13 double pages has a number, and some non-related pictures. As you go through the book, the pictures change. For example, the ship in the bottle goes from top to bottom, the hourglass sand runs out, and things like that. Maybe interesting for an older child, but it's so unrelated I had a hard time figuring it out. And other than there are 13 pictures from start to finish on each item and each page has the numeral on it-I'm not sure what "13" has to do with anything. Could be I'm missing something, but if I am, how many kids would, too.

One Brown Bunny

 One Brown Bunny by Marion Dane Bauer
5
I really love this book.  It's for the younger crowd, but combines numbers with colors, which is fun. Little Bunny asks lots of animals to play with him but they're all too busy.  He's sad, but then the animals come back and play.Very cute rhyming triplets.And just a sweet story.

Game: Guess Who?

 Guess Who? from Milton Bradley
4
I remember wanting this game as a kid, and I recently saw it at the thrift store, so I had to get it. You Each have the same people on your board and you each draw a card of those same people.  Then you take turns asking questions to figure out which person your opponent has. I figured it would take awhile to teach the logic behind it to Ian, but he figured it out right away: If you ask "Does your person have a hat?" And the answer is "No", do they put down the people with the hats, or without. Takes me a minute to think about it, and Ian, too, but he does it pretty quickly. Overall, a good pick for a 4 year old, and fun for mom and dad to play, too.

Sheep in a Jeep

 Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw
5
"Sheep in a jeep on a hill that's steep." I love all the rhyming in this book. It's more than just poetic rhyming of the last word in a pair of sentences or whatnot.  There are rhyming words found all over the place.  This is the best one (in my opinion) in the series of books about the sheep. And it's funny!

Yummy Yucky

 Yummy Yucky by Leslie Patricelli
4
We received this book as a gift when Colin was a baby. It's a cute board book talking about similar things that are yummy and their counterpart which is yucky. Spaghetti is yummy, worms are yucky; Apple Pie is yummy, Mud pie is yucky. etc. Ian had it memorized after a few readings which was cute, because he then "read" it to Colin (this was when Colin was younger and would sit still for that.

Diggers

Diggers: See how they go! from DK publishing
4
I have found that I really like DK publishing for non-fiction books.This one especially appeals to Ian and has for quite some time. It's full of facts, but only about 7 construction diggers. I like that it is readable, unlike many other fact filled non-fiction books which have sentences or short paragraphs scattered throughout the page. Each page/digger has a title to it's page (usually just it's name) which is all we read when he was a toddler. And each page has 4-6 little tidbits of infomration that you can pick and choose how much to read. A welldone book, I wish it were a little longer.

I Stink!

 I Stink! by Kate & Jim McMullan
5
Ian loves garbage trucks.  From the time he was little, we've stopped to watch the garbage trucks when we've been out, counted garbage trucks while driving around, watched the garbage trucks on garbage day here at home and he's also played garbage man quite often, too.

This is a good book-Ian likes it better than I do. Told from the garbage truck's point of view he's out at night collecting garbage.  I love the ABC part where he makes alphabet soup naming something for each letter from the garbage.  It's probably set in New York City as at the end, he puts his garbage block on a barge, and it's a little, um harsh, I guess in the language, but definately fit for a garbage truck.Things like Burp, Rev me to the Max, Mount Trash-o-rama, baby, nothing big, just terse.

Overall a good book, great for boys.

Giraffes Can't Dance

 Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae
4
This is a cute book about a party in the jungle and the other animals make fun of clumsy Gerald the Giraffe.He goes off by himself and sees a cricket (are they in the jungle?) who encourages Gerald to listen to the sounds of the jungle, the grass, the wind, the trees, and finds out he really CAN dance, much to the amazement and encouragement of his other jungle friends.An encouraging self-confidence book told in rhyme.

Game: Curious George A B See

Curious George A B See game
3
Got this at the thrift store even though it wasn't on my list of games I was actually considering. It's kind of fun, and has more potential than Ian is interested in. He played it once and we'll probably re-visit it again, but it's not a "must play" game. 

Basically, there are 4 boards, each person draws a color and letter and finds something that starts with that letter in that color on a board. Not sure why there are 4 boards instead of just one big one. I might try making up my own rules, because as it is, it's kind of boring. I like the idea, just the boards and pictures on them are not the best. I would have gone with more of a scene rather than just a bunch of objects thrown about.

What Do People Do All Day?

What do People Do All Day? by Richard Scarry
5
We LOVE this book, and have for quite some time. If you're not familiar with Richard Scarry books, there are a lot of things happening on each page many with labels. Most books have a little story to go with the pictures, but nothing big. This book has quite a story line for many different stories: building a house, making lumber, mailing a letter, getting your tonsils out. Only drawback is the book is fairly outdated (before my time even) which makes it difficult with a child who is just learning the vocabulary, but it works ok for an older child since you can explain "history" to them. Overall a great book that Ian loves to just look through on his own sometimes.