Monthly Book Roundup - What We have been reading in July

Its time for my monthly book round up again. Each month I write about new books that I have introduced to Lily at bedtime and what we think of them. We always read around 3 books a night and most nights we end up reading the same ones with a few odd ones read in between. I find reading the same books helps Lily relax and she does grow fond of the stories each month and gets excited when I get them out to read each night. 

You can read all our other monthly roundups here.

We didn't really have a theme for this months books as we have a huge pile of them on her top shelf to get reading. So this was what we chose for this month. 

1. The Lines on Nana's Face by Simona Ciraolo and Flying Eye Books

This story is so beautiful. It tells the tale of a loving relationship between a nana and her Grand Daughter. Where the Grand Daughter is unsure about all the lines on Nana's face. Nana finds a really sweet way to tell her grand daughter why she has lines on her face and how she got each line. Which then tells story's of Nana's life. I think children are really curious and i'm sure many grandparents have been asked about their wrinkles. I think it gives such a nice positive storyline to why grandparents have them.
The story doesn't have to many words in so is quite short but just enough to capture the attention of any child. But the illustrations really speak for themselves and help this story become what it is. For each story Nana tells there is a full page with a illustration to show exactly what happened for her to get those lines. One thing I must say about this book is that it is beautifully made with a material binding to the side and high quality paper. Not something that maybe a young child would appreciate but something that makes it really nice for us adults to read to our children. Lily enjoyed this story and would point out some of the emotions in the pictures. For example she would point at Nana and say "Aww she is crying". I was sent this book from Flying Eye Books and would happily recommend it. Especially if you are a Nana with a curious child asking about your lines.  

2. The Crunching Munching Caterpillar by Sheridan Cain

This book some nights Lily loved, and some nights she didn't want me to read it her. The story is all about this caterpillars journey to become a butterfly. But the caterpillar doesn't realise it will a butterfly one day and is really sad that she can't fly just like the birds and the bee's and the butterflies do. She speaks to each animal that flies and tells them how she would love to fly. But they tell her that she can't as she has legs instead of wings. One day she falls asleep and then turns into a beautiful butterfly and can fly because of her beautiful wings.
The story has your nice classic caterpillar to butterfly storyline but with little added extras with the conversations with other animals. It definitely is a nice caterpillar story to read to your children. The illustrations are really colourful and Lily enjoyed this story. I found this book at a carboot sale but you can pick it up online. 

3. Hide and Seek Pig and Postman Bear from Julia Donaldson
These are some of Lily's favourite books and this month Lily really wanted me to read them each night. The hide and seek pig book has flaps to open as the pig seeks for hen. It is really well written with the rhymes and Lily is starting to learn which animals are behind the flaps. Postman Bear she prefers over Hide and Seek pig as she counts the letters he has and loves revealing who lives in each home. This is also a flap book and she loves opening up the flaps.
She is learning the story so well and now and when we open the envelope she tells me that inside it says "come to my party". Its really nice for Lily to be more involved in our story time. These books aren't new to her and she has been reading them for over a year now but this month she seemed to take an even bigger interest. I would definetly recommend these Julia Donaldson books for your child. They are perfect for your child to grow with going from not being able to read to reading it for them selves. You can buy these from most book stores such as Waterstones or online. 

4. My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson 

I picked this book up from the Works as I had never seen a story about a shadow before and thought it would be a great story for Lily to start taking interest in and noticing her own shadow. The story is about a little boy and his shadow, he isn't quite aware that his shadow is what the sun makes of him and instead thinks that it is a version of another person. Just Like most children do. He talks about how it comes everywhere with him and also changes size. The story is a funny little rhyming story and is not too long or too short. I enjoyed reading this one to Lily and she enjoyed it to. Since we have been reading it she has noticed her shadow a lot more and we have started saying hello to it. I think this is a really good story for an introduction to shadows for young children. You should be able to buy this at the works or search for it online. 

Which book do you like the sound of?