Monthly Book Round Up - What we have been reading in May

I read to Lily each night with out fail. Story time is so important for settling a child for bed, giving them that extra one on one time plus it will help them with learning to read in the future. 

Lily is a lot fussier with the stories I read her now, and she does go back to her old favourites a lot of the time and as she is at an age where she can start to remember stories, she asks for specific ones. But I do get chance to introduce a few new new books each month, usually around 2.
  
You can read all my other book reviews from the last few years Here

So last month I let Lily select which ones she wanted to read from her pile of new books we have ready and waiting. As she is getting older many of the stories are getting longer and so we aren't always getting through as many new books each month but I will still be letting you know about the ones we do read. 

Here is what we read in May - 

1. The Singing Mermaid by Julia Donaldson 

Lily dig this one out of our huge Julia Donaldson collection to read this month. The cover of the book is beautiful with sparkles and glitter and makes it so inviting to read. The story is all about a mermaid who likes to come to the shore to sing. One day a circus master finds her and convinces her to come and sing to people at the circus. He promises her a lavish life, but his promises aren't true and the poor mermaid ends up kept in a fish tank. one thing the mermaid does get is some lovely new friends who also work at the circus. After a while the mermaid longs to be back in the ocean but the circus master wont let her go back. So her friends from the ocean and circus team up and hatch a plan and she manages to escape and return back to be happy again.
The story is a really good one with lots of plot and is kept instructing from start to finish. Plus there is lots of repetition and rhyming which is always good for children's books. I would definitely recommend this book. Lily got it as a gift for her birthday but it can be picked up from most book stores.

2. Supermarket Zoo by Caryl Hart  

This has to be one of Lily's new favourite stories. She has asked for it to be read over and over and really likes it.
The story is about a little boy who hates going shopping with his mum, one day she says that they have to go shopping but little did he know it would be a totally different shopping trip to usual. They go shopping in a Supermarket Zoo. The story is full of comedy when the little boy has to go grabbing lizards and lions from the shelf and has to try and keep monkeys in the trolley. Then at the end his mum buys a giant surprise that he never expected. The story is full of imagination which is brilliant for children to be able to switch off to and just pretend that there possibly could be a supermarket full of animals. 

I really would recommend this story for your child as it really is a story like no other. I was sent this book by Books and Pieces and you can pick it up there. 

Which of the 2 stories do you think your child will like the best?