What My Children Are Reading

My kids are still mostly reading the same books I've talked about before. C is making his way through the Magic Tree House books (he's on #24 now) and M is still enjoying the Elephant and Piggie books as well as other books from our bookshelves. So today, I'm going to share two books I received for review.

The first is a picture book called Bye Boon by Steph Smith. This is the story of two sisters who have balloons. The youngest girl, Georgie, whispers to her balloon and then lets it go, saying, "Bye, Boon." She tells her big sister that she told her balloon a secret. Then she tells of all the places her balloon is going to visit, with her older sister occasionally adding in a place or two as well. As the balloon travels along, Georgie reminds her sister that her "boon" is not going to tell her secret each time it arrives somewhere new ... until it gets to its final destination.

This is an adorable story of a balloon on an adventure. The illustrations are very simple, almost childlike, and I think that's quite appealing to children, at least to mine. The balloon meets clouds with faces and feet, and many different animals. I really enjoyed it and M did as well, although she said she didn't like the fact that the girls let go of their balloons! Just one note without giving too much away: This book is best for families that celebrate Christmas. I received a copy of the ebook from the author in exchange for an honest review.

The next book is one that I think would appeal to most elementary kids. It's Frankie Pickle and the Mathematical Menace by Eric Wight. This book will be published on July 26th, but you can pre-order it now. I haven't read other Frankie Pickle books, but this one was very cute and now I think we'll check out the others. The story is about a math quiz that Frankie is very nervous about taking one Friday. He's so nervous, that he doesn't end up answering a single question. So his teacher gives him another chance to do the quiz on Monday. He has all weekend to study, but his friends and family keep finding other things for him to do instead of studying, like going grocery shopping, playing games and baking. In the end, he realizes that all of these fun, everyday activities involve math and helped him study after all.

I love the message in this book that math is all around us and so very important in life. And I know C would love the comics that are interspersed throughout the book, showing Frankie's imagination gone wild. I received an uncorrected proof of this book for review from the Simon & Schuster Galley Grab program.

What have you been reading with your children this week? Hop on over to Mouse Grows Mouse Learns to share! And check out Book Sharing Monday too!