Serenity’s Top Five Recent Library Choices
The library is the one outing we just can't miss! And not just because going weekly means we always have stuff that needs returning. Serenity loves books, especially new ones! Here are some of our favorite recent library finds!
1.) She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain Jonathan Emmett
I grabbed this one on a whim, because she tends to like books we can sing with. Well, it turned out to be hilarious! The little girl coming around the mountain does crazy things like “Paint the whole town purple when she comes” and she “juggles with jello!” Best of all, the book includes hand motions for the whole thing. Since we returned it to the library, we haven’t stopped singing it and I often find her doing the motions on her own. We are totally adding this to our library!
2.) Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems
We are longtime fans of the Pigeon series and this one was just as much fun! I must have read it like fifty times in the two weeks before we took it back. The little girl leaves her bunny at the Laundromat and when the family runs back to get it speaks her first words. Serenity loves the silly language the little girl uses at first and the hilarious pictures.
3.) Ballerina by Peter Sis
This was a small board book that turned out to be such fun! The little girl loves to dance and pretends she’s dancing all kinds of wonderful ballets! Each dance had a color associated with it, and then she did a rainbow scarf dance at the end. Perfect for little girls that are obsessed with color, like mine, and for dancers! She loved practicing her twirl. =)
4.) The Red Wagon by Renata Liwska
I read a recommendation on this book from Momformation, and she was completely right. The pictures were beautiful, and all the things the little fox imagines as she’s using her wagon to run an errand for her Mom are wonderful! She pretends her wagon is a spaceship, a construction vehicle, a boat, and many other things. It sparked our imaginations too.
5.) Funny Face by Nicola Smee
We picked this book up at the library on the way to register at the hospital, which took way longer than I expected. But it was fine, because Serenity spent the entire time reading herself this book! Each page has a picture of a different emotion that the baby in the story experiences. Serenity especially loved making the “Surprise Face!” The last page is a mirror which is always fun. It was great for talking about emotions and to practice recognizing them!
And I just have to share this picture =) She's started asking for a "bed book" to sleep with her every night. Sometimes I hear her reading it to herself in the monitor, and here is what her Daddy found when he went to check on her last night =)
, by Amy Krouse Rosenthall. It was wonderful! The story is about a happy little pea that loves a lot of things, but hates candy. Peas have to eat candy for dinner every night, and he hates candy. I don't think Serenity really understands the whole irony thing, but she finds it hilarious when he's forced to eat his candy and says, "yuck, blech" and so on. And when he finally gets to eat his dessert, he says "yum, yum, extra yum!" which also sends her into a fit of giggles. =) So probably a slightly older kid would find it even funnier, but she's still loving it at age two =)
. Well, Serenity loves that book, but we had just checked out 
from the library so I decided to adapt their project for my two year old and for that book. So we made a coconut tree! Actually we made three coconut trees because Serenity LOVED this activity so much! I traced her hands onto green sticky foam, and cut them out, along with shapes for the trunk and some brown coconuts. Then Serenity got to use her stickers! Then I pulled out the letter stickers so she could have letters climbing up her coconut tree, and she asked me for each letter in order. Great practice! And a great fine motor skills activity as well, placing those little stickers isn't easy! 
