Now that he’s reading a mile-a-minute, it’s time to hear from Raisin again!

The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary. Ralph is a mouse. Keith is a boy. Ralph and Keith meet in a hotel. Keith gives Ralph a motorcycle. It is a toy motorcycle. If Ralph makes a sound, it moves! I like this book because at the end of the book, Keith needs an aspirin and Ralph gets him one from the bottom floor of the hotel. Ralph is hero. Now we will read Runaway Ralph!

Mom’s thoughts: I loved rereading this book! We read much of it aloud together, and I felt like a kid again, reliving the totally unrealistic mouse and his magical motorcycle. If only things really worked this way!

Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary. Ramona is a girl. She is excited to do Kindergarten. During Kindergarten, she gets to school and sees a groups of children huddled together. She asks the groups what is wrong and they say that the teacher isn’t in. Ramona peeks in. They are right! When the bell rings, Ramona hides behind the trash cans. Henry Huggins, his dog Ribsy, some boys, and Beezus find Ramona behind the trash cans. Ramona has lots of other adventures. I like this book because I like the story, the people, and everything that happens.

Mom’s thoughts: I only read parts of this with Raisin, as he kept reading ahead without me. It made me sad that I don’t have time to sit down and read these great series all over again with him. These books are so well written!

Hooray for Bread by Allan Ahlberg and Bruce Ingman. This is a picture book. It is fiction. It is written in poetry. It is about one loaf of bread. I liked it because it was funny. There are two slices of bread that walked off the bread tray and on two other pages the bread is dreaming. I liked the pictures.

Mom’s thoughts: This had a nice rhythm to it. I liked how the animals who enjoyed pieces of the loaf of bread each got their own double-page spread. “Hooray — woof, woof — for Bread!” The illustrations did have a lot of humor in it, and I liked the circle of the day in the eating of the loaf of bread.

The Falling Raindrop by Neil Johnson and Joel Chin. This is a picture book. It is fiction. It is a story about a raindrop. In the book, a raindrop got born and fell in to a fire and he turned in to water vapor. “The little raindrop had become a wisp of steam!” And he rose in to the clouds and he was happy that he would be a raindrop once again. I liked this book because I liked the whole story and the pictures.

Mom’s thoughts: I am currently on the look out for plenty more water cycle and cloud picture books, and this was a nice one. I liked the minimalist pages, most of which had a single raindrop with a face expressing emotion. I liked the twist at the end to remind of the water cycle. There was something strange about considering the feelings of a raindrop, but that’s fantasy for you, I suppose!

What kids books have your kids read lately?

Do you have a message for Raisin about his thoughts on these books?