Where the Wild Things Are

Where The Wild Things Are
by Maurice Sendak

Looking for a scary monster book? This could be it.

Max, whom his mother called "Wild Thing", has misbehaved and was send to his room without dinner. His imagination takes him away to the land of the wild things and he becomes their king. Eventually, Max becomes home sick and smells food. After he travels back into reality, his supper is waiting for him.

This is a bit older of a book and I think it reflects in the language. There are words like 'mischief' and 'supper' being used, that I think are not very much used anymore. Certainly not with four year olds.

What we really like about this book is the scary factor. When Max encounters the wild things, it goes "they roar their terrible roars, they gnash their terrible teeth..." I read that and my boys run for hiding every time. Then I have to call them back so we can finish the book and they look most delighted.

The pictures of the monsters are great. They do look scary without looking gruesome. This book is a classic and we can confirm that it totally hits the spot for little boys.

The Bridge Is Up

The Bridge Is Up
by Babs Bell Hajdusiewicz

My two year old loves this book. I didn't expect it to be so popular with him, since to me it seemed like too much repetition and -to be honest- it looked plain boring. But he loves it.

Every time a new vehicle gets added to the line waiting for the bridge to go down, he will talk through the list of vehicles for me and name each one, being totally enthusiastic about it.

The language is very simple and easy for a small child to understand. The graphics are colorful and age appropriate.

The book definitely speaks to boys. With a moving brings and lots of motorized vehicles, it is very appealing and therefore gets a big thumbs up.

Dino Pets

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Dino Pets
by Lynn Plourde

If your son likes dinosaurs, he will most likely enjoy this book. The idea is that a little boy brings home dinosaurs as pets. Somehow he looses one pet after the other and has no more. He is sad but then gets surprised at night by all the dinosaurs coming back home.

What we love about this book are the pictures of the dinosaurs. It is cheerful and my sons really love looking at them.

What we don't like so much is how the story is told. At first, the words they use didn't make it clear to my boys that one after another dinosaur got lost throughout the day. I had to point that out for them. It seems to me that the author was putting the priority of the story on it being in rhymes, that it became hard for a three year old to follow.

What I find is that boys can be very forgiving in regards to the story when the topic is correct. They love the book and will get it for us to read again and again.

Boo Hoo Bird

Boo Hoo Bird
by Jeremy Tankard

Boo Hoo Bird is a book loved by both my sons, the two year old and the five year old. It if was their pick, we would be reading it every day and I am not kidding here.

The story is this. Bird plays ball with his friends, then he gets hurt. His friends try all sorts of things to make him feel better, but nothing is working. His friends feel sorry for bird, that nothing is making him feel better and start crying with bird. That is when bird decides that his boo-boo doesn't hurt anymore and he tells his friends to stop crying and play instead.

This is what we do to make this book even more fun. When his friend gives bird a kiss, I'll give each of my boys a kiss as well. When bird gets a hug, my boys get a hug. When bird gets a cookie, my boys get an imaginary cookie and so on. They love the interactive play while we read.

The graphics in this book are beautiful, colorful and fun. There are lots of animals involved in the story, but not too many as that it could get overwhelming. The language is really well done. I think my two year old has no problems following the story. The topic is perfect for the age as well, as I find around two years is the age when little boys do get their most boo-boos.

Green Eggs and Ham

Green Eggs and Ham
by Dr. Seuss

We really like this book. The message is great, "don't say you don't like it until you have tried it." This would be a good book to talk about with your picky eater.

The language is easy and there is lots of repetition. It all comes in rhymes and has a great flow to it. It's a ton of fun to read this book with some attitude and the kids eat it up (pun intended).

I just think this is such a great boys book because even though the topic is food, it does have cars and trains and boats mixed into the story line. Boys love that and they love the ton of pictures that comes with the story.  So far, this is our favorite of Dr. Seuss.

Leonardo The Terrible Monster

Leonardo the Terrible Monster
by Mo Willems

This is one of those not scary monster books. The story goes like this, nobody is afraid of Leonardo so he finds the most easily scared kid and after he is not able to scare that boy either, he decided to become his friend instead, since the boy doesn't have any friends.

I don't think it was easy for my kids to follow the story line, as they expected something scary to happen since a monster is involved. Boys like the scary stuff and it seemed a bit of a disappointment in those regards.  Also, the book used some wording that a three year old might not get yet.

The book is not scary at all. It is not really funny either. I guess the best thing I can pull out of it is that friendships are more important than being good at what you do and that is something valuable to always be remembered.

The graphics look very modern. There are many pages that are 80% blank with just the graphics in one corner and the writing in the other. Or another page where the writings are in big letters and make up the background of the pages.

This book made it only into our so so list. It is nice and well done, but there are better ones out there.

The Giving Tree

The Giving Tree
by Shel Silverstein
This book is a total classic. It tells the story of a friendship between a boy and a tree. There are basically three stages in the book. When the boy is a child, the tree is his friend. As the boy grows up, material things become more important to him and he uses up the tree. Once the boy is an old man, he shares companionship with the tree again while sitting on the stump.

I think my kids are still much too young to understand any of the meaning of this wonderful book. Perhaps,  it would be much more appropriate for a seven year old. However, they do enjoy reading about a  boy and about a tree so it does get their attention. The graphics are very simple but at the same time very nicely done and certainly child appropriate. I like the minimalistic look of the book as it goes nicely with the question that this books makes you ask "what are the important things in life?"

This book is definitely one to talk about with your kids. It opens up conversations about friendship, the environment as well as plans for their own lives and style of living.