favorite books to read aloud

We were recently invited to participate in a book exchange. It's one of those chain types of things, where you send out one book to a specified child and email several friends with the letter who in turn send it out to several of their friends, and your kids are supposed to end up with 36 books. With how much we love books around here, I couldn't resist, even though I didn't expect to receive many. I figured if we even got 1 it would be worth it, and so far we've received 8. The girls love getting surprise packages, so it's been really fun.

Two of the books we received became instant favorites. Kapria and Mila both request them every day:

They especially love it when Trav reads them. He makes the best voices for each character.

Our other most-oft requested books right now are:

The girls of course didn't know that three of their five favorites were created by the same author/illustrator: Mo Willems. That man is a genius. He knows how to make kids laugh. And how to write something that adults can handle reading over and over. His books are funny and simple, without a ton of text. That's why Trav and I love them, too.

Here's the written list, in case you'd like to check them out for yourself:
Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late by Mo Willems
We Are In A Book by Mo Willems
Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems
Bye-Bye, Big Bad BullyBug by Ed Emberley
Princess Hyacinth (the Surprising Tale of a Girl who Floated) by Florence Parry Heide

favorite books about valentine's day and love

For February I pulled out all of our books about Valentine's Day and any that had to do with love. We've been having so much fun reading them together. Here are the favorites:

 

 

And one of my favorite books of all time (which Kapria now loves too):

 

In case you'd like the typed up list:

• I Love You Through and Through by Bernadette Rossetti-Shustak
• I Like Myself! by Karen Beaumont
• The Day It Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond
• The Love-Me Bird by Joyce Dunbar
• The Best Thing About Valentines by Eleanor Hudson
• You and Me by Martine Kindermans
• Fancy Nancy Heart to Heart based on the creation of Jane O'Connor
• A Sock Is a Pocket for Your Toes* by Elizabeth Garton Scanlon
• Lilly's Chocolate Heart by Kevin Henkes
• All the Places to Love* by Patricia MacLachlan

*On my personal list of Best Children's Books of All Time