Here is the latest installment of the favorite books series…

Molly loves her Elmo sticker book.  For a while, she refused to go anywhere without it.  “I want my Elmo book”, was commonly heard, especially just before leaving the house.  She would sit and study it in the car for long spells, such as the recent trip to Houston.

Molly also spent quite a while absorbed in an issue of Austin Family magazine, which we happened to bring home from some restaurant or the like.  She would love to look over the pages for bedtime, labeling all the things in its pages, a mommy, some vegetables, a ball, swimming.  She really loved this magazine!

At the moment, Molly’s favorite book is definitely the classic of classics, The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss.  This is Kit’s and my favorite too.  It is lots of fun to read, really an amazing book.  This “Dr. Seuss” guy has a lot of promise!  The Cat in the Hat  book takes a while to read, though, especially if you take the time necessary to read it in a fully fun and dramatic way.  So we usually skip the middle just to get Molly to bed in time!

Claire has been enjoying a variety of books, although no specific book has risen as the unchallenged leader  lately.  She has been somewhat into nonfiction, often inspired by a movie.  She has checked out school library nonfiction books on dolphins (thanks to the movie A Dolphin Tale), lions (thanks to The Lion King), and even a resurgence in books on ancient Egypt (thanks to A Night at the Museum 2).  The lion book was from National Geographic and was sufficiently realistic to be quite gruesome (but still fascinating).  Claire does not like lions as much since reading that book!  Dolphins are still sweet and cute, though.

Most importantly, Claire has also been reading to us more than ever!  She brings home a folder of beginner books from school and takes great pride in reading them to us at bedtime.  She is now reading more complex books with real stories, and not just the sample, repetitive books she started out with.  She is pretty confident with her reading skills and keeps plugging away at tough words and sentences until she figures them out.  And this late in her day when she is most tired.  We’re so proud of her for sticking with it!