The Great Picture Book Culling: Day 7

I hate to say this, but last night's reading choices were. . . uninspiring. We were running late so I think Jo just grabbed the top handful of books off the teetering pile stacked in front of the full bookcase in her room. Have I mentioned we also have four boxes of picture books unopened since our last move almost two years ago? Anyway. . .

Jo "read" Red, Stop! Green, Go! by P.D. Eastman. I use quotation marks because this is actually "an interactive book about colors based on Go, Dog. Go!" That means there was very little text and lots of flaps and wheels. As novelty books go, this is actually a good one. In one of my favorite spreads you turn the wheel and the dogs spin behind a clear blue film so they change color as they enter the water. Cool! So I recommend the book, but not so much for reading aloud. Interactive books are fun to play with, boring to listen to.

Jo also read another Maisy book - this time it was Maisy's Bedtimeby Lucy Cousins. I just love her art - and any book showing underpants gets a giggle in this house.

Then came a couple of problem books. Jo read Whale Snow by Debby Dahl Edwardson with art by Annie Patterson. It's a nice story about an Inupiaq community celebrating a successful whale hunt, but the book is liberally sprinkled with Inupiaq words, making it nearly impossible for Jo to read it. By the end of the book she was having trouble with words that she already knows because she was in "sound it out" mode - and that only works on about half the English language. Frustrating! This is definitely a book for grown-ups to read aloud.

Finally, Jo started one other book that was so boring she quit half way through and asked if she could just make up her own story to go with the pictures - because she liked the pictures a lot. Hmmm. . .

Hopefully we'll get some better choices tonight.

Read-a-thon total so far: 28 books read