Weekly Geeks v9.13: Children’s Books & Poetry

For this weeks Weekly Geeks, we’re celebrating International Children’s Book Day, which was April 2nd, and National Poetry Month.  We’re being given a couple of different ways to participate this week:

Option A: Be a kid!

1. You could read a picture book (or two or three) and share what you read.
2. Write up a post sharing your favorite books from childhood.
3. Write up a post about reading together with your child.

Option B: Be a poet!

1. Write your own poem and share with us!
2. Write bookish ABC poems–ABC’s of favorite authors, favorite books, favorite characters, favorite book blogs, or any combination of the above. Maybe even an ABC’s of a bibliophile or book addict. (A is for…B is for…etc.)(For example, ABC’s of Dr. Seuss)
3. Review a book you’ve read recently in haiku. (It doesn’t need to be a poetry book you’re reviewing, any book will do.) See Emilyreads for an idea of what I mean.
4. Read a poetry book and review it
5. Participate in Poetry Friday (This week’s host will be Carol’s Corner.)

I have no problem doing both of these, so here we go.  Every so often, I’ll go through and review Ian’s current favorite books.  Literary Escapism may seem primarily a paranormal fiction review site, but anything I’m reading with end up with a review here and that includes books I read to Ian.  Seriously, there are some pretty awesome books out there for kids.

The last time I did a Toddler Picks was back in January, but honestly, the ones I mention there are still hot books for Ian.  Fisher Price’s Little People Let’s Go to the Zoo! introduced Ian to books with a “lift and peek” them and he’s been loving it.  We actually found a new one that mingles this theme with his Thomas obsession – Wave Hello to Thomas. Ian is loving Thomas right now and we’ve been collecting the books for him.  Although, I will say that Ian seems to sit through the picture books more easily than the books with more than one story in them.

We have come across 6 books that Ian continually goes back to night after night.  Jesse and I are starting to get a little bored with reading them, but it’s what he wants.  The first one I reviewed in Toddler Picks, which is B is for Bear by Roger Priddy.  I have to say I am loving it as well.  Every page is one letter of the alphabet and there’s a really good flow to the words.  I do have to credit this book with making zebra completely synonymous with Z.  Every time Ian sees that letter, it’s always ZEBRA!  My little man is going nuts over the alphabet right now and he’s really loving Dr. Seuss’s ABC.  He will sit through that entire book without making a peep (except to repeat all the letters) and it’s so advancing his vocabulary.  Granted, Seuss does come up with words and creatures that are pure fantasy, but you gotta love that.

I do have to brag a little at the moment…my son can say and recognize all of the letters of the alphabet.  He can even sing the alphabet song – sorta, he doesn’t like E-P for some reason.  Whenever we’re in the car, at the store, or anywhere really, he’ll start singing his ABCs.  He’s pretty clear when he says A-B-C-W-X-Y-Z and he does try for all of the letters in between, but those are clearly his favorites.

Another set of books he’s really digging at the moment are these 4 Sesame Street books I picked up at Target for $1 each – Abby’s First Book of Shapes, Big Birds First Book of Letters, Cookies First Book of Numbers and Elmo’s First Book of Colors.  All of them are simple and completely interactive.  Not only can you read whatever is on the page, but the books also give you the option of pointing out other things relevant to that page.  For instance, in Elmo’s First Book of Colors, it say “Elmo is read, even the hat on his head is red” or something like that, but Elmo is in a room with a ton of other things that are red.  I can ask Ian “What else is red?” and he’ll point them out.  These books were a great buy and I even picked up a set for my godson.

So those are the books Ian and I are reading a lot of at the moment. I was going to do something for the poetry section, but this post is already getting long enough.  And because I totally forgot to do this last week, here’s the recap from Weekly Geeks v9.12 where we renew an old favorite and link to other reviews within our reviews.  I don’t usually come across many geekers who review the same books as I do, but I did this week.  Here’s a list of the blogs that share a few novels with Literary Escapism:

1. Rikki Donovan
2. Word Lily
3. Nymeth at Things Mean Alot
4. Melissa’s Bookshelf
5. Belle of the Books
6. LazyGal Reads

As always, if you’ve read and reviewed something I have, let me know.  I’ll add your link to my review.  It’s all about sharing the love, so don’t hesitate.