First the picture books:
1) Rabbit's Year: http://www.bdb.com.au/books/rabbits_year
Beautiful simple prose, great story. I was lucky enough to have a small brown knitted rabbit that I recently found at the Rozelle Markets - so I acted the story out with my preschoolers. In short- it rocked!
2) The Wonky Donkey - hilarious, great use of rhyme
3) The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane: Michael has been in love with this author for a while now. So he read it out loud to us on our beach holiday. It is about 200 pages but is so beautifully written I believe you could even do it with 3-5 year olds over a few days. It is a beautiful story about a porcelain rabbit who learns to love. Must admitted the first few chapters about his arrogance and self obsession had me crying with laughter.
Now for the grown ups:
1) Wolf Hall : Now when I first was reading this it felt a bit heavy but it has stayed with me and resparked a interest in the time of Henry the VIII and his life. Plus it links beautifully with the Tudors which is currently on ABC2 on Friday nights.
2) The Slap: Follows the story of a gathering who are all impacted by a child being slapped by an adult (not their
parent) for misbehaviour. An excellent exploration of this taboo area of what to do when a child is being badly behaved. Plus it is currently being made into a tele-movie and will be on our screens soon with some of Australia's best actors.
3) The Children's Book: Again you might need a chick lit book to read in between every now and then as this is a thick book but it is incredible rewarding. It explores the turn of the century into the 1900s and parents relationships with the children, plus art at the time and children's literature.
Finally, A fun one (well, if you can knit - I can't and I bought it anyway. It does have a westie on the front (well the Australia version in the shops called 'best in show' does) and I do intend to learn!)
Enjoy! Would love to hear your feedback if you have read them and see picys of the knitted dogs ;)
Just wanted to let you know my all time favourite picture book for preschoolers.... The Gruffalo is chosen and read at least twice a week in my class and i can now read it without looking (or just recite it if need be) as can loads of the children in my room. Julia Donaldson does great rhyming patterns allowing prediction by young readers :)
ReplyDeleteAm ashamed to admit haven't even read that one - but have heard great things... will add it to my collection.
ReplyDeletePS. got the Wonky Donkey with the CD and the little donkey - we read it first, then played the song (over and over and over) it was on continuous repeat last week and the children were pleading for it again today! It was also a great literacy activity as I turned the pages as we sang along - later saw one of my younger ones turning the pages for himself as he sang along :)