One of my joys this year is reading to my grandson, Vander. I started reading to him almost as soon as he was born and now that he is 14 months old he is beginning to indicate his favorite books. So I thought I would share that for all the grandparents, parents, and aunts and uncles out there who might appreciate some recommendations for baby and toddler books.
I think by far his favorite books right now are the nursery rhyme series by Child’s Play and illustrated by Annie Kubler. I bought both the board book version and the Kindle version. I have found having books available on my phone or iPad is really helpful for times when he gets fussy on the road! Vander loves the pictures of the children and he really enjoys hearing the various nursery rhymes, too. He usually asks me to read these books over and over again. Row, Row Your Boat is a favorite right now but I think Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is sneaking up fast!
We’re Going on A Bear Hunt by Helen Oxenbury, is another favorite. Vander likes to skip through the
intro to each obstacle, like the long grass or the river or the mud, instead he like the pages where there are sounds. The grass goes swishy swishy, or the mud goes squelch squerch, or the snow storm goes hooo, wooo. At the end when everyone is running away from the bear you have to do all the sounds right after each other and Vander really likes that part the best. It really is hard not to get tongue tied as you say all those sounds quickly!
When my daughters were growing up The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear by Audrey and Don Wood was a special favorite and now Vander likes it too. We are still reading the one our daughters got from their Aunt Kathy thirty some years ago! The illustrations are just amazing and the unique way of telling the story is really fun! Vander likes to have this one read almost every time I am with him.
Finally, I created a Mixbook with pictures from the baby shower and pictures of Vander soon after he was born. Vander likes to look at the pictures of himself and all the people who love him. I will point to a picture and tell him who they are and by now he is really beginning to recognize the extended members of the family!
I hope this gives you some ideas for little ones you may have in your life!
Amina Al-Sarafi is retired and living quietly in a remote village taking care of her mother and young daughter. Her days of captaining a ship as a notorious pirate, sailing the Indian Ocean are done after a terrible incident involving a demon cost the lives of several of her crew. She should be content, but when the wealthy mother of one of her former crewman tracks her down and asks her to find her granddaughter who has been kidnapped and offers a kings ransom for the job, suddenly Amina is tempted. With just this one job she could atone for the death of a comrade, have one more chance for adventure on the high seas, and make enough money so that her family would be secure for ever. Believing that this offer must be an answer to her prayers, she agrees to do the job.
Nora Stephens is a cutthroat literary agent. Loved by her clients, for whom she negotiates extraordinary deals and feared by the publishing houses for her capacity to get every last penny for her clients, Nora has made quite a name for herself. But her career has taken a toll, and her younger sister, Libby, is concerned that Nora, who took care of and raised Libby after their mother died, will never take the time to build a life for herself. So Libby invites Nora to come to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August to have some sister time. Nora reluctantly agrees partly to appease Libby but also because Sunshine Falls is the setting for one of her author’s series of books and she is curious to see the real thing.
When a company wants to test their security systems, they hire people like Jack and her husband Gabe. Known as penetration specialists, they break into company buildings, warehouses and factories, and hack their security systems to test just how secure they really are. Based on their success, and Jack and Gabe are almost always successful, their clients then know where they are vulnerable and can take appropriate action against those vulnerabilities.
The women of Vardø watched in horror as a rogue wave capsized and drowned nearly all the men of the village as they were fishing off the coast of their tiny village. Isolated and alone, the village women, out of necessity, began to slowly take over the jobs that the men usually did. Defying the laws of the patriarchy, they fished and went hunting trying to prepare for the long winter ahead. Maren, who had lost both a brother and a father, did what she could to provide and protect her mother and her pregnant sister-in-law, who was one of the indigenous women from the island. It was hard, but the women were united and making progress and doing what needed to be done.
Ray McMillan grew up in rural North Carolina. His mother can’t wait until he graduates from high school and gets a job at the local fast food restaurant which will help support his younger siblings. Poor, Black and with little resources, Ray’s life is pretty much mapped out for him, except that Ray has an extraordinary musical talent. Even though Ray plays on an old borrowed school violin, his talent and love of music shine through.
Aaron Wiley may have gotten in over his head. He works for the CIA, but as a desk analyst. But now he is in Argentina because his uncle, Max Weill, a famous Nazi hunter who is seriously ill, begged Aaron to find Dr. Otto Schramm. Schramm conducted horrific medical experiments on prisoners at Aushwitz and caused Max’s family to be killed in the gas chambers. Although Schramm was reported to have died in a car accident some years ago, Max believes he has seen him recently and begged Aaron to do what he was never able to do- capture Schramm and bring him to justice.
When Mr Edmund Carstairs approached Sherlock Holmes about a strange man that was menacing him, he did not know that it would lead to the discovery of one of the most heinous crimes Holmes ever investigated. At the time Watson did not publish the account of this case because he feared it would undermine and threaten the stability of government and society. But now, many years later, Watson decides that in order to complete his task of memorializing and paying tribute to Holmes and his extraordinary abilities, this account must be published.
Ariel Pryce wakes up in the Ambassador Suite of a Lisbon hotel, alone. Her husband, John, invited her to come along on his business trip, as a way to celebrate their recent marriage. This marriage is a new chance for both of them; an unexpected joy in middle age, full of quiet discoveries about each other.
Elizabeth Zott is working hard to find her way in a man’s world. It is the 1960’s and although she is a gifted chemist no one at the Hastings Institute takes her seriously. No one, that is except the difficult genius, Carl Evans who has been nominated for a Nobel prize. It could only be true chemistry, as they both find in each other a sharp intellectual curiosity and a deep and abiding attraction.
Brenda's Bookshelf 