Tag: thanksgiving in the woods

What Wyatt’s Reading – November

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn books and reading5 Comments

I can’t believe tomorrow will be the first of December! This year flew by! We have had so many trips to the library this year; I am always so thankful for them and allowing me to check out like 35 books at a time. We go through so many books, especially this time of year! Not only do we have our homeschool books, but now we have holiday books too! I won’t share them all, it would be a crazy post, so I will share our favorites!

Granny Gomez & Jigsaw was one of my Wyatt’s top favorites this month. Granny Gomez loves her baby pig Jigsaw, and they are great companions. Until Jigsaw grows too big for the house, and has to move to the barn. The solution made me smile, and Wyatt smile too. It is a very sweet book. Wyatt has a thing for pigs right now so you will see quite a few pig books in this list.

The Pumpkin Fair is a fun, festive autumn book with an obvious emphasis on pumpkins. It was just a cute little read. And while I Want My Hat Back was pretty cute too, the end surprised us! Although maybe it shouldn’t have….

Every year, we read Thanksgiving in the Woods. It is our very favorite and we all talk about how cool it would be to actually have a Thanksgiving in the woods one year. This book is based on real life events – maybe I can crash their holiday one year.

Bowwow Powwow was a great book! I liked all of the representations of the different dancers. I liked this one more than Wyatt did. Same with In November. I love Cynthia Rylant though so I get as many of her books as I can get my hands on. In November, is just such a wonderful autumnal book to usher the month in with.

Yep – we have begun reading holiday books. Wyatt loved all three of these! I was not as much of a fan of the Peppa book but Wyatt loves Peppa so..yeah.

First, If You Ever Want to Bring a Pirate to Meet Santa, Don’t! was hilarious. And who knew how closely a pirate could resemble Santa? Wyatt is also all about pirates right now, so it was cool to find a Christmas pirate book.

Christmas Cricket was delightful. We read it right before bed on a chilly night, and we were both feeling cozy and warm. This book is about a sad little cricket who escapes the cold rain by heading into a bright warm house. He feels tiny and insignificant, until he hears something that uplifts him.

Poppleton in Fall. This portly stylish fellow buys a new winter coat, tries to order pancakes, and watches the geese fly south. We also started the Heartwood Hotel series which is adorable. Wyatt really likes books with animals as main characters and this was a cute little read.

And that my friends, is a wrap of our favorite November reads!

Our Favorite Picture Books This Year

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review3 Comments

A week or two ago, Wyatt mailed a letter to Santa from the big Santa Mail Box in our city – and to be honest, I had no idea that he was going to get a letter back when we did it, but wow did it bring a smile to my boy’s face! And, we found out that Santa loves books too! We have read some fantastic books this year, and I wanted to share some of our top favorites with you.

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Wyatt’s current favorite holiday book is the Llama Llama Holiday Drama. I read this a billion times a day, and when I am not, he is looking at it himself half the time. Thanksgiving in the Woods is a fun one that we actually won in a giveaway on Instagram this year- and while we both love it, I think it would be so fun to actually have a Thanksgiving in the Woods one year! I included Ohana Means Family, but it was more my favorite than Wyatt’s. I just loved the illustrations and the introduction to Hawaiian culture to Wyatt. Scout and the Gumboot Kids were a big favorite of Wyatt’s this year, whether on television or reading the books. He really loved The Case of the Wooden Timekeeper. Then finally, all the way back in January, we read Little Wolf’s Song and Winter Walk, and Wyatt loved all the howling in Little Wolf’s Song, and then surprised me by really loving Winter Walk.

Leo the Lightning Bug! This book also came with a CD, and Wyatt still listens to it and flips through the book, reciting parts out loud with it. It reminds me of me when I was his age, listening to books on tape and record and looking through the books. (For Christmas I bought him The Thousand Star Hotel by the Okee Dokee Brothers, which he can flip through while he listens to the story streaming..ah technology.) Nightsong was really cool, and Honey, adorable. Wyatt is a fan of David Ezra Stein. He is also a giant fan of the Little Blue Truck, and he loved this Springtime book. Which reminds me I never bought him The Little Blue Truck’s Christmas! Then finally we found two new to us owl books that we really enjoyed, Tanna’s Owl and Otto the Owl who Loved Poetry.

The Giraffe That Walked to Paris is my favorite picture book that we read this year. I liked it way more than Wyatt, so it is definitely my favorite, not his. I had never heard of this event before and it was sort of sad but neat to learn about it. Anatole was an old favorite of mine that I enjoyed sharing with Wyatt, who also liked it. And then finally, The Salamander Room – this book made me commit to adopting our leopard gecko Harry, which I realize is two different species entirely but it was still a fun way to segue to Harry for Wyatt.

I did miss the library so much this year, browsing the shelves and all the new books. If there are two places I miss going, it is the library with Wyatt and then Ikea with Billy. We would drop the boy off to my mom then head to Ikea and have lunch and shop. We are exciting.

I am looking forward to reading more with Wyatt in the months ahead, especially now as he is picking up letters and can read some of the words himself more and more! He loves reading, and I love that he loves reading!

What Wyatt’s Reading – November

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review, books and reading8 Comments

It has been a great reading month for Wyatt and I! It was the Beaver Moon this past month, so we read a bunch of books with beaver characters. We also read a lot of fall books, with owls and Thanksgiving, and then threw in a little winter there at the end. Here is a round up of our favorites!

Thanksgiving in the Woods and Owl Moon are two favorites around here. We all love these two books. I would love to one day have a Thanksgiving out in the woods, under the trees like the family does in that picture book. How magical it would be! Owl Moon is one we gave Wyatt for his first Christmas – Billy and I go on an owl walk every year with our local Metropark (sometimes more than one) to call owls to get a glimpse. We went last Saturday and just being in the woods at night is a treat. We can’t wait to take Wyatt – he is just not quiet enough right now. Lol.

Wyatt really loved The Mukluk Ball, Sophie’s Squash, Owl Sees Owl, Look Whooo’s Counting, and The Little Snowplow Wishes for Snow. That one was so cute honestly. And the Little Snowplow has a birthday in early March, just like Wyatt! Bird Count and Winter is Coming were both wonderful, but too much for Wyatt right now – a little long for him. Winter is Coming is beautiful though, I actually enjoyed reading it for myself. Lol. It was lyrical and beautifully illustrated, and I loved the descriptions of fall ending and winter coming. I loved that the author described the sound of a goose as gray and sad and eternal. It just seemed so perfect. That is one I am definitely buying for our home library. We were talking last night about what signs in nature symbolize the end of the year to us, and geese flying south is definitely one of them around here. Is there anything that says winter is coming to you, besides the dropping temperatures and maybe snow or rain?