Day 21 to Day 25 - 30 books in 30 days Challenge

Hello!

Lets see what we did in these 5 days of The Bubble Ink reading challenge!

March 21, 2014 - Day 21 - Reading Prompt – Sing Along

The reading prompt was in honour of  Children’s poetry day. We were to read books that can be sung as songs. There is also a video link provided with the picks to sing-along with your little ones.

Bubble Ink picks –

Over in the meadow   - Illustrated by Jill McDonald, Sung by Susan Reed (Personal top favourite!) 

Personal Penguin - Sandra Boynton

Oluguti Toluguti - Sandhya Rao, Radhika Menon, Tulika Publishers 

Not much research done in this area, I'm afraid, but that will soon be corrected! Thank you again, The Bubble Ink for enlightening us! What we read-sang together was 'Ten in the bed' by Penny Dale for the second time in this challenge. We also unearthed our board book of nursery rhymes and sang together! We read our library reader book - The Ugly Duck Thing' as well. With a reminder from a friend, we later saw a sing along video of another of our favourite books - We are going on a bear hunt!.  We forgot about another sing along which we used to listen to some time ago. Karadi Tales – Ganesha meets Kubera – a melodious classical style song in English. The animations are quite different and colourful. 

Barefoot Books was a treasure trove of such sing along songs. We found a playlist of all of their sing along songs. This is now played regularly at our place now!

‘Anushka’s Puppets of India’ is a book that was mentioned today -the original idea is of a 5 year old girl, Anushka and the book was written by her with a little help from her mother, Arthi Anand, who is an author of children's books herself. I am amazed by the idea of a 5 year old girl’s imagination giving birth to a lovely book. Ah, the power of books and the magic of stories! Irresistible! I have to lay my hands on this one for sure.

March 22, 2014 - Day 22 - Reading Prompt – What I wear

Bubble Ink picks –

Hippo Has a Hat - Julia Donaldson

Flyaway Katie         - Polly Dunbar 

My Mother's Sari - Sandhya Rao, Tulika Publishers

So many books again! Yay! We started with our baby board book - 'Things to wear'. We then read one of our favourites - ''The Smartest Giant in Town' - a Julia Donaldson must have! We read 'Tania's Tutu' from 'Stories for 5 year olds by Igloo Books. A very apt book for this prompt, where Tania wants a perfect tutu for her ballerina dance - when she is upset that she doesn’t have one, her mom collects fabric, shoes, sequins, lace, beads and buttons, ribbons and thread and stitches a perfect tutu for her darling girl! We also read 'Little Red Riding Hood' (The Brothers Grimm), story of a girl who was famous for the cloak she wore! A quirky, humorous book we read was 'The Queen's Knickers' by Nicholas Allan. Believe it or not, it is about the different types of knickers that the Queen of England wears! 

A very interesting book that was suggested was ‘Alphabet Dress Up’ by Selina Alko. A refreshing change from the usual princess and ballerina dress-up, pretend play options. Take a look at this trailer here.

March 23, 2014 - Day 23 - Reading Prompt – Best Friends

Like Peanut Butter and Jelly

Pen and Paper

Moon and stars

Socks and shoes

Cows and Moos

Hot chocolate in Winter

Flowers and Spring

Somehow we just fit - you and me

The Best of Friends.

Bubble Ink picks -

Bink & Gollie         - Best Friends Forever: Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee

Handa's surprise - Eileen Browne 

Mukund and Riaz - Nina Sabnani, Tulika Publishers

Too many books again today! We read ' Handa's Surprise'. This is one book where, when we were on the 2nd page, my baby gives this serene smile on her face and tells me, 'Amma, I love this book!' You have to read it to feel it really - Highly recommended. We read 'Mouse, Mole and the Falling Star' (A Very Special Wish, Little Tiger Press) . A beautiful book on the spirit of friendship. 2 best friends are drawn apart due to greed and selfish wants (to possess a shooting star so that their personal wishes come true). When loneliness greets them in the face, they realise that nothing gives you more happiness than being together and celebrating the gift of friendship. Then we read ' Tales from the Bhagawata Purana' - everyone's favourite tale of ever lasting friendship that beats all odds, ' Krishna and Sudama'. We read 2 stories of best friends from 'Stories for 5 year olds' - Igloo Books - 'Noah's adventure' and 'The Best Den, Ever'.

March 24, 2014 - Day 24 - Reading Prompt – Inside your outside 

We were to read books on body parts.

Bubble Ink picks –

Where is my Belly Button - Karen Katz

Inside your outside - Tish Rabe

Little Fingers                    - Sheila Dhir, Tulika Publishers

We didn't have any books as such for the prompt. The closest we found and what we read was 'The Robot', a HarperCollins book, where 2 wacky inventors build a robot by putting together various parts like, the body, hands, arms, foot, legs etc. The other book we read was 'Mia and her Toothbrush' from the 'Max and Mia series. This was a childhood favourite and my little one used to say every line in the whole book when she was 2. Mia hates to brush her teeth and ends up with bits of food in her mouth and a subsequent toothache, making her flee to the toothbrush who is eager to help!

The Bubble Ink suggested a superb book later in the day – ‘The day it rained letters’, by Nury Vittachi. We would love to lay our hands on this one. Sounds brilliant!

March 25, 2014 - Day 25 - Reading Prompt – Food

Pancakes were first made on this day in 1882. The reading prompt honoured that.

Bubble Ink picks –

Pancakes, Pancakes - Eric Carle

Stone Soup                      - Retold and Illustrated by Jon Muth

Junior Kumbhakarna         - Arundhati Venkatesh and Shreya Sen, Tulika Publishers

We read 'Where there's a bear, there's trouble!' by Michael Catchpool. There's a yellow bee, followed by a brown bear, followed by 2 greedy geese, followed by 3 shy mice. All following the other in anticipation of food - bear for honey, geese for berries, mice for corn. And ultimately - bee stings for all!  Cute little story! The second book we read was 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea' by Judith Kerr. Sophie and her mum are given a surprise visit by a hungry tiger. He eats and drinks up everything in the house from sandwiches to buns, biscuits to cake, tea to milk, juice to beer and all the water in the tap. When dad comes home, there's nothing for supper so they all go to a cafe and have sausages and chips and ice-cream. And that’s the story. Maybe I'm missing the kinky humour here, but I really did not find the book amusing. It's a nice read, and that's it! A loved the book with its illustrations of the kind and smiling tiger.We also read a book out of the theme, 'The Tiny Seed' by Eric Carle, a copy that we got from the library yesterday. We loved the book. Mr Carle is a magician! Simple story written with such clarity of thought. 

Though we haven’t yet purchased or read any books from the suggested picks, all 3 sound wonderful and we would want to read them soon.

Happy Reading!