Pajama Story Time, 6/13/12

Because of the nighttime theme and some requests from parents, we're offering a pajama story time on Wednesday nights this summer. I'm sharing the story time with a coworker, so I'll only have it every other week - tonight was my first one. In all, there were 6 kids. A toddler, two preschoolers, and three elementary schoolers. Instead of doing a lot of singing and dancing around like we do in the morning, I read three long-ish classic picture books.

Book 1: Miss Nelson is Missing by Harry Allard and James Marshall (1977)
I hadn't read this book in a while, but when I saw that my group was skewing older than expected, it was the first one I grabbed. I loved it as a kid, and it charms me just as much now. I also love that moment when the kids realize the true identity of Miss Viola Swamp.

Book 2: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig (1969)
I am really not crazy about this book, but one of the boys in the group asked me to read it. I liked it more this time than usual, possibly because the kids made it such a pleasure to read aloud.

Book 3: Ira Sleeps Over by Bernard Waber
This is my absolute favorite book to read aloud because of Ira's sisters snide little comments about her brother's teddy bear. I don't think the kids knew this one, and I was thrilled to see their faces light up when they realized Reggie has a teddy bear of his own. I will never stop loving this book.

This story time was a refreshing change of pace from the usual insanity - can't wait for my turn to come up again!