Books All Shapes and Sizes

I cannot stop cheering.  A magical event has taken place.  Froggy happily listened to  More All of A Kind Family in the car. This is a huge achievement.  I have been trying to get her to listen to audio books in the car for ages.  It not only allows us to share more books than we would otherwise but also creates more peace in the car during the drive.  More All of A Kind Family is a lovely book in which we see all our familiar friends mostly grown up.  Apparently I had misremembered the order of the stories from my youth causing us to skip several but that is ok.  We can fill them in once I locate them.

We also finished The Secret Garden.  We have enjoyed reading this book together but it did not seem to captivate Froggy the way More All of a Kind Family did.  Froggy enjoyed it in the moment but did not talk about it or bring it into her play the way she did with Mama's girls or the fairies.

 We enjoyed several fantastic picture books as well this week.  The top pick of the week is How Mama Brought The Spring.  We got it from the "librarian pick" section of the library.  In it Rosie's mom helps her cope with the harsh Chicago winter by sharing a story and a family tradition.  She tells of her mama in Minsk.  It is the first book we have read that is not a PJ recommendation that mentions Minsk. They also share a recipe and make blintzes together.  In the back of the book is Mama's family recipe for blintzes.  Froggy and I investigated what "farmers Cheese" is and how we could make or substitute it so that she and I could make blintzes together. 

 I mixed up the batter and filling while Froggy slept.  I also cooked up several wrappers to be sure that they would work.  It was just like the book said.  They did look like a field of sunflowers laid out on the table cloth.  When Froggy woke up we "pour,swirl, sizzle,flip" together. Pour the batter in the pan, swirl it around, let it sizzle and the flip it out on the table cloth.

Once all the wrappers were cooked, we started filling and rolling them into blintzes.

In second place is When the Root Children Wake Up.  Audrey Wood and Ned Bittender recreate the classic German tale.  Some reviews are not kind to the book but we loved it.  The oil paintings have a Thomas Kinkade style which help convey the fantastical nature of the story.  I like that the words are in sidebar keeping the paintings intake.  The prose is lyrical and calls to the listener as much as the root children.