We Just Had a Baby by Stephen Krensky
We Just Had a Baby is a fun book about a young boy who welcomes a young baby girl into his family. The illustrations are pencil and gave a delightful cartoonish look to the young boy and his newborn sister.
My daughter Strawberry, who is almost 4, enjoyed reading the book with me because she could relate so much to the feelings the unnamed boy has in the book. The boy expresses his surprise that the baby is so small. He expresses his feelings of delight that his smiles cause her to smile; he also notices that when he frowns it makes his baby sister look scared, so he wants to smile more! Like the boy, Strawberry thought it took a long time for the baby to come. Like the boy, she thought the baby was a lot smaller than she expected. Like the boy, she has enjoyed seeing her baby sister grow.
We Just Had a Baby is a solid edition to the “new sibling” shelf!
Note: I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher for review consideration.
The Stories Julian Tells by Ann Cameron
When seven-year-old Julian does not know the answer to his three-year-old brother Huey’s questions, he makes up stories! For example, he tells his brother that a catalog is a book to order cats from, and they are sent through the mail. His imagination is ripe and the stories crafted in to his adventures are fun for the young reader. In the first chapter, I was concerned when the kids hid from Dad, afraid of the punishment, but the “beating” and “whipping” in store for the pudding-eating boys was just the right kind!
I was delighted to see such a clever and obviously enduring story (it’s almost 30 years old) for the early chapter book crowd. Although my son reads at a high reading level, sometimes he just needs something short and sweet, about a boy just his age. He read this one quickly and found it quite funny. I look forward to checking out the sequels to Julian’s crazy stories as well!
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Ms Woodson’s poems capture the difficult transitions in life, but they also capture the complicate life that comes from growing up in the 1960s and 1970s in the Jim Crow South. She details her frustrations learning to read (due to probable dyslexia) and her persistent dream to become a writer and record the multitude of stories inside her mind.
Individually, each poem is full of meaning that could be enjoyed as the reader may like. There is more than meets the eye in these apparently simple poems. As a whole, the book is satisfying and complete: a story of a girl who lived and dreamed and became.
