Greatest Hits: Callum and Maira's books edition

This has been the summerofthebook for the Goldsmith family--we have all been doing a ton of reading....it has been awesome....Amanda and I virtually never turn the television even ON, and it is great....all of us are making more of a concerted effort to get involved with reading and SQUIRTing (super-quiet-uniterrupted-reading-time). Myeah. And although Callum has a level 4 addiction to Bob the Builder VHS tapes, we still spend a good part of each day looking at books. I thought I would post this quick "edition," since one of the purposes of our family blog is to look back at it in 10 years and see what we were doing. It would be nice to be reminded of the books my children loved. Callum is also at the point where, in order to assert his independence, he doesnt want YOU to read to him...but rather he wants to read himself. AND, although he cannot read yet, he has many of his books virtualy memorized. Very cool. Here are Callum's top four most favorite of the summer, and Maira's number one (because, let's face it...all she does is chew on the corners anyway...haha)




Callum has a penchant for holiday books, and we many times read Christmas and Halloween books all during the year. He is like his Auntie KK. But anyway, he picked this out at the library a month or so ago, and the floodgates opened! Now, he gets an Arthur book each week at the library. But he reallllly loved this Halloween one because it had a friendly witch in it....

Probably my favorite on the list, simply because it has some of the most beautiful illustrations I have seen in children's books. Ipcar, a Maine artist, chronicles the night life of the farmer's cat--on one page, you see what only 'we' can see (shadows, etc) and then on the next page, we see it all in full color...as the cat sees it. Callum loves to predict what all the shadowed shapes will be. He has this pretty much memorized. Also, it has a wood stove it in so I love they.


Probably Callum's favorite onthe list. Written by two strung out hippies that you can see on youtube. Great, catchy little story about a cat who steps in fruit and gets his sneakers all kinds of different colors. A catchy song that Callum loves to sing--if you are one of the 4 people who read this blog and you looked at our Rangeley camping pictures, you may have seen Callum and his friend Polly having this read to them by yours truly....

This one is Maira's favorite (and one of Amanda's too). Also by Ipcar. Beautiful and heartwarming illustrations of life on a farm as it relates to the alphabet. Also a thicker carboardy kind of book Maira likes to chew on.

This book is awesome. I picked it out for Callum at the library a few weeks ago...he has renewed it twice since then. The life of a tugboat who has to tow three huge ships into the harbor. Very rich in onomatopoeia, as it describes all the 'hard core' sounds of working the sea. It is amazing what this kid will pick up from our reading of it...randomly, throughout the day, he will just start quoting from it like I quote from the Jerky Boys (yo...Moby Dee....your ride is here OR think I cant pull it?? or tow ropes? TIGHT! or something...)

I love children's books....