Advent Reading Round-Up: Week Four

This is the last part of our Advent reading list for 2015. If you missed them, here are weeks one, two, and three. A Christmas reading round-up will follow after January 6, The Epiphany, which will mark the end of our Christmas celebration, though not necessarily the end of the Christmas season.

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Day 21 (12/19/15)

Duck and Goose: It's Time for Christmasby Tad Hills

This board was a gift for Little Miss Muffet last Christmas, but we didn't spend much time with it. This year, though, it was an instant hit, and she asked for multiple re-readings throughout the week. The story is simple enough for her  to remember and retell to herself, which is nice, and she gets the biggest kick out of the line: "Come on, Goose!" which she has been saying to everyone. I think we still prefer Gossie and Gertie, but this one is fun, too.

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Day 22 (12/20/15)

Counting Christmas by Karen Katz

We have a lot of Karen Katz books, but not many without flaps, so this was a good change of pace. The objects to be counted are pretty obvious on each page, so we did use the book for actual counting practice, and Miss Muffet has gone back to it a few times throughout the week. It's not my favorite, but it's definitely very toddler-friendly.

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Day 23 (12/21/15)

Who is Coming to Our House?

by Joseph Slate and Ashley Wolff 

I have some problems with the rhyming in this book, but the illustrations of the animals preparing their "house" for the arrival of Mary and Joseph and the birth of Christ really resonated with Little Miss Muffet. Some of the lines of dialogue are not assigned a speaker in the text, which makes it feel awkward to read even with the support of the pictures, but that did not bother my little listener in the least. I explained to her that the animals live in a stable in Bethlehem, and now she calls this the "Beth-hem book." We have read it every day since Monday!

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Day  24 (12/22/15)

Silent Night
by Susan Jeffers

I was trying to save most of our books about the birth of baby Jesus until after Christmas, but we had been singing this song a lot and my husband found this book at the library, so we decided to read it at bedtime. The lyrics to the last verse were different in this edition than the ones I know, but Miss Muffet loved hearing it sung, and she got very excited about all the sheep and angels.

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Day 25 (12/23/15)

The Sweet Smell of Christmasby Patricia Scarry

This was a childhood favorite of both mine and my husband's, and Little Miss Muffet's grandma bought a new copy for her last year. Last year, she loved the scratch and sniff aspect so much that for weeks after we read it, she was trying to sniff all of her books. This year, she seemed to have forgotten how they work and was very nervous about the sniffing. In fact, she was more excited about the bear characters than the smells themselves. For me, though, the smells take me right back to 1985 and this was one of my favorite Advent reads!

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Our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day read-alouds, as well as everything we read during the Twelve Days of Christmas will be rounded up in a post on January 7th. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!