Category Archives: Monthly Reading

This is an ongoing catalog of what we’ve been reading, published monthly. Books on this lis include fiction and nonfiction books in these categories: children’s picture books, easy readers, illustrated chapter books, middle grade books, and young adult.

The Book Bag, Books for Ages 0 to 4 (November/December 2008)

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Because books make such a wonderful holiday gift, we wanted to make sure that we published our Book Bags in time for you to select stories that kids are sure to love. Here are some of the fun infant and toddler stories we’ve read recently. Our thanks to Andrea and Mark of Just One More Book for their podcast reviews of seasonal titles. Click the book’s title to read our review. Click the cover to connect with a bookseller. The Reading Tub uses its earnings from purchases to donate books to at-risk readers and keep the website subscription-free. Animal Exercises – Poems to Keep Fit written by Mandy Ross and illustrated by Sanja Rescek. Get kids moving with these poems … Read more →

The Book Bag, Books for Ages 5 to 8 (September/October 2008)

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It was hard to keep this to a small pile. There have been lots of great books from our reviewers this time. How the Moon Regained Her Shape written by Janet Ruth Heller, illustrated by Ben Hodson. The moon loved to dance. She was full of happiness, until one day she crossed in front of the sun. The moon was deeply hurt by the sun’s mean words, and she began shrinking. It wasn’t until a comet friend encouraged her to visit Round Arms that she understood how the world appreciated her. “This is a nice twist on the traditional folktale about the moon. The illustrations add to distinguishing the book, as the moon is dressed in colorful garb. We also … Read more →

The Book Bag, Bilingual Books (September/October 2008)

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There are a number of bilingual books in the TBR pile. We haven’t received any bilingual books in the last two months, so there is nothing for our Reading Ahead post. Here are two of our favorites for this Book Bag. I Wish I Was Tall Like Willie by Kathryn Heling and Deborah Hembrook, illustrated by Bonnie Adamson. Manuel admires Willie. he is tall, like a basketball player. Manuel uses stilts and even spikes his hair so he can be taller. But every time he tries something new, it always backfires. Then he learns Willie wants to be strong like him. This is one volume in a companion series about two boys, each of whom wants to be like their … Read more →