Have you heard of the Epossumondus series by Coleen Salley? It is such a great bunch of books! Oliver in particular loves the whole set of books, following Epossumondus the possum, naturally, and his Mama from the Bayou. It’s full of great Louisiana-style sillliness and verbage (just try to read it without attempting an accent, you’ll see what I mean!). I love reading it out loud and especially love the laughs from my boys whenever we check out these books from our library.
The illustrations are pretty outrageous too, thanks to Janet Stevens. The style of the story and artwork go together perfectly. This one is Epossumondas Saves the Day, but our absolute favorite is Why Epossumondas Has No Hair on His Tail, which is a sort of tall tale about why all possums have pink naked tails instead of bushy or fuzzy ones — and it includes a lot of mischief, which we can appreciate around here these days. Check it out!
What are you reading to your kids these days?
Love your books recommendations. Thanks for the audio book tip, too! We are now listening to lots in the car as we run around town this summer.
Most of our reading lately has been from the Lego Star Wars Encyclopedia. My kids are maybe a little obsessed? However, there are other books in heavy rotation: The Day The Crayons Quit, Charlotte Jane Battles Bedtime and Nighttime Ninja. I hope they never get tired of picture books…
The best picture books we’ve read lately have been “The Girl Who Wouldn’t Brush Her Hair” by Kate Bernheimer and “The Invisible Boy” by Trudy Ludwig. Also “Pete and Pickles” by Berkeley Breathed (best name EVER) was delightful- especially the illustrations.
I’ve never heard of this series, looks like fun. We’ve been stuck on trains, How to Train Your Train, Locamotive… You get the idea 😉
These are great recs from you and the commenters. We’ve been recently gifted a book called “Journey” which is all beautiful illustrations and no text. The general plotline stays the same but talking through the details and wording is different each time and that brings out a lot of creative thinking… Also, we are reading the Phantom tollbooth to Jack – a little old for his age but he LOVED the BFG. So, into the chapter books we go. Here, here to Carol about hoping they never tire pf picture books! What a rediscovery…
Maggie, I think one of the biggest surprises to me about motherhood has been the re-introduction to children’s books and just how excited by and enjoyable I still find them! Also, reading aloud my childhood favorites to my own kids is just out of this world.
I love the idea of having your kids narrate wordless books themselves. Maybe even have the older ones take turns on each page to make the story more lively!