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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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!

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.

From Head to Toe

 From Head to Toe by Eric Carle
3
This board book came highly recommended from a good friend, but it just didn't work for us. "I am a penguin and I can turn my head." It's a book you can get into...unless you're my Ian-who apparently is not a participatory reader. It's a nice story, and I tried to encourage the movements by doing it myself, but it just didn't catch on. A good book, just not for us.

Big Red Barn

Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
3
This is an ok book. We have it as a board book but it is rather wordy for the toddler age who need board books. There is really no substance, no plot to the book, it just says that certain animals are in, around and near the barn and sometimes gives the animal sound, then at the end of the day they all go into the barn to sleep. "And a big white hen standing on one leg.  And under the hen was a quiet egg." Boring, but it is out, so we read it periodically. I think we've read it maybe a half dozen times in 4 years.

Rumble in the Jungle

 Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae
3
This book is not what I expected. Turns out it's little poems about jungle animals.They're cute, but not full of information or anything. I like the idea of introducing young children to poetry, however, this is nothing special.  I do like the concept that the beginning of the book starts out in the morning, and it ends at night time.