Day 11 to Day 15 - 30 books in 30 days Challenge

Hello!

Let’s look at what we did between day 11 and day 15 of the Bubble Ink reading challenge!

March 11, 2014 - Day 11 -  Reading Prompt – Now I know my ABC

Now this prompt generated some comments on the right way to learn our letters, what with most schools now following the phonics method of teaching than the traditional good ol’ ABC. Frankly, I don’t see the big divide – maybe due to my ignorance, but A goes to a school that teaches letters the phonics way but I can’t see why that would be a deterrent to read letters the traditional way! ABC books are fun and come on, how are you to ignore them anyway? A has been looking at ABC books and the phonics songs on You Tube ever since she started crawling and seems to me that she made the transition quite okay!

Bubble Ink Picks –

Chicka Chicka ABC           - Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault

The day it rained letters - Nury Vittachi

Hey, That's an A - Jerry Pinto, Tulika Publishers

We read our first Dr Seuss book today, from our newly acquired collection, thanks to the Bubble Ink. We read ABC. Must say, his style is totally different from anything that we have read till now! His crazy words like Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz and Fiffer-feffer-feff kept my little one in splits! Loved our introduction to Dr Seuss! The second book we read was actually an alphabet book, which I unearthed from the bottom of our collection. The book is all about interesting adjectives , like Appetising Apple, Vain Vulture, Playful Puppet etc.

There weren’t really any books as takeaway on this day. My girl is 4 now, so beyond the age for ABC, though I intend to look at, ‘Hey, that’s an A’ by Jerry Pinto. 'The day it rained letters' sounds wow!

March 12, 2014 - Day 12 -  Reading Prompt – Acts of Kindness and Sharing

Today’s prompt was in honour of Girl Scouts Day.

Bubble Ink Picks –

One of Each                              - Mary Ann Hoberman

Plant a Kiss                               - Amy Krouse Rosenthal

The mountain that loved the bird - Alice Mclerran By Tulika Publishers

They also posted a little lyric on the prompt – 

Kindness – 

It s just like a magic penny,

Hold it tight and you won't have any,

Lend it, Spend it, give it away and it comes right back to you! 

Lots of books and stories again for this prompt! And all the picks mentioned above sound so good, I want to have them all! We read 'Andy - A good little ant and 'Nice and Nasti' from the book of Animal Moral Stories, both of which teach you that you should show kindness to people irrespective of how they behave towards you. We read the story of 'Rantideva' a generous king from the Bhagavata Purana and his acts of generosity towards his poeple, without giving a thought about his own basic needs. We read 'Beauty and the Beast', [actually the book read to us, it is an audio book].This was my pick because I like to point out to my little one how the 2 characters are kind and loving to each other in spite of the obvious diversities in their personalities. The last book we read was 'Magic Vessels', which is a re-telling of a folktale from Tamil Nadu (a precious Tulika possession!) . It is a story of playful little tree spirits who are kind and helpful to the simple and naive Muthu and Chellam. That’s a lot of reading we did today!

Though we haven’t purchased any books from today’s suggestions yet, many of them are on my list, like, ‘Rainbow Fish’, ‘Plant a Kiss’ and ‘Rainbow Crow’.  They all sound so wonderful! One book that I am surely buying is ‘Stone Soup’. This book is an age old fable and is available in many versions, but the one which really appealed to me is this. Another book shared was ‘What I like about me’ by Allia Zobel Nolan – I’ve bid for this on Ebay, let’s hope I win it!

March 13, 2014 - Day 13 -  Reading Prompt – Wonder Wheels – Things that go

Bubble Ink picks –

Freight Train                                         – Donald Crews

Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction site – Sherry Duskey

Runaway Wheel                                   – Asha Nehemiah

We read 'The Railway Children' (this could have been read on so many different prompts that have appeared here!). This is not really a book for a 4-year old, I guess, as I could see her getting distracted, but nevertheless, a good book. We then read 'The Fat Controller', which is a Thomas and Friends series book. The Fat Controller is the Station-In-Charge and when some of the engines sulk over a silly issue, he sends them over to the shed to teach them a lesson. A simple story, but again, too wordy for us. Both these books were read for the first time today and I don't expect them to be asked again for some more time!  Finally, we picked up 'Roaring Rockets' again for a second time in this challenge - they don't have wheels, but they do go! Gravity boots, spacesuits, landers…. yea, that we dig! Haha!

We loved this link for a Karadi Tales sing-along on trains. Other books that we would like to read are, ‘Mrs Armitrage on Wheels’ by the quirky Quentin Blake and ‘Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel’ by Virginia Lee Burton. 

March 14, 2014 - Day 14 -  Reading Prompt – I am I

Bubble Ink picks –

Tall           - Jez Alborough

I like Me  - Karen Beaumont

Spoon       - Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Unboy Boy - Richa Jha

Initially, I thought I had no books for this theme, so I went about searching in my new books' corner and found 'Dumbo' by Disney. Our book was way too wordy, so I had to do a marathon reading and gave a short-cut version of it later to my little one. Also showed her a reading of the book on You Tube. It's a story of a baby elephant, Dumbo, whose unusually large ears make him the butt of rude jokes in an entire circus, much to his disappointment. Timothy Mouse, a friend indeed, helps him discover his real talent, which makes him unique, that is flying with the help of his enormous ears! Another new book we read was Mr Big, a giant of a man who no one loves because of the way he looks. He finally discovers a passion for music within himself and it is his immense talent that wins people over to adore him for what he is inside. The best book of the day and also that was totally in tune with the prompt was, 'The Mixed Up Chameleon' by Eric Carle. A very regular chameleon realises one day that he can not only change his colour, but also his shape and size as well. He picks up all the good parts of the various animals around and ends up being, well, something else, ('a little of this and a little of that')... only to realise and say to himself, ' I wish I could be myself.' A nice story that shows what makes each animal different and why it is important to be yourself. So there! Not bad, I'd say!

We are definitely buying ‘Unboy boy!’.

March 15, 2014 - Day 15 -  Reading Prompt – Lift the Flap, Pull the Tab, Play I Spy

Bubble Ink picks –

Good Egg                     - Barney Saltzberg

I feel Happy                  - Little Learners

Each Peach Pear Plum   - Janet and Allan Ahlberg

We don't have any lift the flap books either! Waaaaah! We did the next best, pop up books! We did 2 books, The Very Silly Shark' and 'The Very Clever Crocodile', both by Jack Tickle - the first being about ocean creatures n the second about swamp creatures.

I loved the video of the 'Good Egg' suggested today. Though I’m unsure if it would be a good buy for my 4 year old!

And that is how we reached our half mark!! :-) 15 glorious days of  reading and sharing books!

Happy Reading!