Eleanor's Favorite Series

We made strawberry jam as a meet-the-teacher gift; and E designed a card saying "I hope your class will be "strawsome". 

Today is Eleanor's first day of first grade! (We live in a district with a modified year-round schedule.) In honor of that milestone, she's helped me make a list of her favorite series to share with you.*

Cupcake Diaries

Eleanor likes these "because they're creative, and they bake cupcakes which are sugary". 

Judy Moody

"I don't know why I like them. I just do." (Note from Jessica: I think I need to read one of these! She giggles out loud SO MUCH when she's reading them. It's adorable.)

The Sisters 8

"I like that the sisters have adventures. And a robot to clean their house. And they have plants inside their house and a big watering can that zips around the ceiling and stops over each plant to water it. And once it watered Rebecca."

The Buddy Files

"Buddy is a funny dog detective. He's not good at math. When he counts to 3 he's like, 'One, seven, five.' "

Just Grace

"There are lots of comics and drawings inside these books. Mimi has a little brother named Robert who loves to play with her dog, Mr. Scruffers. It's a girl dog but has a boy name."

What books did you like as a first grader? 

(I was HUGELY into Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden, but alas, I can't get Eleanor into either of them, no matter how hard I try. Maybe one of these days...)

*She does read ahead of grade level; so just know that some of these books may be too hard for some first graders! But hang on to this list for later, because she promises they're all great. Also, images are affiliate links. Thanks for supporting Quirky Bookworm!

February Book Releases to Watch For

Good thing we get an extra day to read this February - because there are a bunch of awesome books coming out this month!

Sex in the Sea: Our Intimate Connection with Kinky Crustaceans, Sex-Changing Fish, Romantic Lobsters, and Other Salty Erotica of the Deep

I read a review of this that said, "I have spent precisely zero percent of my life being curious about the sex lives of sea creatures... until now!" Which basically sums up my feelings about this book. I find the subtitle so intriguing!

The Opposite of Everyone

I know I've raved about this one already; but it was really, really good. I highly recommend you get on your library hold list now, or just buy it! It's good enough to own.

Cook It In Cast Iron: Kitchen Tested Recipes for the One Pan That Does it All

I don't have a cast iron skillet yet. But after flipping through this cookbook, it's on my list for Mother's Day! (Hint, hint Noel!)

Bears in the Bath

We are big fans of Bears in Chairs and Bears in Bed around here! We're going to be checking the library for the latest book with these fun characters.

Glass Sword

I'm already on the library hold for this one! I read Red Queen last month, and really enjoyed the ending. So I'm excited to see where the story is headed. (Although I'm gonna have to wait a whole year till the third book comes out!)

Morning Star

Hooray, hooray, hooray! The final installment in the Red Rising trilogy is finally coming out. I canNOT wait. I'm a little concerned, since this author is clearly unafraid to kill off characters I like; but I'm hoping for a semi-reasonable ending!

The Princess in Black and the Hungry Bunny Horde

Eleanor really liked the first Princess and Black book last year. It's a great easy series, for someone who is almost ready for chapter books. It's a perfect segue between picture books and chapter books, with a cute little heroine.

In Other Words

I've been meaning to read Jhumpa Lahiri for years, and I'm really intrigued by the dual-language format of this, her first nonfiction book. I love travel memoirs anyway, and this one is a mix of travel and language, which I think I'll love.

Heroines of Mercy Street: The Real Nurses of the Civil War

I've been meaning to check out the show Mercy Street anyway, but now I really want to read this book too, because my fellow Shelf-Awareness reviewer Pamela Toler wrote it! I'm so excited for her.

Stars Above

I just realized that this came out last week - and now I'm wishing I'd gotten on the library list sooner! It's a collection of short stories set in the Lunar Chronicles world, and it looks so fun. (Although: do you think the same artist did the covers of Glass Sword and Stars Above??)

What books are YOU looking forward to this month?

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Reading Together: A Family Exploration Book Club

I'm excited for 2016, because Sheila from The Deliberate Reader and I are heading up Reading Together: A Family Exploration Book Club. We started toying around with the idea of a kid-parent type book club a few months ago. At first we were going to pick classics from our childhoods, but then we figured we'd be reading those to/with our own kids anyway. 

So we purposely selected books and topics that are a little more unfamiliar to us, and rounded up six amazing cohosts to help us discuss them. For each theme, we chose three books - a picture book, a middle-grade fiction, and a slightly older/teen fiction, to try to appeal to lots of different family varieties!

Our six themes are:

• Arctic (co-hosted by Carrie from The Lion is a Bookworm)
• Korea (co-hosted by Moira from Hearth & Homefront)
• Iran (co-hosted by Katie from Cakes, Tea and Dreams)
• Australia (co-hosted by Breanne from This Vintage Moment)
• Modern U.S. (co-hosted by Kate from Mom's Radius)
• Magic (co-hosted by Julie from Smiling Shelves)

Each topic will cover a two month spread. We'll hold bloggy link-ups (where you can link-up your own posts about these books). And there will be ongoing discussion in the Reading Together: Family Exploration Book Club Facebook Group. The group is closed, so you can share pictures of your reading, or updates on how you're liking the books, without drowning friends or family members in updates!

I'll give you more information as 2016 progresses, but for starters (in case you want to reserve books at the library), our January-February selections (in our Arctic theme) are: In Arctic Waters, The Year of Miss Agnes, and Julie of the Wolves.

We're really excited about this project! Would you help us spread the word? 

Via Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, or just good old-fashioned word of mouth! If you have friends who might be interested in participating, let them know about this post, or about the RTFEBC Facebook Group. Or just find us on social media with the #rtfebc hashtag. Thanks!

11 Christmas Books Worth Buying

I don't know about you, but my kids LOVE Christmas books. And man, does the library have some awful, trite ones. Over the last few years we've slowly upgraded our Christmas book collection, buying a few new ones each year. And now we have a pretty great selection! So I thought I'd share 11 of the ones you can buy without fear of mind-numbing-ness.

 

Mortimer's Christmas Manger is my favorite. It's so sweet. And it makes me tear up a little bit every time. It's nice because it's Jesus-centered, but not just "let's retell the same old Bethlehem story again".

My favorite line in Morris's Disappearing Bag is when the siblings can't find Morris, and they're worried that he made himself so beautiful that they don't recognize him. Haha! A cute story of sibling sharing and special gifts.

What makes B is for Bethlehem are the pictures. They're absolutely spectacular! And the inclusion of more unusual elements of the Nativity Story than kids' books usually get into is great. (A is for Augustus, after all.)

Humphrey's First Christmas is the Bethlehem story, from the point of view of the camel. Humphrey's facial expressions crack. me. up.

We have a slightly different (out of print) edition of My First Christmas Board Book, and Juliet is obsessed. She will literally flip through this one for a solid 20 minutes, looking at and identifying every little Christmas item. Perfect for toddlers.

I adore The Jolly Christmas Postman. It was mine when I was a kid, and Eleanor loves it too now. It's got puzzles and lift the flaps, and tiny books within books. I wouldn't recommend it for under age 4 or so... you don't want them destroying it. But it's beautiful for slightly older kids. The postman is delivering mail for lots of fictional characters - Santa, the Big Bad Wolf, Red Riding Hood, the Gingerbread Boy, etc.

Christmas Around the World shows Christmas traditions in a bunch of countries - including South Africa, Norway, France, Mexico, and the U.S. Eleanor's mind was basically blown when she discovered that Christmas happens in the middle of summer in Australia.

You can't go wrong with George! And Merry Christmas Curious George is nice - because George cheers up a bunch of sick kids at the children's hospital, by decorating a tree with bandages and x-rays and stuff. Super cute.

I love these Little House picture books! In Christmas in the Big Woods it's so cute to see Mary and Laura's Christmas celebration, and nice to have the story simplified for those who aren't quite ready to read the real thing.

If You Take a Mouse to the Movies follows the usual pattern of the Mouse books by Laura Numeroff. It's really cute though, and Mouse gets oh-so-excited about popcorn and Christmas trees and ornaments! I'm not quite sure why it's such a hit around here, since we have similar books, but we all really like this one.

Ok, Jingle! Jingle! is a bit of a cheat, since we don't actually own it, unlike the rest of this list! Our library doesn't have it, unfortunately, and I've spent enough money on books this year. But we are BIG fans of the rest of the books in the Can You Say It, Too? series. Juliet loves Arf! Arf! and Woof! Woof! and Hoot! Hoot! So I'm assuming that Jingle! Jingle! is super cute too.

What Christmas books do YOU own?

This post contains affiliate images. Thanks for supporting Quirky Bookworm!

P.S. Looking for more Christmas books? Check out my (Grownup) Christmas Favorites for Rereading and 100+ Christmas, Winter, and Hanukkah Books (for kids).